-------------------------------------------------------------------

Smelling Salts, Please (A letter sent to the editor of the Gazette Times,
in Corvallis, Oregon, complains that a DARE officer in nearby Philomath
who was charged with domestic violence will be allowed to plead guilty
to lesser charges and then resign from the police force - meaning he can
re-apply for the vacant position and everything will be just fine.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 11:34:44 -0900
To: dpfor@drugsense.org
From: Ed Glick (gina@proaxis.com)
Subject: DPFOR: LTE- Corvallis G-T
Sender: owner-dpfor@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfor@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/

TO: G-T Letters to the Editor

FROM: Ed Glick, RN

RE: Violent DARE Officer gets off -feel free to print

Date: Jan. 10, 1999

SMELLING SALTS PLEASE

Editor: I got a whiff of something bad in the G-T about the Philomath
Police Officer who plead guilty to lesser charges then resigned from the
police force. It just so happens that he is also the Philomath School
District DARE officer who is teaching our children to resist drugs and
violence.

So, lets see if I have this right: The Philomath School District has a
violent, abusive cop teaching kids with a curriculum which is clearly shown
to be a failure. This cop resigns rather than get fired and strikes a deal
with the Benton County District Attorney to plead guilty to a lesser charge
which doesn't include domestic abuse. (A domestic abuse conviction would
bar him from carrying a weapon thus ending his career.)

Since he has always been such a good cop he can re-apply for a position in
a year and everything will be just fine. And lo, in a year or two we'll
have a violent cop carrying a gun teaching kids a failed program of how to
resist drugs and violence.

Ed Glick, RN
[personal info snipped]
gina@proaxis.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Web Site Review - 'Campaign For The Restoration And Regulation Of Hemp'
(The Seattle Times' technology writer thinks the web site for the Cannabis
Tax Act campaign is spiffy. D. Paul Stanford, of Portland, hopes to place
the comprehensive marijuana-law reform initiative on the ballot
in Washington, Oregon, California, and perhaps other states by 2000.)

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 05:45:13 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WA: Web Site Review - 'Campaign
For The Restoration And Regulation Of Hemp'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Sunday, January 10, 1999
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company
Author: Peter Lewis, Seattle Times technology reporter

WEB SITE REVIEW - 'CAMPAIGN FOR THE RESTORATION AND REGULATION OF HEMP'

**1/2 "Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp"
http://www.crrh.org/

Some readers may wonder if the brains behind today's site-seeing stop were
dope-impaired or grass-enhanced when they designed it. Your conclusion may
say as much about you as it does about the site, but I'm not critiquing you.

In the interests of full disclosure: I did inhale (and don't trust anyone
over 40 who didn't), but that was a long time ago.

The Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH), a
Portland-based advocacy group, has taken to the Web to push the "Cannabis
Tax Act" (CTA), a measure it hopes to place on the ballot in Washington,
Oregon, California, and perhaps other states by 2000. The proposal would
comprehensively reform marijuana laws by regulating and taxing adult sales,
licensing the cultivation of the drug for sale in state-run package stores
and adults-only businesses, allowing adults to grow their own and farmers to
grow industrial hemp without license and letting doctors prescribe untaxed
cannabis to patients suffering from a variety of illnesses and injuries.

Leading the political and virtual campaigns is the group's full-time
director, D. Paul Stanford, who plans to begin a signature-petition drive in
Washington state by March and submit the measure to the Legislature next
year.

Stanford says he used to import industrial hemp - legally - from China,
until his paper company ran into financial trouble a few years ago.

In a swirling homage to the weed it would legitimize, the Web site is
suffused in yellows and greens. It makes amusing use of tiny, animated
marijuana leaves that turn on their sides as visiting mice hover over
associated hot links.

The site maxes out with Shockwave's "Flash" technology, a browser plug-in
that enables animated effects. (For those lacking the plug-in, there's a
link to download it, though the site misses a beat by not providing a handy
test applet to tell if you need it).

There's a rich and fairly extensive archive of video clips, including a
48-minute "Cronkite Report" that aired four years ago, and an hour-long
"Town Hall" meeting on medical cannabis broadcast by Portland's KATU-TV
station in 1997.

On the lighter side, the site's link to "Herb Griffin's `Hemp TV' Jeopardy"
sounded promising. "Test your knowledge of hemp and marijuana culture
against time, and the world!" it invited.

The familiar Jeopardy tune launched instantly, but unfortunately the video
component (i.e., the game itself) never materialized. Instead I was
transported to a shopping site for "hi-tech hipsters." (Stanford said the
link would be repaired).

As you'd expect, the site is full of arguments and propaganda to further the
group's political goals. There's even a legal treatise on "Why the CTA will
be upheld in a court of law."

CRRH claims credit for the rejection by Oregon voters last November of a
measure to re-criminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Oddly, though, especially for a site committed to political change at the
ballot box, CRRH lacks a current score sheet tallying up the run of
successful campaigns to legalize medical marijuana - starting three years
ago with California and Arizona and continuing last fall in Alaska,
Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Pitches for donations are ubiquitous. Interestingly, Stanford says that
after the site was redesigned into its current "stoner-oriented" look, two
things happened: daily hits skyrocketed, and Web-generated donations
plummeted.

"I'm not sure if people see that (flashy animation effects) and think, `They
have enough money already,' " muses Stanford, who says another redesign is
in the works - one that will offer a less psychedelic experience as an
alternative surf.

Because the site's video streaming and Web design were donated, Stanford
said he was pretty much stuck with the preferences of those doing the
donating.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Party rancor, new faces backdrop to session opener
(An Associated Press article contains nothing ostensibly relevant
to drug policy, but provides a glimpse of the Oregon legislature
as it begins a new session.)

Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org

Party rancor, new faces backdrop to session opener

The Associated Press
1/10/99 3:19 PM

By CHARLES E. BEGGS

Associated Press Writer

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The Oregon Legislature opens its 70th biennial session
Monday with rancor already simmering among majority Republicans in the House
and the biggest crop of freshmen in years.

They'll face issues such as shoring up the Oregon Health Plan, repairing
worn and rutted roads and combating juvenile crime in the wake of last May's
shooting rampage at Springfield's Thurston High School.

The only thing the state constitution says lawmakers have to do is pass a
balanced two-year budget for government. In the process, almost every issue
will be touched by the $10.8 billion budget proposed by Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Term limits did a housecleaning in 1998. The law passed by voters in 1992
took full effect in last year's elections and is the biggest reason that 27
of the 60 House members are new this year.

Republicans will hold 34 seats, up from 31 in the 1997 session, but that
doesn't mean smooth sailing for the majority party.

Last fall, a divided GOP caucus nominated Rep. Lynn Snodgrass to be House
speaker, ousting the more politically moderate Rep. Lynn Lundquist.

Lundquist, who's been critical of Snodgrass' conservative views, tried to
round up the votes last week to reinstate himself as speaker, but then
dropped the effort after finding little support.

Snodgrass said she knows the process left wounds.

"There are land mines out there," the Republican lawmaker from Boring said.
"We don't know where they are. We just hope they don't blow up."

Lundquist's failed coup "is illustrative of very deep divisions in the
Republican caucus," said Bill Lunch, an Oregon State University political
science professor.

He said life could get difficult for Snodgrass, especially if the House
takes up emotional issues such as requiring parental notice before teens can
get abortions and trying to undo a court ruling that gave gays employment
protection.

"If these kinds of issues come early, it could set a tone that's very
adversarial and confrontational for the entire session," Lunch said.

Meanwhile, the Republicans' grip on the Senate loosened when they lost three
seats in the 1998 elections, dropping their majority to 17-13.

"At times it will be a little harder to find majorities," said Senate
President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass. "We'll have to have more bipartisan
support to get things done."

