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APn 07/07/95 Drug Agency Slayings
By BETH SILVER
Associated Press Writer
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) -- Sheriff's Deputy Jack Hudson was popular with his
colleagues, a rookie of the year, a member of an elite drug task force -- all in
all, the last man his boss expected to find on the other side of the law.
The 37-year-old former Marine is accused of shooting to death two fellow
lawmen who caught him after hours in the task force office as he tried to steal
confiscated guns and drugs.
Hudson was charged Friday with murdering Yuma police Lt. Dan Elkins and Sgt.
Mike Crowe of the state Department of Public Safety.
All three were members of the Southwest Border Alliance, a group of officers
from local, state and federal agencies fighting the drug trade around Yuma, on
the Arizona border with California and Mexico.
Hudson, who has a beard and long, scraggly hair he grew for his job as an
undercover officer, had a flawless record, said Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden.
"I wish I had 184 more files that looked like this," a teary-eyed Ogden said
Thursday. "If anything, he was the exemplary one out there, the one everyone
hung on, the one with the common sense."
Hudson came to the sheriff's office in 1992 after he was honorably discharged
as a Marine staff sergeant. He served three years as an air traffic controller
at the Corps' Air Station in Yuma.
He was charged with shooting his colleagues late Tuesday with a Mac-10
semiautomatic pistol after they surprised him trying to steal from the
task-force evidence room.
Crowe, 41, was shot three times in the back and pleaded, "Please don't shoot
me again," but the gunman jammed another magazine into his weapon and shot him
in the head, The Arizona Republic reported Friday, citing an unidentified
source.
Elkins, 42, escaped to make a 911 call before being gunned down.
Investigators wouldn't say how many times he was hit.
A third man, evidence technician Jim Ehrhart, escaped being shot, allegedly
because Hudson's pistol jammed.
Amphetamines, methamphetamines, marijuana and 18 firearms logged as task
force evidence were seized in a search of Hudson's home.
"It is apparent that Hudson was stealing evidence items from the property
room and offices at SBA to use as his own property," investigators said in court
papers.
Hudson was jailed on $15.5 million bail.
Police Chief Robby Robinson, in charge of the investigation, said earlier
reports that Elkins and Crowe were responding to a burglar alarm were wrong.
"Exactly what they were doing out there, we're still trying to figure out,"
he said.
Hudson's attorney, Mike Telep Jr., asked Friday to stop the release of any
more documents on the case, including Hudson's personnel records and records of
searches. Justice of the Peace Richard Donato said no further information would
be released until a hearing next Friday.
Telep said he may ask to have the case moved.
"This is a small community," he said. "This is a tight-knit law enforcement
community."
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are
not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not
spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the
genius of its scientists, the houses of its children."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower, April 16, 1953
APn 07/10/95 Clinton Threat-Arrest
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two District of Columbia men were held on charges of
manufacturing drugs in a house, which authorities discovered after one of them
allegedly threatened to kill President Clinton.
Secret Service spokesman Dave Adams said 44-year-old Barry Douglas Oliver and
the owner of the house, James Rapp, were arrested on charges of drug
manufacturing after agents traced Oliver's threatening phone call to a Northwest
Washington house shortly after 5 a.m. EDT Sunday.
There, authorities found more than 200 marijuana plants of various sizes
growing throughout the house and even on the roof.
The house was a sophisticated one-stop-shopping drug operation, where
psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana seedlings were cultivated, dried and
packaged, according to Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Pete
Gruden. Hydroponics paraphernalia were also discovered, he said.
Oliver also was charged with threatening the president's life.
The pair are to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court.
WRC-TV said Oliver was recorded on tape saying he had "a score to settle with
President Clinton" and that he planned to "cut him from ear to ear."
No changes were made in the president's itinerary on Sunday after the threat
was made. Adams said Clinton followed his customary Sunday routine, attending
church and later eating brunch on the terrace of a restaurant in the Georgetown
section of Washington.
"We get cases like this occasionally and threats on the president are
routinely investigated," Adams said, "although the drugs are sort of an unusual
twist."
07/10/95 Federal Financial Analysis of Legalization
The Federal financial analysis of legalization that I posted earlier
comes from Theodore R. Vallance, Former chief of the Planning Branch of the
National Institutes of Mental Health. His main professional effort for many
years was directed at just this sort of analysis. The analysis was
published in the 7-10-95 issue of National Review. For those who missed it
the first time, here it is again.
