1999 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy

• News archive directory (w/links to shorter, weekly news indexes)
• 1998 Portland NORML Daily News (follow links to weekly indexes).
• About this page (bottom)
• 1997 Portland NORML Weekly News Releases & news archive
• 1996 Portland NORML Weekly News Releases
• All Politics is Local (Portland, Oregon news, 1995-1997)
• Hemp News (1992-1995)
• History of Oregon Reform Efforts (local pre-1995 news)
• The Wormscan Files (police/drug war corruption, 3.4 megs)
• Links to similar and related news archives on other servers

Tuesday, June 8, 1999:
• Woman convicted of growing marijuana wants medical dispensation (The Associated Press says Pamela Jill Stafsholt of Grants Pass, Oregon, who was convicted on Dec. 3, the same day the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act took effect, has petitioned to have her terms of probation changed so she can use cannabis to relieve the nausea caused by her treatment for arthritis. Otherwise, Deputy District Attorney Allan Smith will have her sent to prison for failing a drug test, apparently because she lawfully took the prescription drug, Marinol.)
• Hemp-Growing Gardens Proposed for S.F. (The San Francisco Chronicle says Supervisor Mark Leno proposed Monday that nonprofit gardens in the combined city and county be allowed to grow and process industrial hemp.)
• Orange County prosecutor among dozen arrested on drug charges (The Associated Press says Deputy District Attorney Bryan Ray Kazarian, 35, is being held without bail and faces a life sentence if convicted of tipping off drug ring leaders.)
• Drug czar backs medical cannabis (The BBC says the British government's drug czar, Keith Hellawell, has told BBC News Online he supports the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. He also said it would not be "a tragedy" if one of his six grandchildren experimented with drugs. And he rejected the notion of a "slippery slope" from cannabis use to drugs that, in his phrase, cause "most harm" - heroin and cocaine.)
  Bytes: 9,340 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Monday, June 7, 1999:

• Philip Morris Targets Punitives (The Nation recaps a recent Associated Press article about lawyers for the tobacco company putting Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers on notice they intend to dispute the state's 60 percent share of a recent judgment against the company by a jury in Multnomah County due to the $206 billion tobacco settlement in November between the industry and 46 state attorneys general.)
• Phoenix police admit inflating street value of drug seizures (The Associated Press says the $500 million value police placed on nearly 997 kilograms of cocaine they seized last month works out to about $500 per gram. The DEA estimates the street value of cocaine at about $80 to $160 per gram. Phoenix police say the inflated values serve a purpose. "The significance is to try to say what the impact is on society," said Phoenix police Lt. Al Thiele. "That's how much they have to steal to pay for it.")
• Ohio State 1999 Hempfest (Heath Wintz of the marijuana-law reform group, For A Better Ohio, describes the 12th annual Spring Hempfest May 5 at Ohio State University in Columbus. Things went off without a hitch. Even the OSU police were supportive.)
• Ready supply and upper limits (A list subscriber makes some good points explaining why medical marijuana patients are concerned about state ballot initiatives sponsored by Americans for Medical Rights that severely restrict the number of plants patients can cultivate.)
  Bytes: 13,200 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Sunday, June 6, 1999:

• On The Road To Addiction? (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian expresses curiousity about whether Oregon's first authorized medical-marijuana user, No. 00001, will suffer all the dire consequences the government has been warning about for the last 75 years.)
• Smokers, not industry, pay (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian points out who is really paying for the multistate tobacco-industry settlement - $4 a carton more since December. And it looks like none of the settlement money will be be used to address smokers' health problems.)
• Prisons Near Capacity (According to the Oakland Tribune, Robert Presley, a former cop and California state senator who heads the state's correctional agency, says that in just two years, "every nook and cranny" in the state's huge prison system will be filled with inmates. There are 160,000 inmates now, eight times the 1980 prison population. And despite massive prison construction in the 1980s and early 1990s, all but a few inmates are doubled up in cells designed for one person or housed in gymnasiums and other temporary quarters. Legislative Democrats quickly trashed Gov. Davis' prison construction program. Republicans are not displeased with Democrats' no-prisons posture. "Let's say a federal judge steps in and begins releasing inmates and let's say one of them rapes and murders someone," muses one senior Republican legislator. "Who'll get the blame?")
• Appeals Court Rules In Favor Of Pot Advocate (The Hawaii Tribune-Herald expands on Tuesday's news about the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Hawaiian hemp activist Aaron Anderson is entitled to bring a civil lawsuit against Hawaii County. The court said Anderson provided enough evidence to show that prosecutor Jay Kimura either knew about alleged ongoing constitutional violations by former deputy prosecutor Kay Iopa and approved of them, or was deliberatey indifferent to them.)
• Terence McKenna ~ New Update (A list subscriber forwards a note from the ailing psychedelic author's brother. Future bulletins will be posted at a web site.)
• Ethics panel rejects fine of UF professor as 'pitifully low' (The Miami Herald says the Florida Commission on Ethics on Thursday rejected a $2,000 fine for Charles Thomas, a criminology professor at the University of Florida who earned $3 million as a consultant to Wackenhut while he was also being paid to advise the state on prison policy. The decision means Thomas, a nationally recognized expert on prison privatization, now faces a much stiffer fine for his conflict of interests, perhaps as high as $30,000.)
• Why Losing Food Stamps Is Now Part of the War on Drugs (An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by Herman Schwartz, a professor of constitutional law at American University and author of "Packing the Courts: the Conservatives' Campaign to Rewrite the Constitution," explains the cruel, counterproductive consequences that have resulted from an amendment by Sen. Phil Gramm to the 1996 welfare law. No one convicted of a felony state or federal drug law after Aug. 22, 1996, can ever get food stamps again. It makes no difference if the offender is sick, pregnant, a parent of a small child, in a treatment program, has been drug-free for years, is a first-time offender, works or is seeking work, a student or anything else. Nothing the offender can do will restore food-stamp eligibility, and administrators are allowed no discretion. There is one escape hatch: A state may choose not to go along with the federal ban or modify it.)
• Viagra Siezed In Drug Raids (Scotland on Sunday says Tayside police detectives found a stash of the impotence drug during dawn swoops in the Dundee area, proving a black market exists for it.)
  Bytes: 35,300 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Saturday, June 5, 1999:

• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.")
• 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.)
• 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.)
• Trinidad executes 8 killers (A lengthier version in the Oakland Tribune identifies the source as the Associated Press.)
• Trinidad Hangs Drug-Gang Members (The Los Angeles Times version)
• Trinidad Sends Three Killers To The Gallows (The version in Britain's Guardian)
• EU Protests As Three Are Hanged In Trinidad (The Daily Telegraph version)
• Trinidad Three Hanged Despite Pleas (The Independent version)
• 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.)
  Bytes: 88,600 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Friday, June 4, 1999:

• Denying personal visits inhumane (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian protests plans to allow video-only visits with inmates at Oregon's newest prison, Two Rivers Correctional Institution, under construction in Umatilla.)
• Robert Galambos (A list subscriber notes the California medical-marijuana patient has been sentenced to nine months in prison, but is free pending his appeal.)
• Ruling Helps The State Keep Seized Property (According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Thursday that prosecutors don't have to comply with state laws requiring them to file forfeiture actions to keep any property they believe was acquired through crime. Instead, the court said suspects are the ones who have to file a lawsuit to get their property back. The decision came in the case of Leonard L. Jones, whose $1,783 was seized by police because it was found with a scale and "items used to smoke crack cocaine.")
• Officers Halt Vehicles, Check For Drugs On I-94 (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says a "drug checkpoint" on Interstate 94 in southern Milwaukee County singled out northbound vehicles for searches for several hours Thursday. "Drug check point ahead . . . traffic may slow," an electronic message board near W. College Ave. warned motorists approaching the checkpoint zone for much of the afternoon. A lieutenant from one southeastern Wisconsin sheriff's department said: "We're looking for cars that obviously fit a profile, and we're looking to see if we can find anyone" with drugs. Law enforcement officials were extremely short on specifics.)
• Felon's Firearms Conviction Is Overturned (The Providence Journal-Bulletin, in Rhode Island, says Robert A. Vigeant, a convicted felon with reputed ties to organized crime - and the son of Providence City Councilor Josephine Joan DiRuzzo - may soon be a free man after serving just 13 months of a 19-year sentence in federal prison. The federal appeals court in Boston tossed out Vigeant's conviction last month for being a felon in possession of a firearm, chastening the government for obtaining a warrant to search Vigeant's house in Narragansett without probable cause as part of a probe into a drug and money-laundering ring.)
• Question and remarks from a New York POW (A list subscriber recounts a visit today to the Bedford Hills Women's Maximum Security Housing Project, in New York, to meet Jan Warren, who has served 12 years of a 15-years-to-life sentence for selling 7 ounces of cocaine in a police sting. Most of the women there have the dreaded "to life" tacked on their sentences. The problem is that New York state is not releasing most prisoners who have served their mininum number of years. Inmates are worried that the reason may be a federal government mandate that federal funds used for state prisons require state inmates to serve seven eighths of their maximum sentence.)
• Yes, Ease Drug Laws (A letter to the editor of Newsday, in New York, from John F. Dunne, says when he was a member of the New York State Senate in 1973, he supported the enactment of the Rockefeller mandatory-minimum drug laws. His "unhappy" conclusion, after the hard experience of the last quarter century, is that those measures have failed to achieve their goals. Instead, they have handcuffed judges, dangerously crowded prisons, and denied sufficient drug treatment alternatives to nonviolent addicted offenders.)
• Court upholds medical marijuana defense (The Miami Herald recaps yesterday's news about the Florida Supreme Court re-affirming the state's medical necessity defense for medical marijuana patients. Despite the ruling, the state attorney general's office believes the legislature will try to close what the newspaper calls a "loophole" and outlaw the common-law defense. Such a move would likely get a warm reception from Gov. Jeb Bush.)
• Jacksonville, Fla-Based Drug-Screening Firm Sees Rapid Growth (The Florida Times-Union says Medical Express Corp. has grown about 800 percent in the past four years and is expected to generate about $2 million in sales this year, $400,000 more than last year. Nationally, drug testing is big business.)
• Join the Children's Postcard Campaign (Activists from Family Watch and the November Coalition invite you to donate $8 for 14 full-color postcards designed to raise political awareness about the 1.7 million parents imprisoned for drug-related offenses, an injustice that has created a generation of drug war orphans.)
• Cannabis compassion club surfaces (The Nelson Daily News, in British Columbia, says that with the Canadian government currently looking into the medical use of marijuana, the Nelson Cannabis Compassion Club has decided to go public and is holding a potluck and information night on Monday.)
• Healing Dope (The Calgary Herald sympathetically describes the Universal Compassion Club, a local medical marijuana buyers' group founded in January by Grant Krieger. Krieger was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1978, and he has been distributing marijuana to the ill for five years now, after seeing how it relieved his own pain. He first turned to pot in 1994, after 16 frustrating years of unsuccessful treatments led Krieger to attempt suicide. Not being able to walk or control his own bowel movements pushed him one night to swallow 40 Demerol and 30 sleeping pills. "They wouldn't give me anything after that" for pain.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 93 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's drug policy newsmagazine features original articles such as - Arrest the racism: ACLU report on racial profiling in America; Australian Medical Association endorses heroin prescription trial; Adding alcohol to Partnership ads?; Supreme Court establishes due process protections for defendants accused of operating a continuing criminal enterprise; Canada's House declares support for medical marijuana; Children And The Drug War postcard campaign; Newsbriefs; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith - Sells like teen spirits.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 100 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - How to be a MAP NewsHawk, by Richard Lake of the Media Awareness Project. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug Policy, including - 'Zero tolerance' comes up short; Opposition to plan to test welfare applicants for drugs; Putting alcohol in ads on drugs is resisted; The heroin prescribing debate - integrating science and politics; and, Marcia Hood-Brown. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - A crime against women; Why your child could wind up in jail; Rush to vengeance; and, Swing and a miss on 'three strikes'. An editorial about Cannabis & Hemp is titled - Medical research on marijuana right. International News includes - Ministers pledge to halve UK drug abuse; UK: What a waste as drugs tsar publishes his first annual audit; UK: War the enforcer can't win; Canada: Money laundering targeted; Canada: Drug policy called 'bad joke'; Canada: Ottawa looking for steady supply of dope; Canada grows more pot than parsley; and, China: With the needle came AIDS. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net features updated contact info for Redbook and Glamour, two mainstream magazines that present a pro reform slant; plus the updated Kubby Files web pages. A new feature, the Reform Cartoon of the Week, features the work of Grady Roper of Texas. The Quote of the Week cites Heinrich Heine.)
  Bytes: 120,000 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Thursday, June 3, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Canada's House declares support for medical marijuana; Florida high court dismisses state's challenge to medical marijuana necessity defense; NIDA solicits would-be pot farmers for marijuana research projects; England: Nearly 100 MPs support bill to legalize medical marijuana.)
• Marijuana (The Los Angeles Times recaps part of yesterday's news about the California senate approving a $3 million medical-marijuana research program - but not the part about the senate approving another bill that would require the state to develop a plan to distribute marijuana to people who have a doctor's recommendation to use it.)
• Pot returned in Placer County case - Deputies follow court order (The Auburn Journal, in California, recounts yesterday's news about cancer patient Robert De Arkland, 70, retrieving his medicine from the Placer County sheriff's office.)
• Marijuana And Miracles (An op-ed in the Sacramento News & Review by Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient, activist, defendant and 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in California, explains the documented efficacy of marijuana in preserving his life, and the injustice of his persecution at the hands of prohibition agents in Placer County who have ignored Proposition 215.)
• Marijuana - America's Most Profitable Plant (The spring issue of Whole Earth features San Francisco criminal defense attorney Tony Serra railing eloquently against official efforts to undue Proposition 215 - and the jurors that let them get away with it. "Jurors have become mad dogs, they have been so conditioned by media and police propaganda. . . . I can still win a jury trial. At this office, we do marijuana case after marijuana case, and we win many of them. But it's nothing like the sixties, when all levels of society showed a robust interest in actualizing constitutional rights and expanding the common denominator for justice. It is fairly dismal out there now.")
• Calif. Police Sued For Profiling (The Associated Press says the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in San Francisco against the California Highway Patrol and the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, asking for unspecified damages and an injunction forbidding the two police agencies from engaging in racial profiling. The lawsuit also asks that the agencies collect data on the race and ethnic background of motorists stopped for traffic violations. The suit stems from an incident on June 6, 1998, when Curtis Rodriguez, a Hispanic attorney from San Jose, documented five traffic stops in which the drivers were all Hispanic. Rodriguez's car was the next to be stopped without just cause - and searched without permission or a warrant.)
• Man Granted Trial In Hemp Birdseed Case (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin recounts yesterday's news about the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruling that Big Island hemp activist Aaron Anderson, who was prosecuted for buying sterilized hemp birdseed, must be allowed to go to trial with his lawsuit claiming his civil rights were violated.)
• Ad Blitz Latest Push To Reform Drug Laws (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says an advertising blitz urging an end to mandatory-minimum sentences for drug offenders enacted in 1973 during the Rockefeller administration will hit airwaves across New York next week as advocates make a final push for reform before the legislature ends its regular session June 16. The Lindesmith Center in Manhattan is preparing the ads on behalf of several reform groups.)
• Give Judges Discretion In Drug-Case Sentencing (A letter to the editor of the Times Union, in Albany, New York, from Warren M. Anderson, the former New York state Senate majority leader, comes out in favor of reforming the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines.)
• Woman Kept In Jail Sues VA Officials (The Washington Post says Cassondra Sue Betancourt, 37, is seeking $550,000 from the Virginia attorney general and other state officials because she was kept in a Richmond area prison for 161 days after the Virginia Court of Appeals overturned her conviction. Betancourt was convicted of murdering her boyfriend by spiking his drink with cocaine, but the appeals court ruled that there was not enough evidence to rule out an accidental overdose or suicide.)
• Court OKs Ky. Tax On Illegal Drugs (The Cincinnati Post recaps Monday's news about the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting a double-jeopardy claim and allowing Kentucky to continue to impose its tax on marijuana and other illegal substances. The decision sets in motion plans for broader enforcement of a statute on the books since 1994.)
• High court changes its mind on hearing medical malpractice case (The Associated Press says the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea from state Attorney General Bob Butterworth seeking to abolish the "medical necessity" defense sought by medical-marijuana cultivator George Sowell of Chipley. Sowell had been convicted of possession and cultivation of marijuana and sentenced to probation two years ago. But the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned the conviction because the trial judge had not allowed Sowell the medical necessity defense. Sowell, who is in his 60s, received a kidney transplant 17 years ago after the drugs he was taking for his glaucoma caused kidney failure.)
• Drug Court May Be National Model (The Las Vegas Sun says Nevada's newest weapon against crime - an expansion of the Drug Court program to cover early-release parolees - will be the star attraction this week at the National Drug Court Conference in Miami. District Judge Jack Lehman left Wednesday to explain the program to 2,500 representatives of the nation's 400 other drug courts. Lehman spearheaded the creation of a Drug Court in Nevada - the first in the nation - more than six years ago and smiles when he talks about how only 14 percent of those who complete the program commit additional crimes. No word on what percentage drops out of the coerced treatment regimen.)
• Teens Give Adults A D+ In Fighting Youth Drug Use (A Reuters article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a nationwide survey of teen-agers sponsored by Uhlich Children's Home in Chicago and conducted in January and February by Teenage Research Unlimited, a research company based in Northbrook, Ill., found that young Americans give adults a barely passing grade on their efforts to stop them from drinking, smoking and using "drugs." Tom Vanden Berk, president of Uhlich Children's Home, said "We thought that we needed to turn the table on adults, and give teen-agers a chance to grade adults on issues of importance to the well-being of young people.")
• Drug Fight Has Fostered Racial Bias, ACLU Reports (According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union says the war on drugs has significantly increased the number of traffic stops based on race. Ira Glasser, the ACLU's executive director, pointed to such problems as the DEA's "Operation Pipeline," which has trained at least 27,000 law enforcement officials how to spot drug couriers on highways in such a way as to create a perception that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are more likely to possess illegal drugs. The ACLU is calling on police departments to begin documenting incidents of racial profiling.)
• Racial Profiling Tied to Drugs (The Associated Press version in the Statesman Journal, in Salem, Oregon)
• Nation's War On Drugs Has Increased Highway Stops Based On Race, ACLU Says (The Baltimore Sun version)
• ACLU: Drug War Increases Racial Profiling On Roads (The St. Petersburg Times version)
• Gouk's Survey Says Legalize Medicinal Marijuana? (The Nelson Daily News, in British Columbia, says a recent survey by Jim Gouk, a member of Parliament representing Kootenay, Boundary and Okanagan, showed 49.9 per cent of respondents supported the commercial growth of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Only 19.6 per cent were "totally" opposed and 30.5 per cent wanted more information. Though careful not to endorse any type of illegal activity, Gouk does recognize the importance of marijuana to the area. "I think a lot of people would be shocked if they knew the impact that the growth of marijuana has on the growth of this area," said Gouk. "These people go out and buy cars and eat in restaurants . . . the spinoffs are tremendous.")
• Clinical pot leaves you sober, yet feeling no pain (The Toronto Globe and Mail says Canadians who are chosen to take part in clinical marijuana trials will likely find themselves inhaling vapours from a thick green-brown liquid that doesn't make people "high." GW Pharmaceuticals, a British firm that makes marijuana soup, is negotiating with the federal government to test its products. The Canadian government is also talking to the U.S. government about a supply of the drug that could be used in a separate clinical trial looking at the medicinal benefits of smoking marijuana. Ottawa is also looking at a long-term solution in which Canada's supply of the herb would be produced domestically.)
• Canada quietly looks at testing marijuana inhaler (Reuters says Canada is quietly investigating the possibility of testing a marijuana inhaler being developed by GW Pharmaceuticals that would help ease the pain of suffering patients but stop short of making them high. The British company has been testing vaporised marijuana, heated and inhaled through a nebulizer. "It's not that there's some strange marijuana somewhere that doesn't have a psychoactive effect," says Mark Rogerson of GW Pharmaceuticals. "It's just that the dosage required to relieve the pain would be much less than what is required to make you high." The company is trying to deliver the drug through an inhaler to avoid the harmful action of smoking and hopes to have a product on the market within five years. Tests have already been conducted on healthy volunteers and, within two weeks, trials in Britain will begin on multiple sclerosis patients.)
• Mexico OKs Drug Suspect Extradition (The Associated Press says Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Miguel Caro Quintero, a man suspected of being a top drug trafficker, can be extradited to the United States to face charges - if and when he is arrested by Mexican police. Caro Quintero is wanted on several U.S. charges, most recently a 1994 indictment in Arizona alleging money laundering and marijuana trafficking, said Jim Molesa, a DEA agent in Phoenix.)
• Trinidad Gallows Ready As Drug Gang's Time Runs Out (The Times, in London, says last-minute legal efforts to save the lives of nine convicted murderers - members of a vicious drug gang - on Trinidad and Tobago's death row appear unlikely to succeed. A series of hangings due to begin there tomorrow have divided the small twin-island nation in the southern Caribbean. The newspaper says public pressure for wider use of the death penalty has grown in recent years with the escalating cocaine trade from South America to the United States and Europe, which has left as by-products a heap of bullet-ridden corpses, soaring crime, drug abuse and embittered relatives of victims. One infers the reason there isn't more public pressure to end drug prohibition to achieve the same ends lies with the media's unwillingness to allow an open discussion.)
• Japan OKs Birth Control Pill After Decades of Delay (The Los Angeles Times says Japan decided Wednesday that it will legalize the birth control pill, 34 years after the contraceptive was first submitted for approval, and after three decades of propaganda about its dangers. By contrast, in a country where politics are dominated by men, Viagra was quickly approved five months ago.)
• Changes to Cannabis Laws - Some Questions (An e-mail from HEMP SA - Help End Marijuana Prohibition South Australia - responds to the South Australian governor's assent today to a new decree limiting the number of cannabis plants people can grow for their personal use from 10 to three. Before making such a big change in drug policy, the problem should be studied. SA's laws have seen a flattening of the supply pyramid. More people are growing less cannabis. Mr Bigs have been overtaken by Mr & Ms Smalls and the big guys don't like it - but the Government has acted on the basis of police allegations that "criminal syndicates" are taking advantage of the 10-plant limit. Section 45A-7 of the Controlled Substances Act gives police the power to prosecute anyone who is growing even one cannabis plant for commercial sale or supply. The police already had the power to crack down hard on criminals. They didn't need a new law to do it. The proposal also discriminates against outdoor growers and will encourage cultivators to shift indoors.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 21 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 107,000 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Wednesday, June 2, 1999:

