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

Campaign Notebook - Lockyer Campaign's Focus Is Going To Pot
(The Sacramento Bee suggests Democrat Bill Lockyer's attempt to be elected
as California Attorney General, the seat currently held by Dan Lungren,
will be countered by Republican supporters of Dave Stirling challenging
Lockyer to admit he smoked marijuana at some point during his years
in the legislature.)

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 06:35:36 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Campaign Notebook: Lockyer Campaign's Focus Is Going To Pot
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)
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Sacramento Bee
Pubdate: Sun, 25 Oct 1998

CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK: LOCKYER CAMPAIGN'S FOCUS IS GOING TO POT

Bill Lockyer gave his political opponents something to put in their pipes
last week when he was asked by a caller on a Sacramento radio show whether
he had ever smoked marijuana while serving in the Legislature.

Lockyer, a Democratic state senator running for attorney general, refused to
answer the caller's question, saying he did not think it was "appropriate to
get into those things."

That prompted demands by the California Republican Party and the California
Narcotic Officers Association that Lockyer respond directly to the question.
Both groups are backing Lockyer's opponent, Republican Dave Stirling.

"I do not use drugs," Lockyer told The Bee. "I do not condone the use of
drugs, and if I'm attorney general, I'll use the powers of the office to
curb drug abuse in California."

Pressed on whether he had ever smoked marijuana since he began serving in
the Legislature in 1973, Lockyer repeated the same response - using only
the present and future tenses.

Asked whether he thought the subject was relevant, Lockyer said, "I think
the campaign for serious office should focus on serious issues. It has been
up until now."

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Marijuana Rx? (The Denver Post does a relatively fair job representing
the views of those for and against medical marijuana in a lengthy collection
of articles inspired by Amendment 19, the Colorado ballot measure that was
recently ruled invalid by Secretary of State Vikki Buckley. Supporters vow to
place another initiative on the ballot during the next election cycle.)

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 13:07:48 -0700 (MST)
From: Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis (cohip@levellers.org)
To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Subject: Denver Post (10/25): Marijuana Rx?

Denver Post
Sunday, October 25, 1998

Marijuana Rx?

http://www.denverpost.com/life/med1025.htm

By Bill Briggs
Denver Post Staff Writer

Oct. 25 - The first gifts arrived during Darla Whitney's darkest hour -
when the chemotherapy left her so sick, she was praying to God for a fatal
heart attack.

The tiny packages came from friends at work, handed to her husband, Scott,
as he headed home to his cancer-stricken wife. They were wrapped in pretty
paper. They had "Get well Darla" notes.

They were stuffed with marijuana.

"I never solicited it. I never asked for it. But I smoked it. And in maybe
15 minutes, I started feeling OK," says Whitney, 43 and the very picture
of a suburban mom, with a house in Highlands Ranch and son who was a
national debating champ.

"It let me eat. It took my mind off my ordeal. It relaxed me enough to let
my chemotherapy do its job."

A cancer-fighting ritual was born. On Thursday afternoons, two hours after
a chemo drip left her throat sore, her ears ringing and her stomach queasy,
Whitney would sit in her home, light a joint and inhale some of that gift-
wrapped grass.

Over the summer, her frail body slowly rallied. But in beating breast
cancer she says she was forced to break the law.

"If we can help ourselves by taking marijuana to feel good and to quit
throwing up, then why not?" Whitney says. "Then we might get cured."

She has since lent her voice to a fast-growing movement, one that wants to
legalize marijuana for medical use in Colorado.

Led by another cancer survivor, Martin Chilcutt, and fueled by California
cash, a group called Coloradans for Medical Rights pushed pot onto the Nov.
3 ballot with Amendment 19.

Ultimately, Secretary of State Vikki Buckley ruled that backers hadn't
collected enough valid signatures. As this story went to press last week,
the measure remained on the ballot but any votes it garners won't count.

Yet the fight for medical marijuana will roll on, Chilcutt vows. Ill people
will continue to smoke it. An underground network of Colorado growers will
continue to supply it to patients. And some doctors will continue to
quietly suggest it - legal or not.

"We need to stop making criminals out of sick people," says Chilcutt, a
soft-spoken Korean War veteran who smoked marijuana while undergoing
treatments for prostate cancer four years ago. "There are patients who are
using it in their fights to stay alive, to survive.

"I will start over next year, and we will have it back on the ballot . . .
(Our opponents) have lost their war on drugs and they've begun a war on
patients. They think sick people are vulnerable. Well, I'm strong and some
of the patients are strong and we're going to win."

Marijuana's key ingredient, THC, already is prescribed in pill form under
the brand name Marinol. Some local doctors say the drug helps block nausea
and pump up sagging appetites as effectively as smokable pot. But a number
of patients who have tried Marinol complain that is leaves them feeling
"drugged" or "anxious."

Like few other hot-button issues, medical marijuana has jumped the tracks
of partisan politics, turning doctor against doctor and cop against cop.

