-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical marijuana proponents move toward mainstream (The Associated Press
suggests Dr. Rob Killian and supporters of Initiative 692 in Washington state
won at the ballot box last week because they put away their tie-dye clothing
and cut their long hair. Apparently something more is required in Nevada,
where the state attorney general, Frankie Sue Del Papa, says she won't
enforce her state's new constitutional amendment - if it's reaffirmed
as required in 2000 - without federal approval.)
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Medical marijuana proponents move toward mainstream
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 20:21:53 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Medical marijuana proponents move toward mainstream
By Michelle Boorstein
Associated Press
11/08/98 12:26
After seeing Washington state voters shoot down a medical marijuana measure
in 1997, Rob Killian tried a new strategy this year: no tie-dye.
Killian and other medical marijuana proponents realized it wasn't the
prospect of giving sick people the drug that bothered most voters. The fear
was that supporters of the measure secretly wanted to make all drugs legally
available, and not just for the ailing.
So they remade their image. Ties instead of tie-dyed T-shirts. Short hair.
Think suburban moms.
It worked.
By courting the mainstream, medical marijuana proponents succeeded in
getting measures passed last week in Washington as well as Alaska, Arizona,
Oregon and Nevada.
And that, say activists, is the future of the movement.
``I don't fit in well with general drug legalization groups. I don't wear
hemp T-shirts, I don't use drugs ... I'm a bit of a geek,'' said Killian, a
family physician who led the campaign to put the measure on the ballot.
``But part of it was that we were unknown to the public last year. This time
I spent hours with people from both sides of the political landscape ...
that's how we were successful in mainstreaming the issue.''
Things have changed since 1996, when medical marijuana backers shocked
many - including federal drug officials - by getting measures on the ballot
and approved in Arizona and California. Arizona's was put on hold by
legislators but reaffirmed by voters this year.
This year, they were more organized and more sophisticated, attracting new
support from legislators, law enforcement officials and state and national
medical leaders.
Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine editorialized in favor of
medical marijuana and the American Medical Association altered its policy
and voted to urge the National Institutes of Health to fund and support more
research on the subject.
Advocates argue, and some research has suggested, that marijuana can help
some patients, principally by relieving nausea after chemotherapy or
increasing the appetites of cancer and AIDS sufferers. Marijuana also is
touted as helping some patients control glaucoma.
``We're still amateurs and drug policy reform is still a nascent political
and social movement, but we're not rank amateurs anymore,'' said Ethan
Nadelmann, director of the New York-based Lindesmith Center, a research
project of billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Soros and several others
funded the measures this year and in 1996.
With their new image and ballot box successes, medical marijuana proponents
say they'll focus next on getting measures passed in other states, promoting
more scientific research.
They also want to make sure the laws are enforced.
After the California measure passed, state Attorney General Dan Lungren
worked with the Justice Department to shut down marijuana clubs.
Now Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa says she won't enforce her
state's new constitutional amendment - if it's reaffirmed as required in
2000 - without federal approval. Oregon officials say they haven't decided
what to do. However, Arizona and Washington officials have already said they
will honor their new laws, and Alaska officials say they don't prosecute
small possession cases and won't start now.
Federal officials haven't yet decided their next move. While in 1996 they
threatened to arrest doctors who prescribe marijuana, Justice Department
spokesman Gregory King said Friday the department will review the new laws
before making any decision.
``Just as we have in the past, we'll make enforcement decisions on a
case-by-case basis,'' he said.
Opponents of the medical marijuana movement say its new mainstream image
can't hide the underlying goal of all-out legalization.
After all, they note, the Arizona measure and the first, failed Washington
measure also legalized other drugs for medical reasons. And they point to
comments Soros and others have made about the country's failed drug policy
and possible alternatives, including limited decriminalization - such as
making heroin available to addicts in order to reduce crime and help them
kick their habits.
``They've been successful by misrepresenting their intentions and by preying
on the American public's compassion,'' said Barnett Lotstein, special
assistant to Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley in Phoenix. ``If they want
to really have a debate on this, why characterize this as a medical
marijuana issue?''
Some medical marijuana backers feel the public is ready for a broader debate
and that voters passed the new measures because they are open to new drug
control strategies.
Others said it shows a growing interest in alternative medicine.
``Instead of accusing the medical marijuana proponents of not being
scientific, we were the ones not being scientific,'' Dr. John Nelson, an
obstetrician-gynecologist in Salt Lake City and a member of the AMA's board
of trustees, said of the AMA's new position on medical marijuana. ``We were
trying to open our minds.''
``There's a whole group of doctors calling for a public health model of drug
addiction, treatment instead of incarceration,'' Killian said. ``There's a
lot going on.''
***
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instead (No quotation marks.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A Look At The Political Leaders Behind Three Winning Ballot Measures
(The Seattle Times suggests Dr. Rob Killian became the prime mover
behind Initiative 692, Washington state's medical marijuana ballot measure,
because of his cousin's death from AIDS. Previously he had aspired to become
the first Mormon senator from Washington state.)