• House OKs statewide drunken-driving car forfeiture measure (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives voted 32-16 Tuesday for HB 3304, which now goes to the Senate. Rep. Bill Witt, R-Portland, opposed the bill because people charged with driving drunk but not necessarily convicted could lose their cars. And Rep. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said he feared the bill could result in a hodgepodge of forfeiture laws around the state because local governments wouldn't be bound by the state guidelines.)
• Senate backs bills to get medical marijuana program going (The Associated Press says two bills approved Wednesday by the California Senate would require the state to develop a plan to distribute marijuana to people who have a doctor's recommendation to use it; and allocate $1 million for the first part of a three-year study to determine whether marijuana is a safe, therapeutic drug. Sponsored by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, the bills are similar to measures the senate passed last year but which died in the assembly.)
• Bob DeArkland's cannabis returned by police (California medical-marijuana patient/activist Bob Ames says the Placer County sheriff's department today returned some growing equipment and a small amount of medicine, eight months after taking them. They made their point, though - DeArkland won't grow again until local prohibition agents tell him how many plants is too many.)
• Medical pot case against journalist dropped (The San Francisco Bay Guardian notes the state of California has dropped charges against Chico journalist and medical-marijuana patient Pete Brady. Meanwhile, the federal government successfully prosecuted B.E. Smith for growing 87 marijuana plants at his Trinity County home, despite his attempt to invoke Proposition 215.)
• Berkeley Pot Arrests Soar (A press release from California NORML says the city of Berkeley's use of felony arrests for petty pot sales as a tool to rid city sidewalks of street people almost tripled the number of marijuana arrests there last year, from 38 to 109. A 1979 ordinance directs police to make pot enforcement their "lowest priority.")
• Pot Advocate Sows Seed of Doubt (The San Francisco Chronicle notes the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed yesterday that the indictment of Hawaiian hemp activist Ernest Anderson for "promoting a detrimental drug - marijuana," by purchasing legal, sterilized hemp seed, may have been politically motivated and based on evidence that the prosecutor knew was false. The San Francisco court overturned the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, ruling that a lawsuit filed by Anderson should go to trial. At issue is whether Hawaii County should pay damages for violating Anderson's free speech rights by offering to dismiss charges if he would quit writing letters to local newspapers. Plus an e-mail with more details about the case from Anderson's original co-defendant, Roger Christie.)
• Bell Talks Of Son's Alleged Molestation (UPI says syndicated radio talk show host Art Bell's mysterious but temporary departure from the airwaves last year was due to his son being kidnapped and sexually molested by a gay, HIV-positive substitute teacher at his school in Nye County, Nevada. Bell said his 16-year-old son, Arthur, was heavily plied with alcohol and marijuana by Brian Eugene Lepley, who bound the boy in chains, took him to Tecopa Hot Springs, Calif., and forced him to perform sex acts. Lepley was convicted and is serving a life sentence for the assault. The boy told authorities he never would have been lured into such a position if it weren't for the drugs.)
• Appeals Court Throws Out Man's Conviction For Possession Of Marijuana (According to the Associated Press, the Wisconsin 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled today that Michael Wilson of Antigo was wrongly convicted because a policeman unlawfully invaded a porch area immediately outside the back door of his home before smelling burned marijuana.)
• Sheriff Reports On Arrests, Complaints About Festival (According to the Associated Press, the sheriff's department in Sauk County, Wisconsin, said Tuesday that the Weedstock festival at a farm between Baraboo and Portage over Memorial Day weekend led to 49 arrests, 43 traffic citations and 28 drug investigations. The previous year 27 people were busted for marijuana possession and 43 traffic citations were issued.)
• Drug-Dealing Matriarch Receives 65-Year Prison Term (According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Circuit Judge Timothy G. Dugan tacked on a 25-year term of probation for Nancy K. Ezell, 47. Ezell is the ninth person in the 10-defendant crack-cocaine case to go to prison, including one of her daughters who was sent away for 45 years. Ezell had previously been involved in a 1987 "John Doe investigation" into drug use among police officers.)
• Marijuana Ruling Rocks DUI Docket - Hundreds of Cases Threatened by Georgia Court Action (APBNews.com says the Georgia Supreme Court has nullified a law presuming any driver to be illegally impaired who tests positive for marijuana. The court apparently reasoned that the law was unconstitutional because Georgia, under a 1981 law, said police would have to prove a medical-marijuana patient was driving dangerously in order to make an arrest. But the more recent DUI law arbitrarily and unfairly created a different burden of proof for "recreational" users.)
• Court Strikes DUI Law For Marijuana Users (The version in the Fulton County Daily Report, in Georgia)
• Technology Deployed In Drug War (The Associated Press says thermal imaging cameras are the item that state and local police request most often from the Office of National Drug Control Policy's technology "transfer," that is, giveaway program, funded by Congress since last year. No bigger than camcorders yet so sensitive they can detect a temperature variance of a quarter of a degree, the $13,000 thermal cameras are used by police to find out if people are growing marijuana in their homes or handing over baggies containing "narcotics" - although the wire service doesn't say how the cameras can ascertain what is in a baggie. General Barry McCaffrey, the ONDCP director, contradicted his oft-stated assertion that "we can't arrest our way out our drug problem," saying, "We know these systems work, and we know the cops need these tools." He is seeking yet more money from Congress for more technology transfers.)
• Ann Landers: Alcohol and Drugs Do Not Cause Domestic Violence (A letter in the Washington Post to the syndicated advice columnist, from an assistant district attorney in Albany, New York, says alcohol and other drugs do not cause domestic violence. Abuse is about power and control, although the abuser may use alcohol and other drugs as an excuse to seek forgiveness. To some, that may seem like an overgeneralization, unless the prosecutor can cite even one case from his experience involving a cannabis consumer who habitually or even occasionally stoked up on marijuana, and no other substances, before abusing his family.)
• Bar Raised For Drug Convictions (The Washington Post says the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 yesterday that a jury must unanimously agree not only that drug trafficking racketeers committed a particular series of offenses, but also on which specific violations they committed. Unless jurors are forced to focus on specific acts, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the majority, jurors may "simply conclude from testimony, say, of bad reputation, that where there is smoke there must be fire." The court threw out the conviction of Eddie Richardson, the leader of a Chicago street gang. During Richardson's 1997 trial, the judge told jurors that to convict, they must agree Richardson committed at least three alleged offenses. But the judge refused Richardson's request that he tell jurors they must agree on which three particular offenses were committed.)
• High Court Tightens Drug-Lord Conviction Rules (The Houston Chronicle version)
• Drug Education (According to the ADCA News of the Day, distributed by the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, the National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse thinks that teaching schoolchildren about illicit drugs may just tend to increase their curiosity about such substances and ultimately their rates of use. Director Tim Stockwell suggested that education programs which focused on legal drugs were much more successful because drugs such as tobacco and alcohol cause more harm than illicit drugs.)
  Bytes: 69,700 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Tuesday, June 1, 1999:

• Arcata medicinal pot program serves as state model (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat says the core of a registry-card system administered in Arcata, California, by Police Chief Mel Brown is about to be adopted throughout Mendocino County and weighs heavily in the recommendations being drafted by a California state task force charged with implementing Proposition 215. One result of local support for patients has been the phenomenal growth of the nearly-500-member Arcata-based Humboldt Medicinal Cannabis Center, which is moving into a new two-story building just three blocks from the police department. Greg Allen, a 47-year-old lawyer who serves as the club's president said, "A lot of us have come to see the police as our friends.")
• A Return To The Goal Of Reforming Inmates (The Los Angeles Times says two out of three California parolees get sent back to prison within two years, and some officials are reconsidering the discredited idea of rehabilitation - known these days by aliases such as life skills, job training, and drug treatment. Of the 160,000 inmates locked away in California's 33 penitentiaries, more than half will be getting out in the next two years. Whenever prison experts, victims and politicians debate crime and punishment, one of the assumptions is that rehabilitation has been tried and it failed. But the history of rehabilitation in California shows that even in its heyday it wasn't practiced on a wide scale.)
• '3 Strikes' Policy On Drugs Near OK (The New Haven Register says the policy committee of the public school board in Cheshire, Connecticut, last week voted 2-1 for a "three strikes and you're out" rule for public school students who use alcohol or other drugs off-campus. If approved by the full board in July, the policy would permanently prohibit students who violate the "three strikes" regulation from participating in sports or other extracurricular activities.)
• Drug-War Supporters Turned Freedom Fighters (The June issue of High Times gives the monthly "Freedom Fighter" award to 54-year-old Cliff Thornton and his wife, Margaret, who try to educate the public about prohibition's failures with their group Efficacy, a human-rights organization they started out of their living room in Windsor, Connecticut.)
• Court Allows Drug Trafficking Trial (The Associated Press says the U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, turned away a double-jeopardy appeal today, allowing Kentucky to prosecute two men on cocaine-trafficking charges after having required them to pay a tax on the illegal drug. Joseph Nicholson and Robert Bird claimed their prosecutions, following payment of the drug tax after their arrests, would unlawfully punish them twice for the same crime.)
• The Assassin's Beeper Code Was 007 (A gangbusters Christian Science Monitor article gives a glorious but one-sided portrait of Bridget Brennan, appointed a year ago as New York's Special Narcotics Prosecutor. With a $12 million annual budget and a staff of more than 200, she heads the only office in the U.S. dedicated solely to investigating and prosecuting drug offenses, from street-level dealers in Washington Heights to sophisticated undercover operations that span the globe.)
• Pot Hoax (An editorial in Reason magazine by Jacob Sullum says the Institute of Medicine report released March 17 confirms marijuana is medicine. The IOM report also confirms it was the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, who was perpetuating a hoax during initiative campaigns in California and Arizona, rather than those who promoted medical marijuana reform or voted for it.)
• Why Your Child Could Wind Up In Jail (The June issue of Redbook magazine says parents who are shocked to learn that their kids are hooked on drugs are even more shocked by what happens when they cry for help. For every three Americans in treatment, another six need help but can't get it. Only about a sixth of all prisoners who urgently need treatment receive it, and the treatment they do receive is inadequate. While criminal penalties aren't discouraging drug use, they are discouraging some users from getting help, even when it's a matter of life and death.)
• Silver Bullet Or Poison Chalice: The Biowar Against Drugs (The June issue of Scientific American critiques Congress's approval last year of $23 million for research on plant pathogens designed to eradicate coca, poppies and hemp. Article I of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention bans the development, production and stockpiling of biological agents intended "for hostile purposes or in armed conflict." The greatest concern, however, is that the development of drug-crop pathogens will inevitably provide expertise that could be applied in much more aggressive, offensive biological warfare targeting food crops.)
• A Crime Against Women (The June issue of Glamour magazine says Amy Pofahl's MDMA-kingpin husband cut a deal that dumped her in prison for a quarter century, and freed him after four years. She and thousands of other women guilty of relatively minor crimes end up doing more time than men due to a controversial federal law, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and particularly a 1998 amendment adding "conspiracy" to the list of offenses covered.)
• Snitch Culture (The June issue of Playboy magazine says snitch culture has become a crucial element of the war on drugs, and is so embedded in our judicial system that there is now an entire industry of convicts who buy information from other criminals or friends on the outside that allows them to rat and cut off years from their sentences. The November Coalition's Nora Callahan, an advocate for drug war prisoners, notes there are thousands of people in prison because of bought testimony, with no other evidence against them. According to a January 12 broadcast by Frontline, only 11 percent of drug prisoners are kingpins; 52 percent are users or low-level street dealers.)
• When They Get Out (The June issue of Atlantic Monthly features a sequel to the magazine's December cover story, "The Prison-Industrial Complex." The politics of opinion-poll populism has encouraged elected and corrections officials to build isolation units, put more prisons on "lockdown" status, abolish grants that allowed prisoners to study toward diplomas and degrees, and generally make life in prison as miserable as possible. People haven't become more antisocial; their infractions and bad habits are just being punished more ruthlessly, without any thought about rehabilitation. Since fewer than 10 percent of prisoners are sentenced to life, we can expect that more than 90 percent of prisoners will be released. Without making contingency plans for it - without even realizing it - we are creating a disaster that instead of dissipating over time will accumulate with the years.)
• Marijuana Stolen From Pot Crusader (According to the Calgary Herald, multiple sclerosis patient Grant Krieger says the Universal Compassion Club has been temporarily put out of business by thieves who broke into one of the medical-marijuana club's Calgary premises early Monday morning and stole a stash of pot intended for seriously ill members.)
• Does pot lead to politics? (A letter to the editor of the Calgary Sun says even if so many politicians admit to using marijuana - including Gore, Clinton and now, apparently, Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock - most people are unharmed by it.)
• A Potted Rock (A staff editorial in the Toronto Globe and Mail says Canadian health minister Allan Rock has has been sounding out people as far away as England about he feasibility of buying medical marijuana from them. This sounds like the Scots searching for a source of medicinal Scotch in Morocco, or the French looking for a robust Burgandy in Sweden. The government's position is so obtuse that one's advice for what to do sounds like a simpleton's suggestion. Mr. Rock, put out a contract on medical marijuana to tender. Guarantee that bidders won't be prosecuted, then watch what a good source of medicinal-quality, cheap, home-grown drug comes rolling in. And, oh yes, while you're at it, you might just decriminalize Canada's world-famous marijuana in the first place.)
• Feds slow to act (A staff editorial in the Sudbury Star notes Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock has announced details of medical marijuana trials will be released in late June, but says such trials should have started before now. It has taken two years to transform the minister's sympathy into action.)
• Mandatory Drug Tests A Failed Idea (Christine Dirks, a columnist for the London Free Press, in Ontario, criticizes a proposal by the government of Premier Mike Harris to institute mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients. The Tory proposal isn't about true welfare reform. It's about bashing the poor, perpetuating stereotypes and dividing society along class lines. It's not about helping people on welfare become job-ready, it's about portraying them as low-lifes who abuse the system and deserve to be cut off.)
• Drugs Freely Available In Jail, Con Survey Says (According to the Edmonton Sun, Reform Party member of Parliament Randy White charged yesterday in Ottawa that a national inmate survey he obtained shows it's just as easy to get crack, cocaine, heroin and pot inside Canadian federal prisons as it is on the outside. Corrections Canada's 1995 inmate survey shows that out of 15,000 federal inmates, 1,300 cons used crack or cocaine daily while another 1,300 admitted to using heroin and 5,400 to marijuana. Spot checks by Corrections show that drugs found in 1999 urine tests have dropped to 12 percent, from 39 percent between 1995-98.)
• Drug Policy Called 'Bad Joke' (The Calgary Sun version)
• Money Laundering Legislation Tabled (The Ottawa Citizen says the Canadian government proposed legislation Monday in the House that would plug some big holes that allow up to $17 billion to be laundered in and through Canada every year.)
  Bytes: 156,000 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Monday, May 31, 1999:

