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

Petitioners gathering signatures for medical marijuana initiative (The Daily
Emerald, at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, over-emphasizes the
"medical" aspect of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, a comprehensive
marijuana-law reform initiative. The petition drive began April 19, after the
ballot title was approved by the secretary of state's office April 2. The
initiative needs 66,748 signatures to get on the November 2000 ballot.)

Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 12:17:25 -0700
To: restore@crrh.org
From: "D. Paul Stanford" (stanford@crrh.org)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
Subject: OR: Petitioners gathering signatures for marijuana initiative
Pubdate: Mon, May 3 1999
Source: Daily Emerald, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Daily Emerald
Web site: http://www.dailyemerald.com/
Author: G. Jaros
Note: Though the title says medical marijuana, the petition is a
comprehensive cannabis reform proposal, addressing the social, industrial
and medical aspects of cannabis laws.

***

Petitioners gathering signatures for medical marijuana initiative

The legislation would legalize sale of the drug to those in medical need

By G. Jaros Oregon Daily Emerald

A petition drive to legalize marijuana has begun to circulate.

The Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp is heading the
effort in hopes to qualify the initiative for the November 2000 elections.

This latest marijuana initiative needs 66,748 signatures to qualify for a
vote, said Paul Stanford, one of the three chief petitioners.

"But we want to turn in 90,000 to make certain we have enough to cover for
people who sign but aren't registered," he said.

The petition drive began April 19 after getting approval by the secretary
of state elections division on April 2.

Stanford said they hope to finish gathering signatures early so that they
can focus on an ad campaign. The vast majority of money for the campaign is
coming from five Oregon residents, the biggest donor being a software
engineer, Stanford said.

The initiative seeks to replace all current local and state marijuana laws
with the exception of DUII laws. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission would
be changed to the Oregon Cannabis & Liquor Control Commission and would be
in charge of regulation and taxation.

The commission would license marijuana cultivation by qualified persons and
purchase the entire crop. Marijuana would then be sold, at cost, to medical
research facilities and pharmacies who in turn would sell the marijuana,
untaxed, to those with medical need. The commission would also sell taxed
marijuana to people 21 and older through current state liquor stores.

Ninety percent of the taxes collected would go to the state general fund,
according the initiative. Drug Enforcement Agency statistics show illicit
marijuana sales generate a $2 billion a year industry nationwide.

One of the chief petitioners is Dr. Phillip Leveque, a retired professor of
pharmacology and toxicology, who became involved with the issue because of
the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. The act won voter approval on Nov., 3, 1998.

Voters in Washington, California, Arizona, Alaska and Colorado also passed
medical marijuana-use initiatives. But Leveque said that obstacles are
still in place that make it very difficult or illegal for people to
purchase marijuana. He believes this initiative would change that.

"Marijuana is good for AIDS wasting disease, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma
and chronic pain," Leveque said. "Mostly marijuana is a euphoriate, so it
makes people feel better. It has been used for medicine for 5,000 years."

The legalization effort, be it for medical use or industrial use, has been
opposed in the past by law enforcement agencies around the state.

Law enforcement agencies didn't want to make a statement about the new
initiative until they learned more about it. But Sgt. Rick Gilliam, campus
supervisor of the Eugene police, shared his concerns.

"Marijuana is a gateway drug to harder drugs like heroin," Gilliam said.
"So I think blanket use is not the answer to the drug problem. It will only
exacerbate it."

Backers of the initiative disagree.

They point to courts in Alaska, Hawaii and Michigan that sight presidential
commission findings and scientific studies on marijuana that say marijuana
is not a "stepping stone" or a "gateway drug."

Another opponent to the legalization of marijuana is House Speaker Lynn
Snodgrass.

"She is opposed and she's always been opposed," Snodgrass' spokesman Ron
Blankenbaker said. "She has a strong religious background and has an
aversion to drug use as such."

But petitioners don't see it as a moral issue so much as an issue of freedom.

"I truly believe that the future of freedom in America hinges on which way
the war on drugs continues," Stanford said. "We now have more people
incarcerated than any country in the world. To keep one person in prison
for a year for marijuana costs $40,000. On that amount of money you could
go to the University of Oregon or Harvard."

***

To subscribe, unsubscribe or switch to immediate or digest mode, please send
your instructions to restore-owner@crrh.org.

***

Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp
CRRH
P.O. Box 86741
Portland, OR 97286
Phone: (503) 235-4606
Fax:(503) 235-0120
Web: http://www.crrh.org/

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

Legislators Considering Measures To Block Local Authority (The Associated
Press says Oregonians could find it tougher to "think globally, act locally"
if the Legislature passes proposals limiting voters' and elected officials'
rights to govern their own communities with local initiatives such as
Corvallis' banning smoking in restaurants. Phil Fell, a lobbyist for the
League of Oregon Cities, says he's never seen so many bills meant to shift
power away from local governments.)

Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 20:23:40 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OR: WIRE: Legislators Considering Measures To Block Local
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Mon, May 03 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press

LEGISLATORS CONSIDERING MEASURES TO BLOCK LOCAL AUTHORITY

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregonians could find it tougher to "think
globally, act locally" if the Legislature passes proposals limiting
voters' and elected officials' rights to govern their own communities
in areas such as smoking, annexation and "right-to-know" laws.

Some lawmakers want to ban cities and counties from passing tough
smoking laws like that approved by Corvallis voters.

They want to stop other localities from passing a toxics
"right-to-know-law" similar to the one Eugene voters enacted and to
halt the spread of anti-growth charter amendments approved in
Philomath and other cities, which require voter approval of new
annexations.

And lobbyists representing manufacturers, tobacco companies,
restaurants and developers are cheering them on.

Phil Fell, a lobbyist for the League of Oregon Cities, says he's never
seen so many bills meant to shift power away from local governments.
He said that to lobbying groups, the Capitol is something of a
one-stop shopping center.

"It's a lot easier to send someone here than to 240 cities," Fell
said.

The tension is not new to politics. In fact, that's what the
Constitutional debates were largely about: How much power should the
U.S. Constitution grant to the federal government and how much should
remain with the states?

That theme runs through this session's debate on several bills. Should
Oregon have statewide policies, or let local voters and elected
officials make their own rules?