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 21:16:13 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WA: A Look At The Political Leaders Behind Three Winning
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Sunday, 08 November, 1998
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Seattle Times Company
Author: David Schaefer, Seattle Times staff reporter
Note: Newshawk forwarded only the portion relevant to drug policy
A LOOK AT THE POLITICAL LEADERS BEHIND THREE WINNING BALLOT MEASURES
THEY'RE NOT YOUR typical political leaders: a doctor fixated on
marijuana, a new city librarian who balked at her lofty title and a
talk-show host who gave up his job to promote his cause. They weren't
on the ballot, yet Deborah Jacobs, Rob Killian and John Carlson
emerged as three of the biggest winners from Tuesday's election. All
overcame long odds to direct a ballot measure to victory.
Jacobs, the Seattle librarian, came from Corvallis a year ago to
revive and re-energize a failed drive for a new downtown library and
improved neighborhood branches.
Killian, the physician only a year removed from losing an initiative
campaign to legalize medical use of marijuana, refined the measure and
his tactics to score with I-692.
Carlson, closest of the three to being a politician, kept his focus on
amending state affirmative-action laws even after losing his radio
talk show and being outspent by opponents of Initiative 200.
Here, beginning with Jacobs, is a look at the three of them.
COUSIN'S DEATH FROM AIDS STEERED DOCTOR TOWARD MARIJUANA MEASURE
By David Schaefer, Seattle Times staff reporter
Dr. Rob Killian went to Brigham Young University and studied political
science and international relations, "planning to become the first
Mormon senator from Washington state."
But when his cousin contracted HIV from a blood transfusion - she was
the first woman in Utah to die of AIDS, he said - his career headed in
another direction. Now it has brought him full circle back to politics.
The prime mover behind Initiative 692, which will legalize marijuana
for medical uses, Killian is one of the political winners in last
week's general election. Vindicated after a more aggressive initiative
was turned down a year ago, Killian said he plans to remain active in
the movement for a more benign national attitude toward medical marijuana.
"Medicine gave my life meaning," Killian said. "(But) my appetite (for
politics) is whetted. I like the discussion of the issues."
Instead of reveling in an election-night victory, Killian took the
red-eye to Washington, D.C., where he held a Wednesday-morning news
conference about marijuana's electoral victories in the West. Noting
that seven states now have voted to allow marijuana use, the Seattle
doctor said, "I am not going away soon."
He added, however, that he'll confine his political activity to the
issue at hand and has no plans to run for office.
Killian, 38, grew up in Issaquah. He lives in Kent. He's divorced, and
his two sons, 12 and 10, live in Utah but visit him frequently.
Killian graduated from BYU, then earned a medical degree and a
master's in public health from the University of Utah.
He became involved in HIV testing and counseling after his cousin died
in 1984, but it was during his medical residency in Rochester, N.Y.,
that Killian says he first became familiar with marijuana's potential
to relieve suffering.
Inspired in a hospice
He was volunteering in a hospice, where death and dying were a daily
presence, and he became impressed with how doctors handle recurring
tragedy. Reporting for duty one day in the hospice, Killian noticed
that a breast-cancer patient was smoking marijuana.
"I was familiar with the smell," said Killian, who notes that he tried
marijuana twice but that "a little wine with dinner" is his drug of
choice.
Killian moved back to the Northwest in 1996 and became involved in the
politics of the drug after a vote in California that same year.
California OK'd use of medical marijuana and authorized "buying clubs"
for patients to obtain the drug legally. The federal government,
however, has never approved of the clubs. There were a number of
arrests and some of the clubs were shut down.
Killian became incensed that the federal government would hassle
physicians and wrote a letter to the editor of the (Tacoma) Morning
News Tribune. It later was picked up by USA Today and Time, and
Killian was recruited by a local group, the Washington Drug Policy
Foundation, to help with an initiative campaign in this state.
Last year, Killian was the main spokesman for Initiative 685, a
measure that was modeled on an Arizona law. But I-685 would have
legalized a variety of other drugs and was attacked by state
law-enforcement officials as an easy route out of jail for convicted
dealers.
Home-grown proposal
After the defeat, Killian went to the main financial backers - now
known as Americans for Medical Rights - and said he'd like to run a
narrower, home-grown measure.
Killian and his campaign-manager brother, Tim - who runs a marketing
and communications business - wrote I-692 aimed solely at marijuana.
It is similar to - though more restrictive than - measures that passed
Tuesday in Oregon, Alaska and Nevada.
Killian said his next steps will be to work both with law enforcement
and other doctors on how marijuana should be used as medicine.
He and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng spoke on election night
about helping law enforcement distinguish between legitimate medical
use and abuse of the system. "And doctors need to be taught as well,"
Killian added. "We can't explain how some medicines work and some
don't. It's not a perfect science."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
California marijuana growers flourish (A sensational and factually
challenged article in The Miami Herald says armed and dangerous marijuana
growers in Northern California are flourishing and cannabis is the lifeblood
of some towns. Marijuana is being cultivated not only in remote, camouflaged
plots, but brazenly in cornfields, next to farms and along roads and highways.
Pot cultivation has become so rampant in some counties that federal agents
often ignore groves with less than a thousand plants.)