• Rush To Vengeance - Vivid Documentary Skillfully Weaves In Bigger Questions Of The Three Strikes Law (Chicago Tribune television critic Steve Johnson says Michael J. Moore's 75-minute documentary about California's "three strikes" law, "The Legacy: Murder & Media, Politics & Prison," opening the season for "P.O.V." Tuesday night, is a vivid portrait of how populist politics, the press's and public's disregard for details and an emotion-stirring crime can turn a seemingly simple idea into monumentally short-sighted policy.)
• Opinion On Campus (Excerpts from an article in the National Review's "Special Education Supplement" document the opinions of the Class of '98 about whether marijuana and other currently illegal substances should be "legalized." Seniors at seven of the 12 colleges surveyed came much closer to approving legal marijuana than they did as freshmen, ranging from 42 percent to 48 percent. But prohibitionists always outnumbered those favoring reform, though at some schools, prohibition mustered only a plurality of support. At all twelve schools, majorities ranging from 72 percent to 94 percent opposed "legalizing" all drugs, a response indistinguishable from 1995.)
• Putting Alcohol in Ads on Drugs Is Resisted (The New York Times recaps how the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, is battling a bill introduced in Congress at his own suggestion by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., that would allow the inclusion of anti-drinking messages in the government's $1 billion anti-drug campaign. "To say that MADD is a little upset over Gen. McCaffrey and the direction he has chosen to take would probably be an understatement," said Karolyn Nunnallee, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and other medical, church and community groups also support the bill. Opposition in the House is forming around Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky., who says, ". . . drugs are unique and we shouldn't confuse the messages and diminish them. . . . The message about drugs is don't ever do it, not at any age and type. That is not the message about alcohol, just like it's not the message of sex.")
• Ill will (U.S. News & World Report says the U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee wants to slash four of the seven jobs in the drug czar's legislative affairs office because it is often slow to respond to Congress - an unforgivable political sin. Bob Weiner, the drug czar's spokesman, says "It's a pissing match between staffs . . . it ain't going to go anywhere.")
• Chelmsford Man Praises The Healing Herb (The Sudbury Star, in Ontario, says medical-marijuana patient Barry Burkholder is in constant pain and suffers from chronic arthritis, clinical depression and hepatitis C. Both he and some medical experts say marijuana relieves the symptoms of his various physical and emotional afflictions. For example, Dr. Beverly Potter's book, "The Healing Magic of Cannabis," makes grandiose claims for the healing herb. Potter says pot has a soothing, even a restorative effect on arthritis, back pain, asthma, depression, epilepsy, glaucoma, insomnia, menstrual cramps, migraine headaches and multiple sclerosis. Even so, Burkholder was arrested last September and charged with possessing cannabis oil for the purpose of trafficking.)
• Drug Trials Win AMA Approval (The Age says delegates to the Australian Medical Association's national conference in Canberra yesterday passed a motion put forward by Victorian doctors endorsing the use of heroin-maitenance trials to manage, and ultimately treat, addiction to the drug. The AMA's stance increases pressure on the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to end his opposition to alternative therapies for heroin addicts.)
• Prescribed Heroin Will Save Lives, Say Doctors (The version in the Australian)
• Britain In Grip Of Drugs Culture (The Toronto Star says Britain is in a drugs frenzy, with an epidemic of tabloid stories about high-flying celebrities and low-life "addicts" laying bare the extent of the craze. The Office for National Statistics estimates Britons spends up to $16 billion a year on illegal drugs, with some 300 million drug deals believed to take place in London alone. "What we are finding is the normalization of drug-taking," said drugs tsar Keith Hellawell. Last week the government unveiled tough new targets to crack down on drug abuse.)
• Swiss Hemp Grower Sent To Jail (The Associated Press notes briefly a court in Martigny, Switzerland, on Monday sentenced Bernard Rappaz to 16 months in prison for producing 8.5 tons of dried cannabis and selling it stuffed in cushions, which were advertised as having therapeutic qualities. The guilty verdict derived from a federal "narcotics" law. A list subscriber forwards more details from a Swiss hempster, including confirmation that appeals are available, and even likely to prevail.)
  Bytes: 46,400 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Sunday, May 30, 1999:

• 'Zero Tolerance' Comes Up Short (An op-ed in the Orange County Register by Mark T. Greenberg and Brian K. Baumbarger of Penn State University says there is little scientific research to show that zero tolerance or other "get tough" measures are effective in reducing school violence or increasing safety. On the contrary, there is a growing body of research showing a clear association between disciplinary exclusion and further poor outcomes such as delinquency, substance abuse and school dropout. Disciplinary exclusion should be reserved for students who present a clear and present danger to others.)
• Hartman In-Law Sues Pfizer (The Houston Chronicle says the brother of the wife of actor Phil Hartman is suing Pfizer Inc., contending that his sister was under the influence of the anti-depressant drug Zoloft when she killed her husband and herself a year ago. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday by Gregory Omdahl, alleges Pfizer has done "all that it can to downplay the possibility that Zoloft causes violence or suicide in some people." Omdahl also sued Dr. Arthur Sorosky, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who gave Hartman's wife a sample of the drug provided to him by a Pfizer salesman.)
• Shed Some Light On 'Racial Profiling' (A staff editorial in the Tulsa World says Army Sgt. Rossano Gerald has sued the Oklahoma Highway Patrol because he was stopped twice within 30 minutes after crossing the state line last August; because he and his 12-year-old son were detained for two hours inside a patrol car in 90-degree heat with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning turned off; because the troopers looking for drugs searched his car without his permission, causing a reported $1,089 in damages; and because he was arrested for DWB - Driving While Black, or Driving While Brown. The case has propelled Oklahoma into the middle of a national debate over racial profiling. Collection of national figures on traffic stops is an idea well worth pursuing.)
• Trying To Count All The Cops Is Hard (Houston Chronicle columnist Thom Marshall observes that Houston and Harris County seem to be proliferating countless police officers toting guns and badges and representing myriad city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Marshall invites readers to participate in a project launched by Bryant Reed of La Porte, aimed simply at listing all the police groups in the area, such as the HPD, Sheriff's Department, Metro PD, constables, U.S. Marshals, the Houston ISD PD, highway patrol, the Texas Rangers, the FBI, INS, DEA, ATF, CIA - even the Harris County Hospital District.)
• Revelers' Tents Sprout Like Weed In Sauk County Farm Field During Marijuana Festival (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says almost twice as many people showed up this year for the annual Weedstock Festival in Sauk County as last year, perhaps showing that good weather can influence people more than marijuana. Weedstock organizer Ben Masel had some complaints about the size and intensity of the law-enforcement force. Masel said some officers were making up traffic violations as an excuse to pull people over. "We even had people pulled over because their tires were bald, which the officer noticed at night, as they are driving at 35 miles an hour - not likely," Masel said.)
• Opposition To Plan To Test Welfare Applicants For Drugs (The New York Times says that starting in October, Michigan welfare applicants under 65 in three locations yet to be chosen will be required to take drug tests or forfeit their benefits. "The state is starting from the assumption that the poor are criminals," said Kary L. Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan. "The state is saying that if you want money for food and shelter you have to give up the Fourth Amendment rights that others have.")
• Hair Tests Raise Doubts (The Baltimore Sun says the use of hair samples to detect traces of illegal drugs is drawing criticism for its alleged inaccuracy and bias against dark-haired people, particularly African-Americans. General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, BMW, Rubbermaid and several big-city police departments are among the more than 1,000 employers using the hair test. More workers are being hair tested all the time, but the scientific consensus from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists is that hair tests are not sufficiently reliable for widespread use. No hair-testing laboratories have been approved by the FDA. Sixteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter May 14 to the Secretary of the Army requesting a review of Army policy on hair testing, and expressing concern about the case of Duane Adens, who received a bad-conduct discharge in July solely on the basis of a false positive. As a result of his federal conviction, said Adens, "I will never be able to get a good job. I lose my voting rights. Something I worked hard at for 14 years is going to be taken away from me - for no reason at all.")
• Legalizing Pot Sends Wrong Message, Say Calgary MP's (The Calgary Herald says the newspaper's survey of regional members of Parliament shows varying opinions about decriminalizing marijuana. Some Reformers are strongly against "legalization," while others agree with a recent call for clinical trials to determine the medical benefits of the weed.)
• Cocaine Is Being Passed Around Like After-Dinner Mints (An op-ed in the Observer, in Britain, by Adam Edwards, the son of a judge, a former editor of a London magazine, and a cocaine user since the early 1970s, reveals how widespread cocaine use is today, in the wake of revelations involving Lawrence Dallaglio and Tom Parker Bowles and as the Government launches a new anti-drugs crusade. "Cocaine is the drug of choice for the professional classes under 40. In the past year, I have seen it taken by a Conservative politician, several lobbyists, a Guards officer, two QCs, a solicitor, a senior stockbroker, a merchant banker and a score of media men and women, including PRs, publishers, writers, Fleet Street executives and television and film producers. . . . Britain's professionsl classes are awash with the drug. I have not been to an event where it has not been readily available. Cocaine is to the current generation, rightly or wrongly, what marijuana was to the previous generation: an apparently innocent recreational amusement.")
• ACM-Bulletin of 30 May 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about the Canadian House of Commons supporting the legalization of pot for medical reasons; and the U.S. government making marijuana easier to get for research.)
  Bytes: 75,000 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Saturday, May 29, 1999:

• A unique opportunity to help Voter Power (Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, sends a fundraising plea for the political action committee that supported Measure 67 and is now working to make sure patients are able to get medication, and education about what they can and cannot do under the new law. "A lot of the patients I meet around our state are over 55 years old. Many like me, missed the entire drug scene and don't know anything about marijuana, except for them it works. . . . One man was washing his medical marijuana in 'Dawn' dish soap. He thought that was how to 'clean' it. He was asking 'Does this stuff always give you a headache?' He was poisoning himself!")
• Official OCTA2k Petition Signature Count (A bulletin from the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, the sponsors of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act voter initiative, says 4,605 signatures were on-hand as of yesterday. To get on the November 2000 ballot, the comprehensive reform bill will need 66,748 signatures by July of next year.)
• PBS on June 1 (A list subscriber says "Point of View," the Public Broadcasting Service's showcase for independent, non-fiction films, will air "The Legacy: Murder & Media, Politics & Prisons" on Tuesday night. "The Legacy" looks at how California's "three strikes" law was enacted, and how broadcast media and political campaigns influence the public debate about criminal-justice issues.)
• Medical Research On Marijuana Right (A staff editorial in the San Antonio Express-News says the Clinton administration's easing of restrictions on obtaining marijuana for medical research is a sound decision.)
• Police Find Marijuana 'Farm' At Nursing Home (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in Missouri, doesn't say what led police to raid a St. Louis nursing home Friday. Officers found 200 marijuana plants and arrested an unnamed 34-year-old employee who had allegedly set up an elaborate growing operation behind a false wall.)
• Man Wins Pot-Smoking Case In Levy County (The Gainesville Sun says Michael Stauff of Bronson, Florida, was acquitted by a jury Thursday of possessing half a joint after presenting a 1997 letter from one of his former physicians. Stauff told the jury smoking marijuana relieves the back pain he suffers since having a disk removed, and also improves his appetite, which has been lagging since he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. During jury selection, assistant state attorney John Wentzlaff asked a pool of potential jurors how many believed more work should be done to determine the effectiveness of marijuana as medicine. "When all 12 of them raised their hands to that question, I knew we were going into the trial with a jury predisposed to believe the defendant's argument," Wentzlaff said. It took the jury just minutes to make a decision. Unfortunately, Stauff is still in jail after allegedly selling 20 Percocets for $100 to an undercover agent with the sheriff's department the night before the trial.)
• Acquittal In Marijuana Case (The UPI version)
• Informant Who Succumbed To Drugs Sentenced (The Tampa Tribune, in Florida, says Charles D. Combs, who robbed eight banks to pay for his crack-cocaine habit while working as a confidential informant for St. Petersburg prohibition agents, was sentenced Friday to more than 10 years in federal prison.)
• Warriors' Cry (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post points out how its syndicated columnist, David Broder, is confused about the difference between drug abuse and drug use. The IOM report suggests marijuana users are not drug abusers and therefore should not be coerced into rehab programs.)
• Vote Today for Industrial Hemp! (A list subscriber alerts others to an online poll at the Michael Reagan Radio Show website. So far, legalizers are winning with 64 percent support.)
• Are People With Schizophrenia Drawn To Smoking Pot? (Britain's New Scientist recounts recent research published in NeuroReport by Daniele Piomelli and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine. High levels of anandamide, a natural THC-like substance, are apparently produced in response to the excess dopamine associated with schizophrenia. This might explain why schizophrenics often smoke marijuana.)
• Where There's Smoke . . . (According to New Scientist, two new reports in the latest issue of Tobacco Control, a crusading journal published by the British Medical Association, allege the tobacco industry exacerbates deforestation and causes fatal house fires. The first report, by Helmut Geist, a forestry scientist formerly at the University of Dusseldorf, blames tobacco growers for clearcutting and building wooden barns in South Korea, China, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Uruguay. The second paper, by Andrew McGuire of the Trauma Foundation, based at San Francisco General Hospital, blames Philip Morris for the 1,000 people in the U.S. who die each year in fires started by cigarettes, because it can't develop a self-extinguishing cigarette that smokers will buy.)
• How To Make Money Out Of Quitting (According to New Scientist, a report just out from the World Bank says nations can limit smoking and improve their economies by raising taxes on cigarettes, banning advertising, and investing in how-to-quit programmes.)
• Quick Text Tracks Down Drug Users (New Scientist says police, sports regulators and employers will soon have a new drug testing technology. A hand-held unit called the Cozart RapiScan tests saliva for cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, opiates and benzodiazepines.)
  Bytes: 42,000 Last updated: 6/8/99
  

  Friday, May 28, 1999:

• Victory (An e-mail from Mike Assenberg of Waldport, Oregon, says the Mormon Church has changed its mind about excommunicating him for his legal use of medical marijuana.)
• Federal Court Issues Injunction Against Four Oregon Laws on Gathering Signatures for Initiatives, Referenda (A press release from Portland lawyer Daniel Meek says the U.S. District Court in Portland issued an injunction this afternoon against enforcement of four Oregon statutes. Signature gatherers no longer have to be registered Oregon voters, and no longer have to display a notice stating that the person obtaining the signatures is being paid. Chief petitioners and political committees are also no longer required to disclose the names of paid circulatorc and the amount paid to each.)
• New petitioning rules in Oregon (A list subscriber forwards an excerpt from a press release issued by the Coalition for Initiative Rights, which explains the ramifications of today's ruling by the U.S. District Court in Portland blocking enforcement of four Oregon statutes regulating the gathering of signatures for initiatives and referenda. Now anyone can gather signatures!)
• Crime victim measures get final House OK (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives has given final approval to an eight-measure ballot package aimed at replacing Measure 40, approved by voters in November 1996 but overturned by the state supreme court last summer. The eight measures would supposedly ease the burden of crime victims, but some just make prosecutors' lives easier and impose new burdens on defendants and convicts. The package would, among other things, expand police search and seizure powers and admissibility of evidence; require that jurors in criminal trials be registered voters and not have committed a felony in 15 years; prohibit the retroactive release of a prisoner if a new law reduces the sentence for the crime committed; and sets a tougher standard for granting bail before trial.)
• DA says keep school expulsion records private (The Associated Press says Mark Huddleston, the district attorney in Ashland, Oregon, has denied a parent's request to examine Ashland High School records of students expelled over drugs and weapons, even if such students' names are blacked out. The petitioner, Paul Copeland of Ashland, said he wanted to see the records so he could judge whether the school district is handling expulsions fairly since it enacted a zero tolerance policy on drugs last year.)
• Million Marijuana March (A letter to the editor of the Seattle Times shames the newspaper for not deeming it newsworthy that 4,000-5,000 marijuana-law reformers marched May 1 from Volunteer Park to Westlake Center.)
• Straight Edger Charged In Assault At West Valley Party (The Salt Lake Tribune, in Utah, suggests a group of Straight Edge members who believe that nobody should be allowed to smoke, drink or use "drugs" burst uninvited into a party, asked if anyone was drinking alcohol, and proceeded to punch six people and spray them in the face with mace.)
• Marijuana Laws Inching Leftward (The Aspen Daily News covers NORML's 1999 legal seminar, continuing through Saturday in the Colorado resort town. R. Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told an audience made up mostly of lawyers that "For the first time in 20 years, the political tide is moving ever so slowly in our direction. People say they are worried about crime, but they mean violent crime, not somebody smoking a joint in their home.")
• Officer Is Cleared In Death Of A Suspected Drug Dealer (The New York Times says a Manhattan grand jury has declined to indict a police officer in the death of Kenneth Banks, a suspected crack cocaine dealer. Banks' skull was fractured after he was hit on the head by a police radio thrown by officer Craig Yokemick during a chase in Harlem last Oct. 29.)
• Hemp: It's Rope, Not Dope - Farmers, Activists Seek To Legalize Crop (The San Francisco Chronicle says a small corps of techno-savvy activists based in Lexington, Kentucky, is playing a big role in the national campaign to legalize industrial hemp. Using e-mail, faxes and cell phones, and in friendly, easy-going Southern style, the Bluegrass group, whose members include actor and part-time Kentuckian Woody Harrelson, have been doggedly educating state lawmakers and activists across the country who are pressuring the government to lift the hemp ban.)
• AIDS sufferers could smoke marijuana under Stefanini bill (The MetroWest Daily News, in Framingham, Massachusetts, says a bill championed by state Rep. John Stefanini, D-Framingham, would add AIDS to a list of illnesses that the state would theoretically allow to be treated experimentally with marijuana. There's only one small hitch: Massachusetts has no legal source of marijuana. In part because there is no marijuana supply, no one is enrolled in any experimental program.)
• Colleges Report Increases In Arrests For Drug And Alcohol (The Chronicle of Higher Education says its annual campus crime survey shows arrests for illegal drugs and alcohol at the nation's colleges and universities increased 7.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, from 1996 to 1997. The increases mark the sixth consecutive year such arrests have increased. As in past years, many campus police officers and safety experts attribute the increases not to increased alcohol or drug use by students, but to more aggressive enforcement efforts and toughened policies restricting drinking on campus.)
• Canada Close To OKing Medicinal Marijuana (The Orange County Register, in California, notes a measure calling for the "legalization" of medical marijuana passed May 25 in the Canadian House of Commons.)
• Rock Stirs The Pot With Comments (The Calgary Sun says Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock all but admitted yesterday he's smoked pot. But the lawyer in him made sure his admission wouldn't hold water in court. "As former attorney general of Canada, I am keenly aware of the right against self incrimination in this country. I fully intend to invoke that right," he said yesterday. Rock strongly signalled he intends to give home-grown pot a whole new meaning, saying he wants to produce a 'made in Canada' brand. However, his department is still trying to figure out where the marijuana will be grown, who will grow it and under what conditions.)
• Commons A-Buzz Over Grown-In-Canada Pot (According to the Toronto Star version, the Canadian health minister, Allan Rock, said yesterday he would announce next month details about clinical trials for pain patients. Rock said the benefits of having medical marijuana grown in Canada under the watchful eye of the government are that "you'd have a consistent percentage of THC, consistent quality, [and] a level of cleanliness which is consistent." But he didn't explain why one size must fit all, or why private enterprise can't produce to specs what is shaping up to be the Canadian government's own cannabis cup winner.)
• Through Pot Haze, Rock Stands Solid (The National Post version)
• Ottawa Looking For Steady Supply Of Dope (The Toronto Globe and Mail version)
• Canada Grows More Pot Than Parsley (According to the Calgary Herald, the first-ever RCMP report on Canada's $18-billion illicit street-drug trade estimates at least 800 tonnes of marijuana was grown domestically last year. By comparison, Canadians last year sprouted 727 tonnes of parsley, which, of course, by weight is mostly water. "This estimate appears overwhelming," the report states, and, in fact, investigators believe it's "quite conservative.")
• 'Mindboggling' Marijuana Crop Tops 800 Tonnes (The Ottawa Citizen version inclues the URL to the RCMP report.)
• Money Laundering Targeted (The Toronto Star says legislation that is expected to be introduced by an unspecified power in Canada's House of Commons as early as today would require banks to report "suspicious transactions of $10,000 or more." The bill would also require anyone entering or leaving Canada to declare anything above $10,000 or risk having the undeclared money forfeited to Canada Customs. The new measures are intended to dramatically slash the $17 billion supposedly laundered every year by organized crime in Canada.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 92 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original drug policy newsmagazine features these stories - Thanks, and another special offer through June 30; Medical marijuana activist convicted in federal court: jury not allowed to hear evidence of medicinal use; Four guards charged in beating death of Nassau County inmate; Senate juvenile justice bill passes in wake of Colorado school shooting, would dramatically increase surveillance and drug testing; New York assembly speaker says no to Rockefeller drug law reform . . . or does he?; Policy change may allow for non-government funded medical marijuana research.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 99 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - "How To Legalize Drugs," a new book by Jefferson M. Fish, Ph.D. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - The Zogby New York poll; Pot politics; Texas heroin massacre; 'Don't do drugs'; College drug arrests up for sixth year; and, DEA chief announces his resignation. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - When they get out; The Rockefeller drug laws; The racial issue looming in the rear-view mirror; Snitch culture; and, Of merchant ships and crack-sellers' cars. News about Cannabis & Hemp includes - U.S. eases curb on medical marijuana research; Hemp campaign gains momentum; and, Guilty verdict in high-profile pot case. International News includes - UK: Thousands will lose the right to trial by jury; Eton claims success in drugs crackdown; and, Australia: Battle lines drawn as summit deepens. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net column provides URLs for a new site to aid those charged with drug crimes; and a G.W. Bush drug war parody site. The Fact of the Week documents the total value of federal forfeitures in 1994. The Quote of the Week cites a recent comment by Allan Rock, the Canadian minister of health.)
  Bytes: 167,000 Last updated: 6/9/99
  

  Thursday, May 27, 1999:

• Urgent Message re: HB 3052 (An e-mail from Portland attorney and medical-marijuana patient advocate Leland Berger provides more details about the Oregon legislature's imminent vote on a bill sponsored by Rep. Kevin Mannix that would nullify much of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Chair Neil Bryant was erroneously informed by Marion County District Attorney Penn that HB 3052 was not controversial. Please call this short list of state senators to acquaint them with the facts.)
• Doctors in Oregon for class action lawsuit (A list subscriber forwards a message from the Action Class for Freedom of Therapeutic Cannabis, which is seeking an Oregon physician for its lawsuit being heard in Philadelphia challenging the federal ban on medical marijuana.)
• Tacoma Activist Busted (A list subscriber says medicinal-marijuana cultivator Charlie Grissom has been busted and feels abandoned.)
• State Panel Nears Approval To Dispense Marijuana (The San Mateo County Times says a task force appointed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer charged with implementing Proposition 215, comprised of everyone from patients to pot growers to police to physicians, meets again this afternoon in Sacramento. A legislative bill containing the task force's proposal should come up within a few weeks.)
• Chamber Of Commerce Snubs 'The Head Shop' (The Lompoc Record, in California, says Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce officials turned down one of the City's newest businesses for membership Wednesday. Critics of the business say it promotes the drug culture by selling water pipes, often known as bongs to marijuana users. David Gage, the owner, noted his business and the sale of those pipes is legal. He says the pipes are for tobacco use only. Gage said he was surprised by the board's decision because his store does not allow tobacco products to be sold to minors, while another business that belongs to the chamber has been in trouble with the law for such sales. "The vast majority come in and say 'This is a neat store. I'm really glad you're here,'" Gage said.)
• Prayers for Terence McKenna (List subscribers forward news that the Hawaiian "psychedelic philosopher" has been diagnosed with brain cancer and is not expected to live more than 90 days. Think good thoughts for Terence at 2 pm Sunday, May 30, PDT, 9 pm GMT.)
• Hemp activist beaten by police (A terrorized list subscriber introduces and forwards a disturbing first-person account from Ben Valdez, Jr. Valdez was brutally beaten up May 20 by a squad of black-clad, ninja-masked police in Salt Lake City, Utah, who broke down his door on the basis of a wrong-name warrant.)
• Update on Kriho Case (The Jury Rights Project forwards a petition for rehearing that the Colorado Attorney General's office filed May 20 with the Colorado Court of Appeals. If the petition is denied, the state will probably take its appeal of the reversal of Laura Kriho's conviction for contempt of court to the Colorado Supreme Court.)
• Texas Heroin Massacre (Mike Gray in Rolling Stone magazine examines the much-publicized deaths of young heroin users in Plano, Texas - without challenging the heroin "overdose" myth. Gray erroneously blames the relative potency of black-tar heroin for its toxicity, implying that diluting heroin with any contaminant in the world will only make it safer, while also suggesting that kids can easily derive powdered heroin from black tar. But an otherwise well-researched article explains how the media came to identify Plano as the heroin capital of America - quite unfairly, since cities like Tampa, Florida; Baltimore; and Parsippany, New Jersey, were going through exactly the same thing. When Prime Time Live was about to hit town, one official said, "If this goes wrong, everybody's house is gonna be worth $50,000 less." A law-enforcement crackdown is about to yield disparately harsh sentences for the Hispanics involved, but the crisis continues because prohibition encourages everyone's participation in a conspiracy of silence and denial.)
• A Setback For Fetal Rights In Wisconsin Alcohol Case (The Chicago Tribune says the Wisconsin 2nd District Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a lower court and ruled that a woman who drank herself into a stupor in her ninth month of pregnancy cannot be charged with attempted murder of her fetus. The only state that criminalizes such behavior is South Carolina. In 1996, that state's Supreme Court upheld the child-neglect prosecution of a woman who had used crack cocaine while pregnant. Courts in 21 other states have rejected criminal prosecution of pregnant women for behavior that harms their fetuses, but the U.S. Supreme Court has so far been silent on the issue.)
• Silver Softens Drug Law Stance (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Speaker of the New York state Assembly, seems to be backing away from his previous opposition to reforming the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. However, Silver said at a closed-door meeting of his Democratic conference earlier this week that he was opposed to Gov. George Pataki's proposal, which links reform to the elimination of parole for all felons.)
• Strawberry Pleads No Contest (The Washington Post says one-time star outfielder Darryl Strawberry was sentenced yesterday in Florida to 18 months of probation and drug testing, after his bust for offering $50 to an undercover policewoman led to the discovery of cocaine in his wallet. Strawberry, who is recovering from colon cancer, is on administrative leave from the New York Yankees and faces the possibility of suspension from baseball as a multiple offender of its drug aftercare program.)
• Production, Analysis And Distribution Of Cannabis And Marijuana Cigarettes (A news release from the National Institute on Drug Abuse website says NIDA is "soliciting proposals from qualified organizations having the capability to grow, harvest, extract, analyze, store and manufacture marijuana cigarettes, and distribute cannabis, and marijuana cigarettes to NIH grantees and other researchers to support basic and clinical research." RFP No. N01DA-9-7078 will be available electronically on or about June 14 at the NIDA website.)
• Special Interest: Fighting Spirits (The Washington Post says the White House drug czar, Barry R. McCaffrey, has betrayed his own congressional allies and scuttled his own reform proposal, which would have allowed part of his $1 billion anti-drug advertising budget to target alcohol abuse. U.S. representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., and Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., sponsored such legislation at his request. Studies by McCaffrey's office claim alcohol is a "gateway drug" leading to illicit drug use, and the bill had the support of the American Medical Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. However, the liquor lobby rallied the opposition, which now includes the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and McCaffrey's own office, which circulated a paper on Capitol Hill warning of the high costs of an anti-alcohol campaign. McCaffrey spokesman Bob Weiner said McCaffrey would now support the amendment only if it were changed to give him authority for such ads without mandating them.)
• Canada Might OK Medical Marijuana (The Associated Press says a measure calling for the legalization of pot for medical reasons passed Tuesday night in the Canadian House of Commons.)
• Marijuana Legalization Too Late For Local Man (The Sudbury Star, in Ontario, describes the prosecution for possession and trafficking of Barry Burkholder of Chelmsford, who says he needs the healing power of cannabis to deal with the pain of chronic arthritis and various ailments associated with hepatitis C. On Wednesday, the federal government moved a step closer to legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, after a Bloc Quebecois motion calling for the legalization of pot for medical reasons passed Tuesday night in the House of Commons.)
• Delay Burns Pot Smoker (The London Free Press, in Ontario, says the Canadian government may be a step closer to permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes, but multiple sclerosis patient Lynn Harichy isn't holding her breath. "I've heard Allan Rock make promises before," said Harichy, who is facing trial Sept. 27 on a charge of possessing marijuana.)
• Southern Air Force Report Details Bleak Conditions At Ecuador Base (Inside the Pentagon says a military base at Manta, on the Pacific coast in Ecuador, that the United States wants to develop into a "forward operating location" for U.S. counterdrug forces is in bleak condition. The site must undergo extensive repairs and improvements if it is going to host U.S. forces even on a temporary basis, according to a May 10 assessment by an officer in the U.S. Southern Command's Air Force component. The report recommends that, for the time being, Manta should be used only if "absolutely necessary.")
• Court Overturns Drug Conviction / Marijuana Advocates Welcome Court Ruling (Two stories from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation say Judge Robert Ducker, citing medical reasons, has ordered that no conviction be recorded in the case of Lynette Whalen, a Byron Bay woman with lymphatic cancer. Four months ago she was convicted and fined $1,000 for growing seven cannabis plants. Patient advocates say it's not unprecedented.)
• Speaking Of Which (The Daily Yomiuri, in Tokyo, prints a feature article on entrepreneur Koichi Maeda, Japan's most dedicated hemp advocate. "I first became interested in a certain part of the hemp plant about 30 years ago," says Maeda, who is coming up on 50. "But over the past six or seven years, I have become interested in the entire plant." He is the author of "Marijuana Seishun Ryoko," or "A Young Man's Marijuana Travels," a book that has sold 75,000 copies. In it, he draws from his travels in 50 countries to describe various adventures and experiences. Maeda opened Tokyo's first hemp restaurant - Asa Café - in 1998. "I opened on Aug. 15 to commemorate Japan's defeat," he said. "Hemp was legal in Japan until the end of World War II, when it was banned by the Occupation Forces. It was a part of our culture, it was used in Shinto rituals. Even today, the Emperor wears hemp clothing on some occasions. For the last 50 years we have been alienated from our hemp culture, we are still ruled by the American occupation.")
• Medicinal cannabis (A letter to the editor of the Times, in Britain, from the chairman of the Royal College of Nursing's Forum for the Development of Mental Health Nursing Practice notes the Townswomen's Guild has joined the campaign to allow the seriously and terminally ill to use cannabis medicinally. Politicians should return cannabis to the medicinal status it held before the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971.)
• Hockney Says Drugs Are Fine But Not For Art (The Times says David Hockney, Britain's most celebrated contemporary artist, breezed into London from his California home yesterday and had an immediate brush with controversy. Holding court at the Royal Academy of Arts, he called for the legalisation of cocaine and marijuana and insisted that years of drug-taking had not harmed him in any way. But, he hastened to add, he had never indulged when working because "drugs and art don't mix." He also noted two close friends had died from alcohol rather than illegal substances.)
• Actor In Drug 'Sting' Gets Nine Months (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says John Alford, the former star of London's Burning, was jailed yesterday on charges of supplying cannabis and cocaine. Alford, 27, blamed the News of the World for entrapping him into supplying the drugs to a reporter posing as an Arab prince.)
• Actor Jailed For Dealing In Drugs (The Guardian version)
• Nine Months For Drug Case TV Star (The Scotsman version)
• War The Enforcer Can't Win (Scotsman columnist Edward Pearce says the new drive against drugs will actually do more harm than good. A different approach is needed - and we could start by legalising soft drugs. There was a time when homosexual relations were thought unspeakably horrific. Decent people flinched in nausea. The most compassionate talked of illness rather than crime, but policemen were employed to haunt public urinals to hunt for smiles and smile back, to engage in part-way complicity and to lie their heads off when hauling off the morally deformed to social ruin in the courts. This is what the tabloids now do with any celebrity who can be crucified for drug consumption. The accompanying hatreds are much the same. The viciousness of virtue is quite special.)
• Ten-Year Mandatory Drug Term From Today (The Irish Times says the Criminal Justice Act, 1999, passed into law yesterday, mandating a 10-year jail sentence for anyone caught possessing a supply of drugs estimated by the courts to be worth £10,000 or more. At present garda officially estimate the value of cannabis on a basis of its "final" street value of £10 per gram, so possession of a kilo or more of the herb could result in the mandatory 10-year sentence.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 21 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 169,000 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Wednesday, May 26, 1999:

• What happened yesterday in Salem, Oregon (A list subscriber forwards a dispatch from Amy Klare of Oregonians for Medical Rights saying the state senate Judiciary Committee's work session scheduled yesterday for HB 3052, Rep. Kevin Mannix's bill that would nullify much of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, was put off until 1 pm tomorrow. The delay was caused primarily by an egregious drafting error - legislative counsel inadvertantly left in language stating "a person may serve as the 'designated primary caregiver' for only one person," language that was not in the compromise agreement with OMR or in officially adopted amendments.)
• Marcia Hood-Brown (A lengthy but ignorant example of sensational, just-say-know-nothing fear-mongering by Willamette Week, in Portland, focuses on the recent heroin-related death of a local 33-year-old who was "a brilliant scholar, an eloquent writer and a beautiful woman." Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the weekly shopper suggests it's the increasing purity of heroin, rather than toxic street contaminants, that killed the victim, ignoring the role of prohibition in either scenario; and implies that eventually, everyone who uses heroin becomes addicted, which is off by about 90 percent. Characteristically, despite an increase in heroin-related deaths in Portland in the last few years, from 33 to an expected 162 this year - almost as many as in all of Switzerland - the free rag fails to inform puddle-towners about heroin-maintenance programs saving addicts' lives and reducing social harm in that country so successfully that similar programs are being considered in Canada, Australia, Britain and elsewhere.)
• Drug-Prevention Programs: Worth It? (A Los Angeles Times article in the Seattle Times says a study released yesterday by the Rand Corp., in Santa Monica, California, estimated that even the best school-based anti-drug prevention programs would curtail students' use of cocaine by an average of only 8 percent during their lifetime - a result that, dollar for dollar, is only a little more cost effective in shrinking demand than coca eradication efforts overseas or interdiction at the border. Government officials at all levels have been spending increasingly more on school-based prevention programs as part of the $40 billion war on drugs, but cocaine use among students is increasing, and the report concludes "It is not likely that with current technology, prevention can play a decisive role in eradicating our current drug problem.")
• Modest Gain Found With School Drug Programs (The original Los Angeles Times version)
• Bob Ames Trial Postponed (An e-mail from the Sacramento medical-marijuana patient invites supporters to his June 22 inquisition and recounts the illegalities carried out by police during his cultivation bust. Sacramento police apparently routinely break into drug suspects' homes in order to search for contraband when they otherwise wouldn't have enough evidence to obtain a search warrant. In court, at Ames' preliminary hearing, Sacramento police admitted their department's policy is to automatically arrest all patients, automatically kill all cannabis, and automatically destroy all cannabis gardens without regard to medical paperwork or other evidence of compliance with California Health & Safety Code Section 11362.5.)
• The War On Drugs, The Mendo Front (The Anderson Valley Advertiser, in Boonville, California, continues its excellent coverage of alleged outrageous government conduct by the DEA and Special Agent Mark Nelson in their pursuit of Redwood Valley resident John Dalton, 44. At a federal court hearing last Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco, prosecutors and law enforcement easily lived up to their reputation with true-to-form disregard for the rules. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston will decide soon whether to proceed with Dalton's trial, scheduled to start Aug. 16. If the government is successful, he faces 30 years to life. But there isn't a single piece of physical evidence linking him to marijuana cultivation. It's a conspiracy case. The evidence amassed by the DEA consists of the dubious testimony of snitches against an expert mechanic and unassuming, long-time resident of Mendocino County.)
• Terence McKenna ~ Condition Report (A list subscriber forwards news that the psychedelic philosopher has been diagnosed with brain cancer in Hawaii and is not expected to live long.)
• Decriminalizing Research (A staff editorial in the Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, says the federal government's decision to soften its stance on research into the medical use of marijuana is overdue, but in part a response to voter sentiment.)
• Michigan Girl Due Big Apology Over Mistaken Marijuana (The Associated Press says the weed discovered in the locker of a 14-year-old girl in Eastpointe turned out to be dried carnation leaves left over from a school celebration.)
• State hearings on expanding the medical use of marijuana (A news release from the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, a NORML affiliate, says the legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care will hold a public hearing tomorrow on widening the range of medical conditions for which the Department of Public Health may approve the experimental use of marijuana. Until last Friday, when NIDA announced that it will start to sell research-grade marijuana to any bona fide researcher, not just those funded by NIH, there was no marijuana available to the state's program.)
• Four Guards Charged In Inmate Death (The Associated Press says four prison guards in Uniondale, New York, were indicted Wednesday in the beating death of Thomas Pizzuto, an inmate who allegedly angered them by repeatedly crying out for his methadone prescription. Pizzuto, a recovering heroin addict, had a seizure three days after the alleged beating and died six days after entering the Nassau County jail to serve three months for a traffic violation.)
• Cannabis Conspiracy: The Film Your Government Doesn't Want You To See (A list subscriber posts the URL where the New York Lower East Side Film Festival's best Documentary Feature can be viewed using Real Player.)
• The Action Class for Therapeutic Cannabis is now reopened and again accepting plaintiffs (A news release from the camp of Philadelphia public-interest attorney Lawrence Elliott Hirsch says Judge Katz on May 17 ordered a three-month delay in the federal civil lawsuit proceedings. During the last two months, the number of plaintiffs in Kuromiya v. United States has doubled, from 165 to 320, and more are invited to participate in seeking to overturn the federal ban on medical marijuana.)
• Jenkintown Survey Finds Drug Abuse High Among Youth (The Philadelphia Inquirer says a survey of 285 Jenkintown students in February by the Atlanta-based drug-warrior group, the National Parents' Resource for Drug Education, or PRIDE, found alcohol was the drug of choice for the majority of students in grades six through 12. However, 61 percent of 10th graders said they used marijuana, almost twice the national average of 33 percent. Among high school seniors, 55 percent said they smoked marijuana, compared with a national average of 38 percent. School officials said a DARE program and several antidrug student groups were helping, though 75 of the 285 students reported they had been in trouble with police.)
• High Times Magazine Releases Its First Comprehensive Report On Marijuana in the U.S. (A company press release on Business Wire says the July issue, due out June 1, will feature the magazine's first comprehensive U.S. marijuana report, "Marijuana By The Numbers." Based on the U.S. government's own numbers and independent research by High Times, the report concludes, among other things, that marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers $27 billion a year, almost twice the social costs of marijuana use. More than one-third of adult Americans have smoked marijuana, including at least 11 million in the past month.)
• Police Probing Drug Claims (According to the Calgary Herald, Calgary police say they are investigating Grant Krieger, who was featured in a Herald article Tuesday claiming he intends to distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes through the Universal Compassion Club.)
• MPs Back Move Toward Legalized Medicinal Pot (The Montreal Gazette says the Canadian House of Commons voted last night to urge the federal government to "take steps" toward legalizing marijuana for medical use. Members of the governing Liberal Party united with opposition MPs to approve, 204-29, a diluted version of a Bloc Quebecois motion calling for legalization of the herb so those ill with cancer, AIDS and epilepsy can ease their suffering without fear of prosecution.)
• Medicinal marijuana wins conditional OK (The Canadian Press version in the Calgary Sun)
• Pot Legislation Supported (A lengthier Canadian Press version)
• Commons Backs Pot Law (A brief Toronto Star version)
• Australia More Open Than United States (A letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, from a woman who has just returned after living in the United States for the past year, applauds the open discussion prompted by the recent New South Wales drug summit. In America, "the drug issue was never raised, either in the media or in general conversation." Americans "tend to 'cover up' rather than try to heal the problem.")
• What If Cigarettes Were Illegal? (Another letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning World wonders to what levels people would stoop and what would happen to the price of a cigarette on the black market, if we threw offenders into jail, ostracised users and their families, and limited the supply of quit-smoking programs and technology.)
• Under-25s Targeted In Tough Plan To Break Cycle Of Drugs and Crime (The Scotsman says the British Government yesterday announced ambitious targets to halve the use of hard drugs among young people in England and Wales as part of a tough 10-year plan. Announcing the plan in parliament, Jack Cunningham, the Cabinet Office minister, said the focus was on heroin and cocaine misuse, which is a big cause of crime. The RAC also seized the opportunity to appeal to the Government to address the problem of motorists who drive under the influence of drugs.)
• Ministers Pledge To Halve UK Drug Abuse (The version in Britain's Independent)
• Smugglers Are Still Ahead In Drugs War (The Times, in Britain, says that even as the Government announced ambitious new goals designed to reduce hard drugs abuse, Dr Jack Cunningham, the Cabinet enforcer who has responsibility for co-ordinating drugs policy, admitted the war against drugs in Britain was being lost, with more substances being smuggled into the country causing a collapse in street prices and threatening a new heroin epidemic. His warning came after a grim assessment of the £1.4 billion drugs war by Customs and Excise concluded there was increased demand in the country, leading to more substances coming in.)
• What A Waste As Drugs Tsar Keith Hellawell Publishes His First Annual Audit (An op-ed in the Guardian, in Britain, by Professor Howard Parker, director of the drugs research centre at Manchester University, argues that the coming shortfall in treatment funding could have been avoided but for misplaced faith in prevention and enforcement. The overall budget is biased against treatment, even though we know what works, because the other two sectors are generously funded for political, not proficiency, reasons.)
• This Man Is Paid £106,000 A Year To Stop Britain's Youth Taking Drugs. Is He Worth It? (The Independent says that 16 months after Keith Hellawell was appointed "drugs tsar" by the British Government to spearhead a new anti-drugs crusade, criticism is mounting that he has failed to grasp the detail of his job. "He is aloof, uninspiring and out of touch," said a senior academic in the drugs field yesterday. "Worst of all, he is out of his depth. He is simply not bright enough. He can't hold all the balls up in the air." In a recent radio interview, Hellawell told listeners that doctors are not allowed to prescribe diamorphine, more commonly known as heroin, to addicts - which isn't true. One observer described his appointment as a poisoned chalice. "New Labour has unloaded the political embarrassment of its failing drugs policy on to the drugs tsar," he said. "As a figurehead, Keith Hellawell serves that purpose.")
  Bytes: 159,000 Last updated: 6/8/99
  

  Tuesday, May 25, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Policy change may allow for non-government funded medical marijuana research; American Drivers Association campaigns against traffic searches; Californian with pot prescription convicted by feds for cultivation; Arizonans 2 to 1 back pot by prescription.)
• Bill clarifying assisted-suicide law passes House by a wide margin (The Oregonian notes the Oregon legislature has once again contradicted the will of Oregon voters by changing the Death With Dignity Act. Gov. Kitzhaber is expected to sign the bill. Passed by the Senate on April 26 and by the House Monday on a 42-17 vote, the measure allows Catholic-affiliated medical facilities to prohibit physicians from participating in assisted suicide-related activities on their premises, lets pharmacists opt out of filling a lethal prescription as a matter of conscience, prohibits physician-assisted suicide by those who are disabled or elderly but not terminally ill, clarifies residency requirements under the law, and discourages patients from "committing assisted suicide alone" or in a public place.)
• Opponents fume over cigar tax rollback (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives voted 33-27 Tuesday for HB 3371, which would roll back a voter-approved tax hike on cigars out of concern some cigar stores might close because of out-of-state competition. Tom Novick of Oregon Health Leadership Against Tobacco said voters approved the tax increase because they wanted to steer people away from tobacco, and predicted that the bill would meet with a quick veto by Gov. John Kitzhaber if it passes in the Senate.)
• State Drops All Charges Against Brady (California NORML forwards a news release from Ralph Ellison saying California marijuana journalist and medical-marijuana patient Pete Brady no longer faces four years in state prison for interviewing Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby. However, Brady does still face an unspecified sentence in prison on one remaining charge, a misdemeanor violation of possessing marijuana while on federal probation. A hearing is scheduled for mid-June.)
• B.E. Smith - The Aftermath (A list subscriber forwards an e-mail from Tom Ballanco, one of Smith's attorneys, about the federal cultivation trial in Sacramento that ended Friday with a conviction. "There is a need for action on two fronts, legal and public/political." Plus commentary from Mike Gray and other list subscribers.)
• Customary Abuse: Time for Congress to rein in overzealous drug searches (A staff editorial in the Houston Chronicle says widespread allegations of abuse require federal legislation to ensure that U.S. Customs Service agents do not single out international travelers based on race, detain them for days without charges and subject them to humiliating body cavity searches, shackles and laxatives, all without allowing them access to a lawyer.)
• Focus: Marcus Gumz, Weedstock Warrior (The Wisconsin State Journal says Friday marks the beginning of Weedstock '99 in Fairfield. Local farmer Marcus Gumz has sponsored the camping, music and hemp festival on his land three times since 1995. He's 70 years old and says he's adamantly opposed to smoking, whether it's tobacco or marijuana. Before the county took most of his property, he gave "a big check" to Ronald Reagan and was an active Republican. His activities, especially Weedstock, have made for uncomfortable moments for his two children in state government. Gumz said he hosts Weedstock - which he'd like to rename "Mintstock" - because he needs the money and because he admires event organizer Ben Masel, who has long campaigned for marijuana-law reform. "I believe in the U.S. Constitution, the right to free assembly and free speech. When you've got a Gestapo government that works like jack-booted fascists, that's wrong," says Gumz.)
• Marijuana As Medicine (A letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer from medical-marijuana user Ed Forcion, who was arrested for lighting up during a protest, says patients feel vindicated by the March 17 Institute of Medicine report that supports the use of marijuana as a medicine. "Vindication isn't what is right, though. What is right is dismissal of all charges against citizens who can prove they use marijuana for medical needs.")
• Concord Family Sues Over Search By Police (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, says Leonard Mackin, Charlene Howie and four children had their home raided May 22 by Concord police using a mistaken search warrant. A lawsuit filed on their behalf Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro charged police with negligent judgment and targeting African Americans.)
• If Big Brother Has A Name, It's Bill McCollum (St. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn E. Blumner recaps the campaign against the Fourth Amendment that the U.S. representative from Florida has waged so sucessfully to date. Apparently, McCollum is not satisfied hacking away at privacy and the Constitution from his lowly House seat; he has announced plans to run for the Senate after Connie Mack retires. Since the man is a poster child for government at its biggest and most intrusive, it's astounding that he is so popular among Republicans. But it looks like he has a good shot at winning the primary.)
• DEA Chief Announces His Resignation (The New York Times says after 39 years in law enforcement, Thomas Constantine abruptly announced Monday that by July 1 he would vacate the top office at the Drug Enforcement Administration, which he has headed since March 1994. Now 60 years old, he wants to return to New York and spend more time with his family. Constantine's readiness to assail Mexico's record on drugs set him apart from other senior administration officials. "What was also important for me was a strong reputation for integrity. I wanted to be able to leave here with it," he said.)
• DEA Director Retiring After 5 Years at Post (The Washington Post version)
• Drug enforcement leader resigns (The Agence France-Press version)
• Court Bans Media From Police Raids In Homes (The Chicago Tribune says the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police officers cannot bring the media along when they go inside a person's house to execute a warrant or make an arrest. However, the television show, "Cops," isn't about to go off the air.)
• Cop Show's Goof Frees Pot Dealer, Stings Landlady (The Province, in Vancouver, British Columbia, describes how charges came to be stayed against an unnamed marijuana cultivator who caused $40,000 in damages to a rental house in Burnaby. A ruling by an unspecified court in Vancouver means the grower's rights were violated when a camera crew for the television show, "To Serve and Protect," went into the house after the police went in.)
• Pot crusader starts club in Calgary (The Calgary Herald says Grant Krieger, convicted last December of marijuana trafficking, plans to open a medical-marijuana dispensary, the Universal Compassion Club, in Calgary by mid-June. Krieger said he stopped visiting his probation officer in March because he questions the legitimacy of any law that denies him access to a drug to help him cope with multiple sclerosis. "I was nothing more than a political prisoner," Krieger said. "Society doesn't have the right to tell me how to heal my body or what I may or may not use in the process.")
• Pot: Woman says pain, fatigue is lifted (A sidebar in the Calgary Herald features fibromyalgia sufferer Mara Czayka, who recalled how the quality of her life improved dramatically after meeting Krieger last March.)
• Medical marijuana debate in Canadian House of Commons (An English-language transcript of this evening's historic debate over whether to end Canada's ban on medical marijuana also shows how each MP voted in the 203-29 final tally.)
• Honey-Trap Girl Pulled A Flanker (The Scotsman describes how journalist Louise Oswald from News of the World interviewed Lawrence Dallaglio, the famous English rugby captain, under false pretenses, getting him to boast about cocaine highs, speed trips, the joys of ecstasy and drunken sex orgies with a dozen Dutch prostitutes. The so-called "honey trap" is a fabled technique for exposing an individual's illegal-drug use, perfected by tabloid papers down the decades.)
• Dallaglio Gives Up England Captaincy (The Scotsman says Lawrence Dallaglio resigned as captain of the English rugby team last night, after allegations that he had taken drugs during a British Lions tour and had indulged in sex with groups of prostitutes. But the Wasps flanker strongly denied having ever dealt in or taken illegal substances. He admitted only to a "naive error in judgment" and claimed he had fallen victim to an "elaborate set-up" by the News of the World.)
• Half Rugby Union Players Admit To Illegal Drug Use (According to the Independent, in Britain, rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio's alleged drug use, if proved, would be more an indicator that he was "in step with his generation" than a sign that his recreational habits were particularly abnormal, says an expert in substance abuse, Dr Philip Robson, a consultant psychiatrist in substance abuse at the Chiltern Clinic in Oxford. A survey last December by the Independent into drug use in British sport showed nearly half of the rugby union players who responded admitted using an illegal substance for recreation purposes, including 12 per cent who had tried ecstasy and 4 per cent who had tried cocaine. The most popular drug was cannabis, with 43 per cent of the rugby union respondents admitting to having tried it at some time.)
• Drug Addiction Russia's Main Enemy Say Specialists (According to Itar-Tass, American-style private enterprise is alive and well in Russia. Just as in the United States, a group of professional "drug specialists" gathered to issue a statement that "Drug addiction is the main enemy of Russia" and to seek funding for themselves and their counterproductive programs.)
• Govt Sets Up Federal Extra-Budgetary Drug Control Fund (Itar-Tass, in Russia, says the extra-budgetary fund was approved by the cabinet to fight illegal drug trafficking, psychotropic substance abuse, and to consolidate the material and technical facilities of law enforcers and others waging the drug war.)
  Bytes: 148,000 Last updated: 6/2/99
  

  Monday, May 24, 1999:

• Oregon, Alaska Identify Legal Marijuana Users On State-Issued Cards (USA Today notes voter-approved medical-marijuana initiatives are being implemented in Oregon and Alaska, just as the federal government has vowed to loosen research restrictions. Alaska is expected to begin processing registry cards in June at a cost of $25 per patient. John Benson, co-director of the March 17 Institute of Medicine study, had a lukewarm response to the proposed new guidelines for physicians who want to obtain marijuana from NIDA to use in medical research. Although Benson's report recommended more research, "it's hard to discern that these guidelines have streamlined existing procedures.")
• Don't Kill Your TV Yet! (A news release from P'Town, Inc., a Portland production and placement agency, says KOIN, Portland's CBS affiliate, is airing advertisements for Cascade Hemp Supply across the river in Vancouver, Washington - "medical delivery devices" and all. "Cascade Hemp Supply is the first hemp retailer to broadcast their wares to a network audience.")
• Changes to assisted suicide law sent to governor (The Associated Press notes the Oregon house of representatives approved SB 491 Monday by a 42-17 vote. It was the legislature's third subversion of voters who twice have approved Oregon's landmark physician-assisted suicide law. The bill now goes to Gov. John Kitzhaber.)
• Police say marijuana crop exceeded new law (The Associated Press says David Teatsworth of Tacoma was indicted Thursday for cultivating 157 plants, despite a contract he says he had with Green Cross to supply medicinal marijuana to 11 patients with a doctor's recommendation. "The Green Cross lawyers told me everything was legal because I was acting as a caregiver for the 11 people," said Teatsworth. But the main author of Washington state's Initiative 692, Seattle physician Rob Killian, agreed with the interpretation of Pierce County prosecutor John Ladenburg. "The law clearly contemplates one person growing marijuana for one other person," Killian said. "If Green Cross is claiming otherwise, then they're wrong.")
• Feds Begin To Bend On Medical Marijuana (A press release on PR Newswire from Washington Citizens for Medical Rights, the sponsors of the Washington State Medical Marijuana Act, praises the NIH's recently announced policy opening the door to scientific research.)
• Letter from B.E. Smith's wife (A list subscriber forwards a heart-rending letter from Mary Gale Smith about her husband's cultivation conviction in a federal kangaroo court in Sacramento, California. "I have never been in my husbands corner 100 percent where this pot issue has been concerned. I do believe sick people should be allowed to have it, but I have never been active in supporting it, other than I voted for it. But after seeing the injustice done to my husband through the federal court in Sacramento, to me, the issue isn't even the marijuana issue any more, its an issue of justice, and justice was not done in this case. . . . What my husband did, he did not just for himself but for people like Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams, and he feels he failed them. But he didn't the federal government knew they were going to railroad him straight into jail. I would like to also add, that before the trial my husband was offered a plea bargain. They told him if he would plead guilty, he wouldn't get any jail time, and his response was, NO COMPROMISE!")
• Alaska Tightens Medical Marijuana Law / Illinois Close to Allowing Industrial Hemp Growth (Two news items from Join Together Online note the Alaska legislature has passed a bill limiting the rights of medical marijuana patients; and that the Illinois House of Representatives is expected to give final approval to an industrial hemp cultivation bill.)
• Misinformation Rife In The War On Drugs (A pharmacologist's letter to the editor of the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, finds it objectionable that his son's DARE program claims heroin is an hallucinogen and the Standard-Times would lead him to believe that marijuana and cocaine are narcotics. All of these claims are wrong. It's not his opinion, it's basic pharmacology. Moreover, the displeasure many people experienced over a jury's recent failure to convict a defendant charged with an LSD-related offense is just a symptom of society's obsessive compulsion with its own addiction, this so-called war on drugs.)
• The Rockefeller Drug Laws (A staff editorial in the Wall Street Journal isn't impressed by efforts to reform New York state's mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. Although the official newspaper of monied America fails to discuss the current or future economic costs of current policies, it suggests the Rockefeller laws are partly behind the decline in crime. Citing an unnamed study just out from the state commissioner of criminal justice, the newspaper asserts that low-level offenders don't really get incarcerated, and the only ones who do have failed the diversion drug-treatment program, DTAP, Drug Treatment Alternatives to Prison, which supposedly produces a recidivism success rate of 90 percent - although the paper carefully omits the number of inmates who drop out of the program. Locally, in Multnomah County, two-thirds who sign up for a similar program drop out.)
• Quiet Primary In Kentucky (The Associated Press notes Gatewood Galbraith, who has campaigned in two previous races for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on a platform that included legalization of hemp, has registered as an independent and is expected to file again this summer.)
• Conyers Churches Pray for Peace (The Associated Press says "T.J." Solomon, 15, a student at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia, who shot and wounded six classmates last week before almost shooting himself in the head, had been taking Ritalin. The wire service's failure to emphasize the pharmaceutical link to two other such recent rampages perhaps encourages the U.S. Senate, in its infinite ignorance and demagoguery, to react by passing legislation targeting "drugs" - illegal drugs.)
• Senate Votes On Juvenile Crime (Excerpts from an article in the Washington Post note the U.S. Senate voted 73-25 for S 254, which authorizes $5 billion over five years for juvenile justice "programs," tightens gun control laws, allows youths 14 and older to be tried as adults in federal courts, and authorizes $450 million annually for states to build detention facilities and "crack down on drugs and gangs.")
• Government Eases Marijuana Availability For Researchers - Woody Harrelson Unloads On Pot Trial Judge (Two items in the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report note Friday's announcement that researchers would be allowed access to government-grown cannabis; and a federal judge's refusal to allow B.E. Smith in California to try to put on a medical defense.)
• Feds Make It Easier To Study Marijuana (The AMA-approved Reuters version)
• Pot haul questioned (The North Shore News, in British Columbia, says North Vancouver provincial court Judge Jerome Paradis is considering the legality of a police roadblock search that led to the arrest of Lions Bay resident Marcus Richardson, 26, and the seizure of 13 pounds of marijuana in his car. Compassion Club founder Hilary Black says "the cannabis in question was destined for the Compassion Club.")
• Club Has 700 Members (The North Shore News, in British Columbia, says that for two years, East Vancouver's Compassion Club, a registered non-profit society, has been quietly selling marijuana to people with terminal illnesses and serious diseases. Compassion Club founder Hilary Black said the society has had no problems with the police. "Not that they think that people that need it medically shouldn't get it," Black said.)
• Hemp B.C., Cannabis Cafe owner set to close (According to the Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, Shelley Francis, a.k.a. Sister Icee, who bought the two famous hemporiums from Marc Emery in March 1998, expects to be out of business by the end of the week. Francis thinks Justice Thomas Melnick will grant the city an injunction. "I think our days are numbered, but I will not close Hemp B.C. until a judge orders me to. I will always continue this fight to decriminalize marijuana. It's one that has to be fought.")
• U Of T Link To Tobacco Under Fire (The Toronto Star says University of Toronto President Robert Prichard is under fire in an international medical journal after his refusal to step down as a director of Imasco, the holding company for Imperial Tobacco. The current issue of Tobacco Control, a specialist publication of the British Medical Journal, uses Prichard as an example of how universities, researchers, and teaching hospitals world-wide remain gripped by an "institutional addiction" to tobacco money.)
• Venezuela To Deny U.S. Flight Request (According to the Associated Press, President Hugo Chavez said Monday that he would deny a request by the United States to use his country's airspace for anti-narcotics flights, citing Venezuela's status as a sovereign nation.)
• Do Not Let The USA Twist Our Arm (A letter to the editor of the Canberra Times, in Australia, says the government's hostility to the distribution of heroin to addicts on prescription is not, as they claim, because it sends the wrong signal to the drug-using community. The wrong signal is to the United States DEA.)
  Bytes: 79,700 Last updated: 6/1/99
  

  Sunday, May 23, 1999:

• Explore private prison (A staff editorial in the Oregonian - the state's leading spokesman for the prison-industrial complex - endorses SB 1247, claiming 30 other states have found some savings and sense in letting corporations run state prisons for profit.)
• Hemp Education Day in Washington State (A press release from the Washington Hemp Education Network spreads the advance word about the fourth annual festival noon-4 pm Sunday, Aug. 29, one week after the Seattle Hempfest, outside the Washington state capitol in Olympia. Volunteers are needed. Gideon Israel, the founder of Hemp Education Day, will be out of Thurston County Jail in time for the event, sporting a new pacemaker and High Times' magazine's July "Freedom Fighter" award.)
• Man Convicted In First Medicinal-Pot Trial (The Orange County Register recaps the cultivation conviction Friday in Sacramento of B.E. Smith. The trial is believed to be the first in a California federal court involving a medical-need claim since Proposition 215 was passed in 1996.)
• 'Three Strikes' Reform Fouls Out (The Orange County Register says prospects for serious reform of California's draconian "three strikes" law appear dim, at least for this year. Santa Monica Democratic Sen. Tom Hayden's SB 79, which would require that a third "strike" would have to be a serious or violent felony, rather than, for example, smoking marijuana, to receive a 25-years-to-life sentence, is languishing and will probably not be brought up for a full Senate vote this year. But things look better for San Jose Democratic Sen. John Vasconcellos' SB 873, which would authorize a joint study on the costs and benefits of the "three strikes" law. A similar bill passed the legislature last year but was vetoed by then-Gov. Pete Wilson.)
• Arizonans Back Docs' Ability To Prescribe Pot (According to the Arizona Daily Star, a recent poll by the Behavior Research Center says a large majority of Arizonans, 66 percent, oppose revoking the licenses of doctors who prescribe marijuana. Twenty-seven percent support doing so. Incredibly, Chuck Blanchard, chief counsel to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said "There has not been one doctor whose license has been even threatened." Just every doctor in California and Arizona. Unfortunately, the newspaper failed to follow up by asking if Blanchard meant the Clinton administration is going to relent on Conant v. McCaffrey, which is still being litigated.)
• Health Officials Find More Teens Using Marijuana (According to an Associated Press article in the Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, a 1997 study conducted by the University of South Carolina indicates marijuana is making a comeback among South Carolina high school students, with 45 percent having tried it at least once and 26 percent having smoked it within the past month. Contradicting the March 17 Institute of Medicine report, which found no convincing evidence to substantiate the "gateway" theory, state health officials said the increase in marijuana use was "opening the door for more serious substance abuse problems." In fact, state officials are more worried about the health risks of marijuana than tobacco, calling the latter a "risk factor" for the former.)
• Dubious Lead for Bay Area Campuses (The San Jose Mercury News says an annual survey to be released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education shows arrests in 1997 on American college campuses increased 3.6 percent for alcohol and 7.2 percent for other drugs. UC-Berkeley and San Jose State University reported the most arrests, apparently because of increasing police crackdowns on non-students hanging out on or near those urban campuses.)
• College Drug Arrests Up For 6th Year (The New York Times version in the Orange County Register says that, as in past years, college law-enforcement officials and administrators attributed the rise to aggressive enforcement policies rather than to more use of alcohol or other drugs.)
• Drug and Alcohol-Related Arrests Increase at Colleges (The original New York Times version)
• Zero Tolerance - A Euphemism (A list subscriber recalls the old-fashioned word for it was "intolerance.")
• U.S. Government Makes It Easier To Buy Marijuana (Reuters follows up on Friday's news about the change in policy that will allow physicans to carry out experiments with medical marijuana, and purchase it from the government. NIDA will not take street prices of the drug into account. "The street stuff isn't grown in a secure environment where they do analysis," said Steve Gust, special assistant to the director of the NIDA. And he warned the government is not in the business of selling the high-grade product. "I think we have a reputation for not growing primo stuff," he laughed. There are three studies underway in the United States now.)
• Ritalin At Center Of Addiction Debate (The Chicago Sun-Times says a controversial study by Nadine Lambert, an education professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has contended that the use of Ritalin and other stimulants by children raises the risk of later drug abuse. However, an exactly opposite conclusion has neen reached in a study to be published in the August issue of Pediatrics. Harvard psychiatrist Tim Wilens and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital studied 500 children from age 10 to age 15 and found that Ritalin and other drug treatments actually reduced the risk of drug abuse, because untreated kids are more prone to self-medicate and abuse chemicals. The Harvard study parallels findings by psychologist Jan Loney of the State University of New York at Stonybrook.)
• Drug Rumours Haunt Bush Presidency Bid (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says campaigners for George W Bush, the leading Republican in the US presidential race, have accused rivals of spreading malicious rumours that the Texas governor was once a user of marijuana and cocaine. American newspapers largely brushed aside dark and persistent rumours about the full extent of Bill Clinton's womanising dueing the 1992 presidential election, but may attempt to be more tenacious this time. One senior Republican said: "After eight years of Bill Clinton, character is an issue that will be looked at closely. The way Bush is answering these questions has fuelled the media's interest.")
• Courts To Spare Addicts (The Independent on Sunday says Jack Cunningham, the British Cabinet Office minister, will announce Tuesday in a Commons statement that criminals who use drugs are to be sent into rehabilitation centres rather than prison as part of a government drive to halve the rate of reoffending among addicts. Ministers believe that many soft-drug users move on to harder substances while in prison.)
• West Falls Prey To Depression (The Guardian Weekly, in London, says an annual report on the health of the world's 6 billion people, released last week by the World Health Organisation, indicates depression is the second leading cause of death after heart disease in affluent Europe and the United States. Using what they called the disability adjusted life year, WHO experts also measured the real burden of diseases that generally don't show up on cause-of-death lists. In the high-income countries of the West they found that neuropsychiatric conditions - from depression to alcohol or drug dependence, dementia and panic disorder - accounted for 23 per cent of the disease burden, heart disease 18 per cent and cancers 15 per cent.)
  Bytes: 63,500 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Saturday, May 22, 1999:

• Hearing on HB 3052-A is scheduled for 3 pm Tuesday, May 25 (Sandee Burbank of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse forwards news from Amy Klare of Oregonians for Medical Rights about a public hearing at the capitol in Salem regarding the bill sponsored by Rep. Kevin Mannix that would nullify much of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Please distribute this list of direct phone numbers of Senate Judiciary Committee members and ask your friends and other advocates for medical marijuana patients to please lobby them, as well as their own state senator, politely, up to the last minute.)
• Portlander Becomes First To Obtain Marijuana Card (The Oregonian says multiple sclerosis patient Jeanelle Bluhm received the first medical-marijuana registry card from the Oregon Health Division Friday, becoming the first person in the United States to be formally granted permission by a state to own and use marijuana for medical purposes.)
• Marijuana Law Faces First Legal Test (The Daily Herald, in Everett, which doesn't know the difference between "innocent" and "not guilty," notes a Tacoma medical-marijuana patient, David Teatsworth, pleaded not guilty Thursday to cultivation charges. Teatsworth was busted with 157 plants, which attorneys for Green Cross told him were legal when he was contracted to grow the herb for 11 people.)
• Guilty Verdict In Key Pot Trial: Federal Case Breaks (The Sacramento Bee expands on yesterday's news about the first conviction for cultivation of a California medical-marijuana patient by a federal jury - except B.E. Smith's recommendation for cannabis is said here to have been written by a chiropractor, which would make it invalid even under Proposition 215.)
• Federal jury convicts man of marijuana cultivation (The Associated Press version)
• Arizonans Support Medical Marijuana (According to the Arizona Republic, a statewide poll conducted in April by the Behavior Research Center in Phoenix shows 66 percent of respondents opposed federal authorities' threats to revoke the licenses of Arizona doctors who prescribe marijuana.)
• Tyler Drug Agents Return (The Houston Chronicle says three of four prohibition agents accused of wrongdoing in the East Texas city have been reinstated by the police chief. Someone had qualms about the agents' methods, which included paying middlemen with drugs to protect undercover officers' identities. As many as 25 cases will continue on hold until further reviews are completed, and the number is "likely to increase.")
• Poll Finds Support For Drug Law Reform (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, recaps the results of the poll released last week by Zogby International, which found that New Yorkers, by a 2-1 ratio, wouldn't consider a politician "soft on crime" for voting to reform the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing laws for drug offenders.)
• New Laws Signed At Anti-Drug Rally (The Miami Herald says Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed three anti-drug bills into law Friday at the Orange Bowl in Miami in front of thousands of cheering schoolchildren from the DARE program. One law calls for mandatory-minimum prison sentences for "drug" traffickers. The "Special K" law adds ketamine to the list of illegal drugs. And the third law creates an Office of Drug Control in the governor's office.)
• The Straight Dope (Science News briefly recaps the May 1 report in the American Journal of Epidemiology about a study of 1,318 Baltimore residents that showed long-term marijuana use did not adversely affect cognitive functions.)
• U.S. Moves Toward Marijuana Research (The Associated Press recaps yesterday's news about the Clinton administration pledging to loosen restraints on medical marijuana research. Scientists with private grants will now be able to get legal marijuana from the government's supply grown on a small plot of land in Mississippi to make sure it's all the same low potency.)
• U.S. Moves Toward Marijuana Research (A different Associated Press version from America Online)
• Marijuana Moves Higher On Medical Research List (The New York Times version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• U.S. Eases Curb On Medical Marijuana Research (The original New York Times version)
• Marijuana Research Rules Loosened (A brief Washington Post version)
• Government To Sell Pot To More Scientists For Medicinal Studies (The Palm Beach Post version)
• Some Politicians Begin To Learn A Thing Or Two (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says politicians, at least some of them, got the message at the New South Wales Drug Summit: Shut up and listen, you might learn something. This became clear on the final day, when the views of experts emerged in the final communique and resolutions, and when politicians such as the Treasurer, Mr Egan, and National Party MP Ms Jenny Gardiner admitted, with regret, that the politicians had taken up too much of the debating time.)
  Bytes: 71,700 Last updated: 6/6/99
  

  Friday, May 21, 1999:

• State Issues First Medical Marijuana Permit (KOIN Channel 6000, Portland's CBS affiliate, says the state of Oregon issued its first medical marijuana registry card today to Janelle Bluhm, a multiple sclerosis patient. Plus a URL where patients can download registry-card application forms to submit to the Oregon Health Division.)
• Woman to get state's first medical marijuana permit (The Associated Press version)
• District: Public is why DARE back in budget (The Democrat-Herald in Albany, Oregon, says Albany School District Superintendent Tim Carman's original budget recommendation did not include the $10,000 the district had been paying to subsidize DARE, because he was concerned DARE might not be the most effective drug-education program available. But after meetings with principals, two meetings with the police department and 14 letters from parents, the district reversed its decision.)
• Are 157 pot plants a medical overdose? (The News Tribune says the indictment of David Teatsworth of Tacoma Thursday for growing 157 marijuana plants may become a test case for Washington's new medical marijuana law. Teatsworth's use is recommended by his doctor, and he said Green Cross, which supplies medicinal marijuana to patients who have a doctor's recommendation, had contracted with him to grow marijuana for 11 people. "We had passed a law. I thought everything was OK. I am not a criminal," Teatsworth said in an interview Thursday night in Pierce County Jail. "The Green Cross lawyers told me everything was legal because I was acting as a caregiver for the 11 people.")
• Meanwhile, seizure patient David Means is busted in Seattle (A list subscriber says Seattle prohibition agents ripped apart Means' medicinal garden, dumped 50 dirt containers on his white carpet, ignored the large notice of qualification under RCW 69.51.010., and held him in handcuffs for four hours before hauling him off to jail. One officer allegedly remarked that "the medical marijuana law doesn't exist." It seems that David has already become the subject of ridicule by King County Corrections officers.)
• Lab Tests Show Cannabis Clubs' Medical Marijuana Superior to Government's - NIDA's Pot Exposes Patients to Excessive Smoke (A press release from California NORML describes a "backdoor" potency study it sponsored with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. The government's marijuana, grown for NIDA to supply researchers and eight legal medical marijuana patients, was the least potent tested, with 3.9 percent THC. But samples from California medical-marijuana clubs averaged 12.8 percent to 15.4 percent THC. The study found only insignificant traces of the cannabinoids CBD and CBN, except for one sample with more than 8 percent CBD. CBD is thought to be especially beneficial in relieving muscle spasms and anxiety attacks, a common side effect of THC, but the study suggests patients rarely if ever encounter CBD. If the government is really concerned about potential harm from smoking cannabis, it should be responsible and give up its monopoly as it moves to end its ban on medical research.)
• Actor Harrelson, Judge Clash In Pot Trial (The Sacramento Bee finally gets around to covering the prosecution on federal cultivation charges of B.E. Smith, yet another medical-marijuana patient who thought he was protected by Proposition 215. As Woody Harrelson testified Thursday during the trial in Sacramento, an angry confrontation erupted between him and U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. "I'm just wondering why you're keeping the truth from the jury," said Harrelson, referring to a pretrial ruling by Burrell that Smith could not invoke Proposition 215. Smith's is the first marijuana cultivation trial in a federal court in California since the passage of Proposition 215. The U.S. Justice Department wants to establish a precedent so it can continue to ignore California law. The jury got the case in midafternoon Thursday and will continue deliberating today. Plus, several messages from list subscribers who attended kangaroo court today provide more details and note the jury later returned a guilty verdict.)
• High-Profile Pot Case Before Jury (The UPI version breaks the wire service's silence on the case.)
• Guilty Verdict In High-Profile Pot Case (A later UPI account says the defendant, California medical-marijuana patient B.E. Smith, 52, was denied bail and faces up to six years when he is sentenced on Aug. 6.)
• Marvin Chavez Moved to Susanville (A list subscriber forwards the prison address of the California medical-marijuana activist who was indicted as director of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op for giving away medicine, denied a Proposition 215 defense at trial, and then sentenced to six years in prison - five years more than a cop from the same jurisdiction who stole methamphetamine from an evidence locker.)
• Legislators Ignore People's Will (Three letters to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News protest the Alaska legislature's nullification of the state's new medical-marijuana law and other undemocratic usurpations.)
• Way Cleared For Hemp Aid (The South Bend Tribune says a lawsuit filed by Cass County that would have canceled both Hemp Aid '99 over Memorial Day weekend and Roach Roast '99 over Labor Day weekend at Rainbow Farm and Camp Ground in Vandalia, Michigan, has been dismissed. The four-day, three-night festival beginning May 28 will feature an admission charge of $40 to see such entertainers as Tommy Chong. Last year the event drew more than 3,000 people.)
• Cynicism and Criminal Justice (A staff editorial in the Daily Gazette notes Sheldon Silver, the New York state assembly's Democratic speaker, has said he won't take up Gov. George Pataki's modest proposals to reform the Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders because they go too far. Although Democratic liberals say Pataki's proposals don't go far enough, Silver thinks they could put other Democrats - especially those from suburban and upstate districts - on the defensive in next year's election. In other words, Silver is outflanking Pataki on the right. While most Assembly Democrats are liberals from New York City, they are also the ones who generally have the safest seats. By nixing Pataki's effort to reform drug laws, Silver is hoping to protect those Democrats from Republicans raising the law-and-order issue. Good public policy is the last thing on his mind.)
• Silver Plans To Resist Pataki On Rollback Of Drug Laws (The Buffalo News version)
• Weak Barriers Linked To Deaths In Crash (The Washington Post notes the 22 deaths that resulted when a bus in New Orleans crashed through a guard rail and plunged down an embankment are now blamed at least in part on termite-ridden guard rails. The deaths were previously and widely attributed in the mass media to the driver, Frank Bedell, who tested positive for marijuana but was also found to have been medically unfit. "They crumble to your touch," said Stephen Rue, an investigator, sticking a butter knife into a post. The hole he made exposed hundreds of squirming little bugs.)
• NAACP Chief's Son Indicted On Drug Charges (The Washington Post says Ronald T. Gray, 29, a son of Kweisi Mfume, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Washington, D.C., by DEA agents. He was indicted yesterday in U.S. District Court and jailed without bond on three counts of distributing powdered cocaine and three charges of using the telephone to arrange drug sales. Mfume was a five-term Democratic U.S. representative from Maryland and head of the Congressional Black Caucus before becoming president and chief executive officer of the NAACP in 1996.)
• Marijuana Studies to Be Aided by Likely Policy Reversal (The Los Angeles Times says the Clinton administration, in a major policy reversal, is expected to announce today that it will release its hold on research-quality marijuana and make it available to scientists who want to study its medical effects. Under the new policy, private researchers, including physicians, will be allowed to purchase and use the substance for studies. A senior administration official said that the change, to take place in December, could "open the door" to a flood of research proposals and studies. A senior administration official said that the change is supported by Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.)
• Administration To Ease Rules On Pot For Studies (A brief San Jose Mercury News version)
• New Medical Marijuana Guidelines Issued (A version broadcast by KOIN, Portland's CBS affiliate.)
• Drug Czar McCaffrey On Medical Marijuana (A list subscriber forwards two official statements on today's medical-marijuana policy reversal by the Clinton administration - one from the White House drug czar, and another from Americans for Medical Rights.)
• Federal Government Releases Medical Marijuana Guidelines - MPP Cautiously Optimistic (A news release from the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., says the new guidelines on medical-marijuana research released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are the Clinton administration's response to the medical-marijuana report from the Institute of Medicine, released March 17. Chuck Thomas of the MPP said, "Unfortunately, the Clinton administration is still playing politics, because it rejected IOM's recommendation that marijuana be given to individual patients with cancer, AIDS, or chronic pain who have an immediate need for marijuana.")
• Widespread Abuses Found In Customs (According to the Associated Press, a U.S. Treasury Department audit released Thursday to the Senate Finance Committee says the Customs Service created "a fear of reprisal" among employees who reported wrongdoing, and mishandled investigations so that wayward agents were neither disciplined nor prosecuted. The agency also promoted employees who had been disciplined for "infractions" and let managers investigate subordinates despite clear conflicts of interest. One inspector who admitted placing marijuana in a passenger's luggage was only admonished, and later received seven cash awards and one promotion. A spokesman for Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Kelly began addressing such problems immediately after assuming his post nine months ago.)
• Plan To Relax Laws On Cannabis (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia, says the New South Wales Drug Summit last night passed a proposal to remove jail terms for personal use of cannabis. The summit also backed a proposal to decriminalise the offence of self-administration of an illegal substance.)
• Drug Report Very Dangerous (A letter to the editor of the Age, in Australia, from 22 psychiatrists at the Melbourne Clinic, says they are appalled at the prospect of schizophrenic patients reading a recent news report about research at the University of California at Irvine, and being encouraged to use marijuana, which, they say, "far from improving the illness, almost always aggravates it, or causes relapse." Plus commentary from list subscribers.)
• 'Tolerance Room' Closes For Good (According to the Australian Associated Press, organizers of an illegal but relatively safe heroin-shooting facility in Sydney said today they would not reopen due to the New South Wales Drug Summit's decision to trial safe injecting rooms.)
• Eton Claims Success In Drugs Crackdown (According to the Times, in Britain, John Lewis, Head Master of Eton, told Radio 4's Today programme yesterday that the school's tough line on drug use had succeeded in minimising drug-taking there. Apparently in the belief that the war on drugs can be won in the bathrooms of Eton, it and other exclusive schools in Britain have introduced urine testing for boys suspected of taking drugs. Lewis said all of Eton's seven expulsions during his first four years in office involved drugs.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 91 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original drug policy newsmagazine features these stories - Two-year anniversary of Hernandez shooting; Legislation in Alaska will restrict state's medical marijuana law; Australia: Police force closure of safe injection room; Somali-Canadian community under attack by khat enforcers; Canadian medical group wants doctors to prescribe more pain meds; Higher Education Act reform campaign update; Conviction of juror in nullification case overturned; New York: No Rockefeller reform this year, presentations in Westchester area by ReconsiDer; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Growing pains, on the rapid increase in new drug-policy-reform groups.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 98 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Drug Policy Foundation conference 'best ever,' by Mark Greer. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - America's altered states; Drug abuse fight could use cash fix; Legalizing drugs can help us get control; Drug museum's shining example of decadence; U.S. military opens new antidrug bases; Assembly passes needle exchange bill. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Students fight ban on college funds for drug offenders; Why some get busted and some go free; Unequal justice; and, Dalton hearing in San Francisco. News about Cannabis & Hemp includes - Bill curbs medical marijuana; Marijuana law is proving to be a pain; Hemp's backers try for a comeback; and, Bus driver had been fired for drugs; International News includes - Time to prick a drugs myth; Heroin UK - Close-knit gangs who deal in death; Australia: At war over drugs; Australia: editorial: Drug blindness; Canada: Society is committing genocide against intravenous drug users; and, Canada: Sick can apply for medical use of marijuana. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net provides the URLs for the Orange County Register's recent article, Cannabis may help combat schizophrenia, including an online poll about medical marijuana; and Sam Smith's Progressive Review. The Quote of the Week cites J.S. Mill.)
  Bytes: 178,000 Last updated: 6/1/99
  

  Thursday, May 20, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Alaska legislature limits voter-approved medical marijuana law; Illinois adopts legislation to study hemp production; Australian Medical Association endorses medical marijuana trials, decriminalization for personal use; Marijuana-like drugs could treat schizophrenia, study suggests)
• House rejects bill to make brandishing a gun while drunk an offense (The Associated Press says there is no such specific prohibition on the books, but Oregon legislators who voted against HB 3103 Wednesday contended it would only duplicate existing laws.)
• Appeals court upholds Oregon jury statute (The Oregonian says a three-judge panel from the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the constitutionality of a state law that excludes felons and unregistered voters from serving as jurors in criminal trials. The law is set to expire June 30 but next week the Oregon House of Representatives is expected to vote on eight constitutional amendments proposed by Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem. If approved by voters, the amendments would increase the admissibility of evidence, expand police search-and-seizure powers, limit bail, enact certain rights for crime victims, restrict who can serve on juries, and make other changes. Most of what is included in the eight measures was contained in Measure 40, a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1996 but overturned by the state Supreme Court in 1998.)
• Bill would privatize state's new prison (The Oregonian says a group of Republican state senators led by Eileen Qutub, R-Beaverton, who call the Oregon Department of Corrections a monopoly, is pushing SB 1247, which would require the next men's medium-security prison be built and operated by a private company. The Republican majority probably will allow the bill to clear both houses, but it faces strong resistance from Gov. John "Prisons" Kitzhaber and from labor unions representing the state's corrections employees.)
• Pot Lured Man To Fatal Meeting (According to the Herald, in Everett, Washington, search warrants filed by Snohomish County sheriff's detectives indicate that Joshua Glaser, 20, had $7,500 on him when he left for a meeting near Arlington so he could buy up to three pounds of pot. Two of the three people now charged in Glaser's death have allegedly admitted they planned the robbery, the search warrants say. Two adults face the death penalty, illustrating a second way in which marijuana prohibition kills.)
• A Breakthrough Against Schizophrenia? (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register finds potentially profound possibilities in the recently reported research of Daniele Poimelli at the University of California in Irvine, who discovered dramatically elevated levels of anandamide in the cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenia patients. The higher levels could mean the body produces extra anandamide to cope with or to mediate excess dopamine production. Mr. Piomelli and his team discovered some time ago that anandamide "puts the brakes" on dopamine in the brain, and researchers have long believed that excessive dopamine activity is associated with schizophrenia. While the newspaper notes some patients report symptomatic relief from smoking marijuana, it conveys Mr. Piomelli's warning that "it is not uncommon" for schizophrenics who begin smoking marijuana to "continue in a heavy binge-like fashion until a psychotic episode comes on." Unfortunately, neither the newspaper nor Mr. Piomelli note psychotic episodes are symptomatic of the disease, not cannabis use, which may alleviate other symptoms for such patients. Neither says what proportion of schizophrenics who use cannabis experiences such a syndrome, nor do they seem to realize that patients who find cannabis effective at preventing psychotic episodes won't be showing up in clinical settings.)
• Fresno Irrigation District Wins In Drug-Test Appeal (The Fresno Bee says the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno has overturned a jury award of $240,000 to ditch tender Ron Smith for being fired as a result of failing a drug test. Fresno Superior Court Judge Franklin Jones had previously ruled that Smith's constitutional right to privacy had been violated by the drug test, but the 5th District Court of Appeal somehow decided that random drug tests for workers who hold "safety sensitive" positions are more important than a worker's right to privacy. Smith's lawyer, Don Oliver, vowed to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court.)
• George W. Bush Jr. Lashes Out At Parody Website (A news release, apparently from RTMARK, a group that specializes in calling attention to corporate subversion of the U.S. political process, recounts the efforts of the probable Republican presidential candidate to shut down a rogue web site maintained by RTMARK and Zack Exley that parodies Bush's official web site and discusses his alleged past cocaine use. Exley, a computer consultant to the Boston financial sector who describes himself as "a Christian who loathes hypocrisy," is incensed that "Bush won't deny he used cocaine, yet hundreds of thousands of people are serving very long sentences for equivalent or lesser crimes, including many in Texas," where Bush is governor. "Clinton just got away with perjury while a hundred people are in jail for that crime. Do we want our children to learn that a crime is only a crime if you don't have power?" In a case that may set a disturbing legal precedent in the area of free speech on the internet, Bush filed a complaint May 3 with the Federal Elections Commission, asserting that Exley violated the law by not registering as a political committee, citing gwbush.com's "fair market value" as evidence that Exley has exceeded the $1,000 threshold that defines a political committee under election law.)
• Fighting the drug war (The Dallas Morning News says the American Drivers Association, a national truck drivers' group based in Longview, Texas, with 86,000 members, has begun a billboard campaign advising I-20 motorists headed into East Texas from Louisiana to "just say no" when police officers ask to search their cars and trucks for drugs. J.D. Davis of the association said Texas police conducted an estimated 110,000 vehicle searches in 1998. About 1,000 of those searches, or less than 1 percent, yielded illegal drugs, he said. "It's clear the vast majority of these searches occur when the officer doesn't like your looks or you might argue about the traffic violation," he said. The goal, said Davis, is to place a billboard on every Texas interstate by year's end.)
• How The Media Muzzles The Marijuana Message (Hartford Advocate columnist Michael Marciano says MTV refuses to discuss its policy of censoring marijuana-related imagery in its music videos. On the TV screen, rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg sits in the driver's seat, toting a bottle wrapped in a paper bag. As the song's lyrics go, the rapper is "rolling down the street, smokin' Indo, sippin' on gin and juice," - or at least that's what he says on the CD. On TV, the word "Indo", aka Indonesian weed, has been deleted. Yes, Snoop and his buddies can drink and drive on MTV, but what they're smoking is as taboo as a naked crotch shot. There are hundreds of instances in which MTV has enforced a policy of censoring marijuana references. Guns, gangsters and prostitutes are still acceptable, of course.)
• Pot Politics (An insightful and well-researched article in the Hartford Advocate about the drug-policy-reform movement in the United States says there are now more than 400 reform groups, about 350 of which were established in the last decade in response to the government's escalating war on some drug users. Some view the myriad agendas and lack of unity as necessary, others as depleting the movement's strength and focus. The drug policy reform movement didn't start out as a mix of pot smokers and policy wonks. It started as a coalition of doctors and lawyers. Abolitionists, women's suffragists, and Gandhi's satyagrahi were even more divided than drug policy reformers, but accomplished more. According to Nora Callahan of Washington state, the founder of the November Coalition, which advocates for the families of drug-war prisoners, when she talks to her brother in jail, he says prisoners find hope in the very fact that so many people are challenging drug policies from so many different angles. "It's a huge brick wall, should we be barreling into the same spot?" Callahan asks, "Or should it come down brick by brick?")
• In Switch, Democrats Won't Act on Pataki Plan to Ease Drug Laws (The New York Times says New York state's Democratic legislative leadership plans to shelve Gov. George Pataki's proposal to scale back the Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimumm sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver appears unwilling to support any such effort this year out of concern that Democrats might be portrayed as soft on crime in the next election, especially in relatively conservative upstate districts and in the suburbs of New York City.)
• The Zogby New York Poll (The Media Awareness Project forwards a press release from the Zogby web site, together with a news release from the Lindemsith Center, showing that a new poll of New York state residents reveals about 2-1 support for politicians who would act to reform the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. The survey also reveals nearly three of every four likely New York state voters say anyone charged with simple possession of illegal drugs should receive treatment instead of a prison sentence.)
• Pharmacia's New Drug Could Provide Different Avenue To Treat Depression (The Wall Street Journal says company research presented at a psychiatric conference yesterday in Washington, D.C., showed Reboxetine, a new type of antidepressant made by Pharmacia & UpJohn Inc., is just as effective as Prozac in reducing depression, and is more effective at improving the social functioning of patients. The drug is approved in many European countries; Pharmacia & Upjohn officials said they expect a regulatory decision in the U.S. by the third quarter. According to the company, Reboxetine, if approved, would be the first antidepressant in the U.S. designed to block the re-uptake of norepinephrine, thereby increasing levels of the naturally produced chemical that revs up the brain and is associated with a patient's drive and vitality. Reboxetine takes about four weeks to start working.)
• Of Merchant Ships And Crack-Sellers' Cars (The Christian Science Monitor says the U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week that because forfeiture laws were passed by Congress in the 1790s, shortly after the Bill of Rights was written, the Constitution must also permit law-enforcement officials the same latitude in the 1990s. At issue was a 1993 Florida case involving the car of Tyvessel White. Alleging that Mr. White was a drug dealer, police seized his car without a warrant under a state forfeiture law. When they searched the car, also without a warrant, they found two pieces of crack cocaine in the ashtray that they used to convict Mr. White of narcotics possession. The high court ruled police didn't need a warrant before seizing and searching the car. Legal analysts say they are concerned the decision will encourage local, state, and federal law-enforcement officials to abandon the warrant process when seizing or searching cars subject to forfeiture.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert No. 108 - Canadian Reporter Tells Real Story of Medical Marijuana (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to the Toronto Star responding to Sunday's op-ed by one of its reporters who came out and explained why she refuses to apologize for using marijuana as medicine.)
• Mandatory Addiction Treatment Won't Work (A letter to the editor of the Toronto Star representing a provincial federation of 250 community mental health and addiction programs says Mike Harris's proposal for mandatory drug treatment for welfare recipients with addictions is totally impractical. Ontario's addiction treatment system is unable to meet existing demands from voluntary clients; any influx of mandatory clients would exacerbate this problem.)
• Alternative drugs to claim health benefits (The Canadian Press says natural health products carrying government-approved health claims should start appearing on Canadian store shelves within a year. The new labels will represent a dramatic shift in policy for the Health Department, which has previously refused to endorse the therapeutic benefits of herbs, plants and other alternative medicines.)
• Natural remedies face new rules (A somewhat different version in the Toronto Star)
• Two Alleged Drug Dealers Win In Courts (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says efforts in Mexico City to prosecute the Amezcua Contreras brothers, whom American authorities believe rank among the world's largest producers of methamphetamine, appear to be collapsing. A federal judge yesterday declared proceedings against Jesus Amezcua unconstitutional. And his younger brother, Adan, 29, was freed from a federal prison yesterday after an appellate judge threw out trafficking and other charges against him.)
• Activists Manipulating Drug Summit, Says MP (According to the Australian Associated Press, New South Wales Liberal Member of Parliament Peter Debnam today claimed the New South Wales drug summit was being secretly manipulated by activists who wanted to relax drug laws. Debnam, a delegate to the summit, said "I greatly regret the working groups were held in secret and not open to the public.")
• Shooting Gallery, Heroin Trial Boost (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia, says State Attorney-General Jeff Shaw agreed to a preliminary resolution approved Tuesday night at the New South Wales drug summit in Sydney, to trial safe injecting rooms and the legal prescription of heroin. On other issues, a working party said police should be allowed to caution offenders carrying small amounts of cannabis for personal use, and jail penalties should be removed for possessing and cultivating cannabis, and for having equipment to use the herb. The resolutions must now be voted on by a special resolutions group, which will make recommendations to the Government at the end of the summit.)
• Delegates To Vote On Summit Resolutions (The Australian Associated Press says delegates at the New South Wales drug summit will vote tonight on whether to recommend the government should legalise shooting galleries and relax cannabis laws. Debate on nearly 170 resolutions started just before 3 pm and was expected to go well into the night.)
• Carr Faces Drug Dilemma (The Sydney Morning Herald says an unexpectedly strong push for drug law reform is emerging at the New South Wales Drug Summit, challenging the long-standing views of the prohibitionist Premier. The Government will formally respond to the delegates' reform proposals in four to six weeks, but the political bipartisanship promised this week has evaporated, putting more pressure on Mr Carr to overrule summit recommendations.)
• Ex-Taumarunui Constable Fined On Drug Charges (The Dominion, in New Zealand, says Rebecca Lorene Boyce has been convicted of using cannabis oil and possession of cannabis and fined $660.)
• Trial By Jury (Two letters to the editor of the Independent object to yesterday's announcement by the British home secretary, Jack Straw, of plans to prohibit jury trials for about 18,500 defendants a year accused of such offences as theft, possession of "drugs" and assault.)
  Bytes: 148,000 Last updated: 6/3/99
  

