-------------------------------------------------------------------

Pot Measure Sparks Lively Debate (The Medford Mail Tribune, in Medford,
Oregon, covers a debate Thursday night at a Medford church over medical
marijuana and Ballot Measure 67, featuring Ed Glick, a chief petitioner and
registered nurse, and Molalla Police Chief Rob Elkins.)

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 08:27:19 -0900
To: dpfor@drugsense.org
From: Ed Glick (gina@proaxis.com)
Subject: DPFOR: Medford Debate with bro Elkins
Sender: owner-dpfor@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfor@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/

Hi Everyone:

The debate in Medford against Rob Elkins was an attempt for SODA (Southern
Oregon Drug Awareness to beat up on a legalizer. Of course, they didn't
think that they were also beating up on dying AIDS and cancer patients - a
fact that I repeated , and repeated. I argued basically from the moment I
walked in the door until I left and, though I am sure I changed no one's
mind - I rattled their cages. I even had one man furiously tell me that I
was undoing his lifes work- treating young marijuana users who were on the
road to ruin. Probably the saddest part for me was realizing that doctors
and people who call themselves professionals are willing to blindly and
dogmatically spout the same old failed rhetoric. In the case of Dr. Jonathan
Gell that was particularly repugnant - him being an MD who swore a
"hypocritical" oath to serve, protect and, above all, not harm patients.
I repeatedly reminded him of this and asked him how putting patients in jail
was supporting his oath to do no harm. He blustered and fumed and said
patients aren't going to jail. I guess I am niave - I expect some basic
level of honesty and decency from people -even when they disagree.
I am convinced that our opponents are incapable of this.

But, I survived, got in a couple good interviews and got the following
article in the Mail Tribune on Fri. Oct 23. Though he distorted and
misquoted me, I guess that's par for the course.

Nurse Ed

***

POT MEASURE SPARKS LIVELY DEBATE

* Ed Glick, a registered nurse from Corvallis, filled his argument with tales
of suffering patients. But Molalla Police Chief Rob Elkins said cries for
compassion are meant to mask the real goal: the legalization of marijuana.

To one, it's a simple act of compassion. To the other, it's a smoke screen
for drug legalization.

Leading spokespersons for and against Measure 67, the medicinal marijuana
initiative, sounded familier themes during a spirited debate Thursday night
at a Medford church. The measure would allow people with medical conditions
documented by a physician to get a permit to grow and use marijuana.

Ed Glick, a registered nurse from Corvallis and one of about a dozen chief
petitioners for the measure, filled his argument with tales of suffering
patients, some of whom found relief through marijuana use and others denied
that relief.

"My experience has left me with the impression that marijuana is a useful
medicine that has been caught up in a political cat fight called "the war on
Drugs, " he said. "What we are trying to do is carve out a small exception
for people with serious illnesses."

"A compassionate approach is to give to people who are dying any drug that
works."

But Molalla Police Chief Rob Elkins,who has traveled the state opposing the
measure, said cries for compassion are meant to mask the real goal: the
legalization of marijuana.

"Lets not dress the pig up in a pretty dress and call her a princess," he
said.

"Every major medical organization in America opposes the use of marijuana in
its raw form as medicine. If it has a medical use let's find the medical part
of it and perscribe it under careful scrutiny."

Much of the debate centered on whether marijuana has legitimate medical uses.
Both sides agreed that more studies should be done on the subject.

Glick said there is "a tremendous body of knowledge" supporting the medical
value of marijuana, although more studies are needed.

The lack of solid scientific study was pointed out during the audience input
portion of the debate by Dr. Jonathan Gell, director of the joint medical
staff for Rogue Valley Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical center.
Gell said most studies of medical marijuana have failed to follow the
scientific method.

Glick admitted most such evidence is anectdotal [I DID NOT!] but said
individual patient responses are an important part of medicine and that more
extensive studies have been blocked by political interference - especially
from law-enforcement interests.

"Medical issues are best dealt with by medical people," he said. "I don't
believe law-enforcement should be involved in this issue."

Elkins countered by pointing out that law-enforcement wouldn't be involved if
marijuana followed the route of other medicines: Food and Drug Administration
approval.

"Ballot measure circumvents a process that protects Americans, the FDA
approval," he said, calling the measures supporters "modern snake oil
salesmen."

Elkins also called the the proposed law a "masterpiece" of loopholes. He said
a study by the state's district attorneys provides a grim forecast if the
measure passes.

"It makes it virtually impossible to prosecute anything but a major
commercial operation," he said.

Among other things, he said the medical conditions marijuana could be used to
treat are far to vague and open to abuse. He said that "chronic pain" from
head or backaches could get patients permission to smoke marijuana without
regulation for a year.

Glick rejected that arguement, saying the law was tightly written. "The idea
that the ballot measure is wide open for any hangnail or toothache is
preposterous," he said.

Glick said the ballot measure is not perfect but is a starting point that is
designed to be flexible enough for the state Legislature to modify.

Pressed by audience members and Elkins about potential abuses, Glick said
such abuse shouldn't stand in the way.

"At this point, misuse is widespread," he said. "That isn't a reason to
forbid it from someone who spends their nights vomiting in a toilet if it can
help them."

But Elkins said the message it will send is clear.

"If you have a grandma smoking marijuana at home, a kids not going to say
"It's a drug," he said. "He's going to say, 'It's a medicine, so how harmful
can it be?'"

MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, FRIDAY OCT. 23, 1998

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Please support I-692 (A letter to the editor of the Everett, Washington,
Daily Herald, from a pancreatic-cancer patient, urges voters to endorse
the state medical marijuana ballot measure, noting in passing how
prohibition, instead of keeping cannabis away from kids, has abdicated
to them the easiest access to it.)

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 12:09:09 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WA: PUB LTE: MMJ: Please support I-692
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Contact: letters@heraldnet.com
Website: http://www.heraldnet.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Daily Herald Co.
Author: Norma L. Plumb, Lynnwood

PLEASE SUPPORT I-692

I lost my mother to uterine and breast cancer the same week that I was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so I know a little bit about the
suffering of people with terminal or serious illness.

My stoic mother was in terrible pain for a week while her nurses and I
fought to have morphine prescribed for her. After my pancreatic
resection, which included partial removal of my stomach and colon,
food and medicine refused to stay down. Medications for calming my
stomach and reducing pain were of little use since they wouldn't stay
in my stomach long enough to digest.

This is a bit graphic, but now that there is an initiative that is
truly for the medical use of marijuana, we need to face that
swallowing "proven medication" doesn't always work. We have to face
that those suffering could be us or those we love. Please vote yes on
Initiative 692.

Some are concerned that this bill might make marijuana available to
our youth.

When I was sickest, a friend confided that her non-using kids said
they could get marijuana for me within a day anytime.

I resisted asking someone to break the law. Now that we have a
"sharply honed and carefully worded" initiative (Dr. William
Robertson's op-ed in The Herald Oct. 12), please allow cancer and
glaucoma patients to relieve their suffering.

Please vote for I-692.

NORMA L. PLUMB
Lynnwood

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Reject Marijuana Measure (A staff editorial in The Daily Olympian,
in Olympia, Washington, recommends a "no" vote on Initiative 692,
saying the insurmountable obstacle is the federal law that prohibits
physicians from prescribing marijuana. Reformers must come up with
"a safe, legal and foolproof distribution system.")

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "HempTalkNW" (hemp-talk@hemp.net)
Subject: HT: Olympian opposed I-692
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 20:03:40 -0800
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Reject Marijuana Measure

10/23/98 Daily Olympian Editorial

Initiative 692, the legalization of marijuana for medicinal use, is a vast
improvement over last year's ballot measure. But it still comes up short.

Residents will remember initiative 685 from one year ago. That seriously
flawed initiative would have legalized 100 Schedule 1 drugs, including
heroin, LSD, peyote, PCP, forms of morphine and crack cocaine. It would
have thrown open the doors of state prisons to immediately release hundreds
of drug offenders back into our community.

Dr. Rob Killian, a family and hospice physician, saw his initiative go down
to defeat - 40 percent in support, 60 percent opposed.

Killian is back this year with a vastly improved initiative.

He no longer tries to legalize all Schedule 1 drugs.

He no longer throws open the prison doors to release felony drug users.

Initiative 692 is much more narrowly drawn. Killian bills it as a
compassionate measure with a goal of providing marijuana to terminal cancer
and AIDS patients to ease their nausea and pain. He is well-intentioned.

But this ballot proposition, like last year's, comes up woefully short.

The insurmountable obstacle is the federal law that prohibits physicians
from prescribing marijuana.

Doctors can't hand a prescription for marijuana to their terminally ill
patients and expect them to get it filled at the local pharmacy.

Prescribing marijuana is against the law. Drafters of Initiative 692 try -
unsuccessfully - to find a way to get around that prohibition, yet legally
distribute the drug. Even Killian admitted to us that the distribution
provisions in Initiative 692 are the weakest part of his initiative.

As we understand it, a doctor would simply note in a patient's chart that
marijuana may be beneficial, then give a copy of those notes to the patient.
That would qualify as "valid documentation" for a patient to acquire and use
marijuana.

And therein lies another problem with Initiative 692. Patients, or their
ill-defined "caregiver could legally acquire marijuana, but the person who
sells or provides it to them is not protected under this law.

The distributor could be charged with the illegal sale or distribution of
drugs.

Another flaw in this year's initiative is the provision that allows
qualified patients to possess a 60-day supply of marijuana. The initiative
never defines what a 60-day supply is.

Is that 60 joints, or is it 240 joints?

We said last year that we could support a marijuana legalization measure
that was both well regulated and doctor-prescribed.

Initiative 692, while a big improvement over last year's unsuccessful ballot
measure, still comes up short.

We are not unsympathetic to patients who may experience some relief by
smoking marijuana. But until Killian and his supporters can come up with a
safe, legal and foolproof distribution system, we cannot and will not offer
our blessing.

