-------------------------------------------------------------------
'Student' Leads Drug Bust (A slightly different version,
apparently from a different edition)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:00:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: `Student' Leads Drug Bust
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
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Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family (mmfamily@ix.netcom.com)
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Author: Jack Foley
`STUDENT' LEADS DRUG BUST
San Benito High: Rookie cop enrolled in school, and her investigation led
to many arrests.
After four months of undercover work by a teenage cop on her first
assignment, authorities calmly walked into San Benito High School
classrooms Wednesday and arrested 25 students, two of them adults, in what
apparently was the largest drug sting in the school's history.
Several more were arrested off the Hollister campus, bringing the total to
23 juveniles and nine adults. More arrests were planned, officials said.
The school's enrollment is 2,700.
Two of the adults, Jesus Alejandro Cordova and Felipe Vallejo, both of
Hollister, were being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. The names of the other
adults were not immediately available.
All the suspects were charged with sale of drugs and face criminal
proceedings.
In addition, the students have been slapped with five-day suspensions and
face possible expulsion.
``It's a tragedy for those kids and families. They will suffer greatly as a
result of this, and I am sorry, but the whole campus has to be taken care
of,'' said Principal Tim Shellito, who has a reputation for running a
strict campus to ensure a safe learning environment for students.
As a result of the campus drug operation, police served search warrants on
several houses in the Hollister area and one in Oakland. Police said they
netted one-third pound of methamphetamines, 2,500 ``hits'' of LSD, 20 vials
of what's believed to be a drug called ecstasy, two rifles, two sawed-off
shotguns and a .38-caliber handgun. None of the weapons was found on campus.
The secretive program was conducted at the request of San Benito High
School officials who two years ago noticed an increase in drug-related
problems. Also, they said, they had found out that drug dealers were
operating across the street from the school and that down the block, other
dealers had weapons.
The sting operation was coordinated by Hollister police and agents of UNET,
the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, headed by Cmdr. Bob Cook of the
state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
UNET is an anti-drug operation that uses personnel from law enforcement
agencies from San Benito and Santa Clara counties in conjunction with the
state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.
But authorities say the key to the success of the San Benito High School
operation was a rookie Hollister cop named Alisse Hinton. Just 19 at the
time, she passed for a 17-year-old high school senior with an attitude and
a hunger for drugs.
Cook called her a ``gutsy'' cop.
The ruse was so well-planned that it included getting Hinton suspended once
and expelled once, along with numerous detentions for not completing
assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers or the vice principal.
Discipline duty
In fact, she got into trouble so often she spent hours on trash patrol, a
punishment detail in which students shuffle around the campus stooping to
pick up litter and throw it into garbage cans.
Shellito and Cook said Hinton played her part so well she had teachers and
campus aides believing she was a troublemaker and malcontent.
And her flashy new Mustang, baggy high school clothes and slang and her
willingness to spend money had campus and off-campus drug dealers eager to
do business with her, authorities said.
In all, she made 65 buys in four months, most on campus, according to Cook,
who predicted the sting will put a damper on high school drug activity
throughout the area.
At all times, she had police backup nearby and was wired for sound. She
audio-recorded each buy, he said; backup units videotaped several.
When the students were arrested Wednesday, they were taken from their
classrooms by school officials and plainclothes officers to the band room,
where they were told of the charges against them, all the time being
videotaped.
Surprise for students
Cook said many of the students arrogantly denied any guilt -- but their
jaws dropped, he said, when shortly thereafter they were confronted by a
now-uniformed officer Hinton.
Most signed statements or written confessions on the spot, authorities said.
In what Hollister Police Chief J.W. ``Bill'' Pierpoint said was one of the
more anxious moments during the four months -- Hinton even ``worked'' her
undercover role during Christmas break, making two buys -- backup officers
in an unmarked car had to tail her all the way to Oakland for a buy as she
was driven there by four of what she calls ``the crooks.''
A self-described Bible-reading Christian, the 5-foot, green-eyed Hinton was
recruited for the Hollister force right out of the police academy at
Monterey Peninsula College and sworn in, secretly, by Pierpoint last June.
She spent the summer in intensive training with other agencies for her role
as an undercover agent.
In September, while still 19, she enrolled as a transfer senior at San
Benito High. She turned 20 in October.
Only two school administrators knew of the ruse. No teachers were told. No
members of the Hollister department other than Pierpoint knew of her role.
The secrecy was necessary for her safety, Pierpoint said.
Hinton told the Mercury News on Thursday it was easy to get in with the
drug dealers on campus. But she said she had to become a completely
different person to play the role.
She wore grungy clothes and makeup, which she never wears, she said.
She had to cuss like a sailor, something she said she didn't like doing at
all and never does otherwise.
Felt secure
And she said that while there were a couple of tense moments during the
four months, she never feared for her safety.
``I wasn't scared at all because I knew the people I was working with were
looking out for me,'' Hinton said.
In fact, the assignment was not without its humorous moments, she said --
such as the time she accompanied a drug dealer to his home to make a buy.
``He locked himself in the house (by mistake) and couldn't get the front
door opened,'' she said.
On another occasion, Hinton was taping a phone conversation with a dealer
and inadvertently turned off the recorder before the conversation ended,
and she feared he had heard the machine being turned off. She never dealt
with the dealer again, she said.
There were some touching moments, too, she said. She was very impressed by
two of the school's campus supervisors, who went out of their way to help
Hinton, believing she was a troubled and troublesome student.
``It was just nice to see that they would take the time to help a student,
and they really were trying to help me out,'' she said.
There was a tinge of sadness, she conceded, about a couple of the suspects,
both male and female, whom she had grown to like.
When she confronted the students Wednesday, she said, she expected the
worst -- However, but for a few hostile stares, none said a word to her,
she said.
Her advice to teens?
``Students are changed by drugs, and it's not worth it from what I've
seen.''
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California Officers Charged In Prison Drug Trade (A Scripps Howard News
Service article says the Corrections Department's new Office of Internal
Affairs - created last summer as a result of legislative hearings into
alleged officer abuses at Corcoran State Prison - concluded its biggest
employee drug smuggling case this week at Ironwood State Prison, where
agents found unspecified quantities of unidentified drugs they connected to
Officer Richard Melendez, who was arrested Dec. 30. Corrections officials
do not have any statistics about institutional drug-smuggling cases involving
officers and other prison employees, but two separate investigations at San
Quentin put an officer, two cooks and a parolee with a violent past in
custody, and several other recent cases are described.)
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 11:14:12 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: WIRE: California Officers Charged In Prison Drug Trade
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
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Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus/Mermelstein Family
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: Scripps Howard News Service
Copyright: 1999 Scripps Howard
CALIFORNIA OFFICERS CHARGED IN PRISON DRUG TRADE
SACRAMENTO -- The dealers traded in marijuana, methamphetamine,
cocaine and heroin, through inmate networks in San Quentin, New Folsom
and Ironwood state prisons.
One of them pocketed nearly $20,000, investigators believe. Another
worked in concert with a parolee on the run, they say. A third may
have been one of as many as a half a dozen suppliers in his ring.
And to the consternation of the Department of Corrections, three of
the accused drug kingpins were their own officers.
``It looks at this point like we're going to be able to take care of a
pretty good-sized cancer,'' Corrections Director Cal Terhune said.
``We don't like to find it, but when we do, we want to root it out.''
Corrections officials did not have any statistics about institutional
drug-smuggling cases involving officers and other prison employees.