The American Academy of Family Physicians is for it. The American Medical
Association is against it. Denver City Councilman Ed Thomas, a 22-year
police veteran, supports the use of marijuana for patients in chronic pain.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan raised $18,000 to defeat Amendment 19.

Some conservative Christians say it's a fine idea. That aligns them - on
this issue - with many gay activists. There's often no rhyme or reason as
to who backs medical marijuana, though Chilcutt says many advocates have
seen someone close ravaged by a terminal disease.

"I have lost four really close friends to cancer in the last five years,"
says Chilcutt, who set up his spartan campaign headquarters in a Capitol
Hill mansion.

There, barren, white walls surround four desks, one copy machine, one
computer and a knee-high filing cabinet. Classical music plays in the
background as Chilcutt, a retired psychology professor, explains why
marijuana is good medicine.

First, he says, it helps people being treated for cancer or AIDS beat back
the nausea often triggered by their medicine. It also helps people with
AIDS put on weight by sparking their appetite. And it eases the interocular
pressure of glaucoma.

For people with epilepsy, it can help prevent seizures. For folks with
multiple sclerosis, it can quiet the spasticity in their muscles, Chilcutt
claims. Many of those assertions are based on testimonials from real people
in Amendment 19's own camp. Yet the same benefits also were praised in a
1996 report by the American Public Health Association, which has urged
Congress to make marijuana a legal, ready remedy.

"Marijuana has been used medicinally for centuries, and . . . cannabis
products were widely prescribed by physicians in the United States until
1937," says the American Journal of Public Health. In that year the
Marijuana Tax Act outlawed the plant despite disagreement from the American
Medical Association.

Standing hard against the pro-pot pack are a cadre of local police groups,
the Colorado District Attorneys Council and the state board of education,
which charge that medical marijuana supporters are blowing smoke.

"Nowhere in the modern history of medicine have we taken a weed and burned
it and inhaled it and called it a medicine," says Arapahoe County Sheriff
Sullivan. He heads an anti-Amendment 19 group called CALM (Citizens Against
Legalizing Marijuana), which sums up Chilcutt's initiative as a "very bad
idea."

"It sends the wrong message to our young people that marijuana is
helpful," Sullivan says.

Pot smoking among high school seniors is on the rise, according to the
National Institute on Drug Abuse. More than 50 percent of seniors say they
have tried it, compared with 33 percent in 1992.

Some experts have blamed, in part, the debate over medical marijuana,
complaining that the dialogue over its potential benefits may have eroded
the carefully crafted "Just Say No" campaign of the 1980s.

Even worse, marijuana "is not a harmless drug" because it contains
carcinogens, decreases memory and hurts the immune system, contends a CALM
brochure. And most important, Sullivan says, the stuff is illegal.

Marijuana is classified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as a
Schedule I controlled substance beside heroin and LSD. By placing it in
that group, the government deemed pot without therapeutic value and unsafe
for medical use.

One of Sullivan's political allies is the Colorado Medical Society, which
argues that any medical practice must be backed by solid, reproducible
research and not by the prevailing political winds.

Dr. Christopher Unrein, who practices geriatrics in Aurora and speaks for
the Colorado Medical Association, points out two crucial problems with
doctors who knowingly allow their patients to use pot. One, physicians can
never know how potent the marijuana might be. Two, they can't give the
patient any supervision or monitor the effects because it is illegal.

"There's no one responsible to make sure it's the right thing and that it's
working," Unrein says.

But the real issue behind medical marijuana is politics, pure and simple,
argue Unrein and Sullivan. They claim that what Chilcutt and his supporters
secretly want is for pot to be permissible for anyone in Colorado, that
they are simply using medicine as a back door to full legalization.

"It's a fantastic Fifth Avenue marketing tool - pull on the heartstrings of
the sick and dying," Sullivan says.

"If legalizing marijuana is the issue," Unrein adds, "don't cloak it in
medical purposes."

Just look at the wealthy people who paid for Amendment 19, say its
opponents.

According to campaign documents on file at the secretary of state's office,
Coloradans for Medical Rights received 99 percent of its funding - $156,200
- from a group called Americans for Medical Rights, based in Santa Monica,
Calif.

Chilcutt identified the big money men in AMR as billionaire financier
George Soros, auto insurance magnate Peter Lewis and John Sperling,
president of the Apollo Group, a holding company that controls for-profit
universities and job-training centers.

Before the Colorado initiative, that trio pumped $1.2 million into a
similar California measure - Proposition 215. It passed in 1996 and allowed
Californians to grow and smoke pot for "any illness for which marijuana
provides relief," including chronic pain and arthritis. A doctor's oral
recommendation is required.

Over the past 20 years, 36 states have passed some form of legislation
recognizing marijuana's alleged medical value. And AMR's cash continues to
pay for ongoing state-level campaigns.

While Soros has said he does not support decriminalizing narcotics, former
Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano has dubbed him the
"Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization." Ethan Nadelmann, who heads Soros'
drug-policy institute, has been quoted as saying he hopes to "legalize the
personal possession of drugs by adult Americans."

