------------------------------------------------------------------- Supply firm questions timing of police raid (The Oregonian says the Marijuana Task Force on Thursday raided the American Agriculture hydroponics supply store in southeast Portland, as well as the homes of the store's owner and manager. No arrests were forthcoming, suggesting nothing was found except an excuse to close the business and intimidate the owners by confiscating computers and business records. The raids came a month after a judge questioned why police had investigated the business for four years without bringing charges, and three months after it filed a federal lawsuit over the MTF's illegal use of a "trap and trace" telephone tap. During a court hearing May 4, Officer Nathan Shropshire testified that the Marijuana Task Force was formed in February 1995 for the purpose of investigating American Agriculture and owner Richard H. Martin Jr. When asked whether the purpose of the task force had changed, Shropshire said no.) Date: Sun, 06 Jun 1999 01:05:44 -0700 From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com) To: Constitutional Cannabis Patriots (cp@telelists.com) CRRH mailing list (restore@crrh.org) Subject: [cp] [Fwd: Cops raid American Agriculture - MTF's "only" suspect Looks like the Gestapo need to justify their unConstitutionl behavior. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Cops raid American Agriculture--MTF's "only" suspect (Oregonian6/5) Resent-Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 11:28:16 -0700 (PDT) Resent-From: Portland Copwatch (copwatch@teleport.com) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 11:25:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Portland Copwatch (copwatch@teleport.com) To: Portland Copwatch (copwatch@teleport.com) Copyright 1999 Oregon Live ¨ Supply firm questions timing of police raid Police have investigated American Agriculture for years looking for marijuana connections Saturday, June 5, 1999 By David R. Anderson of The Oregonian staff Portland police raided an agricultural supply store in Southeast Portland that has been the subject of controversial telephone traces by police in an attempt to find and arrest marijuana growers. Police also raided the Beavercreek and West Linn homes of the owner and manager of American Agriculture, seizing computers, business records and other items they think are connected to marijuana growing. Police made no arrests. The Thursday raids came a month after a judge questioned why police had not acted after more than four years of investigating American Agriculture and three months after the business filed a federal lawsuit claiming police had violated its civil rights. "I thought their timing was interesting," said Spencer Neal, an attorney representing the business. "It is, at best, suspicious." Lawyers for American Agriculture sent a letter Friday to City Attorney Jeff Rogers saying that the raids amounted to intimidation and demanding that computers and documents be returned. Rogers was out of the office Friday and was unavailable for comment. However, there is no connection between the court cases and the timing of the search warrants, said Capt. James Ferraris, head of the Drugs and Vice Division. Ferraris said that the investigation continues and that he could not comment further. Police have used a so-called "trap and trace" on the telephone at American Agriculture at 9220 S.E. Stark St. The trap provides police with the telephone numbers of incoming calls without the knowledge of American Agriculture. More than 20 criminal defendants facing drug manufacturing charges are fighting those accusations, claiming the trap was illegal. During a court hearing May 4, Officer Nathan Shropshire testified that the Marijuana Task Force was formed in February 1995 for the purpose of investigating American Agriculture and owner Richard H. Martin Jr. When asked whether the purpose of the task force had changed, Shropshire said no. Circuit Judge Michael Marcus wondered what more evidence police needed against American Agriculture after investigating nearly 500 suspected marijuana growers based on information from surveillance of the business and its phone records. Marcus compared the four-year investigation to planting petunias in a hole so deep that you need a ladder to climb out. "At what point is the investigation something else?" Marcus said. Shropshire's testimony about the task force also surprised Neal, who said police clearly had used the information to arrest marijuana growing suspects. "That contradicts what he's said in earlier affidavits, and it's simply dishonest," Neal said. You can reach David Anderson at 503-294-7663 or by e-mail at DavidAnderson@news.oregonian.com. *** To subscribe to the Constitutional Cannabis Patriots send a blank message to join-cp@telelists.com To post to the Constitutional Cannabis Patriots send e-mail to cp@telelists.com Constitutional Cannabis Patriots http://www.teleport.com/~nepal/canpat.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonoma Medical Marijuana Benefit June 18 (A news release from California NORML says a benefit concert for the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana will feature Midnight Sun and Biocentrics 7 pm-midnight at the Sebastopol Community Center.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 09:48:03 -0700 To: canorml@igc.org From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer) Subject: Sonoma MedMJ Benefit June 18th The Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana is hosting a benefit concert featuring Midnight Sun and Biocentrics on Friday June 18th, 7 pm-midnight, at the Sebastopol Community Center, 390 Morris St. With educational exhibits, Ed Rosenthal's Amazing 4:20 Slide Show, speakers including Chris Conrad, Dr Francis Poderbarac, Martin Martinez, David Ford, Mary Pat Beck Tickets: $10 at the door, $8 in advance from Hemp Solutions, 4th St. Santa Rosa, Backdoor Disk and Tape, Guerneville 5 & 10, Copperfields Sebastopol Contact: SAMM, PO Box 312 Forestville 95436 (707) 522-0292 *** Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
------------------------------------------------------------------- Citizenship Revoked Without Court (The Associated Press says the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday that federal officials don't have to go to court before revoking an immigrant's citizenship for failure to disclose past crimes or arrests. The decision overturns a nationwide injunction issued last year by U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle that protected more than 4,500 naturalized citizens from administrative revocation of their citizenship by the INS. One of the nine lead plaintiffs' "arrest" was for investigation of possessing a marijuana plant that was actually a fern.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 11:56:08 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US CA: Citizenship Revoked Without Court Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: EWCHIEF Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Author: Bob Egelko, Associated Press Writer CITIZENSHIP REVOKED WITHOUT COURT SAN FRANCISCO - Federal officials don't have to go to court before revoking an immigrant's citizenship for failure to disclose past crimes or arrests, says a federal appeals court. Friday's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a judge's nationwide injunction last year that protected more than 4,500 naturalized citizens from administrative revocation of their citizenship by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle said in her July 1998 ruling that the INS's authority to revoke citizenship without going to court was in serious question. But the appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, said a 1990 law that authorized the INS to grant naturalized citizenship contained the implicit power to revoke it. Before 1990, only the courts could grant or revoke citizenship. Jonathan S. Franklin, a lawyer for the immigrants, said he would ask the full appellate court for a rehearing. "Citizenship is among a person's most cherished rights," he said. "This is the first time any court has ever held that the INS may take that right away on its own, without going before a judge." INS spokeswoman Elaine Komis said the agency had not seen the ruling and would have no comment. Most of the immigrants face loss of citizenship for allegedly failing to disclose past arrests in their citizenship applications. Franklin said the INS has contended that virtually any arrest must be disclosed. For example, he said, one of the nine lead plaintiffs was arrested for investigation of possessing a marijuana plant that was actually a fern. Another was arrested on a minor charge, got the case dismissed and was told by the judge to treat it as if it had never happened. Congressional critics have accused the INS of lax citizenship testing that has allowed numerous criminals to slip through. After a 1997 audit found errors in numerous cases, the INS identified more than 6,300 cases of possible fraud and had reviewed 4,450 by the time of the injunction last July. Of those, revocation notices were issued in 2,722, and the other 1,908 were cleared. The notices had led to final action in 61 cases, of which 16 resulted in denaturalization and the rest were cleared or withdrawn, the INS said.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Tiburon NORML Party June 26 (A news release from California NORML says a $100-per-ticket benefit for national NORML at the home of Dr. Richard Miller in the East Bay community of Tiburon will feature R. Keith Stroup, Ethan Nadelmann, Marsha Rosenbaum, Tony Serra and other reform luminaries.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 09:41:41 -0700 To: canorml@igc.org From: canorml@igc.apc.org (Dale Gieringer) Subject: Tiburon NORML Party June 26th Dr. Richard Miller is hosting a benefit party for NORML at his home at the top of Ring Mountain in Tiburon on Saturday, June 26 at 6:30 PM. Learn about NORML's plans to expand its program in California. Host committee: Dr. Richard Miller, R. Keith Stroup, Ethan Nadelmann, Marsha Rosenbaum, Dale Gieringer, Tony Serra, Richard Wofle, Michael Stepanian Minimum contribution $100 requested. For details, contact Cal NORML: 415-563-5858/canorml@igc.org *** Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.apc.org 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview Not Exactly Impromptu (Houston Chronicle columnist John Makeig describes his unusual interview with Harris County Court-at-Law Judge Janice Law, who wisely protected herself by dragging in a court reporter and her personal lawyer. Apparently the judge was feeling defensive about a jury that acquitted a teen whose car allegedly smelled of marijuana, even though there was no smoke. The judge defended her decision to let the jury smell a plastic baggie of weed seized from the car.