We encourage voters to reject Initiative 692, to legalize marijuana, when
they go to the polls on Nov. 3.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

One killed in crash of Border Patrol plane (The Associated Press
notes the war on some drug users has claimed another victim - this time,
a Border Patrol agent in a plane that crashed Friday in remote terrain east
of Bellingham, Washington. Walter Scott Panchison, 53, was a 20-year
patrol veteran and former Marine fighter pilot.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "News" (editor@mapinc.org), "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Cop Pilot crashed - prohibition related death
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:08:04 -0700
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

One killed in crash of Border Patrol plane

The Associated Press
10/23/98 10:34 PM Eastern

DEMING, Wash. (AP) -- A Border Patrol plane crashed Friday in remote terrain
east of Bellingham, killing the lone agent on board, an official said.

The agency's Cessna 182 was responding to embedded motion sensors tripped
Friday afternoon in the Columbia Valley Canyon area when it crashed at about
2:30 p.m. PDT, said Bill Strassberger, an Immigration and Naturalization
Service spokesman in Laguna Nigel, Calif. The canyon is a known drug and
alien smuggling area, Strassberger said.

Authorities say the crash occurred in rugged terrain in the Smith Peak area
just north of the Mount Baker Highway on the west side of Sumas Mountain.
The area is near the small Whatcom County town of Deming.

Killed was agent Walter Scott Panchison, 53, of Bellingham. Panchison was a
20-year patrol veteran and former Marine fighter pilot, Strassberger said.

"He was very cautious, considered to be one of the best pilots in the Border
Patrol," Strassberger said.

The plane and pilot were based in Blaine. The Blaine patrol sector
encompasses the western half of Washington and the state of Oregon,
Strassberger said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation by the National
Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Border Patrol's air division.

In September, two men were killed when a small rented plane crashed about
five miles south of Mount Baker.

The plane had taken off from Langley, British Columbia, and the pilot had
said he would be flying over Canada's Fraser Valley. The off-course crash 17
miles south of the Canadian border caused Whatcom County sheriff's officers
to voice suspicions about possible drug activity, though no evidence of
drugs was recovered.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Apartments damaged during drug raid (The News Tribune, in Tacoma,
Washington, says a Lakewood apartment building went up in flames Wednesday
after a SWAT team drug raid by 25 Pierce County sheriff's deputies that left
one woman and four men jailed on drug-related charges. Some neighbors said
it looked as though the blaze was caused by the stun grenades the SWAT team
fired into the units, but prohibition agents suggested those arrested
were able to elude 25 police long enough to set the blaze themselves,
and might face additional arson charges.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "News" (editor@mapinc.org), "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Apartments damaged during drug raid
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 19:56:08 -0700
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Apartments damaged during drug raid

* After SWAT team serves narcotics search warrants, fire erupts; arson may be
added to drug charges (pierce, south king county editions)

Hector Castro; The News Tribune

Thick smoke, flames and the popping of burning ammunition engulfed a
Lakewood apartment building Wednesday after a SWAT team drug raid.

"All I heard was an explosion and there was this police officer beating on
my door saying there was a fire," said Robert Irwin, watching his building
burn.

About 25 Pierce County sheriff's deputies descended on the Clark House
Apartments, 5607 Boston Ave. S.W., about 2 p.m. to serve three narcotics
search warrants.

When it was over, the building was in flames and one woman and four men in
custody on drug-related charges, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. Arson
might be added to the charges, he said.

Lakewood fire crews were called to the scene to extinguish the blaze.

Investigators with the Pierce County fire marshal's office believe that the
residents set the fire, which damaged eight apartments in one of the 16-unit
buildings.

Some neighbors said it looked as though the blaze was caused by the stun
grenades the SWAT team fired into the units. Deputy fire marshal Floyd
Keller said that was unlikely.

"I don't see any connection between those and what I found," he said.

The 32-unit Clark House complex consists of two buildings, A and B. Deputies
intended to search two apartments in building A and a third in building B,
SWAT commander Rick Adamson said.

SWAT team members - some carrying shields and all outfitted with camouflage
clothing, heavy-duty ballistic vests, helmets and assault rifles - shot
canisters into the three units.

The canisters emit a loud bang and bright flash and are designed to leave
people disoriented for a few seconds, Adamson said.

Deputies didn't find anyone when they searched the apartment in building B.

The first entry into building A went off without a hitch, Adamson said.
Deputies forced their way into the ground-floor apartment, pulling out a
woman and her 16-month-old baby girl. The woman was detained but not
arrested.

Deputies later found $6,000 inside the apartment and several large pieces of
rock cocaine, Troyer said.

When SWAT team members forced open the door to a second-floor apartment in
the same building, they were greeted by smoke.

"I saw smoke coming out as soon as the door opened," said Adamson, who was
on the ground directing the SWAT members.

Deputies scrambled to pull fire extinguishers from their patrol cars and
raced to the apartment, where flames were shooting out the door. One man
dived out a window of the burning apartment and landed at the feet of a
deputy, who took him into custody, Adamson said.

The fire set off several rounds of ammunition, which snapped and crackled
inside the apartment.

"That's gunfire," one deputy shouted as she ordered people on the street to
move away.

"We probably had 40 or 50 rounds go off," Adamson said later.

As the fire grew, SWAT team members hauled four men away from the burning
structure, handcuffing them and moving them across the street. The
18-year-old woman, a resident of the building, was arrested later as she
walked up the street toward the burning apartments.

The raid was considered dangerous because the residents had been seen with
guns and body armor, Adamson said.

"What we saw today is about as high risk as we go," Troyer said.

Residents at the Clark House and neighbors reacted with mixed emotions to
the raid, the arrests and the fire.

"I'm not glad about the fire, but I'm glad they've done this," apartment
manager Lloy Nutter said.

Nutter and her fiance, Jason Shaw, said there had been trouble with
residents in some of the apartments raided. At least once, the managers
confronted some of the residents about what they believed were drug sales
going on at the apartment.

"We were in fear for the safety of our children," Nutter said.

The sheriff's Special Operations Unit had been investigating the apartments
for several months, Adamson said, and identified the units raided as active
crack houses.

Just last weekend, a Spanaway man, Maurice D. Young, was shot and killed
after being seen entering one of the raided units.

The man arrested in connection with Young's death and is expected to be
arraigned today on suspicion of second-degree murder.

Residents were all too aware of the building's problems before Wednesday.

"I hated living down here," Irwin said. "But I couldn't afford to live
anywhere else."

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Sheriff Wants To Cut DARE To Allow Hiring Of More Resource Officers
(The Seattle Times says King County Sheriff Dave Reichert wants to cut
the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for fifth- and sixth-graders
and put an unspecified number of "school resource officers" into secondary
schools instead. The county's proposed 1999 budget would eliminate eight
DARE officers from 14 school districts in unincorporated areas, saving
$469,923 next year.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 21:33:14 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WA: Sheriff Wants To Cut D.A.R.E. To Allow Hiring Of More
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Seattle Times Company
Pubdate: 23 Oct 1998
Author: Mike Lindblom, Seattle Times Eastside bureau

SHERIFF WANTS TO CUT D.A.R.E. TO ALLOW HIRING OF MORE RESOURCE OFFICERS

King County Sheriff Dave Reichert wants to cut the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program for fifth- and sixth-graders and put more police into
secondary schools.

It's partly a cost-saving move, but Reichert said he considers a presence
with older students more effective.

The county's proposed 1999 budget would eliminate eight D.A.R.E. officers
from 14 school districts in unincorporated areas, for a savings of $469,923
next year.

The five cities that pay the county for D.A.R.E. under their county police
contracts - Kenmore, Maple Valley, Covington, Burien and SeaTac - may
continue to do so.

Reichert wants to supply schools with a yet-undetermined number of "school
resource officers" whose job would be a hybrid of mentoring and community
policing. Schools would pay under contracts, but aid would be available
through federal grants, Reichert said.

The D.A.R.E. program, founded in Los Angeles 15 years ago, hasn't reduced
drug use among teens, Reichert said. He has no data on resource officers'
impact, but reports from several districts that use them are favorable.

"If I had to choose between D.A.R.E. and resource officers, there'd be no
contest," said Northshore spokeswoman Pamela Steele, whose district is
using Bothell and King County resource officers for the fifth year.

Reichert expects complaints from schools where students have close
relationships with D.A.R.E. officers. Meredith Hill Elementary School in
the Federal Way district sent him 200 letters urging that its D.A.R.E.
program continue.

He announced other budget changes yesterday, including: -- A 10-officer
boost in the traffic safety patrols, costing around $600,000. The unit now
has 19 officers.

-- Creation of a five-officer unit to enforce child-support-payment orders,
$400,000.

-- Software and five employees to improve analysis of crime patterns,
$900,000.

-- $1.2 million for security at King County International Airport (Boeing
Field), whose 17 officers were absorbed this month by the Sheriff's Office.

-- A $1 million spending boost for eight new Metro transit security
officers and three dispatchers.

The sheriff's budget of $73.9 million represents a $5.5 million increase
from this year's $68.4 million figure. Reichert said the increase would be
paid for by contracts, with virtually no effect on the county's general
expense fund.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Prohibition Rips The Social Fabric (Eileen Foley, an associate editor
for The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, describes the Clinton Administration's recent
shutdown of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, and says it's time
for society to reconsider the costs and benefits of prohibition. Drug
prohibition has ripped the social fabric, criminalized too many, killed
too many, terrorized too many. And it has spawned a vested industry
as powerful as its performance is poor. Putting blinders on is a good way
to control a team of horses going down a thoroughfare, but only
if the blinders are on the horses, not the driver.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 15:42:13 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OH: OPED: Drug Prohibition Rips The Social Fabric
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake
Source: The Blade (Toledo, OH)
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Copyright: 1998 The Blade
Section: Pages of Opinion, Page 11
Contact: letters@theblade.com
Website: http://www.toledoblade.com/
Author: Eileen Foley
Note: Eileen Foley is a Blade Associate Editor

DRUG PROHIBITION RIPS THE SOCIAL FABRIC

If We Treated Addiction As A Medical Problem, We Would Not Waste As Much
Time Hating Addicts

FOR better or worse, local government in California is escalating state
citizens' fight with the federal government over the old devil, marijuana.

Oakland's city council, in a 5-4 vote declaring a state of emergency over a
federal court's closure of one of the state's largest medical marijuana
clubs, has decided to find new sources of the weed for the 2,200 people
with medical dispensations to use it who were cut off.

In 1996 a state referendum allowed Californians to use marijuana if doctors
said they needed it. It is said, for example, to help eye pressure among
glaucoma patients, and to help people in pain relax and sleep.