But they said the cases represent three of the more significant
employee drug-smuggling operations they have unearthed in recent
years. They also said the uncoverings account for some of the most
fruitful work to date of the department's fledgling Office of Internal
Affairs, created last summer as a result of the legislative hearings
into alleged officer abuses at Corcoran State Prison.
``We're trying to send a message,'' said OIA Special Agent Dave
Mansfield, who worked the New Folsom and San Quentin cases.
``Somebody's going to get spanked behind this stuff.''
OIA investigators culminated their biggest employee smuggling case
this week in the Mojave Desert.
At Ironwood State Prison near Blythe, in Riverside County, some 50
officers under the direction of the Sacramento-based OIA swept through
130 cells looking for drugs, finding unspecified quantities of
unidentified narco-contraband, officials said.
They identified the source as Correctional Officer Richard Melendez,
28. He was arrested Dec. 30.
An undisclosed number of arrests may follow, according to
investigators.
``I don't think you could count them on one hand,'' Terhune said,
although he added that some of the suspects are non-sworn staff.
Nothing in the Ironwood investigation has been turned over yet to
prosecutors, according to the Riverside County District Attorney's
Office.
The Ironwood case followed other officer busts involving inmate drug
operations in California State Prison, Sacramento - also known as New
Folsom - and San Quentin Prison.
In the New Folsom case, a Department of Corrections sting resulted in
the May arrest of veteran Officer Michael Laurin, 54. He was taken
into custody after buying a pound of marijuana from inmates' relatives
who were working undercover for the prison system, authorities said.
Officials seized $19,000 in cash and bank deposits that they said
represented prison drug profits. Laurin's trial is pending in Placer
County Superior Court. He could not be reached for comment.
Two separate investigations at San Quentin put an officer, two cooks
and a parolee with a violent past in custody.
The officer, April Reynolds, in her mid-to-late 20s, was arrested Nov.
22 in Contra Costa County after she bought a gram of heroin with the
intent of smuggling it into San Quentin, according to authorities. At
the time of the bust, she was accompanied by Terry Clay, 27, a
parolee-at-large with convictions for assault with a firearm, and drug
possession and other property crimes, officials said. He was arrested,
too.
An investigation into a San Quentin cook, Sherwood Coleman, 25, led
authorities to Reynolds and Clay. Investigators arrested Coleman the
day after the other two. Coleman's offense: buying an ounce of cocaine
from a Corrections operative, also with the idea of taking it to
prison, authorities said.
Reynolds, Coleman and Clay have been indicted by a Contra Costa County
grand jury, Corrections officials said. None of the three could be
reached for interviews.
Another San Quentin cook, Daniel O'Callaghan, 27, was arrested July
6.
Investigators said he obtained an ounce of methamphetamine from a
parolee in Ukiah, then smuggled half of it into San Quentin. He is set
for a preliminary hearing next week in Napa County. He was not
available for comment.
Office of Internal Affairs investigators described the Ironwood, San
Quentin and New Folsom cases as important busts.
``There is a high price on drugs in prison,'' said Mark Gregson,
senior special agent in charge of the OIA's Northern California
operations. ``A small amount of drugs is not so significant on the
streets, but they become significant in the institution.''
Although investigators believe most drugs get into prison through
inmate visits with friends and relatives, they said the larger
quantities almost always are smuggled in through prison employees,
including sworn officers.
``In instances where there are substantial amounts, it appears to be
more of an employee problem,'' said agent Mansfield.
Officials said that employees who bring drugs into prisons usually
work through one or two inmate contacts. The inmates, then, run their
own distribution networks through the prison.
Robert Johnson, a parolee with a history of drug convictions,
identified himself in an interview with The Sacramento Bee as a former
member of the La Nuestra Familia prison gang whose mob ``job'' at San
Quentin was to cultivate officers and other employees for stash smuggling.
``Check this out,'' Johnson said. ``In prison, you can make a thousand
dollars off a gram of heroin. I used to walk through the institution
with a thousand dollars in my pocket or in my mattress. I would go to
the visiting room and slip it out, or have a guard take it out. That
was my job.''
Johnson said prison employees brought in drugs to him no less than 18
times during his 18 years in various institutions.
Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association, said the three cases in the relatively short time frame
is a relatively high number. He characterized officers who smuggle
drugs into prison as ``stupid.''
``Out of 28,000 (sworn correctional officers), you're going to have
five or 10 who are ignorant enough to do something like this,'' Novey
said. ``It all gets back to (the prison system) having better
background investigations and psychological screening (of officers).''
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16th Street Shooting Gallery (Another San Francisco Examiner follow-up
on the heroin-related death of Boz Scaggs' son features a somewhat
sensationalized portrait of the Mission District neighborhood where
Oscar Scaggs died. The addicts in the neighborhood have found that
heroin is far more readily available than treatment programs. According
to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are about 13,000
heroin "addicts" in The City - but the number of casual users isn't
mentioned. In any case, only 4,000 were getting treatment last year.)
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:08:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: 16th Street Shooting Gallery
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Section: Front Page
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Emily Gurnon
16TH STREET SHOOTING GALLERY
As City's Heroin Problem Grows, Inner Mission Corner Is Still Ground Zero
He worked as a barber. He used to be a nurse's aide. And he once had a
family.
Now, the man who calls himself Heavy is a resident of 16th and Mission
streets, with no home, no job and no regular income. His three
children live with his mother; he sees them three or four times a year.
The one thing he does have, the thing that sticks with him like gum on
the bottom of his shoe, is his 20-year heroin habit. He has tried to
beat it, but the withdrawal is excruciating.
"To kill that pain, you gotta put more drugs in you," Heavy
said.
The 39-year-old is just one of many heroin addicts in this area of
town - an area described by neighborhood organizers as the center of
The City's heroin trade.
It is the place where hundreds come to buy their dope, activists and
police said. They come from Haight-Ashbury and Pacific Heights, from
Oakland and Petaluma. But unlike Oscar Scaggs, the son of singer Boz
Scaggs who died of an apparent heroin overdose there on New Year's
Eve, they go mostly unnoticed by the media.
"It's tragic what happened to Boz Scaggs' son, but it happens all the
time," said Richard Marquez of the Mission Agenda, a nonprofit agency
that works with poor people living on the streets and in the Mission's
56 residential hotels.
He pointed to the public toilet near the corner, the "green monster,"
as people here call it. "It's sort of a shooting gallery," a place
where addicts go to inject themselves with heroin, he said. "It's
cheaper than a hotel room."
Police say the area is certainly one of the three or four worst in The
City for heroin dealing.
"Historically, 16th and Mission has always been it," said Inspector
Bob Hernandez of the police narcotics division. "That's always been
the spot."
One addict who gets his supply there is a third-generation buyer; his
father and grandfather also frequented the corner, Hernandez said.
Since the 1970s, when the intersection became the site of a BART stop,
its popularity has grown.
Good prices in City
"Anyone from anywhere can come in, get off the train, get their drugs
and get back on," said Sgt. John Murphy of the narcotics division.
According to Hernandez, they make the trip to San Francisco because
they know they can get a good price for the drug here.
Moving west, toward Valencia Street, the hard-core elements of Mission
Street give way to the hipster clubs and trendy restaurants that have
made Valencia one of the hot new places for 20-somethings.
Marquez pointed to a bar on 16th Street, the Skylark, between Mission
and Valencia. It used to be a trans-gender gay Latino bar called La
India Bonita, he said. "Now it's a total yuppie site."
