-------------------------------------------------------------------
Trial date set in massive case on drug sales, money laundering
(The Oregonian says 16 co-defendants and their attorneys spilled into
the jury box Tuesday as they pleaded not guilty in Portland
to crack-cocaine-related charges. U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty
tentatively scheduled a six-week trial to begin in mid-September.
Originally, 23 people were indicted in the case. Five have pleaded guilty.)
The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Trial date set in massive case on drug sales, money laundering
* A federal judge arraigns 16 defendants on charges including conspiracy to
traffic in crack cocaine, money laundering and gun offenses
Wednesday, January 6 1999
By Ashbel S. Green
of The Oregonian staff
A massive crack cocaine and money laundering case marched forward Tuesday
when a federal judge arraigned 16 co-defendants and tentatively scheduled a
six-week trial to begin in mid-September.
A federal grand jury has charged a total of 23 people in the case. Five
co-defendants have pleaded guilty, including Daren Keith McCoy, 32, who also
faces state murder charges in the 1997 killing of a notorious Portland
gangster known as " 'lil Smurf."
The 44-page indictment charges all the defendants with conspiracy to traffic
in drugs. Fourteen are charged with conspiracy to launder money, and five
are charged with gun offenses. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of
three pieces of property, eight automobiles, a boat, a computer and an
unspecified amount of cash.
The indictment, the fifth updated version of which was unsealed Monday,
describes the drug conspiracy as follows:
Between January 1996 and December 1997, defendants brought "multi-kilograms"
of cocaine from Fresno, Calif., to Portland and Western Washington.
As part of the conspiracy, the defendants and others used 23 listed
residences in Portland; Fresno; Irrigon; Vancouver, Wash.; and Camas, Wash.,
to package, cook, store and distribute crack.
The indictment says the defendants also operated and used Portland
businesses, including LCH Auto Wholesale, 2622 N.E. Alberta St., and
Balloons Galore, 6207 N.E. 15th Ave., as fronts to conceal, transfer and
spend cash proceeds from the sales of cocaine.
J. Richard Scruggs, the chief federal prosecutor in the case, declined to
elaborate on the conspiracy beyond what was in the indictment.
Although the federal charges vary among the defendants, the large quantities
of cocaine carry a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. A variety of
factors -- including previous criminal records and the willingness to accept
responsibility -- could reduce the sentences for minor participants and push
sentences of the larger players toward the maximum life sentence.
McCoy pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges and a gun offense Dec. 4.
Sentencing is scheduled for later this year.
He still faces a Multnomah County murder indictment in the shooting of
Anthony Branch Jr., also known as 'lil Smurf, in the parking lot of a
Northeast Portland strip joint on Oct. 9, 1997, after an argument. Portland
police arrested McCoy on April 29, 1998, in Fresno.
Police have not said what McCoy and Branch, a member of the Kerby Blocc
Crips, argued about, although they said McCoy was at the Viewpoint
Restaurant and Lounge, 8102 N.E. Killingsworth St., to settle a score with
someone who had stolen five kilograms of cocaine from him.
Despite the apparent link between the murder the drug case, neither police
nor prosecutors would discuss the details of the case Tuesday.
McCoy was set to go to trial on murder charges Oct. 5, but Multnomah County
prosecutors asked for a delay so they could get evidence from the federal
case to use against him in the murder case. The murder trial has not been
rescheduled.
Tuesday's appearance in federal court, scheduled to deal with logistical
matters, indicated how complicated the case will be to try. Seventeen
defendants -- 16 pleaded not guilty Tuesday and one pleaded not guilty
Monday -- and each of their attorneys crowded before U.S. District Judge
Ancer Haggerty, spilling into the jury box.
The case includes so many documents -- more than 10,000 pages and 300 hours
of tapes -- that prosecutors plan to provide only a few copies for defense
attorneys to share.
A number of the defendants are known gang members. One, Garth Hiag Brown,
31, is a former Portland State University wrestler who tried out for the
1996 Olympics. He is charged with conspiracy to traffic in drugs and launder
money.
The other defendants charged in the indictment are Dino Jaynolen Beard, 31;
Byron Craig Brown, 37; Jonya Burgess, 26; Glenn Edward Harper, 45; Andrew
Lee Henderson, 51; Dana Annette Hodge, 31; Dameon Dupree Jefferson, 21;
Edwina Lynniece Jones, 38; Dwight Andre Myrick, 31; Jonathon Demetrius
Norman, 27; Jerri Lynn Page, 28; Kyllo Kendell Penn, 27; Amad Jamal Polite,
29; and Adolph Spears Sr., 55, all of Portland; Earnest Lee Abbit, 52; Jamie
Renee Donaldson, 36; Harvey Donaldson Jr., 33; and Mary Lou Ann Haynes, 39,
all of Fresno; Byron Vann Branch Jr., 28, and Carlotta LaJean Franklin, 31,
both of Vancouver; and Armando Arroyo Chairez, 32, of Irrigon.
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Our House is Everyone's House (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week
from a physician who is the medical director of Our House, in Portland,
protests the free weekly newspaper's customary bias and misrepresentations.
Care of the poor, those with drug addictions, and the mentally ill is
challenging, but workers at Our House are committed to doing it. The problem
with funding care at Our House is not just the fault of the gay community,
which the author believes the article implied. It's the fault of our
society's failure to deal with the problems of poverty, mental illness,
and drug addiction. It's the result of decades of cutbacks in federal funding
of programs, of the willingness of the public to put their health care into
the hands of for-profit insurance companies instead of seeing the wisdom
of a national health plan for all, and the growing inequity of wealth.)
Willamette Week
822 SW 10th Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
Tel. (503) 243-2122
Fax (503) 243-1115
Letters to the Editor:
Mark Zusman - mzusman@wweek.com
Web: http://www.wweek.com/
Note: Willamette Week welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or
fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street
address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to
letters of 250 words or less.
Letters: Jan. 6, 1999
OUR HOUSE IS EVERYONE'S HOUSE
I was disappointed in the portrayal of my opinions in the article "A Plague
Out of Vogue" [Dec. 9, 1998]. While Ms. Wentz correctly quoted me, the
spirit of the article was not what I thought I had communicated to her when
we spoke on the phone. Granted, care of the poor, those with drug
addictions, and the mentally ill is much more challenging. But we at Our
House are committed to doing it. We have expanded the training of the staff
in mental health issues, we have a mental health specialist who has
experience in drug treatment programs attend our resident care conferences,
and we still provide the same loving and compassionate care to all our
residents that we did when our patient population was different. She didn't
mention that residents often stay for very long times and many still die in
our care, surrounded by nurses, volunteers, and others, yes, even including
friends and families, in a home-like environment with their comfort needs met.
The problems we are having in funding care at Our House is not just the
fault of the gay community, which I believe the article implied. The fact
that the poor, the mentally ill, and the drug addicted have few options for
effective care is a shameful result of our society's failure to deal with
these problems. It's the result of decades of cutbacks in federal funding of
programs, of the willingness of the public to put their health care into the
hands of for-profit insurance companies instead of seeing the wisdom of a
national health plan for all, and the growing inequity of wealth in this
country.
Finally, to refer to a real person (Jeffery Dickson), whose picture was even
portrayed in the article, as a "fund-raising nightmare" was especially
insensitive. He can read, you know! Can you imagine how he felt when he saw
that? I think journalists have a responsibility to consider the impact of
their work. I recall a very different reason for his decision not to take
protease inhibitors--they make some people feel terrible! Many patients,
rich and poor, drug addicted or business professionals, homeless or
penthouse dwellers, make that same decision. It's a question of "costs" and
"benefits." The cost of the drugs is much more than just money--it orders
your life, it sometimes makes you sick, it defines who you are. So some
decide not to take them. Frankly, I think he pulled the wool over the
reporter's eyes when he allegedly gave her the quote about not taking them
so he could take drugs. He told her what she wanted to hear.
Kenneth Brummel-Smith, M.D.
Medical Director,
Our House of Portland
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Police identify suspect in Old Town shooting (The Oregonian
says Portland police obtained a warrant Tuesday for the arrest
of Joel "Jojo" McCool, 24, who is accused of a weekend shooting
that left a rival gang member and a young mother hospitalized.
According to police, witnesses identified McCool, a Bloods gang associate
with a lengthy arrest record, as the first person to fire gunshots during a
hip-hop party early Sunday on the second floor of the Great China
Seafood Restaurant in Old Town. A second gunman who fired at McCool
has not been identified.)
The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Police identify suspect in Old Town shooting
* Officers seek a 24-year-old man in the Old Town incident, which wounded
two people
Wednesday, January 6 1999
By Maxine Bernstein
of The Oregonian staff
Portland police obtained a warrant Tuesday for the arrest of Joel "Jojo"
McCool, 24, who is accused of attempted murder and first-degree assault in a
weekend shooting that left a rival gang member and a young mother hospitalized.