Federal financial analysis of "legalization"
Reductions (in millions of $) From To Saving
Direct Law Enforcement 13,203 3,300 9,903
*Interdiction costs 2,200 0 2,200
*International anti-drug 768 384 384
*OCDETF (Organized Crime & Drug 399 40 359
Enforcement Task Force)
ONDCP (the "drug czar") 69 17 52
Indirect Victims of Crime 842 210 632
Incarceration 4,434 887 3,547
Crime careers 13,976 2,679 11,297
__
Subtotal 28,374
Less increase in prevention research and service (3,572)
Less increase in treatment research and service (2,802)
Subtotal 22,000
Plus net income from drug taxes 15,000
Total 37,000
*1993 Figures.
PA 07/12/95 MINISTER REFUSES PLEA TO LEGALISE `MEDICINAL' CANNABIS
By Hamish Macdonell, Parliamentary Staff, PA News
The Government today rejected a call to legalise cannabis for medical uses
but promised to consider any findings from research into the matter.
Junior health minister John Bowis told the Commons: "It may be that specific
medical conditions could be improved by the use of cannabis but we need to look
very carefully at this before taking measures to allow its use as a prescribed
drug."
He added: "Nobody wants to see `reefers' being prescribed."
Mr Bowis was responding to a short debate on the issue in which Labour's Paul
Flynn, MP for Newport West, called for cannabis to be made a prescription drug
for treating conditions such as multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, the effects of
chemotherapy, cerebral palsy, spasms and terminal illnesses.
Mr Flynn said his views were shared by a large number of doctors and members
of the public.
He stressed he did not want to see the Government encourage smoking but said
cannabis could be taken in a number of different ways, including eating and
drinking.
"There has not been one single case of anybody being poisoned by it," Mr
Flynn said, noting there were other drugs currently under prescription which
were far more addictive and dangerous than cannabis.
He added that Queen Victoria took cannabis "every month of her adult life and
lived to a great age".
Mr Bowis replied he understood Mr Flynn's concerns but more research had to
be done before the rules could be changed.
He said current legislation did provide scope for research into the medical
uses of cannabis, as long as the proper licences were obtained.
Mr Bowis declared: "We are watching developments carefully."
RTw 07/13/95 Brazil cows die from marijuana overdoses
BRASILIA, Brazil, July 13 (Reuter) - A Brazilian cow and three heifers died
of drug overdoses from eating 88 pounds (40 (kilograms) of marijuana, a
newspaper reported on Thursday.
The capital's Correio Braziliense daily said foreman Paulo Sergio Goulart
found bricks of plastic-wrapped marijuana hidden in a farm pen near the southern
city of Porto Alegre. He thought they were a strong-smelling alfalfa and fed
them to the animals, wrapping and all.
The cow and heifers died on Saturday and a police drug unit and a
veterinarian confirmed the cause of death was marijuana overdoses.
"It was good that the cow wasn't giving milk. Just think, if you had drunk
it you would end up stoned," Goulart said.
REUTER
RTna 07/14/95 Gingrich calls for national drug referendum
By Michael Posner
PHILADELPHIA (Reuter) - House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for a national
referendum on legalizing drugs in a sweeping speech to Republicans Friday that
criticized the Clinton adminstration as the most incompetent in U.S. history.
The Georgia Republican, who has not ruled out a bid for his party's
presidential nomination, was the first speaker among eight presidential
candidates to address the Republican National Committee summer meeting.
In the most dramatic initiative by the first Republican speaker of the
House in 40 years, Gingrich called for a national vote on legalizing drugs or a
tough policy on drugs. He told reporters a vote would be 80 percent to 20
percent against legalization.
His address in Philadelphia outlined a conservative agenda that was
against welfare dependence, touched on crime and taxes and included an appeal
for a balanced budget that preserves Medicare and Social Security.
Gingrich also attacked Clinton and urged the death penalty for drug
importers and covert military training for besieged Bosnians.
Expressing disgust at the widespread use of such drugs as cocaine and
marijuana, Gingrich proposed that anyone -- Hollywood actor or Major League
baseball player -- should be required to perform two days of public service a
week for a year if caught with drugs. Those who miss a day of service should be
sentenced to five years in prison, the conservative leader added.