Some key money issues could be divisive in the coming session.

For example, the Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders are
split over the GOP's proposed tax cuts.

Adams and the Senate Republicans are pushing to expand a tax break for
low-income workers that passed in 1997 and also want to exempt some private
pension income from taxes.

Kitzhaber is going along with enlarging the earned income tax credit but
opposes the more expensive pension tax cut.

He argues that the state might not be able to afford any tax reductions,
especially since forecasters reduced their state revenue estimate by $100
million last month and predicted a weakening state economy through this year.

The governor instead is calling for creating a budget stability fund to
protect school aid from sharp economic downturns.

"Tax cutting is likely to run into the governor's proposal for a rainy day
fund, and likely neither will pass," Lunch said.

There are plenty of demands for money to boost programs.

Kitzhaber's budget would add 25 new state police troopers; legislators say
they'll try to add more.

A $1.6 billion plan to raise the gas tax and auto registration fees to
improve the highway system died in 1997 session but a similar plan is being
pushed by the state's largest business lobbying group.

The juvenile crime problem is a high priority of Kitzhaber's. The governor
wants $30 million, including nearly $20 million for grants to counties, and
there seems to be solid support for the idea among lawmakers.

Trying to find ways to slow the rapid growth of the Oregon Health Plan, the
health insurance program for the working poor authored by Kitzhaber, is
expected to generate a tough fight between him and GOP lawmakers.

And, as always, there will be a battle over school funding.

Kitzhaber proposed adding $170 million to the $4.4 billion budget for state
support of local schools. All told, education consumes 60 percent of the
budget when higher education is included.

The session is expected to provide a $2.3 million boost for bars,
restaurants and other businesses patronized by people connected with the
Legislature.

Despite the economic boost it provides for Salem, Snodgrass said she doesn't
want the session to go on too long. That's why she's already circled a
target date on her calendar for wrapping up business and sending lawmakers
back to their districts.

"We should be home by June 28 because that's my birthday," the House
speaker-elect said. "At least that's my goal."

(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC

Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Sen. John Kitzhaber? Don't rule it out (Another Associated Press article
with nothing obviously relevant to drug policy provides a fawning portrait
of Oregon Governor John "Prisons" Kitzhaber - who has presided over
the planning, expansion or construction of more prisons than all of his
predecessors combined - who seems to be positioning himself to run against
Republican Senator Gordon Smith.)

Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org

U.S. Sen. John Kitzhaber? Don't rule it out

The Associated Press
1/10/99 3:18 PM

By BRAD CAIN

Associated Press Writer

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- When he takes the oath of office Monday, Gov. John
Kitzhaber will launch a second term he hopes will cement his image as a
defender of Oregon's liveability and champion of health care.

But others, on both sides of the political fence, are looking beyond the
next few years to a possible new role for Kitzhaber -- as a candidate for
U.S. Senate.

Especially within some GOP circles, there are rumblings about the prospect
of the popular Democratic governor running against Sen. Gordon Smith when
the freshman Republican comes up for re-election in 2002.

Kitzhaber won't have any part of guessing about his political future. He
doesn't rule out a Senate race, either.

"It would take a lot to get me to leave Oregon," Kitzhaber said. "But four
years is a long way off. I'm just not speculating on what I might do at that
time."

Smith, for his part, admits that the thought of Kitzhaber challenging him
has crossed his mind more than once.

"John Kitzhaber would be a formidable candidate for anything he chose to
do," the senator said. "But it isn't something I'm going to spend time
worrying about or speculating about."

There's little doubt that, barring some drastic change in his political
fortunes, Kitzhaber would be well positioned for a Senate run.

Known for his jeans-and-cowboy boots informality and his crusade to "keep
Oregon Oregon," Kitzhaber continues to enjoy high job approval with Oregonians.

He's built a record he could run on in the future -- particularly his
authorship of the nationally touted Oregon Health Plan -- and, politically
speaking, is still relatively young at 52.

"Gordon Smith would have to worry," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of a
Washington-based newsletter that tracks House and Senate campaigns.

After being defeated by Democrat Ron Wyden in a special election to replace
former Sen. Bob Packwood, Smith won his Senate seat by only 50,000 votes in
a later race against Tom Bruggere, a relatively unknown businessman who had
never run for public office.

"Gordon Smith is a good politician, but he's a Republican in a
Democratic-tilting state," Rothenberg said. "That means he's always going to
be vulnerable."

A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington,
Michael Tucker, said Democrats believe they are in a good position to
reclaim control of the Senate from the GOP two years from now.

Having the Senate back in Democratic hands might provide additional
incentive for Kitzhaber to run for a Senate seat in the 2002 election, he said.

"Obviously, with his extreme popularity there, Gov. Kitzhaber would be among
the first our committee would look to," when recruiting a candidate to
challenge Smith, Tucker said.

Kitzhaber has passed up other opportunities to run for Congress, however.

An avid outdoorsman who's passionate about whitewater rafting and fly
fishing, Kitzhaber has said time and again that he has little desire to work
in Washington.

Still, Lauren Moughon, a former campaign staffer for Kitzhaber, said that
under the right circumstances, she could see him jumping into a U.S. Senate
race.

For one thing, Moughon noted, Kitzhaber served in the Oregon Senate and rose
to the Senate president's post before being elected governor.

"He really enjoyed building coalitions and working in collaboration with
other senators. He was remarkably successful at it." said Moughon, who was
deputy campaign manager for Kitzhaber's 1994 gubernatorial campaign.

So what would it take to lure Kitzhaber into a U.S. Senate race?

"He would consider running if he felt Oregon was threatened," she said. "A
U.S. Senate seat is an extremely powerful position, and he would run if he
thought he could make a real difference for the state."

(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC

Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Tests a Waste (A letter to the editor of the Oklahoman
says drug testing in schools is not a panacea that will halt
illicit drug use. In some ways, drug testing may actually encourage
"drug" use.)

Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 09:29:57 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OK: PUB LTE: Drug Tests a Waste
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Michael Pearson (oknorml@swbell.net)
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Pubdate: 10 Jan 1999
Contact: http://www.oklahoman.com/?ed-writeus
Website: http://www.oklahoman.com/ Forum: http://www.oklahoman.com/forums/
Author: Alan Bryan, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas
Note: The DPFT website is at: http://www.mapinc.org/DPFT/

DRUG TESTS A WASTE

TO THE EDITOR:

Drug testing in schools is not a panacea that will halt illicit drug use.
Drug testing gives a green light to use drugs. After a test is
administered, children know it will be weeks or months until the next one.
Weekly testing of students would be extrememly expensive. Instead of
spending money on drug tests, let's spend it on rehab for students with
drug problems. Why should we waste money testing the majority of children
that don't use drugs?

Another reason drug testing isn't a good idea: The least dangerous drug --
marijuana -- is the one that stays in the system the longest. Knowing they
may be tested, children might resort to more dangerous substances that
aren't detectable after a few days of use, such as methamphetamine and
heroin. Also, a "false positive" can occur on any drug screen. Can you
imagine what it would be like to be falsely labeled a drug user?

The only people who benefit from drug testing are the companies that sell
drug test kits.

Alan Bryan, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Oregon not only victim in Houston's failed drug war (An attorney's op-ed
in the Houston Chronicle says the city of Houston is now a victim
of America's War on Drugs as it defends itself against a multimillion dollar
lawsuit filed by the family of Pedro Oregon, the innocent Houston man
who was shot to death by six prohibition agents who broke into his home
without a warrant. To fight a drug war effectively, citizens must accept
the reality that the battles are local and not national. All that is required
is imagination and the courage to confront leaders in your community
about their failure.)