Witnesses, police said, identified McCool, a Bloods gang associate with a
lengthy arrest record, as the first person to fire gunshots during a hip-hop
party early Sunday on the second floor of the Great China Seafood Restaurant
in Old Town.
He is accused of firing four shots that struck rival gang member Harry James
Villa, 24, a member of the Kerby Blocc Crips. Villa was shot three times in
the chest and once in the pelvis and remained at Legacy Emanuel Hospital on
Tuesday.
"Two or three inches difference, those shots could have been fatal," said
Sgt. Mike Crebs, a supervisor of the Portland Gang Enforcement Team.
McCool, police say, also fired a shot that struck a 19-year-old pregnant
woman in the back. She was upgraded Tuesday to fair condition at Legacy
after her baby girl was delivered Sunday by Caesarean section, hospital
spokeswoman Claudia Brown said.
Police have not released the woman's name for security reasons and, at his
request, are not releasing Villa's current condition. He was in fair
condition Monday.
A second gunman fired at McCool and has not yet been identified.
Sunday's shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m., as the dance party at the
restaurant on Northwest Davis Street was breaking up.
McCool is accused of pulling out a handgun after either Villa or one of
Villa's friends punched McCool during a dispute, said Detective Sgt. Brian
Grose, the lead investigator.
"We're still looking at what exactly may have precipitated that dispute,"
Grose said.
Between 10 and 15 shots flew inside the dance hall, sending an estimated 200
partygoers scrambling for cover, police said. The party was presented by
Special K.A.P.E. & Jinx Entertainment, according to a promotional flier.
Villa pleaded guilty in October in a criminal rackeetering case but was
allowed to remain out of custody on bail through the holidays until his
scheduled sentencing Friday. He faces a prison term of five years and 10
months when he is sentenced by Multnomah County Judge Henry Kantor.
Under the Oregon Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organization Act,
prosecutors had to show Villa was a member of a criminal enterprise and
committed at least two crimes on its behalf.
When the racketeering plea was entered in October, prosecutors did not
object to Villa's release before sentencing.
"Technically, we could have pushed for sentencing to occur right away, but I
don't think we could have reached the agreement we did had we done that,"
said Tom Edmonds, a Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney.
Among the conditions of Villa's release are that he not associate with
fellow gang members, not enter premises where alcohol was served and adhere
to a 9 p.m. curfew. The hip-hop party was described as a "21 and over
affair," where identification was required and alcohol was served.
After being briefed Tuesday on the shooting, Mayor Vera Katz said: "I'm
absolutely outraged that some of the most dangerous gang members are allowed
out, able to settle their affairs with nobody watching them, nobody
monitoring what they've been doing. I don't know the details in terms of the
plea bargaining, but the fact that nobody during the holidays has kept tabs,
or keeps tabs on them, is inexcusable."
In the wake of the gang-related shooting, gang enforcement officers have
increased patrols in Northeast Portland to try to stem any retaliatory
violence, Crebs said.
Excluding motor vehicle offenses, McCool has avoided criminal convictions
despite a lengthy arrest record that dates to 1987 and includes assault,
weapons and child neglect charges, said Detective Sgt. Derek Anderson, a
Portland Police Bureau spokesman. McCool was considered an associate of the
local Inglewood Family set of the Bloods gang and is described as 6 feet 1
inch tall and weighing 210 pounds. His last known address was Beaverton,
although he frequented Northeast Portland, police said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Gang
Enforcement Team at 823-2105.
Copyright 1998 Oregon Live (r)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Crazy Idea Saves Babies Of Addicts (Orlando Sentinel columnist
Kathleen Parker gives an update on Barbara Harris, the California woman
who founded CRACK, which has paid $200 to 37 women crack addicts
who got either a tubal ligation or Norplant, an epidermal patch that prevents
pregnancy for up to five years. Harris has appeared on several TV and radio
talk shows, attracting individual donations and corporate sponsors. Recent
research has shown that babies exposed to crack can overcome their difficult
beginnings if placed quickly in a loving, stable environment. Unfortunately,
the vast majority of substance-exposed infants end up in foster care,
and therein lies the tragedy.)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 05:17:50 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Crazy Idea Saves Babies Of Addicts
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Pat Dolan
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Website: http:www.orlandosentinel.com
Author: Kathleen Parker
Copyright: 1999 Orlando Sentinel
Pubdate: 6 Jan 99
Section: Features
CRAZY IDEA SAVES BABIES OF ADDICTS
Last year was a good year for 37 drug addicts who didn't give birth to a
drug-addicted baby. Or seek an abortion. Or bury a premature child.
All thanks to one crazy woman in California, Barbara Harris, who believes
that any problem can be solved with common sense and a little cold cash --
even the problem of drug addicts bringing drug-addicted babies into a world
they themselves can't navigate.
It's been a little more than a year since I first wrote about Harris and
her groundbreaking, nonprofit program called CRACK, or Children Requiring a
Caring The program pays drug addicts to procure long-term birth control.
Since I wrote about her, Harris has appeared on several TV and radio talk
shows, attracting individual donations and corporate sponsors, and is
beginning to rewrite one of America's saddest tales.
Harris' plan was dazzling in its simplicity: Drug addicts care about drugs,
not babies, and they respond to money, not motivational moral-speak. Why
not pay them to stop having drug-addicted babies they can neither support
nor nurture?
It sounds cruel and coldhearted, but it sounds a lot nicer than the screams
of a cocaine-addicted baby thrashing against restraints in an intensive
care nursery crib.
Harris is familiar with those sounds. She adopted four of eight babies born
to one crack-addicted mother. All are thriving, now thanks to their
stable, nurturing environment, but they're among the lucky few.
Having nursed her four kids through scream-filled nights and the jitters of
drug withdrawal, Harris was tormented by the fates of all the other
drug-addicted babies. In 1997 she founded CRACK.
To date, she and her associate, Lin Alvarez, have paid 37 volunteer
clients. The women approach Harris through a hotline and promise to get
either a tubal ligation or Norplant, an epidermal patch that prevents
pregnancy for up to five years.
When the client verifies treatment with written notice from a clinic,
Harris hands over $200. A few men have filled out paperwork, but so far
none has followed through, says Harris.
The 37 women Harris has helped thus far already were responsible for 297
pregnancies, of which 184 went to term. Abortions accounted for 113.
Fifteen babies were stillborn; 13 died after birth; 132 are in foster care.
Note that I haven't used the words "crack baby." Joining the trend against
labeling babies born to crack mothers, Harris prefers the term
"substance-exposed infants." Children identified at birth as "crack babies"
often are stigmatized as developmentally damaged and left at the bottom of
the adoption pool.
Recent research has shown -- and Harris' experience confirms -- that babies
exposed to crack can overcome their difficult beginnings if placed quickly
in a loving, stable environment.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of substance-exposed infants end up in
foster care, and therein lies the tragedy. According to Harris, 80 percent
of birth mothers of drug-addicted babies never reclaim their children.
Twenty percent of those who do reclaim their children come back into the
system through the birth of another substance-exposed infant or for child
abuse/neglect.
By any measure, it's better to prevent such tragedies than to bemoan our
failures later, says Harris. Anyone who thinks otherwise, she says, "better
be ready to adopt."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
N.Y. Locked Up 70,000 In '98 (The Daily Gazette, in Schenectady,
says the number of inmates in New York's state prisons reached a record high
last year despite plunging crime rates, costing taxpayers $1.7 billion.
According to the Associated Press, Governor George Pataki, a former marijuana
consumer, will propose extending "Jenna's Law," which requires violent felons
to serve at least six-sevenths of their sentence, to cover non-violent felons
as well.)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 19:45:57 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: N.Y. Locked Up 70,000 In '98
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Walter F. Wouk
Pubdate: 6 Jan 1999
Source: Daily Gazette (NY)
Contact: gazette@dailygazette.com
Website: http://www.dailygazette.com/
Copyright: 1999 - The Gazette Newspapers
Author: William F. Hammond, Jr. - Gazette Reporter
N.Y. LOCKED UP 70,000 IN '98
Crime fell as inmate count grew: Pataki plans more parole limits
ALBANY - The number of inmates in New York's state prisons climbed above
70,000 last year, reaching a historic high in spite of plunging crime
rates, according to statistics from the Department of Correctional Services.
The two trends are not as contradictory as they might seem, according to
state officials.
These officials said prison growth is a result of longer sentences and
fewer opportunities for parole, policies promoted by Gov. George Pataki as
a way of fighting crime.
"The violent criminals are off the street," said Scott Steinhardt, a
spokesman for the Division of Criminal Justice Services. "They're in prison
where they belong, and therefore we're seeing a reduction in crimes
committed. It's a simple, straightforward formula."