"Second, we ought to say flatly -- you import a commercial quantity of
drugs for the purpose of destroying our children, you will be killed," said
Gingrich.
"I say put it on the ballot and say either legalize them or get rid of
them," Gingrich said. "But quit playing the game that enrich the evil,
strengthens the violence, addicts our children and makes us look pathetic and
helpless."
He also offered advice to the Republican leaders who are to map a strategy
against Clinton for the 1996 election -- don't underestimate the president
despite what Gingrich said are his administration's shortcomings.
"We have the least competent, the least adult, the least structured, the
least disciplined, and least responsible administration, I think, probably in
our country's history," said Gingrich, not known for understatement.
"It is headed by a wonderfully engaging, patently glib terrifically good
talker, whose words have almost no meaning," he added.
"If we try to compete on their terms ... we could lose," he warned,
suggesting Republicans give Americans a choice on issues from crime to the
budget.
On the Bosnian crisis, Gingrich said there were 20 ways to resolve the
fighting without direct involvement of U.S. troops in the former Yugoslavia.
The suggestions included a covert training program to quickly increase
Bosnian troop strength and providing the Bosnians with target information and
selective weapons designed to "maximize pain to their opponents," he told
reporters later.
Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, in a three-way tie for second place
in polls behind Republican presidential nomination front-runner Bob Dole, also
warned Republicans not to underestimate Clinton.
Sounding a populist theme, Buchanan urged Republicans to regain the White
House by luring back blue-collar Democrats who supported Ronald Reagan, and
Republicans who defected to support independent Ross Perot in 1993.
UPma 07/18/95 Prison drug smuggling alleged
COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 18 (UPI) -- Ohio Highway Patrol investigators announced
Tuesday the arrests of four people in two separate incidents for allegedly
trying to smuggle illegal drugs into state prison facilities.
Three of the suspects were arrested Saturday after allegedly attempting to
take marijuana into the Pickaway Correctional Institution. The suspects, all
being held at Circleville City Jail, were identified as Andrea Mason, 19,
Lancaster; James Mills, 21, Columbus; and Deshawn Williams, 20, Columbus.
Investigators said evidence indicated the three suspects planned to toss
tennis balls stuffed with marijuana over a prison fence.
The fourth arrest, made Sunday, was that of Sameh Malkich, 28, of Broadview
Heights. He was arrested after being served with a search warrant as he entered
the Lorain Correctional Institution.
Malkich, being held in the Lorain County jail, is charged with conveying an
illegal drug, drug abuse, resisting arrest and simple assault. Officials said
they found 10 individually wrapped packages of cocaine in his possession when he
was arrested.
RTf 07/18/95 Australian state approves hemp trials
MELBOURNE, July 18 (Reuter) - The Australian state of Victoria has joined
the queue of Australian states planning to sample the potential of hemp -- a
crop better known for drug use -- in the production of paper, fabric, food and
other products.
The state's conservative Liberal-National Party government has authorised up
to 10 field trials over three years as part of a plan to revitalise rural
regions through the development of new industries producing value-added
products.
But Agriculture Minister Bill Baxter said state police, health and
agriculture officials would monitor the tests to ensure the hemp (cannabis
sativa) plants contained low levels of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the narcotic
component which gives marijuana and hashish smokers an illicit high.
"Applicants for permits will also have to undergo police checks and
demonstrate they can achieve satisfactory field site security," he said in a
statement.
Baxter said hemp, one of the world's oldest crops, could be used for
high-quality paper, fibre products such as chip board and blended fabrics and
food products. It is is being investigated in Australia as an alternative source
for newsprint, which is in short supply around the world. Four other states plan
trials to investigate hemp's commercial potential.
REUTER
AAP 07/18/95 VIC: FARMERS TO TAKE PART IN HEMP GROWING TRIALS
The Australian Associated Press
MELBOURNE, July 19 AAP - The Victorian government today offered farmers the
dope - if they'll supply the paper.
Agriculture Minister Bill McGrath today announced a trial farming project of
low grade hemp, promising that more potent strains of the crop would be
destroyed.
Already more than 100 farmers have applied to take part in the growing
trial.
