-------------------------------------------------------------------
Violence plagues city's top pot spot (The Vancouver Province, in British
Columbia, says the badly beaten body of Allister Irvine Marselje, 21, who
made a living by weighing, bagging and delivering one-gram bags of marijuana
to sellers at the Cross Town Traffic Cafe at 314 W. Hastings St., was found
Dec. 5 in a downtown Vancouver dumpster. Mark Smith, a friend of Marselje's
and a pot dealer who now runs a private smoking club off a hallway in the
cafe, said last year's shift of power to "ruthless gangsters" dramatically
altered the culture in the area.)
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 12:13:16 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Violence Plagues City's Top Pot Spot
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Pubdate: Friday 26 February 1999
Source: Vancouver Province (Canada)
Copyright: The Province, Vancouver 1999
Contact: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.vancouverprovince.com/
Author: Lora Grindlay, Staff Reporter The Province
Violence plagues city's top pot spot
The badly beaten body of a 21-year-old lay tangled amongst trash in a
downtown Vancouver dumpster.
In life Allister Irvine Marselje had made a living by weighing, bagging
and delivering one-gram bags of marijuana to sellers at the Cross Town
Traffic Cafe at 314 W. Hastings St.
In death, Marselje was a frightening illustration of the violence
brewing on the short block where hemp and pot are celebrated,
advocated, sold and smoked.
West Hastings between Hamilton and Homer streets is a mecca to pot
smokers worldwide. People ranging from Texas lawyers to California
surfers make the trek, pay their money and, in numerous cafes in the
area, they sit down and get stoned.
Vancouver police Det. Rick Crook said that while investigating
Marselje's murder he was disturbed at the violence and turf war that
has followed the staggering amount of money being made by the trade in
B.C.'s most sought-after export.
Crook said the Cross Town Traffic Cafe sold three pounds of pot a day
last summer, bringing in over $10,000 a day on $10 one-gram bags.
"You kind of think of the pot trade as being peaceful and laid back.
This is the last group of people you would imagine to be involved in
this kind of violence," said Crook. "I want to make sure the street
starts helping out. If they want it to be this peaceful, fun-loving
place . . . then it has to have that violent element taken away."
Marselje's body was discovered Dec. 5 by a dumpster diver picking
through bins behind the Cross Town Traffic Cafe.
A police raid on the cafe in November caused the then-owner to flee
and, one night, the business was vandalized and a new group took
control of the sales.
"That was a strong message," Crook said.
Marselje worked for the new regime.
Police allege Marselje was beaten in the back of the cafe after he
spoke about a contract on the life of a major player in the cafe's pot
business.
Whether the contract was real or just an empty threat, Marselje was
subjected to a ferocious beating and paid with his life.
On Feb. 5 three men were arrested for his murder. Charged with
second-degree murder is Alhaj Hadani. The 28-year-old is in custody.
Charged with manslaughter are Ross Living, 22, and Jamie Yochlowitz,
25. Both are on bail and all three accused appear in court Monday to
set a trial date.
Another man was arrested Tuesday in Hull, Que. Roger Jean Caron, 28, is
charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact. Vancouver
police officers have gone east to bring him here.
Crook, who won't speak specifically on Marselje's death because of the
pending trial, said the young man isn't the only casualty in the battle
for pot profits.
A group of about six men associated with the cafe, who call themselves
the House of Pain, regularly beat hard-drug users and others who they
don't feel belong in the area, he said.
Crook said 30 people have been badly beaten since October.
Mark Smith, a friend of Marselje's and a pot dealer who now runs a
private smoking club off a hallway in the cafe, said last year's shift
of power to "ruthless gangsters" dramatically altered the culture in
the area.
"This was a violence-free zone," said Smith, who pocketed $70,000 in
three months of pot sales last summer. "The vibe was good. It was a
beautiful place to be."
On a wall outside his club, called The Lounge, Smith had a friend paint
a waterfall in memory of Marselje. At the bottom of the picture, Smith
has painted: "The summer of '98 will be in my heart forever, beside the
memory of our fallen friend. We know you're safe now. Rest in peace, my
brother."
Smith defended the House of Pain, who he said policed the street when
the police wouldn't.
The House of Pain "were never a threat to us. They kept the junkies,
the crack heads and the dealers off our streets."
"They made it safe for people to be here. It was for the sake of the
block. Nobody was hurt down here for the hell of it or for fun."
Smith said "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars"
are being made on the block, and as long as the cash is up for grabs
and the sale of pot illegal, the hardcore criminal element will be
there.
"Decriminalize it and privatize it," Smith said of pot. "I would have
no problem paying taxes on what I do. The tax money could mean so much.
The government should look at the money down here and do something
about it."
Sister Icee, owner of Hemp BC, was shocked by Marselje's killing but
said laws against marijuana use are letting violence fester.
"This is what prohibition brings into society," she said. "It creates
this black market and, because it is unregulated, it is like the Wild
West. Whoever has the biggest stick wins."
Smith's memories of Marselje and his brutal end still haunt him. Last
summer he wouldn't walk down the street without a gun, a baton, and a
can of bear spray.
Sitting with him in his club are his pit bull Molly and a Rottweiler
puppy. The entrance is behind a metal gate. John Lennon and Bob Marley
grace the walls.
Smith plays host to his 30-odd members in a room just a staircase away
from where his friend was beat to death.
He makes no apologies for his line of work, but these days he's not
sure he'll stick around.
"It [the killing] shouldn't happen again, but I can't say it won't. I'm
not going to be the next one who goes," he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Clinton OKs Mexico Antidrug Efforts (The Associated Press says that, as
expected, the U.S. president on Friday certified Mexico as a fully
cooperating ally in America's war on some drug users, even though seizures of
illegal drugs along the border decreased in the past year. At the time,
Colombia was certified and Haiti was decertified with a national interest
waiver, as were Cambodia, Nigeria and Paraguay. Afghanistan and Burma were
decertified with no national interest waiver. All told, 22 countries were
certified as fully cooperative with American counterdrug efforts. Meanwhile,
a 733-page State Department study titled "International Narcotics Control
Strategy Report" and released simultaneously with the certification
announcement said Mexico continues to be the primary route for northbound
South American cocaine and is a major source of marijuana, heroin and
methamphetamine.)
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 12:49:46 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Clinton OKs Mexico Antidrug Efforts
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Fri, 26 Feb 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer
CLINTON OKS MEXICO ANTIDRUG EFFORTS
WASHINGTON (AP) Despite large-scale, cross-border drug smuggling and a
decline in drug seizures, President Clinton certified Mexico on Friday as a
fully cooperating partner with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.
The decision, part of an annual evaluation of drug problem countries, could
touch off strong opposition in Congress, where many lawmakers are
exasperated by Mexico's inability to stem U.S.-bound narcotics flows. To
overturn the president's decision, a two-thirds vote of both houses is
required.
By law, countries found not to be fully cooperative are "decertified" and
can be subject to economic sanctions unless the president grants them a
waiver on national interest grounds.
"Mexico is cooperating with us in the battle for our lives," Clinton said in
a speech in San Francisco. Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo is "working
hard to tackle the corruption traffickers headlong," he said, adding, "He
cannot win this battle alone. And neither can we."
In justifying the Mexico decision, Barry McCaffrey, who heads the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said that last year, Mexico
implemented legislative reforms, arrested numerous drug traffickers and
sustained massive interdiction and eradication programs.
He told a news conference that outright decertification of Mexico would
"devastate" efforts to build long-term cooperation.
Nonetheless, official figures indicate cocaine seizures in Mexico were down
35 percent last year and that eradication of opium poppy did not keep pace
with new cultivation. The overall harvest increased by 25 percent,
government figures show.