Sperling, meanwhile, told Reader's Digest that he thinks physicians should
be able to prescribe heroin, LSD and all drugs.

But Chilcutt contends that his chief funders are concerned only with
bringing chronically sick people some compassion and relief through pot.

"Some (of those financial backers) had cancer and illnesses in their family
and saw people use it first-hand," Chilcutt says.

Legalizing drugs "isn't part of my battle," Chilcutt adds. His "narrowly
worded" measure stopped cold at opening up marijuana for medical purposes.

Had it been approved by Colorado voters, people with "debilitating medical
conditions" like cancer, glaucoma and AIDS could have asked their doctors
to authorize pot in their treatment.

Qualifying patients would have been allowed to possess up to 2 ounces of
marijuana or to cultivate six plants. They would have had to find and buy
the pot themselves. And they would have received a confidential
identification card from the state health department that they could flash
to police officers to avoid arrest.

"I've read it and signed a petition in favor of it, and I think it's
actually quite conservative," says Dr. Charles Steinberg, head of the
Beacon Clinic, Boulder's only HIV treatment center.

"It sets a lot of limits. It (was) not going to open marijuana sales clubs
in Downtown Denver like (similar measures) did in San Francisco . . .
Forgive me, but it seems to be a no-brainer."

A minority of Steinberg's AIDS patients have revealed to himthatthey are
using marijuana to put on weight or quell the queasiness that often comes
with the anti-HIV drugs known as protease cocktails.

"They're not getting necessarily stoned," Steinberg says. "The dose of
marijuana they require is pretty small, so they've learned how to do that
so they're not out of it."

With an array of similar success stories floating around, the National
Nurses Society on Addictions recently decided to endorse medical marijuana.
The 23-year-old group says it's time pot became a Schedule II drug so
physicians can prescribe it.

"If we have an opportunity to give a couple of hours of relief to people
with cancer, with AIDS, with MS or chronic pain, what's not to like about
that?" says Ed Thomas, perhaps medical marijuana's most surprising
supporter. Now a city councilman, Thomas spent 15 years as a Denver street
cop, busting people for pot possession and trying to do his part to rid the
city of drugs.

"It's a tough stance for a former policeman to take, but I think it's just
a fair, honest, open way to deal with somebody's pain," Thomas says. "How
about just a little decent compassion? . . . So when we have some self-

righteous law-enforcement personnel who say, "By God, it's the law,' go let
them stand in front of the bed of a dying family member and let them have
the same position then."

***

http://www.denverpost.com/life/med1025a.htm

Ror Poliac, 42, Arapahoe County

By Bill Briggs
Denver Post Staff Writer

Twice now, Arapahoe County sheriff's deputies have stopped Ror Poliac and
found marijuana in his car.

Twice they have handed him back his pot and let him go.

A way with words? Just plain lucky? No, Poliac carries a note from his
doctor for just such occasions.

Poliac, who has chronic, progressive multiple sclerosis, is a living
example of how a medical marijuana system might work in Colorado.

His physician, he says, recognizes how pot quiets the spasticity in his leg
muscles, boosts his appetite and helps him sleep through the buzz of the 30
prescription pills he has to take daily. The doctor's handwritten note
indicates Poliac has his permission to smoke the marijuana.

But because marijuana remains illegal in Colorado, the officers still could
have busted Poliac for possession. For that reason, he doesn't flaunt his
unofficial pot prescription.

In fact, when he calls friends about buying marijuana, they use code words
over the phone lines - phrases like "I'm going to the green house" or "Do
you have any cans of green paint?" "It seems ludicrous to have to go to
that extent for my medication," says Poliac, 42.

For about 10 years, the MS has slowly stolen Poliac's ability to walk on
beaches, to dance and to hike. He now uses a wheelchair. As his paralysis
worsened, he found that a nightly dose of marijuana gave him the energy he
needed to fight the illness.

"Ten puffs and I'm fine," Poliac says. "They're always saying we shouldn't
cut down all the rain forests because maybe some tree has the cure for
cancer or AIDS . . . Well, this could be my plant in the Amazon. Who
knows?"

***

http://www.denverpost.com/life/med1025b.htm

Jim Sargent, 43, Denver

By Bill Briggs
Denver Post Staff Writer

Jim Sargent keeps two pints of liquid morphine on hand to quiet the
constant pain in his right side. It's enough to numb his entire
neighborhood.

He also keeps a tiny stash of marijuana near his bed. It's barely enough to
help him sleep.

Guess which drug could get Sargent arrested?

For more than three years, Sargent, 43, has been undergoing cancer
treatment. It was diagnosed as non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but the disease
spread to his liver.

A robust engineer who once managed an office for a Fortune 500 company,
Sargent was thrown into a cycle of chemotherapy and steroids. His wife quit
her job to care for him.

Today, Sargent is past the chemo, and chances are he'll live a long time.
That doesn't mean getting through the day is easy. Red-hot pain flares from
his side, from the place doctors performed a biopsy in his liver last year.