From: adbryan@ONRAMP.NET
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 08:23:56 -0600 (CST)
Subject: OPED: Oregon not only victim in Houston's failed drug war
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

From this oped:

[Every grand juror's name and address is public record. Citizen-action
groups like the Drug Policy Forum of Texas should demand of grand jurors
that they question the charging practices of the district attorney, who
currently prosecutes small amounts of controlled substance as felonies
eligible for 25 years in prison. The cost to the taxpayers for such
incarcerating appetites can only become public when citizens research
and publicize these facts.]

Thanks to David Jones for penning this masterpiece.

1-10-99
Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com
viewpoints@chron.com

Oregon not only victim in Houston's failed drug war

By DAVID JONES

THE city of Houston is now a victim of America's War on Drugs as it
defends itself against a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by the family
of Pedro Oregon. Houston taxpayers will pay for a drug war that cannot
be won under present practices and leadership. Another victim, Pedro
Oregon, was shot to death by Houston Police Department officers after a
false accusation of drug activity against Oregon led to an illegal
police entry and gun battle. Other victims of this failed effort at drug
prohibition are the criminal justice system and the rule of law in
Harris County.

Make no mistake about it, Pedro Oregon died in his own home at the hands
of Houston's finest as a consequence of a drug war that has trashed the
Constitution and devastated the innocent along with the guilty. At the
end of the war's third decade a $17 billion federal budget continues to
subsidize state and local law enforcement efforts to harass, arrest and
incarcerate their fellow citizens for reasons of state that can no
longer be supported by rational argument.

The failures of the war are all around us. The Texas Department of
Corrections is full of drug offenders who are the staple of a poorly
conceived prison expansion that was the ultimate jobs program for
failing rural economies all too eager to accept the social outcasts of
urban Texas. Police officers, poorly trained and supervised, all too
often violate the Constitution in their arrests of a mostly minority
underclass of offenders and, on occasion, take an innocent life. Harris
County district judges routinely revoke and send to prison drug-offense
probationers who fail to live up to standards of probation behavior that
most law-abiding misfits would find impossible.

To fight a drug war effectively, citizens must accept the reality that
the battles are local and not national. The real general in this war is
Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford and not Drug Czar Gen. Barry
McCaffrey in Washington, D.C. It is the budget for DARE that must be
vetoed, not the one for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. It is the
locally elected judiciary, not House Republicans in Washington, D.C.,
who must be monitored and critiqued. In this strategy, it is more
important to make advocates of Councilmembers Chris Bell and Anise
Parker than U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. It is District Attorney Johnny
Holmes rather than Reps. Jackson Lee and Tom DeLay that is the more
appropriate target for attention by the electorate.

The war on drugs is fought locally by a City Council and mayor who
approve a budget for HPD; by the collaborative efforts of a variety of
law enforcement agencies; by local judges who sentence offenders and
supervise their probation for drug offenses; and by Harris County grand
juries who indict for possession and delivery of prohibited substances.
Critics of the drug war can have the greatest impact by monitoring the
performance of these governmental units and disseminating accurate
information to budgeting authorities and decision-makers.

This war's dirty work is being filtered through the courtrooms of our
system of justice. In 1997 and the first six months of 1998, Harris
County criminal district judges filed motions to revoke probation in
3,460 drug possession cases. They revoked and sent to prison 2,243 -- 67
percent of the total cases in 1997 and 61 percent in 1998. If the
sentence for each was the minimum of two years, and undoubtedly many
were much longer, the state spent in excess of $100 million in
incarceration costs on people who could be treated locally, at less
expense. They could be given additional community-service hours or
sentenced to time in the county jail rather than warehoused in a
maximum-security prison.

The elected judges of Harris County criminal courts grease the wheels of
law enforcement's machinery, processing people in and out of jail and
prison for "drug crimes" that common sense and social science tell us
should be handled with greater compassion and efficiency. These judges
are almost exclusively former assistant district attorneys trained by
the same office which presents evidence in their courtrooms. Both the
judiciary and district attorney have been barraged by the media and
self-interested opinion leaders about the dangers of drugs in our
society. Much of that information cannot be critically examined in
courtrooms where elected officials follow public opinion.

A system of justice managed by politicians influenced by inflamed public
opinion is corrupting to the rule of law. The principle of two roughly
equal advocates advancing their arguments before a neutral magistrate is
sacrificed to politics and expedience under the current arrangement of
powers in the Harris County Courthouse.

There are simple measures that can be used to attack such practices. All
that is required is imagination and the courage to confront leaders in
your community about their failure. The correct focus of political will
and resources can improve the performance of our institutions and
enlighten public opinion.

The citizens who serve on Harris County grand juries can demonstrate the
totality of this war's damage. The county has several grand juries which
meet every week. They can refuse to charge cases presented to them. They
have the power to issue reports in the public interest on any issue of
the administration of justice that confronts them.

Every grand juror's name and address is public record. Citizen-action
groups like the Drug Policy Forum of Texas should demand of grand jurors
that they question the charging practices of the district attorney, who
currently prosecutes small amounts of controlled substance as felonies
eligible for 25 years in prison. The cost to the taxpayers for such
incarcerating appetites can only become public when citizens research
and publicize these facts.

Houston City Council must challenge the priorities of HPD in its work.
There is no greater opportunity than their scrutiny of HPD's budget.
Council can conduct hearings on the performance of drug-enforcement task
forces, report on violations of civil liberties, and fund city clinics
for drug treatment. They can defund the DARE program and reward HPD for
arrests of major offenders rather than small-time users.

Criminal-defense attorneys must once again become the conscience of the
community. They see the totality of damage to individuals and community
inflicted by the war on drugs: Families destroyed, bread winners locked
up, jobs lost and children abandoned are daily events in their working
lives. Sharing more of these stories with the news media and with
opponents of the drug war can change public opinion over time.

Republican primary voters must accept responsibility for the current
policy of fighting this losing and destructive battle. Since 1994, the
judges of Harris County have been chosen exclusively by Republican
primary voters. The judges nominated by them have been easily elected.
Those same voters nominate and elect one-half of state legislators, who
vote on key issues defining the parameters of the state's prosecution
efforts. Legislators vote on budgets that can either authorize treatment
or incarceration. This terribly small numbers of people should be the
focus of education and political efforts to relieve the pressure that
today supports the status quo.

Former U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill once said that all
politics is local. In Harris County, the elected district attorney
publicly provided the defense arguments to the shooters of Pedro Oregon.
A Republican judge who once worked for the district attorney picked the
grand jury that heard the case. Unlike most nonpolice shootings of
defenseless citizens, the entire case was tried privately before the
grand jury without a recommendation from the district attorney to
indict.

No one in authority in this city -- neither politician nor media
representative -- has reacted critically to these events and their
significance. Until they do, the drug war will continue to pile up
casualties.

Jones is a Houston attorney.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Federalizing Crime, Ironically, Conservatives Are Expanding Federal Power
(A staff editorial in the Des Moines Register agrees with the op-ed
by Judge Pratt. Federal courts were never meant to duplicate state courts,
but in recent years, as the result of an annual test of manhood in Congress,
their steady growth in criminal cases, mostly for illegal drugs,
is threatening to overwhelm their resources.)

Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 12:37:18 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IA: Federalizing Crime, Ironically, Conservatives Are
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 10 Jan 1999
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
Contact: letters@news.dmreg.com
Website: http://www.dmregister.com/
Copyright: 1999, The Des Moines Register.

FEDERALIZING CRIME, IRONICALLY, CONSERVATIVES ARE EXPANDING FEDERAL POWER.

"You don't have to make a federal case out of it."

That old saw pays respect to the elevated status of cases that come
before the federal judiciary, which was provided for in the
Constitution to tend to the legal business of the national government.