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 02:27:48 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US TX: OPED: Interview Not Exactly Impromptu Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Art Smart (ArtSmart@neosoft.com) Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: viewpoints@chron.com Website: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: John Makeig INTERVIEW NOT EXACTLY IMPROMPTU There are news interviews, and then there are news interviews. And then there are attempts to do a news interview with Harris County Court-at-Law Judge Janice Law. Wander up to her bench in the Criminal Courts Building on San Jacinto and ask to speak with her, and an altogether new sort of phenomenon begins to unfold. For openers, Law insisted on her court reporter, Eliza Madrigal, not only being present but also getting every word down on the court-reporting machine. Then, as an afterthought, Law further decided that "my lawyer" had to be there. That brought Marshall Shelsy, counsel to the misdemeanor judges, to Law's chambers, looking thoroughly confused. He usually gives judges opinions on what they can and can't do legally, not referee news interviews. The topic was an incident last month where a policeman testified he could smell marijuana in a teen's car, even though no one was smoking at the time. In his closing remarks, defense lawyer Victor Blaine suggested jurors smell the baggie of weed themselves and decide. Prosecutors complained that it was improper to let jurors do their own "investigation" of the evidence. But Law still sent the marijuana back to the jury room and before long Blaine's client was found not guilty. When Shelsy and Madrigal were ready and Law was sitting in her robes at her desk in her chambers, the interview commenced. Sort of. "I had thought that I could not comment to you on this, and Mr. Shelsy confirmed that, that the legal canons prevent me from commenting on my rulings on why I rule a certain way; but Mr. Shelsy has graciously agreed to give you some background on the issues," Law said, according to Madrigal's official transcript. For a quarter-hour, questions directed at Law were answered by Shelsy in a strange show that probably would not have occurred in conversations with any of the county's other 14 misdemeanor judges and 22 felony judges. It was clear Law did not break any set-in-stone rules by giving jurors the evidence to sniff. And both Shelsy and the judge were satisfied no juror slipped any of the illegal weed into his or her pocket or took any of it into a restroom to test it by fire. John Makeig
------------------------------------------------------------------- Alcohol's Effect On Fetuses Discussed (The Wisconsin State Journal covers a lecture Friday by Kenneth Lyons Jones of the University of California at San Diego to about 100 other developmental-toxicology scientists attending a conference at UW-Madison. "Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common recognizable cause of mental retardation in the United States. It's a cause that is totally preventable," he said. Showing slides of affected children, Jones noted mass media often decry effects of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. "You can tie them all in a bundle and they don't have anywhere near the effect that alcohol does on the unborn baby," Jones said. While the mass media have been demonizing illegal drug users, the number of expectant mothers who admitted drinking alcohol increased from 12.4 percent in 1991 to 16.3 percent in 1995.) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 05:40:36 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US WI: Alcohol's Effect On Fetuses Discussed Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: EWCHIEF Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Contact: wsjopine@statejournal.madison.com Website: http://www.madison.com/ ALCOHOL'S EFFECT ON FETUSES DISCUSSED Expectant Mothers Who Drink On Rise The speaker paused and repeated his message for emphasis. "Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common recognizable cause of mental retardation in the United States. It's a cause that is totally preventable." The speaker was Kenneth Lyons Jones of the University of California-San Diego, and his audience was about 100 fellow scientists studying developmental toxicology. They were attending a conference at UW-Madison, and the Friday morning topic was chemically induced birth defects in humans. Researchers are trying to unravel the molecular mechanisms by which substances such as alcohol disrupt human development. It's well established that alcohol consumption by pregnant women can cause devastating defects in their babies: low weight, small heads, facial abnormalities, low intelligence, hyperactivity, joint problems. Showing slides of affected children, Jones noted that media reports often decry effects of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. "You can tie them all in a bundle and they don't have anywhere near the effect that alcohol does on the unborn baby," Jones said. Despite the evidence, the number of expectant mothers who admitted drinking alcohol increased from 12.4 percent in 1991 to 16.3 percent in 1995. "Unfortunately, we're not doing a very good job of educating pregnant women about the deleterious effects of alcohol," Jones said. Scientists suspect the devastation comes from alcohol's effects on the baby's brain as it forms facial structures and controls movement in the womb. But scientists don't know why some women drink a lot and have apparently normal babies, while others drink less but damage their infants. "There is no safe amount for all women to drink during pregnancy," Jones said. Some risk factors are known, but genetic factors may be critical. Metabolism may play a role. (Known risk factors are a mother older than 30, of low socio-economic status and of ethnic background, especially African American or American Indian.) In a conversation after his speech, Jones said research findings may help educators craft better messages about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. "Women are militant about protecting their unborn baby," he said. "So I think if pregnant women really got the message, they would not be putting their child in harm's way."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Judging Youth (A letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune observes that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that someday young people would be judged by their character has been supplanted by the reality of judging young people by their urine. Adults are telling youth that negative drug test results are much more important than positive actions.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 15:21:51 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US IL: PUB LTE: Judging Youth Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Steve Young Pubdate: June 5, 1999 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: tribletter@aol.com Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ Author: Stephen Young JUDGING YOUTH ROSELLE -- Jeffrey M. Gonyo's June 2 letter criticizing random drug tests for students was right on target. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a time when young people would be judged by the content of their character. Today we settle for judging young people by the content of their urine. Adults are telling youth that negative test results are much more important than positive actions. If King could see how our society equates chemical integrity with moral integrity I think he would be very disappointed. Stephen Young
------------------------------------------------------------------- Kentuckians Get Out The Word About Hemp (The Lexington Herald-Leader says the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce, with Mayor Fred Siegelman's blessing, sponsored a ribbon-cutting yesterday at the new Kentucky Hemp Museum in Versailles. Ironically, the activists who belong to the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association have been much more successful at promoting reform bills in at least 12 other states than at home. The problem has always been the Drug Enforcement Administration, but even the DEA is now coming around. For example, the agency has stopped arguing that hemp cannot be distinguished in the field from marijuana. Discussions, which have included the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, are apparently at a delicate stage.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 15:21:42 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US KY: Kentuckians Get Out The Word About Hemp Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: AgFuture Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 1999 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: hleditorial@herald-leader.com Fax: 606-255-7236 Website: http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/ Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?lexingtn Author: Janet Patton Section: Business - Front Page KENTUCKIANS GET OUT THE WORD ABOUT HEMP Efforts in some states pave way for new crop Bluegrass farmers' dream of growing U.S. hemp finally might be coming true, but not in Kentucky. North Dakota, spurred by the first-year profits of neighboring Canadian farmers, legalized industrial hemp production in April. But Hawaii will probably get it into the ground faster. On July 7, Gov. Benjamin Cayetano will sign a bill authorizing 10 acres of variety trials. "We're hoping to put seed in the ground in September," said Hawaii state Rep. Cynthia Thielen. "I think it's quite embarrassing that Kentucky's so far behind in this....Kentucky can watch our dust." At least 12 other states, including Tennessee, have passed or are considering pro-hemp legislation. Ironically, this has happened in no small part because of the work of Kentucky hemp activists, whose efforts to get legal permission to grow the crop have made little progress in their own state. "I cannot understand why a state with your history in hemp won't consider this crop," Thielen said. Hawaii is looking to replace idle sugar plantations with hemp fields that could eventually fuel an ethanol plant. Through some high-profile legal wrangling, sometimes involving actor Woody Harrelson, and constant Internet efforts, the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association has begun to make a name for itself nationally and at home. It is a measure of the group's efforts that yesterday the Woodford County Chamber of Commerce, with Mayor Fred Siegelman's blessing, sponsored the ribbon-cutting at the new Kentucky Hemp Museum in Versailles. Lexington Mayor Pam Miller will give the opening address at the co-op's annual meeting this month in Fayette County, said Joe Hickey, the association's Executive Director. Hickey and association President Andy Graves have testified before state legislatures in Oregon and Missouri. Winchester farmer Gale Glenn sits on the North American Industrial Hemp Council board. 