The contradictions are stark.
Marquez peered into the window of a popular restaurant on 16th and
Valencia called Ti Couz. "Yupsters are lining up here on Friday night
to eat crepes, and across the street, people in those (single-room
occupancy) hotels are shooting up," he said.
But the two groups have one thing in common: The young partiers often
stop on the corner to score some heroin while they're in the
neighborhood, Marquez said. Since the drug is increasingly snorted or
smoked, some of its formerly forbidden nature is gone.
A man who gave his name as Semaj, a heroin addict himself, said he
makes a little money by setting up customers with drug dealers.
"You can tell the customers that don't belong in the neighborhood.
They just look different," he said. He's seen doctors, lawyers, even
morticians come around for their heroin fix. "I even had a guy from
the funeral home, he come over here with a body in the car once."
Police agreed, saying that people from all walks of life and all
incomes frequent the area. Murphy said he recently arrested a Stanford
professor on suspicion of heroin possession.
The addicts who live in the neighborhood have found that drugs are far
more readily available than treatment programs.
According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are
about 13,000 heroin addicts in The City. Only 4,000 were getting
treatment last year, said Barbara Garcia, director of community
substance abuse services.
Treatment centers scarce
There are currently no treatment centers near 16th and Mission; the
closest one is at San Francisco General Hospital at 22nd Street and
Potrero Avenue, Garcia said. The department has funded a new
residential treatment program scheduled to open nearby in about a
year, but it will have only six beds.
Citywide, addicts must wait anywhere from three to six weeks and even
longer before they can get into a treatment program, Garcia said.
Hernandez, the narcotics officer, said he is working on a new program,
funded by the federal government, that aims to reduce the number of
overdose deaths and help people take advantage of the available
treatment options.
The addict who gave his name as Heavy said he would like to get
treatment - especially since he also struggles with diabetes. While he
stands on the corner talking to a reporter, a young man sidles up to
him.
"Thirty dollars," the young man says, opening his palm to reveal a
ripped plastic Baggie with a brown rock the size of a large raisin.
It's half a gram of Mexican heroin. "Thirty dollars."
Heavy declines, saying he doesn't have the money right now. The young
man moves on.
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Young, Rich And Strung Out (The San Francisco Chronicle uses the occasion
of Oscar Scaggs' heroin-related death to assert that heroin use is
increasing, and ludicrously but sensationally asserts it is emerging as the
"drug of choice" for the Bay Area's well-off kids. Anyone wondering how
non-lethal street doses of heroin can be so toxic should note
in San Francisco, it's sometimes cut with shoe polish.)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 17:53:18 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Young, Rich And Strung Out
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
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
Pubdate: Fri, 8 Jan 1999
Page: A1 - Front Page
Authors: Kevin Fagan, Neva Chonin, Chronicle Staff Writers
YOUNG, RICH AND STRUNG OUT
Heroin Emerging As Drug Of Choice For Bay Area's Well-Off Kids
Oscar Scaggs may not have known it, but he rode a cresting, ugly new wave
right to his death when he overdosed in a down-and-outer hotel on New
Year's Eve.
The wave is heroin addiction -- a familiar horror come back.
Just when most experts had written the drug off as hitting a downswing, the
old granddad of narcotics known as dope, chiva and smack that has so
infamously ravaged junkies off and on for decades is on the rise. Again.
This time the drug is reaching its anesthetizing fingers deeper than ever
into the ranks of the young, middle- and upper-middle class -- kids like
the 21-year-old son of blues rocker Boz Scaggs, ones from wealthy city
districts and suburbs who have the world at their fingertips and snort,
smoke or inject it away.
This isn't the ``heroin chic'' that gripped hollow-eyed celebrities in the
mid- 1990s, killing the likes of actor River Phoenix and grunge rocker
Stefanie Sargent with overdoses. That wave was on its way out even as
President Clinton denounced it in May 1997, replaced by an upsurge in the
abuse of methamphetamine, or speed.
In the depressingly predictable way of the drug world, this wave is the
inevitable answer to the speed epidemic, experts say -- inevitable because
epidemics of stimulant ``upper'' drugs are always followed by epidemics of
depressant ``downer'' drugs.
The main difference with this latest heroin wave is that the smack on the
street these days has become so incredibly potent that users don't have to
inject it, as they do low-grade heroin. This has put a richer cut of kid
into the drug's mangy grasp.
Being able to smoke it or inhale it straight out of a bag means youths can
use heroin and still pass through their privileged worlds without tell-tale
needle ``tracks'' on their arms to give them away. At least for a while,
that is -- most, if they become hard-core junkies, eventually turn to
syringes.
Adding to the allure is the fact that heroin has become so cheap -- $5 a
hit, down from $100 in the early 1990s -- that it now costs about as much
to get high on smack for six hours as it does to buy a six-pack of beer.
Heroin that would have been about 5 percent pure a few years ago is now 60
to 80 percent pure.
Most kids-of-privilege users are in their early 20s, medical and law
enforcement officials say, but a very small and growing percentage, less
than 2 percent nationwide, are between the ages of 12 and 18.
The kids come from anywhere money is not a problem, from Pacific Heights in
San Francisco to the better-heeled pockets of suburban Marin, Contra Costa,
San Mateo and Alameda counties. They are all drawn, though, to one place.
San Francisco, the epicenter of the epidemic, is where most young suburban
users come to get their dope. With the invulnerability of youth throbbing
inside them, they don't know what they're getting into.
``We treat them younger and higher-income all the time, and it's getting
worse,'' said Dr. David Smith, founder and medical director of the
Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics in San Francisco. ``Because they can smoke it
or inhale it now, they think they can't get addicted and won't get noticed,
but they're very wrong.
``It's a killer, no matter how you do it. And it's now an epidemic.''
Oscar Scaggs, with the cachet of having the last name of one of San
Francisco's most famous musicians, wasn't a typical rich kid. But those who
knew him well say his death is emblematic of what's happening to lots of
kids of privilege -- celebrity or not.
``There's this myth among parents that it's as simple as saying good people
don't do drugs and bad people do. Well, Oscar was the kindest, sweetest
person I'd ever met in my life,'' said Maura Lynch, 21, a close friend.
''And right now I can list 10 other people I know in this city between the
ages of 19 to 25 who are involved with heroin, too. That's the drug's age
group now: It's the upper-class kids just out of high school who are doing
it.''
Oscar Scaggs was emotionally devastated when his lifelong friend, Nick
Traina, author Danielle Steel's manic-depressive son, died of a drug
overdose in 1997 at age 19. But it wasn't enough to ward him off his own
dope craving.
``We went to Nick's funeral together, and I remember him telling me how
stupid it was, the way he died,'' Lynch said. ``He said horrible things
about the drug and how he hated junkies.''
Scaggs went into a rehabilitation program last January and seemed to be
staying clean nearly up to the time of his death, friends and police said.
Exactly why and how he wound up dead in the tatty Royan Hotel remains cloudy.
``I knew he was going to the (Royan) hotel to look for a friend who was a
junkie,'' said Lynch. ``Her parents had asked for help, and he was checking
with his dealers to try to find her. I guess that's how he got back in
touch with them after being clean.''
Dawn Holliday, who books Boz Scaggs' San Francisco nightclub Slim's, where
Oscar worked as a sound technician, knows the suburban heroin explosion
with painful intimacy.
