-------------------------------------------------------------------
NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (U.N. calls for medical marijuana
research, maintains hardline on recreational use; Body Shop owner sends White
House hemp, congratulations; South Dakota governor proposes mandatory jail
time for pot offenses; South Carolina mulls making sale of urine a felony
offense)
From: NORMLFNDTN@aol.com
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 16:25:48 EST
Subject: NORML WPR 2/25/99 (II)
NORML Foundation Weekly News Release
1001 Connecticut Ave., NW
Ste. 710
Washington, DC 20036
202-483-8751 (p)
202-483-0057 (f)
www.norml.org
foundation@norml.org
February 25, 1999
***
U.N. Calls For Medical Marijuana Research, Maintains Hardline On
Recreational Use
February, 25, 1999, New York, NY: The United States should begin
scientific trials to determine marijuana's medicinal value, a United
Nations report recommended this week.
The U.N. "renews its call for additional scientific research to be
carried out on ... the use of cannabis for certain medical purposes,"
states the report, released Tuesday by the International Drug Control
Board. The 13-member board oversees U.N. drug treaties.
The Board's request comes one week after leaders of 17 national AIDS
organizations demanded that White House officials allow doctors to
prescribe marijuana to people suffering from the disease.
NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that U.S.
officials typically refuse to conduct medical marijuana research, even
when their own commissions recommended it. "Similar requests made by the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health
Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana have gone unanswered," St.
Pierre said.
The National Academy of Sciences is scheduled to release an updated
report on medical marijuana next month, he said.
The U.N. board remained unyielding on the use of marijuana for
recreational purposes. However, it concedes that, "The abuse of cannabis
has become widespread in virtually all countries of the world ... in
recent decades," despite international efforts to prohibit the drug.
The report also said that new technologies like the Internet pose a
significant threat to drug prohibition. "Governments ... should work in
close cooperation with the Internet industry, community organizations,
families and educators to set up a framework that will ensure that such
emerging technologies are not misused for the proliferation of drug
abuse," it said.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML
Foundation @ (202) 483-8751. Excerpts of the report are available online
from: http://www.marijuananews.com.
***
Body Shop Owner Sends White House Hemp, Congratulations
February 25, 1999, Washington, D.C.: Body Shop International Founder
Anita Roddick sent President William Clinton several hemp goods last
week, and urged him to support legal distinctions between hemp and
marijuana.
"Don't go wobbly with misinformation," Roddick plead. "Hemp is a
good product and not a drug. Across the planet people use it for food,
clothing, fuel and lotions to make people more comfortable in their own
skin."
The Body Shop distributes several hemp-based skin care products
including lip conditioner, hand oil, soap, and body lotion. Roddick sent
her appeal to Clinton after learning that Air Force One stewards offered
the President hemp beer while returning from Mexico.
"Congratulations on breaking the hemp barrier on Air Force One," she
wrote.
A spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
announced that officials will no longer serve the beverage, Hemp Golden
Beer, aboard Air Force One. Despite the beer's legality, the spokesman
called it an "inappropriate" drink to have on the President's plane.
Ironically, the Air Force, which operates Air Force One, recently
prohibited all personnel from ingesting any food or nutritional products
containing hemp because military drug tests can not distinguish between
the legal products and marijuana.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre of The
NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751 or NORML board member Don Wirtshafter
of The Ohio Hempery @ (740) 662-4367.
***
South Dakota Governor Proposes Mandatory Jail Time For Pot Offenses
February 25, 1999, Pierre, SD: Gov. William Janklowe has introduced
legislation that would impose mandatory jail sentences for all marijuana
offenders, including children.
NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. criticized the
proposal. "Marijuana smokers work hard, raise families, and contribute
to their communities," he said. "They are not part of the crime problem
and we should not treat them like criminals. This proposal would
needlessly wreck the lives, careers, and families of thousands of
otherwise law abiding citizens who smoke marijuana."
Stroup continued, "In addition, there is no evidence that making the
possession of small amounts of marijuana punishable by mandatory jail
time will do anything to reduce use, particularly among adolescents." He
noted that the only federal study ever to compare marijuana use patterns
among decriminalized states and those that still arrest marijuana smokers
determined that, "Decriminalization has had virtually no effect on either
marijuana use or on related attitudes about marijuana use among young
people."
He concluded, "Rather than imposing harsh and mandatory jail
sentences for minor marijuana offenders, we should develop a policy that
distinguishes between use and abuse, and which reflects the importance we
have always attached in this country to the right of the individual to be
free from the overreaching power of the state."
Senate Bill 210 states that any individual convicted of a marijuana
violation shall serve ten days in jail. Janklowe's initial proposal
mandated a 30 day sentence for all offenders, but the Senate Affairs
Committee amended the measure before passing it 5 to 3 last week. The
Senate approved it days later and the bill now awaits action by the House.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML @
(202) 483-5500 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202)
483-8751.
***
South Carolina Mulls Making Sale Of Urine A Felony Offense
February 25, 1999, Columbia, SC: Legislation proposed by Sen. David
Thomas (R-Greenville) seeks to crack down on individuals who attempt to
skirt a drug test by using someone else's urine. General Bill 277 makes
"selling or purchasing urine with intent to defraud a drug screening test
a felony" punishable by up to five years in jail.
"Legislators must not have much to do if they have time to consider
this measure," NORML's R. Keith Stroup said. "Consider the irony here.
Failing a drug test is not a crime, but trying to pass it would be a
felony under this measure. This proposal illustrates the
disproportionality of the 'war on drugs.'"
Kenneth Curtis, owner of Privacy Protection Services, a
Marietta-based company that markets urine substitution kits, surmises
that the measure is in response to the ability of products like his to
thwart a urine test. "Lawmakers are trying to shoot the messenger here,"
he said. "This situation is an example of law enforcement encroachment
into what is now mostly a private sector testing business. People should
be concerned about government officials that would support over stepping
into private sector testing."
Thomas argues that his legislation is necessary because "the safety
of the public is at stake here." His measure awaits action by the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML @
(202) 483-5500 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation @ (202)
483-8751. Kenneth Curtis of Privacy Protection Services may be contacted
@ (864) 836-4341.