'Our worst enemies' Glenn has been very vocal about advocates of legalizing marijuana who try to hitch onto hemp's bandwagon. "They are our worst enemies," Glenn has been quoted as saying. "If marijuana didn't exist, hemp would be growing here on hundreds of thousands of acres." Hemp advocates strive to put as much distance between hemp and marijuana as possible. "There's not a tie-dyed T-shirt in the group," said James Woolsey, the former CIA director who now lobbies for the hemp council. He blames the lack of action in most states on "inertia and public relations." That is what the Kentucky activists have worked hard to change, and they have found many receptive to their message. But at home, the hemp movement has been slow to grow. "I don't know of any legislator yet who's said they were willing to put forth a bill," said Rep. Joe Barrows, D-Versailles. "I think it would be appropriate for us to do a little research ourselves, a controlled experimental effort." Of Thielen's criticism, he said, "We're not any different than most places. The first reaction is the understandable confusion between hemp and marijuana. I don't think we've gotten entirely past that point. There's still a real reluctance in law enforcement." 'The problem: THC' The problem for all states has always been the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA reading of the law is that hemp is marijuana and therefore is illegal to grow because it contains THC, the drug that produces marijuana's high, said Bud Scholtz, hemp council chairman. But a recent letter to Thielen from a DEA administrator appears to soften that position. "The DEA is currently reviewing the security regulations ... as part of the review, DEA will consider setting the level of THC content for ... hemp that may be grown for industrial purposes," wrote Gregory Williams, chief of DEA operations on April 23. "This review is based on the premise that public and commercial interest may be better served if the cultivation of Cannabis sativa L., hemp is authorized by the appropriate Federal and State entities." Discussions, which have included DEA drug czar Barry McCaffrey, are apparently at a delicate stage. "We're making good progress," Scholtz said. "We had talks with General McCaffrey recently, but I don't want to make a comment on that right now." The review is still in progress, DEA spokeswoman Rogene Wade confirmed yesterday. "The DEA is reviewing the security issue that would be associated with the manufacture (of hemp)," she said. The agency is looking at the types of data that would be required for licensure, she said. It is not actually illegal to grow hemp (or marijuana, for that matter); you just need a federal license to do it. But, say hemp activists, you can't get a license. That's what states ready to grow hemp hope will change soon. The fight in other states has not been easy. In Hawaii, Thielen said, the police lobby tried to kill the bill. "Practically all of the legislators were not aware of the distinction between the plants," she said. In Oregon, pro-hemp legislation was killed out of "ignorance," said state Rep. Floyd Prozanski. In Oregon, hemp could become a renewable source of paper pulp. "In some states, they know it's rope, not dope. Other states are pigeonholed. The DEA's going to have to come around." 'Signs of softening' There are further signs that may be happening. The DEA stopped arguing that hemp cannot be distinguished in the field from marijuana. "That's been pretty much shot down," Scholtz said. It's grown in 33 countries, including Canada, largely without law enforcement difficulties, he said. Manufacturers have found plenty of uses for hemp -- the Kentucky Hemp Museum displays dozens of modern products ranging from feed to clothing to fiberboard to lip balm. "You can eat it, wear it and live in it," said Jake Graves, the Fayette County farmer and chairman of the Kentucky Hemp Museum board. Whether there would be any money in it is something economists do not agree on. One University of Kentucky study found there would be little market for a Kentucky-grown product in a market flooded with cheap, foreign hemp. But another UK study last year estimated Kentucky farmers could make up to $600 an acre. Canadian farmers are clearing $300 an acre in profit, said North Dakota Rep. David Monson, who sponsored that state's bill. Monson pointed out that until the federal government lets them, North Dakota farmers can't grow hemp either. "I'd say there's a fairly decent possibility that it could happen next year," Monson said. "North Dakota is behind that all the way from the grass-roots to our governor." Now, he said, other states need to get involved. "If every state would do it, the federal government couldn't ignore it," he said. "Every time a state introduces legislation, it goes a step farther." (SIDEBAR) What's the difference? Is there a difference between hemp and marijuana or is it all cannabis sativa? "Yes, there's a difference," said Scott Smith, UK agriculture associate dean, "in terms of the active ingredient, THC. "Botanically, they're the same species of plant ... but very different varieties." Industrial Hemp contains less than 1 percent THC, while marijuana varieties typically have 5 to 20 percent. There are also differences in how hemp is grown and harvested. So, no matter how much you eat or smoke hemp products, you can't get high.
------------------------------------------------------------------- A Conspirator for the Constitution (Washington Post columnist Nat Hentoff says John Whitehead, an attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute, was identified by "some members of the press" as one of the leading figures in a massive right-wing conspiracy against the President alleged by Hillary Rodham Clinton. It turns out Whitehead is an eloquent and insightful critic of the assault on the Fourth Amendment and other Constitutional rights in the name of the drug war by the Clinton administration and the U.S. Supreme Court.) Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 01:40:19 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US VA: OPED: A Conspirator for the Constitution Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Jo-D Harrison Dunbar Pubdate: Sat, 05 June 1999 Source: Washington Post (DC) Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Author: Nat Hentoff A CONSPIRATOR FOR THE CONSTITUTION After Hillary Rodham Clinton revealed the existence of a massive right-wing conspiracy against her husband, some members of the press fingered John Whitehead -- an attorney and president of the Rutherford Institute -- as one of the leading conspirators. After all, the Rutherford Institute had helped fund the Paula Jones lawsuit against the president. Here are some recent indications of what Whitehead is actually up to. He writes a syndicated newspaper column, Freedom Under Fire, which appears in more than 100 newspapers around the country. Focusing on random drug testing -- without reasonable suspicion -- of public school students, Whitehead accuses the Supreme Court of failing to give students a clear lesson about the Fourth Amendment: "The same students that are being educated about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in their government classes are being stripped of their own constitutional rights when the bell rings and the class is over." Whitehead insists the time has come for the Supreme Court to inform the schools that the "Fourth Amendment's constitutional protection from unlawful search and seizure applies to everyone, regardless of age or education." Especially now with the "oppressive safety measures" after the Littleton, Colo. shootings. Is there any member of Congress these days who will so boldly challenge the rampant "zero tolerance" approach of school authorities? Even among the very few civil libertarians at the Capitol? In another column, Whitehead is appalled at the April Supreme Court decision that a police search of a car can include the personal belongings of passengers who themselves are under no suspicion of unlawful activity. Whatever happened, asks Whitehead, to "innocent until proved guilty"? From now on, "associating with friends in a car or sharing a ride to work carries a criminal risk. . . . By allowing the police such unfettered discretion . . . the Supreme Court decision will force people to forfeit their rights at the automobile door" -- as students forfeit their rights at the schoolhouse door. In his column on law enforcement agents' profiling of airplane passengers, Whitehead quotes from Georgetown University Law School Prof. David Cole's carefully documented book, "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System." Cole charts the degradation of our abstractly cherished Bill of Rights. Whitehead cites Cole's report that "the list of characteristics used by law enforcement officers to identify drug traffickers includes: "Being one of the first to deplane, the last to deplane or deplaning in the middle; buying a first-class ticket or buying a coach ticket; using a one-way ticket or using a round-trip ticket; traveling with a companion or alone; and wearing expensive clothing or dressing casually." Whitehead goes on to tell what happened to Lawrence Boze. At Los Angeles International Airport, he was taken from a ticket counter and detained in a security area. He and his bags were searched, and he was interrogated as to his identity and where and why he was traveling. Boze kept demanding an explanation for this abrupt interference with his travel plans. The only answer he got was that he matched "the profile." Boze, former president of the National Bar Association, is black. When nothing of police interest was found, he was sent on his way. Whitehead also writes of a Chicago travel agent, Patricia Appleton, "who has been repeatedly stopped and searched -- even strip-searched -- by U.S. Customs Service inspectors." During one trip, the well-dressed black passenger was traveling alone. Writes Whitehead: "Stripped, forced to bend over and grab her ankles, she equated the humiliation and vulnerability she felt to when she was brutally raped when she was 15." Appleton is one of "84 African-American women who have filed a class action suit against the U.S. Customs Service." I am sure John Whitehead would be glad to put the White House on the mailing list for his Freedom Under Fire columns. In the spirit of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, he also sends a free pocket-size copy of the Constitution to anyone who writes to him at the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va. The president, who has eviscerated the right to habeas corpus, could benefit from Whitehead's offer.