Meanwhile, a group of eight senators, led by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa,
chairman of the Senate caucus on drug issues, wrote to Clinton and
recommended that in next year's certification process, Mexico be judged more
by results instead of efforts.
They recommended that the evaluation be measured by strict criteria,
including Mexico's willingness to extradite drug chieftains, its ability to
arrest and prosecute money launderers and leaders of narcotics syndicates,
and its record on drug eradication and seizures.
Joining seven Republicans in signing the letter was Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif.
Mexico was one of 28 countries evaluated by Clinton.
Colombia was certified as being fully cooperative after being decertified
last year. At the time, Clinton waived the economic penalties against
Colombia. The country's clean bill of health reflects the close ties the
Clinton administration has established with President Andres Pastrana, who
took office six months ago.
Meanwhile, Haiti, plagued by what officials called a "dysfunctional criminal
justice system," was decertified with a national interest waiver. In the
same category were Cambodia, Nigeria and Paraguay.
Afghanistan and Burma, key opium poppy countries, were decertified with no
national interest waiver.
All told, 22 countries were certified as fully cooperative with American
counterdrug efforts.
Meanwhile, a State Department study released simultaneously with the
certification announcement said Mexico continues to be the primary route for
northbound South American cocaine and is a major source of marijuana, heroin
and methamphetamine.
"Persistent corruption at all levels of the justice sector and frequent
changes in personnel have combined to hinder Mexico's ability to meet the
goals of its antidrug strategy," the study said.
The report is issued annually and evaluates international narcotics control
efforts. It said the United States and its allies made "solid gains" in
controlling narcotics trafficking in 1998, citing progress in crop
reduction, drug interdiction and other areas.
The most encouraging development last year on the drug front, the report
said, was the continued downward trend in coca cultivation, saying the total
crop "remains at its lowest level in 10 years, even factoring in a sharp
rise in cultivation in Colombia."
The State Department study, titled International Narcotics Control Strategy
Report, said overall coca cultivation in the Andean countries fell 17
percent to 471,000 acres last year.
"The most dramatic decline was evident in Peru, once the world's largest
coca producer," the report said. "Peruvian coca cultivation in 1998 fell 26
percent from the year before, and is now 60 percent below the peak level of
1990," it said.
The 733-page document also evaluates the illicit narcotics situation
country-by-country.
It said Colombia remained the world's leading producer and distributor of
cocaine and is a major source of heroin and marijuana.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 80 (The Drug Reform Coordination
Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action
includes - UN drug control board laments reform, urges member nations to tow
the drug war line; Iran says executing drug smugglers "unsuitable solution" -
but US legislators want to try it here; DEA chief Constantine rips US drug
war efforts, bemoans Mexican situation; Jesse "the Governor" Ventura on the
drug war; Sen. McCain seeks radical cutbacks in methadone maintenance;
California officials comment on medical marijuana; South Carolina mulls
making sale of urine a felony offense; American Farm Bureau reverses position
on hemp at convention; Canada: terminally ill man will continue to smoke
marijuana despite conviction; Author of "Drug Crazy" lecturing in Dallas
March 2nd; and an editorial: Mr. Ventura comes to Washington)
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 01:40:33 -0500
To: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (drcnet@drcnet.org)
Subject: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #80
Sender: owner-drc-natl@drcnet.org
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #80 -- February 26, 1999
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network
-------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --------
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This issue can be also be read on our web site at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html. Check out the DRCNN
weekly radio segment at http://www.drcnet.org/drcnn/.
PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the
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the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification
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drcnet@drcnet.org. Thank you.
Articles of a purely educational nature in The Week Online
appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise
noted.
ERRATA: Last week, we incorrectly listed the Mothers in
Prison, Children in Crisis rally as taking place on Friday,
May 9. The correct date is Friday, May 7. See
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/079.html#rally for the rest of the
information. Please pass this correction along to anyplace
your forwarded the original article.
NOTE: In issue #77, we provided an 800 number for the
American Bar Association, to order copies of their report on
the ineffectivess of increased penalties on drug use
(http://www.drcnet.org/wol/077.html#abastudy). If you've
had trouble getting through on the 800 number, try their
direct number at (312) 988-5000. Also check out the ABA's
report on the federalization of crime (article at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/079.html#abareport).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. UN Drug Control Board Laments Reform, Urges Member
Nations to Tow the Drug War Line
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#incb
2. Iran Says Executing Drug Smugglers "Unsuitable Solution"
-- but US Legislators Want to Try It Here
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#iran
3. DEA Chief Constantine Rips US Drug War Efforts,
Bemoans Mexican Situation
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#constantine
4. Jesse "The Governor" Ventura on the Drug War
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#ventura
5. Sen. McCain Seeks Radical Cutbacks in Methadone
Maintenance
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#mccain
6. California Officials Comment on Medical Marijuana
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#calmedmj
7. South Carolina Mulls Making Sale of Urine a Felony
Offense
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#southcarolina
8. American Farm Bureau Reverses Position on Hemp at
Convention
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#afb
9. Canada: Terminally Ill Man Will Continue to Smoke
Marijuana Despite Conviction
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#canada
10. Author of "Drug Crazy" Lecturing in Dallas, March 2nd
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#drugcrazy
11. EDITORIAL: Mr. Ventura Comes To Washington
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/080.html#editorial
***
1. UN Drug Control Board Laments Reform, Urges Member
Nations to Tow the Drug War Line
Efforts in some countries to lessen the impact of punitive
drug policies came under fire in the annual report from the
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) released at the
UN this week. The report, an overview of UN member states'
attempts to implement UN drug control conventions, warns
against harm reduction initiatives that threaten to
undermine the prohibitionist policies outlined in the
conventions.
The report stresses the board's concern "over the possible
proliferation of heroin experiments" such as the clinical
trial soon to be underway in the Netherlands, which will
test the feasibility of providing co-prescribed heroin and
methadone to hard-core addicts. The board was more critical
of Switzerland, which voted in 1997 to continue its own
heroin maintenance program after a three year experiment and
a national referendum. Referring back to its 1997 report,
the board reiterated its earlier concerns about the Swiss
government's positive evaluation of its own heroin program,
which the INCB said led to "misinterpretations and hasty
conclusions by some politicians and the media in several
European countries."
Similarly, the report expresses the INCB's suspicion of harm
reduction strategies such as safe-injection rooms, which
some governments have explicitly or tacitly supported as a
way to reduce the disease and public disorder associated
with hard drug use. Ultimately, the INCB "urges those
States to consider carefully all the implications of such
'shooting galleries,' including the legal implications, the
congregation of addicts, the facilitation of illicit
trafficking, the message that the existence of such places
may send to the general public and the impact on the general
perception of drug abuse." The report does not elaborate on
what it believes such a message to be.
Although other sections of the report note the high
incidence of AIDS and HIV among injection drug users in the
United States, Canada, Ukraine, Estonia, and many other
countries, it makes no mention of needle exchange.
The report is curiously silent on many countries' efforts to
scale back prosecution of the drug war. In mentioning
Belgium's decision to make prosecution for minor marijuana
offenses the "lowest judicial priority," it comments only
that, "It is unfortunate that the directive has been widely
misinterpreted as a move towards the decriminalization and
legalization of cannabis." Similar reforms on the way in
Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries are not
discussed in the report.
The board was more strident in its dismay over the passage
of medical marijuana initiatives in several US states. "The
Board trusts that the United States Government will
vigorously enforce its federal law... in states that,
pursuant to referendums, have authorized the use of
cannabis, contrary to the federal law prohibiting the
medical and non-medical use of cannabis" reads one section.
