-------------------------------------------------------------------
Medical marijuana advocate arrested (California NORML
corrects and forwards a San Francisco Examiner article about the bust
of Richard Evans in San Francisco. Evans, who described himself as director
of Americans for Compassionate Use and who was busted previously
for operating a medical marijuana club near Cincinnati, was arrested
after police found 17 pounds of packaged marijuana, 40 plants
being cultivated - and alleged child pornography.)
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 13:07:22 -0800
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Subject: DPFCA: Rich Evans Arrested - MedMJ
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfca@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
Medical marijuana advocate Richard Evans has been arrested in San
Francisco on cultivation charges. His arrest is described in the following
aticle in the S.F. Examiner, which misreports his name as "Robert." Evans
was previously arrested for operating a medical marijuana club near
Cincinnati, following which he relocated to the Bay Area.
***
Medical marijuana advocate arrested
Dec. 27, 1998
Seth Rosenfeld [Image]
HOME OF THE S.F. EXAMINER STAFF News
Police found pot, porn in apartment San Francisco police say they
have version of this arrested a nationally known advocate article of
medical marijuana after a silent emergency alarm summoned them to a South
of Market apartment where they found more than $60,000 worth of packaged
pot, an elaborate growing operation and child pornography.
Robert Evans, who has described himself as director of Americans
for Compassionate Use, was booked into County Jail early Saturday on
charges of cultivation and possession for sale of marijuana and possession
of child pornography said Lt. Kitt Crenshaw.
Evans, 35, and his lawyer could not be reached for comment
Saturday. According to Crenshaw, events leading to the bust began late
Friday night when officers at the Mission Police Station received a silent
commercial security alarm from Apt. 3 at 328 South Van Ness Ave. Believing
it might have been triggered by someone having a medical emergency,
officers forced their way into the rear of the apartment, he said.
Inside, they smelled burning marijuana and saw an incoherent white
male moving toward the front of the residence. As officers followed him to
check on his health, they discovered an elaborate hydroponics system for
growing marijuana and called the police narcotics unit.
Narcotics officers obtained a search warrant and found 17 pounds
of packaged marijuana and three bedrooms containing a total of 40 plants up
to 6 feet tall, along with irrigation, lighting and temperature-control
systems, he said. They also found alleged child pornography, Crenshaw said.
Evans is a longtime advocate of legalizing marijuana for medicinal
use and recently had applied for a city permit to operate a medical
marijuana club, according to Crenshaw.
He has prior pot arrests, Crenshaw said. One San Francisco case
was dismissed, he said, and another is pending.
(c)1998 San Francisco Examiner Page B 6
***
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug programs imposed by law making a mark (The Arizona Daily Star
says Arizonans still can't legally use marijuana for medical purposes,
but backers of Proposition 200 confirm the drug treatment programs
mandated by the law are having positive results.)
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: AZ Drug programs imposed by law making a mark
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 16:55:09 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Sunday, 27 December 1998
Drug programs imposed by law making a mark
By Keith Bagwell
The Arizona Daily Star
Arizonans still can't legally use marijuana for medical purposes, but those
involved with Proposition 200 say the anti-drug programs tied into the law
are having positive results.
To date, $4 million has been spent to treat drug-abusing criminal offenders
in the hopes of reducing their likelihood of re-offending.
Another $4 million is earmarked to educate parents of children at high risk
of future drug abuse in hopes of turning the tide of drug dependency and
criminal activity.
The programs are funded through $8 million a year the law sends from liquor
taxes into a Drug Treatment and Education Fund.
Proposition 200's primary goal - to legalize marijuana for those suffering
from painful, often fatal, illnesses - has been tied up in federal courts
and hasn't been enacted.
It is too early to determine how well Proposition 200's anti-drug component
keeps people out of the justice system and out of prisons. The state is
compiling a report on the law's first full year in effect.
But the early numbers look good, said Barbara Broderick, adult probation
services director for the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts in
Phoenix, who is compiling the state report.
Of the 2,625 receiving services in the first year, ending June 30, 932
completed an assigned program and many remain in treatment, she said.
Law funds programs
Of those completing a program, three of four still are drug free and three
of four paid all required co-payments during treatment, Broderick said.
The law funds treatment programs for anyone convicted of a crime who has a
substance-abuse problem - directly if a judge gives him or her probation,
and upon release from prison if sentenced to prison followed by probation.
It also says those convicted of possessing drugs only for personal use - not
for sale - for a first and second time must be assigned to a treatment
program and not sent to prison.
But Broderick said county attorneys in the state's 15 counties have charged
many possession-for-use defendants with possessing drug paraphernalia since
the law was enacted. That means many drug-use offenders are landing in
prison instead of treatment programs.
All county-by-county data will not be compiled until early January, but Pima
County Attorney Barbara LaWall might be the most zealous advocate of this
tactic to keep possession-for-use drug offenders going to prison.
Ed Espinoza, a Pima County Probation Department unit supervisor, said that
since the law was enacted, the county has sent nearly 1,000 offenders into a
treatment program.
He said fewer than 50, or less than 5 percent, are people charged for the
first or second time with only drug possession for personal use.
That compares with 21 percent statewide of offenders in the law's treatment
programs who were drug possession-for-use-only offenders, Broderick said.
In Maricopa County, the equivalent figure is 17.8 percent, said Randy Rice,
manager of Maricopa's substance-abuse programs.
``Sabotage the law''
Pima County Legal Defender Isabel Garcia is critical of what she says is an
effort by county attorneys to ``sabotage the law by using tricks.''
``You can't tell me that just because you have rolling papers with your
marijuana you deserve to go to jail,'' Garcia said.
Charging people also with felony paraphernalia possession ``drives up the
cost of trials and saddles taxpayers with jail costs,'' she said.
Pima County Public Defender Susan Kettlewell also is critical of LaWall's
policy. ``We're not challenging it because it's a benefit for us to have
plea options,'' she said. ``But it seems to us to circumvent the law.''
Kettlewell said LaWall's office has charged people with possession of
paraphernalia for having ``hatbands, pockets, cola-can bottoms, shoes -
whatever they were carrying drugs in.''
``The county attorney believes everyone has the right to go to prison,'' she
said.
LaWall justifies her policy. ``We charge people with paraphernalia not to
circumvent the law,'' she said. ``But Proposition 200 is screwy. It doesn't
allow jail time if probation is violated.''
Jail is ``effective tool''
She said she wants judges to have ``a hammer'' to be able to put even
small-scale drug offenders in jail if they violate the terms of their
probation status.
``Unless you have that stick . . . all you can do is bring them back to
court for a scolding,'' she said.
``We're talking about short jail time and not prison,'' she said. ``I
believe it's an effective tool.''
Rice said his Maricopa County program assumes most drug addicts will have
relapses.
He said one of his agency's five treatment programs is a ``lapse, relapse
program in which we apply clients' previous learning to dealing with lapses
to eventually overcome them.''
Rice said 90 percent of drug abusers ``will use again within 90 days of
treatment. Historically that's meant prison or back into the original
program from the start. The message is failure.
``Now we put them in a program they believe will help them get beyond
addiction,'' he said. ``Our retention rate is good.''
LaWall said she supports the drug-treatment program the initiative made
possible. ``Definitely, no question, the treatment program is good,'' she
said. ``It's showing treatment works even for people ordered into it.''
Treatment cheaper than jail
LaWall said it is important to recognize drug problems of offenders as soon
as possible and get them into a treatment regimen.
``I've long been a proponent of putting more money into treatment,'' she
said. ``The Legislature needs to recognize it's much cheaper to treat people
than to put them in prison. And it's better - there's less recidivism.''
Espinoza said convicted offenders eligible for probation are screened to
find out if they have a substance-abuse problem and if so, what type and
intensity of treatment is best suited for them.
Treatment programs generally are a minimum of eight months and range from
just education and reasoning skills classes to an intensive in-patient
residential-treatment plan, he said.
The Probation Department has teachers for reasoning skills classes and for
classes toward a general equivalency diploma in reading and writing, life
skills and English for speakers of other languages, he said.
And it contracts with 22 private agencies for specialized services, Espinoza
said.
In Chris Nybakken's reasoning skills classes, she teaches offenders for two
two-hour sessions a week for 18 weeks, with about 10 students per class.
``These people have deficits that make their efforts to solve problems
ineffective,'' she said.
``Many are impulsive and we teach them to recognize when they're in a risky
situation and to stop and think of the long-term and short-term consequences
of dealing with it,'' Nybakken said.
75% get their GEDs
Rosa Gomez-Terlep, program manager for education services, said her program
conducts classes for 180 offenders a year at three sites.
Three-fourths of the offenders who seek a GED eventually receive a diploma,
she said.
A recent five-year Probation Department study found ``offenders active in
education programs were much less likely to (re-offend) and much more likely
to complete probation,'' she said.
Michael Calhoun is a substance-abuse counselor with county contractor
Recovery Counseling Services Inc. He said his firm's offender clients are
treated in groups and one-on-one sessions with counselors.
``We take a straight-out approach to try to get them to change their
thinking,'' he said. ``We try to motivate people and bolster their
self-esteem.''
Calhoun said each client goes to at least two sessions a week for 12 weeks
and is taken through the first three of Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 steps.
Clients are urged to attend full AA programs with a sponsor, he said.
``Treatment really does work,'' he said. ``I've seen many lives turned
around - those are our extra paychecks for doing this.''
6-month program effective
Joe Parker, program supervisor for Casa de Vida, a county contracted
residential treatment provider, said up to 44 addicts - soon to be 53 - live
in the facility's long-term section for six months at a time.
Each one has supervised activities, including counseling and educational
classes, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, he said.
``We've kept statistics that show for a year (after leaving), 35 percent of
our clients do not relapse, but do maintain jobs or school enrollment and
have no further involvement with the criminal justice system,'' he said.
Espinoza said an outpatient costs an average of $25 to $40 a week while
residential offenders cost $65 a day - about the same as a prison inmate.