Most of the members of the club in question have AIDS, and they say the
marijuana enables them to both eat and sleep better.

But California's popular vote flies in the face of a federal law that bans
the distribution of cannabis.

The council action, news reports say, makes Oakland the first local
government in California to permit medical use of the weed, in apparent
defiance of federal law.

It is the second revolt this local government has staged since May, when a
federal judge barred six clubs from giving out or selling marijuana, saying
it violated federal law.

In the first round, city officials made club officials agents of city
government, intending to place them under a federal umbrella that protects
public officials from liability while enforcing drug laws.

The judge found no enforcement in the club's work, however.

Oakland is now reviewing its options.

And maybe it's time for everyone else to do that, too, just as we once took
a fresh look at Prohibition, when we found it doing us more bad than good.
Just as we rethought welfare.

I don't suggest this from any personal bias. I don't smoke pot or eat it in
brownies. I don't smoke cigarettes. Being in control is my drug of choice,
so I hate even prescription drugs that diminish my senses and sensibilities.

But drug prohibition has ripped the social fabric, criminalized too many,
killed too many, terrorized too many. And it has spawned a vested industry
with a clique as powerful as its performance is poor. We can't rely on it
for much by way of truth.

If we weren't fighting drugs -- and losing, by the way -- we wouldn't have
as many police, as many prisons, as many rehab centers, as many courts, and
surely not as much sanctimony. Taxes, if they did not go down, could be
redirected.

If we treated addiction as a medical problem, rather than one of crime and
punishment, we would not waste as much time hating addicts, and addicts
wouldn't be spending as much time up to no good to finance their illegal buys.

While this view is not popular right now and may never be popular among
people who can't look beyond a loved one lost to drug addiction, public
policy requires re-examination of where we are from time to time, plus an
assessment of where we have been, and a vision of where we are going.

Financier George Soros is not what you'd call a dummy. Neither is writer,
novelist, and social critic Gore Vidal.

But Mr. Soros is so convinced that addiction is a medical problem, and not
one of law and order, that he is investing considerable money in support of
public referenda that seek to lift government controls.

Mr. Vidal, for his part, has carried on for more than 30 years against the
criminalization of drugs and drug users. He insists there would be fewer
users and addicts if the drugs were sold at market price with the usual
pro-con warnings on labels.

These would have to be truthful and aboveboard, he says in the recent issue
of Vanity Fair, with officials giving up the absurd contention that
marijuana is addictive. Hyperbole blows credibility. Generations of pot
smokers know it isn't so.

This is not to deny the side effects, but all legit drugs also have them,
including aspirin.

Re-examining premises isn't popular for individuals, let alone politicians
given to righteous rant.

But as any householder would look at efforts to repair a leaky cellar as to
their effectiveness, the better to call a halt to throwing good money after
bad, nationally we should similarly analyze the costs of the last 20 years
of our fight against drugs in light of its effectiveness.

If we are making measurable headway, then let's keep fighting the fight.
But if the numbers show us throwing good money after bad, let's give up our
vested interest and cherished beliefs in the fight and try something else.

Putting blinders on is a good way to control a team of horses going down a
thoroughfare, but only if the blinders are on the horses, not the driver.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Poll - Alaska medical marijuana initiative leads 50 percent to 46 percent
(According to a list subscriber who cites the October 1998 issue
of Alaska Digest)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 22:57:26 -0800
To: cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com
From: chuck@mosquitonet.com (Charles Rollins Jr)
Subject: CanPat - For Immediate release
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@smtp.teleport.com

For Immediate release

A recent poll publicized in Alaska Digest Oct 1998 issue, showed that
ballot measure 8 the medical marijuana measure showed 50% supported the
measure and 46% opposed the measure. I am unsure of how valid this poll is
because the Alaska Digest didn't name the polling company, or who
commissioned the poll, and multitude of other factors could effect this race

But if these numbers are accurate, Alaskans for Medical Rights will have
their hands full trying to keep this law and on the books and fend off
attacks from our conservative legislature, and the federal government with a
race that is this close.

See ya
Chuck

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Alaska Ballot Questions Draw "Outside" Interest (Reuters takes a xenophobic
look at several Alaskan ballot measures, noting "polls show wide support for"
No. 8, the medical marijuana initiative. The $125,000 donated to the No. 8
campaign by the George Soros-supported Americans for Medical Rights
is dwarfed by outside contributions to other campaigns from the Utah-based
Mormon Church, by a Washington, DC-based group that opposes bilingual
education, a Washington-based group headed by conservative Christian activist
Gary Bauer, and by animal welfare and pro-hunting activists.)

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 11:45:36 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AK: WIRE: MMJ: Alaska Ballot Questions Draw ``Outside''
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
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Newshawk: Dave Fratello (104730.1000@compuserve.com)
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1998 Reuters Limited.
Author: Yereth Rosen

ALASKA BALLOT QUESTIONS DRAW "OUTSIDE" INTEREST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - In Alaska, a state known for its
vast wilderness, frigid climate and rugged individualism, residents
have a derisive name -- "Outside" -- for everyplace that is not Alaska
and a dismissive motto for the rest of the world: "We don't care how
they do it Outside." But Outside, they apparently care how Alaskans do
things.

Activists in the Lower 48 states have pumped large sums of money into
campaigns for Alaska ballot issues to be decided in the Nov. 3
election. The biggest spenders are the Utah-based Mormon Church, a
Washington, D.C.-based group that opposes bilingual education, a
Washington-based group headed by conservative Christian activist Gary
Bauer, animal welfare and pro-hunting activists and a California group
supported by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Their contributions to campaigns on ballot issues affecting gay marriage,
official use of English, medical use of marijuana and trapping wolves
have dwarfed in-state donations. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) last month gave $500,000, a huge amount in
a sparsely populated state, to the Alaska Family Coalition, which is
campaigning for an amendment to the state constitution that would
forbid same-sex marriage.

The Alaska group also got $50,000 from Bauer's organization, American
Renewal Inc. In all, the group had raised nearly $600,000 as of early
October.

OUTSIDERS FEAR ALASKA GAY MARRIAGES

Non-Alaskans fear that if Alaska recognizes gay marriages other states
would be forced to follow, Alaska Family Coalition spokeswoman Kristina
Johannes said. Alaskans for Civil Rights, which opposes the amendment, had
collected about $130,000 as of mid-October. Almost all of that was from
individual Alaskans and about $30,000 came in the week after the Mormon
contribution made the news, spokeswoman Allison Mendel said.

Among the Alaska donors was Arliss Sturgulewski, a former state senator and
two-time Republican gubernatorial candidate who said she is "offended
to to see massive Outside dollars coming into our state with the aim
of setting the standards" for Alaskans' relations with each other.
"Frankly, this is the first time that I have seen money like that come
into the state," Sturgulewski said.

The campaign for a ballot measure to mandate government use of English got
most of its financial backing from a national organization, U.S. English,
which gave about $12,500 to the English-only drive, early October campaign
reports show. Why target Alaska? "Because Alaska's part of this country and
we're going through every state and we're doing Alaska and Utah this year,"
Mauro Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, said from his Washington
headquarters.

His organization is trying to pass English-only laws in
all 50 states, said Mujica, who has traveled to Alaska to campaign for
the initiative. The measure has drawn bitter opposition from Alaskan
Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts, who say it threatens their efforts to
preserve embattled aboriginal languages.

'A BUNCH OF PAID PETITION-GATHERERS'

Also opposing it is Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat seeking re-election, who
called it an "emotional wedge issue" imported from the Lower 48 states. "It
really is quite amazing that an Outside group would come in here with a bunch
of paid petition-gatherers," he said. Soros-supported Americans for Medical
Rights donated about $125,000 to an Alaskan group campaigning to
legalize medical marijuana use. As of early October, the Alaska group
had raised only about $8,500 from other sources.

Knowles, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Lindauer and U.S. Sen.
Frank Murkowski, a Republican up for re-election, oppose the medical
marijuana initiative. But polls show wide support for it and the Green
Party's gubernatorial candidate argued at a recent debate that some marijuana
use could be an expression of Alaska pride.

"We produce the best marijuana in the world," Green Party candidate Desa
Jacobbson said.

"I'm not going to stand here and say that you can't give some of that
marijuana to your grandma when she's suffering."

Animal welfare activists, led by Connecticut-based Friends of Animals,
which donated $65,000 as of early October, have contributed to the Alaska
campaign to outlaw trapping wolves with neckhold snares.

A pro-hunting group in Minnesota gave $35,000, and promised more, to
defeat the measure. Other propositions on the Alaska ballot have
drawn less out-of-state interest. One would ban billboards. Others
would strip the governor's authority over legislative redistricting
and endorse term limits for elected officials.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Money Pours In As Proposition Battles Heat Up (The Arizona Daily Star
gives an update on several state ballot measure campaigns, noting the
sponsors of propositions 300 and 301, The People Have Spoken, who want to
repeal the legislature's nullification of a 1996 medical marijuana initiative,
have raised the most money, $1.7 million.)

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 04:54:55 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AZ: Money Pours In As Proposition Battles Heat Up
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Oct 23, 1998
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/
Author: Tony Davisand Joe Burchell

MONEY POURS IN AS PROPOSITION BATTLES HEAT UP

Backers of the Growing Smarter open-space buying plan have built up a
$650,000 campaign war chest, far more than their opponents have raised.

They join The People Have Spoken, with $1.7 million, and Arizonans for Clean
Elections, with $805,000, as the most successful fund-raisers on behalf of
ballot propositions.

The People Have Spoken wants to repeal legislative changes to the medical
marijuana law. The clean elections group wants public funding for political
campaigns.

The Preserve Arizona - Yes on 303 committee raised $532,000 through Oct. 14,
while environmentalist opponents have raised $25,000, according to
fund-raising reports released yesterday.

Major donations for Growing Smarter: $25,000 each from Suncor Development, U
S West Communications and Norwest Bank. Donations of $5,000 each came from
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arizona, the Pederson Group Inc., Opus West Corp.,
Sunchase Holdings, Nathan and Associates and the law firm of Steve Betts,
the real estate attorney who helped write the referendum proposal.