In another section, widely publicized in US news accounts,
the board "renews its call for additional scientific
research" on medical marijuana, insisting that "such
decisions should have a sound medical and scientific basis
and should not be made in accordance with referendums
organized by interest groups."
But some of those interest groups say the INCB is merely
stonewalling. DRCNet spoke with Dave Fratello, a spokesman
for Americans for Medical Rights, the California-based group
that has sponsored many of the US medical marijuana
initiatives. "The UN is taking a position very much like
the one the US government has taken, which is that we
shouldn't do anything about medical marijuana until some
unforeseen time many years down the road when all the
science has come in," he said. "What we're seeing from
around the country where people are willing to vote yes on
medical marijuana initiatives, and our Attorney General here
in California is trying to make Prop. 215 work, is that you
don't have to wait for that science. The science has
already been done in many regards. And the cases of
individual patients that have been so well publicized to
date demonstrate that there's no justification for keeping
laws on the books that criminalize these patients.
Especially when you've got a situation where it could go on
for ten or fifteen years, who knows how long just for the
research to be done -- and we're talking in many cases about
terminally ill patients."
Ethan Nadelmann, director of the New York-based drug policy
research institute the Lindesmith Center, agreed.
"Remember," he said, "just as we say that Washington, DC is
the last place that we're going to see change in the United
States, the UN is one of the last places we're going to see
change internationally. The UN systems are among the most
rigid and ossified -- not all of them, not UNAIDS or UNDP --
but the UN Drug Control Program and the INCB, these are
organizations where there is no benefit for anyone in these
organizations to advocate for reform."
Nadelmann questioned the scientific legitimacy of the board,
and said the INCB itself tends to operate as a political,
rather than a scientific body. "It's an organization which
is always looking for the supposed legalizer behind any harm
reduction innovation," he said. "In many respects it seems
like a sort of creaky, old Politburo of international drug
control."
Asked for his reaction to implications in the report
questioning the legitimacy of the Swiss heroin experiment,
Nadelmann scoffed. "The Swiss did their best to do a
legitimate scientific study, and it was one that was
inevitably constrained by political circumstances, one in
which research designs were adopted to political constraints
-- imposed not by reformers, but by those who were opposed
to the experiment in the first place."
Still, Nadelmann said he was pleased to see that the INCB
report was forced to acknowledge at least some of the
international movements toward drug reform. "They sense the
smell of reform in the air," he said, "whether it's in the
United States with the passage of the ballot initiatives and
referendums last November, or the current developments in
Europe -- especially in Germany, but also in places like
France and Belgium and Switzerland and other countries. So
it's nice to see that the INCB is actually awakening to the
fact that there are serious calls for change out there."
While it may be awakening to signs of change, the INCB shows
no signs that it will give up its attachment to punitive
drug prohibition any time soon. Despite numerous mentions
throughout the report of purer, cheaper drugs more widely
available than ever, despite its acknowledgment that even
the United States, with some of the harshest policies in the
world, has done little to ameliorate the condition of hard-
core drug addiction, the report insists that "History has
shown that national and international control of drugs has
proved to be an efficient tool for reducing the development
of drug dependence and is therefore the choice to be made."
Maybe next year.
(The INCB report is available online at
http://www.incb.org. The Lindesmith Center web site can
be found at http://www.lindesmith.org.)
***
2. Iran Says Executing Drug Smugglers "Unsuitable Solution"
-- but US Legislators Want to Try It Here
Last Wednesday (2/18), a top aid to Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami told Iran's official news agency (IRNA)
that that nation's ten year old policy of publicly executing
drug smugglers has not and will not achieve its intent of
stopping or even slowing the drug trade. Iran has executed
more than 2,000 people for drug offenses, many of them
publicly, over the past decade.
"Executing drug smugglers is not a suitable way to fight
drugs and our 10-year experience shows that this has not
been a solution" the aid said.
Iran's strict code mandated death to anyone caught in
possession of 30 grams of heroin or 11 lbs. of opium.
Perhaps Iran's experience might be enough to deter US
legislators from re-introducing the Drug Importer Death
Penalty Act of 1997. The bill, which called for a mandatory
death penalty for anyone convicted for a second trafficking
offense, was sponsored by then-speaker Newt Gingrich and
attracted a list of 37 co-sponsors, 36 Republicans and 1
Democrat. Though the Act does not specify weight limits, it
would be violated whenever someone was caught importing an
amount "equal to 100 doses" of any controlled substance.
Such a calculation would impose death for a far smaller
amount of heroin than did the failed Iranian law.
In fact, by that standard it would take the importation of
only a small amount (likely well under 2 oz.) of marijuana
to violate the act. First-time offenders under the Act
would receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Calls
placed to the offices of several of the original co-sponsors
of the Importer Death Penalty Act by The Week Online were
not returned. A Democratic staffer who declined to be
identified told The Week Online that although there was no
indication as to whether or not the bill would be re-
introduced in this session, "It really wouldn't surprise me.
Politicians introduce all kinds of crazy legislation, and,
if they're willing to work at it, they can get a lot of it
passed."
***
3. DEA Chief Constantine Rips US Drug War Efforts, Bemoans
Mexican Situation
With decisions on the certification of 30 drug producing
nations upcoming, rumors of Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey's
imminent departure, the arrival in town of New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani to testify before the house subcommittee on
criminal justice, candid statements by Minnesota Governor
Jesse Ventura, who was attending the annual Governors'
Conference, and efforts by the Republican party to gain
political traction in the wake of impeachment, Washington
has been abuzz this week with talk of the drug war.
The voice that cut through the chatter, however, belonged to
DEA Director Thomas Constantine, who, in separate
appearances, claimed that the United States lacks the
"political will" to win the drug war, and that Mexican drug
cartels had become so sophisticated and well armed as to be
the single greatest threat to American security.
"I know one drug mafia in Mexico alone that makes $2 billion
every single year selling cocaine and methamphetamine in the
United States" Constantine told USA Today, "and it has
better technical equipment and countersurveillance equipment
and armored cars than we do."
It is not uncommon, in Washington, to hear the heads of
federal agencies decry the status quo in which the claimed
inadequacy of their budget -- in the DEA's case $1.4 billion
per year with a force of approximately 8,000 -- is implied
as the reason for an apparent lack of success in fulfilling
its mission. It must have been jarring to the
administration, however, when on Wednesday, Constantine
testified before the Senate Caucus on International
Narcotics Control to lay the wood to the drug trafficking
situation in Mexico, a nation that the administration
clearly would like to certify despite strong congressional
opposition.
Speaking of Mexican drug traffickers, Constantine told the
caucus, "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."
Constantine said that the corruption in Mexico is "unlike
anything I've ever seen."
If Constantine's words grated on the Clinton Administration,
they were no more pleasing to the ears of Mexican officials.
Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida told reporters
that Constantine's remarks "reflect a vision in which the
good are on one side and the bad on the other. I deeply
lament what he said."
Certification recommendations by the President are due in
Congress on March 1.
***
4. Jesse "The Governor" Ventura on the Drug War
Jesse Ventura, in Washington this week for the annual
governor's meeting, came off the top rope and planted a
forearm shiver right in the chops of the political
establishment. While Ventura's candidacy was largely
ignored, and his election treated as a joke by the
Washington establishment, Ventura declared his victory "a
wake-up call" to the two major parties.