Holliday's younger brother, Norman, lived in Marin and overdosed on heroin
at the 16th and Mission BART Station several years ago. He was resuscitated
after a passer-by noticed him turning blue and called 911. Norman moved to
upstate New York, telling his sister he couldn't get clean in San Francisco.
``He said he couldn't even take a bus from SFO to Sausalito without
copping,'' Holliday said. ``His friends were rich, white Marin deadheads.
They started smoking it, then shooting it. It got to the point where he
told me he wouldn't be surprised if half of Marin County woke up one
morning with a heroin habit.''
The National Drug Control Policy Office reports that the number of heroin
addicts nationwide has shot up from 500,000 in 1991 to 810,000 today --
more than 200,000 of that total being added in the past year alone. And
just in California, heroin seizures by the state Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement went from just 87 pounds in 1995, the height of the ``heroin
chic'' period, to 148 pounds last year. Police say the figure only reflects
a fraction of what is really out there.
Perhaps most sobering of all, San Francisco has the highest rate of
heroin-related deaths of any city in the state: One every three days,
double the rate of the early '90s, and far more than from any other drug.
However, tracing heroin's specific injection into the lives of the rich or
even the merely comfortable is much harder. Those with enough money tend to
take their kids to private doctors when they overdose, keeping them off the
public medical records.
But the trend is standing out like neon among those who must deal with it,
like Smith -- who helped Scaggs, and whose wife was Scaggs' chief drug
counselor.
``The drug culture is like the tobacco industry,'' said Smith, who attended
a private memorial service for Scaggs on Tuesday night at Slim's. ``They
market to youth, and to where they can get the money. They don't care who
they destroy.''
Wave or no wave, it's not like heroin ever really went away.
The first big heroin epidemic swept San Francisco in the late 1960s and
early '70s, and others have ebbed and flowed like a dirty tide ever since,
with a hard core of steady users remaining no matter what. Even when the
``chic'' trend died down, celebrities kept right on using and dying.
The chic phenomenon itself was actually a follow-up wave to an earlier
infusion of heroin into San Francisco's and other urban populations of
indigent street kids in the late 1980s. So the epidemic now reaching into
the middle and upper-classes is the third wallop of smack in the past decade.
``Mary,'' a 22-year-old San Franciscan from a privileged home who was
hooked on heroin and got clean more than a year ago, said the drug's
come-on draw for the just-out-of-high school crowd is purely recreational.
``It's not so much a party crowd thing, because when you're high on dope
the last thing you want to do is dance,'' said Mary, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. ``You start out just experimenting with your friends, you
know, as something different from pot or acid, and then it just gets ahold
of you before you know it.''
Another part of the appeal is purely generational. In a world of aging baby
boomers, upscale potheads and ex-hippie acid casualties, heroin is
emblematic of a younger generation, as intricately linked to its music and
fashion scene as an iron-on Marijuana leaf patch was to that of its
parents. It may be the most dangerous drug, but at least it's theirs --
which isn't really accurate, but that's the thinking.
Dave Kaplan, who runs the Easy Action music booking agency in San
Francisco's Mission District, figures that heroin's fashion rating has
little bearing on what happens on the street.
``All I know is that whenever I walk down 16th Street it looks like a scene
out of `Night of the Living Dead,' '' he said. ``If anything, the Mission
corridor has gotten worse. People outgrow drugs like acid, but it's hard to
get over being strung out on heroin.''
Parts of the Mission and Haight- Ashbury districts serve as the city's
principal dope supermarkets. Dealers use addicts as their front men,
sending them to the sidewalks with batches of smack to sell and paying them
off with hits for themselves.
While police and doctors are scrambling to stem the addiction wave and
handle the overdoses, drug pushers gleefully say times have never been better.
``Orinda, Marin, the Marina -- you name it, we get 'em,'' said one drug
dealer at 16th and Mission who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``Just in
the last year or so, it seems like every other buyer, or more, who comes
here is some rich white kid.''
This is where Scaggs at times came to get his dope; the hotel where he died
is just two blocks away. Dealers and junkies alike are easy to pick out on
the sidewalk -- for those who are looking, at least -- as they troll for
each other from midday deep into the night, avoiding the frequent police
patrols.
``The kids start out on pot, acid, stuff like that, in the Haight, and when
they want the chiva they come here,'' said the dealer. The big thing for
sale right now is a ``one on one,'' also called a speedball, a tiny
combination bag of heroin and cocaine that goes for about $10 and is good
for one or two highs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
46 Police Shells Found At Drug Bust Scene (According to the Houston
Chronicle, police in Pasadena, Texas, say the two men they killed were trying
to buy cocaine. But one of the two men killed, Keithen Briscoe, was a
criminal justice major at Prairie View A&M University and the other,
Empra TaDar Moore, was a December criminal justice graduate. Robert Moore,
19, a passenger in his brother's car who was shot in the shoulder, said "They
killed my brother for no reason," adding that his brother was not involved
in drugs.)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:00:17 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US TX: 46 Police Shells Found At Drug Bust Scene
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Art Smart
Pubdate: 8 Jan 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Author: Ruth Rendon
Section: pp. 22A and 23A, 3-star edition
46 POLICE SHELLS FOUND AT DRUG BUST SCENE
Suspects may not have fired any shots
Six Pasadena police officers fired 46 times during an attempted drug bust
in which two men were killed and another wounded, police said Thursday.
One of the two men killed was a criminal justice major at Prairie View A&M
University and the other a December criminal justice graduate.
"Our crime scene people have been able to recover 46 shell casings,"
Pasadena police spokesman Sgt. J.M. Baird said. "We believe all of those
shell casings came from police weapons. At this point we do know that six
officers were involved in engaging their firearms at the suspects."
One of the men killed by officers -- Keithen Briscoe, 24, of 2814
Dragonwick in Houston -- had a .32-caliber pistol in his waistband, Baird
said. Tests are being done to determine if the weapon had been fired, he said.
An autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office found that
Briscoe suffered four gunshot wounds, and the one in his left shoulder and
chest were fatal. He died Wednesday at Memorial Hospital-Southmore in
Pasadena.
The other man killed by officers was identified as Empra TaDar Moore, 23,
of 17103 Clay Road in Houston. Moore, who graduated from Prairie View and
was beginning a master's program, was shot seven times, with the wound to
the lower left armpit being fatal, Baird said. He died Wednesday at Ben
Taub Hospital.
Robert Moore, 19, a passenger in his brother Empra's car, was shot in the
shoulder and treated at Ben Taub Hospital.
Police say that about 2 p.m. Wednesday officers were trying to sell a large
quantity of cocaine when officers tried to arrest the men in the parking
lot of Sunny's Food Store at 204 S. Richey near Texas 225.
Baird said an undercover officer got into a Ford Escort driven by Briscoe,
who showed him $56,000 in cash for the cocaine. The officer then got out of
the car and gave a signal to other officers.
As the other officers began to surround Briscoe's car and a 1996 Chevrolet
Tahoe driven by Empra Moore, the two began to drive in reverse.
Briscoe's car struck an officer, throwing him over the car and in front of
the vehicle, Baird said. Briscoe then ran over the officer, he said.
"At that point is when officers began to engage in fire," Baird said.
Police said there are tire marks on the leg of the pants worn by the
undercover officer. He was taken to Columbia Bayshore Medical Center, where
he was treated for a bruised kidney and cuts and bruises to his face, then
released.
Baird said Moore also put his car in reverse, did a semicircle and struck
an undercover officer in the shoulder with the back of the car. The officer
suffered minor injuries.