- END -
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Trial begins in dispute over responsibility in smoker's death (The Associated
Press says a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury on Wednesday heard opening
statements in a lawsuit brought by the family of Jesse D. Williams of
Portland, a lifetime cigarette smoker and lung cancer fatality whose
survivors are seeking $110 million in damages from Philip Morris. His family
says Philip Morris Inc. duped Williams into thinking smoking wasn't harmful.
The cigarette company says Williams knew the health risks. Legal experts say
the trial's outcome could have national significance, coming as it does after
a San Francisco jury's groundbreaking award earlier this month of $51.5
million to a former smoker with inoperable lung cancer.)
Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org
Trial begins in dispute over responsibility in smoker's death
* The family of Jesse D. Williams, who died of lung cancer, is seeking $110
million in damages from cigarette-maker Philip Morris
Thursday February 25, 1999
By Patrick O'Neill
of The Oregonian staff
Jesse D. Williams died of lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking. On that,
everyone agrees.
But disagreements about responsibility for Williams' death are many.
His family thinks Philip Morris Inc. duped him into thinking smoking wasn't
harmful to his health.
An attorney for the cigarette company says Williams knew the health risks
but kept smoking anyway.
On Wednesday, jurors in Multnomah County Circuit Court heard opening
statements in a trial that will determine whether Williams' wife and family
can claim $110 million in damages from Philip Morris, manufacturer of
Marlboro cigarettes, the world's leading brand of smokes.
The trial will determine who, legally, was responsible for Williams' death.
Lawyers for both the family and the cigarette company gave the jurors a
preview of their evidence, to be presented during the next four weeks. Both
sides acknowledge that the case revolves around questions of choice:
* Was Philip Morris at all responsible for Williams' death by choosing to
manufacture a defective product, by failing to take reasonable steps to make
a safer product and by downplaying the possibility of cancer or addiction in
its public statements?
* Or was Williams, a three-pack-a-day smoker, responsible for his own death
by choosing to smoke, by failing to heed the warning labels on cigarette
packs, by ignoring news articles about the hazards of smoking and by turning
a deaf ear to the pleas of his wife and family to stop smoking for his
health's sake?
A jury of six men and six women will decide the outcome. The panel includes
three smokers -- one whose father died of lung cancer -- and four former
smokers, including a Mormon who recently returned to her church, which
forbids tobacco use.
Legal experts say the trial's outcome could have national significance,
coming as it does after a San Francisco jury's groundbreaking award earlier
this month of $51.5 million to a former smoker with inoperable lung cancer.
Attorneys for the family portrayed Williams, a former janitor with the
Portland public school system, as a heavy smoker who puffed his first
cigarette in his early 20s while serving in the U.S. Army in Korea.
There, one of his sergeants told him that cigarette smoke would drive away
the voracious mosquitoes that plagued the GIs. From 1955 on, Williams smoked
Marlboros exclusively, the attorneys said.
Heavily addicted
Williams died of cancer at his home on March 17, 1997, at age 67, a Williams
family attorney, Raymond Thomas, told the jury. Thomas said Williams was so
heavily addicted to nicotine that he smoked Marlboros from October 1996,
when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, until the day of his death five
months later.
William Gaylord, another attorney for the family, painted Philip Morris as a
corporation that valued profits over the health of its customers,
manipulated the level of nicotine in cigarettes to better addict smokers,
buried research that would have brought about safer cigarettes and tried to
discredit mounting evidence about the link between cigarettes and lung cancer.
"This is the story of a company whose executives made choices . . . that
substantially contributed to the largest epidemic in U.S. history," Gaylord
said.
In his opening statement, Gaylord presented portions of 18 internal
documents from Philip Morris that, he said, demonstrated the company's
eagerness to avoid responsibility for damage to smokers' health caused by
their product.
Those documents, which will be presented during the trial, he said, will
show that Philip Morris executives knew that cigarettes caused cancer and
that nicotine was addictive. But instead of taking action to protect its
customers, he said, the company adopted a strategy of "manufacturing
controversy" -- of suggesting that medical evidence against cigarettes was
the result of hysteria by health officials who wanted to trample individual
freedoms.
Did he know risks?
Much of the case will center on the question of whether Williams knew that
smoking was hazardous.
Walt Cofer of Kansas City, Kan., attorney for Philip Morris, told the jury
that evidence will show there's no doubt that Williams knew smoking was bad
for people's health and that he could have quit if he'd really wanted to.
Philip Morris didn't force Williams to smoke, Cofer said. Williams made that
decision himself, as an adult.
Cofer said Williams was a frequent reader of The Oregonian, which for years
has published articles about the hazards of smoking.
In 1954, a year before Williams began smoking Marlboros, a study found that
90 percent of people surveyed had recently heard that smoking could cause
lung cancer, Cofer said.
"This case is about Jesse Williams," he said, "and whether his family is
entitled to receive money damages because Mr. Williams chose to smoke
cigarettes."
The answer is no, he said.
"Fifty million Americans have stopped smoking for good," he said. "Ninety
percent stopped without help. Eleven members of his family stopped.
"Where is the evidence that Mr. Williams is any different from 50 million
Americans who quit? How is he any different from 11 members of his family?"
Cofer told jurors they would hear tobacco company evidence that Philip
Morris has reduced the amount of tar and nicotine in cigarettes by 70
percent since the 1950s.
The tobacco company will produce witnesses who will testify about cancer and
its many possible causes, including genetics, and substances such as
asbestos and cleaning solutions, with which Williams had worked.
It's impossible that Williams didn't know about the dangers of smoking, he
said. The debate about smoking and health has been widespread in the United
States for decades, he said, "in Congress, on the front page of newspapers
and in people's homes, including Mr. Williams' home."
Today, attorneys for the Williams family are scheduled to begin presenting
witnesses. Both sides in the case will call medical, tobacco industry and
mental health experts in addition to Williams family members.