"It's like somebody took a claw hammer to me."

The prescriptionmorphine, he says, just isn't enough - even at 350
milligrams a day. It's the pot that gives Sargent the rest he needs.

"The biggest fight is to stay mentally stable enough to want to get up the
next day to do it again," Sargent says. "If there's something out there
that gives me that edge . . . nobody has the right to take that away."

Before bed each night, Sargent puffs the marijuana from a pipe then packs
himself in pillows and tries not to move.

While his morphine supply can be refilled with a call to the doctor, his
illegal pile of pot is dwindling, and "the people I get it from" just
moved out of state, Sargent says. "Which means," Sargent adds, "I'll have
to increase my (prescription) drug doses, which I'm not into doing.
Morphine really affects me, it affects the way you think.

"I'm stretching (the marijuana) out. There's enough to last another week
and then I will be completely out. That has me a little concerned."

***

http://www.denverpost.com/life/med1025c.htm

Darla Whitney, 43, Highlands Ranch

By Bill Briggs
Denver Post Staff Writer

One of the loudest arguments against medical marijuana is that it sends the
wrong message to young people.

But Tim Whitney is one young guy who was glad to hear that his mom was
smoking pot - not because it gave him license to toke up, too, but because
it gave her a fighting chance.

"If it keeps you alive," Tim told her earlier this year, "do anything it
takes."

Darla Whitney, 43, was into her first rounds of chemotherapy last February
when friends began sending her unsolicited "little gifts" - packages of
marijuana.

The legal drug that she was taking to fight breast cancer left her weak and
queasy. A few puffs, she says, restored her appetite and renewed her spunk.
Whitney's doctor approved and then she got that endorsement from her
college-age son, a guy who doesn't drink or smoke.

"I had no fears whatsoever that he would think, 'Oh, Mom is smoking
marijuana so that means I can.'"

She finished chemotherapy in July. An exam 10 days ago found her to be in
good health with little chance of a recurrence. And while Whitney isn't
smoking marijuana now, she backed Amendment 19 which sought to legalize
medical marijuana.

"It needs to be available to anybody," says Whitney, a Highlands Ranch
resident. "Some of the women I had chemotherapy with were a lot older and
may not have had an opportunity like I did.

"They don't know who to ask. But they need to be able to get some without
feeling guilty to help them through this."

***

Denver Post
1560 Broadway
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: (303) 820-1010
Fax: (303) 820-1369
Email: letters@denverpost.com
Web: http://www.denverpost.com

***

Re-distributed by:
Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis
P.O. Box 729
Nederland, CO 80466
Phone: (303) 448-5640
Email: cohip@levellers.org
Web: http://www.levellers.org/cannabis.html

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

2 opponents of drug laws defy stereotype (Dallas Morning News columnist
Steve Blow interviews Suzanne Wills and Rodney Pirtle of the Drug Policy
Forum of Texas, who make a persuasive argument that the war on some drugs
is causing more harm than illegal drugs themselves.)

From: adbryan@ONRAMP.NET
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 07:41:32 -0600 (CST)
Subject: SUPER ART: 2 opponents of drug laws defy stereotype
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Cc: editor@mapinc.org
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to
describe this column by Steve Blow. Rod and Suzy should
win some type of award. This has to be the biggest breakthrough
ever for the Dallas Morning News and a local drug policy
reform chapter. I'm still all tingly.

PLEASE -- EVERYONE send at least a short note to the
DMN and to columnist Steve Blow -- sblow@dallasnews.com
Let them know we REALLY APPRECIATE this.

10-25-98
Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com
letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com

2 opponents of drug laws defy stereotype

Take a moment to picture a drug-reform activist
in your mind.

Now erase that hippie-dippy image and let me
introduce you to a couple of folks.

Suzanne Wills is an SMU graduate and a CPA.
She has three children and five grandchildren.

Rodney Pirtle is a retired Highland Park school
administrator, a bigwig in Rotary and a former
college basketball coach. He, too, has three
grown children and five grandchildren.

Ms. Wills is 54. Mr Pirtle is 64.

And both firmly believe that most of our drug laws
ought to be thrown out.

As Ms. Wills puts it, "The laws are more dangerous
than the drugs."

I'll confess that I haven't pondered this issue much.
But I talked with Mr. Pirtle and Ms. Wills over
breakfast the other morning, and they gave me
lots to think about.

Lessons of Prohibition

Most of us have no trouble looking at the Prohibi-
tion era of the 1920s and '30s and seeing it as a
dismal failure. People still drank alcohol, and a
vicious crime underworld flourished to provide it.

"The phenomenon of Al Capone could not have
happened without Prohibition," Mr. Pirtle said.

It's also easy to look around today and see that
the prohibition of drugs has created an even
more vicious underworld to supply them.

And yet . . . . It's awfully hard for some of us to take
that next leap - to say that the answer to our
problem is making drugs easier to get, not harder.

Mr. Pirtle sympathizes there, too. "It is not a simple
question."

