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UPma 06/10/93 Anti-drug programs needed in high schools, researchers say
By TERRI VERMEULEN
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (UPI) -- A study released Thursday shows that children
soon forget the lessons learned in anti-drug programs when they enter high
school, where they need continuing reinforcement and "boosters."
The study of 3,500 junior high and high school students was conducted over 10
years by researchers with the RAND Corp., a Santa Monica think tank. It found
the lessons taught by anti-drug programs are often forgotten in high school,
where the programs stop.
The study said "teenagers need continued and strong reinforcement to resist
drugs" and recommended anti-drug programs for high school.
"It's probably naive to expect that the lessons students learn during junior
high are going to protect them in the high school setting, " lead researcher
Phyllis Ellickson said. "We have to provide boosters."
The study found that positive impacts of lessons on cigarette and marijuana
use had disappeared by the time students reached the ninth grade.
The study, which appears in the June issue of the American Journal of Public
Health, found that the anti-drug programs reduced cigarette and marijuana use by
junior high school students.
The study concluded that 11 50-minute anti-drug lessons substantially helped
seventh and eighth graders develop the motivation and skills to resist peer
pressure to smoke cigarettes or marijuana. They said the lessons had little
effect on alcohol consumption.
"The value of drug prevention would be greatly enhanced if we could maintain
those benefits after the transition to high school," the report's authors said.
"Making the effort to do so becomes even more important when we consider the
difficulty of achieving and sustaining behavior change once a habit has set in.
Very few adults are able to quit smoking on the first try."
The study, called Project ALERT, monitored students passing through 30
California and Oregon schools with anti-drug programs.
UPwe 06/10/93 Pot smokers run risk of illness, injury, study shows
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- Daily marijuana smokers who abstain from tobacco run a
higher risk of illness and injury than non-users, researchers reported
Wednesday.
In an article published in the Western Journal of Medicine, scientists noted
this was the first study to compare the medical records of heavy pot users who
did not indulge in tobacco with those of people who smoked neither.
The study of 900 subjects found those who used marijuana frequently suffered
a 19 percent greater risk of respiratory illnesses, such as colds, flus and sore
throats than non-smokers.
In addition the pot group stood a 32 percent greater chance for injuries and
9 percent higher odds for non-respiratory disease, the study showed.
"Daily marijuana smoking appears to be associated with respiratory conditions
even among persons who never smoked tobacco," the authors wrote.
"Frequent marijuana use also appears to be intimately linked to alcohol
consumption as a risk factor for injuries and other non- respiratory medical
care."
The researchers surveyed 452 heavy marijuana users who did not smoke tobacco
and 450 people who inhaled neither. All were patients at Kaiser Permanente's
Oakland or San Francisco medical centers between 1979 and 1985. The groups were
matched by age, race, gender and socioeconomic status.
"To assess the health risks of heavy marijuana smoking, we excluded persons
who also smoked tobacco," said study co-author Michael Polen of the
Kaiser-Permanente Centers of Health Research in Portland, Ore. "We did this to
get a clearer view of the problem."
One odd finding, he said, was that those who smoked marijuana for more than
10 years reported fewer respiratory illnesses.
"It may be long-term marijuana smokers are 'survivors' of a selection process
in which people prone to respiratory illnesses were more likely to quit
smoking," Polen said.
Nevertheless, marijuana users of more than 15 years were twice as likely to
sustain injuries as non-smokers, possibly because the pot smokers consumed more
alcohol, the researchers said.
WP 06/11/93 Traffickers Take On Salinas in Court
Lawyers Tying Redistribution of Seized Lands in Legal Knots
By Tod Robberson
Washington Post Foreign Service
HERMOSILLO, Mexico - Here in the arid desert of northwestern Mexico, drug
lords are using legal courtroom tactics, and allegedly bribery as well, to
thwart a popular program of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to redistribute
land confiscated in drug raids.
Nearly 1,000 peasant families have benefited from the program, according to
farm workers' organizations here.
The drug traffickers are fighting the program in court, claiming their
constitutional rights have been violated. If they succeed in their challenges,
federal police may be ordered to drive off the new landholders, according to
lawyers, law enforcement officials and members of Salinas's Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI).
"It is almost certain that all of the judgments will go in favor of the
narcotics traffickers," said Roberto Diaz Gallardo, head of a PRI-sponsored farm
workers' organization. "The easiest solution for all would be for the government
to pay for the land and let the campesinos stay." A high official in the state
party concurred, saying the issue was damaging the president.
Since taking office in 1989, Salinas has handed over to peasants an estimated
865,000 acres of land confiscated by federal police during raids on marijuana,
cocaine and heroin trafficking operations throughout the country.
Legal experts say Mexican law forbids the government to transfer title or
permit third parties to use any property seized in a criminal action as long as
the case is under court review. By repeatedly filing appeals, which can be tied
up in the courts for years, lawyers for convicted drug traffickers are able to
retain their property.