You can reach Patrick O'Neill at 503-221-8233 or by e-mail at
poneill@news.oregonian.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Bay Area Coalition for Alternatives to the War on Drugs sponsors workshop
Friday in Oakland (The Oakland Tribune publicizes a public meeting that will
focus on such topics as "Drugs and the CIA," featuring former Los Angeles
police narcotics officer Michael Ruppert. Other topics include the courts,
youth drug prevention, and jury nullification.)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 08:45:32 -0800
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: Gerald Sutliff (gsutliff@dnai.com)
Subject: "...alternative ideas to war on drugs"
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
Dear Talkers (especially those of us in Northern California)
News item in the Oakland Tribune (2-25-99):
OAKLAND -- As U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey prepares to justify spending
$18.9 billion to fight the war on drugs before a House Committee on
Government Oversight today, critics of his tactics are planning a community
meeting to discuss alternative ways to curb drug use.
The Bay Area Coalition for Alternatives to the War on Drugs (BACAWOD) is
sponsoring a three-topic workshop Friday at 7:15 p.m. inside the Lake
Merritt Church at 1330 Lakeshore Ave. in Oakland.
Topics will include "Drugs and the CIA," with former Los Angeles police
narcotics officer Michael Ruppert discussing the CIA's alleged role in
saturating the black community with crack cocaine. Others will cover the
courts, youth drug prevention and jury nullification -- when a jury refuses
to convict regardless of the evidence presented, law written or a judge's
instructions.
Representatives from various law enforcement and court agencies have been
invited, including Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the Alameda County Public
Defender's office, District Attorney, Oakland Board of Supervisors and others.
BACAWOD is a recently formed coalition of various organization including
Crack the CIA, North Coast Xpress, National Latina Health Organization,
Libertarian Party and a host of others.
For more information, call (510) 451-4430
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Government: State voters approved the use of medical marijuana. The feds
should honor that. (An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by California state
senator John Vasconcellos says state and federal governments have colluded to
thwart the will of voters who passed Proposition 215 in California. Together,
they closed most of the providers of medical marijuana in California, threw
several legitimate caregivers in jail and currently are preventing a
seriously sick defendant - author Peter McWilliams, now in failing health as
a result - from using medical cannabis. A tidal wave of support for
medical marijuana has begun in the Western United States. The future of
many federal officials will depend, in large part, on whether they ride that
wave into a compassionate future or, standing in the way, are rendered
irrelevant by the voters.)
From: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
Subject: DPFCA: From Today's LA Times --
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 11:40:24 -0800
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
Government: State voters approved the use of medical marijuana. The feds
should honor that.
What kind of a government carries on a crusade against the will of its
voters, favors pain and even death for some of its people?
From a president still distancing himself from youthful
experimentation with marijuana, a drug czar who has effectively declared
war on American citizens and a Congress that forbids the counting of
votes on a Washington, D.C., ballot initiative on medical marijuana
(sure to pass), our federal government continues to bungle the issue of
medical marijuana.
There is an utter disregard of states' rights, to try to silence
the proponents of medical marijuana, to threaten the integrity and
livelihood of California physicians and, ultimately, to engage in a
campaign against the health and care of sick and dying Californians.
In November 1996, 56% of California voters passed Proposition 215,
which allows the medicinal use of marijuana - a critical treatment and
care option for sick and dying patients. The voters declared they want
their relationship with their physician (rather than the government) be
the arbiter of their health and healing modalities.
In good faith, California local government and law enforcement
leaders have spent the past two years working with patients, physicians
and providers of medicinal marijuana to ensure responsible,
compassionate implementation of Proposition 215.
Yet our federal government has assumed it knows best what's good
for our people. It has engaged in activities that demonstrate an
outrageous disregard for the will of our California voters (and since
November, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Alaska voters as well).
How ironic that Bill Clinton - who won our state by a smaller margin
than voters approved Proposition 215 - has the temerity to send federal
law enforcement into our state to contravene the decision of our
citizens.
Until the beginning of this year, our state and federal governments
colluded to thwart the voters' mandate. Former California Atty. Gen. Dan
Lungren publicly vowed to respect the voters' decision, yet then
proceeded to take every action he could to ensure that Proposition 215
could not be safely implemented. To the extent he refrained from overtly
violating our voters' mandate, he relied on the feds to do his dirty
work.
Together, they closed most of the providers of medical marijuana in
California, threw several legitimate caregivers in jail and currently
are preventing a seriously sick defendant - author Peter McWilliams, now
in failing health as a result - from access to medicinal marijuana.
Fortunately, California has begun, since the inauguration of a new
attorney general and governor in January, to look more respectfully upon
the will of our people.
Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has kickstarted efforts to implement the
voters' wishes regarding medical marijuana. He's convened a statewide
task force of all key stakeholders, naming Republican Santa Clara County
Dist. Atty. George Kennedy and me to co-chair it. Our charge is to find
ways to make Proposition 215 work responsibly.
Sadly, our charge will be largely Sisyphean as long as the federal
government does not change its position or have its position changed by
more sympathetic federal courts.
Until Washington allows marijuana to be prescribed under the
controls applied to other drugs like morphine and cocaine, its benefits
will be available to those willing to risk greater harm by getting their
medicine from street pushers.
A tidal wave of support for medicinal marijuana has begun in the
Western United States. The future of many federal officials will depend,
in large part, on whether they ride that wave into a compassionate
future or, standing in the way, are rendered irrelevant by the voters.
It is now incumbent on Californians to convince the federal
government to abide by our will, rather than have Big Brother consigning
them to pain and even death.
State Sen. John Vasconcellos is a Democrat from the Silicon Valley
Letters to the editor: letters@latimes.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Is The Party Over For The Hash Bash? (The Detroit News says Republican state
senators Beverly Hammerstrom and Mike Rogers, who represent districts
bordering Ann Arbor, have co-sponsored a bill in the Michigan legislature
that would prohibit local communities from enacting drug ordinances with
penalties less severe than state law. The bill was introduced about a month
before the 28th annual Hash Bash, scheduled for the first Saturday of April.
Ann Arbor levies a $25 fine for marijuana possession. It's the only city that
deviates from the state law, which calls for a $100 fine and up to 90 days in
jail.)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 21:58:11 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MI: Is The Party Over For The Hash Bash?