But taxpayers pay the full cost of inmates while Espinoza said the law
requires offenders to pay what they can afford for their treatment, on a
sliding scale.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies (A feature article
in the Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram, looks at the Drug Policy Forum
of Texas and the reform movement nationwide. DPFT recently received
a $25,000 donation from billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
Other supporters of reform around the nation include Stanley Marcus,
the 93-year-old former chairman of Neiman Marcus, and former
New York Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy. Plus commentary
from list subscribers about Mark Kleiman, a drug warrior and White House
policy adviser quoted in the article.)
From: adbryan@onramp.net
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 07:25:48 -0600 (CST)
Subject: ART: Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
OK, so whose side is Mark Kleiman on? (bottom of article)
***
12-27-98
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
http://www.startelegram.com
letters@star-telegram.com
Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
By Marisa Taylor and Susan Gill Vardon
Star-Telegram Staff Writers
When pharmacology professor G. Alan Robison launched a group in 1994 to push
for an overhaul of U.S. drug policy, he worked out of his house and could
persuade only 15 others to join.
Today, the Houston-based Drug Policy Forum of Texas has grown to 300 members
and added a Fort Worth-Dallas chapter. Robison still runs the group's
operations from his home office, but with a recent $25,000 donation from
billionaire philanthropist George Soros, he hopes that his group will soon
have a new office and staff.
"It's a big step for us," said 64-year-old Robison, now retired from the
University of Texas Medical School in Houston. "We can do a better job of
informing Texas of what we are about."
Robison's group is part of a growing army of activists -- equipped with more
funding, computer technology and better organization -- who believe that
U.S. drug control policies are unnecessarily harsh and self-defeating. These
groups want the government to drastically change the way it punishes drug
users.
Flush with new confidence, the movement is using grassroots organizing to
push for change. Among their victories, the activists count initiatives
approved by voters in five states and the District of Columbia this year to
legalize marijuana for medical use. However, the results are being
challenged in Colorado and the District of Columbia. Voters in California
and Arizona approved similar initiatives in 1996.
These activists are not united behind a single set of changes. Some focus on
one cause, such as the relaxing of laws regarding marijuana possession.
Others embrace broader changes, such as reducing sentences for drug users or
regulating all or most drugs by setting up a legal market for adults.
The central point on which the activists agree: The nation's war on drugs
has failed. Boosting the movement's once-shaky credibility, a wider range of
voices, including more prominent ones, are joining in. Well-known supporters
include Stanley Marcus, the 93-year-old former chairman and chief executive
officer of Neiman Marcus; former television anchorman Walter Cronkite;
former Secretary of State George Schultz; former New York Police
Commissioner Patrick Murphy; and Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton
Friedman.
Conservatives such as William F. Buckley are joined by liberals such as
former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders.
Even some who once led the drug war -- including police officers and
judges -- have come to embrace the movement.
"It's the most promising time in 20 years," said Keith Stroup, executive
director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"Without question, during the last three or four years the debate has been
opening up."
But those involved in the push for less-punitive drug policies are still a
minority -- and are depicted by many government officials as an ill-informed
fringe group that refuses to acknowledge that drug use is harmful.
"One group would be the libertarian right and the second is the traditional
left -- one group that philosophically wants to get rid of all laws on
drugs, the other group that is always hostile to the drug laws for different
philosophical reasons," said Charles Blanchard, chief counsel of the Office
of National Drug Control Policy, the agency that doles out federal funds
directed at combating illicit drugs.
Many continue to brand leaders of the movement as radical and self-serving
baby boomers who want to use drugs but don't want to face the consequences.
"The truth of the matter is if you look at the faces, it's quite an
unchanged group," said Jill Jonnes, a historian and author of Hep-Cats,
Narcs and Pipe Dreams. "Most of them are a bunch of aging baby boomers."
Now, both sides in the debate are attempting to win support of the American
public.
"Most people are in the soft middle, and it's a battle for the hearts of
that soft middle," said Bob Maginnis, senior director of national security
and foreign affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council,
a conservative advocacy group against decriminalization of drugs.
Americans do appear to be torn on drug control policies.
In an analysis of 47 national surveys on drugs conducted between 1978 and
1997, Harvard School of Public Health researchers Robert J. Blendon and John
T. Young identified the "paradox" of future drug policy. Most Americans do
not see the country's problem with drugs as lessening. But at the same time,
they support spending more money generally in the same way it has been spent
fighting drugs.
"What you have is the bulk of Americans feel drugs are a crime issue and
that the national character is affected by drug abuse," Blendon said. "In a
sense, they believe that America would be a different nation if drugs were
to be legalized. That's what makes it such a tough issue."
The public began questioning the success of the nation's drug control
policies in the 1990s as drug use among youths began increasing after a
20-year downturn. The questions have taken on a new urgency as heroin use
among young people has reached historic levels, and more teens have
experimented with cocaine.
Those who are calling for changes argue that policies have to be overhauled
because the government is wasting billions of dollars on a battle it can't
win. Indeed, they say, the war on drugs has made the drug trade only more
profitable, without significantly decreasing the supply. And by demonizing
drugs, the government is unwittingly luring curious youths to experiment
with them, they say.
"Let's be blunt: The drug war has been lost," said Don Erler, a Tarrant
County businessman who considers himself a staunch conservative. "You could
try certain draconian methods which would make it theoretically possible to
win the war, but we would have a society so totalitarian that no one would
want to live here."
Perhaps the movement's strongest argument involves the dramatic increases in
the prison population.
Since the war on drugs was declared in the 1980s, the state prison
population has zoomed from about 500,000 to 1.5 million, according to Marc
Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit
group that conducts research on criminal justice issues.
Activists say that the growing number of incarcerations for minor drug
offenses is expensive and succeeds only in tearing apart families. Many say
the war on drugs has done more damage than drugs have.
Howard Wooldridge, a 47-year-old retired police officer who lives in Keller,
said he became disillusioned with the drug war during a 15-year law
enforcement career. As a patrol officer in Bath, Mich., near Lansing,
Wooldridge said he grew frustrated with handling burglaries and violent
crimes committed by drug users. He said he also became concerned about what
he believed was a widespread policy of officers violating constitutional
rights in searches and seizures.
"What I found out quickly in police work is that officers become so obsessed
with the drug war that they bend or break or completely shatter the Fourth
Amendment," said Wooldridge, who recently joined the Drug Policy Forum to
fight for drug policy changes.
Many activists insist that they are not calling for an unregulated drug
market or for allowing children to use drugs. Instead of legalization, they
say, they prefer decriminalization and policies that reduce the harm that
drugs do to society -- such as the spread of disease, crime and
unemployment.
The country should gradually move toward treating drug users instead of
punishing them, they say.
Activists often hold up alternative drug control policies being tried by
countries such as Switzerland, England, Holland, Germany and Australia as
evidence that such programs can reduce the harm of drugs.
Many government officials counter that changing laws to allow drugs in a
legal, regulated market would only condone drug use -- leading to more
addicts.
"I'm firmly convinced that legalization of drugs will increase its
availability and its acceptance, particularly among teen-agers, and we will
see an increase in use," said Blanchard, of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy.
Some, including Kelly Shackelford, executive director of the Free Market
Foundation in Plano, blame the increasing demand for drugs on a weakening of
society's moral fabric. The answer is not legalization, he said, but
education and parental involvement.
Government officials are calling for stronger efforts to stop illicit drugs
at the country's borders and to arrest drug dealers, but they say that's not
the only answer.
In recent years, the federal government has been pumping more money into
prevention and treatment programs. This year, the government is spending $2
billion on prevention and $4 billion on treatment. The federal government's
anti- drug campaign for 1999 is armed with a $17.1 billion budget -- $1.1
billion more than 1998.
"We're increasing everything, but the biggest increase has been in the
prevention and treatment area," Blanchard said.
Decriminalization activists acknowledge that they face long odds because of
the stigma of drug use.
But activists have gained some financial backing and have adopted new
tactics to broaden mainstream appeal.
Soros, a New York financier, has donated $60 million -- much of it over five
years -- for projects that explore alternative solutions to existing drug
policy, including the medical marijuana initiatives and the establishment of
the Lindesmith Center in New York for research.
Activists are now careful to tell parents that they are against drug use by
minors. That's a lesson learned from mistakes of the past, when groups such
as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws alienated
parents who were worried about their children using drugs, said Stroup, who
returned to the group in 1994 after a 15-year absence.
"In the 1970s, a lot of us were young and probably a little hostile," he
said. "Now a lot of us are older, and that tempers the anger."
Older activists are joined by a growing number of twentysomethings who are
credited with helping the movement outpace the federal government on the
Internet. Many Web sites have popped up to reach mainstream America,
including one touted as "The Largest Drug Library in the World."
The government has responded with its own Internet counterattack. "Speaking
Out Against Drug Legalization," a handbook produced in 1994 to help drug
agents and others successfully argue against any move toward legalization,
is posted on the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's Web site.
In another twist to the debate, both sides are doing their own
public-opinion polling to boost their causes with hard numbers. But the
polling results differ according to the organization and how it poses the
questions.
For example, the Family Research Council concluded that "most Americans," or
55 percent, are more likely to oppose using marijuana as medicine when they
learn that better and legal therapies are available. On the other hand, the
Lindesmith Center found that 68 percent of Americans "oppose punishing
doctors" for prescribing marijuana, regardless of whether state laws permit
it.
Others say the public is pragmatic and should resist being driven into
either camp in the emotional issue.
As the debate becomes more polarized, it may make it impossible to implement
practical reforms, said Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor of policy studies at
the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Two stupid positions are defined and you're asked, `Which one do you want
to support?' " Kleiman said. "It's already set up that there are only two
chairs.
"Americans have been systematically misinformed by both sides."