After the Governors' meeting, Ventura spoke at the National
Press Club and appeared on Meet The Press and CNN. On CNN,
Ventura was asked by host Wolf Blitzer what he meant by the
statement that, "If someone takes LSD in the privacy of his
or her own home, that should be no one's business." Ventura
responded by saying that "to me, in the privacy of your own
home, that has nothing to do with the government. If you're
stupid, and you want to make stupid decisions, and those
stupid decisions don't endanger anyone else, then it's none
of the government's business. And I don't think the
founders of our country had anything like that in mind, that
government would intervene in the privacy of your own home."
"He had a great time in DC, he really did" a spokesperson
for the governor told The Week Online. As to efforts that
his administration might undertake to foster a greater
understanding of Ventura's drug policy views among
Minnesotans and beyond, those plans are on hold. "As soon
as we got in, there was the state budget process, which
really took a lot of everyone's time and energy, and now the
legislature is in session, and so we haven't really had the
time to think all that long-term" his aid said. "It's been
a very busy couple of months for everyone."
***
5. Sen. McCain Seeks Radical Cutbacks in Methadone
Maintenance
- Scott Ehlers, Drug Policy Foundation, ehlers@dpf.org
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced S. 423, the "Addiction
Free Treatment Act," on February 11, which would
significantly reduce the number of methadone patients and
the amount of time patients would be allowed to be
maintained on methadone. According to Sen. McCain,
methadone maintenance is "Orwellian," and "disgusting and
immoral," and must be stopped to restore the humanity of the
enslaved addict.
The bill would require: (1) Medicaid payments for methadone
and Levo-Alpha Acetyl-Methadol (LAAM) treatment to be
terminated after a maximum of six months; (2) clinics to
conduct random and frequent comprehensive drug testing; and
(3) the termination of a patient's treatment if he/she
tested positive for illicit drugs. Federal funds
administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration would also be subject to the same
restrictions.
In addition to these new federal restrictions, S. 423 would
require the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct a
study within three years to determine: (1) the methods and
effectiveness of non-pharmacological, as well as methadone-
to-abstinence rehabilitation programs. The Center for
Substance Abuse Treatment would be required to submit annual
reports for five years on the effectiveness of non-
pharmacological and methadone-to-abstinence treatment.
Sen. McCain's bill is very similar to a plan promoted last
year by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, which would
have required methadone patients at city hospitals to be
abstinent within 90 days. At the end of five months, only
21 of the 2100 patients were methadone-free, and five of
those had relapsed into heroin use. In January of this year
the mayor abandoned his plan, saying it was "maybe somewhat
unrealistic."
Doctors, patients, and patient advocates have derided the
McCain bill, and are surprised that he would introduce it
after Giuliani's proposal failed so miserably. Dr. Marc
Shinderman, medical director of the Center for Addictive
Problems in Chicago, mused: "It appears that Giuliani's
perfected technique of identifying a stigmatized group and
attacking it has become contagious to Republicans outside of
New York. McCain is either painfully ignorant of the facts
regarding the value of methadone maintenance treatment or is
politically motivated to attack it in spite of the
overwhelming evidence of its efficacy."
He added, "The Institute of Medicine's 1998 Consensus Report
on Heroin Addiction called methadone maintenance the 'gold
standard' in the treatment of heroin dependence. The
abstinence-based treatment advocated by McCain was found to
result in relapse rates of 90 percent."
Patient advocates are equally upset by the bill. Beth
Francisco of the Advocates for Recovery Through Medicine,
found the bill to be "horrible," and believed it would
result in less people entering methadone treatment, more
people relapsing into heroin use, and more diversion of
methadone into the black market for persons kicked out of
programs. Joycelyn Woods of the National Alliance of
Methadone Advocates noted that "the wording of McCain's bill
is demeaning and he is obviously operating from a position
of bias and misunderstanding. I'm surprised that a senator
would be this ignorant about this issue."
S. 423 had no co-sponsors at press time and was referred to
the Senate Finance Committee.
***
6. California Officials Comment on Medical Marijuana
An op-ed by California state senator John Vasconcellos (D-
San Jose) in the Los Angeles Times this Thursday (2/25/99)
blasted the federal government's opposition to voter-
approved medical marijuana initiatives in several states,
including California's Prop. 215. Vasconcellos asked, "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?"
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Vasconcellos is
reintroducing a bill to establish a medical marijuana
research program at the University of California, and is co-
chairing, with Santa Clara County District Attorney George
Kennedy, a 20-person task force formulating recommendations
to Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Prop. 215
implementation. Both Vasconcellos and Lockyer, formerly
Senate President, have energetically advocated availability
of medical marijuana to patients.
The Mercury also reported that Lockyer told reporters,
following his first State of the Public Safety address, "It
always amazes me that doctors can prescribe morphine but not
marijuana," and stated that Lockyer and attorneys general
from other west coast states with medical marijuana laws are
planning to meet with federal officials to discuss the
reclassification of marijuana as a prescription medicine.
A spokesperson for Lockyer, however, told the Week Online
that reporters had mistook Lockyer's trip to Washington as
being connected with the medical marijuana issue, and that
while Lockyer is visiting Washington late next month, for
the meeting of the National Association of Attorneys
General, there are "no plans, no meetings, no agenda" in the
works for meetings on the medical marijuana issue. When
asked if Lockyer had plans underway for how to advance the
medical marijuana issue after the task force's report is
released, the spokesperson answered that there is not. He
also said that there has been informal communication between
Attorneys General offices in states with voter-approved
medical marijuana laws, but no formal committees like
California's task force.
***
7. South Carolina Mulls Making Sale of Urine a Felony
Offense
(reprinted from the NORML Weekly News, http://www.norml.org)
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.
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.
***
8. American Farm Bureau Reverses Position on Hemp at
Convention
- Marc Brandl, brandl@drcnet.org
Delegates at this year's American Farm Bureau Federation
(AFBF) convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico withdrew
language approved last year opposing research and domestic
cultivation of industrial hemp. The issue of industrial
hemp has been a contentious one for the Farm Bureau over the
past three years. In 1996, delegates endorsed a resolution
to, "encourage research into the viability and economic
potential of industrial hemp production in the United
States... includ[ing] planting test plots." This language
was replaced in 1998 by a vote of 198 to 168 after Missouri
Farm Bureau president Charles Kruse brought up concerns from
law enforcement that hemp and marijuana were
indistinguishable.
The American Farm Bureau now takes no position in regards
industrial hemp. According to a legislative aid with the
AFBF in Washington, DC, "The Bureau will not take a position
either way on any federal legislation involving hemp, but
this in no way precludes state chapters from lobbying
elected officials either for or against [hemp]."
***
9. Canada: Terminally Ill Man Will Continue to Smoke
Marijuana Despite Conviction
A Nova Scotia man with an inoperable brain tumor was
convicted of marijuana cultivation this week, but he has
vowed to continue smoking because, he said, "its the only
thing that controls the headaches." Mark Crossley, a 38-
year-old married father of three, suffers from seizures,
headaches, and mood-swings, and has been unable to work for
two years, his lawyer, Brian English, told the Halifax
Herald this week. Crossley was sentenced to four months
house arrest and three years probation, as well as 120 hours
of community service. As he left the courtroom after his
sentencing, Crossley reportedly turned back toward the judge
and prosecutor and shouted, "You can't make decisions about
my health. I'm the one that's sick, not you."
***
10. Author of "Drug Crazy" Lecturing in Dallas, March 2nd
Mike Gray, author of the book Drug Crazy: How We Got Into
This Mess and How We Can Get Out, will speak as part of the
Science and Health Policy Lecture Series of the Department
of Pharmacology and Program in Ethics in Science and
Medicine of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center. The presentation is on Monday, March 2nd, noon, in
Lecture Hall D1.502, South Campus. UTSW is on Harry Hines
Boulevard next to Parkland Hospital. For further
information, call (214) 648-2622, fax (214) 648-8694, or
send e-mail to ethics@email.swmed.edu. Be sure to verify
the event with the department before taking a trip out.