Mr McGrath said quality paper and fibre products could be produced from the
hemp taking pressure off the logging industry.
"Hemp is a fast growing, renewable source of fibre which is currently being
investigated by the newsprint industry in Australia as an alternative source,"
he said.
Mr McGrath played down security concerns that the crop could be raided for
its drug value, as hemp grown for fibre contained extremely low levels of the
narcotic component THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and would be of no value to drug
users.
Cannabis used for drug purposes had a THC level of three to ten per cent,
while the Indian hemp to be trialled had less than 0.3 per cent THC.
"The trials should in no way be seen as decriminalising marijuana - we don't
want to give any support to the illicit drug trade," he said.
"Crops will be tested by the Forensic Science Centre throughout the trial
period, and if any plant exceeds 0.35 percent dry weight THC, the entire crop
will be destroyed under supervision.
"We must avoid the possibilty that trials could be used as a cover for
illegal cultivation of high-THC plants."
Mr McGrath said the hemp trials, to begin later this year, were part of the
Rural Victoria 2001 program, and offered significant economic benefits.
He had already received 100 submissions from farmers keen to participate in
the trial crops.
Applicants for permits would have to undergo police checks and provide
satisfactory field site security. Other criteria would include the location of
the proposed trial sites, which Mr McGrath said he was unable to reveal.
Farmers interested in applying can write to the Chief Drugs and Poisons
Officer, Department of Health and Community Services, GPO Box 4057 Melbourne
3001.
AAP jt/smc/sl/de
WP 07/18/95 Clinton Drug Chief Targets Marijuana
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Launching a new campaign against marijuana use, White House National Drug
Policy Director Lee P. Brown said yesterday that its dangers have been
overlooked for too long and that it now sends nearly as many people to the
hospital as cocaine.
Brown cited statistics compiled by the federal government's Drug Abuse
Warning Network that detail how marijuana-related emergency room cases have
nearly doubled in the last five years and are now recorded nearly as often as
cocaine -- although usually marijuana is still not found alone, but with
substances, like alcohol.
"These numbers rebut the notion that marijuana is a benign drug," Brown
said.
The figures match others nationally that show how the use of marijuana,
which law enforcement officials say is often much more potent today than it was
during the 1960s and 1970s, is increasing sharply after decades of decline.
A national survey last year by the University of Michigan's Institute for
Social Research, which has tracked drug use patterns for the past 20 years,
found that 13 percent of eighth-graders had experimented with marijuana in the
last year, about twice the level of three years ago. Also, nearly one of three
12th-graders said they had used marijuana at least once in the past year, an
increase from the previous two years.
Those trends are particularly apparent in the District, where court
officials say marijuana use among juveniles who have been arrested is soaring.
Statistics released this week show that a record 66 percent of all arrested
juveniles there tested positive for drug use in May -- and that 61 percent
tested positive for marijuana use.
At an afternoon conference with reporters, Brown said that his office is
making a new attempt to fight initiatives by some medical and political leaders
that consider the legalization of marijuana. Later this week, he said, federal
officials will send videos and brochures about the risks of the drug to schools
around the nation. And he again urged Republican leaders in Congress to abandon
plans to cut spending for several federal anti-drug programs whose value and
focus they have questioned.
Brown also assailed corporate leaders, none of whom he named specifically,
for what he called their increasing habit of packaging products children and
teenagers frequently buy -- such as gum or soda -- to look exactly like alcohol
or tobacco products.
He displayed soft drinks designed exactly like beer bottles, tea and fruit
drinks sold in flask bottles, and gum sold in tins and pouches identical to
those used for chewing tobacco. He also had board games named "Party 'Til You
Puke," and "Pass Out."
"Corporate America has to change its behavior," Brown said. "This kind of
seductive packaging has to stop." He added, however, that he had no empirical
evidence that there are more products being packaged this way today than existed
years ago.
Also yesterday, a new national survey on drug use showed adolescents aged
12 to 17 view it as the most serious problem that they face -- more than sex,
violence or their parents. The survey, conducted by the Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University, questioned 2,000 adults and 400
adolescents.
In the survey, more than 80 percent of 10th and 12th graders said
marijuana was easy to get; 54 percent said that cocaine or heroin was. Joseph A.