Marisa Taylor, (817) 685-3819
Send your comments to marisataylor@star-telegram.com
Susan Gill Vardon, (817) 685- 3805
Send your comments to gillvardon@star-telegram.com
***
From: "Cliff Schaffer" (schaffer@SMARTLINK.NET)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: RE: ART: Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 08:25:30 -0800
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org [mailto:owner-drctalk@drcnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Robert Goodman
>
> Adbryan asked after kindly posting a newspaper story:
>
>> OK, so who's side is Mark Kleiman on? (bottom of article)
>
> He's not on ANY side. He's an economist who's spent a lot of
> time analyzing this issue, and proposed his own non-ideologic
> answers, which makes all ideologues (including myself) somewhat
> angry, but earns respect all around.
He told me that he thought the cocaine problem could be adequately
handled by jailing half a million to a million people (on top of what we
already have). Does that earn your respect?
***
From: adbryan@onramp.net
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 12:07:25 -0600 (CST)
Subject: RE: ART: Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
> He told me that he thought the cocaine problem could be adequately
> handled by jailing half a million to a million people (on top of what we
> already have). Does that earn your respect?
I remember his brief appearance on DRCTalk. He seemed liked the
type that wants to be on the side that's winnin'. It's obvious
that he can't make that choice.
In the article he seems to think that everyone is lying and
he is the only one with the truth -- whatever that may be.
***
From: "Cliff Schaffer" (schaffer@SMARTLINK.NET)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: RE: ART: Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 11:08:24 -0800
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
> In the article he seems to think that everyone is lying and
> he is the only one with the truth -- whatever that may be.
I have received private e-mail from him which has convinced me that he is
confused, frightened, and possibly not terribly stable. He accused me of
trying to "ruin" him (I am unsure exactly how I would go about "ruining" a
professor at any college) and accused me of being a liar. (He didn't say
what it was he thought I had lied about.)
I think he was upset because, at one point, we had been engaged in
conversation and I asked him why he thought it was that ONDCP, et. al., were
having such a hard time dealing with the new reform movement (specifically,
the Internet). He made some comment (I forget exactly what) and I responded
with something like,
"Are you telling me that the reason they have such a hard time dealing with
us is simply because they are too stupid to know what to do?"
His response was (I don't remember the exact quote, I could probably look
it up) was "Basically, yes."
I thought it was pretty interesting that one of ONDCP's top "experts"
thought his bosses were too stupid to know how to deal with the situation. I
never did tell anyone what he said -- that is, until he recently accused me
of being a liar when I hadn't repeated what he said. Apparently, he was
getting his defense in order before he needed it.
He interpreted this whole thing as my attempt to "ruin" him. Apparently,
you should not quote Mark Kleiman because quoting him is just a malicious
attempt to ruin him.
***
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 16:09:37 -0800
From: Rose Ann Fuhrman (rose@SONIC.NET)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Re: ART: Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
This is the end of an article about medical marijuana: feds vs San Francisco
March 19, 1998 L.A. Times
Just wait a minute, responds an incredulous Mark A.R. Kleiman, UCLA
professor and drug policy expert. For starters, he notes, there are far
more important drugs than cannabis that are being withheld from
American patients. If you want to pick a fight, why waste your time with
this one?
[remainder of quote snipped to avoid duplication. Follow the link. - ed.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Truth About Marijuana (An excellent letter to the editor of the Daily Herald,
in Arlington Heights, Illinois, critiques the reasoning of an anti-marijuana
zealot who spoke at the College of DuPage, as well as the newspaper's
evident bias in printing just one side of the story.)
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 05:59:54 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IL: PUB LTE: Truth About Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: 27 Dec. 1998
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Contact: fencepost@dailyherald.com
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/
Copyright: 1998 The Daily Herald Company
Author: Stephen Young
TRUTH ABOUT MARIJUANA
Common sense should tell us it's time to level with young people about the
real risks of marijuana and other drugs, but instead teens are getting more
overblown scare stories.
The article "Pot use 'no big deal' to teens" (Daily Herald, Dec. 10) is an
excellent example.
Whatever the credentials of Susan Dalterio, the professor who spoke about
marijuana at the College of DuPage, her assertions about the drug can be
categorized one of two ways: ridiculous or downright dangerous.
To produce a balanced story, the Daily Herald could have contacted any
number of respected researchers (Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Dr. John P. Morgan,
Dr. Lynn Zimmer, Dr. Andrew Weil, for a few examples) who dispute most of
Dalterio's claims.
Instead, highly suspect information was presented as hard fact.
Among the ridiculous ideas: In the 1960s marijuana had only "traces" of THC,
the agent that causes intoxication. Even if there is a bit of truth
submerged in this fallacy, several questions must be raised.
If marijuana was so mild in the past, why was it outlawed in the first
place?
Were prohibitionists able to magically predict that it would become stronger
in the future?
Or, could the very laws that are designed to stop marijuana use actually
encourage increases in potency?
While the potency issue and Dalterio's other notions were at best
inaccurate, some other "information" was just plain irresponsible. Why on
earth would the Daily Herald publish a method to mix marijuana with other
substances to make a supposedly more intoxicating, but definitely more
dangerous concoction? How is this information useful to anyone other than a
reckless kid looking for a stronger buzz?
I believe the instructions were included because marijuana is just not scary
enough by itself.
It does not kill. It does not produce physical addiction. Many sick people
use marijuana to treat a variety of maladies. Despite these truths, the
article reminds us that many journalists have adopted a simple rule during
America's extended period of reefer madness: If you can't say anything bad
about marijuana, don't say anything at all. A corollary to the rule dictates
that the more fear a story produces, the better. Some people may think this
approach will scare kids away from using marijuana, but if drug use surveys
are correct, the strategy is failing miserably. For decades the dangers of
marijuana have been exaggerated. Often dangers have been completely
fabricated. It's time to take a new approach, not based on fear, but based
on honesty.
Maybe if we try to show respect for the intelligence of young people, they
will show more respect for our warnings against drug use.
Stephen Young
Roselle
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rockefeller Drug Law Radio Ads (A bulletin from the Lindesmith Center,
in New York, follows up on yesterday's news with the text of advertisements
from the new radio campaign urging reform of New York state's
mandatory-minimum sentencing laws for drug offenders.)
From: Ethan Nadelmann (ENadelmann@sorosny.org)
To: TLC_ACTIVIST (TLCACT@sorosny.org)
Cc: Deborah Small (DSmall@sorosny.org)
Subject: Rockefeller Drug Law Radio Ads
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 20:54:12 -0500
Sender: owner-tlc-activist@server.soros.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Small
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 1998 2:31 PM
To:
Subject: Rockefeller Drug Law Radio Ads
Dear Friends:
On Sunday, December 27th two radio spots focusing on the impact of the
Rockefeller Drug Laws will air on stations in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
and Long Island. These ads are especially timely in light of the fact that
Gov. Pataki has announced that he will not be granting any executive
clemencies this Holiday Season. This decision represents a significant
change in policy as Pataki has granted clemency to a select few of New
York's inmates each year since coming into office. Included among this
number have been several persons convicted under New York's draconian
Rockefeller Drug Laws, most recently Anthony Papa and Angela Thomnpson.
Below is the text of the spots which will air between Dec. 27th and
Dec. 31st. The air schedule for the spots is attached to this message as a
Microsoft Excel worksheet. If you have any questions or need additonal
information, feel free to contact me.
Wishing you all a Happy Holiday and Good Things in the New Year!
PEACE AND LOVE
Deborah Small
TLC/RPR
212 548 0370
212 519 0410
***
Radio/ :60 secs
AVO:
Off from work today? Home with the kids, maybe returning some gifts?
Teaching them to ride that new bike or rollerblades? Lucy Brady wishes
she too could be with her family, her children. But she can't. Not this
year. Maybe not for many years to come. Her three children hardly know
her. Lucy's spent the last eight years in prison. Her crime? She was just
there, young, in an apartment where drugs were sold. Her sentence? 15
years to life. Why? The Rockefeller drug laws, passed years ago, mandate
sentences longer than most rapists or murderers ever serve. No judicial
discretion allowed. Period.
When she went to prison, Lucy's children were just one, two, and three
years old. This time of year, you look at your children and think how
quickly the years pass. How lives move on. And you may even once in a
while think about the mistakes you made when you were young. You could
have been there, too. Call your legislator. Tell them that Lucy and all
the Lucys of New York State have done their time. Repeal the Rockefeller
drug laws. 15 to life is too big a price to pay for just being there.
[Paid for by ...... ]
***
Radio/ :60 secs
VO #1 [young girl]:
Dear Santa. Thank you for all the presents I got this year. But you
didn't answer my real wish again. Why can't I see Grandma and Grandpa?
AVO [male]:
Twelve years ago, Mary and David Brown's nightmare began when an
informant lied and told the police that they sold him drugs. The Browns'
car was searched but no drugs were ever found. They depleted their life
savings to defend themselves. But both were convicted. Their only crime
was being in an apartment where drugs were sold. Mary was sentenced to
15 to life, David 17 to life. The trial judge wanted to show leniency,
but wasn't allowed. Why? The Rockefeller Drug Laws require anyone selling
2 or more ounces of any drug to serve more jail time than most murderers
or rapists. The Browns' daughter is now a mom herself with two kids
who've never spent a Christmas with Grandma or Grandpa. Look at your
children and know what happened to the Browns could happen to anyone, even
you. Call your legislators. Tell them 15 to life is too high a price to
pay for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
[Paid for by ...... ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton Seeks Curbs On Drunken Driving (According to an Associated Press
article in the San Jose Mercury News, President Clinton Saturday
asked Congress to impose a lower, uniform blood-alcohol standard
for drunken driving across the nation, saying the Justice and Transportation
departments would use the "leverage" of federal grants to persuade states
to adopt low-tolerance standards "on their own . . . . One impaired driver
is one too many.")