The federal courts were never meant to duplicate state courts, but the
federal courts have in recent years seen steady growth in criminal
cases, mostly for illegal drugs, which is threatening to overwhelm
their resources and, worse, change the role of the federal judiciary.

As U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt explains on Page 2 of this
section, the proliferation of drug cases is accompanied by a new
sentencing formula mandated by Congress that has reduced federal
judges to automated sentencing machines, not to mention necessitating
a tripling of federal prison capacity.

All this is the result of an annual test of manhood on crime, which
escalates with dueling rhetoric from both political parties and the
White House, to toughen penalties and create new federal crimes, thus
treading on turf belonging to state courts.

This process of federalizing criminal law is a fundamental change in
the nature of courts in the United States.

Ironically, this expansion of federal-court jurisdiction comes from a
Congress ruled by conservatives who allegedly believe in a limited
federal government. And it comes at the very time that Congress
refuses to give the federal judiciary adequate resources: Despite
increasing caseloads, Congress has authorized no new trial judges in
eight years.

If Congress continues making every crime a federal crime, creating
super drug courts without giving them adequate resources, the net
effect will be to diminish the federal courts' capacity to do the
work intended by the framers. And the idea of making a federal case
of something will take on an entirely new meaning. It will be a joke.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Report: Suppression of evidence has led to wrongful convictions
(According to the Associated Press, a Chicago Tribune analysis of thousands
of court records in homicide cases shows that prosecutors throughout the
country have hid evidence, leading to wrongful convictions, retrials and
appeals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The records show prosecutors
have won convictions against black men, hiding evidence the real killers were
white. They also have prosecuted a wife, hiding evidence her husband
committed suicide. And they have prosecuted parents, hiding evidence their
daughter was killed by wild dogs. Since a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling
designed to curb misconduct by prosecutors, at least 381 defendants
nationally have had a homicide conviction thrown out because prosecutors
concealed evidence. Next week, three former DuPage County prosecutors will
face trial on charges of conspiring to frame Rolando Cruz, who served about
10 years on death row before being acquitted of murder at his third trial. If
the former prosecutors are convicted, it would be a first in the United
States.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Report: Suppression of evidence has led to wrongful convictions
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 16:56:33 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Report: Suppression of evidence has led to wrongful convictions

Associated Press, 01/10/99 18:28

CHICAGO (AP) - Prosecutors throughout the country have hid evidence, leading
to wrongful convictions, retrials and appeals that cost taxpayers millions
of dollars, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of thousands of court
records in homicide cases.

The records show prosecutors have won conviction against black men, hiding
evidence the real killers were white. They also have prosecuted a wife,
hiding evidence her husband committed suicide. And they have prosecuted
parents, hiding evidence their daughter was killed by wild dogs.

``Winning has become more important than doing justice. Nobody runs for the
Senate saying I did justice,'' said Harvard University law professor Alan
Dershowitz, a longtime critic of prosecutors.

John Justice, president of the National District Attorneys Association,
responded: ``I believe the great majority of prosecutors in this country are
truly dedicated to doing their jobs in the proper fashion.''

But in some cases, they have prosecuted defendants who came within hours of
being executed, only to be exonerated, according to the Tribune report
Sunday.

Since a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling designed to curb misconduct by
prosecutors, at least 381 defendants nationally have had a homicide
conviction thrown out because prosecutors concealed evidence suggesting
innocence or presented evidence they knew to be false, the newspaper said.

Of the 381 defendants, 67 had been sentenced to death, including Randall
Dale Adams of Texas, whose wrongful conviction was revealed by the
documentary ``The Thin Blue Line.'' Although 28 of those 67 death row
inmates were subsequently freed, almost all spent at least five years in
prison.

Illinois' record for misconduct by prosecutors ranks among the worst, with
46 of the 381 cases, the Tribune found.

Next week, three former DuPage County prosecutors will face trial on charges
of conspiring to frame Rolando Cruz, who served about 10 years on death row
before being acquitted of murder at his third trial. If the former
prosecutors are convicted of a felony for concealing and knowingly using
false evidence, it would be a first in the United States.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Teen Crime Wave Called Myth (A Cox News Service article
in the San Francisco Chronicle says a study funded by the MacArthur
Foundation and released yesterday by Franklin Zimring, a law professor
at the University of California at Berkeley, shows that fear rather than fact
is fueling unnecessarily harsh juvenile justice policies throughout
the United States. The two-year study of juvenile crime statistics charges
that laws aimed at youthful lawbreakers are based on "deeply flawed analyses
of juvenile violence statistics." Youth behavior has not been changing,
police behavior has. Police have been reducing the threshold of what
constitutes assault and aggravated assault, the study charges, resulting in
the apparent increase in crime.)

From: vignes@monaco.mc (Peter Webster)
Subject: Franklin Zimring: Teen Crime Wave Called Myth
Pubdate: 10 Dec 1998
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Chronicle
Section: Page 18

TEEN CRIME WAVE CALLED MYTH

Study finds no more juvenile violence than decades -- Cox News Service

WASHINGTON - Fear rather than fact Is fueling unnecessarily harsh juvenile
justice policies throughout the United States, according to a study by a
Berkeley professor was released yesterday. The MacArthur Foundation's
two-year study of juvenile crime statistics charges that laws aimed at
youthful lawbreakers are based on "deeply flawed analyses of juvenile
violence statistics." "We're not any more violent than we were 10 or 20
years ago. We're just paying more attention to the violence," said
Franklin Zimring, author of the study and a law professor at the
University of California at Berkeley.

Zimrlng's findings will be published as a book by Oxford University
Press but were released at a news conference yesterday. The study was
paid for by the private MacArthur Foundation, which is best known for
its annual "genius grants" but also supports public policy research.
Zimring said a change in how police report juvenile crimes, particularly
assault and aggravated assault has resulted in "an artificial crime
wave."

Zlmrlng said his study shows "what you find out about aggravated assault
and assault since mid.1980s, quite independent of whether youth behavior
has been changing, police behavior been changing significantly." Police
have been reducing the threshold of what constitutes assault and
aggravated assault, the study charges, resulting in the apparent
increase in crime.

Some other major findings of Zimring's Study include: Arrest rates for
juvenile, ages 13 to 17 accused of rape and robbery show no significant
trend either up or down since 1980 and have actually declined slightly
Over the last five years. The homicide arrest rate for juveniles ages 13
to 17 rose shot between 1984 and 1992 but fell by more than a third by
1996, according to FBI crime figures.

The number of juveniles arrested for homicide dropped an additional 18
percent in 1997.

Zimring said that in order to counter what is seen as a "coming storm of
juvenile violence," many states have enacted laws that lower the age at
which juveniles can be charged as adults for certain crimes Evidence of
a juvenile crime wave, "either current or on the horizon, is no more
substantial than the evidence that supports the existence of the Loch
Ness monster," Zimring said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Where It All Begins With 'Narco' (Washington Post columnist Molly Moore
says it's almost impossible to pick up a Mexican newspaper without
narco-headlines detailing the exploits of narco-kidnappers, narco-cops
or narco-politicians. Or, for that matter, to hold a conversation without
at least one reference to a narco-something-or-other. In the last decade,
use of the "narco" prefix has exploded in Mexico, indicating just how deeply
and rapidly the drug trade has permeated the country's social, cultural,
economic and political institutions. Large, ostentatious edifices built with
loads of money and little taste are dubbed "neo-narco" or "early narco."
Narco-traffickers not only pray to narco-saints, but shower their local
narco-churches and favorite narco-priests with narco-alms.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 12:56:46 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Mexico: WP: Where It All Begins With 'Narco'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: DrugSense
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jan 1999
Source: The Washington Post
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Page: A19
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://washingtonpost.com/
Author: Molly Moore, Washington Post Foreign Service

WHERE IT ALL BEGINS WITH 'NARCO'

Drug Trade's Spread in Mexico Gives Words a New Start

MEXICO CITY-Enter the land of narco-scandals, where narco-realtors launder
narco-profits, narco-babies grow up to be narco-juniors, and narco-ballads
glorify narco-traffickers who hire narco-spies and narco-chauffeurs to
serve the narco-empires they build with narco-dollars.