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: February 25, 1999
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Contact: letters@detnews.com
Website: http://www.detnews.com/
Copyright: 1999, The Detroit News
Author: B.G. Gregg and Jodi S. Cohen / The Detroit News
IS THE PARTY OVER FOR THE HASH BASH?
Law would toughen fines to help end Ann Arbor pot rally
Ann Arbor -- Two state senators want to trash the Hash
Bash.
Republicans Beverly Hammerstrom and Mike Rogers, who represent
districts bordering Ann Arbor, have co-sponsored a bill to prohibit
local communities from enacting drug ordinances with penalties softer
than state law.
The move comes about a month before the 28th annual Hash Bash,
scheduled for the first Saturday of April. The internationally known
event, which promotes the legalization of marijuana, draws about 5,000
people, many of whom openly smoke marijuana.
The event created clashes with police in the early years, but has
become a quiet gathering of young and old advocates of the drug.
Both lawmakers said their bill is out of concern for teen-agers who
think it is OK to attend the Hash Bash.
The city levies a $25 fine for marijuana possession. It's the only
city that deviates from the state law, which calls for a $100 fine and
up to 90 days in jail.
James Millard, owner of Pure Productions, an Ann Arbor store that
specializes in hemp clothing, called Hammerstrom's and Rogers' bill
"ridiculous."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Discrimination Plagues Act (An op-ed in the Cavalier Daily at the University
of Virginia, in Charlottesville, by Adam J. Smith of the Drug Reform
Coordination Network points out the racial and social iniquities to be
fostered by the Higher Education Act's ban on aid to students convicted of
possessing marijuana or other controlled substances.)
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 13:52:53 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: Discrimination Plagues Act
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: rlake@mapinc.org
Source: The Cavalier Daily (University of Virginia)
Copyright: 1999 The Cavalier Daily, Inc.
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Section: Cavalier Daily University Forum
Contact: cavdaily@cavalierdaily.com
FAX: (804) 924-7290
Mail: Basement, Newcomb Hall; Charlottesville, VA 22904
Website: http://www.cavalierdaily.com/
Author: Adam J. Smith
Note: Adam Smith is the Associate Director for the Drug Reform Coordination
Network
Also: Information on DRCNet's HEA reform campaign is at http://www.u-net.org/
DISCRIMINATION PLAGUES ACT
ON OCT. 7, President Clinton signed into law the Higher Education Act of
1998, which includes a provision that will deny or delay federal financial
aid to any student with a drug conviction, no matter how minor. In
response, students across the country are participating in a growing
campaign to have the provision overturned. They have good reason to get
involved.
Whatever Congress' intent, the law's impact will be discriminatory on
several levels. First, the law represents an additional penalty, over and
above court-imposed sanctions, levied upon lower and middle class students.
Wealthier students, the children of legislators for instance, will be
virtually unaffected.
While the law allows for provisional reinstatement of eligibility if a
student undergoes drug treatment and random drug testing, such treatment is
largely unavailable to those without significant resources. The federal
government's own 1997 study indicates that 48 percent of America's drug
treatment needs are currently unmet. In fact, only 7 percent of the federal
drug war budget is earmarked for treatment, while the overwhelming majority
goes to enforcement and military interdiction.
Finally, for most young offenders, getting caught with a small amount of
marijuana no more indicates a medical need for substance abuse treatment
than a college sophomore's underage drinking citation indicates alcoholism.
Next, the law singles out young drug offenders - the overwhelming majority
of whom are convicted of non-violent possession - as singularly unworthy of
federal financial aid. Convictions for sexual assault, stalking or perjury,
for example, carry no such penalties.
Most disturbingly, this law will discriminate based on race. The reality of
the drug war in America is that it is prosecuted most vigorously in poor
and non-white neighborhoods. According to a 1995 report from the Sentencing
Project, blacks, who are 12 percent of the population, and who make up
approximately 13 percent of all drug users, comprise 55 percent of those
convicted of drug offenses.
The Sentencing Project's report also indicates that today in America, fully
one in three black males in the 18-29 age group is under the "supervision"
of the criminal justice system. Overall, 75 percent of those entering the
corrections system are either black or Latino. Are the drugs gone yet? Why
should we believe that making it more difficult for those who've already
been punished to enter the mainstream through education will have a
positive impact?
The drug war is decades old, costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars
per year and has given America the highest per-capita incarceration rate on
the planet. In states such as California, Maryland, New York and others,
more money is now being spent on prisons than on higher education.
Imprisoning a young person, by the way, costs taxpayers far more than does
a Pell Grant or a Stafford loan--and once educated, these students will be
contributors to society, on the tax rolls and productive.
Escalation of the drug war has long been justified as necessary to "protect
children" from drug use. But it would be difficult to find a single college
student who could not have bought illicit drugs while in high school. The
University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" survey indicates that 90
percent of high school seniors say that illicit drugs are "easy" or "fairly
easy" to obtain. Today's college students were the same children the
escalation of the war was designed to protect. But have we "protected" a
single young person from access to drugs? Can we point to a single "drug
free" high school? If not, when exactly will it be time to reevaluate the
punitive focus of our policies?
The newest weapon in Washington's drug war places obstacles in the path of
young people who are trying to get their lives together through education.
Surveys show that more than 50 percent of high school seniors have used an
illicit substance. Are half of our young people unworthy of financial aid?
Or just the poor, the non-white and the unlucky?
Assuming that this law does not make kids "drug free," what's next?
Underage drinking is illegal, and inarguably a more widespread and pressing
campus problem than illicit drug use. Will Washington decide to withhold
financial aid for illicit alcohol use? It is time for college students to
speak up.
Today's college students have become the pawns of politicians who are as
adamant about "zero tolerance" as they are out of touch with the realities
of young people. Impeding education is not a rational policy by any
measure. The Higher Education Act of 1998 gives students the opportunity,
even the responsibility, to join the debate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Coalition Protests Government's Hard-Line Drug Policies (According to the Los
Angeles Times, more than two dozen scholars and activists joined in
Washington, D.C., to protest the federal government's anti-drug strategy, and
accused the White House of spreading misinformation. The campaign, organized
by the Virginia-based nonprofit group Common Sense for Drug Policy, issued a
letter to the White House drug czar, saying participants were "deeply
troubled" by Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey's "inaccurate and misleading statements"
in opposition to needle exchange programs and medicinal marijuana, among
other issues.)