------------------------------------------------------------------- RCMP Weeding Out B.C. Pot Growers (The Calgary Herald shows extreme bias and betrays its journalistic mission in an article claiming the Mounties are using increasing arrests "to crush the marijuana culture in the Kootenay region." Unfortunately, just as in Portland and other North American cities, the local newspaper fails to explain there are probably 10 marijuana growers for every prison cell in the region and every law-abiding citizen is going to have to work about five full-time jobs in order to afford the taxes it would take to create the police state necessary to detect, arrest, prosecute and imprison even half of them. Similarly, the newspaper fails to explain that all taxpayers are doing is eliminating the most incompetent growers and personal-use cultivators with the least security, thereby subsidizing the largest, best organized and most ruthless ones. However, the paper does note the stepped up enforcement is threatening availability of medicine at the Universal Compassion Club, Grant Krieger's new medical-marijuana dispensary in Calgary.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 15:21:43 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: RCMP Weeding Out BC Pot Growers Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: daystar1@home.com Pubdate: Saturday, June 5, 1999 Source: Calgary Herald (Canada) Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Author: Brock Ketcham RCMP WEEDING OUT B.C. POT GROWERS It was just after daybreak, Dec.11, 1998 Ten heavily armed RCMP officers stormed a house on a small acreage outside the remote village of Winlaw in the West Kootenanys, about 50 kilometres northwest of Nelson. An informant had told the RCMP they might find something more than tools in a ramshackle workshop by the house. But all they found was a workbench. Then a tiny hole in the wall aroused a Mountie's curiosity, and he poked an object inside. A hydraulic lift raised the bench from the floor, exposing an elevator. The Mountie and fellow officers hopped aboard and soon found themselves in a three-room underground structure filled with a crop of hydroponically grown marijuana. `It was definitely not a ma-and-pa type of operation,' recalls Nelson RCMP Const. Carol Kurbel. The raid is part of a wave of police actions in recent month to crush the marijuana culture in the Kootenay region. The farmer awaits trial on a pot cultivation charge. Other growers throughout the West and East Kootenays - as well as the remainder of British Columbia - feel under siege by RCMP who have put the province's legion of pot growers at the top of their drug-enforcement priorities. Mounties have 146 investigations under way in the Kootenay region alone, says Nelson RCMP Const. Tom Clark. And 1,285 people in B.C. were charged with cultivation of marijuana in 1997 - the most recent year for which RCMP statistics are available - compare with 805 in 1996. The cultivation of `B.C. Bud', renowned among pot users worldwide for its potency, has been largely the domain of 1960s-era hippies, draft dodgers and other laid-back folk who grew the illegal substance with little risk of police scrutiny or stiff penalties in court. But times are changing, says Sgt. Chuck Doucette, head of the B.C. drug awareness section in Vancouver. Organized criminals ranging from Hell's Angels to ethnic gang members realized they could make huge profits with little legal risk. Three years ago, the RCMP decided to shift much of their drug investigation resources from heroin and cocaine traffickers - and the results have been becoming apparent, Doucette says. Neighbours are encouraged through newspaper ads to report pot growers to police. `Everybody who's growing dope is starting to look over their shoulders now,' says Clark, the RCMP's drug expert for the West Kootenay-Boundary region. `That's what we want.' Growers in Grand Forks, a community in the Boundary - a fertile, semi-arid region between the Kootenays and the Okanagan along the U.S. border - told the Herald that paranoia is taking hold in the decades-old industry. In Grand Forks, 14 growers have been arrested in the past month, says Paul Dimotoff, a 51-year-old man who has grown pot in this little city for 28 years. `It's a real apprehensive mood,' says Dimotoff. 'You're looking at everybody now.' Dimotoff says growers are honest, peaceful people who do not deserve to be treated like gangsters. `This vendetta by the RCMP is absolutely absurd,' he says. `They are bullies with badges.' Al Demosky, 65, a musician and dabbler in small business who has lived here for more than half a century, says growers may have become visible to the RCMP through their own greed. `I've got only two plants,' Demosky says. `They (RCMP) can get them, but first they've got to find them.' `I don't sell it - it's only for my own use...and my friends.' The RCMP's Doucette says big league criminals have established a strong presence in pot cultivation and are organizing crops `almost like franchises,' telling underlings what equipment to use and how to care for the plants. `They know somebody is growing - they move in,' Doucette says. `It's whoa - you're now growing for me.'` Meanwhile, the stepped up enforcement is threatening availability of B.C.'s potent pot product for the Universal Compassion Club (UCC), a new Calgary group that provides pot to seriously ill people, says pot crusader and club founder Grant Krieger. Dimitoff agrees, `It will start to have an impact on compassion clubs,' says the grower, who cultivates cannabis for personal use and for medicinal clubs. `It already has.' Krieger, 44, who returned to Calgary two weeks ago from Grand Forks, where he spent three days lining up suppliers for UCC, says `they're taking away an industry that's just getting ready to start - they're trying to shut it down." Last Monday thieves broke into a house UCC is renting and stole the club's stash of cannabis plants and ready-to-smoke pot, worth about $8,000. But Krieger, who has multiple sclerosis, remains determined to have the club up and running by mid-June. The club has 25 members and Krieger supplies them with pot from indoor growers in Calgary. He is travelling across Canada to establish contact with other suppliers. Doucette, says once the RCMP realized pot cultivation in B.C. was no longer the exclusive domain of `mom and pop operators and hippies,' they began creating `Green Teams' - squads that specialize in shutting down growers. The RCMP also reassigned individual Mounties in detachments too small for such teams to work on cultivation cases full-time. Doucette, says the lenient fines or suspended sentences once handed down by the courts made pot cultivation a congenial criminal enterprise. But with growers showing up in court by the hundreds, judges are handing out stiffer sentences, he says. Clark says that in one recent case in Nakusp, a judge fined the grower $7,500. Fines of the magnitude are five times the amount levied in B.C. only a few years ago, he says. Doucette, scoffs at a belief among B.C. growers that U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency funding is behind the RCMP crackdown. `Boy - I wish,' he said. While RCMP applaud Ottawa's decision to create a safe supply of pot for medical reasons, they have no sympathy for compassion clubs. `We take a firm stance that we disagree with medicinal pot because it is illegal,' Doucette says. But Dimotoff says no amount of law enforcement will make him quit. `This vocation I have chosen harms no one,' he says. `I am livid that so much time is spent locating and harassing the medicine growers. `I talk daily to growers who echo my sentiments. We are all fed up. My friends wish to remain safely hidden. I an too old to care about that, and fear neither jail nor coffin.'
------------------------------------------------------------------- Puritanical About Pleasure (A letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail, in Toronto, criticizes the Canadian government's quest to remove any psychoactive effect from marijuana before allowing it to be used as medicine.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 12:09:03 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: PUB LTE: Puritanical About Pleasure Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org Pubdate: Saturday, June 5, 1999 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 1999, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/ Author: Andrew Peplowski PURITANICAL ABOUT PLEASURE Re Clinical Pot Leaves You Sober, Yet Feeling No Pain -- June 3: So the Canadian government is considering a clinical trial of marijuana that will leave its subjects sober. Typical! Let's take the only possible physical pleasure someone living with AIDS, cancer or MS may experience and remove it from the equation. Given all the usual side effects of the drugs used to treat these diseases, wouldn't it be nice if this time the patients might enjoy the treatment? Andrew Peplowski Pointe-Claire, Que.