These days it's almost impossible to pick up a Mexican newspaper without
narco-headlines detailing the exploits of narco- kidnappers, narco-cops or
narco-politicians. Or, for that matter, to hold a conversation without at
least one reference to a narco-something-or-other.

In the last decade, use of the "narco" prefix has exploded in Mexico,
indicating just how deeply and rapidly the drug trade has permeated the
country's social, cultural, economic and political institutions.

Narco-talk has taken on a life of its own, stretching far beyond the daily
headlines to become an ingrained part of the national psyche. Narco-ballads
top the music charts in border cities.

Large, ostentatious edifices built with loads of money and little taste are
dubbed "neo-narco" or "early narco," a reflection of the styles favored in
the homes of the country's rich and infamous drug lords.

It began simply enough. As early as the 1950s, the word "narco-trafficker"
popped up occasionally in newspapers to describe a person who bought, sold
or transported illegal narcotics, according to Luis Astorga, a professor
who has written two recent books tracing the influence of the drug trade in
Mexican society.

But as the drug mafias expanded their power and influence in the 1990s --
along with what Astorga described as the Mexican wordsmiths' "capacity of
invention" -- "narco" has become the prefix of choice for defining anyone
or anything with any connection to the drug trade.

In today's Mexico, the connections are vast.

Politicians and columnists alike fret that Mexico is on the path to
becoming a narco-state and a narco-democracy populated with narco-liberals
and narco-nationalists who take pride in spending their narco-dinero in
Mexico rather than exporting that money to foreign bank accounts.

"Dead Mexican drug lord was a narco-nationalist," wrote Reuters news agency
over a dispatch describing how Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the country's most
powerful drug trafficker prior to his death after plastic surgery in July
1997, "considered himself a nationalist" because he invested his drug
proceeds in Mexico rather than stashing it in Swiss bank accounts.

"The people who steal money from Mexico and take it out of the country to
Switzerland are more of a disgrace than I am," Carrillo told his alleged
associate Manuel de Jesus Bitar Tafich, according to Bitar's account of the
conversation in a Mexican newspaper. "I bring my money here to stimulate
the economy," the deceased druglord reportedly told Bitar.

"Narco-Power Unrestrained" read the headline over an editorial column in
the daily newspaper Universal that chronicled a long list of state
governors, business leaders and church officials in the country who have
been tied to drug traffickers in recent years.

Yes, even church officials. In Mexico, narco-traffickers not only pray to
narco-saints, but shower their local narco-churches and favorite
narco-priests with narco-donations and narco-alms.

Soldiers who join drug cartel payrolls become narco-soldiers. Leftist
rebels are tagged as narco-guerrillas by a government accusing them of
financing their armed uprisings with -- what else? -- narco-profits.

Linguistics professor Otto Schumann of the Autonomous University of Mexico
blames the press for popularizing narco-terminology.

"The journalists started using it a lot and the people who read the
newspapers adopted it easily," he said.

"Narco Babies" blared the fat headlines of a Mexico City afternoon tabloid
over a story about children as young as 8 involved in the distribution of
drugs on the streets of the capital. Their older colleagues, narco-juniors,
run rampant in the border cities of Tijuana and San Diego, where they serve
as hit men for a Tijuana-based cartel run by the Arellano Felix clan.

Newspaper police reports are spiced with references to narco-kidnappings,
corrupt narco-cops, narco-journalists who take payoffs from drug cartels
and the narco-disappeared -- individuals with links to the drug trade who
have vanished without a trace along the U.S.-Mexican border, the transit
point for an estimated 60 percent of all illegal drugs sold in the United
States.

"Rogue Police Behind Narco-Snatches," claimed a headline in the Mexico City
Times daily newspaper describing the narco-disappeareds. "Crusade Against
Narco-Chauffeurs," declared another in the newspaper Reforma. The story
described a crackdown by police on freight-truck drivers who transported
cocaine and marijuana in their loads of tomatoes, air conditioners or
concrete.

Another police report detailed a cult tied to narco-traffickers accused of
burning and burying 13 bodies on a northern Mexico ranch as part of
"narco-satanic" rituals.

Perhaps it is time for linguists to declare an end to narco-babble.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Mayor wants Grand Forks to . . . Go To Pot (The Calgary Herald
says Brian Taylor, a former hippie who traded his long hair for a "mayor's
cut" when he was elected mayor of Grand Forks, wants to turn the town
just north of the U.S. border into Canada's chief supplier of medical
marijuana.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:50:36 -0700
Subject: Mayor wants Grand Forks to...Go To POT
From: "Debra Harper" (daystar1@home.com)
To: mattalk (mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com)
Newshawk: daystar1@home.com
Source: Calgary Herald
Pubdate:January 10, 1999
Contact:letters@theherald.southam.ca
Author: Brock Ketcham

Mayor wants Grand Forks to...Go To POT

He's a mayor with a vision, and some of his constituents suspect it comes
from something he's smoking.

Brian Taylor, 52, a former hippie who traded his long hair for a "mayor's
cut" when he was elected mayor of Grand Forks in 1996, wants to turn this
town just north of the U.S. border into Canada's chief supplier of medical
marijuana.

Taylor envisages a huge greenhouse with 1,000 employees in this economically
depressed logging community of 4,100 nestled in the fertile Sunshine Valley
between the Okanagan Valley and the Kootenays.

The city has hundreds of marijuana growers - a large percentage of whom are
former hippies and U.S. draft dodgers - who have become experts at
cultivating their illicit crops outdoors, says the mayor.

"It's one of the largest cash crops in the Kootenays," says Taylor, himself
a pot smoker. "If the marijuana industry went down, there'll be an economic
collapse. We'd have thousands on welfare."

Sandy Nolan, who sells ads for the Grand Forks Gazette, says, "there's a lot
of people in this community who smoke pot recreationally. It's a pretty open
secret."

Brian Taylor, a trim, laid-back man whose greying hair belies middle age,
spent most of his adult years working with troubled youth and mentally
handicapped adults in B.C. and Ontario.

Taylor is legendary for the live-band shindigs at the Grand Forks Yacht
Club, the name of the barn behind the double-width trailer where he lives
with a daughter, a chicken, a dog and three horses.

It is rumoured that some people have smoked pot at these parties.

"When he set that up, he had it set up for the youth of the community," says
a sympathetic Councillor Bob Westgate, 51, a semi-retired manager. "He'd
have dances up there. Different bands would try out."

Taylor, who has crusaded for the legalization of pot, insists he is not
harbouring any hidden agenda for recreational pot. He says he only wants to
give growers a legitimate medical market.

Taylor rarely inspires neutral feelings in a community where Doukhobors and
other groups have lived in harmony for decades. Some see him as a visionary;
a breath of fresh air. Others see him as a grandstanding crackpot.

Taylor's detractors on city council and in the local press dismiss his
marijuana scheme as a pipe dream. They note that medical science says any
alleged medicinal properties remain unproven.

"They (local residents) see him as a joke", says Gazette editor Karen
Heiber.

Taylor, the moving force in establishing a local hemp products industry and
proprietor of a retail hemp products shop, dismisses such talk as
negativism. He says he plans to organize a referendum this spring to gauge
public support.

