-------------------------------------------------------------------
Police check shows one trucker in 10 testing positive for drugs
(According to The Associated Press, the results are in from last October's
48-hour check of 367 truck drivers along Oregon's southern border.
Nearly one in 10 drivers tested positive for "drug" use, according to
an Oregon State Police report )
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: 1 in 10 truckers testing positive for drugs
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 14:11:39 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Police check shows one trucker in 10 testing positive for drugs
The Associated Press
11/21/98 3:37 PM Eastern
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A 48-hour check of trucks along Oregon's southern
border showed nearly 1 in 10 drivers tested positive for drug use, an Oregon
State Police report says. And the numbers may be higher.
The trucks themselves were in even worse shape. About a fourth rumbled north
despite bad brakes, bald tires and cracked wheels. Inspectors ordered 98 of
the rigs off the road immediately because of driver and equipment
violations.
Police stopped 373 trucks entering Oregon at Ashland and Klamath Falls in
October and collected urine samples from 367 drivers, six of whom were
arrested on the spot, The Oregonian reported in Sunday editions.
"Drug use, combined with the long and at times excessive hours driven,
creates an increased propensity for commercial vehicles crashes," said state
police Lt. Charles E. Hayes. "And that should concern everyone. We share the
road with these people."
Violators may still be driving because state authorities do not
automatically notify the trucking companies.
In addition, federal regulations generally leave it up to the drivers to
tell their employers if they have been convicted or have lost their license.
The test results showed 34 drivers, or 9.4 percent, had drugs in their
system, most commonly cocaine and methamphetamines, marijuana and
prescription painkillers.
Twenty-six drivers, including some who were in reserve and not actually at
the wheel, refused to take the tests, Hayes said, suggesting that drug-use
estimates may be conservative.
Ericka Ohm of the Oregon Trucking Associations found the arrest figures less
than alarming and "kind of in line with national testing results."
State police planned the operation after a large number of truck crashes
during the first nine months of 1998 in southern Oregon. Seventy truck
wrecks occurred in Douglas, Jackson and Josephine counties, causing 18
serious injuries and three deaths.
The operation was the first to deploy safety inspectors from the Oregon
Department of Transportation along with police trained to detect alcohol and
drug impairment.
Word of the border stop quickly spread via CB radio, and state police set up
another checkpoint at Klamath Falls to intercept drivers avoiding the
Ashland stop.
Before the operation ended Oct. 8, the California Highway Patrol reported
hundreds of trucks laying up in Northern California, waiting for the checks
to end.
Troopers issued 45 citations and 80 warnings for equipment or driving
problems.
Four other drivers were so fatigued they were removed from service
immediately. Hayes said the exhausted drivers at first appeared as if they
were intoxicated.
"One driver told troopers 'I am paid by the hour and the load so I will
drive until I drop,' " Hayes said.
One driver parked on the shoulder of Interstate-5 was so stoned on
methamphetamines that "he didn't even know where he was," said Dave McKane
of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Federal trucking regulations expect drivers to divulge their own
irresponsible behavior to employers. However, the rules do little to make
that happen.
The Federal Highway Administration's motor carrier safety rules don't
require states to tell trucking companies if a driver's license is suspended
or revoked.
Except for background investigations of new employees, federal rules let
companies decide how far they want to go to check up on drivers.
Although trucking firms are required once a year to review employee driving
records, that doesn't mean the companies have to obtain official records.
Employers can fulfill their legal obligation simply by asking drivers to
sign a statement confessing any problems.
"This is probably going to change soon, but that's what the rules say right
now," said Andrew Eno, state director of the Federal Highway Administration.
For $25, any firm can join Oregon's Driver and Motor Vehicle Services'
Automated Reporting System, which cranks out a notice when a driver is
convicted of a traffic offense. The reports are $3 each.
Only 321 of Oregon's 17,000 trucking companies use the program.
Some carriers depend on insurance companies to track drivers.
Some drivers who were stopped praised the operation, Hayes said.