The tactics being employed by Mexican drug lords, which allegedly include
bribery of federal judges and other law enforcement personnel to obtain
protection from prosecution, represent a formidable long-term challenge to
Salinas's efforts to control narcotics trafficking, according to U.S. and
Mexican law enforcement officials.
Lawyers representing jailed drug cartel leader Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo
have obtained court orders for the return of hundreds of millions of dollars'
worth of merchandise confiscated in connection with narcotics-trafficking
activities. Felix Gallardo, who is awaiting sentencing for complicity in the
1985 torture-murder of U.S. drug enforcement agent Enrique Camarena, has been
able to recover seized hotels, restaurants, ranches, executive airplanes and
dozens of vehicles, a Mexican law enforcement official said.
Other cartel leaders have had similar successes getting their property
returned, the official said, acknowledging that some corrupt federal judges have
helped speed the process.
Salinas stated in a May 1989 speech announcing his confiscation program that
"those who commit crimes against the well-being of Mexicans must know that we
will use all the force of the state to fight them, and that the property they
have acquired through illicit activity will be recovered as the patrimony of the
Mexican people."
During an April 1990 visit here in Sonora, an isolated desert region
identified by U.S. drug enforcement agents as one of the primary smuggling
points for drugs entering the United States, Salinas declared, "I pledge to you:
the land of narcotics traffickers will be placed at the disposal of the peasants
of Sonora."
With that, the government encouraged the peasants to take over 130,000 acres
of confiscated land, backed by a public pledge from Salinas to help them gain
legal title. Now, almost all of that land is in legal limbo because of the
traffickers' court challenges.
"The government violated the rights of the alleged narcotics traffickers when
it gave away their land to the peasants," said Jorge Pesqueira, a Hermosillo
criminal law professor who has previously represented accused drug dealers.
"Narcotics traffickers have constitutional rights, too."
Salinas has acknowledged that traffickers may be winning the court battle
over their confiscated land but says the government is trying to fight back.
"The federal judiciary has the power to overturn the president's action,"
Hermosillo federal judge Rosa Martha Valenzuela said in an interview. "I think
he was ill-informed by his aides" in handing over the land, she added.
Valenzuela was arrested by federal police late last week in connection with a
nationwide probe of local and federal judges suspected of providing judicial
assistance to the nation's top drug cartels. She is now in jail in Mexico City,
according to newspaper reports.
In interviews, several peasants said they have been unable to obtain credit
for farm supplies because banks will not accept their land as collateral, and
now they face the prospect of going broke.
Isidrio Leyva, who shares a 950-acre ranch with 30 other peasants, expressed
fears that drug traffickers could force them off their land at any time, either
by court order or by the threat of violence.
At a farm near Leyva's, attorneys representing reputed drug dealers have
ordered two dozen peasants to vacate, even though the land was confiscated by
the government with hundreds of acres of marijuana growing on it. The original
owners reportedly are now trying to sell the property to third parties.
Enrique Carrera Vega, head of the Central Workers' Union of Sonora, said that
in 1990, 60 armed men presumably sent by narcotics traffickers entered a
government-confiscated ranch, attacked peasants living there and burned their
houses.
Local PRI officials and leaders of peasant farm organizations warn that a
harsh political backlash is brewing - not against the drug traffickers but
against Salinas.
APn 06/14/93 Smuggler Appointed
By DAVID SHARP
Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- A drug smuggler who masterminded shipments of 11 tons
of marijuana will have plenty to show for himself when he wraps up his five-year
sentence, which requires him to care for dying AIDS patients.
Living in the comfort of his home -- instead of a federal prison with his
co-conspirators -- Harvey Prager started a family, attended the Maine Law School
and earned himself a coveted clerkship to the Maine Supreme Court.
Many Mainers say Prager has had it too easy. Worse yet, critics say the care
for Prager's dying wards was substandard.
"I think he got off pretty easy," says Joanne Miller, a nurse who contends
Prager did as little work as possible while she was briefly assigned to his
home. "Crime pays in his case."
Prager, 46, who pleaded guilty in 1988, has refused to comment until he
completes his sentence in October. His appointment as $27,000-a-year law clerk
to the state Supreme Court begins next year, upon completion of his third year
of law school.
Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood called Prager's appointment "an insult
to the people of Maine and to the memory of every police officer who has lost
his or her life in an effort to curb the flow of drugs into this country."
The public outrage prompted the current Legislature to introduce a
last-minute bill to keep convicted felons sentenced to a year or more in prison
from being admitted to the bar.
State Rep. Judith Foss, R-Yarmouth, said it was ironic that the Legislature
sets no moral standards for lawyers, while state laws establish strict standards
for other licensed professionals.