Moore, with his brother as a passenger, tried to flee but got only a block
before ramming into the back of a truck. The Tahoe's back window was shot
out and the front windshield also was struck.
Speaking from his Houston home, Robert Moore said someone was trying to
barricade his brother in the parking lot when Empra Moore tried to leave.
"We didn't know who they were. They didn't acknowledge themselves as
police. We panicked. My brother put it in reverse and took off. They said
he ran over a cop, which is unbelievable because he didn't. I heard a
crash, but it wasn't a body," said Moore, 19, who is planning to enter
Prairie View A&M.
Moore said he heard several shots as they tried to leave.
"I didn't know what had happened," he said. "I told my brother that I was
scared. I looked up and saw police cars behind us, and I looked at my
brother and he was dead."
Robert Moore said he and his brother dropped off his son and the child's
mother at the airport. He said he thought they were going home, but his
brother drove to Pasadena instead. He said he didn't question his brother,
who was to start graduate work in criminal justice at Texas Southern
University this month, about where they were going.
"They killed my brother for no reason. We ran but you're not supposed to
get shot for running from police," he said.
Moore, who graduated from high school in Reno, Nev., said Briscoe and his
brother were friends from Prairie View. He said his brother was not
involved in drugs.
As police continued their investigation, authorities were searching for two
Hispanic men who fled in a red Lincoln Town Car.
Charlie Jones, a cousin of Briscoe, said the shooting was excessive and
possibly unjustified.
"At certain times police have the right to do certain things and sometimes
not," he said.
"What was going on out there? Something had to be going on with so many
police officers out there. Anybody could have been shot," said Jones, 35,
who is visiting Houston from Detroit. "One thing for sure is that there
were nine police officers involved. We need to find out what their roles
were."
Jones and other family members said they did not know what Briscoe was
doing in Pasadena and that he had no run-ins with the law. They said the
Escort was not his car and that they did not know the Moore brothers.
Other members of the Moore family declined comment.
Baird said the officers were surprised that three cars and five suspects
showed up for the buy.
"We expected a car and a suspect with the money," he said.
Police recovered $56,000 in cash from Briscoe's car. Earlier, police had
said there was $100,000 in the car. No weapon or cash was recovered from
Moore's car, Baird said.
No charges have been filed against Robert Moore.
The six officers who fired -- five undercover narcotics officers and one
narcotics supervisor -- were placed on a mandatory three-day administrative
leave and will undergo counseling. They also will have to requalify with
their firearms at the police range, Baird said.
Another narcotics supervisor and two uniformed officers also were part of
the sting operation but did not fire their weapons.
Baird said investigators have interviewed 15 witnesses and the nine
officers. Anyone witnessing the shooting that has not been contacted by
investigators is asked to call the police department at 713-477-1221.
***
[This article also appeared in a different edition of the same newspaper
with the headline, "Pasadena Cops Fired 46 Shots During Attempted Drug
Bust" - ed.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug Policy Foundation Action Alert - Gaines and PBS (The Drug Policy
Foundation, in New York, asks you to write a letter to the U.S. Pardon
Attorney and your congressional representatives asking for the release of
Dorothy Gaines, a single mother of three, whose case is to be featured in a
90-minute "Frontline" broadcast Jan. 12 titled "Snitch." Gaines is a
first-time offender sentenced to almost 20 years in prison solely on the
testimony of other defendants who were facing mandatory minimums but who
ended up receiving less time than Gaines because of their statements.)
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 15:25:38 EST
Originator: dpnews@dpf.org
Sender: dpnews@dpf.org
From: "Drug Policy News Service" (dpf-mod@dpf.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (dpnews@dpf.org)
Subject: DPF Action Alert: Gaines and PBS
Drug Policy Foundation Action Alert
Released: January 8, 1999
Gaines Case Calls Attention to Use of Informing in Criminal Justice System :
PBS/Frontline program to feature Dorothy Gaines, federal prisoner profiled
in Drug Policy Letter
WASHINGTON - On Tuesday, January 12, federal prisoner Dorothy Gaines will
file her final appeal to reverse her conviction and sentencing on charges
that she took part in a drug conspiracy. Ms. Gaines was sentenced to nearly
20 years in federal prison in 1995 based solely on the testimony of
government witnesses who themselves were facing mandatory minimum sentences.
The disturbing story of Ms. Gaines' trial and incarceration is part of a new
Frontline investigation that will air this Tuesday on PBS stations across
the country. The 90-minute program, titled "Snitch," looks into the
increasing use of informants to make cases against alleged drug offenders
(see below).
The Dorothy Gaines Story
In 1993, Ms. Gaines was arrested along with a former boyfriend who used
crack when local and federal police were busting a crack cocaine
distribution ring in Mobile, Ala. In 1994, a federal jury found Ms. Gaines
guilty of two counts of drug conspiracy. Because of the alleged amount of
crack cocaine involved, Ms. Gaines received a 19-year-seven-month sentence
in federal prison.
The problem was that the police did not have the cocaine that Ms. Gaines
supposedly distributed. A search of her house turned up no drugs and no drug
paraphernalia. Ms. Gaines, a single mother with three children, is poor, so
the police did not find any cash or other signs of income that might be
generated by wholesale drug dealing.
What the federal prosecutors did have was the word of other defendants that
Ms. Gaines had kept the ring's leader supplied with crack cocaine. The
government's witnesses, including the leader, were themselves facing lengthy
mandatory minimum sentences, which they sought to reduce by testifying
against people like Ms. Gaines. Furthermore, one of the defendants charged
that the other witnesses were developing their testimony against Ms. Gaines
together while being held in the same cell during the trial.
Because she had no information to trade for a more lenient sentence, Ms.
Gaines, a first-time offender, is now serving a longer sentence than the
defendants who testified against her -- even though some defendants had
prior offenses or were charged with more serious crimes. Dennis Rowe, the
leader of the crack ring, will be released from federal prison in 2004 --
eight years before Ms. Gaines' mandatory sentence expires.
Even if Ms. Gaines were involved in the crack ring and falsely maintained
her innocence, the Drug Policy Foundation opposes her conviction because it
was obtained solely on the basis of testimony by other defendants. The
government did not prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by introducing
corroborating physical evidence of a crime. Instead, the government traded
leniency for testimony, which it could not otherwise verify.
What Can You Do?
Ms. Gaines' legal case is at a critical juncture. The courts, which have
become inured to convictions based on informants' testimony, denied her
first round of appeals. On Tuesday, January 12, Ms. Gaines' public defender
will file a motion for relief on habeas corpus grounds (28 U.S.C. Sec.
2255), which has a slim chance of succeeding.
You can bring attention to this case, especially in light of the airing of
the PBS/Frontline investigation Tuesday evening, by writing to the following
to request that Ms. Gaines be released because the government did not prove
its case. You should begin with the U.S. Pardon Attorney, which already has
a file on Ms. Gaines:
U.S. Pardon Attorney
U.S. Department of Justice
10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20530
Your Representatives in Congress
Contacting your representatives in Congress by writing a letter or calling
is the most effective way to make your views known to them (as opposed to
sending email). If you do not know who your representatives are in the new
106th Congress, you should call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard or visit the
congressional web sites. For the Senate, call (202) 224-3121 or visit
http://www.senate.gov. For the House of Representatives, call (202) 225-3121
or visit http://www.house.gov.