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 14:02:47 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Clinton Seeks Curbs On Drunken Driving
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 1998
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Author: Lawrence L. Knutson, Associated Press
CLINTON SEEKS CURBS ON DRUNKEN DRIVING
WASHINGTON -- Looking at the dark side of the holidays, President Clinton
asked Congress on Saturday to impose a lower, uniform blood-alcohol level
for drunken driving across the nation.
He said the Justice and Transportation departments will use the leverage of
federal grants to persuade states to adopt low-tolerance standards on their
own.
In his weekly radio address, Clinton pointed to new research showing that in
1996, more than 46 million Americans drank or took drugs within two hours of
driving.
"The sight of a car weaving through traffic is an all-too-familiar and
frightening one for many Americans," he said. "Ask any parent, anyone who
has lost a loved one to an alcohol-related crash: One impaired driver is one
too many."
Clinton asked Congress to enact legislation next year to make a
blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent the national legal standard for
driving while drunk. That level is used by 16 states, including California,
and the District of Columbia.
Dropped by the wayside
The Senate voted earlier this year to penalize states that did not adopt the
0.08 standard. But the House declined to go along, deleting the provision
from the six-year highway-spending bill Congress passed in May.
"Tragically, the special interests blocked this lifesaving measure," Clinton
said.
Clinton said it is important to call attention to drunken driving during the
holidays, when millions of Americans take travel to visit families and
friends and alcohol often flows freely.
Last December, 1,300 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes even
though such deaths overall were at an all-time low for 1997, Clinton said.
Clinton noted that a new survey shows that in 1996, 28 percent of American
drivers, or 46.5 million people, used drugs, alcohol or both within two
hours of driving.
Most of those, or 30 million people, drank alcohol, according to the survey
by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The study was based on
interviews with 12,000 drivers and data from the 1996 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse.
Young drivers targeted
Clinton also announced that the Justice Department is making $25 million
available to states to help block the sale and consumption of alcohol by
young people aged 15 to 20. One-third of all crash fatalities in that age
group are alcohol-related, he said.
He also announced a new rule by the Department of Transportation that
strengthens state efforts to curb impaired driving.
The rule sets new criteria under which states can qualify for anti-DUI
grants. They include issuing licenses to young drivers on a graduated basis,
testing blood-alcohol levels in fatal car crashes, and establishing programs
to target drinking and driving among 21- to 34-year-olds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
'Demon Alcohol' - Hatchet-Wielding Do-Gooders Launch Health Crusade
(The Washington Times says nearly a century after Carry Nation
waged her one-woman saloon-wrecking campaign, the Center for Science
in the Public Interest and dozens of other groups are carrying out
a multipronged offensive to limit advertising, boost taxes, and get
the federal government to label alcohol a carcinogen.)
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 20:19:37 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: 'Demon Alcohol'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 27 Dec 1998
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Contact: letter@twtmail.com
Website: http://www.washtimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 News World Communications, Inc.
'DEMON ALCOHOL'
HATCHET-WIELDING DO-GOODERS LAUNCH HEALTH CRUSADE
Carry Nation would be proud.
Nearly a century after the hatchet-wielding Prohibitionist waged her
one-woman campaign of saloon-wrecking, the Center for Science in the Public
Interest and dozens of other groups also have declared war on alcohol.
They are conducting a nonviolent but multipronged offensive to reduce
alcohol consumption in this country by limiting advertising of beer, wine
and liquor, boosting federal and state alcohol taxes, and getting the
federal government to label alcohol a human carcinogen.
"It's improper to allow unfettered marketing of a product that causes
100,000 deaths a year," says Michael F. Jacobson, CSPI's executive director.
"We need a policy (on alcohol advertising) that mirrors those we've imposed
on tobacco," says George A. Hacker, director of CSPI's alcohol policies
project.
The alcohol industry takes the attacks seriously. "We're talking about a
neo-Prohibition movement," says David Rehr, vice president of government
affairs for the National Beer Wholesalers Association.
Alcohol is not the only product that public health crusaders like the CSPI
are attacking. In October, the group announced a campaign against American
soft-drink consumption because of all the sugar in soda pop. American youth
get 25 percent of their calories from the sweet beverages, it claims.
Previously, the center waged high-profile battles against an enemies list
that now includes burgers, movie popcorn and ethnic restaurant fare such as
fettucine alfredo, beef burritos and sweet- and-sour pork, because of the
fat content.
In 1994, CSPI described the popular Italian dish fettucine alfredo as a
"heart attack on a plate," saying it contains more fat than five McDonald's
quarter-pounders. That same year the center also went after "buttered"
movie popcorn, which it said was loaded with saturated fat because of the
coconut oil used to pop it at the time.
Movie theaters quickly switched to less fatty oils following CSPI's claims.
But critics of the nutrition advocacy group charged that 11 cups of
popcorn, which the center described as a "medium size" order, would
actually feed eight persons.
Fat has long been a top concern of CSPI, and Mr. Jacobson once suggested
requiring restaurants to limit the size of food servings to reduce fat
consumption. "But we haven't figured out a way to do that, since
restaurants try to give customers more for their money," he said in a
recent interview.
Mr. Jacobson sees some merit to an idea put forward by Kelly Brownell,
director of the Center for Eating and Weight Disorders at Yale University,
that would tax foods high in fat and cholesterol and subsidize sales of
healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables. "To me, there is no
difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel," Mr. Brownell has said.
Mr. Jacobson doesn't believe the Brownell "fat tax" plan is going anywhere
at this time but doesn't rule it out completely. "Some states have taxes on
soda pop, and Chicago has a snack tax. . . . Taxing butter or margarine or
vegetable oil might be feasible," the CSPI chief said.
Susan Hulett, a clinical dietitian in the Memphis area, says she uses
CSPI's material "very selectively."
"Some of it is good, but sometimes they are alarmists," Mrs. Hulett says.
"I don't want the government or some group telling me what I should eat or
drink. We have a choice. . . . When we start getting regulations,
responsibility is taken away from the individual."
Even some physicians who specialize in substance abuse question the need
for a public health crusade against drinking that would rival the campaign
against tobacco.
"Smoking is bad for you. There's no question about that, but there's quite
a lot of evidence that modest amounts of alcohol prove beneficial," says
Dr. Rodney Burbach, director of the Addiction Treatment Center at Suburban
Hospital in Bethesda.
"Ninety percent of people use alcohol with no ill effects. . . . Rather
than painting with such a broad brush and making it appear alcohol is bad
for everyone, we should be focusing on the 10 percent of users with the
illness" of alcoholism.
But Mr. Jacobson argues that people can't be trusted to make wise and
healthful decisions on their own. He says that's why CSPI is fighting the
wine industry's bid to include information about the health benefits of
wine on the label of bottles. "People will take up drinking {wine} to try
to improve their health, and they will conclude that if a little is good, a
lot is better," he says.
Groups such as CSPI and the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol
and Other Drug Problems in San Rafael, Calif., are at the forefront of
efforts aimed at increased regulation of alcohol. Critics such as Mr. Rehr
denounce them as "health Nazis" and "pleasure police" who are trying to
impose their will on Americans, who may find the intervention unwelcome.
Dr. Burbach does not use such unflattering terms. But "rather than seeing
alcoholism as a brain disease," he said some groups leading the
anti-alcohol charge "see it as a moral issue and are trying to purify us all."
Unlike Carry Nation, prohibition is not CSPI's goal, Mr. Hacker says.
"We're not about prohibiting peoples' right to drink. But that doesn't mean
reducing overall consumption is not a good idea."
The "neo-Prohibition" label, he says, is designed to "burden us with the
historical legacy of Prohibition, which was a political and practical
disaster."
CSPI is not the only high-profile group that's recently dumped on "Big Booze."
As congressional debate raged last spring over an ill-fated $500 billion
tobacco bill that would have banned most tobacco advertising, the Wall
Street Journal, in an editorial, predicted the alcohol industry would be
the next big target of what it described as the "liberal/public
health/Naderite/trial lawyer political combine."
The editorial was a response to a study conducted by Common Cause, which
argued that political donations made by the alcohol industry "undermine
public safety."
The advocacy group accused Congress of "backing down to Big Booze" because
of the industry's $26 million in campaign contributions, particularly in
the fight over a lower national drunken-driving standard. Setting
drunken-driving standards is normally a state prerogative.
But left-leaning groups are not the only ones that have joined CSPI in its
battle against alcohol. Many conservative religious groups, including the
National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Ethics and
Religious Liberty Commission, the Baptist Center for Ethics, the Christian
Action League of North Carolina, and the Christian Citizens Association of
Arkansas are also in the fight.
Those groups and others, including the American Medical Association and the
March of Dimes, are among nearly 100 organizations that make up the
Coalition for the Prevention of Alcohol Problems.
Common Cause has been silent on the anti-alcohol front since it accused
Congress of being in the hip pocket of "Big Booze."
But last April, 120 organizations - including the Children's Defense Fund,
the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association
and the National Parent Teacher Association - joined CSPI in filing a
petition with the Federal Communications Commission seeking an
investigation to determine "whether permitting . . . advertisements for
alcoholic beverages is consistent with the FCC's broader responsibility to
serve the public interest."
The petition also asks the FCC to determine if it "should take regulatory
action to ban such advertisements, require channeling to particular time
slots, propose informational campaigns to discourage underage alcohol
consumption, or otherwise ensure that alcoholic beverage advertisements do
not influence" those too young to drink.
CSPI and the other groups filed the petition in response to a November 1996
decision by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States to lift its
voluntary ban on the broadcasting of liquor advertisements "and the actual
broadcasting of such advertisements by the Joseph Seagram Company and other
liquor interests."
Because CSPI's primary objective is to prevent youth drinking, Mr. Jacobson
says it sees a need to "sever the relationship between beer advertising and
televised sports events," which are so popular with young viewers.
Mr. Hacker says, "We'd like to limit {alcohol} advertising to after 10
p.m., when fewer young people are in the audience."