Some care-givers and advocates for people with AIDS are angry about Prager's
sentence.
Ms. Miller said Prager sometimes left AIDS patients alone and forgot to give
them medicine. On several occasions, she said, she found Prager's wards lying in
their own waste because he hadn't bothered to check on them.
Paul Roderick, an AIDS patient who went to live with Prager in 1989, spoke
bitterly of conditions at Prager's home on a videotape made shortly before he
died that year.
"This boy is very discouraged with his life. He hasn't got a decent place to
live," a gaunt Roderick says on the tape. "I only have two months to live and
I'll be damned if I'm going to live in Harvey Prager's basement."
But Prager also has staunch supporters, who say his compassion was
heartwarming, his commitment steadfast.
"I have nothing but good things to say about Harvey," said Mary Loving, a
registered nurse who worked at Prager's house in 1990. "I just feel, as much as
I hate the use of illegal drugs, that he had a trial and is carrying out his
sentence."
Ms. Loving said the basement room used by AIDS patients at Prager's first
home was dark, but that Prager rented a new house and fixed up the first floor.
She says he was a tireless worker and a jokester who made his wards smile.
"I think he'd be a great nurse," Ms. Loving said. "It's too bad that he
didn't study to be a doctor instead of a lawyer."
Prager's attorney, Julian Sweet, said Prager sometimes worked 80-hour weeks
and personally cleaned up his wards' blood and body wastes.
Prager seemed an unlikely drug dealer. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
Bowdoin College, a private liberal arts school in Brunswick. He attended Harvard
graduate school but dropped out.
After refurbishing a boat with friends, he found there was big money to be
made by transporting marijuana.
Prager was considered the brains behind several drug shipments from Colombia.
He had more than $1 million in assets worldwide when a federal indictment turned
him into a fugitive. He was arrested in 1987 in London, where he had met his
future wife, a French woman.
Prager lobbied for his unusual punishment, saying that treating AIDS patients
in his home might be more difficult than jail.
U.S. District Judge Gene Carter approved Prager's punishment but sentenced
his co-conspirators -- George Moran and James E. Henry -- to prison terms of
eight and nine years, respectively.
Dr. Owen Pickus, an AIDS specialist, endorsed Prager's quest for an
alternative sentence in 1988. Now he questions Prager's sincerity.
He said Prager has been living the good life with trips to Paris, membership
in the city's most expensive health club and enough free time to raise a
daughter, now 3 years old, and attend law school.
The doctor says those activities aren't consistent with the around-the-clock
care needed for his wards.
"I feel like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. I created this monster,"
Pickus said of his endorsement. "And I feel that the monster should be killed
even if he takes Dr. Frankenstein down with him."
UPn 06/15/93 Drug agents find two tons of marijuana in cargo of frozen spinach
McALLEN, Texas (UPI) -- U.S. Customs agents in the Rio Grande Valley said
Tuesday they discovered a 4,100-pound cache of marijuana concealed in a cargo of
frozen spinach when they searched a tractor trailer.
Vince Klink, resident agent in charge of the McAllen Customs office, said
three men had been under surveillance for several days. Agents stopped the truck
after the suspects were observed consolidating their cargo containers in the
McAllen area.
After the truck was stopped, agents arrested Aurelio Garcia, Jr., a
29-year-old U.S. citizen and Alfredo Gutierrez-Hernandez, 30, and Miguelo
Sosa-Badillo, 26, both Mexican nationals.
Klink said that along with the two tons of marijuana, agents also seized
$17,000 from one of the suspects, and the spinach, valued at $30, 000.
He estimated the marijuana's street value at $800 per pound.
A search warrant executed Tuesday at the warehouse where the truck was loaded
resulted in the seizure of an additional 2,700 pounds of marijuana in the cold
storage area of the warehouse.
The suspects were held for arraignment before a federal magistrate.
APn 06/15/93 Drug Seizures
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Customs agents in Florida searched a professor's new
$24,000 sailboat for drugs. In seven hours, they found nothing but damaged the
boat so thoroughly, it had to be sold for scrap.
A disabled Kentucky retiree was acquitted on state charges after police found
500 marijuana plants on his farm, but he was forced to pay the federal
government $12,500 to get his confiscated property back.
Conservative Rep. Henry J. Hyde cited these examples Tuesday, as he proposed
restrictions on government seizure of property in suspected drug cases. In doing
so, he teamed up with the liberal American Civil Liberties Union.
The Illinois Republican told a news conference that money and other property
is being taken "in terribly unjust ways" under civil law -- often from those
never charged with drug crimes.
He introduced legislation to curtail this method of pursuing drug profits and
obtaining money for use by law enforcement agencies.
Under current law, authorities only need to show "probable cause" that
property was used illegally in order to seize it. The owner must then prove his
or her innocence to get it back.