Califano, a Cabinet official in the Carter administration who presided over the
survey, said it shows adolescents are "telling us they're drenched with drugs in
this country."
APn 07/19/95 Marijuana
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
Associated Press Writer
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Twice as many teen-agers wind up in emergency rooms
for using marijuana as for heroin and cocaine combined, the government said
Wednesday.
New research also indicates women who smoke marijuana during pregnancy may
jeopardize their children's brain development -- but the effects are so subtle
mothers may not realize the consequences of their drug use.
The data are part of a government campaign to change marijuana's image from
that of the benign 1960s drug to an addictive killer that American children are
using more and more often.
Marijuana is "a very dangerous drug that can well cause you to fight for your
health and your very life in a hospital emergency room," said Lee Brown, the
White House drug policy coordinator.
Government figures show marijuana's popularity among teens is on the rise.
Use among eighth graders has doubled since 1991, and a third of high school
seniors say they smoked pot at least once in 1994.
In 1993, 4,293 teens aged 12 to 17 were treated in emergency rooms after
using marijuana, vs. 1,583 cases involving cocaine and 282 involving heroin,
Brown said.
The federal survey of 350 hospitals doesn't identify the teens' diagnoses,
but marijuana has been linked with everything from heartbeat fluctuations to car
crashes.
But the big question is whether marijuana is really biologically damaging.
About a dozen protesters at the meeting called marijuana a benign drug that
eases pain and some additional symptoms of AIDS and other fatal diseases. The
Clinton administration says there's no proof and rejects calls for more
medicinal marijuana use -- but Wednesday's meeting was to look at the drug in
healthy people.
A Canadian study unveiled Wednesday indicates marijuana use during pregnancy
may hurt the children's eventual cognitive functioning.
Behavioral psychologist Peter Fried followed 150 children, including 35 who
were exposed to marijuana before birth, for 15 years. Up to age 3, they showed
no effects from marijuana. But by age 4, the marijuana-exposed children began to
slow slight lapses in memory and perception skills when compared to their
counterparts.
More intriguing, scientists said, are very preliminary data indicating that
by ages 9 to 12, these children had significant difficulty with "executive
function," the ability to weigh complex information and reason through
alternatives to a decision.
"They're not retarded, this is a different process than intelligence,"
emphasized Fried, who is associated with Carleton University in Ottawa. "These
consequences are subtle. But it's possible these children won't achieve their
full potential."
Executive function is performed in the very front of the brain, where
scientists have recently identified receptors to marijuana. When drugs bind to
brain receptors, they produce sensations that lead to cravings.
Scientists have long said marijuana is addictive, but the announcement
Wednesday offered the first proof of marijuana addiction in animals, something
never before done because the drug lingers so long that it's hard to see
concrete withdrawal symptoms.
Dr. Billy Martin of Virginia Commonwealth University gave mice the human
equivalent of two or three joints a day over five days. He also gave them a
newly discovered chemical that blocks marijuana's brain receptors, rapidly
cutting off the drug's effects so withdrawal appeared. The mice immediately had
tremors and even walked backwards.
The mouse study won't mean a lot to public perception of marijuana's
addictiveness, Martin acknowledged. But it is vital to doctors' quest to find
treatments to ease marijuana users off the drug permanently, he said.
The government is using the new data for its anti-marijuana campaign, which
includes television ads and booklets for parents and teens documenting dangers
of youth marijuana use.
RTw 07/19/95 U.S. officials combat marijuana "myth"
WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuter) - Citing new medical research, top U.S. health
and anti-drug officials tried on Wednesday to counter what they called myths
about marijuana's harmlessness.
"At the core of our agenda must be a clear and consistent message -
marijuana is illegal, dangerous, unhealthy and wrong," Secretary of Health and
Human Services Donna Shalala told the first national conference on marijuana
use, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Shalala and top White House anti-drug official Lee Brown released new
materials designed to dissuade young people from using marijuana and Shalala
cited new research being presented at the conference that marijuana can produce
drug dependence and has long-term harmful effects on children whose mothers
smoked marijuana during pregnancy.
Surveys have shown marijuana use rising among teenagers in the last few
years.
REUTER
UPsw 07/20/95 Law officers face drug charges
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, July 20 (UPI) -- Two high-ranking officials of the
Maverick County Sheriff's Department were arrested by federal agents Thursday on
drug distribution charges, federal authorities said.