The CSPI also wants to see higher federal excise taxes on beer and wine,
and it's putting special emphasis on beer because of its popularity with
youth and young adults.
"Sixty percent of all alcohol consumed in this country is in beer. . . .
Doubling the taxes might be a good idea for a start," says Mr. Hacker.
His organization has described a "dime-a-drink" tax increase on beer and
wine as "modest."
But Mr. Rehr, the beer lobbyist, says beer taxes already are too high. "In
1991, the {federal excise} tax on beer doubled from $9 per {31-gallon}
barrel to $18 per barrel, which amounted to {an increase of} 31 cents on a
six-pack. That increase destroyed 38,000 jobs in the industry," he says,
adding that 43 percent of the cost of beer is in taxes.
CPSI officials say the industry's job-loss numbers are greatly inflated.
The nonprofit advocacy group, which focuses on issues of nutrition and
health, is miffed that the beer industry is trying to rollback the 1991 tax
increase.
Pressured by CSPI, the Federal Trade Commission ordered eight major brewers
and distillers - including Anheuser-Busch Inc., Miller Brewing Co. and
Seagram's - to submit special reports on their compliance with
self-regulatory advertising codes to avoid targeting underage drinkers.
"The FTC's action is a step in the right direction. It sets the stage for
eventual tighter voluntary and governmental standards to protect underage
persons from alcohol advertising appeals," CSPI said in the August issue of
its newsletter, Booze News.
In that same issue, CSPI reported on its efforts to get alcoholic beverages
listed in the federal government's official report on carcinogens. It noted
that early this year the National Toxicology Program announced it is
reviewing that proposal.
The center cites studies documenting a "strong association" between alcohol
consumption and human cancers of the esophagus, pharynx, mouth, liver,
breast and colon. It points out that the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism says between 2 percent and 4 percent of all U.S.
cancer cases are caused "either directly or indirectly by alcohol" and that
the American Cancer Society reports 19,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths
annually.
Dr. Michael J. Thun, who heads epidemiological research for the American
Cancer Society in Atlanta, declines to be pinned down as to whether alcohol
is a human carcinogen.
"It's confusing when something is bad for one disease and good for another.
For middle-aged and elderly people, regular consumption of one or two
drinks a day is associated with reduced heart attacks and strokes and with
an overall decrease in death rates," he says.
"That same level of alcohol consumption is also associated with an
increased risk of breast cancer," he says.
As for the heightened risk of throat and mouth cancers from alcohol, Dr.
Thun says many of those cases involve a combination of drinking and smoking.
But Dr. Thun commends groups trying to prevent or curb youth drinking.
"Drinking has no health benefits for children and young adults. So if there
is a way to selectively reduce binge drinking, drinking and driving, and
all the problem aspects of drinking, it would probably be beneficial. But
unlike smoking, drinking is not all bad. It's a double-edged sword."
Mrs. Hulett, the Memphis dietitian, puts it this way: "I don't think
children should drink, and there should be education to that effect at the
family level. But I like a glass of wine or two, and I don't want to have
to pay more for it" as a result of higher taxes.
CSPI also has been pressing Congress to reform alcohol advertising. Rep.
Joseph P. Kennedy II, Massachusetts Democrat who is retiring this year, has
sponsored bills that would curtail most alcohol advertising between 7 a.m.
and 10 p.m., require health and safety messages in alcohol ads, and limit
the tax deductibility of alcohol advertising and promotions. The latter
amounts to about $700 million a year, according to Kennedy spokeswoman Amy
Simmons.
But Mr. Hacker of CSPI admits that those proposals have "not been on a fast
track in Congress," and that "alcohol-control advocates" will soon have to
find new sponsors with Mr. Kennedy retiring.
"And the beer industry has good friends in Congress, like {House Minority
Leader} Dick Gephardt," says Mr. Jacobson.
Says Mr. Rehr of the National Beer Wholesalers Association: "At the federal
level, the health Nazis are yipping like little dogs. But they are making
some gains at the state and local levels."
ILLUSTRATIONS/BOX
FOOD FIGHTS
SUBHED: Past campaigns by the Center for Science in the Public Interest:
CHINESE FOOD: In 1993, the CSPI attacked popular Chinese take-out dishes
such as kung pao chicken as full of fat and oil. Chinese restaurant owners
called the study "unfair."
MOVIE POPCORN: In 1994, the institute charged that a medium-size order of
buttered movie popcorn has three times the saturated fat contained in a Big
Mac and order of french fries. Critics said the study overstated the amount
of butter oil used in a medium-size order.
MEXICAN FOOD: That same year, the group slammed Mexican restaurant food,
saying a typical platter at a Mexican restaurant contained more than 1,000
calories and large doses of saturated fat and salt.
ITALIAN FOOD: Also that year, CSPI went after Italian fare, calling
fettuccine alfredo a "heart attack on a plate."
CAFFEINE: In 1997, the institute called caffeine a "mildly addictive drug"
linked to miscarriages, osteoporosis, and other medical disorders and asked
the Food and Drug Administration to require that caffeine amounts in food
be disclosed on the packaging.
SOFT DRINKS: Last month, the institute released a report that found the
average U.S. teen drinks 1,000 cans of soft drink a year, contributing to
teen sugar consumption levels that are three times higher than government
guidelines recommend.
CHART B
PROBLEM DRINKING AMONG TEENS
Percentage of teens in selected grades who said they have been drunk 20 or
more times in the previous month, 1997:
8th graders: 0.2%
10th graders: 0.6
12th graders: 2.0
Percentage of teens in selected grades who reported binge drinking, or
having five or more drinks at one time, in 1997:
8th graders: 15.0%
10th graders: 25.0
12th graders: 31.0
Source: "Monitoring the Future"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. 'Cautiously' Boosting Aid To Colombia (Who says the cold war is over?
A Washington Post article in the Los Angeles Times says that despite
human rights abuses by Colombia's military, and its rampant corruption
associated with the illegal-drug trade, the United States is stepping up
its involvement with the Colombian armed forces because it fears
they are losing a war to Marxist rebels who derive much of their income
from drug trafficking.)
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 18:39:43 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: U.S. 'Cautiously' Boosting Aid To Colombia Latin America
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Galasyn
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/HOME/DISCUSS/
Copyright: 1998 Los Angeles Times.
Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 1998
U.S. 'CAUTIOUSLY' BOOSTING AID TO COLOMBIA LATIN AMERICA
Package Will Help Fund Anti-drug Efforts. Nation's Record Of Corruption And
Human Rights Abuses Concerns Critics.
WASHINGTON--Despite the roles of Colombia's military in human rights abuses
and the corruption created by the nation's role as one of the world's
leading producers of cocaine, the United States is stepping up its
involvement with the Colombian armed forces because it fears that they are
losing a war to Marxist rebels who derive much of their income from drug
trafficking.
Washington is acting despite concerns about the army's dismal human rights
record as well as drug-related corruption that has long reached into the
highest ranks of the officer corps.
The American aid package will provide training and partial funding for a
1,000-man army counter-narcotics brigade as well as a CIA-sponsored
intelligence center and listening post deep in Colombia's Amazon jungle,
according to U.S. and Colombian officials.
The aid comes on top of training that has been provided to the Colombian
military on a smaller scale by U.S. Special Forces for several years under
a program of joint exercises by the U.S. military and its counterparts
around the world.
The decision to "cautiously reengage" the Colombian military, in the words
of one senior U.S. official, marks a significant shift in U.S. policy
toward Colombia, a violence-racked Andean nation of 37 million that
supplies about 80% of the cocaine and 60% of the heroin sold in the United
States.
After working closely with the Colombian military in the late 1980s and
early '90s, the United States largely cut off direct aid, citing human
rights abuses. While the Special Forces training has continued, the bulk of
U.S. money to fight drug trafficking has been steered to the country's
national police force.
Human rights organizations charge that the United States, in returning to a
posture of greater cooperation with the Colombian military, is rewarding an
army with one of the worst human rights records in Latin America while
risking entanglement in the country's long-running civil war.
But U.S. officials say they have little choice given the growing
involvement in drug trafficking of Colombia's largest rebel group, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In seeking to establish a
Marxist state, FARC relies on drug revenues to finance its increasingly
sophisticated arsenal of weapons and its intelligence-gathering and
communications gear.
"We are committed to maintaining the line between counterinsurgency and
counter-drugs, because we are not in the counterinsurgency business," said
one U.S. official. "But to the degree counter-drug efforts bring us into
conflict with the guerrillas, so be it. . . . That is the price we pay for
[giving this aid] and the price the guerrillas pay for being involved with
drug trafficking."
Adding urgency to the U.S. effort is a startling series of defeats suffered
by the Colombian army. In one battle last summer, FARC rebels killed or
captured 125 of the 152 members of an elite counterinsurgency unit and made
off with hundreds of automatic rifles, night-vision gear and tens of
thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to U.S. and Colombian sources.
Of the trickle of aid that the United States has provided to the Colombian
military in recent years, almost all has gone to the air force and navy,
rather than the army, which has been linked to right-wing paramilitary
death squads. The United States has channeled most of its counter-drug
assistance to the national police, which, under the leadership of Gen. Jose
Serrano, has improved its human rights record and is now considered one of
the world's premier counter-narcotics forces.
In fiscal 1998, the United States gave the police $289 million, up from
$180 million the year before, making Colombia one of the largest recipients
of U.S. aid. In contrast, the military received $40 million, of which $30
million was used to maintain two radar bases to monitor suspicious flights
from Peru and Bolivia.
Under current rules governing U.S. aid to the Colombian military, only two
small army units whose rosters have been screened for human rights abusers
are permitted to use U.S.-supplied equipment, and they are restricted to an
area known as "the box," which includes the prime coca-producing areas of
the southern half of the country.
Under the new plan, the new counter-narcotics brigade will be able to
operate throughout the country. The brigade is expected to be ready for
action by mid-1999.