ACLU President Nadine Strossen joined Hyde at the news conference to back his
bill. But she also called civil forfeiture unconstitutional and proposed its
abolition, because the burden of proof is on the defendant.
Hyde, who would not endorse abolition, said his bill would:
--Require the government to prove by clear and convincing evidence that an
asset was purchased with the profits of crime or was used in committing a crime.
--Provide a lawyer for those who can't afford one but want to challenge a
civil forfeiture. Currently there is no right to appointed counsel in these
cases.
--Abolish the requirement that a property owner post bond to contest a
seizure.
--Clarify that lack of consent to illegal activity is a valid defense to
forfeiture.
"Nothing less than the sanctity of private property is at stake here," Hyde
said. "This is unjust; this is abusive, and it must be addressed."
Hyde said he might have a tough time selling fellow conservatives on the need
for the legislation, since the money from seizures goes into a fund used for law
enforcement which had $531 million in deposits last year.
But Strossen said no one can accuse Hyde, a strong backer of anti-drug
measures, of being soft on crime.
Strossen said civil forfeiture, used since 1984, "has become a nightmare for
thousands of ordinary, law-abiding citizens" who are subject to "Draconian
property deprivations."
Also backing the legislation was Nancy Hollander, president of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
She said authorities have focused their forfeitures on "minor participants
and innocent people, not big drug dealers."
Hollander said that forfeiture revenues "have assumed an indispensable role
in law enforcement budgets, creating a situation in which seizure targets are
sometimes selected by the bounty available to the enforcement agency ...."
APn 06/15/93 Lebanon-Narcotics
By RIMA SALAMEH
Associated Press Writer
DEIR AL-AHMAR, Lebanon (AP) -- Hundreds of acres of marijuana and opium
fields in the Bekaa Valley, a major narcotics-growing region, have been
destroyed in a government crackdown, security sources said today.
The fields, which produced about 5 tons of heroin and 700-800 tons of hashish
a year, were plowed under by the growers themselves after the government gave
them until dawn today to do so or face military action.
The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that by
daybreak 90 percent of the narcotics crop in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa in
eastern Lebanon had been eradicated in a campaign that began May 10.
The damage to Lebanon's narcotics trade, worth an estimated $500 million a
year, is part of the campaign by Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's Syrian-backed
government to stamp out corruption and crime that flourished during the 1975-90
civil war.
Reporters visiting areas around Baalbek and the neighboring Hermel and Deir
al-Ahmar regions today saw vast tracts of bulldozed marijuana and opium fields
along a 35-mile stretch of Lebanon's eastern border with Syria.
Marijuana is the base for hashish, and heroin is made from opium poppies.
The security sources said they expected the remaining 10 percent of the
narcotics-growing fields to be bulldozed by growers soon.
Syrian and Lebanese soldiers patrolled the region today verifying the
destruction of the fields.
The sources said the Syrians had arrested more than 40 narcotics smugglers
and hashish growers. Eleven of the men were taken to Damascus, the Syrian
capital, and executed, the sources said.
Sixteen illegal ports, used by smugglers since the war broke out, have been
blown up in northern Lebanon and several makeshift bridges along contraband
trails on both sides of the 250-mile Lebanon-Syria border have been dynamited.
UPce 06/15/93 Hyde proposes changes in property seizure law
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., says law enforcement agencies
have used asset forfeiture laws to seize the property of innocent victims.
The veteran Republican Congressman Monday introduced legislation to reform
property seizure laws that have been increasingly used by police agencies to
since the 1980s to confiscate ill-gotten goods of drug traffickers.
"The federal government confiscates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in
cash intended for drug buys and the sale of cars, boats and homes used by drug
traffickers in their business dealings," Hyde said. "This money is being plowed
back into law enforcement, something I find wholly proper."
However, Hyde cited several cases in which property seizure laws have been
used against innocent people. In one case, Jacksonville University professor
Craig Klein's new $24,000 sailboat was damaged beyond repair during a search by
U.S. Customs Agents.
The boat's engine was chopped up with a fire ax, its fuel tank ruptured, 30
holes were drilled in the hull and the boat finally was sold for scrap.
In another incident, the federal government tried to seize the farm of Delmar
Puryear after police found five marijuana plants growing on the property. A juey
acquitted the retiree on state criminal charges, but federal prosecutorsrefused
to drop efforts to seize his 37-acre farm until he agreed to pay $12,500.
"One the darker side, some of our civil asset seizure laws are being used in
terribly unjust ways and depriving innocent citizens of their property
withnothing that can be called due process," Hyde said.
"We cannot continue to unjustly take assets from property owners unlucky
enough to be caught up in civil forfeiture proceedings."
Hyde's Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act is endorsed by the American Civil
Liberities Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
[untitled - Schwarzenegger inhaled]
------
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Kindergarten Cop enjoys changing diapers, the Terminator
cries at movies, the Last Action Hero admits he's inhaled. What other surprises
could Arnold Schwarzenegger have in store?