"They said they need something like this in their industry because it helps
weed out drivers who are causing problems" the state police lieutenant said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oregon accepts tobacco settlement (The Oregonian says Attorney General
Hardy Myers announced Friday that Oregon would join 45 other states
in accepting an agreement with the tobacco industry to end court battles
over the costs of medical treatment for smokers. Under the agreement,
the state would receive an estimated $2.1 billion during the first 25 years,
then about $81 million a year in perpetuity - assuming smokers continue
choosing to pay exorbitant new taxes levied on them without their consent.)
The Oregonian
letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Web: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Oregon accepts tobacco settlement
* Under the agreement, the state would receive an estimated $2.1 billion
during the first 25 years, then about $81 million a year in perpetuity
Saturday, November 21 1998
By Patrick O'Neill
of The Oregonian staff
Oregon joined 45 other states Friday in accepting an agreement with the
tobacco industry to end court battles over the costs of medical treatment
for smokers.
It is the largest civil settlement in the nation's history, and the tobacco
companies are expected to sign it Monday.
Oregon's decision, announced Friday by Attorney General Hardy Myers, settles
the issue of who is responsible for the health care costs of hundreds of
thousands of low-income smokers whose health benefits are provided by the
Medicaid system.
Myers estimated that the settlement would bring a total of $2.1 billion to
Oregon during the first 25 years. After that, the state will receive about
$81 million a year in perpetuity.
The exact amount of money the state would receive is uncertain. It is tied
to a formula that increases or reduces the settlement revenues as tobacco
sales go up or down. Also, the federal government probably will seek to
recover its share of Medicaid costs for treatment of smokers. In Oregon, the
federal government contributes about 60 percent of the financial support for
Medicaid, while the state adds 40 percent.
The agreement was criticized by some Oregon anti-smoking advocates as
insufficient to reduce tobacco use. And Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who also has
criticized the agreement, said he'll keep working on legislation to prevent
tobacco companies from targeting children.
But Gov. John Kitzhaber and legislative leaders welcomed the settlement.
Myers said it gives Oregon a much better deal than the state could manage to
get through litigation of its own. Oregon was preparing its own suit against
the tobacco industry, to go to trial in April. The agreement stops that in
its tracks.
Myers, who is a heavy smoker, said he favored the settlement because it
includes noneconomic victories that could not have been won in a state
lawsuit. In addition to giving the states money, the settlement puts
restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion -- particularly that aimed
at youngsters -- and it restricts tobacco industry lobbying efforts at the
state and local levels.
Myers said those provisions could not have been won in court because they
would have violated both state and federal constitutional guarantees of
freedom of speech.
Industry will pay legal fees
The state has spent $800,000 to $1 million in legal fees to prepare for its
case against the tobacco industry. But the attorney general said that under
the settlement the tobacco industry will pay those fees.
Here's what happens now: When the tobacco industry signs off on the
settlement on Monday, Myers must file a motion to approve the settlement in
Multnomah County Circuit Court by Dec. 11. A judge must then decide whether
to approve the settlement.
If everything goes according to plan, Myers said, Oregon will receive its
first annual payment -- about $73 million -- in June 2000. Total payments
for the 1999-2001 biennium would amount to between $120 million and $150
million. Gradually, that amount would be "ratcheted up," Myers said, until
the 25th year of the agreement, when Oregon would receive a small percentage
of a national pot of about $9 billion per year -- about $81 million -- in
perpetuity.
Bill Wyatt, Gov. John Kitzhaber's chief of staff, said the governor approved
of Myers' decision. Wyatt said the governor wants to see the money spent
generally for health care, but Kitzhaber hasn't made plans for it yet.
Wyatt said the revenue is not included in the governor's budget for the
1999-2001 biennium.
"We're obligated to work with real money and this isn't quite real yet," he
said.
The money is certain to be the subject of many battles in the Oregon
Legislature. By law, it will flow into the state general fund.
"Any time you've got a pot full of money that's within the reach of the
Legislature, you have, at a minimum, a vigorous debate," said Sen. Brady
Adams, R-Grants Pass, Senate president.