Dr. David Kliewer, an 82-year-old retired physician from Corvallis,
spearheaded the 1997 effort to restrict child access to cigarettes and
smoking in workplaces, including bars and taverns. Last fall, he
successfully defended that ordinance against a voter initiative aimed
at repealing the smoking ban in drinking establishments.

Kliewer says leaving such decisions at the community level "gives
people concrete evidence that they can do something about how their
community is governed."

Kliewer relied primarily on brochures and leaflets, newspaper ads,
local news coverage, and letters to the editor.

His crew fended off a campaign funded by large contributions by the
cigarette industry and the Oregon Restaurant Association. Kliewer also
had outside help, primarily from public health groups such as the
American Cancer Society.

Kliewer says he's not so confident that he'd want to take the
no-smoking fight statewide.

He said winning in communities such as Medford, Burns and Pendleton
would be a much tougher sell.

"Whether it's the tobacco industry or unions or whatever," said
Kliewer, "the special interests can have a lot more impact at the
statewide level than the local level."

A bill before the Legislature may force citizen activists to take
their anti-smoking activism to the statewide level. A bill filed by
Rep. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton, wouldn't touch the Corvallis law, but
it would prohibit similar laws from enacting similar policies. Only
the state could regulate smoking in bars and taverns.

The bill is expected to be taken up this week by the House Commerce
Committee.

Deckert says he's merely trying to protect one of the few remaining
places where it's socially acceptable for adults to smoke.

He offers a few reasons the state should overrule communities:

Oregon already imposes statewide oversight on smoking through an
indoor clean air act, and the state regulates drinking establishments.
And Deckert contends that a patchwork of different smoking policies
will drive business across city limits and beyond county lines where
less stringent policies are in place.

But he acknowledges that proposals to pre-empt local authority are
usually more about political strategy than about local control vs.
consistent statewide policy.

He notes that many who criticize this session's proposals to pre-empt
local control supported the 1993 Legislature's decision to ban local
governments from enacting voter-passed anti-gay-rights laws.

Deckert's bill is HB2806.

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

Advocates of better treatment of pain seek legislative cure (The Oregonian
says Oregon legislators are slowly waking up to the need for better pain
treatment. A half-dozen related bills are advancing in the Legislature,
though none is expected to be approved. As in Washington, D.C., eagerness to
eliminate pain as a motivator for physician-assisted suicide is creating
momentum, along with a growing realization of the plight of people living
with chronic pain.)

Newshawk: Portland NORML (http://www.pdxnorml.org/)
Pubdate: Mon, May 03 1999
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Copyright: 1999 The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
Address: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Author: Erin Hoover Barnett, the Oregonian

Advocates of better treatment of pain seek legislative cure

* Bills aimed at relieving suffering make progress at the state level, but
those with a price may fail

Oregon lawmakers are slowly waking up to the need for better pain treatment.

A half-dozen pain control bills are advancing in the Legislature. As in
Washington, D.C., eagerness to eliminate pain as a motivator for
physician-assisted suicide is creating momentum, along with a growing
realization of the plight of people living with chronic pain.

But this awareness in the Oregon Legislature is unlikely to be enough to
push through bills that have significant price tags, several lawmakers said.

Symbolic measures -- such as Senate Joint Resolution 28, which affirms the
rights of pain patients to get treatment, and House Resolution 62, which
encourages better education for doctors and medical students in pain
management -- passed easily. While they don't mandate anything, they send
the message that Oregonians should not have to live or die with ongoing,
unrelieved pain.

"It's time we recognize this as an issue," said Dr. Grant Higginson, the
state health officer for the Oregon Health Division. Higginson served as
chairman of the state's Pain and Symptom Management Task Force, which
devised many of the bills.

Sen. Joan Dukes, D-Astoria, who began working on pain issues in 1993, said
other lawmakers are beginning to understand that chronic pain is
inadequately treated, that aggressive pain control at life's end is
appropriate, and that while people who need medication for pain may depend
on the drugs, they are not addicts.

The Pain and Symptom Management Task Force, created by the last Legislature,
has sparked awareness and given chronic pain -- the kind that lasts or
recurs for more than six months and hinders everyday activities -- the same
significance as pain at the end of life.

Bills under consideration include Senate Bill 1027, which gives universal
access to hospice care. But this bill faces a tough battle because it comes
with a price tag as high as $2.8 million per biennium. Senate Bill 1141,
which creates a state advocate for people with pain and their caregivers,
passed a Senate committee last week. It is less expensive, at $94,000 for
the biennium.

"Any significant increase in health care budgets I just don't think really
has a prayer at this point," said Rep. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, whose House
Human Resources Committee is likely to be assigned some of the pain bills
that pass the Senate.

Kruse said Senate Bill 1140, which passed the Senate last week, may have a
better chance because it relies on grant money to set up a pilot project.
Teams of health practitioners -- from nurses and pharmacists to naturopathic
physicians and acupuncturists -- would work with doctors who want assistance
with chronic pain patients covered under the Oregon Health Plan.

The team would help assess and treat the patients' pain for one year,
educating both the doctors and the patients.

You can reach Erin Hoover Barnett at 503-294-5011 or by e-mail at
ehbarnett@news.oregonian.com

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

Here's My Marijuana Card, Officer (A glib and condescending Time magazine
article notes Mel Brown, the police chief of Arcata, California, has taken to
issuing laminated identification cards for "partakers of the infamous
Humboldt bud" who are protected under Proposition 215. As one might expect,
however, America's leading consensus-manufacturing magazine dismisses Brown's
attempt to implement California's medical-marijuana law as just more inanity
from the hippies who supposedly control Humboldt County. All of the
magazine's bias is revealed in its contention that "You don't need much of an
excuse" to get a physician's recommendation in Arcata.)

Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 21:20:30 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Here's My Marijuana Card, Officer
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Support MAP!
Pubdate: 3 May 1999
Source: Time Magazine (US)
Copyright: 1999 Time Inc.
Section: American Scene Page 7
Contact: letters@time.com
Fax: (212) 522-8949
Mail: Time Magazine Letters, Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, NY, NY
10020
Website: http://www.time.com/
Forum: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/community/0,2637,0,00.html
Author: Margot Hornblower / Arcata

HERE'S MY MARIJUANA CARD, OFFICER

In The Capital Of Legal Pot, You Don't Need Much Of An Excuse

IT IS NOT THAT MEL BROWN, police chief of this tie-dye-and-tofu town,
set out to flout federal law. But here he is, a 53-year-old father of
two who has never inhaled, issuing laminated and embossed
get-out-of-jail-free cards for partakers of the infamous Humboldt bud,
a potent local variety of marijuana. "You can photograph me," he tells
a reporter genially, "but not reclining on a bearskin rug and smoking
a joint."

Arcata (pop. 16,000) lies in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, the
three lush California counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity, 275
miles north of San Francisco as the spotted owl flies.

In the '80s, capitalist hippies defended their marijuana plantations
here with booby traps and shotguns. George Bush sent in U.S. Army
troops to battle the domestic druglords. And even now, early fall is
signaled less by migrating geese than by helicopters swooping over
redwood forests and dropping camouflaged, machete-wielding agents into
any telltale patch of sparkling green.

Last year state and local officials eradicated 136,975 plants, many 10
ft. tall, with a wholesale value of $450 million.

But what's a conscientious cop to do when California voters pass a
ballot measure legalizing the cultivation and possession of marijuana
for medical purposes? And when all it takes to prove need is the
approval, written or oral, of a friendly doctor?

And when not just patients with AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis
are clamoring for the drug but also people with backaches, stress and
drinking problems.

One arrested planter told sheriff's deputies he was suffering from an
ingrown toenail, an excuse that did not impress them. Lucy May Tuck, a
volunteer who edits the newsletter at the Humboldt Cannabis Center, a
co-op that grows the drug for medical use, has a physician's
certificate to treat her hot flashes with the weed. Since Prop. 215
passed more than two years ago, says Police Chief Brown, "everyone we
try to arrest has a recommendation from Dr. Feelgood."

Though six states--Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington--have voted to legalize medical marijuana, federal law
still requires them to prosecute any wheelchair-bound granny smoking a
bong. But they aren't doing so, and that has federal drug czar Barry
McCaffery muttering about a new "Whiskey Rebellion," the unsuccessful
1749 farmer's revolt against federal liquor taxes.

In Arcata, however, where 74% of the voters approved the state's
marijuana measure, Chief Brown considers his policy one of common
sense. "Out of self-preservation," he says, he set up his own system.

Now about 100 local residents have sat for mug shots, agreed to let
Brown talk to their physicians, and walked away with a "City of Arcata
Proposition 215 Identification Card." Flash it as you are toking up
and you won't be arrested, unless you've got more than 10 marijuana
plants--a limit imposed to distinguish users from illegal dealers.

Other jurisdictions, including Mendocino County, plan to follow
Arcata's example, and a task force appointed by Bill Lockyear,
California's new attorney general, is looking at Arcata as a possible
statewide model. Although other communities might be less mellow about
the idea, no dissenters showed up at public hearings when Arcata's
city council-composed of two Green Party members, a Libertarian and
two Democrats--approved Brown's ID system.

That's to be expected, perhaps, in a town that has declared itself a
"Nuclear Weapons Free Zone"; that in 1991 passed a resolution--albeit
quickly rescinded-offering sanctuary to Persian Gulf War resisters;
and where students from Humboldt State University hold an annual
Hempfest, promoting a nonpsychoactive form of cannabis for use in
clothing, paper and food.

"My Mexican-American aunties used marijuana poultices for their
arthritis," says Arcata Mayor Bob Ornelas, a ponytailed electrician.
Ornelas boasts of running marathon races while high on weed but
insists, "I don't get stoned that much."

***

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 09:02:43 -0700
To: dpfca@drugsense.org
From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Subject: DPFCA: TIME rag
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer)
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/

Here's an article from TIME and my response below it.
- Peter McWilliams

HERE'S MY MARIJUANA CARD, OFFICER

[snip]

Editors, TIME Magazine,

Your article "Here's My Marijuana Card, Officer" stated that the federal
government is not prosecuting medical marijuana users in California. Not so.
I am an AIDS patient who once used medical marijuana's antinausea properties
to keep down my prescription AIDS medication. My viral load (the measure of
active AIDS virus) was "undetectable" for two years. In July 1998, I was
arrested on federal medical marijuana charges. I face a mandatory minimum
10-year sentence (possible life) and a $4 million fine. While out on bail I
cannot use medical marijuana. I cannot keep down my AIDS medication. My
viral load has skyrocketed to 250,000. (When my viral load was 12,500 in
1996, I had already developed an AIDS-related cancer.) For further details
of my ordeal, please see www.petertrial.com.

Sincerely,

Peter McWilliams
8165 Mannix Drive
Los Angeles, California 90046

***

Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114

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

Please fax the governor about medical marijuana (A news release from the
Cannabis Freedom Fund asks California residents to take part in a campaign to
persuade Governor Gray Davis to show humanitarian treatment to imprisoned
medical marijuana patients and caregivers who were denied a Proposition 215
legal defense - in particular, Marvin Chavez and Dave Herrick.)

From: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
To: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
Subject: Please fax the gov. about med. mj
Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 06:53:43 -0700

----- Original Message -----
From: bdeitch
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 1999 4:51 PM
Subject: ATTN: CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

ATTN: CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR FRIENDS

From: Robert Deitch - Nat'l Director

Cannabis Freedom Fund (CFF)

It's JAY DAY (May 1st) 1999, and all over California people are coming
together to voice their opposition to marijuana's illegal status. Whether JAY
DAY 1999 proves to make the PR impact its organizers hoped, they certainly
deserve our respect and applause for the efforts they put forth in making JAY
DAY a successful event.

In conjunction with JAY DAY, the Cannabis Freedom Fund (CFF) is announcing
the kick-off of a California FAX campaign, pleading with Governor Gray Davis
to show humanitarian treatment toward those medical marijuana patients and
care givers, currently in California prisons, that were denied a defense
under Health and Safety code Section 11362.5 (Prop 215), by the California
courts... in particular, Marvin Chavez and Dave Herrick.

If the people of California don't consider these people criminals, under what
authority are the California courts and police operating?