Don Clark, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office, said
Maverick County Chief Deputy Rudy P. Rodriques and Jail Administrator Miguel A.
Omana were taken into custoday without incident in Eagle Pass.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio said a federal grand jury indicted
the pair Wednesday on a variety of charges, including conspiracy to possess with
intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and aiding and abetting in
the possession of drugs.
The indictment also charges Rodriques, 44, and Omana, 43, with conspiracy to
commit theft from a program receiving federal funding, theft of government
property and interference with commerce by threats.
Federal prosecutors said the charges in the indictment stem from activities
that occurred in 1991 and 1992 when the two men were members of the 293rd
Judicial District Drug Task Force at Eagle Pass and Crystal City.
Clark said the indictment alleges that Rodriques, Omana and another member of
the task force, Domingo Moncada Jr., conspired to distribute heroin and cocaine
that had previously been seized in drug raids. He said the three men used the
drugs to establish their credentials as drug dealers and provided security for
future drug shipments.
The indictment returned Wednesday superceded a previous indictment issued in
March that charged Moncada and two other men -- Alvaro Tobias- Barrios and
Hector Manuel Martinez -- on similar drug and conspiracy charges.
Moncada, 32, was arrested by federal authorities March 30 and remains in
custody with along Martinez. Tobias-Barrios was released on bond.
If convicted of all counts, Moncada could be sentenced to a maximum 75 years
in prison and fined $3 million. Rodriques faces a 25-year sentence and a $2.5
million fine, while Omana could be imprisoned for 45 years and fined $1.5
million, federal officials said.
(Written by Mark Langford in Austin)
AAP 07/20/95 NSW cotton growers support fibre hemp
The Australian Associated Press
South Australia and Tasmania have already begun fibre hemp crop trials and
Victoria yesterday announced it would follow suit. Ms Croft said fibre hemp has
been established in Britain where it has been a great success, providing the
raw material for paper and fabrics.
"Hemp's real advantage is that it gives us options, we can choose it or
cotton or grain depending on the climate and market demand," Ms Croft said.
If trials get underway in NSW it would be important to ensure that Indian
hemp was not grown illicitly amongst the fibre hemp crop, she said. AAP
AAP 07/20/95 NSW cotton growers support fibre hemp legalisation
The Australian Associated Press
By Brett Miller
DUBBO, NSW, July 20 AAP - Cotton growers from the state's north-west are
throwing their weight behind the legalisation of fibre hemp, which they say
offers them an alternative crop when water is short.
NSW Farmers Association delegate Jenny Croft told the organisation's annual
conference that fibre hemp could be grown with one quarter the amount of water
needed by cotton.
"It has many advantages as a crop, it can be harvested by a haymaker,
doesn't need chemical spraying and is expected to have a growing market," Ms
Croft said.
UPn 07/27/95 US-Issues-West
California mulls legalizing medical marijuana
American Issues: West
(500)
By DION NISSENBAUM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (UPI) -- Ever since Michael Bednarek was diagnosed with
Hodgkin's disease last year, he has used marijuana to combat nausea and vomiting
caused by chemotherapy.
Although use of the drug is illegal, Bednarek said it is the only way he can
find any relief from the radiation therapy.
"I have a medical need for this and it shouldn't be illegal for me to obtain
it," said Bednarek, 35, of San Francisco.
Because of people like Bednarek, California lawmakers are considering a
measure that would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana as part of
their treatment.
Advocates of the bill say it is a humane way to aid the sick. Critics contend
the measure would actually shorten the lives of those it is supposed to help.
Under the proposal, patients with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and
glaucoma would all be able to buy or grow their own marijuana if it is approved
by a licensed physician.
Both sides in the battle agree that marijuana contains a drug known as THC
that helps combat the side effects of cancer and AIDS drugs, reduces eye
pressure for glaucoma patients and relieves muscle pain for those with MS.
Since doctors are able to prescribe THC in its pure form, opponents of the
plan say legalizing medical marijuana is unnecessary.
Art Croney, lobbyist for the Committee on Moral Concerns, said sick patients
have become victims in the drug legalization war.