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: California marijuana growers flourish
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 20:16:05 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Published Sunday, November 8, 1998, in the Miami Herald
California marijuana growers flourish
EUREKA, California -- (AFP) -- Marijuana growers -- some armed and tied to a
Mexican cartel -- are flourishing here in Northern California, where pot is
the top cash crop and the lifeblood of some towns.
Marijuana plants are not only being cultivated in remote, camouflaged plots
in the lush mountains of federal forest lands, but are brazenly popping up
in cornfields, next to farms and along roads and highways.
Pot cultivation has become so rampant in some counties of Northern
California that federal agents often ignore groves with less than a thousand
plants unless they are booby-trapped or protected by armed guards.
``It's like trying to hold back the Pacific with a tablespoon,'' said
Humboldt County marijuana eradication supervisor Steven Knight, whose three
agents patrol thousands of square miles of prime marijuana territory.
``One thousand plants, that seems to be the magic number,'' said Knight of
the point at which federal prosecutors become interested enough to devote
time and resources to prosecuting a marijuana case.
This is the situation after federal drug enforcement officials vowed to
redouble their efforts following California's referendum last year that
legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
The number of agents patrolling the vast, fecund area known as the ``Emerald
Triangle'' ---- made up of Humboldt, Trinity and Lake counties ---- were
slashed as federal drug efforts were diverted to methamphetamines.
Marijuana growers, particularly Mexicans, have been quick to capitalize on
the risk versus profit equation. Each plant is worth between 5,000 and 6,000
dollars and the risk of arrest is relatively slim.
The hardy weed is ---- at an estimated 60 billion dollars ---- the nation's
biggest cash crop with corn a distant second at 15 billion dollars,
according to Ralph Weisheit, author of ``Domestic Marijuana: A Neglected
Industry.''
``One ounce of premium marijuana is worth more than an ounce of gold,'' said
Weisheit, who teaches criminal justice at Illinois State University. ``And
it is being grown in every state of the nation.''
Agents in California this year seized 543 million dollars worth of
marijuana, though they quickly conceded that that amount is only a fraction
of what has been harvested and distributed.
Growers have proven to be an adaptable lot. When the federal government
began seizing the property wherever marijuana was found growing, marijuana
farmers sidestepped that problem by growing crops on federal lands.
As growers learned there was less risk with fewer than 1,000 plants, they
grew smaller, more numerous plots. Those with tens of thousands of plants
have moved operations indoors.
With picky prosecutors and first-time offenders getting probation or light
jail sentences, the obvious question arises: Why doesn't everybody here have
a profitable little plot of marijuana?
``Damned if I know,'' said John Allendorf, a Vietnam War veteran and US
Forest Service agent in Humboldt County, who busts the growers he said have
become increasingly nonchalant about their business.
He banged on the door of a luxury home recently to arrest one grower he
could see through the window. Oblivious, the grower was sitting on a couch
listening to music through headphones and smoking a joint.
When agents finally got in the house, the owner shrugged, ``I'll be on a
beach in Thailand drinking a beer before you poor schmucks are even done
with the paperwork.'' (They arrested him for declaring his intent to flee.)
``People get busted and it is not considered a big deal here. There's no
stigma,'' Allendorf said. ``And look what it does for the local economy. It
has kept some towns alive.''
In the small town of Garberville, for example, signs in the windows of gas
stations and restaurants warn that anyone associated with the marijuana
eradication program is not welcome in the establishment.
``When they see us in our trucks, they make it known that we are not
welcome,'' said Gil Van Attenhoven, operations commander for the California
Department of Justice.
But growers do not want the drug to become legal, Allendorf said. The
perception of risk keeps out competitors and helps keep the price of premium
marijuana high.
In fact, when Californians voted on a referendum last year to legalize
growing marijuana for medicinal purposes, 73 percent of Humboldt County
voters opposed it, among the highest percentage anywhere in the state.
Colorado, Nevada and Washington state adopted similar measures on Tuesday,
while voters in Arizona rejected an initiative that would have
re-criminalized its use for medical reasons.
The US Forest Service wants growers off federal lands because they threaten
hikers and hunters and use herbicides and poisons that not only kill other
plants and rodents but poison the streams.
Agents say domestic growers may threaten the environment but Mexican
growers, who make up about a third of the growers in Northern California and
about 70 percent in Southern California, pose a lethal threat.
``This is the part that worries me,'' Knight said. ``They tend to be armed
with high-powered weapons and are more prone to shoot.''
***
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 22:35:56 EST
Errors-To: jnr@insightweb.com
Reply-To: friends@freecannabis.org
Originator: friends@freecannabis.org
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Re: MN: US CA: California Marijuana Growers Flourish
To the Miami Herald:
Your article on Humboldt County's marijuana growers wrongly states
that 73% of the county's voters opposed California's 1996 initiative to
legalize medical cultivation of marijuana. In fact, Humboldt County voters
supported the initiative by 57%-43%.
It is noteworthy that the voters of neighboring Mendocino County
just elected a sheriff and district attorney who favor decriminalizing
marijuana altogether.