***
11. EDITORIAL: Mr. Ventura Comes To Washington
Adam J. Smith, DRCNet Associate Director, ajsmith@drcnet.org
Fifty governors came to Washington last week to meet and to
greet, to discuss common issues and to powwow with the
president. The annual meeting of the Governor's Association
is also an opportunity for those with their eye on national
office to get cozy with the national press, and to have
their names and their words and, if their lucky, their
pictures run in national publications.
But despite the presence of both Bush boys, as well as
Governor Whitman of New Jersey and Governor Pataki of New
York, the man who stole the show, as well as the national
media spotlight, was a man whose candidacy was once
considered a joke, and whose election has been treated as
something of an anomaly: Governor Jesse Ventura of
Minnesota. Ventura displayed a sharp, if somewhat self-
effacing wit, a disdain for the ways of the inside-the-
beltway set, a manner that oozed honesty and a willingness
to state his beliefs without regard for poll numbers or
political correctness. After meeting with the governors,
Ventura made the rounds, including a speech at the National
Press Club and an appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. By
the time Jesse "The Governor" Ventura got back on a plane to
return to the Gopher State, even the Washington insiders had
to know that The Governor is no joke.
Jesse Ventura beat overwhelming odds to win the election,
and he did it without ducking controversial issues. Even
so, the one issue that stands out is Ventura's stance on the
drug war.
"If someone wants to use marijuana or LSD in the privacy of
their own home, it ought to be none of the government's
business." Simple as that. The drug war has failed, says
Ventura, and besides, people have to be responsible for
making their own decisions in life, even if those decisions
turn out to be idiotic.
Ventura is not "in favor" of drugs, or "pro-drug" as the
drug war establishment insists on labeling reformers. "I
don't condone the use or abuse of drugs" he told Blitzer,
"but I also understand privacy." Which, as has been borne
out by recent (and not so recent) events, differentiates him
from many in the nation's capitol.
The American people are starting to come to terms with this
issue. Over the past two election cycles, drug policy
reform ballot questions have been approved time and time
again. And yet, in Washington the overwhelming response has
been to try to figure out ways to thwart the will of the
voters, and to introduce harsher and harsher measures in a
vain attempt to find the level of violence and terror
necessary to make prohibition work.
It is a truism in Washington that you can never go wrong by
getting "tough," and that the American people will always
support an escalation of the drug war "to protect the
children." But Jesse Ventura, ex-professional wrestler, ex-
Navy SEAL, the big guy with the 22-inch arms at the
Governor's conference who was not supposed to be smart
enough, or savvy enough, is taking on the truism. He is
speaking the truth, and he has gotten himself elected by
counting on the voters to understand and respond.
Jesse Ventura blew into Washington last week and stole the
national stage with straight talk instead of political
platitudes and an unflinching confidence that the American
people could tell the difference. His performance, or
rather his refusal to put on a performance, captured the
imagination of the jaded Washington Press corps, so used to
the meaningless blather and stock cliches of politicians.
Ventura is the only Governor in the land with the courage to
state the obvious, that the problem of substance abuse in
America will be solved neither by the nanny state, nor by
the police state. By speaking the truth, he has shown
himself to be neither joke nor politician but rather a man
who is trying to lead. The political establishment had
better take notice of Ventura and his message on the drug
war. The public already has.
***
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DrugSense Weekly, No. 87 (The original summary of drug policy news from
DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Black leaders and public
health advocates criticize misinformation by drug czar. The Weekly News in
Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - DEA
chief: drug fight lacks desire; Customs admits its own drug corruption;
Border patrol adds high-tech tools to its arsenal; Editorial: ACLU is off
base on city drug tests; Bad hair days; Testing the drug test labs; and,
Drunken drivers' cars to be seized at arrests. Articles about Mexican Drug
Policy include - Mexico greets Clinton like an old friend; Mexico's
troubadours turn from amor to drugs; and, Minuet in Mexico. Articles about
Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Authorities release account of shooting,
say marijuana found in house; Shaking this habit will be tough; Texas inmates
tell US judge of abuses; and, The Nazi comparison. Articles about Medical
Marijuana include - The politics of pot: a government in denial; AIDS groups
plead for 'medical marijuana'; and, Kubbys reassure Libertarians.
International News articles include - MP's marijuana motion gathering steam;
Addicts fuel 7 bil. Industry; And, Freeh advice on drugs: inject money and
political will. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net provides a Happy99.exe Virus
Explanation and Fix; and notes the Kubby Web Site has been updated. The Tip
of the Week points to some Windows "Tune Up" Hints. The Quote of the Week
cites Thomas Carlyle.)
From: webmaster@drugsense.org (Matt Elrod)
To: newsletter@drugsense.org
Subject: DrugSense Weekly, February 26, 1999 #087
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 08:11:12 -0800
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/
Lines: 965
Sender: owner-newsletter@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/
***
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***
DrugSense Weekly, February 26, 1999 #087
A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org
This Publication May Be Read On-line at:
http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/1999/ds99.n87.html
TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, DONATE OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS PLEASE
SEE THE INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER
Please consider writing a letter to the editor using the email
addresses on any of the articles below. Send a copy of your LTE to
MGreer@mapinc.org
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* Feature Article
Black Leaders and Public Health Advocates Criticize Misinformation by
Drug Czar
* Weekly News in Review
Drug War Policy-
(1) DEA Chief: Drug Fight Lacks Desire
(2) Customs Admits its Own Drug Corruption
(3) Border Patrol Adds High-Tech Tools to its Arsenal
(4) Editorial: ACLU Is Off Base on City Drug Tests
(5) Bad Hair Days
(6) Testing the Drug Test Labs
(7) Drunken Drivers' Cars to Be Seized at Arrests
Drug Policy, Mexican Division-
(8) Mexico Greets Clinton Like an Old Friend
(9) Mexico's Troubadours Turn From Amor to Drugs
(10) Minuet in Mexico
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
(11) Authorities Release Account Of Shooting, Say Marijuana Found in
House
(12) Shaking This Habit Will be Tough
(13) Texas Inmates Tell US Judge of Abuses
(14) The Nazi Comparison
Medical Marijuana-
(15) The Politics of Pot A Government in Denial
(16) AIDS Groups Plead for 'Medical Marijuana'
(17) Kubbys Reassure Libertarians
International News-
(18) MP's Marijuana Motion Gathering Steam
(19) Addicts Fuel 7 Bil. Industry
(20) Freeh Advice on Drugs: Inject Money and Political Will
* Hot Off The 'Net
Happy99.exe Virus Explanation and Fix
Kubby Web Site updated
* Tip of the Week
Windows "Tune Up" Hints
* Quote of the Week
Thomas Carlyle
***
FEATURE ARTICLE
Black Leaders and Public Health Advocates Criticize Misinformation by
Drug Czar
Washington D.C. Leading black intellectuals and public health advocates
have joined drug policy reform advocates to criticize Drug Czar Barry
McCaffrey for "a series of inaccurate and misleading statements" he has
made over the last year. The individuals are sending a letter listing
the General's misstatements on February 25, 1999, the same day
McCaffrey will testify before the House Committee on Government
Oversight.
The letter signers include Harvard professors Dr. Henry Louis Gates
Jr., Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Dr. Orlando Patterson, and Dr. William Julius
Wilson, as well as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the National
Black Police Association, the National Women's Health Network, and San
Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense for Drug Policy, who circulated
the letter, said, "I find it deeply disturbing that the Drug Czar is
making these misstatements while spending hundreds of millions of
taxpayer dollars urging parents to tell the truth about drugs. General
McCaffrey should set a better example."