Your voice is needed to help get the message across to Governor Davis that we
the people of California have already decided to allow the medicinal use of
marijuana, we don't want medical marijuana patients and care givers
persecuted (they are sick people - not criminals), and we strongly object to
our tax dollars wasted on arresting, sentencing, and incarcerating them.

Help stop the injustice and inhumane atrocities taking place right here in
the State of California.

Get the California FAX Campaign letter to Governor Davis at...
http://www.freecannabis.org, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, and FAX it today.

IF WE DON'T SPEAK UP, NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE, AND THE MORE WE SPEAK UP
THE FASTER THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE.

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

The Big City - Severity of Drug Laws Troubles a Jury Foreman (New York Times
columnist John Tierney recounts his recent stint on a jury in a trial
involving an alleged $20 sale of angel dust, or PCP. A third of the jury was
tempted to engage in nullification because of the minimum potential two- to
four-year prison sentence, but thanks to a weak case, and a unanimous
acquittal, the temptation was obviated.)

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 18:36:45 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: Severity of Drug Laws Troubles a Jury Foreman
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Nathan Riley (humriley@council.nyc.ny.us)
Pubdate: Mon, 03 May 1999
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: John Tierney

THE BIG CITY

SEVERITY OF DRUG LAWS TROUBLES A JURY FOREMAN

A jury was being selected for a drug case, and as soon as I confessed my
occupation the prosecutor raised a question: did I have opinions on drugs
that would prevent me from being a fair juror? "Well, I have opinions," I
said, but I assured him I could set them aside. What else could I say
without professional embarrassment? "No, I'm such a biased journalist that
my judgment is hopelessly impaired."

But then I was not only picked for the jury but also appointed foreman, and
doubts set in. This case, which was tried last week in State Supreme Court
in Manhattan, involved an alleged $20 sale of angel dust, as the drug PCP
is called. It was our legal duty, Justice Richard D. Carruthers told us, to
decide guilt or innocence without considering the sentence for the crime.
But I wasn't sure that was our moral duty.

Because of New York's notoriously strict laws, small-time drug dealers and
even casual users can end up with longer prison sentences than violent
criminals. Politicians from both parties have long acknowledged that the
mandatory sentences are too severe, but the proposed reforms keep
languishing in the State Legislature. Drug dealers and addicts, after all,
do not have a political action committee dispensing campaign contributions.

Was it fair for us to condemn someone to prison for years for selling a
little PCP? A few legal scholars have argued that in nonviolent drug cases
it's justifiable for jurors to protest unjust laws by refusing to convict.

This form of protest, called jury nullification, was practiced last century
by Northern juries that refused to send back runaway slaves, and by
Prohibition-era juries that acquitted bootleggers. Some, perhaps most, of
the senators who acquitted President Clinton of perjury believed him guilty
but refused to convict because the punishment struck them as unfair -- very
similar to the situation we might be in.

Still, we had sworn to uphold the law, and we also had to consider the
people living near the scene of the alleged crime, a housing project at
West 112th Street and Lenox Avenue. The defendant, Steven Williams, 39, was
accused of selling drugs late one night last August near a playground. Was
it fair to impose my vision of justice on the neighbors who wanted to keep
drugs away from their playground?

The only sure moral course was to pray for a weak case, which was granted.
There were serious discrepancies in the story of the sole eyewitness, the
undercover police officer who said he had bought the drugs from Williams
and a female accomplice. Moreover, the officers who later arrested
Williams, relying on the undercover officer's description, found no drugs
or money, and they didn't nab any female accomplice.

The defense, arguing that the police had arrested the wrong man, provided
an innocent explanation for Williams's presence near the playground that
night: he was taking a meal break from a construction job in the subway
tunnel nearby. "Does your average drug dealer do hard manual labor?" asked
the defense lawyer, Samuel R. Rosen, in his closing argument.

We began deliberations with a straw poll, which was 11 to 1 in favor of
acquittal, and the sole holdout was quickly converted by the rest of us.
Within an hour we returned to the courtroom, and it was with a clear
conscience that I stood up and said, "Not guilty." We had followed the
judge's instruction not to discuss the severity of the prison sentence.

But afterward, I discovered that my concern at the drug laws was shared by
a third of the jury. That ratio might provide a lesson to drug warriors in
the State Legislature: if you want juries to convict dealers, make the
punishment fit the crime.

Afterward I also spoke with Williams, whose version of events that night
continued to seem more convincing than the police version. "When they
arrested me I had no idea why," he said. "I'm not an angel -- I did a year
for welfare fraud once -- but I never sold drugs that night or any night.
They got the wrong man."

Even though only $20 of PCP was involved, Williams faced a minimum sentence
of two to four years in prison, and possibly three and a half to seven years.

"It's been been a nightmare for me and my family," said Williams, who lives
with his wife and two children in Harlem. "There are guys beating up old
ladies getting less time than I was facing. The drug laws aren't right.
They're too cruel."

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

Spitzer Targets Dealers' Landlords (The Daily Gazette says New York state
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and city officials in Albany are scheduled to
announce a joint initiative today intended to make all "drug dealers"
homeless by imposing fees and jail time on landlords who ignore "drug"
dealings in their buildings. The initiative would also provide for immediate
eviction of "known" drug dealers - as distinct from people who would be able
to defend their constitutional right to due process.)

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 19:06:20 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: Spitzer Targets Dealers' Landlords
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Nathan Riley (humriley@council.nyc.ny.us)
Pubdate: Mon, 03 May 1999
Source: Daily Gazette (NY)
Copyright: 1999 - The Gazette Newspapers
Contact: gazette@dailygazette.com
Website: http://www.dailygazette.com/
Author: Pam Allen, Gazette Reporter

SPITZER TARGETS DEALERS' LANDLORDS

ALBANY - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Albany officials today are
scheduled to announce a joint initiative that would hold landlords
accountable when they knowingly rent properties to drug dealers.

The program is also aimed at drug-infested Albany neighborhoods by
allowing immediate eviction of known drug dealers.

Details of the crime effort were not available Sunday, but Spitzer
spokesman Darren Dopp confirmed that Spitzer, Albany Mayor Gerald
Jennings and Albany County Sheriff James L. Campbell would meet this
morning to discuss specifics of the initiative.