Adams said he supports Myers' decision and urged that the revenues be used
for health-related expenditures. But he cautioned against using such an
uncertain funding source to expand the Oregon Health Plan, the health
insurance program for the poor.
Instead, Adams suggests using the money to provide tax credits for
low-income families that face burdensome medical expenses, to establish
medical savings accounts and to support housing programs for low-income
people. In addition, he said, the Legislature should consider spending some
of the money on community health grants to bring doctors and clinics to
economically depressed areas and to provide transportation services to
senior citizens and the disabled.
A warning
Adams warned against spending the dollars on programs that state taxpayers
would have to support if the settlement revenue declined.
That's a possibility.
Revenue from the settlement is calculated using a complex formula applying a
set of factors including tobacco consumption. If tobacco consumption goes
down, so does revenue.
Meanwhile, critics decry the agreement.
Rick North, executive vice-president of the American Cancer Society in
Oregon, lamented the announcement.
North said the deal is filled with "land mines" that will permit the tobacco
industry too much latitude to advertise and promote smoking.
He and other anti-tobacco advocates say the agreement should have contained
a "look back" provision that would have penalized the industry if the rates
of youth smoking did not decline by a certain amount over time.
Groups oppose deal
Representatives of the Cancer Society, the American Heart Association in
Oregon and the American Lung Association of Oregon had urged Myers to reject
the agreement because the groups had not had enough time to examine it.
The Tobacco Free Coalition of Oregon had expressed reservations about the
agreement earlier this week. But on Friday Ellen Lowe, coalition chairwoman,
pledged to work with state officials to make sure settlement revenue is
spent wisely.
At least one Oregon legal scholar views the agreement with alarm.
Arthur LaFrance, a law professor at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis &
Clark College, called the agreement a "deal with the devil."
LaFrance, who teaches and writes on bioethics and health care law,
questioned the wisdom of the agreement in a memo to Myers. He asked Myers to
conduct a statewide series of town hall meetings and take the results to the
Legislature.
LaFrance said the settlement is a "huge piece of public interest litigation"
that needs broader debate.
In LaFrance's view, the agreement also poses a public policy paradox.
"The tobacco companies are supposed to pump hundreds of millions of dollars
into this in the next decade," he said. "To make this work we have to assure
the survival of the tobacco companies. And I assure you, that is not in the
public interest."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bus shuttles passengers to visit loved ones in distant lock-ups (A Salem,
Oregon, Statesman Journal article syndicated by The Associated Press
notes the state of Oregon doesn't pay for families to visit inmates
at the remote Snake River Correctional Facility near Ontario, so a private
business began just over a month ago, offering a 24-hour, 830-mile
round-trip bus trip allowing relatives from the Willamette Valley
to spend a few hours visiting loved ones behind bars.)
Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org
Bus shuttles passengers to visit loved ones in distant lock-ups
The Associated Press
11/21/98 4:34 PM
By ALAN GUSTAFSON
Statesman Journal
(Salem, Oregon)
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The business began just over a month ago, with two
lonely passengers boarding a 20-seat bus for a red-eye round trip to a
distant prison.
They traveled overnight and across the state to spend a few hours visiting
loved ones behind bars at the Snake River Correctional Facility near
Ontario. Then it was back on the bus for the long drive home, capping a
24-hour, 830-mile journey.
Now, after five more marathon trips that have seen a steady increase in
riders, the woman who started the prison shuttle is doing so well, she's
adding another route to the Pendleton lock-up.
"For this early in the game, it's going well," Ruth Ritchie said. "We didn't
do it, as I said in the beginning, to make a killing. As anybody who has
ever owned a business knows, it takes a while to build up a good clientele."
Looking ahead, Ritchie vows that bad weather won't stop the shuttles to the
prisons. She recently purchased snow tires, chains and fog lights --
features designed to keep the $70,000 bus rolling through winter conditions.
"If I've got riders, I'm running," she said.
It's a family-run enterprise. Ritchie, 46, bankrolls the business and books
passengers from her home in Colorado, where she also holds a
management-level job for an aerospace company.