------------------------------------------------------------------- MP's Shows The Depth Of Ignorance (A letter to the editor of the Calgary Herald criticizes politicians in Canada who justify their opposition to medical marijuana with concerns about children's perceptions. Adolescents don't listen well to politicians or police for information on damages of drugs: exaggerating the dangers of cannabis will not solve anything. And Calgary Centre MP Eric Lowther's contention that medications exist that "do everything and more" than cannabis is the epitome of all the ignorance surrounding cannabis.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 12:02:39 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: PUB LTE: MP's Shows The Depth Of Ignorance Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: daystar1@home.com Pubdate: Saturday, June 5, 1999 Source: Calgary Herald (Canada) Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Author: Daniel Tourigny MP's SHOWS THE DEPTH OF IGNORANCE The comments made by some of the MP's shows the depth of ignorance politicians have in the cannabis debate. Some politicians in Canada, much like American politicians, relay concerns about a child's perception of cannabis and that `wide availability' will result from legalizing cannabis. The fallacy with this argument is that adolescents don't listen well to politicians or police for information on damages of drugs: exaggerating the dangers of cannabis will not solve anything. Cannabis is already widely available, and it's difficult to believe it would become more so if it were legalized. In fact, the `criminal baggage' carried with this illegal weed would be largely shed it it were regulated, much like cigarettes and alcohol. Calgary Centre MP Eric Lowther's contention that medications exist that `do everything and more' than cannabis attempts to discredit every sick person forced to turn to the streets to find the substance that eases their problems, when other legal measures fail. Certainly, he is the epitome of all the ignorance surrounding cannabis. Daniel Tourigny Victoria, B.C.
------------------------------------------------------------------- MPs Have Pot Legalization All Wrong (A letter to the editor of the Calgary Herald rebuts MP Art Hanger's contention that "By legalizing weed, we're sending the wrong message to young people that it is no worse than smoking. It is certainly worse than smoking." By allowing tobacco to be legal the message is: "Tobacco is less harmful than marijuana." That is clearly a falsehood. Nearly every year half a million U.S. citizens die every year from tobacco-related diseases, but none from marijuana.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 11:57:36 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: PUB LTE: MPs Have Pot Legalization All Wrong Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: daystar1@home.com Pubdate: Saturday, June 5, 1999 Source: Calgary Herald (Canada) Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Author: Gerald M. Sutcliff MPS HAVE POT LEGALIZATION ALL WRONG Re: `legalizing pot sends wrong message, say Calgary MP's,' Calgary Herald, May 30. You quoted MP Art Hanger as saying,'By legalizing weed, we're sending the wrong message to young people that it is no worse than smoking. It is certainly worse than smoking.' I hope the media won't let Hanger get away with such a statement without providing supporting evidence. By allowing tobacco to be legal the message is: `Tobacco is less harmful than marijuana.' That is clearly a falsehood. Nearly every year half a million United States citizens die every year from tobacco-related diseases while there hasn't been one such death from marijuana in the last year or the year before. Gerald M. Sutcliff Emeryville, Calf.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Mice, Cocaine Prove Canucks Are Mellow (According to the Edmonton Sun, a study published in yesterday's issue of Science magazine says scientists are at a loss to explain why identical laboratory experiments in the United States and Canada involving cocaine and cloned lab mice yielded significantly different results. The study is causing ripples in the scientific community because it suggests slight environmental differences can be as much of a factor as slight differences in genetics. Dr. John Crabbe, a behavioural neuroscientist at Oregon Health Services University in Portland, said "We went nuts trying to control differences. We sent probably 2,000 e-mails and phone calls to try to eliminate every possible environmental difference. Yet three strains of Edmonton mice responded more to coke. They ran around more. Why? When you get the answer, let me know.") Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 12:05:31 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Canada: Mice, Cocaine Prove Canucks Are Mellow Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org Pubdate: Saturday, June 5, 1999 Source: Edmonton Sun (Canada) Copyright: 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: sun.letters@ccinet.ab.ca Website: http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/ Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html Author: Bernard Pilon MICE, COCAINE PROVE CANUCKS ARE MELLOW It took cloned rodents ripped on cocaine to uncover the truth: Canadians really are just, like, more mellow, eh? Like it or not, Europeans generally sum up Canucks as less-excitable cousins to the brash Yanks. Along comes a cross-border study suggesting maybe, just maybe, that arctic-tinged air and Canadian tap water may make us more mellow. It certainly did something strange to a bunch of mice in a University of Alberta lab in April 1998. "It's one of those things that came out that's a bit of a surprise," said Dr. John Crabbe, a behavioural neuroscientist at Oregon Health Services University in Portland. Crabbe - joined by U of A psychologist Dr. Douglas Wahlsten and another colleague in Albany, New York - injected small amounts of cocaine into 128 genetically similar rodents, all 77 days old and living under identical conditions. You'd think they'd react identically. You'd think wrong. According to a study published in yesterday's issue of Science magazine, some of the Edmonton mice got visibly higher on coke than American rodents. At the same time, however, Crabbe said they were less "wired" - and just quietly hung around in a maze, soaking up their surroundings, until the high went down. "We went nuts trying to control differences. "We sent probably 2,000 e-mails and phone calls to try to eliminate every possible environmental difference (before doing the tests)," said Crabbe. "Yet three strains of Edmonton mice responded more to coke. They ran around more. Why? When you get the answer, let me know," said Crabbe. The study is causing ripples in the scientific community because it suggests slight environmental differences - ranging from their handlers' behaviour to chemicals found in tap water - can be as much of a factor in scientific experiments that crave consistency as slight differences in genetics.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Unproven Drug Allegations Rend U.S. Relations With Mexico City (The Houston Chronicle says a top-level meeting of Cabinet ministers that ended in Mexico City Friday was originally intended to be a showcase of chummy U.S.-Mexican relations. But it illustrated instead how the two countries can't seem to get past the divisive issue of drugs. The showcase was upset by articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times that cited unnamed U.S. officials who accused the family of Carlos Hank Gonzalez, one of Mexico's richest, and Jose Liebano Saenz, the private secretary to President Ernesto Zedillo, of having links to the country's drug cartels. Mexican Secretary of State Rosario Green told reporters that the stories were shadowy efforts to throw the meeting off balance. She demanded that the Clinton administration hand over any proof. Before major meetings between U.S. and Mexican officials, stories consistently appear in the American press that suggest drug corruption at the highest levels of Mexico's government and society. Green put it off to "conservative" elements on the U.S.-side of the drug debate. Some analysts say the leaks may be coming from American law enforcement agencies.) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 01:29:42 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: US TX: Unproven Drug Allegations Rend US Relations With Mexico City Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Art Smart (ArtSmart@neosoft.com) Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: viewpoints@chron.com Website: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: Michael Riley UNPROVEN DRUG ALLEGATIONS REND US RELATIONS WITH MEXICO CITY Attorney General Janet Reno said unfounded reports of drug trafficking by high Mexican officials were unfair. MEXICO CITY -- A top-level meeting of Cabinet ministers that ended here Friday was originally intended to be a showcase of chummy U.S.-Mexican relations. But it illustrated instead how the two countries can't seem to get past the divisive issue of drugs. The day before several U.S. Cabinet members and their aides flew in for the meeting, The Washington Post and The New York Times ran separate front-page articles that accused one of Mexico's richest families and the private secretary to President Ernesto Zedillo of having suspected links to the country's drug cartels. Both stories cited unnamed U.S. government officials as their sources. The articles provoked a swift reaction here. Furious, Mexican Secretary of State Rosario Green told reporters that the stories were shadowy efforts to throw the meeting off balance. She demanded that the Clinton administration hand over any proof to support the charges. The incident once again illustrated how efforts to improve the United States' relationship with Mexico, its second-largest trading partner, has been consistently frustrated by suspicions in Washington of drug corruption in Mexico City. "Drugs obscure everything," said Delal Baer, an expert in U.S.-Mexican relations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Can we work the positive elements of the agenda without becoming obsessed with the problems? It doesn't seem like we can," he said. The annual get-together of high-level Mexican and American officials, called the Bi-National Commission, was created several years ago as a confidence-building measure for officials of both countries and as a way to deal with increasingly complex issues facing both countries. This year's meeting took up items ranging from trade to immigration. In all, more than 600 officials participated, and the meeting was divided into 16 working groups. Although Secretary of State Madeleine Albright remained in Washington because of developments in Yugoslavia, Attorney General Janet Reno, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey, and the secretaries of interior, transportation, commerce and housing and urban development attended the meeting. Key issues like immigration and health seemed to slip behind the shadow created by drugs. Green's angry press conference on Thursday displayed a frustration over what many Mexicans see as a consistent tactic: Before major meetings between U.S. and Mexican officials, stories appear in the American press that suggest drug corruption at the highest levels of Mexico's government and society. "It must be a strategy. It's a way of saying, `We're really concerned about these issues and want to bring them to the table,' " said Sigrid Arzt, a political scientist in Mexico City. "These are sensitive issues to bring up directly," she said, "but by the time the meetings begin, all the Mexican officials have been alerted to them through leaks in the press." The question of exactly who is behind the strategy is less clear, Artz and others here say. Green put it off to "conservative" elements on the U.S.