Just that he doesn't care whether his next baby, due in October, is his third
daughter or first son.
"Before I got my first child I did want to have a boy," Schwarzenegger told
US magazine for its July issue. "But with the joy I have with my two daughters,
now it's irrelevant."
Schwarzenegger, 45, says changing diapers is fun. "All of a sudden all those
things that normally gross you out, they don't gross you out at all," he said.
Schwarzenegger also said he sometimes cries at movies, including "Field of
Dreams" and "Malcolm X."
And yes, he has smoked marijuana but never very much. "I mean, you can't go
stoned to the gym, because it won't work."
APn 06/15/93 Ginsburg-Writings
By The Associated Press
Some of Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg's legal views, both on and
off the bench at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia:
Court of Appeals ruling on June 20, 1989, in Carl Eric Olsen vs. Drug
Enforcement Administration:
Olsen, a priest of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, sought federal approval
for church members to use marijuana as a religious sacrament. The court of
appeals ruled against Olsen in an opinion written by Ginsburg.
"We hold that the First Amendment's free exercise of religion guarantee does
not require the requested exception, and that petitioner (Olsen) was not denied
equal protection-establishment clause rights by the government's refusal to
accommodate his church's sacramental use of marijuana.
"We conclude that the DEA cannot accommodate Olsen's religious use of
marijuana without unduly burdening or disrupting enforcement of the federal
marijuana laws."
------
Court of Appeals decision on Jan. 8, 1993, in U.S. vs. Cornell Foster:
In an opinion written by Ginsburg, the court reversed Foster's conviction of
possession of crack cocaine with intent to sell. The court said the trial judge
erred in limiting defense questioning of a police officer.
"Suppose the defense had had the opportunity to probe (the police officer)
further and to highlight the fact that ... (the officer had given) no
explanation why Foster, the alleged drug dealer caught moments after making
sales, had very little cash in his possession. Whatever else was in the record,
could a rational trier of fact be left with a reasonable doubt whether Foster
was in truth one of the drug dealers (the officer) observed? We cannot answer
that question, definitely `no."'
------
UPma 06/16/93 Seven arrested in pot bust
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) -- Six Philadelphia area men were rounded up Wednesday for
allegedly trafficking more than one ton of marijuana, said a spokeswoman with
the Drug Enforcement Administration.
DEA spokeswoman Mary Vaira said a seventh suspect was arrested while in
custody on other charges.
A federal grand jury in May handed down an 11-count indictment charging 13
men, including two employees of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation
Authority, with conspiracy to distribute and possession to distribute more than
1,000 kilograms of marijuana.
There are 2.2 pounds per kilogram and Vaira said one pound of marijuana has a
street value of at least $1,200.
Vaira said the other suspects were still at large, although two or three
suspects were expected to surrender to federal authorities Thursday.
Those arrested were SEPTA workers Dennis Foster, 36, of Mt. Laurel, N.J. and
James Felder, 41, of Franklinville, N.J.; and Michael Madison, 32; James
Riordan, 34; Anthony Moses, 26, all of Philadelphia; and Kenneth Spector, 27, of
Holland, Bucks County. Frank Geist, 41, of Philadelphia was already in custody.
If convicted, the men face a minimun mandatory sentence of 10 years, plus
fines.
UPwe 06/17/93 Madera County rewarded for big pot bust
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney Robert Twiss announced Thursday the
federal government had given the Madera County Sheriff's Department $42,583 for
its role in a major marijuana bust.
Twiss said the money came from the sale of property seized after a Sheriff's
Department narcotics team uncovered a marijuana cultivation operation in
Oakhurst Aug. 18, 1990.
The bust netted 118 marijuana plants and pieces of property belonging to
Edward and Robert Guidi, who were sentenced to 180 days of house arrest,
community service and felony probation.
Edward Guidi was also ordered to pay the government $40,000 to keep his
property while his brother's property was sold at auction.
UPwe 06/18/93 Agents net 1,935 pot plants, $37,300 in cash
LAYTONVILLE, Calif. (UPI) -- Mendocino County officials said Friday they have
busted a major marijuana growing operation, confiscating 1,935 pot plants and
$37,300 in cash and arresting two suspects.
Sgt. Ray Caudillo, spokesman for the county Marijuana Eradication Team, said
raids were undertaken Thursday in Laytonville, Willits and Santa Rosa.
At one Laytonville site, the agents discovered a home that had been converted
into a large nursey. The building was full of marijuana plants ranging from 4 to
20 inches tall.
"The cabin had been completely converted to grow nothing but dope," Caudillo
said. "It was everywhere -- upstairs and downstairs."