Her brother, Jim Jenkins of Stayton, drives the bus. Another brother, who is
doing time at Snake River, fields inquiries from inmates who want their
relatives to take the shuttle.
Ritchie was inspired to launch "Shuttles to Ontario" while visiting her
brother at the prison. She discovered that many parents, wives and
girlfriends of inmates racked up expensive bills when they made prison visits.
"One lady drove over and it cost her $400 for motels, fuel and food,"
Ritchie said.
She touts her bus as an economical alternative. Passengers pay $85 for the
round-trip Ontario shuttle. Two-way tickets for the Pendleton run will cost $70.
Ridership on the Ontario shuttle grew from two and three passengers on the
early trips to about 10 passengers on the latest ones. Ritchie expects the
growth trend to continue as more people learn about the service. Profits or
not, she intends to keep the bus on the road.
"I would love for it to support itself. At some point, it will," she said.
Riders ages vary, but older people on fixed-incomes seem to be the best
customers.
"Probably 70 percent of my ridership has been in the age bracket of 65 to 85
years of age. That has really surprised me," Ritchie said. "I knew I would
get some elderly people, but I didn't think they would be that much of my
clientele."
Passengers can watch movies on two television screens. Between shows,
there's lots of time to sleep, read and talk. Ritchie said people tend to
bond on the bus.
"They realize that there are other people in the same situation," she said.
"We've had friendships formed in the last few weeks."
(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC
Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Voters And Drug Policy Collide (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer
writes in The San Francisco Examiner that what makes the war on drugs
so nutty is that it's more about maintaining the coercive power of anti-drug
bureaucrats than treating those who suffer from serious drug abuse. Voters
have been vilified as naive, but that appellation belongs to a war-on-drugs
crusade that has filled our jails while leaving illegal drugs more plentiful
and cheaper. It drives the anti-drug bureaucracy mad that voters
in six states have now decided to ever so slightly challenge its total grip
on the awesome power of government, but it bodes well for our representative
system of government.)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 20:10:03 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: Voters And Drug Policy Collide
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jerry Sutliff
Pubdate: Sat, 21 Nov 1998
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Author: Robert Scheer
Note: Robert Scheer is a contributing editor for the LA Times. His e-mail
address is Rscheer@aol.com
VOTERS AND DRUG POLICY COLLIDE
If there is one stunning bit of stupidity that instantly garners
bipartisan support, it's the failed war on drugs. Virtually all
politicians march in lock step to do battle with unmitigated fervor
against each and every banned drug as if they were all created equal
in destructive potency and antisocial impulse.
Nowhere is the simplistic arrogance that underwrites national drug
policy more blatant than in the continual denigration of voters in the
states that dare dissent from official policy. In 1996, it was the
electorate of California and Arizona that begged to differ and, by
voting in favor of the limited legalized use of medical marijuana,
incurred the blistering wrath of the anti-drug crusaders.
To hear the uproar in official circles, you would have thought
marijuana, even in small quantities and prescribed by doctors for AIDS
and chemotherapy patients, was demon rum itself and that the ghosts
of the temperance society ladies had risen from their graves to smash
open the doors of the cannabis clubs.
But the hysteria failed. Despite police harassment, the non-stop
fulminations of President Clinton's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, and a
massive advertising campaign against medical marijuana, the electorate
has remained sane.
In this last election, voters in Nevada, Oregon, Alaska and Washington
joined California and Arizona in approving patient use of marijuana.
In Arizona and Oregon, voters moved beyond medical marijuana use,
opting for serious steps in the direction of decriminalizing
possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Exit polls show that voters in the nation's capital similarly voted
for legal use of medical marijuana, but in one of the more egregious
violations of the spirit of representative government, Congress
approved a ban to even count the D.C. vote on this measure.
The fight to prevent the vote count was led by ultra-right-wing Rep.
Bob Barr, R-Ga., who perfectly embodies the contradictions inherent in
his ideological obsessions.
Barr has been the most vociferous opponent of gun control legislation
and even gutted an anti-terrorist bill to tag explosives material on
the grounds that it would be an unwarranted extension of government
power. But locking folks up for smoking weed is his favorite cause.