To pay for the brigade, the Colombian military has asked the United States
for $1.3 billion over five years. U.S. officials say they probably will not
provide the full amount requested but are committed to training the unit
and providing some equipment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Boosts Aid To Colombian Military (A slightly different version
in the San Jose Mercury News)
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 14:02:51 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: U.S. Boosts Aid To Colombian Military
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 1998
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1998 Mercury Center
Author: Douglas Farah, Washington Post
U.S. BOOSTS AID TO COLOMBIAN MILITARY
WASHINGTON -- Despite the roles of Colombia's military in human rights
abuses and the corruption created by the nation's role as one of world's
leading producers of cocaine, the United States is stepping up its
involvement with the Colombian armed forces because it fears that they are
losing a war to Marxist rebels who derive much of their income from drug
trafficking.
Washington is acting despite concerns about the army's dismal human rights
record as well as longtime drug-related corruption in the highest ranks of
the officer corps.
The U.S. aid package will provide training and partial funding for a
1,000-member army counternarcotics brigade as well as a CIA-sponsored
intelligence center and listening post deep in Colombia's Amazon jungle,
according to U.S. and Colombian officials.
The aid comes on top of training provided to the Colombian military on a
smaller scale by U.S. Special Forces for several years.
The decision to "cautiously re-engage" the Colombian military, in the words
of one senior U.S. official, marks a significant shift in U.S. policy toward
Colombia, which supplies roughly 80 percent of the cocaine and 60 percent of
the heroin sold in the United States.
After working closely with the Colombian military in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, the United States largely cut off direct aid, citing human
rights abuses. While the Special Forces training has continued, the bulk of
U.S. money to fight drug trafficking has been steered to the country's
national police force.
Human rights organizations charge that the United States is rewarding an
army with one of the worst human rights records in Latin America while
risking entanglement in the country's long-running civil war.
But U.S. officials say they have little choice given the growing involvement
in drug trafficking of Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia.
Of the trickle of aid that the United States has provided to the Colombian
military in recent years, almost all has gone to the air force and navy,
rather than the army, which has been linked to right-wing paramilitary death
squads. The United States has channeled most of its counterdrug assistance
to the National Police, which, under the leadership of Gen. Jose Serrano,
has improved its human rights record and is now considered a
premier counternarcotics forces.
In fiscal 1998 the United States gave the police $289 million, up from $180
million the year before, making Colombia one of the largest recipients of
U.S. foreign aid. In contrast, the military received $40 million, of which
$30 million was used to maintain two radar bases to monitor suspicious
flights from Peru and Bolivia.
Under current rules governing U.S. aid to the Colombian military, only two
small army units whose rosters have been screened for human rights abusers
are permitted to use U.S.-supplied equipment -- and they are restricted to
an area known as "the box," which includes prime southern coca-producing
areas.
Under the new plan formulated by U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and
his Colombian counterpart, Rodrigo Lloreda, during a meeting in Cartagena,
Colombia, earlier this month, the new counternarcotics brigade can operate
throughout the country. The brigade is expected to be ready for action by
mid-1999.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ministers Approve NHS Cannabis Tests (The Sunday Telegraph, in Britain,
says it has learnt that the government is about to sanction a series
of trials into the therapeutic uses of cannabis involving more than 1,000
patients. The Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
will set out the guidelines for the trials on January 11 at a closed
scientific meeting to be attended by Department of Health officials.
The first trial will be for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients.)
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 16:51:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Ministers Approve NHS Cannabis Tests
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Derrick
Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 1998
Source: Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: Telegraph Group Limited 1998
Contact: stnews@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Victoria Macdonald
Related: From The British Medical Journal
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n1040/a04.html
The House of Lords report:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n1029/a02.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1029.a03.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1029.a04.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1029.a05.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1030.a04.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1030.a05.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1031.a01.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1032.a04.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1033.a06.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1034.a03.html
MINISTERS APPROVE NHS CANNABIS TESTS
THE Government is officially to sanction a series of trials, involving more
than 1,000 patients, into the therapeutic uses of cannabis, The Telegraph
has learnt.
The Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will set
out the guidelines for the trials on January 11 at a closed scientific
meeting to be attended by Department of Health officials.
The Medicines Control Agency, the Government's licensing authority for
prescription and over-the-counter drugs, has agreed to advise the
scientists on the regulatory aspects of the proposed trials.
The Prince of Wales last week appeared to lend his support to the campaign
to legalise cannabis for therapeutic uses when he asked a multiple
sclerosis sufferer if she had ever tried the drug for pain relief.
The patient was later quoted as saying: "He asked me if I had tried taking
cannabis, saying he understood that, under strict medical supervision, it
was one of the best things for it."
But Peter Cardy, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said
that he was inclined to think it was for a doctor - rather than Prince
Charles - to make recommendations about trying cannabis.
The drug trials will mark the first time that the Government and its
agencies have given official sanction to investigating the therapeutic
value of cannabis and its derivatives, cannabinoids.
The move follows a report from a House of Lords scientific committee which
said that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for multiple
sclerosis sufferers and other patients who find it helps to relieve pain.
Each of the initial three trials will cost about UKP 500,000, with funding
from the MRC if it gives final approval.
The first trial will be for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. One
group of about 100 patients will be given the ordinary treatment for
controlling muscle spasms.
The second, similar-sized group will receive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a
cannabis derivative known to have an anti-sickness effect, as well as
producing euphoria.
A third group will be given standardised cannabis plant material in order
to see if THC is the most important compound or if there are other elements
of the drug which help patients.
The following two trials will be into the treatment of chronic pain for
dying cancer patients or those with phantom limb problems, and for acute
pain following operations.
Professor Tony Moffatt, scientific adviser to the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, said that the test on acute pain would be one of the easiest
because it would take only one dose of the cannabis, or its derivative, to
see if the amount of morphine could be reduced.
Prof Moffatt said that the trials were "all about getting cannabis into
patients who need it". He said: "Despite all the huffing and puffing over
whether it should be legalised, nobody has done anything about it. There is
no good scientific evidence that these materials are effective at all."
THC is not legally available to patients in Britain, as it is in America.
The Home Office and the MRC have, however, agreed to provide exemption
certificates allowing its use in clinical trials.
The British Medical Association maintains its opposition to any change in
the law until there is scientific proof of its therapeutic efficacy.
However, Clare Hodges, of the Alliance forCannabis Therapeutics, said that
she was delighted that the trials were to go ahead after years of pressure
from patients.
The tests are expected to start in the summer and to run for 18 months.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Britons Sip Liqueur Of Poets (The Montreal Gazette says absinthe,
once the poison of choice in bohemian Paris, was banned by France
and most other Western nations early in this century. The liqueur's
controversial reappearance in Britain has sent an illicit sort of thrill
through the upscale drinking public, due to the ingenuity of four young
rock 'n' roll entrepreneurs who discovered that Britain had somehow
never got around to banning absinthe. Were French absinthe addicts
suffering delirium and hallucinations because they had simply drunk
too much alcohol, or was it because of a chemical in wormwood -
thujone - related chemically to cannabis?)
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 18:20:28 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Britons Sip Liqueur Of Poets
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Pubdate: Sun, 27 Dec 1998
Source: Montreal Gazette (Canada)
Copyright: 1998 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact: letters@thegazette.southam.ca
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Forum: http://forums.canada.com/~montreal
Author: Fawn Vrazo
BRITONS SIP LIQUEUR OF POETS
Absinthe, once the poison of choice for bohemian Paris, was banned by
France and most other Western nations early in this century. But it's
the drink of the moment in Britain, which never got around to banning
it.
Green and slippery, bitter on the tongue and warm in the throat,
absinthe is the liqueur of inspiration - and maybe insanity, too. The
artist Vincent van Gogh is said to have cut off his ear under its
influence, and playwright Oscar Wilde rhapsodized that if you drink
enough of it, "you see things that you want to see, wonderful curious
things."
French insane asylums in the early 1900s were crowded with absinthe
addicts, who succumbed either to its 70-per-cent-alcohol content or
the supposedly hallucinogenic qualities of its unique ingredient, oil
of wormwood.
France and most other Western countries banned absinthe before World
War I, and few since then have given it much thought.
Until this month, that is, when absinthe suddenly went on sale at many
of London's top bars.
The liqueur's controversial reappearance, which has sent an illicit
sort of thrill through the upscale British drinking public, is due to
the ingenuity of four young rock 'n' roll entrepreneurs who discovered
that Britain had somehow never got around to banning absinthe.
They looked up one of the world's oldest continuous absinthe makers, a
Czech firm headed by 81-year-old producer Radomil Hill, and on Dec. 9
began selling Hill's Absinth in Britain.
At about $7.25 U.S. a shot, or $68 a bottle when ordered over the
Internet (in Britain only, and it's not yet for sale in liquor
stores), absinthe is not for the faint-hearted or thin-walleted.
But it shows every indication of being a huge hit here. Bars can't
keep it in stock, and there's a new kind of drinking party in town:
young professionals gather after work to down several shots of the
pale blue-green liqueur, which is usually served after being ignited
with a spoon of flaming, absinthe-soaked sugar, then doused with water.
"It feels very different - the more you have it, the more you want
it," said manager Giovanni Burdi of Covent Garden's hip Detroit bar,
who tested abinsthe for himself by consuming an entire bottle in the
course of two days. "You can be addicted to it mentally," he concluded.
Absinthe's new appeal appears rooted in its romantic past. This was
once the poison of choice for bohemian Paris and New Orleans, and its
illustrious fans included not only van Gogh and Wilde but Paul
Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul
Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.
Degas immortalized the liqueur in his famous painting L'Absinthe,
which shows a pair of dazed-looking drinkers in a French bar. A
similar expression is on the face of Edouard Manet's The Absinthe Drinker.
Sipping it slowly
Its less illustrious devotees included thousands of working-class
Frenchmen. According to an 1894 writer cited on the exhaustive
"Absinthe FAQ" Web site, France's workers frequently bought a shot of
absinthe during lunchtime for just a few centimes, then sipped it
slowly, feeling "their poor, tired backbones strengthen and their
brains grow clearer ... a touch of happiness."