Ms. Wills and Mr. Pirtle said they do not use drugs.
Nor have drugs been a problem in their families.
Their passion, they said, comes from frustration
in watching billions of dollars spent and countless
lives lost in a drug war that is never won.

They say most of the horror associated with drugs
stems from the drug trade, not drug use: Gang
wars. Bribery. Police corruption. Soaring prison
populations. Black-market pricing. Theft and
prostitution to pay those prices.

Ms. Wills and Mr. Pirtle belong to the Drug Policy
Forum of Texas (214-827-1514), a group "seeking
better solutions to the drug problem."

But they don't like the word "legalization." "People
think it means you want to put drug-vending
machines in the high schools," Mr. Pirtle said.

They don't favor that. They do, however, think
drugs should be legal but controlled -- much as
alcohol is today.

But what about kids? Drug sales to kids would still
be illegal, of course. And a profitable, well-regulated
legal market for drugs would dry up risky, unprofit-
able sales to minors, they believe.

"Kids in Plano will tell you that right now it's easier
for them to buy heroin than it is to buy beer," Mr.
Pirtle said.

A European example

Drug policy in Holland comes closest to what the
reformers favor here. Marijuana is legal there, and
addiction to harder drugs is generally treated as
a medical problem, not a criminal one.

And for what it's worth, marijuana use among teens
is slightly lower there, the heroin addiction rate is
less than half or ours, and the murder rate is 15
percent of ours, according to Dutch figures.

We will never eradicate the supply of drugs, Mr.
Pirtle said. "They can't even stop drugs inside
prisons. That ought to tell us something."

Only individuals can choose not to use drugs --
or to use safer ones. And honest, straightforward
information is the key, the reformers say.

"Reefer madness" made a mockery of drug
education for my generation. And credibility
has been a hard thing to win back.

One thing is for sure: Our national hysteria over
drugs only makes them more attractive for many
teens. "Forbidden fruit," Mr. Pirtle said.

As I say, it's hard to know what to think. But
clearly, we need to be doing more thinking.

Mr. Pirtle said drug reform author Mike Gray
recently spoke to the Plano Rotary Club. He
began by asking how many think we're winning
the war on drugs. Then he asked how many
think we can win the war with current policy.

"Not a single hand was raised," Mr. Pirtle said.

Some drug war.

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

Schools re-evaluate DARE program designed to warn students about drugs
(The Associated Press suggests the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program
and its police instructors are getting kicked out of schools in Massachusetts
right and left. "With Massachusetts so outcome-based and accountability
oriented, other school districts are going to have to look at" DARE. "I think
we did the right thing for the kids," says Diane Delli Carpini, chairman of
the Lunenburg School Committee.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: MA Schools re-evaluate DARE program
designed to warn students about drugs
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 21:13:17 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Schools re-evaluate DARE program designed to warn students about drugs
Associated Press, 10/25/98 22:10

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - Supporters say the DARE program is a valuable asset
in the fight to educate kids about drugs and alcohol.

But in July, the city of Lunenburg dropped its DARE curriculum - and a
number of central Massachusetts communities have followed suit.

Continued drug use among children despite DARE's presence in thousands of
schools has many communities abandoning or re-evaluating the publicly funded
Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

The city of Harvard dropped its DARE program in August. Shrewsbury school
officials have hired a consultant to study DARE's efficacy. And the
Barre-based Quabbin Regional School District is considering downgrading DARE
to an extracurricular program.

``I think it's certainly legitimate to keep an eye on it,'' Diane Delli
Carpini, chairman of the Lunenburg School Committee, told the Telegram &
Gazette of Worcester. ``With Massachusetts so outcome-based and
accountability oriented, other school districts are going to have to look at
(DARE). I think we did the right thing for the kids.''

Cities in other parts of the country, including Houston, Milwaukee, Oakland,
Calif., and Fayetteville, N.C., dropped the program after studies cast
doubts on its success rate.

DARE was founded by the Los Angeles police department in the 1980s. Under
the program, police officers visit elementary school classrooms to explain
the dangers of drugs.

In recent years, DARE has expanded to include lessons on such topics as
violence, cigarette smoking and date rape.

About 240,000 youths across Massachusetts are now enrolled in DARE programs,
many of which are funded by the state. In the last two years, the state has
given communities $4.3 million in DARE grants.

Even as many communities discuss scaling back on their DARE programs, some
believe the program should be expanded to middle and high schools.

``We continue to feel it's a good program,'' said Lt. Michael L. Vaca,
commander of the Worcester police department's community service unit.
``We've had a lot of positive results and positive feedback.''

Worcester has nine full-time DARE officers, having added two recently.

Vaca said the program has helped form positive relationships between
officers and youths, and has led police to cases of sexual abuse and drug
use by parents.

However, he acknowledged a long-standing study to track its DARE graduates
to see whether they stay out of trouble has yet to be implemented.

***

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"unsubscribe when" to STOP. To RESTART, put "subscribe when" in the e-mail
instead (No quotation marks.)