He's not alone. Marijuana remains the scourge of the $11-billion-
a-year anti-drug bureaucracy not because of any documentable
antisocial impact but simply because that's where it gets the big
numbers of drug users to justify the bloated budgets. According to the
latest FBI statistics, 545,396 Americans were arrested in 1996 for
possessing marijuana, a substance that, if legal, would prove no more
dangerous to society than the vodka martini one occasionally sips.
That doesn't mean it's good to abuse any mood-altering drug, but
rather that a national policy which turns the relatively benign use of
marijuana into a highly profitable and socially disruptive criminal
activity is absurd.
But don't try to tell the politicians that, or they'll tear your head
off. Just look at the smear job McCaffrey has done on
financier/philanthropist George Soros and other businessmen for daring
to help finance recent state ballot initiatives that present voters
with a drug-policy choice.
McCaffrey thundered recently that the folks putting up money for these
campaigns are "a carefully camouflaged, exorbitantly funded,
well-heeled elitist group whose ultimate goal is to legalize drug use
in the United States." Interesting that McCaffrey was silent on the
far larger amounts of tobacco-industry money that poured into
California to challenge a ballot initiative to increase the tax on
tobacco products and divert it to education. It is invidious to
pretend that the drugs now classified as legal are less harmful than
those whose use is branded as a crime.
Drug abuse, both of legal and illegal drugs, is a medical problem
requiring treatment by health professionals, not cops. What makes the
war on drugs so nutty is that it's more about maintaining the coercive
power of anti-drug bureaucrats than treating those who suffer from
serious drug abuse.
The voters have been vilified as naive, but that appellation belongs
to a war-on-drugs crusade that has filled our jails while leaving
illegal drugs more plentiful and cheaper. It drives the anti-drug
bureaucracy mad that voters in six states have now voted to ever so
slightly challenge its total grip on the awesome power of government,
but it bodes well for our representative system of government.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Newspaper - federal prosecutors break law to pursue convictions
(The Associated Press says a two-year investigation has culminated
in a 10-part series beginning Sunday in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
that shows federal agents and prosecutors around the country have repeatedly
broken the law over the past decade in pursuit of convictions. The newspaper
said it found examples of prosecutors lying, hiding evidence, distorting
the facts, engaging in cover-ups, paying for perjury and setting up innocent
people to win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions. Federal officials
rarely were punished for their misconduct. Some victims went to prison
because prosecutors withheld favorable evidence or allowed fabricated
testimony, while some criminals walked free as a reward for conspiring
with the government.)
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Newspaper: federal prosecutors break law to pursue convictions
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 14:28:54 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Newspaper: federal prosecutors break law to pursue convictions
Associated Press, 11/21/98 11:42
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Federal agents and prosecutors around the country have
repeatedly broken the law over the past decade in pursuit of convictions,
the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it found as the result of a two-year
investigation.
The newspaper, in a 10-part series that begins Sunday, said it found
examples of prosecutors lying, hiding evidence, distorting the facts,
engaging in cover-ups, paying for perjury and setting up innocent people to
win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions.
Federal officials rarely were punished for their misconduct, despite the
fact that they caused some victims to lose their jobs, assets and even
families, the newspaper said. It also reported that some victims went to
prison because prosecutors withheld favorable evidence or allowed fabricated
testimony, while some criminals walked free as a reward for conspiring with
the government.
``It's a result-oriented process today, fairness be damned,'' said Robert
Merkle, who served as a U.S. attorney in Florida from 1982 to 1988 and is
now a defense lawyer in Tampa.
``The philosophy of the past 10 to 15 years (is) that whatever works is
what's right,'' he told the Post-Gazette.
The U.S. Justice Department, which oversees federal prosecutors, denied the
newspaper's allegations.
``Our prosecutors live by strict, comprehensive and effective ethics
rules,'' Myron Marlin, a department spokesman in Washington, told The
Associated Press. ``They are governed by the rules in the states where they
are licensed, the courts where the case is tried and by federal regulation
as well.