The liqueur was first commercially produced in France in the late
1700s by Henri-Louis Pernod. He used aniseed, fennel, hyssop and
nutmeg, among other flavours, which were mixed with chopped wormwood -
a plant used in ancient times to cure worms. (Today, the unbanned
liqueur pernod, which contains no wormwood, is widely drunk as a faux
absinthe.)
By the early 1900s, with half of its asylum population reported to
have been made up of absinthe addicts, France was among many nations
to ban it. To this day, though, the reason for the French ban is
debated. Was it because absinthe threatened that nation's ability to
conscript young men for battle in World War I? Was it because its
popularity threatened French wine producers?
Were absinthe addicts suffering delirium and hallucinations because
they had simply drunk too much alcohol, or was it because of a
chemical in wormwood - thujone - related chemically to cannabis?
As absinthe hits Britain in time for New Year's parties, the questions
remain unanswered.
But the liqueur's few critics here, mainly anti-alcoholism
organizations, have steered away from debating absinthe's alleged
addictive, druglike qualities and instead complain that the last thing
modern Britain needs is another popular alcoholic drink - especially
one that is 140 proof.
"We aren't saying absinthe coming back will lead to people being
comatose in the streets," said Caroline Bradley of the British
organization Alcohol Concern. "But it's more a case of saying this is
a drink with this myth associated with it and that's its selling
point. That in a nutshell is the problem ... the fact we can sort of
get excited at the prospect of a drink with this reputation and say,
'Oh, I want to sample that.' "
It's also unfortunate, Bradley added, that absinthe is served like a
drug, with paraphernalia including a spoon and a flame. Absinthe
"crosses that line" between alcohol and drugs, Bradley said, "because
of its reputation and also the way it's drunk in a ritualistic way."
'It's Chatty and Fun'
But absinthe's new British importers, a partnership of four young men
called Green Bohemia, are not reluctant to promote either the ritual
or absinthe's selling point as "the spirit of freedom," as it says in
their press pack.
"I think people are enjoying it because it's a different experience of
pleasure," said Green Bohemia partner Tom Hodgkinson, co-founder of
the British rock music magazine Idler. "There's a whole generation not
taking drugs, not clubbing, and they still want to experience
something different. This fits quite well because it's not ravy, it's
chatty and fun."
Also, as Hodgkinson put it in an essay in the Guardian newspaper,
absinthe is about challenging Britain's wholesome do-gooder atmosphere
under Tony Blair's Labour government.
"For me," he wrote, "one of the principal attractions of absinthe is
that by drinking it, one is cocking a snook at New Labour's nanny
culture. This is a government that seems to enjoy banning things, but
we believe that adults are more than capable of looking after
themselves."
On a damp night at the trendy Alphabet bar on the fringe of London's
Soho section, shot after shot of absinthe was being consumed - out of
curiosity if nothing else.
"A surreal element of absinthe is all the journalists who are
approaching me," observed drinker Jonathan Wilkinson, a 29-year-old
molecular biologist who had been approached by two reporters doing
absinthe stories in just one week.
Downing several shots of absinthe with three friends, Wilkinson
admitted to feeling "vaguely cynical about its hallucinogenic
properties, because you can chop off your ear if you drink a vast
amount of alcohol, too. I'm on shot No. 3, but I have not achieved
Oscar Wilde's level of wit."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A Storied Drink, Britons Take To The Allure Of Absinthe
(The original Philadelphia Inquirer version)
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 00:03:27 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: A Storied Drink, Britons Take To The Allure Of Absinthe
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Sunday, 27 December 1998
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Contact: Inquirer.Opinion@phillynews.com
Website: http://www.phillynews.com/
Forum: http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/
Copyright: 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Author: Fawn Vrazo, Inquirer Staff Writer
A STORIED DRINK, BRITONS TAKE TO THE ALLURE OF ABSINTHE
LONDON -- Green and slippery, bitter on the tongue and warm in the
throat, absinthe is the liqueur of inspiration -- and maybe insanity.
The artist Vincent Van Gogh allegedly cut off his ear under its
influence, and playwright Oscar Wilde rhapsodized that if you drink
enough of it, "you see things that you want to see, wonderful, curious
things."
French insane asylums in the early 1900s were crowded with absinthe
addicts who succumbed either to its 70 percent alcohol content or the
alleged hallucinogenic qualities of its unique ingredient, oil of wormwood.
France and most other Western countries, including the United States,
banned absinthe before World War I, and few since then had given it
too much thought.
Until this month, that is, when absinthe suddenly went on sale at many
of London's top bars.
The liqueur's controversial reappearance, which has sent an illicit
sort of thrill through the upscale British drinking public, is due to
the ingenuity of four young rock-and-roll entrepreneurs who discovered
that Britain had somehow never gotten around to banning absinthe.
They looked up one of the world's oldest continuous absinthe makers, a
Czech firm headed by 81-year-old producer Radomil Hill, and on Dec. 9
began selling Hill's Absinth (sic) in the United Kingdom.
At about $7.25 a shot, or $68 a bottle when ordered over the Internet
(in the U.K. only, and it's not yet for sale in liquor stores),
absinthe is not for the fainthearted or thin-walleted.
But it shows every indication of being a huge hit here. Bars can't keep
it in stock, and there's a new kind of drinking party in town: Young
professionals gather after work to down several shots of the pale
blue-green liqueur, which is usually served after being ignited with a
spoon of flaming, absinthe-soaked sugar, then doused with water.
"It feels very different -- the more you have it, the more you want
it," said manager Giovanni Burdi of Covent Garden's hip Detroit bar,
who tested absinthe for himself by consuming an entire bottle in the
course of two days. "You can be addicted to it mentally," he concluded.
Absinthe's new appeal appears rooted in its romantic past. This was
once the poison of choice for bohemian Paris and New Orleans, and its
illustrious fans included not only Van Gogh and Wilde but Paul
Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Arthur
Rimbaud and Ernest Hemingway.
Degas immortalized the liqueur in his famous painting L'Absinthe,
which shows a pair of dazed-looking drinkers in a French bar. A
similar expression is on the face of Edouard Manet's The Absinthe Drinker.
Its less illustrious devotees included thousands of working-class
Frenchmen. According to an 1894 writer cited on the exhaustive
"Absinthe FAQ" Web site (http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~mbagg/roughtabsinthefaq.html),
France's workers frequently bought a shot of absinthe during lunchtime
for just a few centimes, then sipped it slowly, feeling "their poor,
tired backbones strengthen and their brains grow clearer . . . a touch
of happiness."
The liqueur was first commercially produced in France in the late
1700s by Henri-Louis Pernod. He used aniseed, fennel, hyssop and
nutmeg, among other flavors, which were mixed with chopped wormwood
-- a plant used in ancient times to cure worms. (Today, the unbanned
liqueur pernod, which contains no wormwood, is widely drunk as a faux
absinthe.)
Many nations banned it By the early 1900s, with half of its asylum
population reportedly made up of absinthe addicts, France was among
many nations to ban it. To this day, though, the reason for the French
ban is debated. Was it because absinthe threatened France's ability to
conscript young men for battle in World War I? Was it because its
popularity threatened French wine producers?
Were absinthe addicts suffering delirium and hallucinations because
they had simply drunk too much alcohol, or was it because of a
chemical in wormwood -- thujone -- related chemically to cannabis?
As absinthe hits Britain in time for New Year's parties, the questions
remain unanswered.
But the liqueur's few critics here, mainly anti-alcoholism
organizations, have steered away from debating absinthe's alleged
addictive, druglike qualities and instead complain that the last thing
modern Britain needs is another popular alcoholic drink -- especially
one that is 140 proof.
"We aren't saying absinthe coming back will lead to people being
comatose in the streets," said Caroline Bradley of the British
organization Alcohol Concern. "But it's more a case of saying this is
a drink with this myth associated with it and that's its selling
point. That in a nutshell is the problem . . . the fact we can sort of
get excited at the prospect of a drink with this reputation and say,
'Oh, I want to sample that.' "
It's also unfortunate, Bradley added, that absinthe is served like a
drug, with paraphernalia including a spoon and a flame. Absinthe
"crosses that line" between alcohol and drugs, Bradley said, "because
of its reputation and also the way it's drunk in a ritualistic way."
'The spirit of freedom' But absinthe's new British importers, a
partnership of four young men called Green Bohemia, are not reluctant
to promote either the ritual or absinthe's selling point as "the
spirit of freedom," as it says in their press pack.
"I think people are enjoying it because it's a different experience of
pleasure," said Green Bohemia partner Tom Hodgkinson, cofounder of the
British rock music magazine Idler. "There's a whole generation not
taking drugs, not clubbing, and they still want to experience
something different. This fits quite well because it's not ravy, it's
chatty and fun."
Also, as Hodgkinson succinctly put it in an essay in the Guardian
newspaper, absinthe is about challenging Britain's wholesome do-gooder
atmosphere under Tony Blair's Labor government.
"For me," he wrote, "one of the principal attractions of absinthe is
that by drinking it, one is cocking a snook at New Labor's nanny
culture. This is a government that seems to enjoy banning things, but
we believe that adults are more than capable of looking after
themselves."
On a damp night at the trendy Alphabet bar on the fringe of London's
Soho section, shot after shot of absinthe was being consumed -- out
of curiosity if nothing else.
"A surreal element of absinthe is all the journalists who are
approaching me," observed drinker Jonathan Wilkinson, a 29-year-old
molecular biologist who had been approached by two reporters doing
absinthe stories in just one week.