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 18:44:18 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Coalition Protests Government's Hard-Line Drug Policies
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: kevin zeese
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Los Angeles Times.
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: (213) 237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/
Author: Eric Lichtblau, LA Times Staff Writer
COALITION PROTESTS GOVERNMENT'S HARD-LINE DRUG POLICIES
WASHINGTON--Black leaders and public health advocates on Wednesday joined
to protest several hard-line aspects of the federal government's anti-drug
strategy, accusing the White House of spreading misinformation.
In a letter to Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy, more than two dozen scholars and activists
said they were "deeply troubled" by McCaffrey's "inaccurate and misleading
statements" in opposition to needle exchange programs and medicinal
marijuana, among other issues.
McCaffrey has often found himself at odds with groups that want to ease
enforcement actions and strict sentencing guidelines and place more
emphasis on drug treatment and research.
Those signing the statement included scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and
several of his colleagues at Harvard University, San Francisco Mayor Willie
Brown, former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and representatives of public
health groups involved in AIDS research and other issues. The African
American leaders said McCaffrey's hard-line policies have unfairly harmed
minorities.
McCaffrey said the letter simply reflects "different, legitimate
viewpoints" about how to interpret available drug research, rather than any
distortion by his office.
But he acknowledged that the campaign, organized by the Virginia-based
nonprofit group Common Sense for Drug Policy, had managed to attract a
group of prominent signatories. Calling the incident unfortunate, McCaffrey
said he would send an aide to speak with the group about their concerns.
The missive was delivered the same day McCaffrey met with Pino Arlacchi,
his drug-fighting counterpart at the United Nations, to map out ways of
beefing up multinational anti-drug efforts.
At a news conference later, the two men offered little in the way of
specific new strategies, but stressed the need for increased international
teamwork in combating drug traffickers, and in developing new sources of
revenue for rural areas that now depend on drug production.
Those signing Wednesday's letter to McCaffrey said the United States'
effort has been misguided, focusing on border interdiction and law
enforcement crackdowns at the expense of treatment and research.
"We're disappointed with the White House policy. It's more of the same, and
more of the same isn't working," said Kevin Zeese, president of the drug
policy group.
Pointing to a surge in drug overdoses and incarcerations, Zeese said:
"We've got to look at the drug policy honestly and recognize the failure."
Voters already have begun to do so, Zeese said, by approving measures in
six states last year that make medicinal marijuana legal and authorize other
more liberal policies in the areas of sentencing and treatment. "The voters
are way ahead of the politicians on this," he said.
Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson, a specialist in racial issues who
signed the letter to McCaffrey, said he is appalled by the administration's
misleading public statements concerning drug issues, including McCaffrey's
assertion that needle exchange programs are "a magnet for social ills."
"Anyone who has done any work on this will tell you that this can only do
good in terms of reducing AIDS" and other diseases among drug users, he
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DEA: Mexican Cartels Penetrate U.S. (The Associated Press says Thomas
Constantine of the Drug Enforcement Administration reported Wednesday to a
Senate panel that monitors illegal-drug trafficking that the leaders of
Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organization, the Arellano-Felix
group, appear to be immune from any law enforcement effort. Constantine said
corruption in Mexican law enforcement has no parallel with anything he has
seen in 39 years of police work. The DEA chief sidestepped a question from
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., as to whether Mexico should be certified as an
ally in the United States' war on some drug users. But, he said, there has
been a dramatic increase over the past five years in the "penetration" of the
United States by Mexican illegal-drug importers.)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:34:29 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: DEA - Mexican Cartels Penetrate U.S.
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
DEA: MEXICAN CARTELS PENETRATE U.S.
WASHINGTON - Top leaders of Mexico's most powerful and perhaps
most violent drug trafficking organization appear to be immune to any
law enforcement effort, a senior U.S. counternarcotics official says.
That assessment was made Wednesday in a report by Drug Enforcement
administrator Thomas Constantine to a Senate panel that monitors
narcotics trafficking.
Constantine cited a number of perceived shortcomings in Mexico's law
enforcement efforts despite an expected endorsement of Mexico's
performance on Friday by President Clinton.
Each year, drug transit and drug source countries are evaluated by the
State Department. Most are "certified" as fully cooperative with U.S.
counternarcotics efforts while the rest are decertified and some are
subject to economic sanctions. Clinton has said Mexico "should not be
penalized."
During his testimony, Constantine sidestepped a question from Sen.
Joseph Biden, D-Del., as to whether he believes Mexico should be
certified. But, he said, there has been a dramatic increase over the
past five years in the penetration of the United States by Mexican
drug cartels.
He also said the corruption in Mexican civilian law enforcement has no
parallel with anything he has seen in 39 years of police work.
Randy Beers, the State Department's top counternarcotics official,
said Mexico deserves credit for a "serious effort" to deal with drug
traffickers, saying it has conducted an "unprecedented antidrug
campaign that, to my knowledge, has never been duplicated" elsewhere.
He added that, proportionally, Mexico earmarks a higher percentage of
its national budget to counterdrug efforts than does the United
States. He also noted that Mexico plans to spend more than $400
million over the next three years to combat narcotraffcking through
high technology.
In his written report to the panel, Constantine said the
Arellano-Felix organization has a cocaine and marijuana distribution
network that has expanded to U.S. cities in the Midwest and East Coast
in recent years.
"In spite of existing U.S. warrants, government of Mexico indictments
and actionable investigative leads provided to Mexico by U.S. law
enforcement, limited enforcement action has taken place within the
last year."
He said there has been a consistent lack of success in obtaining
evidence, locating those indicted and arresting any major figures.
"The few arrests that have been made to date have not included the
leaders and command structure of the Arellano-Felix Organization
syndicate," Constantine said.
"The truly significant principals have not been arrested, and appear
to be immune to any law enforcement efforts."