Here are the two addresses you will need for both Senators and your
Representative:
Honorable [name of Senator]
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-2203
Honorable [name of Representative]
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515-1101
After Tuesday, you can also send letters to the judge who will be trying the
habeas corpus case:
The Honorable Alex T. Howard
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama
113 St. Joseph St.
Mobile, Ala. 36602
You should also send copies of your letters to Ms. Gaines, who loves to
receive mail:
Dorothy M. Gaines
Reg. No. 05609-003
FCI Tallahassee
501 Capital Circle NE
Tallahassee, FL 32301
The original story from the Winter 1998 Drug Policy Letter is online at
http://www.dpf.org and http://www.november.org.
Ms. Gaines is more concerned that her imprisonment has separated her from
her family than with the fact that she believes she has been wrongly
convicted. She cannot support her three children while in prison, where she
makes $5.25 per month. She is the sole living parent for her children and
now has three grandchildren as well.
Watch Frontline on Tuesday for More on Gaines, Informants
The 90-minute program "Snitch" profiles unsettling cases in which minor
offenders are serving long prison sentences on the word of a snitch.
Frontline producer Ofra Bikel said, "The war on drugs and its use of
informants have had devastating consequences on our justice system, the
fabric of our society, and the family. Making informants the only way for
the accused to escape the full force of a sentences is a dangerous idea that
is eroding the individual's rights in the judicial process."
"Snitch" reveals that nearly a third of defendants in federal drug
trafficking cases have had their sentences reduced because they informed on
other people. Some informants end up not serving any time at all.
PBS airdate: Tues., Jan. 12, 1999, 9 P.M., 90 minutes [check local
listings]. More information is online at http://www.pbs.org/frontline. The
Drug Policy Foundation and several other reform organizations provided
substantial information, including Ms. Gaines' story, to Frontline.
Scott Ehlers
Senior Policy Analyst
ehlers@dpf.org
Drug Policy Foundation
"Creating Reasoned and Compassionate Drug Policies"
4455 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite B-500
Washington, DC 20008-2328
ph: (202) 537-5005 * fax: (202) 537-3007
www.dpf.org
www.drugpolicy.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 73 (The Drug Reform Coordination
Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug
policy, including - Murder charges against four in Baltimore dismissed
for lack of court space; Rehnquist to Congress: stop federalizing crime;
Special report: Canadian citizens, investors busted for hemp to help
Nicaraguan hurricane victims; Ann Landers speaks out on the drug war,
marijuana laws; Syringe exchange protest in New Jersey; Medicinal marijuana
in Hawai'i: A review of events; Dutch marijuana use half that of America,
study reveals; Media alert: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"; and an editorial
by Adam J. Smith: New Hope in California.)
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 07:07:00 -0800
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (drcnet@drcnet.org)
Subject: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #73
Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #73 -- January 8, 1998
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network
-------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --------
(To sign off this list, mailto:listproc@drcnet.org with the
line "signoff drc-natl" in the body of the message, or
mailto:lists@drcnet.org for assistance. To subscribe to
this list, visit http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html.)
(This issue can be also be read on our web site at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html. Check out the DRCNN
weekly radio segment at http://www.drcnet.org/drcnn/.)
PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the
contents of The Week Online is hereby granted. We ask that
any use of these materials include proper credit and, where
appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If
your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet
requests checks payable to the organization. If your
publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use
the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification
for our records, including physical copies where material
has appeared in print. Contact: Drug Reform Coordination
Network, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036,
(202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail
drcnet@drcnet.org. Thank you.
Articles of a purely educational nature in The Week Online
appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise
noted.
NOTES TO OUR READERS! An important action alert will be
going out to the list this weekend, probably Sunday. Please
stay tuned and check in early next week. Note also that
this issue includes a letter-writing alert, responding to
Ann Landers' very positive columns of recent weeks.
If you've requested tickets from us to the Digital Be-In,
taking place in San Francisco this Saturday night, 7:00pm to
2:00am, your name should be on the DRCNet admit list at the
door. If you are paying by check or cash, please visit the
DRCNet table after you are admitted. If you are paying by
credit card, you should be all set. If your request doesn't
reach us on time, and your name isn't on the list, you'll
need to pay the full door price of $20. (It's $15 reserving
with us in advance.) Find out more information about the
Be-In online at http://www.be-in.com, call (415) 777-9199,
or review our bulletin of earlier this week, at
http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1999/1-4.html#be-in.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Murder Charges Against Four in Baltimore Dismissed for
Lack of Court Space
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#dismissed
2. Rehnquist to Congress: Stop Federalizing Crime
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#rehnquist
3. SPECIAL REPORT: Canadian Citizens, Investors Busted for
Hemp to Help Nicaraguan Hurricane Victims
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#nicaragua
4. Ann Landers Speaks out On The Drug War, Marijuana Laws
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#annlanders
5. Syringe Exchange Protest in New Jersey
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#protest
6. Medicinal Marijuana in Hawai'i: A Review of Events
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#hawaii
7. Dutch Marijuana Use Half That Of America, Study Reveals
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#cedro
8. MEDIA ALERT: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#snitch
9. EDITORIAL: New Hope in California
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/073.html#editorial
***
1. Murder Charges Against Four in Baltimore Dismissed for
Lack of Court Space
The backlog that exists in Baltimore's Circuit Courts, due
mainly to thousands of drug cases, resulted in the dismissal
of murder charges against four individuals this week (1/6)
who had waited more than 13 months for a trial. Felony
trials are supposed to begin no later than six months
following arraignment, but the city has neither enough
judges, courtrooms, nor prosecutors nor public defenders to
handle the caseload.
Michael N. Gambrill, District Public Defender for Baltimore
told The Week Online that more than 80% of the cases in the
district court are drug cases.
"The police might arrest one junkie for passing a small
amount of something to another junkie. Now, technically,
they're distributing, but the reality is that it's just
people who are addicted who are feeding their habits,"
Gambrill said. But they're being brought into the system as
felonies, which is overloading the system."
The by-product, says Gambrill, is a lack of justice. "It's
not uncommon for people to sit in jail for six to eight
months, and sometimes longer before trial. These people
haven't been found guilty of anything. They lose their
homes, they lose their jobs, they lose contact with their
families and loved ones based simply on the fact that they
have been charged. That is not justice."
In the case of the dropped murder charges, the four
defendants had been waiting more than three years for a
trial. In that case, the normal delays were compounded by
the difficulties of finding dates on which the four separate
defense attorneys (none of those defendants were represented
by the public defender), the prosecutor, the judge and a
courtroom were all available.
***
2. Rehnquist to Congress: Stop Federalizing Crime
On New Year's Eve day, Chief Justice of the United States
Supreme Court William Rehnquist delivered his annual end-of-
year report on the judiciary to Congress. His message to
legislators, spoken in blunt terms, was to stop making a
federal case out of every crime that hits the headlines,
overburdening the federal judiciary in the process.
Rehnquist cited "the pressure on Congress to appear
responsive to every highly publicized societal ill or
sensational crime" as a driving force behind the fact that
the federal criminal caseload increased by 15% in 1998
alone. "The trend to federalize crimes that have
traditionally been handled in state courts... threatens to
change entirely the nature of our federal system" he added.
The increased federal workload involving criminal matters,
with their constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial, has
wreaked havoc with the opportunity for civil litigants to be
heard. There is often a three to five year wait for civil
trials.
Drug offenses are one category of crime that have been
largely federalized, giving prosecutors the option of
bringing charges in either federal or state court. And
since federal mandatory minimum sentences tend to be
draconian, they are able to use the threat of federal
prosecution to force people to become informants.