-side of the drug debate. Some analysts say the leaks may be coming from American law enforcement agencies. But others say the Clinton administration is split between doves, who see cooperation with Mexico as the key to improved drug-fighting, and hawks, who believe Mexico ought to be taken to task for the impunity enjoyed by the drug gangsters who ship 70 percent of cocaine consumed in the United States. "This is really about a power struggle taking place inside the Beltway," Baer said. That division is fracturing U.S. policy towards Mexico and becoming an increasing embarrassment for the White House. The Washington Post article cited a National Drug Intelligence Center report that concluded the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Hank Gonzalez -- a major financier of Mexico's long-ruling party, known as the PRI -- was so involved in money laundering and the distribution of drugs that its political and financial empire amounted to "a significant criminal threat to the United States." The New York Times reported that Zedillo's private secretary and de facto chief of staff, Jose Liebano Saenz, had been investigated on allegations of drug corruption. After his arrival here, McCaffrey, the U.S. drug czar, distanced himself from the media reports, telling reporters that he did not have any information on either the Hank Gonzalez family or Saenz that was worth taking to Mexican authorities. McCaffrey directed his ire toward the media. "If this was classified information around national security, we'd be out there polygraphing people and we'd prosecute," McCaffrey said, "because it would be jeopardizing U.S. national interest." Still, the New York Times report struck many here as especially unfair. Mexico's attorney general's office said it has already thoroughly investigated Saenz at his own insistence and cleared him. Mexican investigators said many informants who accused him of having links with the country's drug cartels turned out to be unreliable and that at least one failed a lie-detector test. For her part, Reno told reporters Friday, "I cannot conclude, based on information I have, that (Saenz) is guilty of any wrongdoing," She added, "It's unfair and just plain wrong ... to make judgments based on fragmentary reports." The two press reports, analysts say, point to an underlying problem with the drug-corruption allegations that Clinton administration officials have leveled against high-level Mexicans in recent years. Intelligence information from wiretaps and unnamed informants used in the allegations does not have to meet the same high standard of proof as evidence in a court of law, they say. They add that since the U.S. officials leak the allegations without allowing the media to identify them, the Clinton administration is losing credibility here. "This just does not push the ball down the court in U.S.-Mexican relations," Baer said.
------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Executions In 5 Years Spark Scant Outcry On Drug-Riven Island (The Chicago Tribune says the Caribbean island of Trinidad ended a five-year moratorium on capital punishment Friday, hanging the first three members of a "gang of eight" convicted of killing four people during a 1994 drug dispute. "Throughout the Caribbean, there is a growing clamor for capital punishment to deter violent crime associated with drug-smuggling." The eight hangings may clear the way for dozens of other executions in the Caribbean.) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 01:44:35 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Trinidad: 1st Executions In 5 Years Spark Scant Outcry On Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Steve Young Pubdate: Sat, 05 June 1999 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 1999 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: tribletter@aol.com Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ Author: From Tribune News Services 1ST EXECUTIONS IN 5 YEARS SPARK SCANT OUTCRY ON DRUG-RIVEN ISLAND PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD -- Trinidad hanged three convicted murderers Friday, ending a five-year hiatus in using the death penalty and possibly leading the way for dozens of other executions in the Caribbean. Reputed drug lord Dole Chadee "gave no trouble and went to the gallows" at dawn, Prisons Commissioner Cipriani Baptiste said. Joey Ramiah and Ramkhalawan Singh followed; three more are to hang Saturday and three others on Monday. Chadee and his "gang of eight" were convicted of killing Hamilton Baboolal and three family members in a 1994 drug dispute. Port-of-Spain's Roman Catholic churches tolled death knells to protest the executions. But only one protester stood vigil outside the Port-of-Spain Prison--a testimony to the popularity of the death penalty in a region riven with drug trafficking. English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a population of 5 million, have about 250 people on Death Row--more than 100 in Trinidad alone. The total is one of the highest death sentence rates in the world, Amnesty International has said. After years without executions in the region, the Bahamas hanged two men last year and St. Kitts and Nevis hanged one man. Throughout the Caribbean, there is a growing clamor for capital punishment to deter violent crime associated with drug-smuggling.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Trinidad executes 8 killers (A lengthier version in the Oakland Tribune identifies the source as the Associated Press.) Date: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 10:22:27 -0700 To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org) From: Gerald Sutliff (gsutliff@dnai.com) Subject: Trinidad executes 8 killers Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org Dear Talkers, Here in below is a small example of the misery we export with our obsession with puritanical pharmacology: *** Subject: Trinidad executes 3 killers Source: Oakland Tribune (CA), World News, 5 June 1999 Contact: triblet@angnewspapers.com Newshawk: Jerry Sutliff Trinidad executes 3 killers AP Wire story PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad -- Trinidad hanged three convicted murderers Friday, ending a five-year hiatus in using the death penalty and possibly leading the way for dozens of other executions in the Caribbean. Reputed drug lord Dole Chadee "gave no trouble and went to the gallows" at dawn. Prisons Commissioner Ciprtani Baaptiste said. Joey Ramiah and Ramkhalawan Singh followed; three more are to hang today and three others Monday. Chadee and his "gang of eight" were convicted of killing Hamilton "Mice" Baboolal and three family members in a 1994 drug dispute. Chadde instructed the gunmen to kill the whole family, including two children. The killers spared the children -- but gunned down Baboolal, his sister and his parents. Port-of-Spain's Roman Catholic churches tolled death knells to protest the executions. But only one protester stood vigil outside decaying yellow walls of Port-of-Spain Prison - a testimony to the popularity of the death penalty in a region riven with drug trafficking. Prison officials refused Chadee's wife Chandra a final visit Thursday. "All I want to do is to hold him," she sobbed. The three men were buried by prisoners in unmarked graves Friday afternoon. English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a population of 5 million, have about 250 people on death row -- more that 10 in Trinidad alone. The total is one of the highest death-sentence rates in the world, Amnesty International has said. After years without executions in the region, the Bahamas hanged two men last year and St. Kitts and Nevis hanged one man. Throughout the Caribbean, there is a growing clamor for capital punishment to deter violent crime associated with drug-smuggling. "People have been forced to live in jails of their own construction, barricading their houses and business places with iron bars, double locks, electronic alarms," The Express of Trinidad raged this week. "(This) has fueled the depth of feeling in favor of the death penalty."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Trinidad Hangs Drug-Gang Members (The Los Angeles Times version) Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 10:22:11 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Trinidad: Trinidad Hangs Drug-Gang Members Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Mike Gogulski and M & M Family Pubdate: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: letters@sjmercury.com Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times TRINIDAD HANGS DRUG-GANG MEMBERS Island nation intends to send message with 9 executions PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- As the sun rose Friday behind the Northern Ridge near here, and the 6 a.m. bell pealed at nearby St. Mary's College, the trap door snapped open beneath Dole Chadee's feet in the State Prison gallows room. Trinidad's most notorious murderer, drug lord and gang leader had been hanged. Joey Ramiah was the next to die. And then, at 8:44 a.m., it was Ramkalawan Singh's turn. Three more will hang today, and another three Monday, until all nine members of the gang that slaughtered the Baboolal family over an apparent drug dispute five years ago are dead. Marking the moment with prayer and protest, the church bell at the capital's Roman Catholic Cathedral tolled nine times at 8 a.m. -- a reminder, Archbishop Anthony Pantin said, that "enough blood has been spilled." But with hourly news bulletins, street-corner banter and banner headlines announcing "Hanging Time," many in this crime-weary nation of 1.3 million heaved a sigh of relief that what they consider justice had been done. "Everybody will think before they kill now," concluded Marjorie Clark, a 50-year-old hospital worker in the somber crowd that gathered at dawn outside the 187-year-old stone prison. In staging these hangings -- with a single exception, Trinidad and Tobago's first executions in two decades -- this twin-island nation means to send a message to drug traffickers and contract killers who are littering the Caribbean with cocaine and corpses. It also is leading the way for neighboring island states seeking to brush aside legal challenges and lengthy appeals and implement the death penalty. The Trinidad hangings set the stage for executions expected in the months ahead in Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica and other Caribbean nations. But for Trinidad on Friday, hanging day was rife with irony: It was a major victory for Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj, a onetime attorney for death row inmates and a human rights crusader who partially withdrew from international rights bodies while pushing hard for the hangings. His own brother is on death row in Florida. After years of frustrating judicial delays, Friday's hangings, Maharaj said, prove that "punishment is a deterrent to crime." The judicial body that cleared away the last roadblock to the gallows early Friday was London's Privy Council, the highest appeal court for most of the Caribbean's former British colonies. The council in the past has been the biggest obstacle to imposing capital punishment in the region. The council -- based in a nation that has banned the death penalty at home and that has lobbied its former colonies to follow suit -- blocked dozens of executions in the region by issuing a ruling in 1993 that limited the amount of time convicted killers should have to spend on death row. But in turning down a final desperate appeal just three hours before Chadee -- hooded and robed, with hands bound -- stepped up to the gallows, the Privy Council finally ceded Trinidad's constitutional right to enforce a law that states: "Every person convicted of murder shall suffer death."