Pataki is expected to stick to that formula in his State of the State
speech today: According to The Associated Press, Pataki will propose
extending "Jenna's Law," which requires violent felons to serve at least
six-sevenths of their sentence, to cover non-violent felons as well. But
critics of the administrationsay the continued growth of the inmate
population is a sign that the Pataki-era crackdown has gone too far. They
argue that crime has abated for other reasons - such as an improving
economy, an aging population and a decline in the use of crack cocaine -
and that the state should build on that success by rehabilitating criminals
rather than simply keeping them behind bars.
"We overuse incarceration," said Robert Gangi of the Correctional
Association. "We have too many people locked up for too long a time."
Gangi said New York should divert some of the $1.7 billion it spends on
operating prisons to pay for things that could help prevent crime, such as
education and treatment for drug addiction.
"We're squandering money" on prisons, Gangi said. "Drug treatment is not
only less expensive and more humane, it's actually more effective in
reducing drug-related crime than long sentences."
As of Tuesday, the prison population was 70,291, DOCS spokesman Michael
Houston said. That represents an increase of about 1,200, or 1.7 percent,
from this time last year, according to DOCS figures.
The increase more than makes up for the decline of 600 inmates recorded in
1997, which was the first time the population had not gone up in 25 years.
Overall, the prison population has more than quintupled since 1972, a
period when the state's population declined slightly.
Crime rates rose dramatically during most of those years, but have been
falling equally dramatically since 1990. Between 1994 and 1997, the number
of major crimes reported to police in New York dropped 23 percent,
according to figures from the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Violent crime was down 29 percent in that period, and the number of murders
dropped 45 percent, from 1,980 to 1,087.
David Duffee, a professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany,
said crime rates and incarceration rates have fluctuated pretty much
independently of each other throughout world history, indicating that one
has little effect on the other.
Duffee noted that the prison population soared after New York adopted its
Rockefeller-era drug laws, with their famously harsh penalties for dealing
in narcotics, but that drug-related crime exploded at the same time.
He said the current growth in the prison population is probably the result
of changing policies on parole. Even before the adoption of Jenna's Law -
named after an Albany nursing student who was murdered by an ex-convict in
1997 - parole officials probably used their discretion to keep criminals in
prison longer, Duffee said.
"They can tighten up on parole any time," he said. "They don't need a law
to do that. . . .
"You're seeing the corrections agencies becoming more conservative," he
said. "They're worried about public reaction to misbehavior by paroled
offenders on the street."
Statistics from the state Parole Division support this theory.
According to Thomas Grant, a spokesman for the division, the state's Parole
Board granted early release to 53 percent of the inmates who applied for
parole in fiscal year 1997-98, down from 64 percent in 1991-92, when Mario
Cuomo was governor.
Grant said the change was most dramatic for inmates convicted of violent
crimes, such as murder, assault and rape. Parole for these felons was
approved at a rate of just 33 percent in 1997-98, down from more than 53
percent in 1991-92.
"The more violent the offense, the more the Parole Board looks at the
release with a jaundiced eye," Grant said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Offenders' Drug Use Increases But Treatment Declines, Study Finds
(An unusually critical New York Times account of the study released Tuesday
by the U.S. Justice Department says the report found that the proportion
of inmates who were "drug" users at the time of their arrest increased
this decade, while drug treatment in state and federal prisons fell sharply.
"This is an unintended consequence of prison expansion,"
said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the University
of Missouri at St. Louis. "Each time we spend a dollar on building
a new prison or expanding an existing one, it is one less dollar
for drug treatment." The study also found that more violent crimes
were committed by people who had been drinking alcohol than by those
under the influence of "drugs.")
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 09:23:46 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: NYT: Offenders' Drug Use Increases But Treatment Declines,
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: Wed, 6 Jan 1999
Source: The New York Times
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Author: Fox Butterfield
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
OFFENDERS' DRUG USE INCREASES BUT TREATMENT DECLINES, STUDY FINDS
The proportion of new prison inmates who were drug users at the time of
their arrest increased this decade, while drug treatment in state and
federal prisons fell sharply, according to a study released on Tuesday by
the Justice Department.
"What is particularly tragic," said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of
criminology at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, "is that drug
treatment in prison, where it can be coerced, has proven to be effective as
an anti-crime program.
"This is an unintended consequence of prison expansion," Rosenfeld said in
an interview. "Each time we spend a dollar on building a new prison or
expanding an existing one, it is one less dollar for drug treatment." Also
Tuesday, President Clinton announced that he would propose $215 million in
his next budget for testing and treating prisoners for drug use. About $115
million is currently budgeted for combating drug use by prisoners, parolees
and probationers.
The anti-drug proposal had been planned for some time as a significant part
of Clinton's overall anti-crime strategy, White House aides said.
Anticipating bad news in the Justice Department report, they timed its
announcement for Tuesday in hopes of blunting the report's impact. The new
study, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, reported that the proportion of
state inmates who were had been drug users before arrest -- that is, had
used drugs in the previous month -- rose to 57 percent in 1997 from 50
percent in 1990, as the proportion among federal inmates increased to 45
percent from 32 percent.
During those same years, the study said, the proportion of inmates in state
prisons who received treatment for their drug abuse fell to 9.7 percent in
1997, from 24.5 percent in 1991, while the number receiving drug treatment
in federal prisons declined to 9.2 percent from 15.7 percent. The report
found that participation by inmates in state and federal prisons in other,
nonmandatory drug abuse programs, like group discussions, did increase from
1991 to 1997. But Rosenfeld and other experts said these programs, which
are cheaper to administer but lack forced participation, are much less
effective.
The increase in drug use by prisoners in state and federal prisons in the
period leading up to their crimes appears to be the result of increased
attention by both law-enforcement officials and legislators to drugs,
singling out drug users for more arrests and giving them longer sentences
if they have a history of drug involvement, the experts said. The actual
number of criminals sentenced to prison for drug crimes increased 6.4
percent a year from 1991 to 1997, only slightly faster than the rate of 6.3
percent for those convicted of nondrug offenses, the Justice Department
said. But police, prosecutors and judges are now more likely to take
previous drug use into account when making an arrest, bringing charges or
passing sentence, the experts suggested.
At the same time, the huge increase in the number of Americans in jail or
prison, which has more than doubled since 1980 to 1.8 million, has forced
many prisons to cut back on a variety of counseling and educational
programs in order to make space for more beds for inmates.
Bruce Johnson, the director of the Institute for Special Populations
Research at the National Development and Research Institutes in New York, a
nonprofit research organization, said, "The drop in substance abuse
treatment reflects a systematic decision to reduce these treatment programs
and the need to use the space for more inmates."
The Justice Department report underscored the strong link between drug use
and criminality, finding that 83 percent of inmates in state prisons and 73
percent of those in federal prisons had used drugs at some point in their
lives. "Increased substance abuse and criminal offending," said Andrew
Golub, a principal investigator also at the National Development and
Research Institutes, "are often characteristic of the downward spiral
experienced by many individuals who end up in prison."
Johnson and Golub have found that crack cocaine use has dropped sharply
among young people in New York during the 1990s, an important factor in the
decline in violent crime in the city. But young people now are more likely
to smoke marijuana, the researchers have found, a conclusion echoed by the
Justice Department report.
The Justice Department report also found that more violent crimes were
committed by people who had been drinking alcohol than by those under the
influence of drugs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the bust in Nicaragua (Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery,
who has just returned from Nicaragua, recounts an outrageous travesty
of justice going on there. A group of Canadians who were developing
an industrial hemp industry in Nicaragua had their hemp farm busted
at the behest of a DEA agent who led local officials to believe the crop
was marijuana. Dr. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturist who was hired
to supervise the project by Hemp Agro International, which has a web site
and offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Managua, is languishing in a Nicaraguan
prison, presumed guilty and denied counsel. All of the Canadian investors
in the project are now charged with major drug crimes. Many of them have
never set foot in Nicaragua, but they are all subject to arrest in Canada
and extradition to Nicaragua under the reciprocal provisions of treaties
intended to bring narcotrafficantes north for trial in the U.S. or Canada.)
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 17:41:01 -0600
From: davewest (davewest@pressenter.com)
Reply-To: davewest@pressenter.com
To: davewest@pressenter.com
Subject: Don Wirtshafter's report on the bust in Nicaragua
Regarding the bust in Nicaragua
From: Don Wirtshafter (don@hempery.com)
A story is breaking in Nicaragua that should reach the world stage soon.
I just returned from trying to turn around an ugly situation, but left
without visible results. I hope some fair treatment in the U.S. and
Canadian media can do some good.