Dale Gieringer, Cal. NORML
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcript - Jesse Ventura on "Meet the Press" (The Reform Party
governor-elect of Minnesota tells NBC that he does not support
decriminalization of marijuana at this time, though he does support
industrial hemp and medical marijuana. "I believe you've got to fight the war
from the demand side, not the supply side. I mean, for goodness sake, we
have Stillwater State Penitentiary here and we can't keep drugs out of there,
and these people are locked up 24 hours a day. You get people to be smart
and intelligent. It's like a business. You don't create a product because of
supply; you create it because there's a demand for it.")
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 18:47:35 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Transcript: Jesse Ventura on Meet the Press
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: DrugSense
Pubdate: Sun, 8 Nov 1998
Source: Meet the Press
Copyright: 1998 National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Contact: MTP@NBC.com
Website: http://www.msnbc.com/news/MEETPRESS_Front.asp
Note: Only the part of the transcript that is on topic for this service is
provided.
'MEET THE PRESS'
MR. RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday morning: Newt Gingrich is gone. Who
will be the next speaker? We're joined by four important Republican House
members who will make that decision: Jennifer Dunn, Lindsey Graham, Steve
Largent and David McIntosh. Is the Republican revolution over?
Then, the most stunning upset of the year. A former wrestler, actor, action
figure, football coach, talk show host is elected the next governor of
Minnesota.
(Videotape):
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: What is so gratifying about this is being able to prove
the experts wrong.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: In his first and only Sunday morning interview, Jesse "The
Body" Ventura.
(snip)
MR. RUSSERT: We're back. Governor-Elect Jesse Ventura, welcome to MEET THE
PRESS.
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Thank you, Tim. It's very nice to be here.
MR. RUSSERT: What was Tuesday's election all about?
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, running for governor, for me. I mean, we put in a
lot-we started well over a year ago, and I had to go through the reform
party convention, which I won unanimously, and then it was just a matter of
us getting our message out to the people of Minnesota. And the people,
obviously, accepted our message, more than they did the Democrats and
Republicans, and I'm the governor-elect of the state of Minnesota.
MR. RUSSERT: There is a caricature of you that is emerging. Here's Time
magazine. Body Slam! Get A Life. We've Got One. Who is Jesse Ventura?
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, Jesse Ventura is a young kid that grew up in
south Minneapolis. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a city laborer. And I
enlisted in the Navy. I spent four years as a romping, stomping Navy SEAL
frogman. I went to college for a year. Went out on an 11-year professional
wrestling career. Switched to broadcasting and film work and became mayor
of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, in 1991 and served for four years, through
1995, and went back to broadcasting career, and then attempted to become
governor, and I'm now the governor-elect. I guess that's who I am in a
nutshell.
(snip)
MR. RUSSERT: You've said a couple of controversial things during the
campaign, and I want to give you a chance to talk about them so we have
your full beliefs in context. The first involved drugs, and let me put on
the screen some comments and give you a chance to talk about them. "Hemp or
marijuana is not addictive. Decriminalize it and get those drug dealers to
start paying taxes. And what you do in the privacy of your own home is your
own business. If someone takes LSD and locks themselves up at home, why
should I care? Anyway, I've done way more stupid things on alcohol than
I've ever done on pot." What is your sense of drugs, Governor-Elect?
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, my sense is this, you know, I believe you've got
to fight the war from the demand side, not the supply side. I mean, for
goodness sake, we have Stillwater State Penitentiary here and we can't keep
drugs out of there, and these people are locked up 24 hours a day. If
you're going to fight the war on drugs, you fight it on the demand side.
And I don't believe that government should be invading the privacy of our
own homes, and I also believe that you shouldn't be legislating stupidity.
If there are stupid people out there doing stupid things, it's not the
government's job to try to make them be smarter. We live in a land of
freedom. And again, if we can't keep drugs out of the state penitentiary,
how on earth do they propose we're going to do it out on the street corner?
You fight it on the demand side. You get people to be smart and
intelligent. It's like a business. You don't create a product because of
supply; you create it because there's a demand for it.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you consider decriminalizing marijuana and other drugs?
GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: I said absolutely not at this time. I do believe in
industrial hemp. I think we're missing the boat on that. You can make food
out of-or, I mean, clothing out of it. Excuse me, not food, but you can
make clothing out of it. You can make paper out of it. It's an industry
that will create jobs out there. Canada is using it. We're not. And I also
believe medicinal marijuana should be allowed. I mean, my goodness, a
doctor can give you a prescription for morphine and yet they can't
prescribe you marijuana? I think that should be left up to the medical
community for people that are that ill and in that much pain. I don't
believe the government should be telling them what they can or cannot use.
It should be in the medical community and up to the doctors and physicians
to do that.
(snip rest of transcript)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Be free, but be careful about what you say (A letter to the editor
of The Centre Daily Times, in Pennsylvania, from a junior in high school,
says retired Penn State Professor Julian Heicklen's pot-smoking protests
violate the "undisputed sagacity" of prohibition by "countering the efforts
of literally millions to keep children healthy and drug-free.")