``Our office that oversees prosecutorial conduct (Office of Professional
Responsibility) reviews every complaint and vigorously pursues prosecutors
who cross the line.''
During the newspaper's investigation, the Justice Department did not respond
to questions it posed in writing, nor would it return phone calls requesting
comment.
The Post-Gazette said the problems have worsened as Congress has eliminated
many of the checks and balances designed to prevent the abuse of power. For
instance, federal sentencing guidelines say a person who pleads guilty to a
crime and is cooperative should receive a lesser sentence than someone who
fights a charge and is convicted at trial.
``The courts used to be a buffer between prosecutors and the rights of
defendants,'' said Bennett Gershman, a former New York State prosecutor who
teaches law at Pace University. ``They are now simply a rubber stamp.''
No matter what offense a federal prosecutor may commit in pursuing an
investigation, a criminal defendant is practically powerless to sue for
damages, the newspaper found.
The Post-Gazette also said it found hundreds of examples of abuse in
discovery, which requires that federal prosecutors turn over to criminal
defendants any evidence that might help prove the defendants' innocence or
show lack of credibility on the part of prosecution witnesses.
``My attitude was that if you can't take the truth and win, then you weren't
supposed to win,'' said Gary Richardson, who had an ``open file'' discovery
policy during his tenure as a U.S. attorney in Oklahoma, which ended in
1984.
In Richardson's office, defense lawyers were permitted to come in and look
at anything prosecutors had collected on a particular case.
Now that ``open file'' discovery policy simply doesn't exist, said
Richardson, now a defense attorney in Oklahoma City.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., tried to rein in federal prosecutors with
legislation called the Citizens Protection Act, which would have established
an independent oversight board to monitor federal prosecutors and require
them to abide by state ethics laws. It also provided sanctions against
prosecutors who knowingly committed misconduct.
Murtha decided to draft the legislation after watching an eight-year federal
investigation nearly destroy Rep. Joseph McDade, R-Pa., who in 1996 was
acquitted of charges that he accepted gifts from defense companies in
exchange for helping them win lucrative contracts.
That case ``made me recognize the tremendous power a prosecutor has. I could
see that if they did this to a Joe McDade, an ordinary citizen has no
chance,'' Murtha said.
The House of Representative approved the legislation in August by a vote of
345-82. But the bill became part of the federal appropriations package that
Congress passed in October, and the Justice Department managed to have all
but one provision killed in the conference committee that crafted the budget
bill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Update on Jean Marlowe's case - please don't call the prosecutor (A news
release from NORML says Jean Marlowe, a medical marijuana patient
in Mill Spring, North Carolina, will be sentenced Tuesday for receiving
a package of cannabis from Switzerland.)
From: RKSTROUP@aol.com
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 12:12:49 EST
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Jean Marlowe's case/Please Don't Call the Prosecutor
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
Update on Jean Marlowe's case:
On Tuesday, November 24, 1998, Asheville, NC Federal District Court Judge
Lacey Thornburg will sentence medical marijuana patient Linda Jean
Marlowe of Mill Spring, NC.
Mrs. Marlowe, known to her friends as "Jean," was arrested and charged
with several federal felonies, based on her receipt of a package of
marijuana from Switzerland. Jean, 45, has several rare and debilitating
diseases, and had obtained the marijuana for her personal medical use.
She suffers from porphyria (a congenital liver abnormality), degenerative
disk disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. These diseases
cause Jean constant, severe pain and the pain causes Jean to vomit
repeatedly.
Because of her liver condition, Jean can not take conventional pain
medications. Dr. Frederick Bissel, Jean's treating physician, explained
at a recent hearing that conventional pain medications can harm Jean's
diseased liver, while marijuana is a highly effective analgesic and does
not damage the liver.
Jean's attorneys asked the Court for leave to present evidence of her
medical need for marijuana, but the Court refused. Without the option of
asserting her only defense, Jean was found guilty by a jury on June 8,
1998. She retained her right to appeal the court's refusal to permit her
to raise a medical necessity defense.