Constantine also alleged that corruption has impeded efforts to break
up the Caro-Quinero organization, also alleged to be involved in drug
smuggling.
He said the head of the organization, Miguel Angel Caro Quintero, was
able to use "a combination of threats and bribes" to have charges
against him dismissed by a federal judge in Sonora.
"U.S. officials have corroborated the fact that Miguel Caro-Quintero
collaborates with some Mexican law enforcement officials as evidenced
by photographs which have shown him meeting with police officials at
his residence," Constantine said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
D.E.A. Chief Warns Senate On Traffickers In Mexico (The New York Times
version)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 11:50:00 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: D.E.A. Chief Warns Senate On Traffickers In Mexico
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Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: Thur, 25 Feb 1999
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: Christopher Wren
D.E.A. CHIEF WARNS SENATE ON TRAFFICKERS IN MEXICO
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thomas
Constantine, warned Wednesday that Mexican drug trafficking organizations
pose the worst criminal threat to the United States that he has seen in
nearly 40 years in law enforcement.
Speaking days before the Clinton administration deadline for certifying that
Mexico is cooperating in drug-fighting efforts, Constantine sketched a bleak
picture in testimony before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics
Control. "Unlike the American organized crime leaders, organized crime
figures in Mexico have at their disposal an army of personnel, an arsenal of
weapons and the finest technology that money can buy," Constantine said.
"They literally run transportation and financial empires, and an insight
into how they conduct their day-to-day business leads even the casual
observer to the conclusion that the United States is facing a threat of
unprecedented proportions and gravity."
But with the administration on the brink of declaring that Mexico deserves
certification, he did not address the central question of the level of
official cooperation that Mexico has offered to the United States. The State
Department must submit an annual report to Congress by Monday that lists
which countries have failed to cooperate in fighting drugs.
Clinton said last week on a brief visit to Mexico that it should not be
penalized for "having the courage to confront its problems" with illegal
drugs. But Wednesday, some senators who last year objected to seeing Mexico
certified found in Constantine's testimony fresh ammunition for another
challenge in Congress this year.
"My purpose here is not to bash Mexico," said the chairman of the caucus,
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "But the problem is too serious to ignore."
Constantine sidestepped a question about whether Mexico deserved to be
certified, talking instead about its decline in drug seizures, its pervasive
corruption and its failure to extradite any Mexicans sought by the United
States in connection with trafficking.
Other administration officials sought to play down any differences over
Constantine's bleak assessment, which drew heavily from reports by the DEA
agents in the field.
"Factually there's very little difference between any of us," said Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, the White House director of national drug policy, who
supports certifying Mexico. McCaffrey said U.S. and Mexican officials agreed
that drug-related crime in Mexico had grown rapidly and become more violent
and that its administration of justice was inadequate. "If you want to
protect the American people, you've got to work with Mexico for the next 15
years," McCaffrey said.
Rand Beers, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and
law-enforcement affairs, who also testified at the hearing, said Constantine
had been careful to distinguish between the government and organized crime.
"He was not saying it was the Mexican government that engaged in drug
trafficking," Beers said.
But Constantine made clear that Mexico had yet to staunch the flow of
cocaine, heroin and marijuana across its U.S. border.
He stressed that almost no traffickers of significance had been arrested and
or extradited. When his agency asked Mexico to help capture one trafficker,
Constantine said, officials replied, "It would be difficult to apprehend
this individual, because he was too dangerous to pursue, due to the number
of bodyguards and corrupt law-enforcement officials he employs." Constantine
described a corruption so widespread that even sensitive information shared
with elite anti-drug units reached traffickers. "Because of the unparalleled
levels of corruption within Mexican law-enforcement agencies with whom we
must work to insure that these individuals are brought to justice, our job is
made that much more difficult," Constantine said. "Until we can work with
our law-enforcement counterparts in a relationship that is free from
suspicion, the burden to bring the drug lords before a jury of their
victims' peers will remain largely ours."
The failures listed by Constantine led Grassley to ask what Mexico would
have to do to be refused recognition as an ally in the war against drugs.
Beers referred to Colombia, which was denied certification after President
Ernesto Samper had been accused of taking drug money for his re-election
campaign. By contrast, Beers said, Mexico had made "significant progress"
since President Ernesto Zedillo took office in December 1994.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexico Rails At U.S. Drug Cop's Finger-Pointing (According to Reuters,
Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida said DEA director Thomas
Constantine was "totally wrong" to hold Mexican crime syndicates responsible
for a large chunk of the drug distribution, violence and crime north of the
border. Constantine told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that Mexican
illegal-drug traffickers had more money and firepower today in the United
States than the Mafia ever did in its heyday.)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:34:02 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Mexico: Wire: Mexico Rails At U.S. Drug Cop's Finger-Pointing
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited.
MEXICO RAILS AT U.S. DRUG COP'S FINGER-POINTING
MEXICO CITY, - Mexican Interior Minister Francisco
Labastida criticised the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration on Wednesday for blaming Mexicans for much of the drug
trade in the United States.
Labastida said DEA director Thomas Constantine was "totally wrong"
when he held Mexican crime syndicates responsible for a large chunk
of the drug distribution, violence and crime north of the border.
Constantine's remarks "reflect a vision in which the good are on one
side and the bad on the other," Labastida told reporters. "I deeply
lament what he said."
The DEA head was scathing in his criticism this week of corruption in
Mexican law enforcement. Labastida, who is responsible for law and
order in Mexico, said the DEA chief's remarks sought to "brake" the
search for understanding and cooperation between the two sides in the
war on drugs.
Constantine's remarks came less than a week before the White House was
due to decide whether to recertify Mexico and other countries in the
war against drugs.
President Bill Clinton was expected to recertify Mexico on Friday, but
the decision was likely to ignite a heated debate in the U.S. Senate.
Decertification could mean a loss of some trade and economic benefits.
Mexican newspapers said Constantine attributed much of the
drug-related violence and crime in the United States to the growing
power of Mexican cartels, which control the trade on the West Coast
and have made inroads in Chicago and New York.