The number of drug offenses tried in federal court each year
has risen from just over 12,000 in 1992 to more than 16,000
in 1998.
Scott Wallace, Director of defender legal services for the
National Legal Aid and Defender Association told The Week
Online that the problem stems from the desire of politicians
to make a name for themselves.
"This trend (the federalization of crime) arose from
Congress' frustration with its traditional role of simply
funding innovation. There weren't many headlines to be had
for being thoughtful. There was far more glamour in
actually toughening sentences.
"Members of Congress, even the attorneys among them are not
particularly knowledgeable about -- or if they are they are
not very concerned with -- the traditional separation of
powers between the states and the federal government. Not
nearly as concerned as they are about getting their name on
a new law."
But according to Wallace, there is a cost.
"First, the federal sentences are almost always far harsher
than state sentences, which creates enormous disparities in
the way similar defendants are treated for the same offense.
In addition, when we look at the criminal law in its
traditional role, it is the most serious way in which a
community can express its varying degrees of disapproval of
specified behaviors. By taking that power and placing it in
the hands of federal bureaucrats, who are wholly
unaccountable to the people of any particular city or state,
the connection between community values and that statement
of disapproval is lost. Therefore, if the people of Iowa
think that its okay to carry a weapon, or else if the people
of Oregon don't think that the possession of marijuana is a
criminal act, it's irrelevant to a one size fits all federal
approach."
Rehnquist argued that before creating new federal criminal
legislation, legislators should consider whether there has
been a "demonstrated state failure" to deal with a
particular matter, and "whether we want most of our legal
relationships decided at the national rather than the local
level."
This issue has long been on Rehnquist's agenda. In 1995, he
wrote the majority opinion in the Lopez case which struck
down the Gun Free School Zone Act, which had made it a
federal crime to possess a gun within a thousand yards of
any school. Rehnquist reasoned that there was no credible
argument that the Act fell under Congress' powers to
regulate interstate commerce.
***
3. SPECIAL REPORT: Canadian Citizens, Investors Busted for
Hemp to Help Nicaraguan Hurricane Victims
NOTE TO OUR READERS: This first-person account from Don
Wirthshafter of the Ohio Hempery reached our desk today. We
present it here in its entirety. The Week Online will cover
this international story as it unfolds.
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. 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/nac
ional/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.elnuevodiario.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 attend or 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.
Dr. Wylie described it as the George Washington Carver
method of crop improvement. Start with seeds from as close
to the original source as possible. (Hemp originated in
southeast Asia.) 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. This is why the DEA is being sued by a
group of Kentucky farmers (see
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/042.html#kentucky and
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/048.html#ky-hemp). 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 legal industrial 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
orced the government to act quickly. One government
minister after another came to court to kowtow 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.
See the following articles:
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional10.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/30-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional5.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/diciembre/31-diciembre-1998/nac
ional/nacional1.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/na
cional11.html
http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1999/enero/02-enero-1999/nacional/na
cional10.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
narcotraficantes 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 BlandĒn. BlandĒn is a central
character in the C.I.A. drug running scandal exposed by Gary
Webb in the San Jose Mercury News and his recent book Dark
Alliance (see http://www.drcnet.org/wol/043.html#garywebb).
BlandĒn 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, BlandĒn helped import tons of cocaine into America.
He served almost two years in a federal prison. BlandĒn
holds an MBA, is bilingual and became quite excited by the
potential of what hemp could 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," BlandĒn's checkered history seemed to be as proof
that these gringos were up to no good.
Hemp Agro had obtained more than twenty licenses for
conducting business in Nicaragua. The Agricultural Ministry
was informed as to their plans and had issued licenses for
the importation of Chinese seed. Nothing was hidden here,
the company was doing all it could to enlist government
support for the planned particleboard mill and oil crushing
mill. The government ministers were invited to see the
field. A large sign marked its location. The paperwork
filed in Nicaragua gave the names of all of the investors.
Would these steps be taken for a field of marijuana?
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 pm on
New Year's Day.
The courtroom was crowed with newspaper reporters and
photographers who would 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 grown and harvested seed hemp and
was totally inconsistent with the methods of planting and
harvesting marijuana. 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 is
incapable of discriminating 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 the
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 probable 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 compesinos 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.
For more information, please contact Don Wirtshafter at
(740) 662-4367 or don@hempery.com, or Grant Sanders, Hemp
Agro International, (905) 681-1110.
***
4. Ann Landers Speaks out On The Drug War, Marijuana Laws
Ann Landers, who, along with her sister "Dear Abby" is one
of the two most popular advice columnists in North America,
had a holiday season to be proud of this year as she
addressed our nation's failing drug war not once but twice.
On Christmas, Ms. Landers published a holiday message which
included the following two paragraphs:
"Unfortunately, the "war on drugs" has turned out to be a
colossal failure. The increase in the number of homicides is
staggering, and most of it is drug-related. Guns and knives
are standard equipment among teenagers. It is not uncommon
for a teenager to get shot or stabbed for his jacket or his
shoes. Metal detectors in schools help some, but not enough.
While alcohol is still the most abused drug of all,
marijuana and stronger substances like crack cocaine are
commonplace in junior and senior high schools. The dropout
rate is appalling. Why should a kid stay in school when he
can get rich dealing drugs? This is the message too many
young people are getting."
Not all of the nation was able to read her words of wisdom,
however, as many newspapers across the country edited out
that part of the message.
Then, on Monday (1/5), Ms. Landers published a letter from a
distraught mother in Virginia whose eighteen year-old son
had been arrested on marijuana charges. The mother argued
that while she disapproved of marijuana use, along with
alcohol and tobacco use, her son had never hurt anyone, had
possessed the marijuana for his personal use, and had "never
had so much as a parking ticket," and yet was facing a long
prison term, which she thought was an injustice as well as a
waste of state resources.
Ann agreed, saying: "I have long believed that the laws
regarding marijuana are too harsh. Those who keep pot for
their own use should not be treated as criminals. Thirty
years in prison makes no sense whatsoever. I'm with you."
YOU CAN HELP! It is important that Ms. Landers, who has
taken previous, cautious steps in the direction of reform
advocacy, gets plenty of letters of support, or even
personal stories from people whose lives and families have
been damaged by the Drug War. Write to her at:
Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, IL, 60611-0562
If your local paper runs Ann Landers but cut the above
columns or edited out the above-cited material, send them a
letter of complaint.
***
5. Syringe Exchange Protest in New Jersey
On Tuesday, January 12, at twelve noon, citizens of New
Jersey and surrounding regions will gather on the steps of
the State House in Trenton to protest Governor Christine
Whitman's intractability on the issue of syringe exchange.
The protest will coincide with Whitman's State of the State
address and will be sponsored by the New Jersey Harm
Reduction Coalition, the New Jersey chapters of the National
Organization for Women and American Civil Liberties Union,
the New Jersey Collegiate Consortium for Health in
Education, ACT-UP Philadelphia, and ACT-UP New York, among
others.
New Jersey has the nation's third-highest rate of injection-
related AIDS.
If you are in the area, please make an effort to attend this
one-hour demonstration. Donations to defray transportation
and other expenses are welcome. Checks can be made out the
New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition and sent to NJHRC, P.O.
Box 1459, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. For further information,
call NJHRC at (732) 247-3242.