This is not the first time McCaffrey has been criticized for supporting
a criminal justice rather than a public health approach to the drug
problem. After McCaffrey successfully lobbied President Clinton to
block federal funding for needle exchange, several members of the
Congressional Black Caucus called for the Drug Czar's resignation. And
Common Sense for Drug Policy, an advocacy organization based in Falls
Church, Virginia, has been running ads for the last six months in The
New Republic criticizing the Drug Czar for making false statements (see
http://www.drugsense.org/ads)
A recent inconsistency with McCaffrey are his statements and his
policies. McCaffrey said on NPR's Talk of the Nation, "I don't think
we're going to arrest our way out of this. We've got 1.7 million people
behind bars right now" (Feb. 25, 1998). Yet the Drug Czar's funding
request for 2000 increases the law enforcement budget by 4.7 percent
($524 million increase for a total of $11.7 billion) while increasing
the prevention and treatment budget by 3.6 percent ($210 million for a
total of $6 billion).
***
February 25, 1999
General Barry McCaffrey Office of National Drug Control Policy
Washington, D.C.
Dear General McCaffrey,
As academics, journalists, public health experts, and community
leaders, we are deeply troubled by a series of inaccurate and
misleading statements you have made as Drug Czar.
In particular, we are concerned by statements you have made on the
following:
* Needle Exchange Programs
In March 1998, you described needle exchange programs as "magnets for
all social ills," including violence, drug dealers and prostitution.
Yet in study after study, scientific researchers have found that needle
exchanges reduce the transmission of HIV without increasing drug use.
Also, in April, you claimed that two Canadian needle exchange studies
showed that needle exchanges were ineffective in reducing the spread of
HIV and may have worsened the problem. Missing from your analysis was
the fact that Canada, unlike the United States, allows needles to be
purchased without a prescription and as a result the Canadian study did
not include more affluent and healthier addicts who were less likely to
engage in the riskiest activities.
Your statements so disturbed the Canadian scientists that they felt
compelled to publish an oped in the New York Times to repudiate the
misuse of their findings.
* Medical Marijuana
On August 15, 1996, you said, "There is not a shred of scientific
evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful or needed. This is
not medicine. This is a cruel hoax."
Yet exhaustive research, including numerous studies by the National
Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, and
other authoritative institutions, have concluded that marijuana
possesses therapeutic value and effectively treats chemotherapy related
nausea and appetite loss.
Even after the New England Journal of Medicine, which represents the
mainstream medical community, editorialized in support of medical
marijuana, you have made no statements recognizing the scientific
research backing the medicinal value of marijuana.
* International Models of Drug Control
On July 24, 1998 the Chicago Tribune quoted you as saying: "The murder
rate in Holland is double that in the United States...That's drugs."
In fact, the Dutch homicide rate is only one fourth that of the United
States. The Dutch rate has never approached, much less exceeded, that
of the United States.
When you claimed that the Dutch murder rate was higher, you blamed
Holland's drug policies. Yet when confronted with the facts, you did
not suggest that U.S. drug policies are the cause of our higher
homicide rate.
The media and the public rely on your office to avoid unfounded
speculation, to recognize and disseminate scientific consensus when it
exists, and to provide, when available, material facts that could help
us deal realistically and effectively with our very real problems of
addiction. Therefore we urge you and other national leaders to provide
the news media and the public with the most accurate scientific
findings available. We realize that speaking forthrightly requires
leadership and courage in the current ideological atmosphere but, given
your distinguished record in the military, the public has reason to
expect nothing less.
Respectfully,
* Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Chair of Afro-American Studies, Harvard
University
* Willie L. Brown Jr., Mayor of San Francisco
* Dr. Alvin Poussaint, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Harvard
* Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Professor, Arkansas Children's Hospital, former
Surgeon General
* Orlando Patterson, Professor, Harvard University
* William Julius Wilson, Professor, Harvard University
* Dr. David Duncan, Clinical Associate Professor, Brown University
Medical School and Chair, Council on Illicit Drugs, National
Association for Public Health Policy
* Ira Glasser, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
* Rebecca Isaacs, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
* Dr. Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Lindesmith Center
* Kevin Zeese, Executive Director, Common Sense for Drug Policy
* Kathleen Stoll, Center for Women's Policy Studies
* Dr. Patricia D. Hawkins, Associate Executive Director, WhitmanWalker
Clinic
* Glenn C. Loury, Director, The Institute on Race and Social Division
* R. Keith Stroup, Executive Director, National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
* Ronald E. Hampton, Executive Director, National Black Police
Association
* Eva Patterson, Executive Director, Layers Committee for Civil Rights
* Daniel Maccallair, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
* Pat Christen, Executive Director, SF AIDS Foundation
* Regina Aragón, Public Policy Director, SF AIDS Foundation
* Cynthia Pearson, Executive Director, National Women's Health Network
* Dr. Helen RodriguezTrias, CoDirector, Pacific Institute for Women's
Health
* Trish Moylan Torruella, Executive Director, Mothers' Voices : United
to End AIDS
* Craig E. Thompson, Executive Director, AIDS Project Los Angeles
* Duane Poe, Executive Director, Black Coalition on AIDS, Inc.
* Rob Kampia, Executive Director, Marijuana Policy Project
* Martin Waukazoo, Executive Director, Native American Health Center
* Ron Rowell, MPH, Executive Director, National Native American AIDS
Prevention Center
* Loras Ojeda, Community Relations Director, Mobilization Against AIDS
* Dennis deLeon, Executive Director, Latino Commission on AIDS
* Lupe Lopez, Executive Director, People of Color Against AIDS Network
* Margaret Batchelor White, President, Black Women's Agenda, Inc.
* Dr. James T. Black, President, 100 Black Men of Los Angeles
* Luz Alvarez Martinez, Executive Director, National Latina Health
Organization
* Alvan Quamina, Executive Director, African American AIDS Support
Services and Survival Institute
***
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
***
Domestic News-Policy
***
COMMENT: (1-7)
Three federal agencies engaged in the drug war made the news last
week: DEA chief Constantine was despondent because Mexican cartels
have bigger budgets than his agency, the Customs Service was contrite
after being scolded for past corruption, and the Border Patrol was
pleased to receive some new high-tech gadgets. The likelihood of any
of the three interfering with our criminal drug market in any material
way remains at or near zero.
The Seattle Times has been so reasonable recently, we've come to
expect it; thus their endorsement of routine pre-employment drug
testing for certain jobs was a bit of a surprise. That such testing is
unreliable was confirmed by data from CBS.
Finally, New York's Mayor Giuliani seems convinced that the best way
to run for president is to embrace fascism under the guise of civic
improvement. I certainly hope he's proven wrong.
(1) DEA CHIEF: DRUG FIGHT LACKS DESIRE
WASHINGTON -- The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration says the
nation has neither the will nor the resources to win the drug war.
DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine, in an interview Thursday, said
that curbing drug use is not a high enough priority with the American
people. He also said the nation has not made the financial commitment
to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the USA.