A 2 p.m. press conference is scheduled at Albany City Hall's Rotunda
room.

Campbell said he'd been asked by Spitzer's office to participate in
Monday's announcement.

"I know it involves absentee landlords and drugs. But beyond that, I
really don't know the pertinent details," he said.

Jennings could not be reached for comment.

The attorney general's office was planning to meet with officials
prior to this afternoon's announcement, Dopp said.

"We are going to be working with the mayor and the sheriff to try to
find ways of identifying locations where drug activity could be taking
place," Dopp said. "Talks with [Jennings and Campbell] need to be
completed in the morning, so [the press conference] is scheduled for
the afternoon."

Dopp did not provide specifics of the incentive. But The Daily Gazette
learned that the measure would target landlords who ignore drug
dealings in their buildings by imposing fees and jail time for those
landlords who are aware of ongoing drug activities in their buildings.

The initiative would also provide for immediate eviction of known drug
dealers.

The Attorney General's Office would like to expand the initiative
statewide, but would begin at the local level, Dopp said.

Sandra Hulbritter, president of the West Hill Neighborhood
Association, said she was not aware of the specifics of the program,
but had heard "scuttlebutt" about a meeting involving the officials at
a weekend church gathering in Arbor Hill.

She said she welcomed any efforts to make her neighborhood - which had
seen three murders in recent weeks - safer for its residents and
families. But right now, landlords were bound by certain fair housing
and discrimination laws which may prevent them from being as selective
as they'd like, the association president said.

"Landlords in West Hill would like more control over who they rent to.
I think it would be wonderful," Hulbritter said.

She said there are times when a landlord can't control certain
activities in a rental property, but many absentee landlords are aware
of the goings-on and ignore them.

"In West Hill, we favor the ability to be able to decide. I don't want
addicts in my neighborhood," she said.

During the most recent neighborhood meeting designed to address the
concerns of Arbor Hill residents, Jennings acknowledged that "85
percent of the criminal activity we have here is related to drugs."

The mayor said the city was taking specific steps to list all vacant
properties in Arbor Hill, and order some of those structures to be
demolished.

He also announced plans to increase the number of police officers in
the department's special investigations unit, which handles drug
investigations.

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

McCaffrey's Response to Dr. Podrebarac (A list subscriber forwards a letter
from the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, responding to a
letter, appended, from Seattle physician Francis A. Podrebarac. Dr.
Podrebarac urges the ONDCP chief to reschedule marijuana, as implicitly
suggested by the March 17 IOM report and other authorities, but McCaffrey
falls back on the "little future for smoked marijuana" position, adding that
"Continued strict regulation of cannabis is essential. It is absolutely
essential that we have strict regulation of this drug. We need to be sure
that as we examine cannabinoid-based drugs for possible medical benefit that
we do not contribute to increased abuse of this psychoactive substance.")

From: "lifevine9" (lifevine9@prodigy.net)
To: "Hemp-talk" (Hemp-talk@hemp.net)
Subject: HT: McCaffrey's Response to Dr. Podrebarac
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 16:37:46 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY
Washington, D.C. 20503
May 3. 1999

Dr. Francis A. Podrebarac, M.D.
Seattle, Washington

Dear Dr. Podrebarac:

It was good to talk to you in March. Director McCaffrey shared your letter
of April 14th in which you offered several points for ONDCP consideration
in light of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) study Marijuana and Medicine:
Assessing the Science Base and asked me to respond.

In our view, this IOM study is the most comprehensive summary and analysis
of what is known about the use of marijuana and its constituent
cannabinoids for medicinal purposes, marijuana's mechanism of action,
peer-reviewed literature on the uses of marijuana, and costs associated
with various forms of the component chemical compounds in marijuana. We
believe the following points must be taken into account as a result of the
IOM study's conclusions and recommendations:

There is little future for smoked marijuana as a medically approved
medication. As the study emphasizes, existing scientific evidence already
indicates that smoking cannabis -- or smoking any plant material -- is
carcinogenic and toxic to the lungs. Modern medicine identifies and then
synthesizes active components in plants with potential medical benefits to
allow for the most safe and effective scientific uses.

Research into the physiological effects of marijuana and its constituent
cannabinoids should continue. The identification of cannabinoid receptors
in the brain provides a sound basis for further research. The report notes
cannabinoid-based medicines may have the potential to contribute to symptom
management programs for a number of afflictions and diseases.

Bonafide clinical trials of smoked marijuana must be designed with rigor
and conducted with care. Genuine clinical research in the specific areas
recommended by the IOM study should be facilitated. Such clinical trials
should facilitate the development of an inhaler or alternate rapid-onset
delivery system for THC or other cannabinoid drugs.

Continued strict regulation of cannabis is essential. It is absolutely
essential that we have strict regulation of this drug. We need to be sure
that as we examine cannabinoid-based drugs for possible medical benefit
that we do not contribute to increased abuse of this psychoactive
substance.

We are hopeful that as a result of the IOM study, the discussion of the
medical efficacy and safety of cannabinoids can take place within the
context of medicine and science. Indeed, we are working closely with the
Department of Health and Human Services to encourage bonafide clinical
research of cannabinoids and to insure appropriate medical access to drugs
and substances that are deemed safe and effective for medical use in
treatment. Thank you again for sharing your views with us.

Best wishes,

Francis X. Kinney
Director of Strategy

***

*EDITOR'S NOTE: THE ABOVE WAS A RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING LETTER BY DR.
PODREBARAC.
ASTUTE READER WILL NOTICE THAT THE DOCTOR'S MAIN ARGUMENTS REMAIN
UNANSWERED.

***

[Portland NORML's two cents: If marijuana is so "strictly regulated," how
come any high school or college kid can find it, but not grown-ups with a
medical need? Current policy reveals plenty of strictness, but little
regulation.]

***

Barry McCaffrey
White House Office of Drug Control Policy
Executive Office of the President
Washington, DC 20503

Dear Barry McCaffrey,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Francis A. Podrebarac,
M.D. I live in Seattle, Washington, and I have been doing extensive
studying on the benefits of marijuana as medicine. I would like to bring
up several points that are not just opinion, but hard evidence that
marijuana should be rescheduled for medical use.