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

Democratic nominee for DC Mayor Declares Support for Initiative 59
(A representative of the campaign for a medical marijuana ballot measure
in the District of Columbia says Anthony Williams has adopted the same
position as virtually every other candidate or incumbent. Includes a list
of DC groups and VIPs who endorse the initiative.)

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 01:47:11 -0700 (MST)
From: ammo (ammo@levellers.org)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: DC I59 Endorsements
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Protect the Patients!

Yes on 59
409 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone (202) 547-9404
Fax (202) 547-9458
Email: dcsign59@aol.com
Web: www.actupdc.org

October 12, 1998
For immediate release
Contact Wayne Turner at (202) 547-9404 or pgr. (202) 217-5636

Williams declares support for Initiative 59!

Washington, DC -- Anthony Williams, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of the
nation's capital, publicly declared his support for DC's Initiative 59,
during a candidate's forum hosted by WOL Radio (1450 AM). Williams, who
signed the petitions to place I-59 on the ballot, joins his rivals in the
DC mayoral race, Republican Carol Schwartz, and Statehood Party nominee
John Gloster, in supporting I-59.

Initiative 59 proposes to protect patients with serious or terminal
illnesses, such as persons diagnosed with AIDS or cancer, when they are
instructed by their doctors to use medical marijuana to ease their
suffering, including nausea, vomiting, and deadly AIDS wasting syndrome.

Local activists gathered over 32,000 petition signatures, in order to place
Initiative 59 before District voters. The Board of Elections and Ethics
officially certified Initiaitve 59 for the November 3 ballot three weeks ago.

"So many families in DC have been hit by cancer and AIDS" states Anise
Jenkins, who collected over 5000 signatures for Initiative 59. "People
would come up and thank me for working so hard to protect the patients.
It really is a labor of love."

DC's top elected officials, including Mayor Marion Barry, Council Chair Linda
Cropp, have expressed support for Initiative 59, which is organized entirely
by local health care advocates. "Whitman-Walker Clinic supports the valid
medical use of marijuana, under a physicians' supervision, to help alleviate
AIDS wasting syndrome and nausea associated with treatment regimens." The
Clinic is hanging large banners from its buildings in Northwest DC, as well as
the Max Robinson Center in Anacostia, urging residents to "Vote Yes on 59."

"It's senseless that patients who are sick and dying face the threat of
arrest for simply following their doctor's instructions." States Wayne
Turner, who took over the Yes on 59 Campaign after the death of his longtime
partner, Steve Michael, who died from AIDS wasting syndrome its complications,
in May. "I promised Steve to keep working on the Initiative, for the
thousands of families out there going through the same thing. It's terrible
to watch the suffering of someone you love."

With the election just three weeks away, the all-volunteer effort run on a
shoestring budget is working tirelessly distributing fliers and hanging 'Yes
on 59' signs.

To volunteer with Yes on 59, call (202) 547-9404, and to make a much needed
contribution, please send checks to Yes on 59 @ 409 H Street, NE, Washington,
DC 20002

ONGOING LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS ENDORSING INITIATIVE 59
(JOIN THE TEAM! PLEASE SEND YOUR INDIVIDUAL OR ORGANIZATION'S STATEMENT OF
SUPPORT TO YES ON 59 @ 409 H ST. NE, WASHINGTON, DC 20002, FAX (202)
547-9458, OR E-MAIL DCSIGN59@AOL.COM)

WHITMAN WALKER CLINIC

D.C. COALITION FOR NURSING HOME REFORM

NATIONAL BLACK POLICE ASSOCIATION

MAYOR MARION BARRY

ANTHONY WILLIAMS, DEMOCRATIC MAYORAL NOMINEE

CAROL SCHWARTZ, REPUBLICAN MAYORAL NOMINEE

JOHN GLOSTER, STATEHOOD PARTY MAYORAL NOMINEE

LINDA CROPP, DEMOCRAT, DC COUNCIL CHAIR

DAVID CATANIA, REPUBLICAN, AT-LARGE DC COUNCIL MEMBER

JACK EVANS, WARD 2 DEMOCRAT, CHAIR OF DC COUNCIL JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

KEVIN CHAVOUS, WARD 7 DEMOCRAT, CHAIR OF DC COUNCIL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

SANDY ALLEN, WARD 8 DEMOCRAT, CHAIR OF DC COUNCIL HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

HILDA MASON, STATEHOOD PARTY, AT-LARGE DC COUNCIL MEMBER

FLORENCE PENDLETON, DEMOCRAT, DC SHADOW SENATOR

PAUL STRAUSS, DEMOCRAT, DC SHADOW SENATOR

SABRINA SOJOURNER, DEMOCRATIC US SHADOW REPRESENTATIVE

PHIL MENDELSOHN, AT LARGE DEMOCRAT, DC COUNCIL NOMINEE

MARK THOMPSON, UMOJA, AT-LARGE DC COUNCIL NOMINEE

MALIK SHABAZZ, INDEPENDENT AT-LARGE DC COUNCIL NOMINEE

SANDRA SEEGARS, INDEPENDENT AT-LARGE DC COUNCIL NOMINEE

JIM GRAHAM, DEMOCRATIC WARD ONE NOMINEE

SCOTT MCLARTY, GREEN PARTY WARD ONE NOMINEE

PAT KIDD, STATEHOOD PARTY CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATE NOMINEE

JOE ROMANO, STATEHOOD PARTY DC COUNCIL CHAIR NOMINEE

AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION (D.C.)