Downing several shots of absinthe with three friends, Wilkinson
admitted to feeling "vaguely cynical about its hallucinogenic
properties, because you can chop off your ear if you drink a vast
amount of alcohol, too. I'm on[shot]number three, but I have not
achieved Oscar Wilde's level of wit."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ACM-Bulletin of 27 December 1998 (An English-language news bulletin
from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany,
features more details about the recent scientific report that a cannabinoid
receptor system may play a role in the regulation of sperm function;
and an account of the recent New Zealand parliament report saying
the negative effects of marijuana have been overstated.)
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 23:10:38 -0500
To: mattalk@islandnet.com, maptalk@mapinc.org
From: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Subject: ACM-Bulletin of 27 December 1998 (FWD)
From: ACMed@t-online.de (Association for Cannabis as Medicine)
***
ACM-Bulletin of 27 December 1998
***
Science: Cannabinoid receptor system may play a role in regulation of
sperm function
New Zealand: Negative effects of marijuana have been overstated
1.
Science: Cannabinoid receptor system may play a role in regulation of
sperm function
Scientists at the University at Buffalo in New York have shown that
endo-cannbinoids like anandamide may play a role in regulating functions
of human sperm and influence their ability to fertilize eggs. Five years
ago Herbert Schuel, professor of anatomy and cell biology, and
colleagues had already demonstrated that sea urchin sperm contains
cannabinoid-receptors and that cannabinoids can block the acrosome
reaction.
At the meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology on 15 December
the group presented new study results showing that cannabinoids can
affect three key fertilization processes in humans:
- Inhibition of acrosome reaction, the normal release of the sperm
enzymes that enable sperm to penetrate the egg.
- Regulation of very active sperm swimming patterns, called
hyperactivation.
- Prevention of sperm binding to the egg cover, or zona pellucida.
During normal reproduction, fluids within the female reproductive tract
prepare the sperm to fertilize the egg -- to swim vigorously and to
undergo the acrosome reaction when they arrive at the egg's zona. The
researchers mimicked these processes in vitro. They investigated the
effect of THC and AM-356, a synthetic equivalent of anandamide.
A press release of the University at Buffalo said: "Results showed that
after six hours, sperm exposed to THC or AM-356 had a 67 percent
reduction in premature acrosome reactions, compared to controls.
Motility studies showed that higher levels of AM-356 inhibited
hyperactivated swimming, while lower concentrations actually stimulated
hyperactivation. In the zona experiments, AM-356 inhibited sperm binding
by 75 percent."
"Our new findings suggest that anandamides and THC in marijuana smoke
may ... affect sperm functions required for fertilization in the female
reproductive tract," Dr. Schuel says in the press release. "The
additional load of cannabinoids in the systems of people who abuse
marijuana floods the natural cannabinoid receptors and appears to have
adverse consequences for reproduction in both males and females."
It is now of interest to have information about the used concentrations
to assess if these observations are really of relevance for the
therapeutic or recreational use of THC or marijuana. Low nanomolar
concentrations of THC are observed in the blood in this case. But the
meeting abstract only says "sub microM concentrations".
A "sub microM concentration" could mean e.g. 0.1 or 0.01 micromol. On
request of the ACM Dr. Schuel did not want to provide additional
details, to not compromise chances to publish their findings in
peer-reviewed journals. He used between 0.1 and 100 microM THC in his
former experiments with sea urchin sperm and revealed a dose-response
relationship.
Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen from nova-Institute in H黵th/Rhineland said: "I
feel reminded of warnings about the influence of marijuana use on
hormones and the immune system in the 70s, after high THC concentrations
had caused severe immunsuppressive effects and a marked influence on sex
hormones, cortison and thyroid hormones in cell and animal experiments.
Today this view has changed and there is a more differentiated
judgement. Because even heavy marijuana use does not have an evident
contraceptive effect, sensation-seeking conclusions from the actual
sperm research seem to be inappropriate."
Among others four questions are of interest:
- What concentrations of THC can be found in the female reproductive
tract of heavy marijuana users? The concentrations may be lower than in
the blood.
- Does THC at these concentrations exert a measurable effect on sperm
functions?
- If there are any effects does tolerance develop to these effects?
- What is the natural function of the cannabinoid receptor system in
sperm? The observation of a biphasic effect in the motility studies
looks quite interesting.
Table: THC-concentrations and abbreviations
1 microM THC (1 micromol THC) = approx. 0.3 microg/ml THC
1 microM THC (1 micromol THC) = 1000 nM THC
1 nM THC (1 nanomol THC) = approx. 0.3 ng/ml THC
(Sources: Schuel H, et al: 1998 Meeting of the American Society for Cell
Biology, Abstract 1793; Press release of the University at Buffalo from
15 December 1998; Schuel H: Personal communication of 23 December 1998;
Chang MC, et al: Mol Reprod Dev (1993) 36:507-516; Schuel H, et al: Mol
Reprod Dev (1991) 29:51-59; UPI of 15 December 1998; Reuters of 16
December 1998)
2.
New Zealand: Negative effects of marijuana have been overstated
After eight months of deliberation, a health select committee of the
parliament tabled its report into the mental health effects of cannabis
on 17 December, finding that the drug has probably been unduly
criticised. "Based on the evidence we have heard in the course of this
inquiry," the committee concluded, "the negative mental health impact of
cannabis appears to have been overstated, particularly in relation to
occasional adult users of the drug."
"Evidence received in the course of this inquiry has raised serious
doubts about commonly held beliefs about cannabis," wrote the committee.
But the committee has been careful that it does not underplay the
serious consequences of use of the drug for some people. "Moderate use
of the drug does not seem to harm the majority of people though we do
not deny the serious impact cannabis use may have on certain
individuals, particularly those with schizophrenia or those with a
vulnerability to psychotic illness."
The chairman of the committee, Brian Neeson, said the inquiry found that
there was inadequate research into some areas. "We are concerned that
cannabis use may accelerate the onset of schizophrenia in predisposed
individuals and may be a complicating factor in the treatment of people
with mental illnesses."
"Evidence received during the inquiry supports the view that there can
be subtle cognitive impairment in cannabis users," the report says. In
this respect, the committee drew to a large extent on the work of Prof.
Wayne Hall of the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre,
who was commissioned to report on scientific research in this area. He
found that long-term use of cannabis may cause subtle impairment in the
higher cognitive functions of memory, attention and the organisation and
integration of complex information. "Hall and the Health Funding
Authority pointed out that cannabis should be viewed as a lesser threat
to cognitive functioning than alcohol."
The committee said the evidence also suggested that cannabis did not
cause behavioural difficulties, rather that cannabis was frequently used
by youths who misbehaved. Neither was it a cause of suicide.
The 18 recommendations contained in the report call for increased
funding of research, particularly among Maori, and for greater provision
and coordination of services to help people seeking drug treatment. It
was also believed that a change in the law may help to draw more people
who need help. "Those who develop problems are less likely to seek help
because they use an illegal substance and may spiral into alienation,
anti-social behaviour, criminality, mental illness or violence."
(Source: New Zealand Herald from 18 December 1998)
3.
News in brief
***
Germany:
Until now, the "Frankfurt Resolution" for the medical use of marijuana
is supported by the AIDS support groups in Frankfurt/Main, Dusseldorf,
Cologne and Munich, akzept, Association f黵 Cannabis as Medicine,
Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (Federal AIDS support organization), German
Association for Epilepsy, German Society for Algesiology, German Society
for Drug and Addiction Medicine, German Society for Poliomyelitis,
SCHMERZtherapeutisches Kolloquium (Society of pain therapists).
***
Great Britain:
Britain's Prince Charles has expressed an interest in the effectiveness
of cannabis in relieving the pain of diseases such as multiple
sclerosis. During his annual visit to the Sue Ryder Home in Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire, the 50-year old heir to the throne asked
wheelchair-bound Karen Drake, who has MS: "Have you tried taking
cannabis? I have heard it's the best thing for it." A spokesman for the
Prince said that the conversation had been private: "If the Prince does
have a view on this matter, he is not making it known."
(Source: The Times of 24 December 1998, Reuters of 24 December 1998, PA
News of 23 December 1998)
***
Germany:
Health Minister Andrea Fischer is ready to take new steps in drug
policy. Among them are considerations to sell cannabis in pharmacies.
Through the free sale of small amounts of hashish in selected pharmacies
the markets for soft and hard drugs could be seperated, Fischer said.
This would be a fussy debate but the topic should be discussed less
excited in the future. The health spokesman of the Christian Democrats,
Wolfgang Lohman, strictly disagreed. A sale in pharmacies would be a
wrong signal to children and teenagers. Also, the chairman of the
federal organisation of physicians (Bundes鋜ztekammer), Dr. Karsten
Villmar, dismissed the considerations.
(Sources: Press release of the CDU/CSU Bundestag party of 23 December
1998, AP of 23 and 24 December 1998)
***
USA:
Will Foster will spend another Christmas in jail despite unanimous
approval from the state's parole board to release him. In 1997 an
Oklahoma jury sentenced Foster to 93 years in jail for cultivating
marijuana in a 25-square foot underground shelter and other lesser
marijuana-related charges. Foster maintains that he grew the marijuana
to alleviate the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. This fall, an appeals
court judge found Foster's sentence excessive and reduced the term to 20
years.
(Source: NORML of 22 December 1998)
***
ACM:
At http://www.acmed.org the new web site of the Association for Cannabis
as Medicine will be builded up.
4.
THE COMMENT
... in the course of the debate about Prince Charles question to a
multiple sclerosis sufferer
"We recognise that some people who use cannabis to relieve symptoms find
themselves on the wrong side of the law but we do not feel they should
be treated as criminals."
A spokesman of the UK Multiple Sclerosis Society, The Times of
24 December 1998
Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM)
Maybachstrasse 14
D-50670 Cologne
Germany
Fon: ++49-221-912 30 33
Fax: ++49-221-130 05 91
E-mail: ACMed@t-online.de
Internet: http://www.acmed.org
If you want to be deleted from or added to the email-list please send a
message to: ACMed@t-online.de
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[End]
to the 1998 Daily News index for Dec. 24-31