The recently released Institute of Medicine (IOM) study on the medical use
of marijuana clearly supports rescheduling it for medical use. As you
should already know, the IOM report concluded that the active ingredients
in marijuana can help fight pain, nausea, anorexia, and anxiety in
suffering patients. Hence, marijuana no longer fits the definition of a
Schedule I drug. Moreover, the IOM report concluded that marijuana is not
a "gateway" drug leading to harder drug use. Rather, alcohol and tobacco
appear to be far more notorious for opening doors to harsher, more
destructive drug abuse. Marijuana, on the other hand, was reported to be
minimally addictive.

Medical and scientific evidence supporting the rescheduling of marijuana is
not new. Before it was prohibited, marijuana was widely prescribed by
physicians in the United States and all over the world. In fact, studies
during the Nixon administration supported the rescheduling of marijuana.
Marinol was even funded and created by the government in the mid-1980's
because marijuana was proving highly beneficial in AIDS patients. However,
the federal marijuana access program, Compassionate Use Investigational New
Drug Program, was dubiously closed by Health and Human Services (HHS) in
1992. (See Exhibits A and B enclosed: Book by R.C. Randall printed in
November 1991 and Los Angeles Times article by Ronald J. Ostrow on January
31,1992.) Both sources point to AIDS discrimination as the reason it was
closed. The closing of the Compassionate Use IND Program was illegal
because it violated Title 3 of the Americas with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Furthermore, HHS continuing to provide access to a few patients, even to
this day, is illegal because they are providing legal medicinal marijuana
access to a select few while denying access to the majority of suffering
patients who might also benefit from medical use of marijuana.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) also supports the rescheduling
of marijuana for medical use. The editor-in-chief, Jerome P. Kassirer,
M.D., suggested that a federal policy prohibiting physicians from helping
their suffering patients by suggesting that they use marijuana is
"misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane." He recommended that marijuana be
rescheduled and be made available by prescription and correctly noted that
the DEA recommended marijuana be rescheduled in September 1998, after 2
years of extensive hearings into the matter. (See January 30, 1997, NEJM
article enclosed as Exhibit C. A second article in the NEJM supporting the
rescheduling of marijuana, dated August 7, 1997, by George J. Annas, J.D,
M.P.H., is also enclosed as Exhibit D.)

As you can see from the evidence that I have provided, there is a great
injustice being done to Americans who are suffering and could benefit from
using marijuana as medicine. I would be more than happy to testify before
your committee, at any time, because I believe in truth in medical research
and medical practice. I have seen what kind of a difference marijuana can
make in the lives of people who are truly suffering, and I urge you, on
their behalf, to please immediately reschedule marijuana and treat it
accordingly. Our country doesn't need 50 different marijuana laws in 50
different states. Doctors and patients are not the enemy in the war on
drugs, nor do we belong in the crossfire. You are the one who can turn
this around and provide relief from suffering to millions of people across
the nation.

Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely,

Francis A. Podrebarac, M.D.
Graduate University of Kansas School of Medicine -- 1988
Diplomat American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology -- 1994
Diplomat Added Qualifications Exam Geriatric Psychiatry -- 1996

***

hemp-talk - hemp-talk@hemp.net is a discussion/information
list about hemp politics in Washington State. To unsubscribe, send
e-mail to majordomo@hemp.net with the text "unsubscribe hemp-talk".
For more details see http://www.hemp.net/lists.html

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

Important: Medical marijuana petition now online! (A list subscriber invites
U.S. residents to go to http://www.215Now.com to have their opinion forwarded
to "federal government officials who have direct influence over marijuana's
legal status.")

Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 14:49:55 -0700 (PDT)
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
From: thawkinsw@mediaone.net
Subject: HT: IMPORTANT: Medical marijuana petition now online!
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

I'm participating in an Internet campaign to help patients get
access to medical marijuana and to stop the government's
attempts at obstructing the law in states that have passed
medical marijuana initiatives.

Please forward this message to any friends, family, co-workers,
neighbors, or other people you know personally who may be
interested. Then go to http://www.215Now.com and sign the
petition. (The website was named for California's
groundbreaking medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215).

You do not have to live in California to sign the petition.
Anyone living in the 50 states can sign, and petitions will be
customized to the signer's state of residence.

Your petition will be forwarded to targeted federal government
officials who have direct influence over marijuana's legal
status. The objective of this campaign is to change that status
so that doctors can legally prescribe marijuana for their
suffering patients.

For thousands of patients, this is literally a matter of life or
death. The federal government has refused to respect the will
of the voters in those states that have passed medical marijuana
initiatives -- California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington
state, and Alaska.

State governments have been dragging their feet -- fearful of
what the federal government may do if those states attempt to
implement their medical marijuana laws.

Patients and physicians have been harassed, arrested, and
prosecuted when they should be protected under the law. Doctors
are afraid to "recommend" marijuana for their patients, lest the
federal government revoke their scheduled-drug prescribing
licenses.

Meanwhile, patients are suffering -- their health and lives
jeopardized by a government that should be protecting them, not
arresting them.

If we want to stop this senseless suffering, we must let our
government officials know that for many patients, medical
marijuana is a matter of life or death.

Please forward this email to everyone you know who might be
interested in helping, but please don't send it indiscriminately
-- spam will only hurt our campaign.

Then go to http://www.215Now.com and sign the petition.

Thank you very much.

***

hemp-talk - hemp-talk@hemp.net is a discussion/information
list about hemp politics in Washington State. To unsubscribe, send
e-mail to majordomo@hemp.net with the text "unsubscribe hemp-talk".
For more details see http://www.hemp.net/lists.html

***

From: "Tom Barrus" (b4liberty@hotmail.com)
From: "CRRH mailing list" (restore@crrh.org)
To: restore@crrh.org
Cc: peter@mcwilliams.com
Subject: Terrific new med. CANNABIS site
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 16:30:20 PDT

On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 03:45:58 -0700, "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
wrote:

>The Libertarian Party of California has put together a terrific new site on
>medical marijuana.
>
>It includes and e-mail petition you can sign. Please do this.
>
>Thank you.
>
>Enjoy,
>
>Peter

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

Can Cops Stop Someone Who Runs Off? (A different Associated Press version)

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 03:21:14 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Can Cops Stop Someone Who Runs Off?
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF@aol.com
Pubdate: Mon, 3 May 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: Richard Carelli, Associated Press Writer

CAN COPS STOP SOMEONE WHO RUNS OFF?