------------------------------------------------------------------- Trinidad Sends Three Killers To The Gallows (The version in Britain's Guardian) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 19:48:43 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Trinidad: Trinidad Sends Three Killers To The Gallows Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie) Pubdate: June 5, 1999 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999 Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Authors: Clare Dyer in London and Ira Mathur in Port of Spain TRINIDAD SENDS THREE KILLERS TO THE GALLOWS Three convicted murderers were executed in Trinidad yesterday, moments after three senior British judges rejected a last-ditch appeal from two of the men. Dole Chadee, Joey Ramiah and Ramkalawan Singh, the first murderers to be hanged in Trinidad for five years, were part of a drugs gang of nine found guilty of killing four members of the Baboolal family in Williamsville, Trinidad, in 1994. The other six gang members are expected to be hanged today and Monday. British lawyers, acting free of charge, tried hard to save the men from the gallows. The cases have shone a spotlight on the role of the judicial committee of the privy council - the law lords wearing another hat which still acts as the final court of appeal for Jamaica, Trinidad and some other former colonies. The judges sit in Downing Street, central London, deciding the fate of death row inmates in crime-ridden parts of the Caribbean, where the local populace strongly supports the death penalty. The Trinidad commissioner of prisons, Cipriani Baptiste, emerged from Royal jail in Port of Spain three times between the first hanging at 6.05am and the third at 8.44am. He said all three men had gone calmly to the noose, and it had taken "about a minute" for each to die. Spectators included several people whose friends or relatives had been murder victims. They asked a lone man demonstrating against the death penalty how he would feel if his wife's, children's or brother's throats were slit. The mood on the streets and on call-in radio programmes was sober and reflective. Most people expressed satisfaction at the hangings; only a few called them barbaric. Trinidad, which has about 90 prisoners on death row, is leading Caribbean nations in trying to set up a regional supreme court to replace the privy council. The last man to be hanged was Glen Ashby in 1994, while the privy council was still considering his case. Trinidad's attorney general, Ramesh Maharaj, said the latest executions were necessary to restore public confidence in the law. "The non-implemention of the death penalty in the Caribbean has caused the justice system to be undermined and for members of the public to question it." A recent survey by the University of the West Indies found 75% of people in Trinidad and Tobago had lost faith in the justice system. Mr Maharaj, leader of the house of representatives, also rejected criticism of the executions from groups such as Amnesty International. "There is a misconception that the death penalty is a human rights issue, but it is not. "The international declaration of human rights authorises states to carry out the death penalty in accordance with the due process of law. Trinidad and Tobago respects other countries where they decide what punishment fits a particular crime, and we would expect others to do the same with punishments decided upon by the sovereign people of Trinidad and Tobago. "We got this punishment from the British and adopted it. If it is cruel and unusual it must have been in the UK as well, but it's a lawful punishment to be given by the state for serious crimes." He said the cases had no bearing on the attempts to set up the regional supreme court, which he predicted could be in place within a year.
------------------------------------------------------------------- EU Protests As Three Are Hanged In Trinidad (The Daily Telegraph version) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 15:17:59 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Trinidad: EU Protests As Three Are Hanged In Trinidad Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie) Pubdate: Sat, 05 June 1999 Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999 Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Author: Mark Wilson EU PROTESTS AS THREE ARE HANGED IN TRINIDAD PORT OF SPAIN - A drug dealer and two accomplices were hanged for murder in Trinidad yesterday despite last-minute manoeuvres by lawyers to stop the first executions for five years. Dole Chadee, 49, was hanged at 6am, in the first of nine scheduled executions. The accomplices went to the gallows later in the morning; three more are expected to be hanged today and a further three on Monday. More executions are likely to follow. Britain's high commissioner joined a protest by European Union diplomats three weeks ago, telling Trinidad's Foreign Minister, Ralph Maraj, of their governments' opposition to the death penalty. Germany, which now holds the EU presidency, sent a further statement to the Trinidad government yesterday. Chadee's hanging was the first in Trinidad since 1994 - when the convicted man died 10 minutes before a stay of execution faxed from the Privy Council arrived - and only the second since 1979. Chadee was convicted of ordering the murder of a cane farmer, Deo Baboolal, 47, his wife, Rookmin, and two children. He was a drug dealer said to have millions of pounds in Isle of Man accounts. One of two gang members who gave evidence against him was murdered, and such was the fear of him that 200 possible jurors were questioned before 12 could be found to try him.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Trinidad Three Hanged Despite Pleas (The Independent version) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 15:17:58 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: Trinidad: Trinidad Three Hanged Despite Pleas Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie) Pubdate: Sat, 05 June 1999 Source: Independent, The (UK) Copyright: 1999 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd. Contact: letters@independent.co.uk Address: 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/ Author: David Usborne TRINIDAD THREE HANGED DESPITE PLEAS PORT OF SPAIN - Early yesterday warders in Frederick Street Prison, in the old quarter of Port of Spain, led a thickset inmate from his cell to the gallows outside, covered his head with a hood and placed the noose of the rope around his neck. At 6am the signal was given and the hangman pulled a wooden lever. A trapdoor snapped open and the 47-year-old man, Dole Chadee, swung. Thus, after three years of legal wrangling that extended to the Privy Council in London and awoke old resentments across the Caribbean about Britain's still lingering judicial oversight in its former colonies, the government of Trinidad and Tobago had carried out the country's first hanging in five years. By Monday morning it will be more than Chadee who will have met his end on Frederick Street. Two other men were hanged yesterday, at one-hour intervals. Another three are due to go to the gallows today and a third group of three are to be executed in the same manner at dawn on Monday. In going through with the executions Trinidad and Tobago was rejecting a last-minute petition for the death sentences to be commuted, from Amnesty International and figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A final appeal to the law lords in London yesterday morning also failed. Similar efforts by defence lawyers in the nation's own courts on Thursday were rejected. In a lonely lament for the condemned men the bells of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Port of Spain tolled at 7.55am. Otherwise, remorse was not the mood in this bustling Caribbean capital city. Polls have shown a nation unmoved by international protests against the executions, with more than 80 per cent consistently favouring the death penalty. Chadee, moreover, was a figure never likely to win sympathy. A former drug baron made rich by the cocaine traffic from Latin America to the United States, Chadee was the feared leader of a gang of nine convicted in September 1996 for a multiple murder. Chadee had dispatched the other eight men to the home of Hamilton Baloolal, who had allegedly slighted him. Ordered to take revenge, his henchmen shot Baloolal first and then his wife, his sister and his crippled father. Yesterday, in the small crowd that had gathered outside the forbidding 30ft-high walls of the jail, only one voice dared speak out against the executions. "We are going to take nine lives in an utterly barbaric way," complained Ishmail Samad, an ornithologist who leads bird-watching tours on the island. "We should not be allowing Dole Chadee to pull us down to his level." Mr Samad, an