The story starts with a group of Canadian investors who wanted to do
some good for Nicaragua. Bankers, builders and merchants got together
and incorporated Hemp Agro International with offices in Vancouver,
Toronto and Managua. Their website (http://www.hempagro.com ) describes
their project and development they hoped to bring to the tropics.
Nicaragua stagnates in the aftermath of series of natural disasters and
a U.S. financed civil war. If there was ever a place to demonstrate
industrial hemp's utility for sustainable economic development,
Nicaragua is it. Hemp Agro planted 100 acres of Chinese hempseed and
hired a full-time professional botanist to supervise a crop improvement
program. The company envisioned growing a series of hempseed crops,
pressing the seeds for oil, making products from hemp oil and utilizing
the stalks for particleboard. The project was dependent on their
developing an improved tropical variety of seed hemp, something not
being attempted anywhere else in the world.
The project took on additional significance in the aftermath of
Hurricane Mitch. Tens of thousands of homes need to be replaced. The
relief agencies had a choice, cut down thousands of acres of trees for
building materials or accelerate the building of the hempstalk
particleboard mill. Most of the traditional crops suffered heavy damage
during the storm, Hemp Agro's crop withstood the winds and rain. Fifty
employees were busy harvesting bags full of hemp seed and building a
mountain of hemp stalks.
That's when a U.S. DEA agent went ballistic. One day before Christmas,
he caused an army of black hooded soldiers to move in and occupy the
field. The men each posed for their picture in front of the large
signboard that marked the "Hemp Agro Nicaragua, S.A. Research and
Development Site." See:
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/24-diciembre-1998/na
cional/nacional10.html (This and the following links are in Spanish. For
those who do not speak Spanish, paste these URL's into
http://babelfish.altavista.com/cgi-bin/translate? for a rough
translation into English.) Then they began the long task of gathering
the crop in piles and setting them on fire.
http://www.elnuevodiaro.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/26-diciembre-1998/
Dr. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturist who was hired by the group
to supervise the project, was feeling pretty satisfied with his work in
Nicaragua. His employees were busy harvesting their first crop of seeds.
He had learned quite a bit about growing hemp in the tropics. Christmas
was approaching and the harvesting would have to stop for the holidays.
Dr. Wylie was in a taxi on his way back from the bank with the payroll
for his 50 workers. A black car tried to force them off the road. A
couple of motorcycles approached. Both Wylie and his driver thought they
were being robbed. The driver started to head up on the curb to get away
when bullets began tearing up the cab. Wylie and the driver were
terrified until their attackers finally identified themselves as police.
Wylie thought his troubles were over, but they were just beginning.
Wylie was arrested and taken to the brig. The same prison that former
dictator, Anastasio Somoza, used for his worst political enemies. A
perfect movie set for an 1850's western, except it's an historic
military base. Perched on the rim of the volcano, it's got an incredible
view. Only the prisoners can't see a thing, they are kept in dungeons underground.
In Nicaragua, you are considered guilty until proven innocent. Forget
the right to counsel, forget the right to remain silent, this is not
America. In the aftermath of his arrest, ten days of hearings took place
on the case, only Wylie had no right to attendor help his attorneys
prepare. He was locked up tight. Bail or bond were not available.
Without an explanation of the charges, Wylie could not even figure out
what he was being accused of. Thankfully, his wife was able to bring him
food every day. Without family support like this, prisoners starve.
Because of my expertise in hemp and my legal credentials, I was asked to
hurry down to Nicaragua and help the local attorneys the investors hired
to bring reason to the situation. I was determined to prove to myself
and the court that this really was industrial hemp and not marijuana
that was being grown. I also wanted to visit Dr. Wylie and see if I
could raise his spirits.
It took a court order to visit a prisoner in the brig, even for
attorneys and translators. Armed with a court order that took days to
obtain, the guards still only allowed us a short, 15 minute visit. It
was barely enough time for introductions, and no time to get to the
details of the case. Still, Wylie was able to briefly describe his
research methodology.
This was the George Washington Carver method of crop improvement. Start
with seeds from as close to the original source as possible. This way
you get the most genetic diversity. Plant a million plants. From these,
find the thousand specimens that best match your breeding objectives.
From these prime plants, plant a million seeds. Plant the seeds from the
best 1000 plants for five years and you will see spectacular
improvements in the breeding of that crop. It was an ambitious attempt
to create a tropical variety of low THC industrial hemp, but the U.S.
DEA got in the way. Our drug warriors refuse to recognize a difference
between hemp and marijuana. The U.S. employed DEA agent looked at the
plant in a microscope and saw the glandular trichromes characteristic of
Cannabis. He concluded therefore it must be marijuana, never considering
that hemp also has these characteristic parts.
Nicaragua is in a vulnerable position. It needs a massive influx of
foreign aid to begin its recovery from the civil war and Hurricane
Mitch. Pressure from the U.S. diplomats forced the government to act
quickly. One government minister after another came to court to
kowtowing to the foreign imperialists. Politicians who praised the
project a week before began denying that they gave approval or claimed
that the investors lied to get their permits. Ten days of hearings were
held over the New Year's holiday. The tide turned from whether a crime
had been committed to which government heads would roll for allowing
this scandal to develop.
The scandal has occupied the front page in Managua's three papers since
it broke the day before Christmas. As the tide turned against the
defendants, the papers got more vicious.
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/na
cional/nacional10.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/na
cional/nacional5.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/31-diciembre-1998/na
cional/nacional1.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/n
acional11.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/n
acional10.html
Monday's paper featured one story about the trial
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/n
acional7.html
and another entitled "They Sell Crack in the Schools" about a government
report that ended up describing the 100 acre bust.
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/04-enero-1999/nacional/n acional1.html
Each of the Canadians investors in the project are now charged with
major drug crimes. They are subject to arrest in Canada and extradition
to Nicaragua under the reciprocal provisions of the treaties intended to
bring narcotrafficantes north for trial in the U.S. or Canada. We are
not describing a typical bunch of criminals. Hemp Agro International was
founded by established Canadian citizens who wanted to do some good for
the world. As part of their many applications for permits from various
Nicaragua Agencies, the group provided the authorities with paperwork
certifying they each had clean criminal records in Canada. Most had
never thought about ever finding themselves in a criminal court.
One problem confuses the issue for all involved. For the position of
local manager, the investors chose to hire an historic figure, Oscar
Danilo Blandón. Blandón is a central character in the C.I.A. drug
running scandal that was so well exposed by Gary Webb in the San Jose
Mercury News and in his recent book Dark Alliance. Blandón was one of
the founders of the Contra party and remains well connected with the
power structure in Nicaragua. But to finance the contra armies in the
Reagan 1980's, Blandón imported tons of cocaine into America. He served
almost two years in a federal prison. Blandón holds an MBA, is bilingual
and became quite excited by the potential of what hemp can do for his
country. He proved a natural choice for project manager. But the tide
turned. When the government and media branded this research plot as the
"largest marijuana bust in the history of Central America," Blandón's
checkered history seemed to be as proof that these gringos were up to no
good.
The defense lawyers decided to put me on the stand to give expert
testimony about hemp. It was a frustrating experience. "We call it
'going to Vietnam'" the attorneys told me in an effort to prepare me for
the hearing. "It's brutal, ugly and take no prisoners. They were right.
The usual civil behavior of attorneys that I am used to was not present
there at all. It was war.
We prepared more than 100 pages of journal articles translated into
Spanish for the court. But because these were not originals, they were
not admissible. Court was held in a cramped office lined by desks with
old manual typewriters. It proceeded slowly because a secretary needed
type a live transcript. In my case, since my Spanish was not up to
speed, a translator did his best to make meaning of my technical
presentation, phrase by phrase. It crawled slowly. When a question was
posed to me, the transcript would be made, the secretary would read it
back as my translator put it in English, I would answer pausing for the
translation and the typing. It dragged on until 7:00 p.m. on New Years
Day.
The courtroom was crowded with newspaper reporters and photographers who
crowded in to snap close-ups of my face. Nobody was introduced and I was
not allowed to ask any questions. When I was done the lawyers commenced
arcane legal arguments centering on why I did not present an embossed
identification of myself as an attorney and botanist. The judge kept my
bar card. I am used to court, but this was something else. It was an ambush.
I was able to describe for the court the differences between hemp and
marijuana. I explained the difference in the way the crop was grown and
harvested. The evidence was that the employees were beating the
harvested plants on a rail "like beans." This was clearly seed hemp. I
explained that contrary to the assertion of the DEA, that international
law gave Nicaragua sovereignty to decide the question for itself.
"Cannabis grown for the purpose of industrial use" was excepted from the
treaty provisions. A limit on the level of THC in the crop was up to
Nicaragua to define. Switzerland, for example, has not set a limit.