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will try to decide whether people
who run away after seeing a police officer can be chased, stopped and
questioned.

The justices agreed Monday to use a case from a Chicago high-crime
neighborhood to clarify on-the-street police powers vs. individual
rights.

While many Americans might assume police have the power to chase and
question someone who flees at the sight of them, lower courts have
been deeply divided on the issue. The justices' decision, expected
sometime in 2000, could resolve that split.

At the heart of the dispute is the Fourth Amendment protection against
unreasonable searches and seizures. Courts long have interpreted that
protection to mean police without court warrants cannot stop and
question someone without a "reasonable suspicion" of wrongdoing.

State courts in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey and Utah have said police generally
cannot make investigative stops after pursuing someone who flees after
seeing them.

But state courts in Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, North
Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin have ruled that fleeing from police can
create a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct and justify a police
stop.

Federal courts also have disagreed on the issue.

The Illinois Supreme Court used the Chicago case to bar police most
often from making such investigative stops.

In appealing that ruling, state prosecutors said a definitive ruling
is needed. "Every single day, law enforcement officers at all levels
throughout our country are confronted with ... whether to chase and
temporarily stop a person in a high-crime area who runs away at the
mere sight of the police," the appeal said.

The nation's highest court twice before had the opportunity to
consider the issue in criminal cases, but left it undecided when in
1988 and 1991 it chose

instead to focus on whether police seizures had occurred.

Sam Wardlow was convicted of a weapons violation after he was arrested
on a Chicago street in 1995 while carrying a loaded handgun in a bag.

Police officers in a patrol car had seen Wardlow spot them and take
off running. They pursued and eventually cornered him, and found the
gun after a patdown search.

The incident occurred in the 4000 block of West Van Buren Street,
described by state prosecutors as an area of "high narcotics traffic"
at that time.

Wardlow challenged his conviction for unlawful use of a weapon by a
felon and the two-year prison sentence it carried. He said he had been
subjected to an unlawful stop. His appeal in an Illinois court raised the
issue of
whether his running away from police was enough to create a reasonable
suspicion to justify the stop and patdown search.

A state appeals court threw out his conviction, and the Illinois
Supreme Court upheld that decision last September after saying "such
flight alone is insufficient to create a reasonable suspicion of
involvement in criminal conduct."

Police had acted on "nothing more than a hunch," the state court said,
and in so doing violated Wardlow's constitutional rights.

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

Supreme Court Looks At Chicago 'Pat-Down' Case (The UPI version)

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 19:20:30 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Supreme Court Looks At Chicago 'Pat-Down' Case
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF@aol.com
Pubdate: Mon, 3 May 1999
Source: United Press International
Copyright: 1999 United Press International

COURTS LOOKS AT CHICAGO 'PAT-DOWN' CASE

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) - In what could be another benchmark - or low water
mark - for personal freedom, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear argument
next term on whether police may conduct a "pat-down" search of someone who
flees from them for no apparent reason in a high-crime area.

The case accepted by the justices today involves an arrest in Chicago in 1995.

City Police Officer Timothy Nolan, a 9-year-veteran dressed in uniform, was
part of special team converging that September on what appeared to be "high
narcotics traffic area" on West Van Buren Street.

Nolan was in the last of a ``caravan'' of four cars cruising down the street.

Nolan said he could not remember whether his car was marked or unmarked.

The officer and his partner said Sam Wardlow was standing near the front of
the high-traffic area, but took off running as he looked at the officers.
Nolan said Wardlow was carrying a white bag under his arm.

The officers used their car to corner Wardlow in an alley, where Nolan
stepped out of the vehicle to talk to Wardlow. But first, he conducted a
"protective pat-down" personal search of Wardlow.

Veteran officers are allowed to perform such searches for their own safety
under the Supreme Court's 1968 decision, Terry vs. Ohio. The searches can be
conducted without direct evidence of a crime, but can
only be performed when the veteran officer has "reasonable suspicion" that
the target of the search has committed or is about to commit a crime.

Out in the alley in 1995, Nolan's "pat-down" found a hard and heavy shape
inside the white bag that turned out to be a Colt .38-caliber pistol loaded
with five rounds of ammunition.

In a bench trial, a state judge found Wardlow guilty of unlawful use of a
weapon by a felon, rejecting Wardlow's motion to suppress the evidence.

Eventually, however, the Illinois Supreme Court suppressed the evidence and
reversed the conviction, citing the Fourth Amendment's ban against
"unreasonable searches and seizures."

Argument in the case should be heard next winter.

Two members of the Supreme Court, important swing vote Justice Anthony
Kennedy in a concurring opinion in 1988, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia,
have already suggested that limited searches may be constitutional when
someone flees police in a high-crime area for no apparent reason. (No.
98-1036, Illinois vs. Wardlow)

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

Number of Foreign Women Drug Couriers Rises in 1998 (According to Kyodo News,
Kansai International Airport customs officials said Monday that the number of
foreign women caught while trying to smuggle drugs into Japan for suspected
trafficking rings rose substantially last year.)

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 19:20:36 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Japan: Wire: Number of Foreign Women Drug Couriers Rises in
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: EWCHIEF@aol.com
Pubdate: Mon, 3 May 1999
Source: Kyodo News (Japan)

NUMBER OF FOREIGN WOMEN DRUG COURIERS RISES IN 1998

OSAKA, May 3 (Kyodo) -- The number of foreign women caught allegedly trying
to smuggle drugs into Japan through Kansai International Airport for
suspected narcotic rings rose substantially last year, airport customs
officials said Monday.

The officials said 10 cases occurred in 1998 in which suspected smugglers
were caught trying to carry at least 1 kilogram of illegal drugs into the
country, the most recorded for a yearlong period since the western Japan
airport opened in September 1994.

Of the total, foreign women acted as suspected drug couriers on six
occasions. Before 1998, customs officials caught only one female foreign
drug courier, in July 1995.