"The whole plan to legalize marijuana is a scam put forth by drug
legalization advocates," Croney said. "It will make sick people sicker."
Citing several medical studies, Croney said smoking marijuana hampers the
already damaged immune systems of AIDS and cancer patients.
To put it bluntly, Croney said, "marijuana kills AIDS patients."
Dennis Peron, head of Californians for Compassionate Use, dismissed such
claims and said the drug, like other disease-fighting treatments such as
chemotherapy, both helps and harms the body.
"It may be true that marijuana suppresses the immune system, but it
stimulates the appetite and allows you to eat and build the immune system," said
Peron, a chief advocate of the bill. "All these drugs are tradeoffs."
In the California Legislature, the measure by Democratic Assemblyman John
Vasconcellos has cleared the Assembly with bipartisan support and is awaiting a
vote in the state Senate. A similar bill was approved by lawmakers last year but
vetoed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, now a presidential candidate.
Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found no medicinal value to
marijuana, Wilson rejected the attempt to legalize the drug.
Peron, who launched the drive to legalize medical marijuana after watching
the drug help his late lover who died of AIDS, said such patients should be
given limited use of the drug.
"We can't use patients as pawns in this ridiculous war against a beneficial
herb that works for some people," Peron said.
UPn 07/28/95 Mohawks destroy 1 million pot plants
By MARTIN STONE
MONTREAL, July 28 (UPI) -- Tribal peacekeepers at the Kanesatake Mohawk
reserve near Montreal set fire to an estimated 1 million marijuana plants
Friday, defusing a jurisdictional dispute over which police agency should
destroy the forbidden crop.
"We began pulling the plants up by the roots about 7 this morning,"
Kanesatake Peacekeeper Corporal Steven Stacey told United Press International.
"We heaped them up in the middle of the field and set fire to them."
The issue began heating up earlier this week with the disclosure that
marijuana was being grown on Mohawk-owned land and adjoining federal areas. No
suspects have been named in the case.
The decision to burn the crop was made by tribal chiefs Thursday, following a
jurisdictional stalemate involving federal, provincial and Mohawk police
agencies.
Quebec provincial police had warned earlier in the week that the force could
launch a raid on the Mohawk lands "within days."
Constable Gerard Carrier told UPI on Friday that the provincial force is
still looking into the case.
"We are currently investigating, and we won't release any details until the
investigation is finished," he said.
Police said the marijuana had an estimated street value of $300 million.
Jurisdiction is a sensitive issue on the tribal lands, and relations between
the Mohawks and Quebec provincial police are particularly tense.
On the nearby Oka reserve, an armed standoff in 1990 lasted 78 days and left
one provincial officer dead.
APn 07/28/95 Canada-Mohawk Drugbusters
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press Writer
TORONTO (AP) -- Seeking to prove they can handle crime without outside help,
Mohawk peace officers swept into a federally owned Indian reserve Friday and
burned down millions of dollars worth of marijuana plantations.
The early-morning raid took place on Kanesatake reserve in southwestern
Quebec. Leaders of the reserve, which has no formal police force of its own,
called in peace officers from two other Mohawk reserves in the region, near the
junction of the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders.
The raid pre-empted any move by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or Quebec
provincial police to destroy the marijuana fields, virtually all on land owned
by the federal government.
"This is a demonstration that the Mohawk people can be allowed to run their
own affairs," said Kanesatake Grand Chief Jerry Peltier.
He said the federal government had been "totally unprofessional" in failing
to resolve the situation sooner.
"It was a cowardly act for them to allow this thing to escalate," Peltier
said. "They have known for two years that this was going on and they chose to
turn a blind eye."
But Prime Minister Jean Chretien expressed concern Friday that by burning
down the plantations, the Indians may have destroyed potential evidence.
"They're lands that don't belong to anyone. Who planted them? Nobody knows,"
Chretien he said on his way to his office in Ottawa.
Billy Two Rivers, a Kahmawake reserve band leader, said prosecuting the
growers wasn't what was important.
"Never mind the people who planted this. What about the people who opened the
market and bribed and dangled dollars in front of our people?" he said. "We've
been victims of economic strangulation and a lot of times it's very tempting to
make a quick buck."
Both federal and provincial authorities had avoided dealing with the illegal
crop after its existence was revealed by media reports. Federal authorities had
insisted it was under Quebec's jurisdiction, but provincial police said they
would not venture into Kanesatake uninvited.