A solid show of support would make Grand Forks a front-runner for federal
licensing, he feels.

Taylor says he's willing to bet his $12,000-a-year job on the referendum
outcome. If he gains the prequisite number of city council votes only to see
residents vote against his vision, he won't run for re-election this fall,
he says.

"I think I can win by 90 per cent", he says.

Steve Burt, a Shell gas station owner and a councillor frequently at odds
with the colourful mayor over civic issues, notes that politicians have been
known to change their mind.

"I don't think that would be binding", Burt said of Taylor's referendum
wager.

Tom Hinter, the curmudgeonly publisher of the leaflet-style Informer, is
more blunt, "He's blackened the eye of Grand Forks with his hare-brained
schemes," says Hinter, whose acidic views on civic affairs are the talk of
the town.

"It won't do him much good to stand for re-election anyway. I think he's
toast."

Sgt. Lyle Burt, Councillor Burt's cousin and head of the local eight-member
RCMP detachment, says he and the mayor get along "relatively well. If he's
apprehended, he would face charges as would anyone else."

Taylor says he first started thinking last year about producing medical
marijuana after hearing about successes achieved by the medical marijuana
movement . Five states in the U.S. approved medical marijuana despite a
federal ban.

"All of a sudden, I thought about Grand Forks growers - all the people who
wanted to come in out of the bush," he says.

Taylor, who says he knows at least 20 growers, and "George" - a grower
friend of his who asked that he not be identified - said most local growers
cultivate their crops outdoors.

George said the growers pitch their tents in the wilderness and tend their
crops from spring to fall. Harvest has attracted "guerrillas" - thieves who
prey on the farmers, he says.

"That's pretty scary," he says, adding that vehicles have been riddled with
bullet holes. "The pot growers and the thieves face off in the fall. The
paranoia - the tension - everbody's like, wired like crazy."

Sgt. Burt said he has heard rumors of such thievery, but the only confirmed
incident was when a hunter stumbled across a cultivator's campsite in 1996
and both found themselves staring down the barrels of each other's rifles.

Crop growers told the Herald last week they chose the B.C. Interior because
of the relatively low risk of detection.

They avoid dealing with banks. Those who grow indoors purchase hot tubs and
other items that consume a lot of electricity to camouflage their illicit
crops.

And they keep a stash of cash in case they need a good lawyer.

"I'm just doing it because I want some smoke and to be able to pay off some
bank loans," says ŒLars' , a university-educated man who was severely
injured several years ago by a gang of hoodlums and now uses pot to ease the
pain.

Concludes Taylor: "We need to diversify. I say that we're a Third World
country between the Kootenays and the Okanagan. We're the right place to put
medical marijuana into. We could have a boost in the economy."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The hemp grower, conspiracy theories and Nicaragua (The Toronto Star
says Paul Wylie, a Canadian employee of Hemp Agro International
who was busted in Nicaragua on charges that the company's hemp farm
was really marijuana, says he has a BA in horticultural genetics
from the University of Guelph. His business partners and financiers claim
he has a PhD. But his sister-in-law doesn't believe he attended
a post-secondary school, and the University of Guelph has no record
of the mysterious Canadian. And contrary to previous reports, Nicaragua,
like the United States, makes no distinction in law between industrial-grade
hemp and marijuana.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:12:06 -0500
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Dave Haans (haans@chass.utoronto.ca)
Subject: TorStar: The hemp grower, conspiracy theories and Nicaragua
Newshawk: Dave Haans
Source: The Toronto Star (Canada)
Pubdate: Sunday, January 10, 1999
Page: A5
Website: http://www.thestar.com
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.com
Author: Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star Columnist

The hemp grower, conspiracy theories and Nicaragua

Claims government is covering up having given permission to grow illegal crop

MANAGUA - Paul Wylie says he's an expert hemp grower with a BA in
horticultural genetics from the University of Guelph. His business partners
and financiers claim he has a PhD. His sister-in-law doesn't believe he
attended a post-secondary school. And the University of Guelph has no
record of the mysterious Canadian.

These may seem like peripheral details. But they're tremendously
significant to the 45-year-old's immediate - and perhaps extremely
long-term - future.

Wylie is being held at the La Modelo prison here, awaiting trial on charges
of growing marijuana - 57 hectares of pot plants. If convicted, he could
face the maximum 30-year jail sentence for what has been called the biggest
drug bust in Nicaraguan history.

But Wylie insists the authorities have got it all wrong: that he's just an
innocent scientist and entrepreneur from Ontario whose gotten himself
entangled in a cocked-up scenario of Hitchcockian proportions; a poor
stooge who's being framed by embarrassed government officials.

``There's somebody behind all this,'' Wylie said during a jail-house
interview. ``I don't know if it's the American influence or what. But
somebody is pulling the string.''

Paranoid or desperate? Honest or cunning?

Wylie was arrested Dec. 23 after a raid at the Canadian-operated Hemp-Agro
International plantation, about 25 kilometres east of Managua. Six other
Canadians and one Nicaraguan national have also been charged, in absentia.
They were all out of the country when the gunpoint raid was staged, and
have not ventured back to help out their colleague.

Nicaragua, like the United States, makes no distinction in law between
industrial-grade hemp (used in the manufacture of cosmetics, and cultivated
legally in Europe) and the hallucinogenic version of the plant, marijuana.
Both have the same horticultural genus, but the industrial hemp plant has
an extremely low level of the hallucinogenic chemical THC.

Canada legalized the production of hemp last March, rescinding a 60-year
ban on the plant.

Wylie insists he and his partners imported 15 tonnes of industrial hemp
seed from China to Nicaragua last July, with the full knowledge and
approval of the Nicaraguan government.

Wylie suspects the raid was launched at the urging of U.S. drug officials
in Nicaragua. A week before his arrest, sanitation officials descended on
the plantation and took away plant samples. Wylie was then interrogated by
Drug Enforcement Agency officials, including the second-in-command of
Nicaragua's narcotics unit. At that meeting, American DEA agents were also
present.

``It was obvious to me that the Nicaraguans were being told what to do by
the Americans,'' says Wylie. ``They kept looking at them and asking what
questions should be put to me.''

The U.S. embassy in Managua has confirmed their DEA agents had inspected
the plantation and were providing technical support to the Nicaraguans, who
do not have their own testing facilities.

Grant Sanders, president of Vancouver-based Hemp-Agro (and Wylie's nephew),
has already accused the DEA of applying pressure on the Nicaraguans to
``declare something illegal that is in fact legal in Canada.''

But apparently not legal in Nicaragua, despite what the ministry of
agriculture may have said about the Canadian project.

Wylie is adamant that Hemp-Agro was not raising a marijuana crop. This
might be difficult to prove now, though, because the entire hemp field has
been burned and destroyed.

At the preliminary hearing, Nicaraguan authorities said that the plant they
had tested had 1.6 per cent THC - above the level that would be legal in
Canada, but still, according to Wirtshafter, well below a level that could
be sold as a drug.

John Adams, the Canadian consul in Managua, has been to see Wylie three
times since his arrest. He stresses that, under Nicaraguan law, an
individual is considered guilty until proven innocent.

``Perhaps the ministry of agriculture got hoodwinked and they were made to
look foolish by smooth-talking foreigners who happen to be from Canada,''
says Adams.

This case has received intense media coverage over the last three weeks. On
Friday, local newspapers here carried stories alleging that Wylie had once
been arrested for break-and-enter in the United States. Wylie denies this,
but does admit he has one conviction for possession of a ``small'' quantity
of pot, ``a long time ago.''

He also claims not to have smoked marijuana in ages.