Other large contributions, made after the report was filed, include $100,000
from the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona, $25,000 from Wells
Fargo Bank and $15,000 from an organization calling itself FINOVA.

Growing Smarter's supporters have spent $456,000 on radio and TV ads in the
Phoenix and Tucson areas and brochures for mailing. The Sierra Club has
spent $20,000 on radio ads to fight the plan.

The proposal calls for spending $220 million over 11 years to preserve state
land. It would bar the state from requiring local governments to adopt
growth management plans, impact fees and other growth control measures.

The pro-303 campaign has targeted mailings for registered Democratic and
Republican voters.

The People Have Spoken was formed after the Legislature gutted the medical
marijuana law approved by voters two years ago. The group is campaigning for
votes against Propositions 300 and 301, which would overturn the legislative
changes.

They received only one contribution since their last financial report two
weeks ago, but it was big enough to allow them to retain their position at
the top of the fund-raising list for propositions.

Peter B. Lewis, the head of Progressive Insurance in Cleveland, contributed
$316,000, raising the group's total to $1.7 million.

The Voter Protection Alliance, another committee concerned about the
Legislature changing or overturning voter-approved propositions, also had
only one big contributor.

Peter Sperling gave $250,000. His father, John Sperling, previously donated
$150,000, giving the group a total of $400,000.

The Sperlings, who own 88 private colleges around the country including the
University of Phoenix and Western International in Phoenix, are the only
contributors to the alliance.

The Voter Protection Alliance is campaigning against Proposition 104, which
is a Legislative proposal to limit changes in voter-approved laws. They're
supporting Proposition 105, which prohibits repeal of citizen-initiated laws
and makes changing them extremely difficult.

Arizonans for Clean Elections, which supports public funding for political
campaigns in order to reduce the influence of big money interests, has been
the beneficiary of several big contributions to raise more than $805,000.

That total doesn't include $50,000 from the Peace Development fund of
Amherst, Mass., which came after the close of the reporting period.

Other big contributors during the last reporting period include $225,000
from the Public Campaign Action Fund in Washington, D.C., which already had
given $95,000. The Proteus Fund of Amherst, Mass., gave another $40,000, to
bring their total to $135,000.

Arizonans for Fair Tax Reform, which supports Proposition 202, raised
$100,000 from five contributors in Texas, Colorado and Florida, giving them
a total of $353,000.

Proposition 202 allows Arizona candidates to sign a pledge that they will
support abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. Candidates who sign would
have that noted next to their names on future ballots.

Yahoo News has a list of news articles and related Web sites on all aspects
of Arizona's elections.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Radio Station Gets Attention It Wants (The Arizona Republic says "Party
Radio" KPTY-FM since June has let fly with sex and drug references aimed
squarely at high-school and college audiences, and has promoted itself with
a bong give-away. "We are not in any way supporting the use of drugs,"
program director Byron Kennedy said. "But we realize that drugs are part of
kids' lives. We are dealing with their attitudes, things they deal with every
day." "We're your radio station, not your role model." The Federal
Communications Commission does not consider drug references to be in
violation of its broadcast standards.)

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 14:34:06 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US AZ: Radio Station Gets Attention It Wants
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: 23 Oct 1998
Source: Arizona Republic (AZ)
Contact: Opinions@pni.com
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/news/
Copyright: 1998, The Arizona Republic.
Author: Michael Clancy, The Arizona Republic

RADIO STATION GETS ATTENTION IT WANTS

Station criticized for drug, sex talk

It's called "Party Radio," but unless your parties include Hits From
the Bong and South Park Bitch, it is unlike any party you ever attended.

KPTY-FM (103.9) since June has let fly with sex and drug references
aimed squarely at a high school- and college-age audience. Some
listeners say the station is most popular with an even younger and
more impressionable audience.

"We're in the attention-getting business," says Mark Waters, the
station's general manager.

The effort to attract attention got so raucous that the station's
best-known personality, the deejay known as Super Snake, left in
mid-September.

"When they started giving away bongs (water pipes typically used to
smoke marijuana), that was it for me," he said. Snake currently is not
on radio.

Station management denies that it promotes drug use, but agrees that
it is doing what it can to get noticed by its target audience.

KPTY may be just another player in a radio environment that includes
the often raw sexual advice of Loveline on KUPD-FM (97.9), the extreme
sex-oriented antics of Howard Stern on KEDJ-FM (106.3) and the
double-entendre humor of almost every FM deejay in town. Even Beth and
Bill, morning hosts on KESZ-FM (99.9), have played "music" by an
artist known as "Mr. Methane."

But with the exception of Stern, whose local audience tends to be
older, KPTY probably is the only station that is making a point of
using frequent sex and drug references.

"It's been a long time since a (Valley) station rocked the boat like
the Party," said Waters, who conveys a businesslike attitude much like
that of other radio general managers.

Some listeners smell something more ominous than merely "rocking the
boat."

Bob Huey of Phoenix said he has a 13-year-old daughter and has
forbidden the station in his home - "not because of the song
selections (some of which are risque), but because of the apparent
station policy of pro drugs and pro sex, as expressed by the deejays."

Several program elements reflect the apparent pro-drug tilt. A
frequently played song is Cypress Hill's Hits From the Bong. The
morning show, hosted by a man called Big Mama, is called "Wake and
Bake," a reference to smoking marijuana. The station for a while did a
bit called "Chronic Calls," in which callers were supposed to act high
on drugs.

The message comes in light of a recent survey that reported one in six
Arizona youths used illegal drugs, especially marijuana, in the past
month, a rate that is one-third higher than the national average.

"We are not in any way supporting the use of drugs," program director
Byron Kennedy said. "But we realize that drugs are part of kids'
lives. We are dealing with their attitudes, things they deal with every day."

Officer Greg Carlin of Scottsdale's Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program said he uses several songs the station plays in talks to
parents and community groups about how music might be a negative influence.

"I don't agree with a lot of the songs and a lot of what they do. It
can send the wrong message to kids," he said.

Richard Ward, who works with drug-addicted young people as clinical
director at Valle del Sol, said parents also could write to
advertisers. Among them are Bank One, Foot-locker, AirTouch Cellular,
Mobil and Health Choice, a health insurance company.

Steve Roman, Bank One Arizona's senior vice president of corporate
relations, said the bank's ads were placed from the national Hispanic
Marketing Group, which has an eye on a station's demographics.

"The buy is done by people who don't know the content," he said. "If
the content is way out of the mainstream, we would have to look at
it."

Waters said that no matter what parents do, advertisers want his
audience - "tomorrow's consumer."

He said the drug references are part of the station's attempt to have
"a distinct difference in presentation" from its competitors.

He also acknowledged that he gets at least two calls a day from
concerned or angry parents. He tells them that people have a variety
of opinions, and that they can register theirs by turning off the station.

Kennedy added, "We're your radio station, not your role
model."

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates radio
broadcasts, fined the station last spring for playing a song with
explicit sexual references. Waters said that the station has changed
formats since then, and that the station is careful to bleep certain
words in songs. The FCC does not consider drug references to be in
violation of its broadcast standards.

The station, which debuted in May 1997, is owned by New Planet Radio,
a small company that operates a similar station in Hawaii. The success
of that station, which made a rapid climb into the Top 10, led to the
adoption of the format in Phoenix. Stations in Tampa, Fla., Baltimore
and Miami are tailoring the format to their markets.

The music format includes hip-hop and rap, a good dose of alternative
hits and some novelty songs, which Waters calls "identifiers."

One of the identifiers is the marijuana song Hits From the Bong.
Others, chosen for their ability to grab the ear of a college student,
are:

ICP Clown Mix by Insane Clown Posse. The rap duo had its latest album
shelved by the record company (through the orders of parent company
Disney) for obscenity and violence.

South Park Bitch, from the Comedy Central TV program.

Detachable Penis, by King Missile. A spoken "song" with limited
comedic value.

"It's scary to hear 12-year-olds calling up asking for Detachable
Penis," said Eric Stein of Peoria, an occasional listener.

Recent ratings seem to indicate that the station is on the wrong
track.

With ratings dropping from 3.2 to 1.5 during the life of the Party,
the station has lost more than 30,000 listeners, and the time the
remaining 160,500 spend listening is 4 hours 15 minutes a week, down
from 7 hours, according to the Arbitron Co., which measures radio audiences.

SIDEBAR:

Gilbert backs KPTY, under fire for sex-drugs programming

By Edythe Jensen(br) The Arizona Republic Oct. 23, 1998

Gilbert officials are still playing love songs for its first and only
radio station, even though KPTY "Party Radio" is being criticized for
its sex-and-drugs programming.

"The station management has supported Gilbert in a number of ways, and
we consider them an asset," town spokesman David Cannella said.

"If they are promoting negative behavior and drug use, that's not
something we condone. But it's a private enterprise, and we wouldn't
ask them to change their format or play different records."

In May 1977, the station moved its offices to Gilbert after what
Economic Director Greg Tilque called a four-year effort to lure it.

As part of the deal, the station was allowed to build a broadcast
tower near Queen Creek at Ocotillo and Schnepf roads. KPTY currently
has studios inScottsdale and Gilbert.

Two months after the move, the station was fined $7,500 by the Federal
Communications Commission for playing a sexually explicit song.

Station Manager Mark Waters said the "album version was played by
mistake, and we were wrong." A less offensive version was approved for
radio play, he said.

Last month, a deejay known as Super Snake quit when the station
started giving away bongs, water pipes typically used to smoke marijuana.

Parents have criticized the drug-and-sex programming that includes
songs such as Hits From the Bong, South Park Bitch and Detachable Penis.

listened to the station, but both said they have had no complaints
from Gilbert residents.

Mayor Cynthia Dunham and Tilque have been featured guests on KPTY's
Sunday morning talk shows, Cannella said.

"The station management is interested in what's going on in Gilbert,
and they want to be a partner with the town. If they're having
problems with the FCC, they'll need to deal with the FCC," Cannella
said.

Waters said KPTY has contributed funds to the Gilbert Sister Cities
program, has hosted charity carwashes and plans to sponsor a grand
opening of the tax-funded Gilbert skate park next year.