Along with the currency, the agents also confiscated electrical growing
lights, tools and a vehicle, all worth about $78,000.
Arrested were Bruce Linder, 45, and Joseph Rodriguez, 32, both of
Laytonville. A third suspect was arrested, but later released.
------
"In Canada, they have a new prime minister, she's a woman. This is
interesting. She has posed nude. She's smoked marijuana. She's called the
Madonna of Canadian politics. I can't wait to see that first summit with Bill
Clinton, huh? That is gonna be some party."
------
UPce 06/21/93 Thirty arrested in alleged drug ring
MADISON, Wis. (UPI) -- Thirty people have been arrested in an investigation
of what Attorney General James Doyle calls a major cocaine and marijuana
trafficking ring.
Doyle said a two and a half year investigation involving several law
enforcement agencies has shown drugs coming into central Wisconsin and the Fox
Valley in monthly shipments from Mexico.
Doyle said 40 ounces of very high quality cocaine worth $113,400 and 104
pounds of marijuana worth $400,000 has been seized, along with 10 vehicles,
$40,000 in cash and numerous weapons.
Seventeen of the 30 were arrested over the weekend, including people from
Texas and Wisconsin. Doyle said more arrests are likely.
"A major pipeline for drugs into central Wisconsin and the Fox Valley has
been smashed," Doyle said in a press release.
APn 06/22/93 National Briefs
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A man convicted of drug and bombing charges told a federal
appeals court Tuesday that he is being denied timely parole because he once
claimed to have sold marijuana to former Vice President Dan Quayle.
Brett Kimberlin asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to free him from
a prison in Memphis, Tenn., arguing that the U.S. Parole Commission was
vindictive in keeping him locked up a year longer than he expected.
In 1980, Kimberlin began a 51-year sentence for drug conspiracy and eight
bombings in Indiana that prosecutors said were to divert attention from his
illicit schemes. A man's leg was torn away when one of the bombs exploded.
Kimberlin's first parole hearing in July 1988 won him a release set for
February this year. Then, just before the presidential election in November
1988, Kimberlin claimed he sold pot to Quayle in the 1970s. Quayle denied it.
Right after the election, Kimberlin's release date was postponed until 1998,
but was later rolled back to February 1994.
Kimberlin "is straining to find some evidence of vindictiveness," said
Richard Preston, a lawyer for the parole commission.
------
RTw 06/22/93 TROOPS DESTROY CANNABIS FIELDS IN EASTERN LEBANON
BTIDEE, Lebanon, June 22, Reuter - Lebanese police said on Tuesday troops
had destroyed about half the 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of cannabis growing in
eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in the past two weeks.
Bekka police chief Brigadier Fawzi Sema'an told reporters the joint
Syrian-Lebanese drive to wipe out the growing of drugs in Lebanon would continue
"until the last plant is eradicated."
"We will not allow the cultivation of any kind of narcotic crops from now
on," said Sema'an, adding that Lebanese troops and police and Syrian soldiers
would plough the fields under.
Troops and police on Tuesday ploughed under fields of cannabis, from which
hashish and marijuana are derived, around Btidee village in the in Deir al-Ahmar
area of the Bekaa valley.
Officers said they would move on to the remote Hermel region to the
northeast of Btidee later on Tuesday.
Sema'an said villagers would be punished if they were found growing drugs.
Villagers in the Bekaa Valley, a lawless region during much of Lebanon's
1975-90 civil war, have appealed to the government in Beirut to help find a crop
to replace lucrative narcotics.
Western diplomats say it will be virtually impossible to stamp out drugs
cultivation in the Bekaa Valley by force as growers can still plant in areas
rarely visited by authorities.
Lebanese and Syrian troops cracked down on the smuggling of goods, food and
cigarettes from eastern Lebanon to Syria last month. Diplomatic sources said the
sweep continued in Syria this month.
REUTER HHH PWS JA
APn 06/23/93 Drug Use
By CHRISTOPHER CONNELL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Illegal drug use is off sharply among American teen-agers
and adults with one glaring exception: those 35 and older.
Those were the key findings from an annual survey on drug abuse released
Wednesday by federal health officials.
Some 11.4 million Americans age 12 or older were classified as current users
of illegal drugs in 1992, down 11 percent from almost 13 million drug users a
year earlier. That means they had used drugs in the month before the survey.
The number has been declining steadily since 1979, when the same survey
indicated that 24 million Americans had used illicit drugs.
Adults 35 and older -- including the baby boomers who grew up in the
permissive 1960s -- are bucking the trend. Use of drugs in that age group is the
same now as it was back in 1979.
The older adults now comprise 23 percent of illegal drug users, compared to
just 10 percent in 1979.
The number of current cocaine users plummeted 31 percent from 1.9 million in
1991 to 1.3 million in 1992. The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, which conducted the survey, said that was down from a
peak of 5.8 million in 1985.