While out on supervised release awaiting sentencing, Jean continued to
smoke marijuana to alleviate pain, causing her to fail several court
ordered drug tests, and resulting in her bond being revoked and Jean
being incarcerated on November 9, 1998.
During her first nights in jail, she had to sleep on the floor of an
overcrowded, cold cell with no blankets. Eventually she was moved to
solitary confinement since that cell had a bench for sleeping. The cell
lacked a sink or toilet, however, and Jean was forced to urinate and
vomit into a crack in floor.
Pain is a part of Jean's family history. Jean's father died from multiple
sclerosis, and her brother recently killed himself because of the
ravaging effects of multiple sclerosis. Jean visited her brother in his
hospital room as he lay dying from his own hand. After he died, Jean
walked to the hospital parking lot with her husband, Steve, where she was
surrounded and arrested by law enforcement officers for her medical use
of marijuana.
The NORML Legal Committee (NLC) has been involved in this case for some
time, and in a separate, earlier state prosecution. We are sending NLC
member Joe Bondy, a federal sentencing expert from New York City, down to
North Carolina to assist Jean's attorney, Brent Conner, at the sentencing
hearing on Tuesday, armed with an affidavit from Dr.John Morgan. We had
offered to make Dr. Morgan available as a witness at the sentencing
hearing, but the judge again ruled against permitting any medical
evidence to be introduced. We will also be helping with the appeal of her
conviction.
With all due respect to my friend Lennice Werth, I would urge folks NOT
to call the US Attorney regarding this case. The goals are (1) to try to
get Jean Marlowe out of jail as quickly as possible, and (2) to appeal
the judge's decision not to permit her to raise the defense of medical
necessity at trial. Goading or harassing the prosecutor just prior to the
sentencing hearing is not likely to help with the first of these.
For more information, please contact Keith Stroup,Esq. or Tanya
Kangas,Esq. at 202.483.5500.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Califano implicates pot in alcohol deaths (Joseph Califano of CASA
is quoted on television's "Politically Incorrect" saying the antiemetic
qualities of cannabis prevent drunks from throwing up, killing them.)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 09:03:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Uzondu Jibuike (ucj@vcn.bc.ca)
To: ucj@vcn.bc.ca
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 16:53:05 -0500
From: "Lee Bonnifield" (lee@planetc.com)
Subject: MAPS: Califano implicates pot in alcohol deaths
Witchhunter General Joe Califano was a guest on the Nov 21, 1998
midnight ABC program "Politically Incorrect". They were discussing
deaths on college campuses from students drinking too much. Do you
know if there is any supporting evidence for this theory Califano
gleefully announced:
"It's not just that the kids are drinking. It's that they're smoking
pot at the same time they're drinking... The pot reduces your ability
for nausea, it's an anti-nausea agent, so these kids don't throw up
the alcohol they would otherwise throw up, and they get alcohol
poisoning. Believe me! ...One of the reasons we're having these deaths
from alcohol poisoning is that normally when you drink there's a point
at which you'll just throw it up and it'll go out of your system. Pot
- the same reason why people say smoke pot if you're getting
chemotherapy - you won't get nauseous, so when you smoke the pot you
contradict that nausea, and you hold on to the alcohol and it poisons
your system, and it CAN KILL you, if you have too much alcohol in your
blood. That's what those kids are dying of, alcohol poisoning. ... One
of the reasons we have an increase in deaths of kids from alcohol
poisoning is that."
-- Joe Califano, Politically Incorrect, 11/21/98
***
Lee Bonnifield
lee@planetc.com
***
MAPS-Forum@maps.org, a member service of the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies. To become a member, see www.maps.org/memsub.html
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Loerrach Applies To Join The New Drug Project (According to a translation
excerpted from Stuttgarter Zeitung, in Germany, the district of Lorraech
has made formal application to the German Ministry of Health for permission
to establish safe injecting-rooms for addicts. The Catholic Workers Party
recently asked for 50,000 marks to plan such clinics.)