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 09:49:43 -0800
From: owner-maptalk-digest@mapinc.org (Maptalk-Digest)
To: maptalk-digest@mapinc.org
Subject: Maptalk-Digest V98 No. 447
Reply-To: maptalk@mapinc.org
Sender: owner-maptalk-digest@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/
Subj: CDT opinion article
From: JF (jhf102@psu.edu)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 11:48:43 -0500
This is an opinion article from the Centre Daily Times
http://www.centredaily.com
letters: wreader@centredaily.com
Sunday, November 8, 1998
Be free, but be careful about what you say
By Adam Smeltz
Julian Heicklen is a remarkable man; he labors for liberty and American
principles of freedom. And that alone is noble. That said, the so-called
"pot-smoking professor" is no model of integrity.
The passion and the vigor in the eyes of members of Heicklen's cohort were
intense during mid-July's Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
Assembling at their usual spot, the gates at the foot of the University
Park campus' mall, they elicited some peculiar facial contortions from
passers-by in State College for the celebration.
These visiting art lovers included children not yet 10 years of age, who
can easily confuse a message advocating individuals' liberties with an
assertion that puffing on grass is beneficial. Heicklen's method for
pushing legislative changes also leaves a subtle and indirect impression
on adolescents. Who among people my age would not consider, at least
momentarily, that if a professor emeritus lights up a joint each week
without incurring noticeable effects, marijuana may not be as damaging as
health class suggests?
Now, please, do not get the wrong idea here, because to legalize marijuana
would be to amplify the soundness of our country's laws - that is, if
legislation is to thoroughly follow the nation's founding principles. And
in all fairness, Heicklen has, throughout his battles, maintained that the
objective is liberty - the right to possess a vegetable, as he puts it.
But actions make a much louder statement than do words. In this respect,
the sole distinction between Heicklen and tobacco companies that solicit
minors' business is that the tobacco industry aims to get youngsters
smoking; Heicklen, meanwhile, does not intend to encourage the fatal
habit. Still, he manages to have an impact on the thought processes of
many of the area's inexperienced minds.
Being in a town that has one of the highest alcohol-consumption rates for
its size in the state, and where marijuana is readily available to those
who seek it, Heicklen needs to reconsider his methods. Regardless of how
well-intentioned he is when it comes to social issues, mere children are
picking up perilous ideas. The community must emphasize personal restraint
and responsibility to its youths, as should be evident from State
College's disturbingly long police logs of drug- and alcohol-related
crimes, injuries and deaths.
To a conscientious adult, though, the to-be-expected repercussions of
certain actions should be obvious; accountability should be automatic.
Americans almost unanimously agree that children deserve protection --
protection from physical and psychological abuse, protection from
exploitation, protection from corruption, and protection from being faced
with decisions that they are unable to handle. The result is much
legislation with the goal of shielding youngsters from situations that
could cause poorly reasoned judgment calls, choices that could threaten
their well-being.
Heicklen has violated this undisputed sagacity by countering the efforts
of literally millions to keep children healthy and drug-free.
As a member of a society, every adult has an implied obligation to
realize that particular deeds affect others and, therefore, to act
responsibly.
The questions that arise from Heicklen's social crusade absolutely should
command our attention. Even so, until he incorporates some accountability
into his battle plan, to respect and to offer earnest consideration of his
claims will remain impossibilities.
Adam Smeltz is a junior at State College Area High School.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medicinal Weed Makes A Stand In Tallahassee (The Tallahassee Democrat
says about 1,500 people signed petitions at polling places Tuesday to put a
statewide referendum on the ballot in 2000 legalizing the medical use of
marijuana. Fort Lauderdale-based Floridians for Medical Rights needs 435,000
signatures by Aug. 1, 2000, to get the issue on the ballot. So far, statewide
volunteers have collected more than 20,000 signatures.)
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 12:35:00 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: MMJ: Medicinal Weed Makes A Stand In Tallahassee
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: November 8, 1998
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Contact: tdedit@taldem.com
Website: http://www.tdo.com/
Copyright: 1998 Tallahassee Democrat.
Author: David Twiddy
MEDICINAL WEED MAKES A STAND IN TALLAHASSEE
Local voters last Tuesday got a whiff of the politics of pot.
About 1,500 people signed petitions at polling places to put on the
ballot in 2000 a statewide referendum on legalizing the medical use of
marijuana.
The effort was headed by Ross and Candace Dormon, owners of Epitome
Coffee House off Tennessee Street. Besides a sign-up sheet in the
coffee shop, the Dormons had 14 people collecting signatures on
Election Day.
"I was excited by what we did here," said Ross Dormon. "Of course, I
wish we'd have had some more people out there."
The Dormons are working with the Fort Lauderdale-based Floridians for
Medical Rights, which needs 435,000 signatures by Aug. 1, 2000, to get
the issue on the ballot. So far, statewide volunteers have collected
more than 20,000.
"It's coming in in drips and drabs," said Toni Leeman, the group's
chairwoman. "It's not a problem of getting the people to sign. What
has been a problem is being able to do it on a regular basis."
Studies have indicated that marijuana could be used to treat a wide
range of ailments, including arthritis, glaucoma and lessen the
symptoms of AIDS and the side effects of cancer treatment.
Voters in five Western states -- Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Nevada
and Alaska -- approved such a referendum Tuesday.
Similar referendums were proposed in Colorado and Washington, D.C.,
but failed for technical reasons. In Colorado, elections officials
invalidated many of the petitions and disqualified the election after
the ballot went out. In Washington, D.C., the referendum was held, but
Congress forbade election officials from releasing the results.