Reporter Michael Clancy contributed to this article

Michael Clancy can be reached via e-mail at mike.clancy@pni.com or at
1-602-444-8550.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Scores Aim Downtown Protest At Police, Jury In Oregon Death
(The Houston Chronicle says about 150 to 175 people marched
from Market Square to Houston police headquarters Thursday afternoon
to protest a grand jury's refusal to indict local prohibition agents who shot
and killed an innocent man, Pedro Oregon Navarro, after breaking into
his apartment without a warrant.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:40:29 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: Scores Aim Downtown Protest
At Police, Jury In Oregon Death
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Copyright: 1998 Houston Chronicle
uthor: LEIGH HOPPER

SCORES AIM DOWNTOWN PROTEST AT POLICE, JURY IN OREGON DEATH

Cries of "No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace!" bounced off the
buildings lining Main Street as about 150 to 175 people marched from Market
Square to Houston police headquarters Thursday afternoon.

With drivers stuck in rush-hour traffic looking on, students, senior
citizens, parents and children rallied downtown to protest the killing of
Pedro Oregon Navarro by police and a Harris County grand jury's clearing
the six officers involved except for indicting one on a charge of
misdemeanor criminal trespass

"When the badge is tarnished, we all bleed a little. End police brutality,"
said one sign.

"Justice should be blind, not D.A. (John B.) Holmes," said another.

The demonstration was nonviolent, but emotional and sometimes angry. "They
shot him nine times in the back! Nine times in the back!" shouted Eulalio
Sanchez to a group of people waiting for a bus. "Say, will they kick in
your door next?" yelled another protester to a passer-by.

Oregon, 22, was killed July 12 by officers who burst into his home without
a warrant, saying they had been told drugs were being sold there. Police
say Oregon, who had no criminal record, pointed a gun at them and the
shooting followed. Oregon's gun was never fired and no drugs were found.

A parade of leaders -- the Nation of Islam's Quanell X, U.S. Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee, the League of United Latin American Citizens' spokesman Johnny
Mata -- took to the podium to speak out against Oregon's death. Mayor Lee
Brown sent a messenger who said, "The mayor stands against police
brutality."

Clutching a photograph of a handsome young man in a military uniform was
Sandra Torres, whose brother, Joe Campos Torres, a Vietnam veteran, drowned
in 1977 after police beat him and threw him into Buffalo Bayou. The failure
to seriously punish the officers led to the Moody Park riot a year later.

"I was 8 when they killed my brother," said Sandra Torres, 30. "Back then,
we didn't know what to say. Now it's different. I want to speak out. It's
been hurting 22 years. Cops getting away with murder; just a slap on the
wrist; ... killing innocent people. ... It affects everybody. Nobody
deserves to be treated like this."

Some protesters blamed Oregon's death on the "hysteria" created by the
government's war on drugs. Others called for District Attorney John B.
Holmes Jr. to take the case before another grand jury.

"The injustice in the Oregon home is a threat to your home," Justice of the
Peace Al Green said, "This could happen to any one of us."

Delbert Jackson, 36, a food service worker who came to show support for
Oregon's family, said, "I know the conditions police work under are real
stressful and we don't know the full facts. I can't chastise them because I
don't know all the facts. The family has had a loss. (Oregon's death) seems
unnecessary."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ex-Narcotics Officer Gets 7 Years In Drug Case (The Dallas Morning News
says Robert Gollihugh, a former undercover police narcotics officer
in the Lavon, Texas, Police Department, was sentenced Thursday to five years
in prison for dealing cocaine and two years in state jail for selling
amphetamines for a former drug informant. The prosecutor said Mr. Gollihugh
was responsible for his actions because he volunteered for undercover
narcotics duty knowing that he was a drug user himself. "There's something
sinister there," said Assistant District Attorney Aaron Wiley.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:40:39 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: Ex-Narcotics Officer Gets 7 Years In Drug Case
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Dallas Morning News
Author: Holly Becka / The Dallas Morning News

EX-NARCOTICS OFFICER GETS 7 YEARS IN DRUG CASE

Rowlett Man Says He Wasn't Dealing While On Lavon Police Department

A former undercover police narcotics officer was sentenced Thursday to five
years in prison for dealing cocaine and two years in state jail for selling
amphetamines for a former drug informant.

Robert Gollihugh, 28, of Rowlett told jurors he didn't deal drugs while he
was a member of the Lavon Police Department but had smoked marijuana since
he was 15 and twice used other drugs as an officer.

He said he quit his police job in June 1997 during a federal investigation
into the small southeastern Collin County department that led to the
arrests of Mr. Gollihugh's former supervisor and another officer.

Soon thereafter, he said, his wife left him, and he turned to a former drug
informant for work.

Even after Addison police and members of a regional drug task force
arrested him Sept. 12, 1997 - in part because of a taped telephone call his
wife turned over to authorities - he continued to use drugs, he testified.

He apologized for hurting his loved ones, calling himself "a lost piece of
trash."

"I want to get my life started again," he said. "It's been on hold since
Sept. 12. I want to get back on track. . . . I'd like to watch my little
girl grow up."

Mr. Gollihugh must serve at least half of the five-year prison term before
becoming eligible for parole because the jury that convicted and sentenced
him found he used a gun during the crime. His two-year state jail term will
run concurrently.

Assistant District Attorney Aaron Wiley had asked jurors in state District
Judge Faith Johnson's court for the maximum 20-year sentence. Mr. Wiley
argued that Mr. Gollihugh betrayed other officers by turning dirty and by
protecting his drug-dealing partner/supplier from investigators.

That dealer remains at large, officials said.

Defense attorney Robert Rogers sought probation so Mr. Gollihugh could
attend a Christian-based drug rehabilitation program. Several members of
his family testified on his behalf during sentencing.

Mr. Rogers said the system failed Mr. Gollihugh by never providing him
proper training as an undercover officer and never helping him after he
became a casualty in the war on drugs.

"If you're going to fight a war and you're going to have casualties, you
should pick up your wounded and bring them home," Mr. Rogers said. "No one
did that."

Mr. Gollihugh testified he did not have a serious drug problem, and Mr.
Wiley noted there was no evidence the defendant was an addict.

The prosecutor said Mr. Gollihugh was responsible for his actions because
he volunteered for undercover narcotics duty knowing that he was a drug
user himself.

"There's something sinister there," Mr. Wiley said.

Mr. Gollihugh said he spent several years working from a part-time
volunteer post with the Lavon police to a full-time paid position. He said
his only training came from a community college course and then his
supervisor, whom he considered a good cop.

His supervisor, former Lt. Jeffrey Wayne Gardner, was later sentenced to
nine years in federal prison for stealing money, property and drugs from
the department.

Three months after he quit, Mr. Gollihugh was arrested at an Addison motel.

Among the items investigators recovered in his room were a small amount of
drugs, syringes, 21 pipes, scales for weighing drugs, two guns, ammunition,
knives and anabolic steroids, according to testimony.

In phone conversations between Mr. Gollihugh and his dealing partner, the
defendant was heard saying he would work day deliveries and act as an
enforcer to protect the business.

Mr. Rogers told jurors that Mr. Gollihugh was arrested before he could act
on many of those plans.

Mr. Gollihugh said the recording was made because he tapped his own
telephone to determine if his wife was cheating on him.

Colleen Gollihugh testified for prosecutors that she gave the tape to
police after finding it and becoming afraid about what her husband had
become involved in.

She then testified for the defense during sentencing, urging the jury to
consider probation so the couple's daughter could see her father.

Mr. Gollihugh told jurors that although he used drugs at home, he wouldn't
keep them there because he didn't want his daughter exposed to them.

"You care about your daughter," Mr. Wiley said, "but you don't care about
anyone else because you're putting this poison out on the street."

"I know," Mr. Gollihugh replied. "I wish I hadn't. It was a bad decision."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ex-Cop Gets 13 Months For Taking 2 Payoffs (The Chicago Tribune
says Richard Lopardo, a former Chicago police officer who pleaded guilty
nearly two years ago to accepting $500 in 1991 and $2,000 in 1992
in exchange for leaking details about a police investigation
of a drug dealer, was sentenced Thursday.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:52:02 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: Ex-Cop Gets 13 Months For Taking 2 Payoffs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Section: Sec. 1
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Copyright: 1998 Chicago Tribune Company
Author: Matt O'Connor

EX-COP GETS 13 MONTHS FOR TAKING 2 PAYOFFS

A former Chicago police officer was sentenced to 13 months in prison
Thursday for pocketing payoffs in return for providing sensitive details
about a police investigation of a drug dealer.

Richard Lopardo, 55, pleaded guilty nearly two years ago to accepting $500
in late 1991 and $2,000 in cash in October 1992 for his part in the scheme.

Lopardo retired in 1996 after he was confronted by the FBI and agreed to
cooperate. He was with the Chicago police for 23 years.

Here is how the scheme worked, according to government filings and sources:
Robert Merel, who owed a "juice" loan debt to reputed mob associate Richard
Spizzirri, decided to pose as a cop and extort cash from Marc Jacobs, a
dealer of Quaaludes.

To add to the realism, Spizzirri enlisted the help of a friend, Nicholas
Levas, a veteran Cook County sheriff's patrolman.

But the day after Levas and Spizzirri allegedly strong-armed Jacobs,
threatening to arrest him if he didn't hand over $100,000 in drug profits,
Jacobs went to the FBI. Over the next two months in 1991, as he paid off
his extorters, he wore a hidden recorder.

After one of Jacobs' dealers was arrested with a large quantity of
Quaaludes, Levas turned to Lopardo, a friend, to find out if the dealer was
squealing on Jacobs.

Lopardo revealed that the dealer wasn't cooperating, according to his plea
agreement.

Lopardo split half of that $500 payoff with an undisclosed Chicago police
officer who had provided the information to him, authorities said.

In 1992, when a woman dealer who had bought drugs from Jacobs was arrested,
Levas turned to Lopardo again to find out if Jacobs was under investigation.

In return for $2,000, Lopardo revealed that Jacobs had a lot of "heat" on
him from law enforcement, court documents showed.

It turned out that at some point, Levas began cooperating with authorities,
too, and wore a hidden recorder while meeting Lopardo.

Merel, Spizzirri, Jacobs and Levas also had been sentenced to prison.

At the sentencing Thursday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gil Soffer disclosed that
Lopardo cooperated as well after the FBI confronted him, but his assistance
didn't lead to any prosecutions.