I described the market for the seeds and why the oil was so special. I
explained that the test performed by the DEA incapable of descriminating
hemp and marijuana. DEA agents were not violating the sovereignty of
Canada or Switzerland, yet they felt at home running roughshod over our
Central American neighbor. I explained why the researchers had to go to
China for their seed, nothing close was available in Europe or America.
The low-THC European varieties were for a far different latitude and
climate and would not work in Nicaragua. Besides, they are all so
protected by plant patents, registrations and restrictive contracts that
the seeds would have to be bought every year. This means they would
never acclimate to the Nicaraguan growing conditions and would be too
unreliable to anchor an industry. China has grown hemp for seed for
thousands of years. The people of the region where the seeds originated
do not even have a concept of the use of the hemp plant as a drug.
I told the judge of the 22 web sites I found that sold marijuana seeds.
The minimum price offered was $5 per seed. At 60,000 seeds per kilogram,
a kilo of seeds would be worth $300,000. The 15,000-kilogram container
shipment from China would be 4.5 billion dollars if it were marijuana. I
said it was impossible and crazy to assume that this much seed could be
marijuana. Besides, I told the court, this particular shipment of seeds
was examined by the U.S. Customs while the container was being
transshipped in Long Beach, California. The container was emptied for a
DEA inspection. Only hempseeds were found. They released th shipment to
go forward to its destination in Nicaragua.
I described what a hemp economy could do for Nicaragua in terms of
employment and self-sufficiency. I gave good references for the Canadian
defendants whom I had met. I tried to help, but it felt like I was
talking to air. Yesterday, the judge found probably cause to hold the
defendants up for charges. Dr. Wylie will have to languish in jail while
the government works to extradite the other defendants from Canada and
the U.S. Once arrested and returned "to the scene of the crime", the
defendants will have no more rights than Dr. Wylie did upon his arrest.
Most of the defendants were only inactive investors in the project. They
have never set foot in Nicaragua. Now they will have to hire attorneys,
fight extradition and suffer having their reputations smeared around the world.
Nicaragua seems adept at shooting itself in the foot on a regular basis.
What started out as an exciting project to bring a new industry to a
place it was truly needed, has now turned into an international scandal.
It's not just the investors who are affected. For Nicaragua to progress
it will need help from foreign industries and industrialists, foreign
technology and technologists. When the story of how Dr. Paul Wylie was
treated for his efforts in Nicaragua is spread in the international
community, it will be hard to get others to commit to even visiting the
country. The real losers are the local compasinos who stood to gain
steady employment in the project. As it is, the government agents kept
the $5000 payroll they seized from Dr. Wylie. The workers missed their
Christmas pay. There are no winners in this story. The toll will
continue as long as our government obscures the difference between hemp
and marijuana and its agents run roughshod over the rights of the people
of Central America.
I am trying to get some help spreading the word on this story. If the
government spreads it, it will be all about marijuana. The word hemp
will not make it into the story. I have to come out aggressively to get
the word to the media that there is a lot more behind this "bust" than
meets the eye. Anyone with suggestions is welcome to write or call.
-- Don Wirtshafter
Ohio Hempery Inc.
Products the Earth Can Afford
Call or write for our free catalog:
Order Line 1-800-BUY-HEMP
7002 S.R. 329, Guysville, OH 45735
shop on line: (740)662-4367
fax(740)662-6446
http://www.hempery.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug War For Peace But There Is No Peace
(The original New York Times version)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1999 19:26:15 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Colombia: Drug War For Peace But There Is No Peace
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Paul_Bischke@datacard.com (Paul Bischke)
Pubdate: Wed, 6 Jan 1999
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Author: DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
COLOMBIA: DRUG WAR FOR PEACE BUT THERE IS NO PEACE
BOGOTA, Colombia -- President Andres Pastrana said Tuesday that ending the
civil war that has ravaged his country for nearly 40 years depends on the
rebels' willingness to help stamp out drug trafficking in areas under their
control.
Pastrana's assessment came as he prepares to open talks with the leftist
rebels. The United States has strengthened his position by offering
substantial help in increasing military and police power.
Pastrana, who took office five months ago, is slated to meet leaders of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's most powerful
insurgency, on Thursday in the remote jungle town of San Vicente del Caguan.
The government evacuated security forces from an area as big as Switzerland
to allow the talks to take place, as the rebels demanded.
In an interview at the Narino Presidential Palace Tuesday, the 43-year-old
president noted that American aid has so far gone largely toward supporting
police efforts to halt drug trafficking, mostly through fumigation. Pushed
by Conservative Republicans in Congress, the United States more than tripled
aid to Colombia recently, to $289 million this year from $88.6 million last
year.
This week, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin announced that a
mid-level State Department official, Philip Chicola, had secretly met with
FARC leaders in Costa Rica to discuss the rebels' recent declarations of
willingness to eliminate drug crops in areas they control. Chicola also
discussed the rebels' policy on kidnapping foreigners and the fate of three
missing missionaries whom they are accused of having kidnapped five years
ago.
"The first enemy of peace is narco-trafficking," Pastrana said Tuesday. "If
the FARC takes the decision to eradicate drug crops, they'll do it. Because
they definitively have the influence to carry it out."
Pastrana reiterated earlier criticism of American policy as relying almost
exclusively on police tactics to fight drug dealing, and noted that some in
the U.S. Congress had an interest in promoting war in Colombia. Under the
current budget passed by Congress, Washington plans to spend $10 million on
crop substitution in drug-producing regions, but $9 million of the money
will go to Peru and Bolivia.
"In the U.S. Congress, there are those who believe that only through
repressive, policing measures can you put an end to this business," Pastrana
said. "I maintain that for the first time ever, there's a different window
of opportunity. And it's that the guerrilla group is saying it would agree
to eradicate drug crops."
"It's the first opportunity we have to consider our policy of fighting drug
trafficking in a different way," Pastrana said. "Why not look at it."
The meeting is unfolding against a backdrop of intensifying violence in a
war that has torn this country apart for decades. Last week, the FARC took
advantage of a temporary cease-fire declared by a right-wing paramilitary
leader, Carlos Castano, to launch an all-out attack on his home base in the
Nudo de Paramillo region.
At least 30 people were killed, including a 3-week-old infant and a
3-year-old child. Some victims died after being dismembered, and were
castrated afterward. Others were beheaded. Only 11 of the dead were
identified.
For several days, the fate of Castano remained uncertain, with the rebels
claiming to have killed him. On Sunday, however, Castano contacted a radio
station in Medellin to say he was alive.
With the paramilitary cease-fire ending Wednesday, Pastrana appeared most
eager to dampen expectations of instant progress in ending the conflict. He
stressed that the talks beginning Thursday were not peace negotiations, but
merely an effort to hammer out the logistics of eventual peace talks, and to
gauge the willingness of the rebels to negotiate an end to the war that has
claimed 35,000 lives in the last decade and made more than a million
Colombians refugees in their own country.
"On Thursday, we're not going to negotiate," Pastrana said. Earlier this
week, he named four "spokesmen" for peace, including Nicanor Restrepo, an
industrialist, Maria Emma Mejia, the former foreign minister under President
Ernesto Samper, who will represent the opposition; Fabio Valencia, the
president of Congress, and Rodolfo Espinosa, governor of Atlantico province.
"We're going to install the table for a dialogue, to see if there's an
interest in getting to the negotiating table," Pastrana said.
So far, the rebels have not pledged to lay down their arms as part of any
agreement. An analysis by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency last year
predicted the rebels could win control of the Bogota government within five
years.
The questions that will be discussed over the next month in San Vicente del
Caguan will largely involve logistics, including where and when negotiations
will be held, and what role, if any, other countries should play in
mediating or monitoring any agreements.
Pastrana said that the single most important gauge for the future of talks
would be whether or not a proposed agenda for negotiations emerges over the
next month. Government security forces are now scheduled to retake the
temporarily demilitarized zone in southeastern Colombia on Feb. 7, but
Pastrana did not rule out extending the evacuation.
He said that he believed the rebels were sincere in their desire to
negotiate peace in exchange for participation in the country's political
life, and added that he did not believe they were seeking control of
territory. Pastrana noted that an earlier rebel effort to create a political
party called the Patriotic Union fell apart with the steady, unexplained
extermination of some 5,000 of its members over the last 12 years.
"The great problem that the FARC has had is that the state never gave the
guarantees that would allow them to pursue political activities," the
president said. Asked what would happen if parties allied to the rebels won
control of 40 percent of the country's municipalities, Pastrana said, "To
me, that's fine. It's democracy."
It was not clear Tuesday whether the top rebel leader, Manuel Marulanda,
would come out of hiding to meet the president, whom he first met shortly
before Pastrana's inauguration on Aug. 7. Rebel representatives in San
Vicente del Caguan said that the preparations so far appeared to center
largely around ceremonial, rather than substantive, aspects of the upcoming
meeting.