Federal officials do not believe marijuana carries any medical
benefits and have threatened doctors in California -- which passed its
own referendum two years ago -- with losing their ability to prescribe
medicine if they prescribe marijuana. -- David Twiddy
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly No Research Done on Pot (The Associated Press notes that, despite
ongoing controversy over marijuana's medical efficacy, almost no research
is being done on the topic, despite an expert panel established by the
Institutes of Health which found in August 1997 that existing research showed
some patients could be helped by the herb, principally to relieve cancer
patients' nausea after chemotherapy, to increase AIDS patients' appetites,
and to help some patients control glaucoma.)
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 21:32:03 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: WIRE: Nearly No Research Done on 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)
Pubdate: Sun, 08 Nov 1998
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1998 Associated Press.
Author: Michelle Boorstein
NEARLY NO RESEARCH DONE ON POT
Despite ongoing controversy over marijuana's medical efficacy, almost
no research is being done on the topic.
Some proponents of medical marijuana say sufficient research was
performed in the 1970s and '80s, when the federal government provided
marijuana for studies done mostly by states.
Many of those studies were suspended in 1991 when the National
Institutes of Health concluded there wasn't enough proof that
marijuana would be better than a synthetic version of
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the drug's major chemical component.
Proponents said the studies were going to prove the opposite, but the
government stopped supplying the marijuana.
Work was mostly suspended until 1996, when California and Arizona
passed initiatives to legalize marijuana and other drugs for medical
use.
An expert panel formed by the Institutes of Health found in August
1997 that existing research showed some patients can be helped by the
drug, principally to relieve nausea after cancer chemotherapy or to
increase AIDS patients' appetites. The drug also has helped some
patients control glaucoma, the panel found.
The institutes' director, Dr. Harold Varmus, said at the time that
applications for marijuana research were welcome, but the agency has
approved only one project, a study of smoked marijuana in AIDS patients.
"The government is saying out of one side of its mouth that we need
more research, but then they don't provide the marijuana," said Bill
Zimmerman, director of Americans for Medical Rights, a private
advocacy group which sponsors state initiatives to legalize medical
marijuana.
Others, however, say research isn't funded because marijuana is so
hard to study. It's difficult to create a placebo that accurately
replicates the experience of smoking the drug and to measure how much
of the drug each patient ingests from the smoke. In addition, no drug
companies are lined up to invest in it.
"There isn't a government conspiracy to discourage it," said Dr. Reese
Jones, a psychiatry professor at University of California-San
Francisco and a longtime marijuana researcher. "The issue is, what
else are we not going to do in order to pay for it?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Nixon Had It Right (An op-ed in The Washington Post by Michael Massing,
author of "The Fix," says that of the District of Columbia's estimated 65,000
"substance abusers," barely 10 percent can be accommodated by local treatment
programs today. It wasn't always like this. A little more than 25 years ago
the District fought the drug war successfully with a comprehensive drug
treatment system that was considered a model for the nation.)
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 19:35:58 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: Nixon Had It Right
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Paul_Bischke@datacard.com (Paul Bischke)
Pubdate: Sun, 8 Nov 1998
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1998 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Michael Massing
NIXON HAD IT RIGHT
A '70s Project Showed Drug Treatment Works
Few American cities have been more devastated by illegal drug use than
Washington. Abusers of heroin, crack and cocaine have fed robbery and
burglary rates, sent child welfare caseloads soaring and clogged
courts and jails. They also have overwhelmed the city's treatment
centers; of the District's estimated 65,000 substance abusers, barely
10 percent can be accommodated by local treatment programs today.
It wasn't always like this. Hard as it may be to believe, a little
more than 25 years ago the District fought the drug war
successfully--and a crucial element of that success was a
comprehensive drug treatment system, one that was considered a model
for the nation. The system's brief but remarkable history provides
compelling evidence of just how effective treatment can be in reducing
drug abuse and crime in the nation's cities.
Today, of course, drug treatment is not held in high regard. From
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's bitter attacks on methadone programs in New
York City to President Clinton's utter indifference in the White
House, treatment seems the least favored weapon in the war on drugs.
Of the $16 billion the federal government is spending this year to
fight drugs, fully two-thirds goes for enforcement and interdiction
and just one-third for treatment and prevention. Next year's budget
will be even more lopsided, as a result of the recent budget
negotiations in which Congress voted $942 million in emergency
appropriations for drug enforcement. The Coast Guard is to get new
high-speed Barracuda patrol boats, the Customs Service new P-3B
surveillance planes, and the Colombian police six new Black Hawk
helicopters. The National Guard is to step up its patrols along the
Mexican border, and X-ray machines are to be installed from Tijuana to
Brownsville so agents can peer into the holds of container trucks.
Drug treatment, meanwhile, will receive an increase of a mere $275
million.
Lost in this game of numbers is any recognition of the real benefits a
full-service treatment system could have for Washington and other
cities. But they are clear enough from the one time such an approach
was tried.