(Read the Health Emergency 1999 report by Dr. Dawn Day of
the Dogwood Center -- http://www.drcnet.org/healthemergency/
-- for much more information on the impact of injection-
related AIDS, particularly as it impacts minority
communities.)
***
6. Medicinal Marijuana in Hawai'i: A Review of Events
Don Topping, President, Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i,
http://www.drugsense.org/dpfhi
In early December 1998, Governor Benjamin Cayetano, recently
re-elected by a slender margin of 5,000 votes, announced
that he intended to introduce legislation on three highly
controversial issues in Hawai'i: domestic partnerships,
euthanasia, and medicinal marijuana.
Following this announcement, the Governor met with Pam
Lichty and Don Topping of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i,
and Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project. During
this meeting, the Governor appeared determined to follow
through, asked very good questions, and requested that DPFH
work with his Attorney General and Director of Health to
work on draft legislation.
While Chuck Thomas was in Honolulu, he joined Lichty and
Topping at meetings with key legislators, i.e. Chairs of the
Health Committees for the House and Senate; Chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, and key staffers of the co-chairs
of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The chairs of both
health committees said that they would introduce a bill on
medicinal marijuana in their respective houses. The
judiciary committees took a more restrained, although
somewhat supportive position.
On December 17, board members of DPFH met with the AG's
representative and Director of Health, during which the AG's
rep made it clear that his boss opposed the idea regardless
of the Governor's position, claiming that she (the AG)
"served the people, not the governor." It was also hinted
at the meeting that the head of the State Narcotics Control
Division would authorize his officers to make arrests under
federal law should such legislation pass the state
legislature.
An independent poll taken in Hawai'i in September shows that
63% of Hawaii's voters support medicinal marijuana.
DPFH has already received commitments from several patients
and physicians who will testify in favor of the bill. DPFH
is also working with MPP and others in the reform movement
on this issue. DPFH expects opposition to this bill from
city, state and federal law enforcement groups, and various
other groups who support current drug policy.
The coming session of the Hawai'i State Legislature marks
the beginning of a two-year legislative period. Thus, even
if the proposed bill for medicinal marijuana fails to make
it through both houses, it will still be alive for the
session that begins in January, 2000.
***
7. Dutch Marijuana Use Half That Of America, Study Reveals
from the NORML Weekly News, courtesy the NORML Foundation,
http://www.norml.org
January 7, 1999, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Americans
consume marijuana at rates more than double those of their
Dutch counterparts, according to a study published Tuesday
by the Center for Drug Research (CEDRO) of the University of
Amsterdam.
"These findings illustrate that criminalizing marijuana does
little, if anything, to discourage use," said Allen St.
Pierre, executive director of The NORML Foundation. He
noted that Dutch law allows citizens over 18 to buy and
consume marijuana in government-regulated coffeeshops.
The study found that 15.6 percent of Dutch persons aged 12
and over had tried marijuana. Of these, 4.5 percent
reported using marijuana in the past year, and 2.5 percent
said they used the drug during the past month. By contrast,
32.9 percent of Americans admit trying marijuana, and nine
percent report using the drug in the past year. Slightly
more than five percent of Americans say they use the drug
monthly.
The study's authors concluded that "a repressive [marijuana]
policy as in the U.S. does not necessarily result in less
drug use. The availability of drugs is no determining
factor for levels of drug use in a country."
The study, financed by the health ministry and conducted by
Amsterdam University and the Central Bureau of Statistics,
is the first to document national marijuana use rates.
Data previously compiled by the Dutch National Institute of
Health and Addiction (NIHA) determined that Dutch
adolescents use marijuana at significantly lower rates than
Americans. The agency reported that 21 percent of Dutch
adolescents admit trying the drug compared to 45 percent of
American high school seniors.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre
or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.
To view a summary of the CEDRO report online, please visit
http://www.frw.uva.nl/cedro/.
***
8. MEDIA ALERT: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"
On Tuesday, January 12 at 9pm (check local listings), PBS
will air "Snitch," a 90 minute feature exposing the use and
misuse of confidential informants by the U.S. government.
Frontline will examine how mandatory minimum sentencing
legislation turned the use of informants into the lynchpin
of prosecutorial strategy in the Drug War. Producer Ofra
Bikel takes viewers inside the mind of the informant and
profiles some unsettling cases in which the most minor
offenders are serving harsh prison sentences on the word of
a snitch, while higher-ups, with information to trade, walk
free.
(See our story on a Tenth Circuit Case which could end the
trading of leniency for "the right testimony," at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/068.html#testimony. Also, see
related articles and editorial in Issue #35, at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/035.html.)
***
9. EDITORIAL: New Hope in California
Adam J. Smith, DRCNet Associate Director
In California this week, Bill Lockyer, the state's new
Attorney General, will begin the process of trying to figure
out how to implement Proposition 215. Prop. 215 was passed
by the voters of California in 1996, and was supposed
legalize the possession and use of marijuana by patients in
need. The intent of the law has been frustrated, however,
by a combination of the federal government and the former
Attorney General of California, Dan Lungren.
Lungren was an opponent of Prop. 215 even before its
passage. At one point during the campaign, when the popular
comic strip Doonesbury ran a week-long series in support of
the initiative, Lungren used state money to hold a press
conference denouncing the comic and its creator, and urging
the state's newspapers to refuse to run the strip.
In the two years that he held his post after the initiative
was passed, Lungren showed himself willing to go back on his
oath to "uphold the laws of the State of California" by
openly proclaiming and acting upon his intent to interpret
the law "as narrowly as possible." This led to numerous
arrests of legitimate patients and the seizure of their
medicine.
The federal government, for its part, having been thwarted
in its efforts in urging the initiative's defeat, opened
hostilities on December 30, 1996, with a press conference at
which Attorney General Janet Reno threatened to prosecute
and or rescind the prescription privileges of any doctor who
so much as discussed the use of marijuana with his or her
patients. When that threat was deemed to be in violation of
the First Amendment in federal court, a legal assault was
undertaken by the federal government against various
dispensaries of medical marijuana throughout the state.
But now there is Bill Lockyer. Lockyer has been an open
proponent of the right of Californians to access marijuana
for medicinal use. He made no secret of this during his
campaign, and has since reiterated his desire to oversee the
creation and implementation of a system of distribution,
most likely in cooperation with local governments, which
will finally give life to the initiative's 1996 victory.
Whatever the ultimate plan, it is likely to face federal
opposition, and it could very well get ugly. Keep in mind
that the federal government came into Oakland last year and
shut down that city's Cannabis Buyers' Club over the strong
objections of the Mayor and the city council, who had gone
so far as to deputize the club's employees in an effort to
fit them into a loophole in the federal Controlled
Substances Act. Bill Lockyer most assuredly has his work
cut out for him.
One can hope that the victories this past November of
medical marijuana on the ballots of four other states might
temper the feds' enthusiasm for arresting the sick and the
dying, their doctors and their caretakers. But don't bet on
it. The federal government has a lot invested in its
unyielding stance on medicinal marijuana, and it openly
fears that capitulation on this issue will open the door to
reforms in other areas of its cash cow drug war. What we
can legitimately hope is that Bill Lockyer is a man who will
not be easily intimidated, and that California's new
governor, Gray Davis, will stand behind him. We can also
hope that local governments across the state, as well as the
state's legislators, have the stomach to stand up to an
overbearing and overzealous federal government on behalf of
California's voters, or at least for those whose suffering
the federal government would have them ignore.
***
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[End]
to the 1999 Daily News index for Jan. 8-14