WHITMAN WALKER CLINIC

D.C. COALITION FOR NURSING HOME REFORM

WARD 6 DEMOCRATS

STATEHOOD PARTY OF DC

GREEN PARTY OF DC

UMOJA PARTY

GAY AND LESBIAN ACTIVIST ALLIANCE

CENTER ON JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

ARCHBISHOP GEORGE AUGUSTUS STALLINGS,
AFRICAN AMERICAN CATHOLIC CONGREGATION

HIV COMMUNITY COALITION

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Action Alert - Congress tries to suspend DC election (A bulletin
from Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis urges you to write letters
and make phone calls protesting the decision by Congress to quash democracy
in the District of Columbia rather than tolerate a successful DC medical
marijuana initiative.)

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 16:35:12 -0700 (MST)
From: ammo (ammo@levellers.org)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Congress tries to suspend D.C. election
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

Please copy and re-distribute this announcement.

October 25, 1998

Initiative 59 NOT "Snuffed Out"

Votes for Initiative 59 will be counted,
but Congress bars certification of election results

Let the people decide!

Contact Wayne Turner or Anise Jenkins at (202) 547-9404
For more background information on this issue, see:
http://www.levellers.org/dcstat.htm

Washington, DC -- In the history of the Republic, Congress have never
suspended an election. Even in wartime, this nation adheres to the
democratic process and principles it promotes and defends throughout the
world. Yet an amendment included on the FY 1999 D.C. budget prohibits
the certification of election results conducted in the District of
Columbia on a citizens' initiative which protects the sick and dying,
Initiative 59. (see text of the Barr amendment to the DC Appropriations
bill at http://www.levellers.org/dcbarr.htm)

It took two signature drives, three lawsuits, and the death of the original
sponsor Steve Michael, to place Initiative 59 before the voters of the
District of Columbia. The Measure proposes to protect patients with
serious and terminal illnesses, such persons with cancer, and advanced
AIDS, when they are instructed by their doctors to use marijuana as a
medication of last resort.

The amendment, introduced by Republican Bob Barr (GA), reads: "Sec. 171.
None of the funds contained in this act may be used to conduct any ballot
initiative which seeks to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties
associated with the possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I
substance under the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802) or any
tetrahydrocannabinols derivative."

According to the DC Board of Elections and Ethics, the Congressional
amendment does have limited impact on the election. The ballots for
Initiative 59 are already printed, and will be distributed to polling
places on election day.

District voters will have the opportunity to vote Yes on 59 on Tuesday,
November 3. The votes will be automatically counted, and tabulated, by
the Board. The total will be announced.

The Board may be prohibited from officially certifying the results, a
process which requires minimal staff work. The Board may also be
prohibited from publishing the Initiative 59 legislative text, or from
publishing the 'sample ballot' in a newspaper of record.

The Yes on 59 Campaign is assembling a legal team, including attorneys from
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-Nation Capitol Area). "Congress
has struck at the heart of Democracy. Too many people have sacrificed
their lives fighting for the right to vote." states I-59 sponsor,
activist Wayne Turner.

"Let the people decide," states home rule activist Anise Jenkins. "We have
no vote in Congress, our elected officials have been stripped of power,
and now they're trying to stop an election. They're destroying democracy
in the capitol of the United States of America. It's a disgrace! It's
tyranny and we won't let this stand!"

Protect the Patients!
Yes on 59
409 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone (202) 547-9404
Fax (202) 547-9458
Email: dcsign59@aol.com
Web: www.actupdc.org

***

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1) Contact the president and your representatives and senators and tell
them you are appalled that they passed the DC appropriations bill with
the Barr amendment that prohibits the election results of Initiative 59
from being certified. Tell them that what they are doing is worse than
any foreign dictatorship that prevents fair and democratic elections.

President Bill Clinton
(202) 456-1111
U.S. House of Representatives
(202) 225-3121
U.S. Senate
(202) 224-3121

Directory of U.S. Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/senator/membmail.html
http://www.earthlaw.org/Activist/senatadd.htm

Directory of U.S. Representatives:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/mbrcmtee/mbrcmtee.htm
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

2) Write a letter to the following newspapers:

a) Washington Times
3600 New York Ave., NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: (202) 636-3000
Fax: (202) 269-3419
Web: http://www.washtimes.com
Feedback: letter@twtmail.com

b) Washington Post
The Post only accepts letters through their webform at:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Or by snail mail:
Letters to the Editor
Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20071
Read the Washington Post editorial on this issue:
http://www.levellers.org/dcsnuff_wp.htm

c) Since the Post and the Times are surely inundated with letters to the
editor from locals this close to the election, send a copy of your letter
regarding the DC election to your local papers:
The email letter addresses for many newspapers may be found at:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm
Just put the name of a newspaper in the Keyword(s) box, and do the search.