Still, the government agreed to a reduced prison term.

U.S. District Judge John Grady raised questions about whether Lopardo was
involved in other dishonest activities as a cop after noting he had a
$420,000 house in Wisconsin.

But Lopardo's lawyer, Matthias Lydon, said his client was able to buy the
house as a result of a broker friend's wise investment advice for more than
20 years. Lydon said prosecutors had looked into the purchase and were
satisfied that ill-gotten proceeds weren't used.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruling Ends Some Marijuana Sting Operations (The New York Times
says the New York State Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a Monroe County
Court decision that allowed people who believed they were buying marijuana
to be charged with criminal solicitation.)

Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 12:12:18 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: Ruling Ends Some Marijuana Sting Operations
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Monte Williams

RULING ENDS SOME MARIJUANA STING OPERATIONS

In a ruling that will limit the way police
departments conduct some sting operations involving marijuana, the
State Court of Appeals in Albany, N.Y., Thursday reversed a Monroe
County Court decision that allowed people who believed they were
buying marijuana to be charged with criminal solicitation.

The case involved 54 defendants who bought small amounts of what they
believed to be marijuana, but which was actually oregano, from police
officers in Rochester, N.Y., who were acting as drug sellers. Because
undercover officers are not allowed to sell real marijuana, the buyers
could not be charged with possession of marijuana, a violation that
carries a maximum fine of $100. Instead, they were charged with
criminal solicitation, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 days in
jail. The Court of Appeals ruled that they could not be charged with
criminal solicitation because of an exemption in the penal code that
states "a person is not guilty of criminal solicitation when his
solicitation constitutes conduct of a kind that is necessarily
incidental to the commission of the crime solicited."

David Steinberg, chief assistant public defender in Dutchess County,
said, "Basically it's a legal exemption, a defense to a charge of
criminal solicitation, when the conduct complained of is part and
parcel to the commission of the crime that is being solicited."
Steinberg is now appealing a criminal solicitation conviction in a
reverse sting case in which his client tried to buy crack cocaine from
an undercover officer in July 1997. Thursday's ruling spells an end to
reverse sting operations involving marijuana, according to Thomas
Rainbow Morse, an assistant district attorney who represented the
state, but not to all reverse sting drug operations. Other drugs carry
higher penalties than marijuana.

Although cocaine buyers may no longer be charged with criminal
solicitation, they can be charged with attempted possession of cocaine.

"Attempted possession of marijuana is not an offense," said Edward
Nowak, the Monroe County public defender, who represented the 54
defendants. Morse said he was not giving up and that he hoped to
change the criminal solicitation statute. "We're going to move the
halls of justice to the corridors of the Legislature," he said. "We
hope to find a sponsor in the next session of the Legislature."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Murder Trial Examines Drug Use by Teacher (According to The New York Times,
a former student who is accused of killing Jonathan M. Levin, a popular Bronx
high school teacher, says he was in Levin's apartment to sell him crack
cocaine when two armed men arrived. Cleo Tejada, a fellow teacher and former
girlfriend of Levin's, said that Levin occasionally smoked marijuana
but never used crack.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "News" (editor@mapinc.org), "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: NY Murder Trial Examines Drug Use by Teacher
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 20:20:11 -0700
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

October 23, 1998
The New York Times

Murder Trial Examines Drug Use by Teacher

By DAVID ROHDE

Defense lawyers and prosecutors jousted for the first time yesterday over
the defense's charges of drug use by Jonathan M. Levin, the popular Bronx
high school teacher who prosecutors say was killed by a former student.
The former student, Corey Arthur, told the police after his arrest that he
was in Levin's apartment to sell him crack cocaine when two armed men
arrived.. Arthur, who has denied committing the killing, said he managed to
escape from the apartment when the gunmen came in.

Cleo Tejada, a fellow teacher and former girlfriend of Levin's, said in
response to a question from prosecutors yesterday that Levin occasionally
smoked marijuana but never used crack. She went on to say that Levin had
reported a fellow teacher who was using crack to his supervisors at William
Howard Taft High School in the Bronx and later praised the dismissal of the
teacher.

But under cross-examination, Arthur's lawyer, Anthony Ricco, produced a
police report from June 1997 in which police officers quoted Ms. Tejada as
saying Levin smoked marijuana on a "daily basis." Ms. Tejada denied making
the statement, saying that was not a term she would have used.

Ricco asked Ms. Tejada if she would lie to protect Levin's reputation.
"No -- I'm Catholic and I swore on the Bible," she said, referring to the
oath she took before testifying.

Earlier in the day, the courtroom was hushed, and Levin's mother, Carol
Levin, was brought to tears as prosecutors played a cassette tape from her
son's telephone answering machine. The tape includes a message Arthur left
at 4:55 P.M on May 30, 1997, a Friday.

" Levin, this is Corey," a voice on the tape says. "Pick up if you're there.
It's important."

According to prosecutors, Levin then let Arthur, 20, and Mountoun T. Hart,
26, into his apartment. The two youths then robbed and tortured the teacher,
prosecutors say, and Arthur shot him.

The two dozen messages that followed transfixed the jury. The messages, from
Levin's friends and students, progressed from cheerful weekend greetings for
"Jake" -- Levin's nickname -- to frantic pleas for him to call and say he
was all right.

"We're worried about you," Ms. Tejada says on a message left on May 31.
"Please call and let us know you're all right."

On Sunday, June 1, a woman who identifies herself as Karen calls repeatedly.
By Monday, panic creeps into her voice. "We are all so terribly worried
about you," she says. "Where are you? "Call and say something as soon as you
come in the door. Call."

The final message played silenced the courtroom. "Hello, this is the medical
examiner," a voice says. "Are any officers there? Hello?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Researchers Testing Fungus In Battle Against Narcotics (An Associated Press
article in The Dallas Morning News says the US Congress has approved
$23 million for further research into what are known as "mycoherbicides,"
soil-borne fungi capable of eradicating plants that provide the raw material
for cocaine, heroin and marijuana.)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:40:19 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Researchers Testing Fungus In Battle Against Narcotics
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 1998
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Dallas Morning News
Author: Associated Press

RESEARCHERS TESTING FUNGUS IN BATTLE AGAINST NARCOTICS

WASHINGTON - Government researchers are testing a fungus they believe will
kill narcotics plants without harming other crops or animal life, a
potential breakthrough aimed at cutting foreign production of illegal drugs
headed for the United States.

Congress has approved $23 million for further research into what are known
as "mycoherbicides," soil-borne fungi capable of eradicating plants that
provide the raw material for cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

The Clinton administration is far from unanimous about the innovation.
Skeptics say more testing must be done to prove the effectiveness and
safety of the technology, and winning the support of governments of
drug-producing South American countries - Colombia, Peru and Bolivia -
won't be easy. None has been briefed extensively, and none has taken a
public position.

The administration will get to sound out Colombian President Andres
Pastrana next week when he comes on a state visit to Washington. The three
South American countries are the only ones anywhere that produce the base
plant for cocaine.

The legislation was guided through Congress by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio,
and Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla. In addition to mycoherbicide research, the
legislation provides for promotion of alternative crops to narcotics plants
for South American farmers.

"These micro-organisms have the potential to cripple drug crops before they
are even harvested," Mr. DeWine said.

Mr. McCollum said the new crop-eradication technology is much safer than
traditional strategies. "All of the indications are that this has the
potential for making a big difference in the drug war," he said. "This
could be the silver bullet."

House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., said
the technology is "extremely effective, not costly, doesn't affect the
environment and is a good way of eradicating coca."

The United States has spent billions of dollars over the years with little
success in trying to slay the drug dragon. The "just say no" campaign of
the 1980s has been followed up by a government-sponsored media ad blitz
warning people of the dangers of drugs. Chemical sprays and interdiction
efforts have been used to cut supply. Still, an estimated 6.7 million
addicts live in the country, and experts estimate that 13 million Americans
have used drugs in the last month.

U.S. officials believe South American countries can be persuaded to go
along with the program only if farmers have plausible alternatives to
narcotics plants. As one promising alternative, officials are touting
chocolate, derived from cacao trees, because it is a suitable alternative
for South American small farmers and the global market in the coming years
is expected to be tight.

Experiments by Agriculture Department scientists focus on isolating the
mycoherbicides that narcotics plants produce naturally. If, for example, a
coca plant is doused with the fungi, it wilts, and decades must pass before
the area is again suitable for growing coca. Beans, corn or other crops
grown nearby are unaffected. Environmental Protection Agency scientists
believe no harm would come to humans or animals as well. The same
technologies can be applied to eradicate plants used for marijuana and
heroin.

Advocates and skeptics agree that the program will go nowhere without the
support of the drug-producing countries.

Unless the political groundwork is properly laid, farmers' unions or
environmental groups in the coca-growing countries could come out in
opposition, nullifying the possibility of cooperation, officials say.

The costs of drug addiction are obvious: 14,218 drug-related deaths in
1995, and the price to society each year is $67 billion, according to the
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Fungus That Kills Drug Plants Is In Test Phase (A slightly different
Associated Press version)

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 05:02:26 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US DC: Wire: Fungus That Kills Drug Plants Is In Test Phase
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Oct 23, 1998
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1998 Associated Press.

FUNGUS THAT KILLS DRUG PLANTS IS IN TEST PHASE

WASHINGTON -- Government researchers are testing a fungus they believe will
kill narcotics plants without harming other crops or animal life, a
potential breakthrough aimed at cutting foreign production of illegal drugs
headed for the United States.

Congress has approved $23 million for further research into
"mycoherbicides," soil-borne fungi capable of eradicating plants that
provide the raw material for cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

The Clinton administration is far from unanimous about the innovation.
Skeptics say more testing must be done to prove the effectiveness and safety
of the technology, and winning the support of governments of drug-producing
South American countries such as Colombia, Peru and Bolivia won't be easy.
None has been briefed extensively, and none has taken a public position.

The administration will get to sound out Colombian President Andres Pastrana
next week when he comes on a state visit to Washington. The three South
American countries are the only ones anywhere that produce the base plant
for cocaine.

The legislation was guided through Congress by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and
Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.). In addition to mycoherbicide research, it
provides for promotion of crops as alternatives to narcotics plants for
South American farmers.

"These microorganisms have the potential to cripple drug crops before they
are even harvested," DeWine said.