Fabian Ramirez, leader of insurgent forces in Southern Colombia, complained
that the delegates Pastrana named to lead talks held "no decision-making
power."
"If that's the case, we may send similar delegates," he told the Reuters
news agency in San Vicente del Caguan. "We could all end up around a table
talking and nobody will be able to decide anything."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Weekly, No. 80 (The original summary of drug policy news
from DrugSense opens with a feature article by Jeff Goodman - What a drug
sentence really means. The Weekly News in Review features several articles
about Drug War Policy, including - Making criminals of us all; NewsBuzz:
Zoning in; New methadone clinic seizes rich opportunity; Medical pot use
doesn't stop arrests; Lockyer hopes to enforce state medical pot law; and
Sharp drop in violent crime traced to decline in crack market. Several
articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Rehnquist: Too many
offenses are becoming federal crimes; Tougher on criminals than prosecutors
were - 3-strikes law proved it; Critics launch ad campaign opposing
Rockefeller drug laws; and The last worst place. Articles about Drug Issues
include - Days on methadone, bound by its lifeline; and Top-secret cannabis
ready for medicinal harvest. International News includes - Drug traffickers
terrorize upscale zone in Rio; Drug-related crimes on the rise in Russia:
Stepashin; Pakistan busts heroin smuggling ring; Jail, cane for not providing
urine sample; China's Shenzhen executes 11 for drug trafficking; and EU
nations will resist calls for more tolerance. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net
notes the "60 Minutes" newscast about Switzerland's heroin-maintenance
experiment is now at the Legalize-USA site. The Quote of the Week cites
Thomas Sowell. Plus accolades to DrugSense's newshawk of the month,
Ken Russell of Australia.)
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 12:48:38 -0800
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
Subject: DrugSense Weekly January 6, 1999 #080
***
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***
DrugSense Weekly, January 6, 1999, #080
A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org/
This Publication May Be Read On-line at:
http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/1999/ds99.n80.html
TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, DONATE OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
PLEASE SEE THE INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* Feature Article
What a Drug Sentence Really Means
By Jeff Goodman
* Weekly News in Review
Drug War Policy-
Making Criminals Of Us All
NewsBuzz: Zoning In
New Methadone Clinic Seizes Rich Opportunity
Medical Pot Use Doesn't Stop Arrests
Lockyer Hopes to Enforce State Medical Pot Law
Sharp Drop in Violent Crime Traced to Decline in Crack Market
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
Rehnquist: Too Many Offenses Are Becoming Federal Crimes
Tougher On Criminals than Prosecutors Were; 3-Strikes Law Proved It
Critics Launch Ad Campaign Opposing Rockefeller Drug Laws
The Last Worst Place
Drug Issues-
Days on Methadone, Bound by Its Lifeline
Top-secret Cannabis Ready For Medicinal Harvest
International News-
Drug Traffickers Terrorize Upscale Zone in Rio
Drug-Related Crimes on the Rise In Russia: Stepashin
Pakistan Busts Heroin Smuggling Ring
Jail, Cane For Not Providing Urine Sample
China's Shenzhen Executes 11 For Drug Trafficking
EU Nations Will Resist Calls For More Tolerance
* Hot Off The 'Net
60 Minutes Piece on Swiss Heroin Program now on Legalize-USA site
* Quote of the Week
Thomas Sowell
* NewsHawk of the Month
Ken Russell Aussie NewsHawk
***
FEATURE ARTICLE
What a Drug Sentence Really Means
By Jeff Goodman
When I was sent to prison, the judge mentioned just the length of my
sentence. Had he included the entire scope of my punishment, he may
have said it differently
"Mr. Goodman, I sentence you to take responsibility for every social
ill -- past, present and future. Each time America runs out of foreign
enemies, it apparently turns on itself to find more. By way of media,
politics and indifference, people who break the law, good law or bad,
become those enemies and are then responsible for every social malady.
Whether this is logical, you are the culprit.
"You are sentenced to live in a maladaptive, alien environment that
defies description. You'll be stripped of your work skills, your
self-worth and your humanity while at the same time face the daily
threat of assault, rape, false accusations and unjustified punishment.
You will live like this for seven years. If you manage to reenter
society as a productive person, some will say prison was just what you
needed. If not, others will say, 'I told you so.'
"Because of counterproductive prison policies, you are sentenced to
live in a world of cruelty and indifference that engenders the very
behavior it purports to alleviate. If you share this with those outside
of the prison system, you will be called a liar; most won't believe
that millions are spent on the proliferation of facilities that
perpetuate harm, not repair it.
"You are sentenced to consume $150,000 in taxpayer dollars for your
prison stay. While lawmakers cite the ever-growing cost of
incarceration as a public necessity, you will learn that 10 percent of
that amount goes towards your daily needs, while the other 90 percent
pays for a bloated prison bureaucracy immune from any cost-benefit
analysis. These tax dollars will be siphoned from school programs,
child care and job training, all of which do make our communities
healthy and safe and save millions in the process.
Despite the media frenzy that portrays society as seething with crime,
you'll learn that relatively few prisoners represent a danger to our
communities; we're mad at most felons, not scared of them. So you'll
wonder why the majority of prisoners aren't on home arrest, a logical
move that would save millions of dollars and obviate the need for more
prisons.
"Practical education programs, universally proven to drastically reduce
recidivism, will be almost nonexistent. In fact, you will be
disciplined for possessing more than 10 books. Therefore, you will live
in an environment where recidivism it tacitly encouraged, a fact not
lost on those who want to run prisons for profit.
"It is true that there are some counseling programs in prison and some
people will benefit from them. Yet, if you attempt to describe the
futility of a therapeutic environment placed within an atmosphere
replete with dehumanizing policies, you will be told that your
intentions are distorted and without merit.
"You are sentenced to bear the wrath of a misinformed society. While
you're experiencing everything I just said, you will be told how easy
you have it. The media will find your Christmas meal more newsworthy
than the damage caused by lawmakers who jostle for the next 'get tough'
policy at the expense of society's well-being. Your privilege to have
this once-a-year meal will be presented as so outrageous, a debate will
ensue over which 'luxury' to take away next. Politicians will focus on
violent sociopaths and pronounce their horrific crimes as a yardstick
to measure the innate danger and incorrigibility of all law-breakers,
including you.
"Finally, as perhaps the most perverse component of your sentence, I
hereby prohibit society from ever listening to you. Your comments on
crime and punishment will be ignored. You, as well as others, will see
the big picture, but few will care about the politics of crime and its
role in our growing prison population. You will know that most
prisoners are guilty of breaking the law, but only a few need to be
separated from society. You will know that it is the reporting and
sensationalism of crime that has skyrocketed, not crime itself.
Unfortunately, though you will one day return to society with firsthand
knowledge of our prison system, few will care; most see only the door
leading into prison, not the one leading out.
"Therefore, if your opinion ever gets printed in a newspaper, you will
not only be perceived as just another lawbreaker unable to accept the
consequences of his actions, but of being manipulative as well. Society
will know this to be so because you once broke the law.
"You are hereby sentenced to be a messenger whose message will be
forever perceived as tainted, self-serving and disingenuous, regardless
of its veracity and accuracy.
"No one will believe you."
"You have been sentenced to be a criminal."
-- Jeff Goodman, of Eagan, is a software engineer. He spent time in
prison as a first-time nonviolent offender.
***
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
***
Domestic News- Policy
***
COMMENT:
A thoughtful op-ed focuses on the transition from indignation over
another's personal behavior to invocation of criminal sanctions
against that behavior. While such a step seem normal in a theocracy,
it is fraught with danger in any nation claiming to be a secular
democracy.
The next article is all the more frightening because it's from Oregon,
the state that just voted for medical marijuana and against
recriminalization. Portland's policy measure in pursuit of drug
purity is little different than requiring German Jews to wear yellow
stars in the Thirties.
MAKING CRIMINALS OF US ALL
Feet stomp. Fists pound. Fingers point.
But whom should we blame for our popular President's unpopular
impeachment and impending Senate trial? Mr. Clinton and the Democrats
blame Kenneth Starr and the Republicans, who in turn blame the
President and the Democrats, who blame Linda Tripp, Monica Lewinsky,
Lucianne Goldberg, Paula Jones, her lawyers or a host of others.
But the root of the scandal lies elsewhere: in the surfeit of intrusive
laws that would make criminals of almost anyone the Government decides
to investigate.
[Snip]
At what point do the evils of intrusive, well-meaning laws outweigh
their benefits? When does a law's reach exceed its grasp?
[Snip]
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company
Pubdate: Wed, 30 Dec 1998
Author: Richard Dooling
URL:http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0007.a04.html
***
NEWSBUZZ: ZONING IN
In the next few months, the City Council will consider whether to label
a large chunk of residential North and Northeast Portland a drug-free
zone.