[snip]
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Feb 1999
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Contact: editor@usatoday.com
FAX: (703) 247-3108
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Author: Gary Fields
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n187.a08.html
***
(2) U.S. CUSTOMS ADMITS ITS OWN DRUG CORRUPTION
WASHINGTON -- The front-line role of the Customs Service in the
government's war against illegal drugs has left the agency highly
vulnerable to narcotics-related corruption, Customs officials
acknowledged Tuesday in a report to Congress.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 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: Lawrie Mifflin
CBS Morning News website: http://www.cbs.com/prd1/now/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n176.a03.html
***
(3) BORDER PATROL ADDS HIGH-TECH TOOLS TO ITS ARSENAL
Surveillance Scopes, Sensors Join Force's War on Smuggling
BROWNSVILLE, Tex.--Sitting in front of a small screen in a cramped
metal box 20 feet above the ground, senior Border Patrol agent Rey
Abrego watches a human form moving through riverbank brush on the
Mexican side of the Rio Grande. It is pitch dark outside, but the form
shows up as white light against the green glow of the monitor, which is
connected to a Loris infrared night-vision scope overlooking the river.
[snip]
The high-tech equipment serves as "force multipliers," increasing
agents' productivity, according to a Border Patrol report. "The use of
technological resources such as low-light TV, infrared night scopes,
sensors and encrypted radios has moved the Border Patrol into the 21st
century of law enforcement."
[snip]
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Feb 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: William Branigin, Washington Post Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n187.a09.html
***
(4) ACLU IS OFF BASE ON CITY DRUG TESTS
Although we often share the moral high ground with the American
Civil Liberties Union, we part company on the subject of mandatory drug
testing for job applicants in the public sector. We're for it, the ACLU
is against it.
[snip]
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Feb 1999
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Contact: editpage@seattle-pi.com
Website: http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Author: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n189.a01.html
***
BAD HAIR DAYS
A report on "The CBS Morning News" this week finds a disturbing
increase in the use of hair tests to screen job candidates for past
drug use -- disturbing because many experts say the tests are
unreliable and possibly racially biased.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 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: David Johnston
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n187.a07.html
***
(6) TESTING THE DRUG TEST LABS
All three labs detected the drug in the African-American user, two
failed to find it in the white user.
CBS NEW YORK Wednesday, February 17,1999 - 10:13 AM ET
(CBS) This week, a series of special reports by CBS This Morning
Correspondent Roberta Baskin raised important questions about the
reliability of using hair tests to detect drug use. Her three-month
investigation concludes with her own exclusive survey, and results that
should be of real concern for anyone who's subjected to hair testing.
[snip]
Pubdate: 17 Feb 1999
Source: CBS News
Contact: http://www.cbs.com/navbar/feedback.html
Website: http://www.cbs.com/
Author: Roberta Baskin
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n179.a08.html
***
(7) DRUNKEN DRIVERS' CARS TO BE SEIZED AT ARRESTS
NEW YORK -- In what city officials described as the toughest municipal
policy against drunken driving in the nation, the New York City Police
Department will begin seizing cars from people arrested on charges of
drunken driving, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced Saturday.
The plan, which is to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday, will allow a
police officer to seize a suspect's car where it is stopped, regardless
of the driver's circumstances.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 22 Feb 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: PAUL ZIELBAUER New York Times
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n201.a07.html
***
Drug Policy, Mexican Division-
***
COMMENT: (8-10)
Intense coverage of Mexican certification continued through Clinton's
whirlwind Mexico trip and an amiable meeting with Zedillo in Herida.
Clinton made no bones about his intention to "certify" Mexico, despite
its abject failure to reduce participation in the illegal drug market,
which continues to expand its influence in both nations.
In this context, Matthew Kelly's Washington Post editorial is a
fatuous exercise which takes the easy shot at Clinton for hypocrisy,
but doesn't suggest a useful alternative. Does he advocate sanctions
which would cruelly punish the Mexican people without affecting the
drug market, or would he destroy that market by repealing prohibition?
Exactly- whatever, yourself, Mr. Kelly.
(8) MEXICO GREETS CLINTON LIKE AN OLD FRIEND
MERIDA, Mexico - With a new lease on his political life, President
Clinton basked in a warm reception Sunday in the tropical capital of
the Yucatan, where even raucous pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations were
quieted in honor of his arrival.
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Feb 1999
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 1999 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact: forum@nando.com
Website: http://www.news-observer.com/
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n175.a02.html
***
(9) MEXICO'S TROUBADOURS TURN FROM AMOR TO DRUGS
SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico -- As Mario Quintero steps to the microphone,
strums his guitar and begins singing about the pleasures of snorting
cocaine after a few drinks, scores of teen-age girls crowd the outdoor
stage screaming, "I love you, Mario!"
Quintero and his wildly popular band, the Tucanes de Tijuana, or
Toucans of Tijuana, follow with a song about a smuggler's love for his
rooster, parrot and goat, underworld symbols for marijuana, cocaine
and heroin.
[snip]
The Tucanes are one of the most successful of hundreds of Mexican
country bands whose lyrics chronicle traffickers' daily lives and
violent routines. The extraordinary popularity of their music here and
in the United States underscores the profound roots the drug industry
has sunk into North American popular culture, suggesting that millions
of fans quietly admire the smugglers' fabled wealth,
anti-establishment bravura and bold entrepreneurial skills.
[snip]
Pubdate: Fri, 19 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: Sam Dillon
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n187.a10.html
***
(10) MINUET IN MEXICO
It is fortuitous that President Clinton's first major foreign policy
decision after his acquittal in the Senate will be to affirm, once
more, that Mexico is "fully cooperating" with the United States in
combating narcotics trafficking. This gives the president an
opportunity to remind his acquitters that, in his case, dishonesty does
not stop at the boudoir's edge.
[snip]
But all of this is perhaps superfluous detail. All you really need to
know about Clinton, Mexico and certification is this truth, uttered by
a wisely anonymous administration official to the Times: "This is not
about what Mexico has done. This is about convincing the Hill that
whatever Mexico has done is enough." Exactly. Whatever.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Michael Kelly.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n176.a02.html
***
Law Enforcement & Prisons
***
COMMENT: (11-14)
A news item from Kansas reminds us that people are still being shot in
their homes by police who claim to be "protecting" them against the
evil influence of drugs.
Articles from Wisconsin and Texas tell how our gulag relentlessly
continues to grow larger each year, fueled by "tough on drugs"
rhetoric. November Coalition's Dr. John Beresford, eloquently made an
increasingly apt comparison to Thirties Germany; it should be read in
its entirety.
***
(11) AUTHORITIES RELEASE ACCOUNT OF SHOOTING, SAY MARIJUANA FOUND IN HOUSE
OSAWATOMIE -- A police raid that left an Osawatomie man dead turned up
what appeared to be a small amount of marijuana, investigators said.
Willie Heard, 46, was killed early Saturday -- the day before his
birthday -- when he picked up a .22-caliber rifle and confronted
officers who burst into his house.
Relatives said Tuesday that the search warrant authorized officers to
look for crack cocaine, crack pipes, scales and other paraphernalia.
Officers searched the house with a dog and found two or three remnants
of marijuana cigarettes, said Gary Heard, Willie Heard's brother.
"That was already smoked marijuana," Gary Heard said. "There were
small little cigarettes."
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
Copyright: 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal
Contact: letters@cjnetworks.com
Website: http://cjonline.com/
Author: The Associated Press
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n181.a04.html
***
(12) SHAKING THIS HABIT WILL BE TOUGH
No more prisons, declares Gov. Tommy Thompson. And it is an admirable
vow. But to shake its addiction to prison construction, the state needs
the full, 12-step program, not just a vow.
Above all, the state needs courage and foresight on the part of
politicians - -- qualities in too short a supply to date when it has
come to prisons.
With the nation's fastest-growing inmate rolls, Wisconsin is hooked bad
on prison building.