isolated figure on the fringe of the crowd, carried a four-foot placard with a quote above the name of Arthur Koestler: "The gallows is not merely a machine of death but the oldest symbol of the tendency in Mankind to drive it towards moral destruction." Others held radios giving commentaries on the executions as they occurred. News of the demise of Chadee came shortly after. The second convict, Ramkalawan Singh, who weighed only 90lb, was hanged at 7.27am. The third, Joey Ramiah, died at 8.30am. There was only one gallows refurbished for yesterday's hangings. Fresh ropes were attached and boiled and stretched to allow maximum tautness and each body was left to hang for an hour after the opening of the trapdoor to ensure the man was dead. The enthusiasm here for capital punishment has been fed by a frustration with rising violence and crime on the twin islands, much of it associated with gangs and the drug trade. The popular hunger to see Chadee swing has been palpable for weeks. "Time's Up" blared the headline on the front page of the Trinidad Guar-dian yesterday. Winston Mathews, who was among those outside the prison walls after news of Chadee's execution was confirmed, said: "He is reaching Hell already. He should be in the Devil's arms now. I want him to go into the fire and for the fire to heat up some more." A construction worker who declined to give his name was angered even to be asked whether executing Chadee and his accomplices was justified. Innocent people were being gunned down on the islands all the time, he said, acting out such killings. "They are on the ground, their hands around their head, and BOOM! We have to face that animals are living among us." And nobody comes more dangerous than Chadee, he said. "If the fella has gone there to Hell, the Devil himself is going to run from him." The case of the "Trinidad Nine" crystallised frustration felt in Britain's former Caribbean colonies with the continuing role of the Privy Council as their court of last resort. Most people in the region consider the council a vestige of colonialism. Next month nine Caribbean members of the Commonwealth are expected to agree on replacing the council with a shared supreme court of their own. Frustration with the system boiled over in 1993, when the Privy Council ruled that condemned prisoners in the former Caribbean colonies should have their death sentences commuted if they had been on Death Row for more than five years. Yesterday's hangings, which the council eventually declined to block, could spell an early end for Death Row inmates across the region. In Trinidad and Tobago alone there are more than a hundred, all in the Frederick Street jail.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Bootleg Wheeze That's Costing The Exchequer A Packet (Scotsman columnist John Ivison recounts Canada's failed experiment with prohibitory cigarette taxes as a rebuttal to the World Bank's recent report arguing that increasing cigarette taxes are a good way to cut smoking.) Date: Sun, 6 Jun 1999 14:55:15 -0700 From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews) To: mapnews@mapinc.org Subject: MN: UK: Bootleg Wheeze That's Costing The Exchequer A Packet Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ Newshawk: shug@shuggie.demon.co.uk Pubdate: Sat, 5 June 1999 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 1999 Contact: Letters_ts@scotsman.com Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: John Ivison BOOTLEG WHEEZE THAT'S COSTING THE EXCHEQUER A PACKET There could be lessons to be learned from Canada's experience of combating the cigarette smugglers, reports John Ivison in North America A NUMBER of years ago, I interviewed for a job at a newspaper in Cornwall, Ontario, a sleepy town mid-way between Montreal and Toronto. Nothing much ever happens there, but the town was woken from its somnolence just before I arrived. Someone had taken a pot-shot at the mayor after - in an unguarded moment - he made public his opposition to the local cigarette smuggling trade. This was particularly ill-judged because smuggling provided the staple income of the restless, and heavily-armed, native Indian reservation. My reason for bringing this up is to give some indication of how serious a business cigarette smuggling was in Canada in the early nineties. The reason it was particularly acute was because Canada had pioneered a policy of punitive taxation on smokers which saw the cost of a packet of 25 wheezers double to around $$6.50 (Canadian) in Ontario (prices varied in different provinces). Despite the subsequent failure of this policy, it has surfaced again in official circles as the panacea to cut global tobacco consumption. Late last month the World Bank released a report arguing that increasing cigarette taxes was a good way to cut smoking. Defying its customary line of opposition to government intervention in the marketplace, it said that there was a solid case for tobacco taxes as an instrument of health policy and that price increases were highly effective in reducing demand. It estimated that a 10 per cent price increase worldwide would cause 40 million smokers to quit and prevent at least 10 million tobacco-related deaths. Loath as I am to align myself with the angels of death in the tobacco industry - it is a bit like saying Peter Sutcliffe was nice to his mum - the Canadian experience with cigarette smuggling does not support the World Bank's case. The increasingly violent smuggling trade, centred on Cornwall, saw millions of dollars of cigarettes shipped over the border from the United States without any duty being paid. The success of the smuggling operation was in no small part due to the connivance and, in many cases, actual participation of the tobacco industry. Cases now making their way through courts in Canada and the US reveal that the major tobacco companies sponsored the business and knowingly supplied the smugglers. RJR Macdonald, a subsidiary of RJR Nabisco, admitted in December that it smuggled more than US $$600 million worth of cigarettes into Canada. The company paid a $10 million forfeiture and a $5.2 million fine. Don Brown, chairman of Imperial Tobacco, part of the Imasco conglomerate, told a court that after years of fighting against high taxes the company decided that if you can't beat the smugglers you might as well join them. The government, faced with lax tax evasion laws and a police force often unwilling to act against heavily-armed smugglers, was forced to repeal much of its tax legislation and the price of a packet fell back to around the $$3 (Canadian) level. Overnight, the smuggling issue was resolved and smugglers are now more involved with liquor. Anti-smoking policy in Canada is currently centred on restricting tobacco advertising and more modest tax increases. However, the US has decided to ignore the Canadian model and increase federal cigarette taxes by about $2 (US) a pack, arguing that it has stronger penalties for smuggling and the resources to enforce laws. Larry Summers, the soon-to-be new Treasury secretary, defended the law by saying that the fact 80 per cent of the Canadian population lives within a two-hour drive of the US border made smuggling easier. "The dispersal of the US population means that a US resident is less likely than a Canadian to be able to cross the border routinely for casual cigarette smuggling," he said. The US may be able to hermetically seal itself from the rest of the world, but the explosion of cross-Channel traffic suggests that the UK cannot. Tobacco companies sifting through the litter on football terraces have discovered that one in five discarded packs was a bootleg import - a figure which, if extrapolated, would cost the exchequer UKP1.5 billion a year in lost excise. Small wonder when the average cost for a pack is UKP3.90 in Britain, but only UKP1.70 on the Continent. The smugglers in this case may be toting nothing more deadly than a Yorkie bar but the effect on the national coffers is the same. -------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
The articles posted here are generally copyrighted by the source publications. They are reproduced here for educational purposes under the Fair Use Doctrine (17 U.S.C., section 107). NORML is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit educational organization. The views of the authors and/or source publications are not necessarily those of NORML. The articles and information included here are not for sale or resale.
Comments, questions and suggestions.
Reporters and researchers are welcome at the world's largest online library of drug-policy information, sponsored by the Drug Reform Coordination Network at: http://www.druglibrary.org/
Next day's news
Previous day's news
to the 1999 Daily News index for June 4-10
to the Portland NORML news archive directory
to the 1999 Daily News index (long)