Such zones aren't new--Portland already has four. What makes this zone
different from the rest is its sweeping scope.
[snip]
A drug-free zone is a tool to target repeat drug offenders. When a
person is arrested on drug charges in one of the zones, he is not only
punished for the crime, but he is also excluded from the area for a
year. If he's caught in the zone during the exclusion period, he's
subject to search and arrest on criminal trespass charges.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 30 Dec 1998
Source: Willamette Week (OR)
Copyright: 1998 Willamette Weekly
Contact: mzusman@wweek.com
FAX:(503) 243-1115
Mail: 822 SW 10th Ave. Portland, OR
Website: http://www.wweek.com/
Author: Maureen O'Hagan
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n007.a03.html
***
COMMENT:
In another example of drug policy confusion at the local level, a New
England newspaper complains that methadone clinics don't reduce the
incidence of heroin addiction. That's like expecting the penicillin
used for treating syphilis to cure promiscuity.
NEW METHADONE CLINIC SEIZES RICH OPPORTUNITY IN A VACUUM
New Bedford really hasn't come very far since the debate over needle
exchange, when the victorious opponents satisfied their consciences
with the empty promise that they really, really wanted treatment for
drug addicts instead of "free needles."
[snip]
The clinic supporters point out that these methadone centers don't
create new addicts; they simply tend to the needs of the existing ones.
That's true as far as it goes, but it omits the fact that methadone
clinics don't seem to be giving us any fewer addicts, either. Instead
of being trapped on heroin, addicts are trapped on methadone....
[snip]
Source: Standard-Times (MA)
Contact: YourView@S-T.com
Website: http://www.s-t.com/
Copyright: 1999 The Standard-Times
Pubdate: 1 Jan 1999
Section: Opinion
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n004.a06.html
***
COMMENT:
The next item suggests that the phenomenon of local law enforcement
going out of its way to harass medical marijuana users wasn't unique
to California.
On the other hand, things may be about to change dramatically in the
Golden State, depending on the will of newly elected AG Bill Lockyer.
MEDICAL POT USE DOESN'T STOP ARRESTS
Mother, Aids-Afflicted Son Jailed after Police Find Plants
Despite a new state law that allows some medical use of marijuana, a
61-year-old Tacoma woman and her blind son who has AIDS were arrested
this week after Tacoma police found three marijuana plants in their
home.
[snip]
Pubdate: Sat, 2 Jan 1999
Source: Tacoma News Tribune (WA)
Copyright: 1999 The News Tribune
Contact: leted@p.tribnet.com
Website: http://www.tribnet.com/
Author: Cheryl Reid
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n007.a09.html
***
LOCKYER HOPES TO ENFORCE STATE MEDICAL POT LAW
Prop. 215 On new attorney general's agenda
When Bill Lockyer takes on his new job as state attorney general
this week, one of his top priorities -- and biggest challenges --
will be enforcing the voter-approved medical marijuana initiative.
Lockyer's support of the marijuana initiative is part of an agenda
he plans to pursue that would dramatically change one of the
state's most powerful offices.
His predecessor, Dan Lungren, made crime, prisons and victims'
rights the centerpiece of his administration. But Lockyer said his
mission includes not only combatting crime, but reviving
environmental and civil rights protections, areas that he said were
badly neglected by Lungren.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jan 1999
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
URL:http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n015.a11.html
***
COMMENT:
To attribute the drop in violent crime to a change in youth's attitude
towards crack is to beg the most obvious question: what role did drug
prohibition as policy play in creating the violent crack market? Also,
given that a mature crack market has lost its allure for youth, what
purpose is served by obscenely unequal mandatory minimum sentences for
crack possession?
SHARP DROP IN VIOLENT CRIME TRACED TO DECLINE IN CRACK MARKET
New statistics released Sunday by the Justice Department are helping
criminologists resolve a contentious mystery -- why violent crime has
dropped seven straight years after an upsurge in the 1980s.
[snip]
Violent crime surged unexpectedly with the crack epidemic starting
about 1985, and then began to fall, equally unexpectedly, in 1991.
Only in retrospect have law-enforcement authorities and criminologists
been able to theorize about the causes of the rise and decline in
violent crime.
[snip]
The sharp drop in violent crime starting in 1991 can be accounted for
by the reversal of these same forces, in what Johnson and Golub
described as "an indigenous shift," as youths who came of age in the
1990s turned against smoking or selling crack.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 28 Dec 1998
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company
Author: Fox Butterfield
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0003.a08.html
***
Law Enforcement & Prisons
***
COMMENT:
While many of us are alarmed by a prison crisis that has been building
for years, the idea is just beginning to receive cautious recognition
in official circles. That the Chief Justice of a court which has given
away so many individual rights has finally got a clue is indeed
newsworthy.
The focus of the second article is more parochial, but important
nevertheless; California is a bellwether state; Wilson's prison
policies will prove a disastrous time bomb if the new administration
doesn't soon start changing the way things are done.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, New York's prototypical harsh
Rockefeller Laws will receive some paid adverse publicity.
Unfortunately this wire story didn't make a major paper.
***
REHNQUIST: TOO MANY OFFENSES ARE BECOMING FEDERAL CRIMES
Demanding a fundamental change in the nation's crime-fighting strategy,
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist yesterday called on Congress to halt
the politically popular practice of enacting federal laws against an
ever-greater number of crimes once handled in state courts.
"The trend to federalize crimes that traditionally have been handled in
state courts . . . threatens to change entirely the nature of our
federal system," Rehnquist said in his year-end report on the federal
judiciary.
[snip]
"Because Congress has not only federalized most drug crimes but has
imposed Draconian punishments for them, we have a situation now where
prosecutors have the discretion to choose between bringing state
charges or going to federal court where the same drug offense can
produce dramatically higher sentences, and the defendant gets whipsawed
in the process," said David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown
University Law Center.
[snip]
Source: The Washington Post
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Page: A02
Pubdate: Fri, 1 Jan 1999
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Roberto Suro, Washington Post Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n006.a02.html
***
ENVIRONMENT AND CRIME -- MAJOR ISSUES
Tougher On Criminals Than Prosecutors Were; 3-Strikes Law Proved It
SACRAMENTO -- In the middle of a nearly hysterical anti-crime
atmosphere brought about by the slaying of 12-year-old Polly Klaas,
Gov. Pete Wilson was asked to back a tough new sentencing law supported
by prosecutors. Wilson rejected the bill.
Instead, he came out in favor of an even more rigid and harsh measure,
the "three strikes and you're out" proposal backed by victims' advocate
Mike Reynolds that eventually became law.
Wilson's choice four years ago symbolizes the crime policy he followed
throughout his eight years as governor: support for the most severe
punishment possible, even measures considered too extreme by law
enforcement officials.
[snip]
Critics, however, say Wilson's policies have been shortsighted because
he has ignored far less expensive ways of preventing and punishing
crime. The governor, they charge, has left the state with a bulging
prisons budget and a potential prison construction crisis.
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Dec 1998
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1206.a05.html
***
CRITICS LAUNCH AD CAMPAIGN OPPOSING ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A bipartisan coalition opposing New York's
Rockefeller drug laws launched radio advertisements Sunday calling for
an overhaul of the rigid 25-year-old sentencing guidelines.
The 60-second radio spots tell the true stories of people unable to be
with their families over the holidays because they are serving lengthy
prison sentences for relatively low-level drug offenses under the New
York laws, which are among the harshest in the nation.
[snip]
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Sat, 26 Dec 1998
Copyright: 1998 Associated Press
Reconsider website: http://www.reconsider.org/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1199.a07.html
***
COMMENT:
The former Soviet Union housed prisoners in its Siberian gulag.
Present US policy is also to isolate prisoners in rural gulags where
they are both out of sight and out of mind. Self-interested locals who
benefit from the policy also can be counted on not to complain.
THE LAST WORST PLACE
The isolation at Colorado's ADX prison is brutal beyond compare.
So are the inmates
This is it. The end of the line. The toughest ``supermax'' prison
in the United States.
[snip]
The ominous objective might seem an odd match for the arid
surroundings of Florence, population 4,000, in what was once cattle
and coal country, south of Colorado Springs.
But today, this is prison country. There were already nine
state-run lockups in the county when eager Florence residents
bought 600 acres and gave the land to the federal government, which
used it to build four correctional facilities, including the ADX.
Unparalleled in America, it is the only prison specifically designed
to keep every occupant in near-total solitary confinement, rarely
allowing inmates to see other prisoners.
[snip]
Pubdate: Monday, December 28, 1998
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Author: Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n1200.a06.html
***
Drug Issues
***
COMMENT:
This well written piece from the NYT is too long to be meaningfully
excerpted. It should be read, however, by anyone who is curious about
how methadone therapy works in the real world. It's clear that
Giuliani wishes to offer new York's heroin addicts only three choices:
abstain, leave town, or die.