Occasional cocaine use -- less than once a month -- was down by 900,000, to
3.4 million. But the number of frequent users -- at least weekly -- stood
unchanged at 640,000.
Marijuana remains the illegal drug of choice, used by 78 percent of those who
tried illegal drugs in 1992.
An estimated 98 million Americans drank alcohol in the month before the
survey; 10 million were defined as heavy drinkers -- five or more drinks on five
or more days in the past 30 days.
The survey also indicated that 54 million Americans, or 26 percent of the
population, were cigarette smokers. Some 7.5 million used smokeless tobacco.
Other statistics:
--Six percent of 12-to-17-year-olds were current users of illegal drugs; 13
percent of 18-to-25-year-olds and 10 percent of 26-to-34-year-olds used drugs.
--Most illegal drug users were white (8.7 million or 76 percent); 14 percent
were black (1.6 million); 8 percent were Hispanic (900,000).
--More men than women used illicit drugs: 7.1 percent versus 4.1 percent.
--Almost 21 percent of unemployed 18-to-34-year-olds were illegal drug users,
nearly double the rate for those with jobs.
The survey was based on in-person interviews of 28,832 people who were
promised confidentiality.
UPsw 06/23/93 Court rules DPS roadblock unconstitutional
AUSTIN, Texas (UPI) -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday
that a Department of Public Safety roadblock -- where troopers randomly checked
motorists' driver's licence and insurance -- was unconstitutional.
The ruling came on a motion by Juan Enrique Sanchez to suppress evidence in a
drug case obtained by four DPS troopers at a roadblock on U.S. Highway 59 near
Victoria on the morning of April 30, 1987.
According to the evidence, Sanchez was stopped along with all other
northbound traffic at the roadblock, where DPS troopers were checking driver's
licenses and proof of insurance. After brief questioning, the officers
discovered more the 50 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of Sanchez's car.
Sanchez, who was indicted on charges of unlawful possession of marijuana,
filed a motion to suppress the evidence on grounds that it was "the fruit of an
allegedly illegal search."
A trial court granted the motion, ruling that the checkpoint stop was not
authorized by law and was, therefore, illegal. However, the 13th Court of
Appeals in Corpus Christi reversed the ruling. The appeals court said that such
roadblocks were not prohibited by state law and were reasonable under the Fourth
Amendment right against unwarranted search and seizure.
In its ruling Wednesday, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the Corpus
Christi court, saying it erred in concluding that the stop was reasonable.
The court said the DPS troopers set up the roadblock on their own initiative
without following standardized guidelines and without the authorization or
guidance of a superior officer.
The court also noted that the state offered no evidence demonstrating the
effectiveness of the roadblock in identifying violators, as required by the U.S.
Supreme Court in similar cases.
The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of law enforcement
roadblocks in random checks for drunken drivers, but the Court of Criminal
Appeals said the DPS roadblock did not meet the Supreme Court's test.
UPma 06/23/93 Lawyer says parole board broke its own rules
CINCINNATI (UPI) -- A lawyer for a prisoner who claimed to have sold
marijuana to former Vice President Dan Quayle in the early 1970s says the
federal parole commission violated its own rules in the prisoner's case.
The case was argued before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.
Rene Todd, arguing on behalf of Brett Kimberlin, now an inmate at a federal
prison in Memphis, Tenn., said Kimberlin, among other things, was being detained
because of his Quayle allegations.
Kimberlin was sentenced to 51 1/2 years for bombings, a drug conspiracy,
impersonating a federal officer and other crimes in the 1970s.
A parole examiner recommended releasing Kimberlin in February 1993 but the
U.S. Parole Commission decided Kimberlin had to stay in prison until February
1998.
That ruling was successfully challenged and he became eligible for immediate
parole, and the commission decided to release Kimberlin in February 1994.
Richard Preston, the government attorney, said Todd was "straining" to find
an issue and in the sole allusion to the Quayle allegations, said there was no
evidence of vindictiveness.
Regardless of how quickly the court rules on the appeal, it may not make much
difference as he is to be released to a halfway house in August, and freed in
February.
RTw 06/25/93 EC TO AID LEBANON IN DRUGS CRACKDOWN
BEIRUT, June 25, Reuter - The European Community promised on Friday to aid
Lebanon in its campaign to stamp out drugs growing and trafficking which
flourished during 15 years of civil war.
Interior Minister Beshara Merhej told reporters after talks with European
Community representatives that all illegal crops, mainly cannabis, were being
destroyed by troops and police.
"All these crops are either destroyed or in the course of destruction...We
are trying our best now to go all over the places and destroy whatever is found
of illicit crops there."
Merhej said his talks with the ambassadors of Britain, France, Spain,
Germany and Belgium would produce results.