Wylie is evasive about his whereabouts and activities over the past 20
years. He says he was employed as a hemp specialist in Europe and in the
Ukraine, but provides no dates nor names of the companies for which he
worked. He won't even say where he lived for most of that period. ``I just
went back and forth a lot.''

The Star was welcomed with great civility by the warden at La Modelo prison
Friday. But yesterday, jail officials refused to allow a second interview
with Wylie, nor would they permit him to take a telephone call or accept a
written note.

Overnight, all jail guard friendliness had disappeared and the prison had
returned to what it always was - an ancient, squalid facility with terribly
overcrowded conditions, where 2,575 inmates are held.

Forty of them are foreigners. Only one is Canadian.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicaragua hemp farm will live on, says Hamilton-area entrepreneur
(A Canadian Press article in the Calgary Herald says Grant Sanders,
the owner of a hemp farm in Nicaragua, says he isn't about to pull the plug
on the operation - even though it landed his partner in jail. Nicaraguan
officials have destroyed the crop. Earlier this week, Nicaraguan Judge
Orieta Benavides ordered Sanders and six other partners in Hemp Agro
International to stand trial on suspicion of growing marijuana on a
100-hectare plantation outside Managua.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 10:45:34 -0700
Subject: Nicaragua hemp farm will live on,
From: "Debra Harper" (daystar1@home.com)
To: mattalk (mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com)

FYI: This article appeared on the website but not in hard copy edition.

Newshawk: daystar1@home.com
Source: Calgary Herald
Pubdate:January 10, 1999
Contact:letters@theherald.southam.ca
Author: Paul Legall

Nicaragua hemp farm will live on, says Hamilton-area entrepreneur

HAMILTON (CP) - The owner of a hemp farm in Nicaragua says he isn't about to
pull the plug on the operation - even though it landed his partner in jail.

Nicaraguan officials have destroyed the crop and threatened to extradite
Grant Sanders and his five Canadian associates. They all face criminal
charges for cultivating marijuana.

The businessman from nearby Ancaster, Ont., said he hopes to clear his name
and return to Nicaragua to resume the hemp project, which he said could grow
into a multibillion-dollar business worldwide.

Earlier this week, Nicaraguan Judge Orieta Benavides ordered Sanders, 35,
and six other partners in Hemp Agro International to stand trial on
suspicion of growing marijuana on a 100-hectare plantation outside Managua.

One of the partners, Paul Wylie, of Burlington, Ont., has been held in a
squalid jail cell since Nicaraguan police arrested him at gunpoint on last
Dec. 23.

"Our first priority is to exonerate ourselves at the criminal level, free
Paul Wylie, and continue growing industrial hemp as we had planned to do,"
Sanders said in an interview on Friday.

"We have not given up."

Wylie, 45, was recently transferred from a jail in the centre of Nicaragua
known as the "bunker" to another facility, where he is the only foreigner
among the inmates, said Sanders.

He described the conditions as unsanitary, with little food and areas of
open sewage.

Wylie, who has had no contact with his family in Canada, is allowed one
15-minute visit each week with his Nicaraguan girlfriend, who brings him
food, said Sanders.

Following Wylie's arrest, police burned down the plantation.

The other partners - including Nicaraguan Oscar Danilo Blandon who is
believed to be in the U.S. - were out of the country at the time of the
raid. The Canadians - Stanley Ross, Don Malman, Jamie Dean, and Garry Wade -
are all of Vancouver.

Sanders said the charges are largely political and probably stem from his
association with Blandon, who is a controversial figure in Nicaragua, with a
record for cocaine trafficking in the United States.

Blandon was one of the founders of the Contra guerrilla movement which waged
a eight-year civil war against the previous Sandinista government.

In a book entitled Dark Alliance, it's alleged that Blandon was working with
the CIA and sold tonnes of crack cocaine in the United States to raise money
for the counter revolution in Nicaragua.

Sanders said Blandon still has a lot of contacts with the current Liberal
government in Nicaragua and was able to open doors for the Hemp Agro
partners.

He said, however, there are still Sandinistas in the military and national
police who might have old scores to settle with Blandon.

Police spokesman Carlos Bendana said the other Canadians involved in Hemp
Agro will be arrested on the spot if they set foot in Nicaragua again.

Bendana also said the authorities might try to have them extradited for
trial.

Hamilton Spectator (c) The Canadian Press, 1999

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Straw Gives Go-Ahead To Convict Criminals On Hearsay Evidence
(The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Jack Straw, the Home Secretary,
has proposed that written evidence from frightened or intimidated witnesses,
or those who have died or are too ill to attend court, "or any other hearsay
evidence from absent witnesses," should be automatically admitted in court
"in the interests of justice," without cross-examination. Straw says
the changes are needed to convict more drug dealers.)

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 05:47:25 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Straw Gives Go-Ahead To Convict Criminals
On Hearsay Evidence
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: 10 January 1999
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
Author: Tim Reid and David Bamber

STRAW GIVES GO-AHEAD TO CONVICT CRIMINALS ON HEARSAY EVIDENCE

HEARSAY evidence is to be made admissible in criminal trials in an attempt
to convict more drug dealers and sex offenders.

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, hopes that the radical changes to one of the
oldest and most fundamental rules of English justice will mean an increase
in successful prosecutions of serious criminals, many of whom intimidate
witnesses.

But the proposals, contained in a draft Bill to be published this summer,
were attacked last night by lawyers and civil liberty campaigners as a
dangerous erosion of the rights of defendants.

Under the changes, written evidence from frightened or intimidated
witnesses, those who have died or are too ill to attend court, or any other
hearsay evidence from absent witnesses that should be admitted "in the
interests of justice" will automatically be admissible in court.

The recommendations of the Law Commission overturn part of the so-called
hearsay rule which lays down that, with some exceptions, a witness must give
evidence at a trial in person. That is because unless a witness is
cross-examined, the fact-finders - in most cases the jury - will be less
able to decide whether the witness is telling the truth. In addition,
testifying to what someone else said is often dangerously inaccurate.

In the case of frightened witnesses, the written statement will not need, as
now, to have been made to a police officer to be admissible, and witnesses
who started giving evidence but were scared into stopping would be able to
put in a statement instead.

Mr Straw said: "The Government considers the Law Commission's report a
thorough and comprehensive review of the law on hearsay evidence. They have
concluded that the proposals will simplify the law and enable more evidence
to be deemed admissible, while maintaining proper safeguards to protect the
interests of the defendant. The Government has decided to accept all the
recommendations in the report."

But John Wadham, from the civil liberties group Liberty, said: "The Bill
going to Parliament aims to improve the position of victims and some
witnesses but it tilts the balance away from the defendant's right to a fair
trial. These provisions, which although taken individually may be sensible,
taken collectively push us further in the direction of eroding this
important right."

But the Government argues that many prosecutions, particularly for drugs
offences, are being dropped, wasting millions of pounds, because witnesses
fail to turn up to testify, fearing reprisals from drugs barons. The changes
would also enable more prosecutions to be brought against child sex abusers,
abusers of mentally disabled people and rapists.

At present, prosecutions of alleged abusers often collapse or fail to get
the go-ahead in the first place because the child victim is too young or a
witness too disadvantaged to cope with the stress of a trial and
cross-examination. The same rules would apply in rape cases where the victim
is too traumatised to face her alleged attacker in court.

The Law Commission emphasises that the changes will help accused people as
well as prosecutors and could help to avoid miscarriages of justice. The
report cites a 1994 case in which an eight-year-old witness had provided a
statement to the police which contradicted the prosecution case.

The child was later unable to recollect the events. Because of the existing
rule, evidence indicating that the defendant had not committed the murder he
was charged with never reached the jury. The Law Society hailed the
proposals. A spokesman said: "We broadly welcome the recommendations. They
breathe some fresh air into a subject where at present there is not much
common sense."