ON PERMANENT PAROLE: A SPECIAL REPORT
DAYS ON METHADONE, BOUND BY ITS LIFELINE
Shortly after 9 A.M., Pamela Carlo arrived at the tiny, nondescript
clinic in Chinatown for her daily deliverance. It was a cool day,
with a packed gray sky. The tang of fish was in the air.
She displayed her ID card at the check-in window, consulted the
blackboard to see who had to give a urine sample (she didn't), then
waited on the scuffed linoleum floor until her name finally crackled
over the loudspeaker.
[snip]
Source: The New York Times
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Pubdate: Sat, 2 Jan 1999
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: N. R. Kleinfield
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n006.a04.html
***
COMMENT:
On a most welcome and rational note (unthinkable in the US), continued
progress was reported in British government-endorsed exploration of the
medical uses of various natural cannabinoids.
TOP-SECRET CANNABIS READY FOR MEDICINAL HARVEST
BRITAIN'S first crop of government-licensed cannabis is to be harvested
secretly for medical research this week by a specially vetted team of
mature botanists. No younger staff were employed to grow the crop
because of fears that they might be tempted to mix business with
pleasure.
Trials on up to 2,000 people will begin once medicine has been
distilled from the plants in the spring, in the hope of developing
treatments for illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
[snip]
Source: Times, The (UK)
Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Copyright: 1998 Times Newspapers Ltd
Pubdate: Monday 28 December 1998
Author: Helen Rumbelow
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0008.a10.html
***
International News
***
COMMENT:
Reuters' report of battles between police and well-armed drug
traffickers in Rio demonstrates an economic "ripple" effect of drug
prohibition as policy: newly created wealth is eventually shared by
criminals and law enforcement. Each side is encouraged to recruit more
manpower and buy more of the latest weapons; this is supposed to
protect the public?
In Russia; the failure of Communism has literally unshackled a Russian
talent for crime; endemic poverty, global drug prohibition, and a weak
central government now provide that talent with many creative
opportunities to generate wealth.
DRUG TRAFFICKERS TERRORIZE UPSCALE ZONE IN RIO
RIO de Janeiro, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Shops and restaurants near the
Governor's palace in Rio reopened on Monday after drug traffickers
forced them to close over the weekend to honour a drug lord killed by
police, community leaders said.
Residents and business owners in the middle-class neighbourhoods of
Laranjeiras and Cosme Velho said shootouts between rival gangs in the
nearby shantytowns were common, but the forced closings showed a new
level of brashness.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 28 Dec 1998
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1998 Reuters Limited.
Author: Tracey Ober
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n008.a10.html
***
DRUG-RELATED CRIMES ON THE RISE IN RUSSIA, STEPASHIN.
MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) - The situation with narcotics
trafficking and drug-related crimes continues aggravating in Russia,
admitted Colonel-General Sergei Stepashin, the Russian Interior
Minister. He stated this on Tuesday, summing up the results of Vikhr-3
(whirlwind) large-scale operation to combat crime that was concluded
this week.
[snip]
Pubdate: 29 Dec 1998
Source: ITAR-TASS (Russia)
Copyright: 1998 ITAR-TASS
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n008.a02.html
***
COMMENT:
Pakistan is a major trans shipment point for Afghan heroin exports.
Can anyone be optimistic that the bust described below represents more
than a transient inconvenience? Skeptics might also be forgiven for
suspecting that good police work was not the only factor in ending a
simple scam which had succeeded for over a decade.
PAKISTAN BUSTS HEROIN SMUGGLING RING
KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Pakistani anti-drug
authorities said on Tuesday they had busted a smuggling ring that
had mailed up to $1.5 billion worth of heroin out of the country
over the last 13 years.
[snip]
He said the alleged smugglers took wrongly addressed parcels and
letters sent to Pakistan, put heroin inside them, changed the return
addresses and mailed them back out of the country.
[snip]
Pubdate: 29 Dec 1998
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1998 Reuters Limited.
Author: Saeed Azhar
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0005.a08.html
***
COMMENT:
American drug offenders have something to be grateful for: as grim and
inhumane as US punishment has become, it still doesn't hold a candle
to Singapore.
Nevertheless, caning and imprisonment are less terminal than the
Chinese solution: a bullet through the base of the skull.
JAIL, CANE FOR NOT PROVIDING URINE SAMPLE
A JOBLESS man who defied narcotics officers by peeing in his trousers
rather than provide a urine sample has been sentenced to six years'
jail and three strokes of the cane.
Later investigations showed that Loke Tuck Fatt, 39, had taken heroin.
The Central Narcotics Bureau highlighted the case on Wednesday. Loke
is the first person to be sentenced under the Long Term Imprisonment
rule for failing to provide a urine sample.
[snip]
Source: Straits Times, The (Singapore)
Contact: straits@cyberway.com.sg
Website: http://straitstimes.asia1.com/
Copyright: 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pubdate: 1 Jan 1999
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0005.a10.html
***
CHINA'S SHENZHEN EXECUTES 11 FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
SHENZHEN, China, Dec 24 (Reuters) - China's southern boomtown of
Shenzhen executed 11 drug dealers, including a teenaged girl, in the
city's second major judicial killing this year, the Special Zone Daily
said on Thursday.
[snip]
Pubdate: Thur, 24 Dec 1998
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1998 Reuters Limited.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0007.a05.html
***
COMMENT:
In the more pragmatic European setting, the "hard" vs "soft" debate
confirms a belief in the necessity of prohibition, no matter which
side is taken. A more productive format might be "illicit' vs "licit,"
however history suggests that emotions thwart logic in that one as
well.
EU NATIONS WILL RESIST CALLS FOR MORE TOLERANCE
THE most liberal of EU governments are resisting any attempt to blur
the borders between hard and soft drugs. Indeed Holland - famous for
its coffee shops permitting the sale and smoking of small quantities of
cannabis - argues that tolerance of soft drugs actually reduces misuse
of harder drugs.
France and other more conservative states disagree and maintain an
across-the-board prohibition. But the effect is the same: the
distinction between hard and soft drugs is regarded as necessary.
[snip]
Source: Times, The (UK)
Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk
Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd
Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jan 1999
Author: ROGER BOYES
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n0005.a11.html
***
HOT OFF THE 'NET
60 Minutes Piece on Swiss Heroin Program Now On-line
Rolf Ernst has done it again. He got the 60 minutes piece on the Swiss
Heroin Program up in record time. It can be viewed using RealVideo
which is linked from his sight and can be downloaded for free. He has
also reworked his web page and it is better than ever.
http://www.legalize-usa.org (main page)
http://www.legalize-usa.org/TOCs/video7.htm (bottom for 60 minutes piece)
***
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
`What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that
they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid
it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very
long.' - Thomas Sowell
***
January's NewsHawk of the Month - Ken Russell
Congratulations to Ken Russell for being selected as our NewsHawk of
the Month.
Since becoming a NewsHawk, Ken has supplied almost all of our coverage
of Australia. DrugSense asked him a few questions:
DS How did you get into NewsHawking?
KEN I originally got involved as a result of the MAP project being
mentioned on DRCNet's DRCTalk mailing list. Over a period of a few months,
what started as the occasional posting, became a regular trawling of
Australia's newspaper websites. In recent months I have also been covering
the other Australian papers that do not appear on the web.
DS What do you consider the most significant story/issue of the past months?
KEN I would have to nominate the recent medical marijuana votes as the
most significant international story. Their impact will continue for many
years to come. In Australia, the moves toward safe injecting rooms in
Canberra is probably the most significant.
DS What is your favorite website?
KEN It's difficult to select a favourite from all the quality sites out
there. The two that I find most useful are Cliff Schaffer's Drug library
and the MAP's news archive. I use both of these on a quite regular basis.
http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/
DS Is there anything else you would like to tell the readers of the Weekly?
KEN When it comes down to it, drug laws are about prison. No matter what
argument I hear against drug law reform that is the question I return to -
do drug users belong in prison?
Ken has agreed to moderate our newest mailing list, hawktalk. This list is
for NewsHawks, and those who would like to join the MAP NewsHawking effort
but need some assistance. The focus is on techniques, tools, sources, and
other issues directly related to NewsHawking. It is a low volume email list
which you may sign up for by using the webform at the bottom of the page at:
http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm
Finally Ken asked that all DrugSense and MAP activists be acknowledged. Ken
realizes, as we all do, that this is very much a team effort and all our
editors, NewsHawks, letter writers, staff and board are very important parts
of the whole.
***
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Senior-Editor: Mark Greer (mgreer@drugsense.org)
We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks.
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***
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[End]
to the 1999 Daily News index for Jan. 1-7