In the late 1960s, Washington, like many other cities, was gripped by
a heroin epidemic. Among those seeking to confront it was a
Harvard-educated psychiatrist, Robert DuPont. Tall and sandy-haired,
DuPont (no relation to the Delaware family) had come to Washington in
1966 to work at the National Institutes of Health, then had gone on to
counsel inmates at the D.C. Department of Corrections, many of whom
were hooked on heroin.
At the time, treatment was all but unavailable in Washington. In
Chicago, however, a pioneering psycho-pharmacologist named Jerome
Jaffe had set up a network of clinics offering the synthetic narcotic
methadone and other treatments to help addicts get off heroin.
Impressed, DuPont convinced Mayor Walter Washington to set up a
small-scale version in the District, and in the fall of 1969,
methadone became available in the nation's capital for the first time.
The program soon expanded, thanks to the support of the Nixon White
House. It's not that Richard Nixon had any special compassion for drug
addicts. But during the 1968 campaign, he had promised to reverse the
steep rise in the nation's crime rate, and he had singled out the
District for special attention. Once in office, he turned for help to
one of his top aides, Egil "Bud" Krogh Jr.
Krogh, remembered mainly for his role in the break-in into the offices
of former Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in 1971,
was an earnest pragmatist, he soon began riding around in squad cars
to see what might be done. Throughout 1969, Krogh helped increase the
size of the D.C. police department, procured a helicopter for its use,
and had sodium-vapor lights installed on many of the city's streets.
The more Krogh looked into the District's crime problem, though, the
more he felt the need to stem the city's drug problem. Learning of
DuPont's work in the District, Krogh summoned him to his office at the
Old Executive Office Building, where DuPont described the success his
program was having in reducing the criminal activity of its clients.
Intrigued, Krogh asked DuPont if he would like to expand the program,
and when he agreed, Krogh quickly found the necessary funds. On Feb.
19, 1970, the Narcotics Treatment Administration (NTA) opened its
doors, offering mainly methadone but also residential treatment and
drug-free outpatient care. The system was immediately swamped with
applicants.
Krogh regarded the program as a sort of laboratory. If the District's
crime rate went down, then perhaps more money could be made available
for treatment nationally. And, in fact, in 1970, crime in the District
fell by 5.2 percent--the first such decrease in years. D.C. police
officials credited the expansion of the police force, the use of more
aggressive tactics--and the availability of drug treatment.
Armed with these results, Krogh began lobbying for a national
treatment offensive. The White House was at first reluctant, but,
shaken by reports that as many as 10 to 15 percent of the GIs then
returning from Vietnam were addicted to heroin, Nixon announced on
June 17, 1971, that he was setting up a special-action office under
the direction of Jaffe, the Chicago treatment specialist, to expand
services for addicts. Over the next year, Jaffe spent hundreds of
millions of government dollars to open methadone clinics and
residential programs around the country. By the fall of 1972,
treatment was available nationwide to all addicts who wanted it.
In addition to finding treatment, the Nixon administration
successfully attacked the suppliers of heroin, including the infamous
French Connection. But fully two-thirds of the government's resources
went to stop the demand for drugs. In Washington, the NTA, which
initially had to limit its intake to 25 patients a day, was now able
to admit all those who wanted help. The impact was immediate.
Throughout 1972, the number of District residents dying from
heroin-related overdoses declined month by month; in September of that
year, the city recorded not a single heroin death. The city's crime
rate, meanwhile, declined a remarkable 26.9 percent for the year.
(Nationally, crime fell by 3 percent in 1972--the first such decline
in 17 years.) By 1973, the heroin epidemic in the District--as in the
nation as a whole--was ebbing.
That, however, was the system's high point. In 1973, when Jaffe left
the government, DuPont replaced him, and without his direction, the
NTA quickly lost its focus. It was further hurt by cuts in federal
treatment. Under the Reagan administration in the 1980s, the system
completely collapsed, and enforcement absorbed 80 percent of its budget.
Just as treatment was lagging, crack hit Washington and other cities.
By 1989, the crack scourge was causing such alarm that President
George Bush vowed to stop it. William Bennett, his drug czar, decided
to make the District of Columbia a "test case" for his policy. To that
end, he proposed a $100 million plan for the city, with some of the
money going for more treatment. Unlike Krogh, however, Bennett failed
to involve local officials, and the D.C. government--led by a mayor
convicted of crack possession in 1990--was rudderless.
Today, the District's treatment system is a shambles. Residential
facilities are so overwhelmed that many drug offenders--mandated to
treatment by judges--languish in prison for months for lack of a bed.
At any one time, the District's Addiction Prevention and Recovery
Administration (APRA) has about 600 people on its waiting list for
methadone maintenance. The crush is due in part to bureaucratic
inefficiency, but even more to inadequate funding. Between 1993 and
1998, APRA's budget fell from $31.3 million to $19.7 million--a 37
percent drop.
The crisis is hardly limited to the District. Today, the United States
has an estimated 4 million hard-core users of heroin, crack, cocaine
and methamphetamine. While making up only 20 percent of all the drug
users in the country (the rest being mainly recreational users), these
chronic users account for an estimated 75 percent of all the drugs
consumed, as well as most of the crime, child abuse and other
associated problems.
At the moment, the nation's treatment programs can accommodate only
about 50 percent of these users. In other words, nearly 2 million
people who might benefit from help are unable to get it. According to
the Office of National Drug Control Policy, making up this difference
would cost an additional $3.4 billion a year--more than 10 times the
amount appropriated by Congress.