3) Make a donation to the campaign:
Yes on 59 Campaign
409 H Street N.E. - Suite #1
Washington, D.C. 20002-4335

4) VOTE on NOVEMBER 3 AGAINST REPUBLICANS!!!
It is the Republican Congress that is trying to ban the election process
and silence the voice of the People in the District of Columbia. Let's
send a resounding message to Congress that this abuse of democracy will
not be tolerated. Oust a Republican on Nov. 3!!!

***

From the Media Awareness Project:
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers
http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide
http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

Send a copy of your letter to the Yes on 59 Campaign and the Media
Awareness Project, who issued an action alert (#85) on this issue:
(dcsign59@aol.com)
(mgreer@mapinc.org)

***

For more information, to make a donation, or to volunteer for the campaign
contact:
Yes on 59 Campaign
Wayne Turner
409 H Street N.E. - Suite #1
Washington, D.C. 20002-4335
Phone: (202) 547-9404
Fax: (202) 547-9448
http://www.actupdc.org
http://www.levellers.org/dcstat.htm

***

For more information about the struggle for Home Rule in DC, see:
http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/ProRev/freedc.htm
http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/ProRev/dckill.htm

***

Distributed by:
Colorado Citizens for Compassionate Cannabis
P.O. Box 729
Nederland, CO 80466
Phone: (303) 448-5640
Email: cohip@levellers.org
Web: http://www.levellers.org/cannabis.html

To get on our mailing list, send an email with the word SUBSCRIBE in the
title.

***

This document is available online at:
http://www.levellers.org/dcbarr_pr.htm

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DC's Trojan Horse Initiative (An op-ed in The Washington Post by Robert
Maginnis of the Family Research Council trots out tired old drug warrior
misinformation in an attempt to dissuade District of Columbia voters
from endorsing Initiative 59, the medical marijuana ballot measure.)

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 08:22:43 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US DC: OPED: MMJ: DC's Trojan Horse Initiative
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Paul Lewin
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Washington Post Company
Pubdate: Sun, 25 Oct 1998
Author: Robert Maginnis, a senior policy advisor at the Family Research
Council

DC'S TROJAN HORSE INITIATIVE

The medical marijuana initiative on the District's Nov. 3 ballot embraces
bad medicine, would encourage drug use among teenagers and is a red herring
for legalizing marijuana. It should be rejected.

This proposal, known as Initiative 59, is more radical than pro-drug laws
passed by referendum in 1996 in California and Arizona. It would allow the
use of pot as medicine for almost any illness upon the oral or written
recommendation of a licensed physician from anywhere. Patients would be
permitted access to "sufficient" quantities of marijuana to sustain their
treatment and to appoint as many as four "best friend[s]" to act as
"caregiver[s]" to obtain pot for them.

While proponents of Initiative 59 say that sick people need marijuana as
medicine, effective and superior medicines are available for each condition
that pot allegedly alleviates. Synthetic THC, the main psychoactive
ingredient of marijuana, has been approved by the FDA as an anti-nausea
treatment for chemotherapy patients and as an appetite stimulant for
patients with AIDS. Unlike crude marijuana, however, synthetic THC is a
stable, well-defined, pure substance available in quantified dosage form.

Other legal drugs can enhance the appetites of AIDS patients and provide
relief for pain and muscle spasms and for glaucoma.

A 1997 poll conducted by the Family Research Council found that 55 percent
of Americans are less likely to support marijuana as medicine when they
learn that legal and superior therapies are available.

Meanwhile, government surveys show that marijuana use among adolescents is
skyrocketing. According to a Family Research Council's poll, most teenagers
believe that medical legalization would encourage drug use.

Since 1981, the District has had a medical pot law. The proposed law would
radically broaden the old statute to permit possession, use, cultivation and
distribution of marijuana and would legalize cannabis buyers' clubs.
Virginia's decades-old statute allows doctors to prescribe marijuana but
does not permit either its legal possession or cultivation. Maryland has no
medical pot law.

Drug use in the District is already high, but adding legal pot stores would
no doubt make our nation's capital a center for illicit drug users from the
mid-Atlantic region - including teenagers and felons.

D.C. voters should listen to experience. In February 1997, 85 percent of
Arizona voters polled told the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America
that their successful drug legalizing proposition should be changed. They
felt deceived by a campaign that used misleading and heart-wrenching
anecdotes of seriously ill people to sell marijuana's alleged therapeutic
benefit.

It's time for leadership. Public health officials who stamped out Joe Camel
must now join hands with District parents to expose Initiative 59 for what
it really is: bad medicine and a Trojan horse for the legalization of
marijuana.

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[End]