[snip]
Pubdate: 22 Feb 1999
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Copyright: 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: 414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi
Fax: (414) 224-8280
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n197.a03.html
***
(13) TEXAS INMATES TELL U.S. JUDGE OF ABUSES
AUSTIN, Texas -- For three weeks, doctors, corrections officials and
inmates have been describing to a federal judge the conditions in
Texas' vast network of prisons, and much of the testimony from the
prisoners has been a grim litany of abuses and humiliations.
[snip]
Pubdate: Sat, 13 Feb 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: Rick Lyman, New York Times
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n174.a03.html
***
(14) THE NAZI COMPARISON
Drug War prisoners that I correspond with call themselves POWs. Some
write "POW in America" in the corner of an envelope under the writer's
name and prison number. "Political prisoner" and "gulag" are terms that
enter conversation. Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle and The Gulag
Archipelago are works sometimes referred to.
America's vast network of prisons, boot camps, and jails invites
comparison with the detention machinery of former totalitarian regimes.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
Source: Rock River Times (IL)
Address: 128 N. Church St., Rockford, Illinois 61101
FAX: (815) 964-9825
Copyright: The Rock River Times 1999
Author: Dr. John Beresford
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n190.a02.html
***
Medical Marijuana
***
COMMENT: (15-17)
Eric Schlosser did it again; this time a brilliant expose of the
scope, duplicity, and dishonesty marijuana prohibition in Rolling
Stone. AIDS groups used an interesting ploy against McCzar; response
to date; dead silence.
Libertarian support for Steve Kubby's case has been important in
keeping it in the news. Since the prosecution has shown no inclination
to back down, it may prove very interesting.
(15) THE POLITICS OF POT - A GOVERNMENT IN DENIAL
There is more and more proof that marijuana is NOT A KILLER WEED, and
yet in Bill Clinton's America, the number of pot arrests has more than
doubled
IN THE CLOSING DAYS OF 1998, a number of events exposed the profound
irrationality of America's war on marijuana.
[snip]
Source: Rolling Stone
Copyright: 1999 Rolling Stone
Pubdate: 4 Mar 1999
Issue: 807 Page: 47
Email: letters@rollingstone.com
Fax: (212) 767-8214
Mail: 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104-0298
Forum: http://yourturn.rollingstone.com/webx?98@@webx1.html
Website: http://www.rollingstone.com/
Author: Eric Schlosser
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n180.a05.html
***
(16) AIDS GROUPS PLEAD FOR 'MEDICAL MARIJUANA'
AIDS activists are concerned that a study due out next month may set
back for years their hopes that marijuana will be approved for AIDS
patients, and they are urging the White House drug czar to intercede.
A coalition of 17 organizations across the country fears that the
report will stop short of recommending medical marijuana as suitable
for AIDS patients, and instead call for more research.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
Source: USA Today
Copyright: 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Page: A2
Contact: editor@usatoday.com
Address: 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA 22229
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Author: Patrick McMahon
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n182.a07.html
***
(17) KUBBYS REASSURE LIBERTARIANS
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Steve and Michelle Kubby reassured
Libertarians Sunday night that they grew marijuana solely for their
own use and had no intent to sell it.
[snip]
"There was no way economically we could stop growing his medicine,"
Mrs. Kubby told the crowd at the Libertarian Party's state convention,
which ended Monday in San Jose.
The worst part of their ordeal , she said, was time in the Auburn jail
where she could hear her husband vomiting but was not allowed to see
him.
"This medicine (marijuana) is what keeps him alive," she said. Without
it, "they almost killed him."
[snip]
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Feb 1999
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 1999 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: opinion@sacbee.com
Feedback: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Forum: http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.html
Note: Headline by editor
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n174.a04.html
***
International News
***
COMMENT: (18-20)
In Canada, medical marijuana received a powerful push from an MP;
something that couldn't happen in Congress.
Australia, reeling from record numbers of heroin related deaths also
received the economic bill for prohibition; against this backdrop "tough
on drugs" PM John Howard ran true to form and sought advice from the FBI-
does this mean he thinks America's drug control policy is successful?
***
(18) MP'S MARIJUANA MOTION GATHERING STEAM
Last spring, Bloc Quebecois MP Bernard Bigras spoke to a constituent
suffering from AIDS who risked being jailed for six months every time he
smoked marijuana to alleviate his daily nausea, vomiting and pain.
Mr. Bigras is now sponsoring a motion in the House of Commons asking the
government to study the benefits of marijuana in treating the symptoms of
some illnesses. Mr. Bigras is suggesting that Health Canada conduct a
three-year research program involving 400 to 600 patients before
considering legalizing the substance.
Mr. Bigras's motion will force the government to come up with a
position on this issue before it comes to a vote in May.
[snip]
Pubdate: Thu, 11 Feb 1999
Source: Globe and Mail
Copyright: 1999 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Author: Daniel Leblanc, Parliamentary Bureau, Ottawa
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n184.a07.html
***
(19) ADDICTS FUEL 7 BIL. INDUSTRY
AUSTRALIA'S illegal drug trade rivals the country's biggest industries.
The $7 billion illegal drug trade is equal in size to the oil industry
and bigger than the tobacco industry.
It also represents more money than Australians spend on gas,
electricity and fuel each year.
Economic analysts said the drug trade could be worth up to $9.6 billion.
[snip]
Pubdate: Fri, 19 Feb 1999
Source: Herald Sun
Copyright: News Limited 1999
Contact: hseditor@hwt.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
Author: Glenn Mitchell, John Ferguson and Fran Cusworth
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n185.a02.html
***
(20) FREEH ADVICE ON DRUGS: INJECT MONEY AND POLITICAL WILL
John Howard may not like everything the director of the FBI, Louis
Freeh, has to tell him about how to win the war on drugs.
In Mr Freeh's thinking, that fight requires two key ingredients - an
abundance of funding and an equally generous amount of political will.
[snip]
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Feb 1999
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Contact: letters@smh.fairfax.com.au
Website: http://www.smh.com.au/
Author: Mark Riley, Herald Correspondent in New York
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n201.a10.html
***
HOT OFF THE 'NET
***
Happy99.exe virus
Thanks to Peter Webster for the info below.
SO WHAT DOES THIS WORM DO?
The Happy99.exe virus may be coming to you as an attached file to your
Email DO NOT OPEN OR CLICK ON IT. Unlike many of the hoaxes that are
regularly announced around the web this one is real.
The Happy99.exe is more of a nuisance than a threat. It doesn't delete
any files on your computer. It doesn't open a "back door" into your
computer. Basically, every time you send an e-mail or post to a
newsgroup, you send a copy of the worm to the recipients of your
message. And if they run the program, they get infected and then their
messages will send out the worm, and so on.
For more information, visit the sites below:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2208275,00.html
http://beta.nai.com/public/datafiles/valerts/vinfo/w32ska.htm
http://www.anchordesk.com/a/adt0215nk/3093.html
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/3652/SKA.HTM
***
KUBBY WEB SITE UPDATED
The Steve Kubby for Governor Page, http://www.kubby.com/ has been
updated to include the nearly fifty articles that have appeared in
print about the Kubby's arrest.
***
TIP OF THE WEEK
***
Windows "Tune Up" Hints
Does it seem that your computer takes forever to boot up? Do your
programs open up very slowly? Maybe it's time we use those system tools
that are included with Microsoft Window's 95. Here is a list of some of
these "Computer Tuning Tools" and a brief description of what they do.
Click on the "Start" button, then go into "Programs", then on to
"Accessories", and finally "System Tools".
For more info See:
http://www.charlotte-florida.com/Help/Tuneup.htm
***
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
***
"I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance"
-- Thomas Carlyle
***
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[End]
to the 1999 Daily News index for Feb. 26-March 4