An aborted provincial police raid to dismantle a Mohawk roadblock in the area
in July 1990 ended with one officer dead and sparked a summer-long standoff with
the police and Canadian armed forces. The ordeal, which attracted worldwide
media attention, has made law enforcement officials wary of provoking another
confrontation.
Mohawk traditionalists complained to federal officials last year about
widespread marijuana plantations on land it had purchased from non-native
residents after the 1990 crisis.
News reports said the marijuana crop, estimated at 100,000 to 1 million
plants, was being sold to a motorcycle gang for tens of millions of dollars. The
bulk of the crop reportedly was being shipped south to the United States.
RTw 07/28/95 Canadian Indians burn marijuana crops
MONTREAL, July 28 (Reuter) - Canadian Indians burned a marijuana crop on the
Kanesatake reserve on Friday, staving off possible confrontation on the site of
a violent 78-day standoff with security forces in 1990.
Mohawk peacekeepers recognised as law enforcement officers by the Canadian
government began burning the crop on the reserve 30 miles (48 km) west of
Montreal.
Jerry Peltier, Grand Chief of the Kanetasake Band Council, ordered the
marijuana destroyed after news reports this week that a group of Mohawks was
growing millions of dollars worth of cannabis plants on the reserve.
The Quebec provincial police, Surete du Quebec or SQ, declined to intervene
without Peltier's consent. Native leaders had rejected an SQ proposal to destroy
the crop in a joint operation with the Mohawks.
The 1990 standoff between Mohawks and the SQ and Canadian military followed
an SQ raid on the reserve over a land dispute about expansion of a golf course
onto land claimed by the Indians.
The raid ignited a gunfight in which an SQ officer was killed.
In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Peltier accused the
Canadian government of inaction in dealing with the marijuana crop. Reports said
the plants were being illegally grown on land owned by the federal government.
REUTER
WP 07/28/95 Senate Committee Votes To Abolish Drug Office;
Bill Differs From House on Economic Advisers
By Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writer
A proposal to abolish the job of White House drug policy adviser was
approved yesterday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, offering Congress and
the Clinton administration another opportunity to debate how to wage the
nation's war on drugs.
The proposal is part of a $23 billion appropriations bill that would
finance the Treasury Department, White House and small agencies for the fiscal
year that begins Oct. 1. President Clinton has promised to veto the bill if
Congress votes to eliminate the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy.
But the president's position did not draw the support of Sen. Bob Kerrey
(D-Neb.), ranking Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that first
proposed shutting down the office. Kerrey joined subcommittee chairman, Sen.
Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), to counter arguments for keeping the office
presented by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii).
Shelby faulted the Clinton administration for a "lack of leadership" and
Lee P. Brown, the president's drug policy adviser, for a "lack of visibility" in
fighting illegal drug use and trafficking. Shelby criticized Clinton for sharp
reductions in the office's staffing two years ago and complained the office
appeared to spend too much money on travel and security guards.
Kerrey said Brown's office was "not able to argue that they have added to
the war on drugs." In remarks to reporters after the committee session, Kerrey
said, "It's time to take the fig leaf off."
The government needs to worry less about bureaucratic coordination of its
anti-drug programs and focus on how to keep young Americans from using illegal
narcotics, he said. "We need to decide what works and go out and do it," Kerrey
said.
But Inouye told committee members since creation of a "drug czar" seven
years ago, the office has helped rein in the Colombian drug cartels and helped
lead the campaign against marijuana use by youngsters.
Attorney General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin support
continuing the office, Inouye said, explaining the office oversees 50 federal
agencies to provide "some sort of cohesive and understandable policy."
He proposed an amendment to finance the office next year by cutting funds
for the Counter-Drug Technology Assessment Center, the government's central
research and development agency to help shape enforcement strategies.
But Shelby objected, saying the money should be spent on front-line
activities aimed at interdicting or thwarting drug smugglers. Inouye withdrew
his amendment but said he would bring up the issue when the bill moves to the
Senate floor.
If Shelby prevails on the floor, he will still have to negotiate with the
House on the action. In its version of the appropriations bill, the House
approved nearly $10 million funding for the drug policy office.
[End]
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