McCollum said the new crop-eradication technology is much safer than
traditional strategies. "All of the indications are that this has the
potential for making a big difference in the drug war," he said. "This could
be the silver bullet."

House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) said the
technology is "extremely effective, not costly, doesn't affect the
environment and is a good way of eradicating coca."

The United States has spent billions of dollars over the years with little
success in trying the slay the drug dragon. The "just say no" campaign of
the 1980s has been followed up by a government-sponsored media ad blitz
warning people of the dangers of drugs. Chemical sprays and interdiction
efforts have been used to cut supply. Still, an estimated 6.7 million
addicts live in the country, and experts estimate that 13 million Americans
have used drugs in the last month.

U.S. officials believe South American countries can be persuaded to go along
with the program only if farmers have plausible alternatives to narcotics
plants. As one promising alternative, officials are touting chocolate,
derived from cacao trees.

Experiments by Agriculture Department scientists focus on isolating the
mycoherbicides that narcotics plants produce naturally. If, for example, a
coca plant is doused with the fungi, it wilts, and decades must pass before
the area is again suitable for growing coca.

In addition, beans, corn or other crops grown nearby are unaffected.
Environmental Protection Agency scientists believe no harm would come to
humans or animals as well. The same technologies can be applied to eradicate
plants used for marijuana and heroin.

All agree that the program will go nowhere without the support of the
drug-producing countries. Unless the political groundwork is properly laid,
farmers unions or environmental groups in the coca-growing countries could
come out in opposition, precluding cooperation, officials say.

They also are bracing for allegations that Washington plans biological
warfare against these countries.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 64 (The Drug Reform Coordination
Network's original summary of drug policy news and calls for action,
including - Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club shuts down, city declares medical
emergency; Colombian president calls for end to eradication; Grand jury fails
to indict in death of man shot in home; Magazine Publishers of America urges
"editorial support" for PDFA ad campaign; Washington, DC, appropriations bill
forbids district from funding its own syringe exchange program; Scottish
citizens' commission, including Catholic priest, calls for legalization,
reform; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Death, but no justice in Houston)

Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 03:05:32 -0400
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (drcnet@drcnet.org)
Subject: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 64
Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 64 -- October 23, 1998
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network

-------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --------

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(This issue can be also be read on our web site at
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club Shuts Down, City Declares
Medical Emergency
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#oaklandcbc

2. Colombian President Calls for End to Eradication
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#pastrana

3. Grand Jury Fails to Indict in Death of Man Shot in Home
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#navarro

4. Magazine Publishers of America Urges "Editorial Support"
for PDFA Ad Campaign
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#publishers

5. Washington DC Appropriations Bill Forbids District from
Funding its own Syringe Exchange Program
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#dcnepban

6. Scottish Citizens' Commission, Including Catholic Priest,
Calls for Legalization, Reform
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#scotland

7. EDITORIAL: Death, But No Justice in Houston
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/064.html#editorial

***

1. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club Shuts Down -- City Declares
Medical Emergency

After a last minute reprieve which allowed their doors to
stay open over the weekend, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Club shut down on Monday (10/19) under threat of forced
closure by federal authorities that evening. Standing in
front of the club as the last of its equipment and stock
were removed by volunteers, director Jeff Jones told
gathered supporters about his experiences watching his
father die of cancer, and said that the federal government's
action was putting the health of the club's 2,200 members at
risk.

In response to the club's forced closing, the Oakland City
Council voted on Tuesday to declare a city-wide "state of
medical emergency" and to explore options for providing
patients with access to their medicine. Last week,
councilman Nate Miley told The Week Online that the city was
committed to the health of its citizens, and to the will of
its voters, and that if all else failed, the possibility
existed for members of the city government itself to provide
cannabis to patients in an act of civil disobedience (see
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/063.html#oaklandcbc). At the
present time, no plans have been made and it is unclear what
can be done legally under the medical emergency designation.

"This has been a very sad and a sobering experience" Jones
told The Week Online. "The federal government has come in
and has used every tactic to subvert the will of the people
of California and the health of its citizens, not to
mention, the stated intent of the Oakland city government.
As of now, temporarily at least, our doors are closed. Our
patients, people with AIDS and cancer and a host of other
debilitating diseases, will be forced into the street to
find their medicine. We will, of course, do everything in
our power to see this injustice righted."

Jones took some solace in the possibilities of the upcoming
elections. "If medical marijuana initiatives win in four or
five states and in Washington, DC on November 3rd, then I
think we'll have a whole new ballgame. It's one thing to
ignore the will of voters in one or two states, but assuming
that the feds keep losing these, it's going to become
apparent that the voters are way out in front of the
politicians on this issue. There's also the matter of the
attorney general's race here in California, where Lockyer,
the Democrat, has been a strong ally. It's a close race,
but if he wins I think that the patients will have a strong
advocate."

***

2. Colombian President Calls for End to Eradication

Colombian President Andres Pastrana rebuked the US Drug War
in harsh language last week (10/15), telling a group of
foreign correspondents in Bogota that aerial eradication of
coca "has not worked," adding, "clearly, we have to look for
another policy."

Over the past four years, while US-funded eradication
efforts have been increased, the amount of land being used
for coca cultivation in Colombia has more than doubled. In
response to the eradication efforts, however, peasants have
moved their operations deeper and deeper into the Amazon
Basin, clearing rain forest and harming the environment.

Pastrana, who has taken bold steps to begin peace
negotiations with the rebels who control much of the
southern half of his country, is scheduled to meet with
President Clinton in Washington on October 28-29.

But US Drug Warriors, both in the Republican-controlled
congress and in the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
were less than eager to stop dumping poison on Colombia's
rainforest and its inhabitants.

"Sixty percent of all the drugs that enter the United States
start from or pass through Colombia," Drug Czar Barry
McCaffrey told reporters. "There has to be a continued
willingness to confront this threat to the hemisphere, and
aerial eradication has to be part of it."

Eradication has become the focus of a number of
environmental groups recently, as the US has pushed for the
use of Tebuthiuron, which can be dropped from higher
altitudes than traditional defoliants, providing a measure
of safety for pilots. Until recently, Dow Chemical held the
patent on Tebuthiuron, and had refused to sell it to the US
for use in eradication, citing environmental and safety
concerns (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#herbicide).

Congress has also ignored Pastrana's statements, and last
week passed an omnibus spending bill which included over
$150 million in aid, including hardware, for the purpose of
eradication.

Winifred Tate of the Washington Office on Latin America
(http://www.wola.org) told The Week Online, "Eradication is
obviously a serious issue in terms of the peace process.
President Pastrana is in a difficult position on this in
that the support of the business community, which is vital
to his peace effort, will be impacted if the US decides to
decertify Colombia. And there are other relationships as
well between the two countries where the US can apply
pressure, especially with regard to trade and military aid."

Cynthia Arnson, Senior Program Associate of the Latin
American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center told The Week
Online, "This latest confrontation over eradication is just
the latest manifestation of a storm that has been brewing
since Pastrana took office. There growing unease in
Colombia with eradication as it is seen as a process which
is driving peasants further into the arms of the guerrillas.
The growing clash is evidence of contradictory viewpoints
between the two governments. It (eradication) is
politically difficult for the Colombian government,
especially as it pertains to the peace process, but while
the State Department has been supportive of that process,
there are other interests at stake for the US as well.

"Officials in the Pastrana administration have been publicly
questioning eradication for some time," she said, "and these
latest statements sound like a digging in of the heels in
advance of his visit. I'm sure that the program will be
seriously discussed next week when President Pastrana is in
Washington."

(Editor's note: Report after report issued by US government
agencies as well as private research groups have found
eradication to be a total failure. For example, skim
through the General Accounting Office reports online at
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/gao/gaomen1.htm
for many relevant studies. Mike Gray makes the point
powerfully in the book Drug Crazy, released by Random House
last June. Chapter six, The River of Money, takes us from
the inauguration of President George Bush, who dramatically
increased the Andean strategy of coca eradication, through
to the end of his four-year administration. Eradication had
not reduced coca cultivation -- in fact the total cocaine
output in the Andes increased 15 percent -- but had merely
shifted it around in what is known as the "balloon effect"
or "push down, pop up". In Peru, where $2 billion was spent
on eradication during the Bush years, coca cultivation moved
from the Upper Huallaga valley, to which it had previously
been limited, to the valleys of the Aguatyia, the Ucali, the
Tambo and the Apurimac. As Gray puts it, "In all, some two
hundred thousand farmers were now growing coca in an area
that had been largely rain forest on the day Bush was
inaugurated." Latin America's cocaine industry, including
cultivation as well as refining and transportation, had
spread to an area nearly as large as the continental United
States. While drug warriors point to nations that at times
have reduced their coca cultivation -- one of the chief
criteria in the certification process -- that cultivation
has invariably been replaced with increased growing in other
nations. Eradication is not sensible part of a drug-
fighting strategy; it is a ridiculous wild goose chase that
flies in the face of principles familiar to anyone who has
taken a single semester of economics. We urge our readers
to go to the bookstores and support Mike Gray's important
book; or check it out online at http://www.drugcrazy.com to
read the first chapter and the appendix of online resources
and other information, or to purchase it online. - DB)

***

3. Grand Jury Fails to Indict in Death of Man Shot in Home

On July 12, Pedro Oregon Navarro, a 22 year-old father of
two, was shot to death in the bathroom of his home by at
least six Houston (TX) police officers. The officers had
entered Navarro's home by kicking in his door without a
warrant on the word of a drug suspect who told them that
bthere were drugs being sold in the apartment. The suspect
was not a registered informant as required by Houston Police
Department policy. No drugs were found in the home and,
blood tests on Navarro's corpse came back negative.

Officers claimed that they believed that Navarro had fired
upon them, but ballistics tests showed that all 30 shots
were fired by the officers. Twelve of those shots hit
Navarro, nine from above and behind him. Of the six
officers, five were no-billed by the grand jury while one
was charged with a misdemeanor trespass.

On Monday (10/19), demonstrators outside of the Harris
County Courthouse chanted "No Justice, No Peace," raising
concerns that civil unrest might ultimately erupt in Houston
much as it did in May, 1978, after Houston officers beat and
drowned Joe Campos Torres, a young Vietnam veteran whom they
had arrested for public drunkenness.