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1998 17:24:05 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Germany: Loerrach Applies To Join The New Drug Project
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Harald Lerch HaL@main-rheiner.de
Source: Stuttgarter Zeitung (Germany)
Copyright: 1998 Stuttgarter Nachrichte
Pubdate: 21 Nov 1998
Website: http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/
Translator: Pat Dolan (from German text)
Note: Main points only slightly edited.
LOERRACH APPLIES TO JOIN THE NEW DRUG PROJECT
The district of Lorraech has made formal application to the Ministry of
Health for permission to participate in the projected drug model which has
recently been the subject of heated controversy. This was confirmed by the
district office on Friday, 20 November 1998.
The Catholic Workers Party recently asked for 50,000 marks for the planning
of 'guest rooms,' also known as 'injection rooms,' for drug addicts. The
Social Democrat delegate, Joerg Lutz, said there was still no such project
in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
No legal basis exists as yet for such a project. The question of who is
competent to settle the legal question is likely to be controversial. If
the federal government rules that the projected clinics are legal, the
Stuttgart social affairs ministry, which has thus far opposed the plan,
will have to put on a `happy face' and go along with it.
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55% Of Smuggled Cocaine World Wide Being Transported By Express Services
(According to an article translated from Die Welt, in Germany, German Customs
authorities say private transport services such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL are
being used "to a considerable extent" for the international transport
of illegal drugs. Of the total European air-freight traffic in 1997, around
40 percent was done by couriers, 27 percent by air-freight and 33 percent
by parcel post. 55 percent of smuggled cocaine discovered was being
transported by express services; 11 percent by air freight, and 34 percent
by parcel-post. The figures for marihuana were: 40 percent for express
services; 38 percent via air freight, and 12 percent via parcel post.
88 percent of the hashish was being transported by air-freight.)
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 20:33:43 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Germany: 55% Of Smuggled Cocaine World Wide Being Transported
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Harald Lerch (HaL@main-rheiner.de)
Source: Die Welt (Germany)
Contact: reda@www.welt.de
Website: http://www.welt.de/
Copyright: Die Welt 1998
Pubdate: 21 Nov 1998
Author: Peter Scherer, Frankfurt am Main
Translator: Pat Dolan (from German text)
(Note: Main points only slightly edited. Direct speech given in quotes. pd)
55% OF SMUGGLED COCAINE WORLD WIDE BEING TRANSPORTED BY EXPRESS SERVICES
According to German Customs authorities, private transport services are
being used "to a considerable extent" for the international transport of
illegal drugs. The trend is clear: according to current estimates the sharp
rise in the use of Express services and the quick turn around in the
exchange of goods has led to a lessening of risk. This in turn has led to
the rise in demand for such services by international drug smugglers.
Peter Zimmermann, director of the Customs criminal investigation bureau for
the ZKA, the war on drugs section of German Customs, gave "Die Welt" the
following figures for 1997: of the total European air-freight traffic,
around 40% was done by couriers, 27% by air-freight and 33% by parcel post.
55% of the smuggled cocaine discovered was being transported by express
services; 11% by air freight and 34% by parcel-post. The figures for
marihuana were: 40% express services; 38% air freight, 12% parcel post.
Heroin figures were: 66% by air freight; 22% private transport services,
and 12% parcel post. As against that, 88% of the hashish was being
transported by air-freight.
Zimmermann praised the cooperation of the private freight services with the
authorities, saying that special agreements had been entered into with, for
example, UPS, FedEx and DHL. These had led to successful outcomes in the
struggle to contain smuggling.
Hans-Werner Gabriel, UPS Director of Import and Customs Affairs for Europe,
the Middle East and Africa, said that in accordance with the agreement
reached with the federal finance ministry, particulars of dates, senders,
goods and receivers would be placed at the disposal of the disposal of
customs before the entry of the goods into Germany. This made "a
substantial contribution to the successful discovery of the illegal goods".
Gabriel said that this close cooperation was responsible for the success
UPS had had in making their services "unsafe and unattractive" for drug
couriers, drug cartels and other criminal organisations.
Die Welt 1998
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[End]
to the 1998 Daily News index for November 19-25