"They will go on with their programme to help Lebanon fight this social
disease," said Merhej, adding that EC aid to end drugs production would be
channelled through U.N. agencies.
Merhej said the government was now focusing on introducing alternative
crops in cooperation with the U.N. and Europe.
In the last three weeks Syrian and Lebanese forces have destroyed hundreds
of acres (hectares) of cannabis in the Bekaa Valley, a lawless region during
much of the 1975-90 civil war.
Authorities arrested six villagers in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday for
failing to destroy their cannabis crops.
Hashish and marijuana are derived from cannabis.
Official sources said senior officers with the international police
organisation Interpol were currently visiting Beirut to increase coordination to
counter drugs trafficking from Lebanon.
They were expected to visit the Bekaa Valley to check on the eradication
campaign.
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UPce 06/28/93 Mixed reaction to evidence ruling
PONTIAC, Mich. (UPI) -- A ruling by an Oakland County judge that some
evidence may be used against criminal defendants even if it is obtained through
a legally defective search warrant is drawing mixed reviews.
If the ruling by Oakland Circuit Judge Hilda Gage is affirmed on appeal, it
wouls mark the first time Michigan has drawn an exception to the "exclusionary
rule" that attempts to deter police misconduct by excluding from trials
illegally obtained evidence.
In her ruling, which was finalized last week, Gage said the exclusionary rule
should not apply when police rely in "good faith" on a search warrant that later
turns out to be invalid.
She said the rule "was designed to deter police misconduct rather than to
punish the errors of judges and magistrates."
Patrick Shannon, president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of
Michigan, called the decision a "common sense" interpretation of the Fourth
Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
However, defense lawyers said the ruling would force courts to make a
difficult distinction between invalid searches that are willful and those that
are the result of an honest mistake.
"Conservative judges will grab onto this and find a reason to deny
individuals their Fourth Amendment rights," said Richard Lustig, who represented
the defendant before Gage.
The case involved a motorist who was stopped in January 1992 for a loud
muffler. Following a search of the man's car, to which he consented, South Lyon
police found marijuana and other drugs in the vehicle and then obtained a
warrant to search his apartment, where more drugs were found.
UPwe 06/30/93 Drug dogs don't violate Fourth Amendment
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- A federal appeals court ruled unanimously Wednesday
that a sniff by a dog trained to detect narcotics was not an illegal search
prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions of three
marijuana smugglers who were caught by federal drug agents who used the dog to
find nearly two tons of marijuana in a Southern California warehouse.
Ronald L. Lingenfelter, Gary Marolf and Lawrence Morgan appealed their drug
smuggling convictions on the grounds that the dog's sniff, which the agents used
to obtain a warrant to search the Costa Mesa, Calif., warehouse, was itself a
warrantless search.
They also contended that the dog sniff was not sufficient evidence to support
a search warrant, and that agents should not have seized their boat where
another 1,000 pounds of marijuana was found.
But the appeals court said the dog sniff did not implicate the Fourth
Amendment prohibition against illegal searches because the dog could only detect
contraband, for which there is no right of privacy.
The sniff could support a search warrant if the dog was reliable, the court
said, which was attested to by law enforcement personnel.
The court also said agents acted properly in seizing Marolf's boat without a
warrant since the boat could have been moved out of the area.
RTw 06/30/93 EX-MISS WORLD ARRESTED FOR DRUGS POSSESSION
JOHANNESBURG, June 30, Reuter - Former Miss World Anneline Kriel was
arrested at her Johannesburg home on Wednesday for possession of marijuana,
police said. They said Kriel was detained with her husband Philip Tucker.
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RTw 06/30/93 AMSTERDAM HASH CAFES ASKED TO STOP SALES
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Reuter - Dutch health authorities said Wednesday
they have asked Amsterdam's "coffee shops" that sell hashish cakes to take them
off the menu because eating the drug has highly unpredictable results.
The request followed an incident when three middle-aged Britons on a
business trip were taken to hospital with paranoid psychosis having unwittingly
consumed a cake laced with hashish after a visit to a diamond factory, a health
authority spokesman said.
"Imagine -- it's like drinking alcohol without knowing you're doing it or
ever having drunk it before," said Dirk van der Woude of Amsterdam. "If you
smoke, the effect is immediate but when you eat it, there's a delay and you
can't control how much you are taking in."
Though illegal, certain drugs for personal consumption are tolerated in the
Netherlands. Many Amsterdam cafes offer cannabis either to be smoked or eaten in
"special" cakes, but they are not allowed to advertise their wares.
This can often confuse the uninitiated, city health authorities said.
Cannabis sativa is the hemp plant whose leaves and flowers are used to make
marijuana and hashish.
The officials are also preparing leaflets to warn tourists of the hazards
of the so-called space-cakes and to help them distinguish between those coffee
shops that sell drugs and those that sell coffee and unspiked cakes.
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