Could a return to the approach and funding patterns of the Nixon era
work today? Of course, the problems are different today. Like other
cities, the District has many more addicts than it did in the early
1970s. And those addicts have many more problems, from homelessness
and mental illness to AIDS and tuberculosis. What's more, many of
today's users are hooked on crack and cocaine, for which treatments
like methadone are useless. Nonetheless, study after study has
confirmed the cost-effectiveness of treatment in dealing with
addiction. In 1996, for instance, the U.S. government, in a study of
hard-core users entering treatment, found that the number who used
cocaine fell from 39.5 percent before treatment to 17.8 percent a year
later; for heroin, the rate went from 23.6 percent to 12.6 percent. A
1994 Rand Corp. study found that drug treatment was seven times more
cost-effective than domestic law enforcement, 10 times more effective
than interdiction, and 23 times more effective than drug-suppression
efforts in countries that supply drugs.
It's time to reflect that reality. Rather than buying more exotic
hardware, we should expand treatment in drug-afflicted cities, such as
Washington. For the cost of a single Customs' surveillance plane ($47
million), the District could treat all those on its waiting list--and
more. If we gave treatment a chance again, we might learn what works.
We know what doesn't.
Michael Massing is the author of the newly published book, "The Fix"
(Simon & Schuster), a study of U.S. drug policy since the 1960s.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
UK Lords call to legalise cannabis - Lords call for cannabis to be legalised
as painkiller (The Observer, in Britain, says a 70-page report to be released
this week by the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Lords
urges a change in the law to allow cannabis derivatives to be used legally.
Labour MP Paul Flynn, whose wife, Samantha, has endured a year of painful
chemotherapy which he says could have been relieved if cannabis had been
legally available, said yesterday, "This is a major breakthrough. I'm very
pleased." However, "The report is defective in that it deliberately excluded
evidence that legalising cannabis leads to a reduction in heroin use, because
it takes away the need for users to go to the criminal market.")
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: UK Lords call to legalise cannabis
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 19:19:27 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Newshawk: ccross@november.org
Source: The Observer
Pubdate: Sunday November 8, 1998
Online: http://reports.guardian.co.uk/articles/1998/11/8/32035.html
UK Lords call to legalise cannabis
Lords call for cannabis to be legalised as painkiller
By Andy McSmith, Chief Political Correspondent
The campaign to legalise cannabis will get its most powerful boost this week
when a House of Lords committee calls for the drug to be available for use
to relieve pain.
A 70-page report of the Lords Science and Technology Committee urges a
change in the law to allow derivatives of the drug to be used legally. But
it stops short of saying the drug, banned in any form for more than a
quarter of a century, should be permitted for recreational use.
Labour MP Paul Flynn, whose wife, Samantha, has endured a year of painful
chemotherapy which he says could have been relieved if cannabis had been
legally available, said yesterday: "This is a major breakthrough: I'm very
pleased."
Gordon Prentice MP, secretary of the Commons MS group, which has lobbied for
cannabis to be used to relieve multiple sclerosis, said: "There will be a
huge sigh of relief from thousands of people. The question is whether the
Government has the courage to act on good advice, because all its rhetoric
is anti-drugs."
The Lords committee findings will increase pressure on the Health
Department, which claims the evidence in favour of medical benefits from
cannabis is too weak to justify a change in the law. But the British Medical
Association concluded last year that "individual cannabinoids have a
therapeutic potential in several conditions in which other treatments are
not fully adequate". It said there was "good evidence" that several
cannabinoids had analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. They are also
believed to help muscle spasticity and prevent convulsions.
The American Food and Drug Administration has approved the oral use of
dronabinol, a cannabis derivative, to help Aids sufferers. The BMA pointed
out that no one has died of a cannabis overdose, although heavy cannabis
smoking can damage lungs and heart in the same way as cigarette smoking.
The Home Office has granted 22 licences for research studies involving
cannabis, 19 of which were still going on earlier this year. But Paul
Boateng, a former Health Minister promoted last month to the Home Office,
told MPs: "We are not prepared to accept lesser standards in relation to
cannabis for the relief of suffering than would be applied to any other
drug. That is the duty we have to patients."
Doctors have been banned from prescribing cannabis under any circumstances
since 1971, when the Tory government passed the Misuse of Drugs Acts to
discourage hippies.
The Lords committee spent eight months investigating the scientific evidence
for and against the use of cannabis, including 12 days interviewing expert
witnesses. The committee is dominated by retired scientists rather than
retired politicians.
Flynn criticised the committee yesterday for not looking into the wider
social and criminal implications of the anti-cannabis law. He said: "The
report is defective in that it deliberately excluded evidence that
legalising cannabis leads to a reduction in heroin use, because it takes
away the need for users to go to the criminal market."
But committee chairman Lord Perry of Walton, former professor of
pharmacology at Edinburgh University - who refused to discuss the report's
conclusions before publication on Tuesday - insisted it had been a
specialist inquiry that had heard from everybody with medical or scientific
knowledge.
***
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to the 1998 Daily News index for November 5-11