But a senior criminal law QC, who did not want to be named, said last night:
"The hearsay rule is a fundamental safeguard in a fair trial. Any change
could be detrimental to basic justice. There are certainly reservations that
a fair trial could not be achieved by admitting evidence that cannot be
tested during the court process."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

ACM-Bulletin of 10 January 1999 (An English-language news bulletin
from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany,
focuses on Britain's first legal harvest of marijuana for medical use,
and other research in England on the properties of endocannabinoids
to reduce blood pressure.)

Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 18:44:13 -0500
To: DRCNet Medical Marijuana Forum (medmj@drcnet.org)
From: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Subject: ACM-Bulletin of 10 January 1999
Reply-To: medmj@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-medmj@drcnet.org

***

ACM-Bulletin of 10 January 1999

***

* Great Britain: First legal harvest of marijuana for medical use
* Science: Research on the properties of endocannabinoids to reduce
blood pressure


1.

Great Britain: First legal harvest of marijuana for medical use

Britain's first crop of government-licensed cannabis has been harvested
secretly for medical research on 30 December by a specially vetted team
of mature botanists. Several years' trials on up to 2,000 people will
begin once medicine has been made from the plants in the spring, in the
hope of developing treatments for illnesses such as multiple sclerosis
and epilepsy.

The crop has been guarded round the clock as hundreds of fully potent
plants have reached 8ft in the past four months. No one but the Home
Office and the staff of GW Pharmaceuticals know the location of the
greenhouse in southern England. Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of the
company, holds the only licence for growing the controlled drug for
medical research. The Government approved guidelines for a separate
series of trials by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Dr. Guy said that Britain was alone in its pragmatic and open-minded
approach to research of the drug. "We enjoy a very liberal research
environment," he said. "Our first objective is to get research done, not
to find a thousand reasons to block it."

Botanists chose ten varieties for the first crop, aimed at getting a
high yield of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The
estimated 1,000 MS sufferers who use cannabis illegally in Britain buy a
product high in THC, the most important pyschoactive ingredient.

Scientists are also interested in CBD as it is believed to reduce the
side-effects of THC and be useful in treating strokes and epilepsy. Dr.
Guy said: "Eventually we aim to breed a special MS variety or epilepsy
variety."

After the harvest, the plants were hung up to dry, then will be
processed to produce a liquid extract for use in inhalers.

(Source: The Times of 28 December 1998, personal communcation of David
Watson)

2.

Science: Research on the properties of endocannabinoids to reduce blood
pressure

Researchers at the University of Nottingham Medical School (UK) are
studying the effects of endocannabinoids on circulation. These
substances produced by the body bind to the same receptors as
cannabinoids of the hemp plant. The prototypic encocannabinoid
anandamide (N-arachidonylethanolamide) derived from arachidonic acid,
has been shown to be a vasorelaxant, particularly in the resistance
vasculature (arteries), which can reduce blood pressure.

The study is being funded with a 120,000 pounds grant from the British
Heart Foundation. Dr. David Kendall, one of the scientists, said: "This
research should tell us a great deal more about how these substances
affect our circulation.This is a new and exciting area of research which
could ultimately lead to better treatments for a range of cardiovascular
diseases."

Professor Brian Pentecost, medical director of the British Heart
Foundation, said: "These are natural substances, present in all our
bodies, that seem to have important effects on our circulation.
Hopefully this project will shed new light on how we could use these
effects to help heart patients."

High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects between 10 and 20 percent
of adults in western societies. Hypertension puts a strain on the heart
and blood vessels and greatly increases the risk of stroke and heart
disease.

The activation of Kalium channels seems to play a role in the
vasorelaxation caused by anandamide. Dr. Michael Randall and Dr. David
Kendall from Nottingham propose that an endocannabinoid may mediate the
nitric oxide- and prostanoid-independent component of
endothelium-dependent relaxations. It has recently been shown that
anandamide is produced by endothelial cells. (Endothelial cells cover
the the inner walls of blood vessels. Nitric oxide and prostaglandins
play a major role in endothelium-dependent relaxation but do not explain
all effects.)

This hypothesis has generated some scientific controversy. It is unclear
wether the effect on blood vessels is cannabinoid receptor dependent
(Randall 1997) or cannabinoid receptor independent (Plane 1997). A
research group of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee suggests
that the vasodilatory effect of anandamide results from its metabolism
to arachidonic acid followed by enzymatic conversion to vasodilatory
eicosanoids such as prostaglandins (Pratt et al. 1998).

Further observations concerning the role of endocannabinoids in
vasorelaxation from other research groups:

Activation of peripheral CB1 cannabinoid receptors contributes to
hemorrhagic hypotension in septic shock. They seem to be activated by
anandamide derived from makrophages as well as by platelet-derived
2-arachidonyl glyceride (another endocannbinoid) (Varga 1998).

An anandamide signaling system is present in the kidney, where it exerts
significant vasorelaxant and neuromodulatory effects. The CB1 receptor
and the CB2 receptor is found. The vasorelaxation is blocked by a CB1
cannabinoid receptor antagonist (Deutsch 1997).

(Sources: PA News of 29 December 1998; Randall MD, Kendall DA: Eur J
Pharmacol (1998) 346:51-53; Randall MD, Kendall DA: Trends Pharmacol
Sci (1998) 19:55-58; Varga K, et al: FASEB J (1998) 12:1035-1044;
Deutsch DG, et al.: J Clin Invest (1997) 100:1538-1546; Plane F, et al:
Br J Pharmacol (1997) 121:1509-1511; Pratt PF, et al: Am J Physiol
(1998) 274:H375-381; Randall MD, et al: Eur J Pharmacol (1997)
333:191-197)

3.

News in brief

USA:

Incoming Californian Attorney General Bill Lockyer has signalled that a
new view of Proposition 215, California's two-year old medical marijuana
law, is being taken by the state's top law enforcement officer. Under
Mr. Lockyer's predecessor, Dan Lungren, virtually no leeway was given to
local counties and cities in the implementation of the law. Mr. Lockyer
says he's going to implement the will of the voters.
(Source: Orange County Register of 4 January 1999)

The Netherlands:

The Netherlands has significantly fewer cannabis users than thought
before, according to a study published on 5 January. The study, financed
by the health ministry and conducted by Amsterdam University and the
Central Bureau of Statistics found that 15.6 percent of Dutch people
aged 12 and over had used or tried cannabis, versus a U.S. figure of
32.9 percent. 2.5 percent of Dutch people aged 12 and over had used
cannabis within the last month.
(Source: Reuters of 6 January 1999)

France:

France should take a more pragmatic approach to fighting drug abuse and
take into account the fact that alcohol and tobacco kill far more people
than heroin or cocaine, an inter-ministerial committee has told the
government. Le Monde newspaper, which published extracts from the report
on 7 January, said the committee urged the government to adopt a policy
"which takes into account all types of addictive behaviour, regardless
of the legal status of the product." An estimated two million people in
France (about 5 percent) smoke cannabis.
(Source: Reuters of 7 January 1999)

4.

THE COMMENT

.. on the way his predecessor, Dan Lungren, dealt with Californian
Proposition 215:

"I joke that there are days when I thought Dan had a copy of 'Reefer
Madness' at home." (Note: 'Reefer Madness' is an US-film from the 1930s,
produced by proponents of the prohibition of marijuana.)

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General elect of California (Orange County
Register of 4 January 1999)

Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM)
Maybachstrasse 14
D-50670 Cologne
Germany
Fon: ++49-221-912 30 33
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Internet: http://www.acmed.org

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Forwarded by:
Richard Lake
Senior Editor; MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest
email: rlake@DrugSense.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/drugnews/
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