Miami, one of the main entry points for cocaine, continued to be run
by Colombian mafias, he said.
U.S. drug enforcement officials say about 70 percent of the cocaine
sold in the United States passes through Mexico.
Constantine told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the Mexican drug
cartels had more money and firepower today in the United States than
the Mafia ever did in its heyday.
He added that corruption in Mexican law enforcement institutions was
"unparalleled by anything I have seen" and hampered efforts to stop
illegal drugs flowing across the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border onto
U.S. streets.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't Advocate A Trial, Advisers Told (According to the Sydney Morning
Herald, in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard's hand-picked advisory body
on drugs has been told the Government will never support a heroin-maintenance
trial and is not interested in receiving contrary advice, even though up to
12 of the 15 council members favour the option.)
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 18:54:20 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Australia: Don't Advocate A Trial, Advisers Told
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Russell.Ken.KW@bhp.com.au (Russell, Ken KW)
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Contact: letters@smh.fairfax.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Author: Margo Kingston
DON'T ADVOCATE A TRIAL, ADVISERS TOLD
The Prime Minister's hand-picked advisory body on drugs has been told the
Government will never support a heroin trial and is not interested in
receiving contrary advice, despite most of the council's 15 members
favouring the option.
The Government's intransigence has forced the council not to adopt any
policy on a trial, giving its prohibitionist chairman, the Salvation Army's
Major Brian Watters, free rein to oppose the trial publicly in a personal
capacity.
It is understood that at least two council members are now considering
resigning after Mr Howard's social policy adviser, Mr John Perrin, confirmed
the Government's closed mind at a council meeting in Hobart this week.
It is understood Mr Perrin said it was pointless for the council to give the
Government advice that it should allow a heroin trial, and that the
Government did not want members to make statements supporting one.
Up to 12 of the 15 council members support a limited heroin trial to assess
whether prescribing heroin to addicts unsuited to any other treatment is
helpful.
A spokesman for Mr Howard said Mr Perrin denied he had "gagged" the council.
Two members of the council are on the international body assessing the
results of heroin trials around the world but Mr Howard has not sought their
advice.
He has also refused to meet academics from the body which designed the
aborted ACT heroin trial, the Australian National University's Centre for
Epidemiology and Population Health, and has defied expert medical opinion to
claim heroin trials have not worked.
The Swiss heroin trial showed a 60 per cent decrease in addicts committing
criminal offences, a significant increase in permanent employment among them
and an end to their homelessness.
Council member Professor Margaret Hamilton, from Melbourne's Turning Point
Alcohol and Drug Service, said there was "considerable support" within the
council for a heroin trial.
"If it does nothing more than keep people alive who would otherwise be dead
it's something we ought to try," she said.
Professor Hamilton said the council would like to have an input into Mr
Howard's latest plans to tackle the heroin epidemic, which he will put to a
Premiers' Conference in April.
But she said that since Mr Howard set up the council to advise him on drugs
policy in March last year, "he's not sought the advice of the council" on
any drugs policy issue.
Another council member said the council had this week commissioned research
on the treatment options for heroin addicts, which would include heroin
trials, because "as a council the very least we can do is be honest".
Mr Howard's stance on a trial has left his Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, a
sitting duck for criticism, because he cleared a proposed heroin trial in
the ACT in 1997 with the agreement of all the States, only to be rolled by
Mr Howard.
It is understood the Prime Minister's office is suspicious of Dr
Wooldridge's department on the issue, believing it is too liberal.
Mr Howard's office has also stripped the Health Department of its role as
council secretariat.
Mr Howard said yesterday the Government's stand against a regulated heroin
trial was based on evidence rather than any moral stand.
His main concern about a heroin trial stemmed from a desire to combat the
"drug scourge".
"The potential of death and deprivation and quality of life, particularly
for young people, concerns me far more than some abstract moral theory," he
told the Nine Network.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PM Puts Drugs On Agenda (The Age, in Melbourne, says Australian Prime
Minister John Howard will try to enlist the support of state and territory
leaders for his war on drugs by offering more money for anti-drug education
and rehabilitation programs when he meets the premiers on April 9.)
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 07:41:12 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Australia: PM Puts Drugs On Agenda
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Russell.Ken.KW@bhp.com.au (Russell, Ken KW)
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 1999 David Syme & Co Ltd
Contact: letters@theage.fairfax.com.au
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Author: Tony Wright and Sandra McKay
PM PUTS DRUGS ON AGENDA
The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, will try to enlist the support of all
state and territory leaders for his war on drugs, and is expected to offer
more money for anti-drug education and rehabilitation programs when he
meets the premiers in April.
Mr Howard has directed the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to draw
up detailed proposals designed to broaden his options and win state support
for his ``tough-on-drugs'' policy.
The decision to put the issue on the agenda for the 9 April Premiers'
Conference underlines the Prime Minister's move in the past week to push
his anti-drugs message to the centre of the national political debate.
Government sources said Mr Howard considered the matter was as important in
his second term as his efforts to introduce tough gun laws in his first term.
He denied yesterday that he was involved in a personal moral crusade, but
reiterated that he would not give in to pressure for the introduction of
free heroin trials, despite a new proposal by the NSW director of public
prosecutions, Mr Nicholas Cowdery, to license and tax heroin dealers and
importers.
``No community will accept a government that goes soft on people who are
making money out of other people's misery and death,'' Mr Howard said in
Sydney.
Earlier, Mr Howard said he would ``also be bringing to (the premiers')
meeting certain new proposals of Federal Government''. Sources said he had
directed his department to canvass options with the Health Department,
other government agencies and the Australian National Council on Drugs. The
emphasis would be on education programs in schools and rehabilitation,
which were primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments.
The sources said Mr Howard was likely to offer the states and voluntary
organisations extra money for these programs.
The Prime Minister said he believed Australia should take a ``zero
tolerance'' attitude to drugs in schools, just as he believed law enforcers
should take a zero tolerance attitude to drug traffickers.
On another front, the drugs debate became personal yesterday when the
Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, accused the Federal Health Minister, Dr Michael
Wooldridge, of taking a ``head-in-the-sand approach'' to the problem. While
Mr Kennett welcomed the Prime Minister's support for a premiers' forum on
drugs, he said radical proposals, including licensing and taxing heroin
dealers, should not be left off the table.