Drug rings asked the women, particularly Caucasians, to carry narcotics
thinking they would have a higher chance of getting their assigned package
through Japanese customs, the officials said.

For example, one German woman who arrived at the airport from Thailand in
January 1998 was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 2 kg of marijuana
resin concealed in a can of cheese.

Upon questioning, she said she was paid the equivalent of 120,000 yen while
vacationing in Thailand to carry the drug into Japan, according to customs
officials.

Women from Israel, Britain and South Africa were also among those arrested
on a charge of possessing marijuana. With the exception of one case
involving South Africa, Asian countries were the source of narcotics in all
the cases.

Payment for carrying the drugs ranged from 120,000 to 520,000 yen, the
officials said.

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

KLA funding tied to heroin profits (The Washington Times breaks the American
media's silence about heroin trafficking funding the Kosovo Liberation Army.)

From: "ralph sherrow" (ralphkat@hotmail.com)
To: ralphkat@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: DPFCA: KLA funding tied to heroin profits
Date: Tue, 04 May 1999 15:27:31 PDT

From: "David Crockett Williams" (gear2000@lightspeed.net)
Subject: DPFCA: KLA funding tied to heroin profits
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 12:43:36 -0700

The Washington Times, May 3, 1999

KLA funding tied to heroin profits

By Jerry Seper

The Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton administration has embraced and
some members of Congress want to arm as part of the NATO bombing campaign, is
a terrorist organization that has financed much of its war effort with
profits from the sale of heroin.

Recently obtained intelligence documents show that drug agents in five
countries, including the United States, believe the KLA has aligned itself
with an extensive organized crime network centered in Albania that smuggles
heroin and some cocaine to buyers throughout Western Europe and, to a lesser
extent, the United States.

The documents tie members of the Albanian Mafia to a drug smuggling cartel
based in Kosovo's provincial capital, Pristina. The cartel is manned by ethic
Albanians who are members of the Kosovo National Front, whose armed wing is
the KLA. The documents show it is one of the most powerful heroin smuggling
organizations in the world, with much of its profits being diverted to the
KLA to buy weapons.

The clandestine movement of drugs over a collection of land and sea routes
from Turkey through Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia to Western Europe and
elsewhere is so frequent and massive that intelligence officials have dubbed
the circuit the "Balkan Route."

Mr. Clinton has committed air power and is considering the use of ground
troops to support the Kosovo rebels against Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic. Last week, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, and Sen.
Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat, called on the United States to arm
the KLA so ethnic Albanians in Kosovo could defend themselves against the
Serbs.

Mr. McConnell and Mr. Lieberman introduced a bill that would provide $25
million to equip 10,000 men or 10 battalions with small arms and anti-tank
weapons for up to 18 months.

In 1998, the U.S. State Department listed the KLA - formally known as the
Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or UCK - as an international terrorist
organization, saying it had bankrolled its operations with proceeds from the
international heroin trade and from loans from known terrorists like Osama
bin Laden.

"They were terrorists in 1998 and now, because of politics, they're freedom
fighters," said one top drug official who asked not to be identified.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, in a recent report, said the heroin
is smuggled along the Balkan Route in cars, trucks and boats initially to
Austria, Germany and Italy, where it is routed to eager buyers in France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Great
Britain. Some of the white powder, the DEA report said, finds its way to the
United States.

The DEA report, prepared for the National Narcotics Intelligence Consumer's
Committee (NNICC), said a majority of the heroin seized in Europe is
transported over the Balkan Route. It said drug smuggling organizations
composed of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were considered "second only to Turkish
gangs as the predominant heroin smugglers along the Balkan Route." The NNICC
is a coalition of federal agencies involved in the war on drugs.

"Kosovo traffickers were noted for their use of violence and for their
involvement in international weapons trafficking," the DEA report said.

A separate DEA document, written last month by U.S. drug agents in Austria,
said that while the war in the former Yugoslavia had reduced the drug flow to
Western Europe along the Balkan Route, new land routes have opened across
Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The report said, however, the
diversion appeared to be only temporary.

The DEA estimated that between four and six metric tons of heroin leaves each
month from Turkey bound for Western Europe, the bulk of it traveling over the
Balkan Route.

A second high-ranking U.S. drug official, who also requested anonymity, said
government and police corruption in Kosovo, along with widespread poverty
throughout the region, had contributed to an increase in heroin trafficking
by the KLA and other ethnic Albanians. The official said drug smuggling is
"out of control" and little is being done by neighboring states to get a
handle on it.

"This is the definition of the wild, wild West," said the official. "The
bombing has slowed it down, but has not brought it to a halt. And,
eventually, it will pick up where it left off."

The heroin trade along the Balkan Route has been of concern to several
countries:

The Greek representative of Interpol reported in 1998 that Kosovo's ethnic
Albanians were "the primary sources of supply for cocaine and heroin in that
country."

Intelligence officials in France said in a recent report the KLA was among
several organizations in southern Europe that had built a vast drug-smuggling
network. France's Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs said in the report that
the KLA was a key player in the rapidly expanding drugs-for-arms business and
helped transport $2 billion worth of drugs annually into Western Europe.

German drug agents have estimated that $1.5 billion in drug profits is
laundered annually by Kosovo smugglers, through as many as 200 private banks
or currency-exchange offices. They noted in a recent report that ethnic
Albanians had established one of the most prominent drug smuggling
organizations in Europe.

Jane's Intelligence Review estimated in March that drug sales could have
netted the KLA profits in the "high tens of millions of dollars." The highly
regarded British-based journal noted at the time that the KLA had rearmed
itself for a spring offensive with the aid of drug money, along with
donations from Albanians in Western Europe and the United States.

Several leading intelligence officials said the KLA has, in part, financed
its purchase of AK-47s, semiautomatic rifles, shotguns, handguns, grenade
launchers, ammunition, artillery shells, explosives, detonators and
anti-personnel mines through drug profits -- cash laundered through banks in
Italy, Germany and Switzerland. They also said KLA rebels have paid for
weapons using the heroin itself as currency.

The profits, according to the officials, also have been used to purchase
anti-aircraft and anti-armor rockets, along with electronic surveillance
equipment.

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

[End]