Houston Mayor and former US Drug Czar Lee Brown said on
Monday that he will seek a federal grand jury investigation
into Navarro's death.

Johnny Mata, a spokesman for the League of United Latin
American Citizens, told the Houston Chronicle, "We will
continue pressing (the Justice Department) on the matter.
This is a travesty of justice. We're asking the community
to be calm, but there is a lot of outrage."

Travis Morales of the Justice for Pedro Oregon Coalition
told the Chronicle, "This gives the green light for cops to
go into homes and kill. A trespass charge is not going to
stop any police officer."

In the days following the shooting, Harris County D.A.
Johnny Holmes inflamed passions, telling the press that the
officers were within their rights to kill Navarro as they
believed he was resisting arrest.

Al Robison, President of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas,
told The Week Online, "This case is a very clear
illustration of the insanity of our current drug policy.
The Drug War mandates that the state will be kicking in the
doors of its citizens. It's time to discuss alternative
policies, policies which allow society to control drugs,
rather than the warfare between police and communities
leading to tragedies such as the death of Pedro Oregon
Navarro."

A march was scheduled for Thursday afternoon (10/22), to
protest the grand jury's decision. City officials were
hopeful that cooler heads would prevail and that violence in
the streets would be averted.

Check out the Drug Policy Forum of Texas at
http://www.mapinc.org/DPFT/.

***

4. Magazine Publishers of America Urges "Editorial Support"
for PDFA Ad Campaign

At the annual meeting of the Magazine Publishers of America
this week (10/19), Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey addressed the
publishers of 1,200 of the nation's most popular titles. In
his speech, McCaffrey "challenged" the group to take part in
the Partnership for a Drug Free America's $775 million print
ad campaign, both by running paid advertising and by
providing "appropriate editorial support".

The ads, bought at market rates by the Partnership using
government (taxpayer) funds, will run over a concentrated
period of time during 1999.

After McCaffrey spoke, the board of directors of the MPA
issued a press release announcing that they had "accepted
the challenge," and that they "urge our member companies to
participate by running (ads) and providing editorial
support..."

A spokesperson for the MPA told The Week Online, "On the
editorial side, certainly there's no money involved. ONDCP
initially approached the MPA, in fact it was Reader's
Digest, Greg Coleman, their chairman, was approached by
McCaffrey and they met and said 'this is probably something
we can do.' So Greg went back to the members and met with
them and it became a program."

"This is worded very broadly. Obviously the MPA can't tell
the editors what to do. This statement comes from the MPA
board of directors. The board of directors is made up of
the presidents and chairmen of the companies, and also a few
editors. This is just a statement by them, and it's very
general."

But Michael Hoyt, Senior Editor for the Columbia Journalism
Review, had a different take. Hoyt told The Week Online, "I
don't think that the MPA should be urging members to provide
editorial support for anything at all. It's simply not
their role. And it doesn't matter how worthy they think the
cause is. That's particularly true where there can be a
perceived conflict of interest, such as urging that support
in return for advertising dollars.

"The Chrysler Corporation took some heat fairly recently for
using its considerable advertising muscle on editors by
telling them what stories to run or not to run. As a matter
of fact, the Review ran a cover story on that. This is a
different twist, however, in that it's the government, using
taxpayers' money, and asking for support of a particular
position."

Tom Haines, Chair of the Partnership for Responsible Drug
Information (http://www.prdi.org), told The Week Online,
"This is a critical issue in that we are seeing the
unification of the business end of the media community and
the government for an advocacy campaign where only one
point of view is coming across. If this were happening in
any other country it would be denounced as a propaganda
campaign."

***

5. Washington DC Appropriations Bill Forbids District from
Funding its own Syringe Exchange Program

A provision in the appropriations bill which funds the DC
government makes it illegal for city funds to go to any
group that operates a syringe exchange program, even if the
funds are unrelated to the exchange. The language, attached
by Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), impacts the Whitman Walker
Clinic, which until this week operated a mobile exchange
program out of a van.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) was less than pleased
about the provision. "This congress has said 'drop dead' to
thousands of Americans, most of them people of color. I
view it as a callous death sentence with profound racial
overtones."

In response to the provision, Whitman Walker has formed a
new corporate entity called Prevention Works!, unrelated to
the clinic, which will run the program with private funds,
although district monies had accounted for $210,000 of its
$260,000 annual budget. Whitman Walker's attorneys believe
that this arrangement will protect the clinic's other city
grants which it uses to provide a multitude of health
services.

The first private money for Prevention Works! came through
this week, as the Washington, DC-based Drug Policy
Foundation pledged $25,000 to help to keep the program
running.

"It's our hope that this $25,000 gift will inspire at least
eight more $25,000 gifts this year. We must keep Prevention
Works! alive and vibrant," DPF Executive Director Sher
Horosko said. "We challenge our foundation colleagues and
any individual to step forward and match our gift. No
amount of fear or prejudice will stop this program and other
programs like it from preserving human life."

"This deplorable, regressive act is a slap in the face to
the residents of the District of Columbia," Horosko said.
"This is passive genocide. Social conservatives in Congress
are telling African-Americans in particular to drop dead.
Six federally funded studies conducted under Republican and
Democratic administrations have shown that syringe exchange
works. Each study has each shown that syringe exchange
prevents the spread of HIV and that syringe exchange neither
encourages nor increases the rate of drug use."

"Why Congress would single out one community to lead to the
edge of its grave is beyond us."

DPF can be found on the web at http://www.dpf.org.

***

6. Scottish Citizens' Commission, Including Catholic Priest,
Calls for Legalization, Reform

Father Bob Gardner, a Roman Catholic Priest and a member of
Scotland's Citizens' Commission on Drugs, raised eyebrows
this week calling for the legalization of drugs such as
cannabis and ecstasy, or MDMA. The Commission's findings
were similarly reformist, recommending the legalization of
cannabis, the medical study of MDMA, and the establishment
of a national heroin prescription trial.

In comments aired on a Channel 4 (UK) documentary this week,
Father Gardner says that the British government has cast a
generation of young people as "modern-day lepers" for their
use of ecstasy.

The Commission, comprised of eight people, including a
lawyer, a teacher, a priest and a magistrate, was set up in
response to the government's refusal to empanel a Royal
Commission on Drugs. In researching their report, the group
visited eight European cities, spoke to 30 organizations, 50
drug users and five politicians from Britain and other
European nations. In the documentary, Ken Temple, the
panel's chairman, complained that although the UK Home
Secretary Jack Straw, who has publicly pronounced that he
would speak with "anyone, anywhere at any time" about the
issue of drugs, nevertheless refused to speak with the
group. Neither could the group persuade any other
government minister to meet with them about the government's
position and policies.

***

7. EDITORIAL: Death, But No Justice in Houston

In Houston this week, a grand jury refused to indict six
police officers who shot and killed Pedro Oregon Navarro,
known to his friends as Jimmy Oregon, in the bathroom of his
home after kicking in the door and entering without a
warrant, searching for drugs. No drugs were found anywhere
in the house, nor were drugs or alcohol found in Oregon's
blood. Ballistics tests also confirmed that the officers
were wrong in their belief that Oregon had fired upon them,
and that the first shot was fired from the gun of one of the
officers, as were the next twenty-nine. Oregon's gun,
allegedly found near his body, had never been fired. He was
22 years old and the father of two small children.

The officers, part of an anti-gang task force, entered the
home without a warrant, on a tip from a suspect in another
case who was not registered with the city as an informant,
without any corroborating evidence. Of the twelve shots
that hit Oregon, most were fired from above and behind the
victim. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Entering a home by force is perhaps the most dangerous and
intrusive part of the job of a police officer. One must
embark upon such a task with the implicit understanding that
anything at all, including an armed and dangerous
individual, might be waiting inside. It is for this reason
that it is in the interest of both the police and the
community at large that such intrusions happen as
infrequently as possible, and for much of our nation's
history, such entries were, in fact, the exception rather
than the rule.

Enter the Drug War. Over the past three decades, the
escalation of the drug war has made forced entry a regular
part of police work. By its very nature, the black market
and the use of drugs remain hidden, often behind the closed
doors of private dwellings. There is rarely a complaining
witness, and the word of an informant is often the only
outward evidence of what are essentially consensual acts.
In an effort to enforce an unenforceable prohibition,
restrictions on "no-knock" entries have been loosened, and
doors, often the wrong doors, are kicked in greater numbers
year after year across America.

Jimmy Oregon had done nothing wrong. He was simply at home,
his own home, when six armed men burst in and shot him to
death. There were no indictments for murder, there will be
no significant criminal charges, it was simply a case of the
police doing their job and escalating the war in the midst
of an insane and destructive Prohibition. The grand jurors,
perhaps aware of the difficulties and the dangers inherent
in trying to enforce that prohibition, declined to indict on
anything save a single misdemeanor for illegal entry by one
of the six officers involved.

Perhaps those grand jurors were right. Perhaps it is not
the officers, but rather the drug war itself, which ought to
be indicted. For we, as a nation have embraced a policy of
domestic warfare. A policy that requires the state, armed
with any information it can lay its hands upon, to kick in
the doors of its citizens, guns drawn, prepared to kill. It
is not a vision that our founders would have liked. It is
not the America that they planned to build. We have become
a nation at war with the shadows, shooting and killing and
putting in cages anything that moves. Terrified and enraged
by the prospect of what goes on behind closed doors, by the
chaos we have created in our quest for order, by our
inability to win the war.

There is no justice in Houston this week, where a grand jury
has decided, essentially, that being gunned down in one's
own home by agents of the state is simply a price to be paid
for living in a time of Prohibition. And even if those
officers were indicted, and tried and convicted for the
murder of Pedro Oregon Navarro, there would be no justice
still. Because as long as we as a society are at war with
ourselves, as long as we insist upon escalation rather than
reason, upon terror rather than compassion, upon guns and
prisons rather than regulation and control, there will
always be a next time. And a time after that.

But it is long past time for justice. And humanity. And
peace. So for Jimmy Oregon and for thousands like him, for
the health of our nation and the viability of our
constitution, for our safety and our sanity and for the
future we will hand to our children, it is time to stop
kicking in doors. It is time to end the war.

Adam J. Smith
Associate Director

***

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