He said Dr Wooldridge, who earlier accused him of derailing the national
drug strategy by pushing for a national heroin trial, should take a more
intellectual approach and be open to all ideas.
Dr Wooldridge said later the attack was like ``water off a duck's back'',
and that he was pleased drugs had become a fashionable topic of the
premiers. He also warned that concentrating on heroin trials as part of the
solution to drug abuse was undermining existing efforts, including
alternative pharmacotherapy trials across the nation.
Mr Kennett also called for a commission to address the broader problems of
addiction, depression, homelessness and suicide.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This Is A Potty Situation, Surely? (An op-ed in the Independent, in Britain,
by Sue Arnold, a medical marijuana patient, responds to the sentencing
yesterday of Eric Mann, a Welsh grandfather, to a year in prison for growing
cannabis to relieve his arthritis. At least this way he'll be guaranteed a
regular supply without having to grow his own. Everyone knows that getting
hold of pot in prison is easier than growing it organically oneself on the
outside, as Mann did. "When I talked about the Welsh Connection to my friend
Lester Grinspoon yesterday, his chief concern was that even now Mr Mann was
being prescribed some really dangerous drug to relieve his arthritic symptoms
by well-meaning prison authorities - aspirin for instance.")
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 11:50:04 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: This Is A Potty Situation, Surely?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Herb Zachary
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Feb 1999
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author: Sue Arnold
THIS IS A POTTY SITUATION, SURELY?
The sponge space-cake was delicious, as were the filo parcels with ricotta,
basil and bud
IF it's any consolation to the Welsh grandfather sentenced to a year's
imprisonment yesterday for smoking cannabis to relieve his arthritis, at
least this way he'll be guaranteed a regular supply without having to grow
his own. Everyone knows that getting hold of pot in prison is a great deal
easier than, say, finding an assistant in Sainsbury's to direct you to the
organic carrots. "Organic" is the key word here. The 12 healthy marijuana
plants that Inspector Knacker and his boys found when they busted Mr Eric
Mann in his Pembrokeshire attic were prize specimens of bio-dynamic
horticulture - no pesticides, no organic phosphates, no toxins.
Let's hope his suppliers over the next 12 months will be as meticulous about
the quality of their merchandise, though let's face it, most people would be
pushed to tell whether their after dinner spliff had been sprayed with DDT
or fertilised with the well-rotted ordure of last year's Derby winner. I
know I couldn't.
When I talked about the Welsh Connection to my friend Lester Grinspoon
yesterday, his chief concern was that even now Mr Mann was being prescribed
some really dangerous drug to relieve his arthritic symptoms by well-meaning
prison authorities - aspirin for instance.
Sorry, have I mentioned my friend Lester before? His full title is Dr Lester
Grinspoon, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School. We
first became acquainted when I published an account of the extraordinary
effects that smoking cannabis has on my appalling eyesight - I have a
tiresome condition known as RP, retinitis pigmentosa. Professor Grinspoon
immediately sent me a copy of his latest book on cannabis, Marijuana - The
Forbidden Medicine, a sequel to his best-seller Marijuana Reconsidered,
first published in 1977 and recently reissued by Harvard University Press in
their all time classic series.
To describe Professor Grinspoon as being in favour of cannabis is a bit
like calling Michael Schumacher a Sunday motorist. Professor Grinspoon
reckons that in years to come people will regard the first decade of the
next millennium in medical terms as the cannabis decade, in much the same
way as they associate penicillin with the Forties. "They'll call it the
wonder drug, and that's precisely what it is," he told me on the phone from
Massachusetts. "No side-effects; no one's ever died from using cannabis. Do
you know that in the US up to 2,000 people die from aspirin poisoning every
year? Cannabis not only works for RP, glaucoma, MS, arthritis and weight
recovery for Aids victims, but it's absolutely safe."
I said gloomily that I wished he'd been on the radio phone-in I did the
other day. In the blue corner me pro-cannabis; in the red corner a fierce
Glaswegian drugs counsellor who said she could give us 20 case histories of
hardened heroin addicts who had started out smoking pot. "Ah, the gateway
hypothesis," said Professor Grinspoon. "It's never been proved. On the
contrary, they did a survey the other day where they questioned 100 heroin
addicts about the drugs they'd started out taking. Ninety-eight per cent
said coffee, 95 per cent said alcohol, 92 per cent said Coca-Cola. Very few
of them had ever smoked pot."
Two years ago Lester and the then US attorney General Ramsey Clarke made an
11th-hour mercy dash to Kuala Lumpur where an American tourist, Kelly Wiley,
had been found guilty of possessing cannabis and was due to be executed in a
couple of days. The chief prosecutor told Lester cheerfully that he'd
already had 100 Malaysians executed for possession, but hanging his first
American would almost certainly result in a top government job. Lester had
brought with him X-rays of Wiley's arm, which had been injured in an
accident 20 years earlier. The bones had never properly healed, and to
relieve the pain Wiley regularly used cannabis. The judge studied the
X-rays, Wiley got off, the prosecutor never got his top government job.
"Tell your readers, if they're interested they can log on to our website for
all the latest medical information we've collated on the subject," says
Lester. "I'm now working on another book, The Uses of Marijuana, which
spreads the net much wider, illustrating how useful creative artists have
found it in their work."
It suddenly occurs to me that among the sackloads of mail I got following my
dope-smoking piece there was a slim green paperback called Cooking with
Ganja by someone calling himself simply "Eric". Good heavens, could that
possibly be the arthritic grandfather from Pembroke Dock currently detained
at Her Majesty's pleasure? If it is, thanks Eric. The all-in-one sponge
space-cake was delicious; as for the filo parcels with ricotta, basil and
bud - mmm, wonderful. If I were charitable I'd do a Sydney Carton and stand
in for you - heaven knows I broadcast my crime often enough and, what's
more, that my kids supply me - but hang on, was that a knock on the door?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
to the 1999 Daily News index for Feb. 19-25