  Wednesday, May 19, 1999:

• Philip Morris says it won't pay state's share in tobacco damages (According to the Associated Press, the cigarette trafficker says it won't pay Oregon's share of $32 million in damages assessed against it by an Oregon jury, arguing the multistate settlement with tobacco companies engineered by state attorneys general excuses Philip Morris from paying punitive damages to the state. Under Oregon law, 60 percent of punitive damage awards is appropriated to a state fund for crime victim compensation, meaning Oregon would get $19.2 million if the $32 million punitive-damages award withstands the tobacco company's appeal.)
• Oregon in pursuit of share of award (The Oregonian version)
• Kitzhaber rolls out tobacco money for schools (The Oregonian says Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday signaled that he is willing to drop his tax-increase proposals and instead dig deeper into the state's tobacco settlement money to boost school spending.)
• New pill can help pare off pounds (The Oregonian celebrates the arrival of orlistat, marketed under the brand name Xenical by Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc. Expect to see the ads soon. The weight-loss pill approved last month by the Food and Drug Administration is said to reduce the fat absorbed by the body by about one-third. Except after one year, only 57 percent of Xenical patients had lost a meager 5 percent of their body weight, compared to 31 percent of patients given a placebo. Designed for people who are very overweight, the drug is available only by prescription, and is meant to be used along with a physician-guided weight-management program that includes sensible diet and exercise. Several glaring omissions include the attrition rate - how many people were able to take the drug for as long as a year - how long the medicine was tested on human subjects, and whether any longitudinal follow-up monitoring of patients is being carried out to safeguard consumers by assessing or uncovering long-term side effects statistically.)
• DEA Lies (The Anderson Valley Advertiser follows up on last week's disturbing news about an evidentiary hearing in San Francisco intended to explore the actions of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Mark Nelson, whose Ahab-like pursuit of supposed marijuana trafficker John Dalton of Redwood Valley allegedly led him to seduce Victoria Horstman, Dalton's wife, and swear her in as a Special Agent of the DEA. Monday's hearing confirmed Nelson's errant behavior, as well as his falsification of documents and perjury, but now he has his own attorney and will probably take the 5th at the next hearing, scheduled today. Dalton has been confined in a federal prison in Dublin, in the east Bay Area, for nearly two years awaiting trial.)
• Dave Herrick's 2nd Anniversary (A list subscriber shares a letter from Salinas Valley State Prison in California, where the medical-marijuana patient/activist is serving a four-year sentence for selling medicine through the Orange County Cannabis Co-Op, after having been denied a Proposition 215 defense. Herrick's appeal is scheduled for June 21, and he may be paroled in October.)
• Medical Marijuana Researcher to Speak at Forum (A news release from the Lindesmith Center provides more details about a free public lecture scheduled May 25 in San Francisco featuring Dr. Donald Abrams, the only physician in the United States currently allowed to carry out a clinical trial using medical marijuana.)
• Alaska Legislature Tightens Medical-Marijuana Law (Reuters says the Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a bill to limit the initiative approved last November by nearly 60 percent of voters. The legislation will require patients to register with the state, limit possession to one ounce and six plants of marijuana, and require patients to make periodic visits to their doctors' offices. A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles indicates he'll sign the bill.)
• Tax On Illegal Drugs Is Unconstitutional (According to the Salt Lake Tribune, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball has nullified Utah's Illegal Drug Stamp Tax Act. Judge Kimball ruled the law amounts to a criminal punishment, entitling defendants to the same constitutional protections provided in a criminal prosecution, yet it does not provide for those rights. A 1997 state supreme court decision already limited use of the tax, and officials had all but abandoned it.)
• 'Don't Do Drugs' (The Houston Chronicle publicizes a drug-prevention program called "Drugs Kill." Houston advertising executive Earl Littman introduced the program to Fort Bend Independent School District elementary schools in May, although he initiated Drugs Kill at some other, unspecified place in 1997 after being "approached" by the U.S. Justice Department. The program instills the anti-drug message from the first grade, and children receive quarterly rewards for avoiding drugs. Upon graduation, students "qualify to apply for" a $1,000 scholarship to college. Both children and parents sign a pledge card. Children also receive posters of local athletes encouraging a sober lifestyle. Littman said he hopes a poster is placed in every child's bedroom - just as long as it's not former Dallas Cowboys star Mark Tuinei.)
• Illinois House Votes To Study Hemp For Agricultural Purposes (The Associated Press says legislators voted 78-35 Wednesday for HR 168, a resolution to form a task force that would study the re-establishment of an industrial hemp industry.)
• The Supermax Solution (The Village Voice describes Upstate Correctional Facility, New York's 70th prison and first "supermax" institution. The $180 million maximum-security cage, designed to hold almost 5,000 inmates, will open this summer in Malone, population 14,297, located 15 miles south of the Canadian border. Career options are so few in the North Country that prison guard has become a popular choice. What could be worse than spending 23 hours a day in a cell? Try spending 23 hours a day in a cell with somebody else. Rehabilitation is beside the point. The aim is to cut costs - to house as many prisoners as cheaply as possible. Locking together pairs of criminals with a history of breaking prison rules may save dollars, but it has an ominous history. Pelican Bay State Prison in California is eliminating the practice because 10 prisoners have killed their cellmates in the last few years.)
• Federal Courts Bogged Down In Methamphetamine Cases (The Tennessean says the drug is clogging up the federal law enforcement system in Middle Tennessee. Because criminal cases take precedence over civil cases, the impact of drug cases is further magnified. Firearms or money-laundering charges often accompany the illegal-drug charge, increasing costs all around. Wendy Goggin, acting U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, said the 18 lawyers in her office spend nearly 40 percent of their time investigating and prosecuting drug cases, most of which involve meth. Despite ever more DEA agents, prosecutors and judges, it's never enough.)
• Miami-Dade Officer Charged In Plot To Steal Drugs, Cash (The Miami Herald says James Vilmenay, a four-year veteran of the department, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly plotting a bogus traffic stop with the intention of stealing the driver's cocaine and cash.)
• Drug War Vigils (A bulletin from NORML encourages activists to take part in a new project being spearheaded by the November Coalition. The purpose of the Vigil Project is to get activists to stand with victimized families and show the public that there is broad opposition to the drug war. For the first time, the November Coalition will attempt to mobilize peaceful and dignified vigils in several states. "We envision a time when on a weekly basis at court houses around the United States prosecutors, judges and jurors will have to pass the equivalent of a picket line as they go into the courthouse to consider drug war prosecutions. . . . In essence this is a process of social mobilization, and we welcome those of you who would help us develop an army for the reform movement and direct it effectively.")
• The Racial Issue Looming In The Rear-View Mirror (The Washington Post says that from the U.S. Justice Department and Capitol Hill to Sacramento and other state capitals, there is a growing assault on racial profiling. Perceptions matter in part because there is relatively little hard data. As observed by David Cole, a Georgetown University Law School professor who wrote "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," there is also "no data that shows a police department doesn't engage in racial profiling." Part of the problem is that current crime statistics, which reflect the racist impact of such policies in the past, may be used as justification for continuing them. For example, in the April edition of "Vital Stats," the Statistical Assessment Service says "crime patterns," that is, racial disparities in arrests, prosecutions, and sentencing, may make it "rational" for police to focus more on blacks and males than on whites and women: "The unpleasant truth is that profiling can be statistically valid . . . ." Cole agrees that the "stereotype the police are relying on is not entirely irrational.")
• Some 750 Canadians Apply To Grow Hemp (According to UPI, Canada's health department says it has received about 750 applications from farmers across the country to grow industrial hemp, and has approved more than two-thirds of them.)
• Tax Hikes Turn Teens Off Smoking: Study (According to the Toronto Star, the World Bank calculated in a report to health ministers in Geneva that tax hikes are the most effective way to stop adolescents from smoking. Stopping adults through prohibitory taxes also appealed to the bankers. The Star doesn't say if the bankers actually calculated the costs associated with an illicit market in cigarettes, only that they insisted "the appropriate response to smuggling is to crack down on criminal activity" - after all, that wouldn't come out of their budget. Canadians went down this road before, which may explain why cartons supposedly average $15 less there than in the United States.)
• Americans, Mexicans Blame Each Other In Poll (According to the Houston Chronicle, a survey of national attitudes released Tuesday by the polling company Louis Harris & Associates Inc., suggests Americans and Mexicans blame each other for illegal drug trafficking. Fifty percent of the 4,500 Mexicans surveyed said Americans' appetite for buying and using drugs is the main culprit for the illegal trade. By contrast, of the 1,006 Americans surveyed, 48 percent blamed Mexico for failing to take strong action against Mexican drug dealers.)
• Poll: Suspicion High On Both Sides Of Border (The Arizona Republic version)
• Battle Lines Drawn As Summit Deepens (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia, says the Salvation Army's Major Brian Watters, who heads Prime Minister John Howard's drugs advisory council, came under fire yesterday as battle lines emerged between conservatives and reformers at the New South Wales drug summit in Sydney. Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University said there was no scientific evidence to show that U.S.-style zero tolerance policies would curb the drug problem. "Beware of Americans bearing certainties," he said. "The end of the Cold War may have been a good thing but it has not made American policy-makers one bit more humble; particularly in this area they are prone to claims that I would argue are implausible, particularly as to the values of toughness.")
• Thousands lose right to jury trial (The Independent says Jack Straw, the British home secretary, today will announce plans to remove the right to trial by jury, regarded as one of the fundamental principles of British law, for about 18,500 defendants a year accused of offences including theft, possession of "drugs" and assault.)
• Thousands Will Lose The Right To Trial By Jury (The Guardian version)
• Deny Hard Core Addicts Their Last Chance? (A list subscriber translates and excerpts much of an article from Germany's Basler Zeitung, which says the leadership of Switzerland's EDU evangelical party, Federal Democratic Union, is using false arguments in a referendum campaign aimed at stopping Switzerland's heroin-maintenance trial for long-term addicts.)
  Bytes: 146,000 Last updated: 6/2/99
  

  Tuesday, May 18, 1999:

• Let the sick choose own medicine (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from Clifford A. Schaffer responds to a recent op-ed by Drs. John A. Benson Jr. and Stanley J. Watson Jr., the co-principal investigators for the Institute of Medicine's March 17 report on medical marijuana. "It is amazing to me that, with all the research they did, they never once considered the health effects of jailing sick people. In all their research, did these good doctors come across any other instance in which we would jail sick people because they chose a medicine other than what the doctor prescribed?")
• Lawmakers body slam requirement that wrestlers undergo drug tests (An Associated Press article in the Register-Guard, in Eugene, says the Oregon state senate, hoping to lure more professional wrestling events to Oregon, on Tuesday voted 22-5 for SB 238, which would end a requirement that professional wrestlers undergo mandatory drug testing. Supporters noted that World Championship Wrestling last year scrubbed a televised performance that had been scheduled at the Rose Garden in Portland after learning its performers would be subjected to drug tests.)
• House Votes Against Pharmacists In Ethical, Religious Case (According to the Oregonian, state legislators on Monday voted down HB 2010, sought by the Oregon State Pharmacists Association, which would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to dispense such drugs as RU-486 on religious or ethical grounds. Critics said the measure could be particularly hard on women in rural areas.)
• House rejects bill to allow druggists to just say no (The Associated Press version)
• Kitzhaber proposes borrowing to fund school aid (The Associated Press says Oregon Governor John Kithaber today proposed borrowing $150 million and repaying the debt with money from the national tobacco settlement in order to balance his budget without new taxes.)
• Lawmakers urged to use tobacco settlement for anti-smoking programs (The Associated Press says public health groups in Oregon have launched a radio advertising campaign urging that at least one-fourth of the state's share of the national tobacco settlement be spent on anti-smoking programs - that is, public health groups.)
• Welfare of Oregon kids slipping, study says (The Associated Press says the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 1999 annual Kids Count Data Book, a nationwide report on kids, crime, poverty and health, indicates Oregon's ranking dropped from 23rd place last year to 29th place this year. "We were never a shining star," said Gary Dombroff, director of Children First for Oregon, a nonprofit advocacy group. "But this has been a pernicious, precipitous drop." In Oregon, the study bears the worst news for teen-agers: While the national dropout rate dipped by 9 percent from 1985 to 1996, Oregon's high school dropout rate jumped by 33 percent. Unfortunately, AP doesn't ask any of the public officials responsible for the transfer of money away from public services into the drug war why their strategy failed to produce the results they promised.)
• Oregon kids slip in U.S. ranking (The Oregonian version)
• Cannabis may help combat schizophrenia (The Orange County Register says an ongoing study of mentally ill patients by researchers at the University of California at Irvine, to be reported next month in the journal Neuroreport, found high levels of anandamide, a cannabis-like chemical produced naturally by the human body, in the cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients, meaning the body may be producing the chemical to fight the disease. Plus, vote in an online medical-marijuana poll at the newspaper's web site.)
• Marijuana-Like Chemical Found In Schizophrenics (The Reuters version says researchers discovered that each of 10 people with schizophrenia had twice the normal level in their cerebrospinal fluid of anandamide, a naturally produced chemical that resembles the cannabinoids found in marijuana. "We've known that many schizophrenics smoke marijuana and claim it eases some of their symptoms," said Daniele Piomelli, a pharmacologist who helped lead the study. Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormally high levels of dopamine. Piomelli's team earlier reported that anandamide tempers the effects of dopamine.)
• Marijuana-like chemical linked to schizophrenia (The BBC version)
• House OKs Marijuana Restrictions (The Anchorage Daily News says the Alaska house of representatives voted 30-9 Monday for SB 94, a bill sponsored by Sen. Loren Leman, R-Anchorage, that would restrict the medical marijuana law voters approved last year. The bill would require patients who want to use medical marijuana to register with the state, and it sets the maximum amount a patient can legally possess at one ounce or six plants. David Finkelstein of Alaskans for Medical Rights said, "The bottom line is it will work for Alaskan patients," except some patients will refuse to register. For them, the law will offer no protection. The governor is expected to sign the bill.)
• Ex-Drug Investigators On Trial (UPI says three former investigators for ex-Attorney General Jeffrey B. Pine's much heralded Narcotics Strike Force have gone on trial in federal Superior Court in Providence, Rhode Island, for conspiring to violate the civil rights of several innocent people by arresting them on trumped up marijuana and cocaine charges. A fourth defendant, Cesar A. Moreno, an informer/agent for the Strike Force, remains at large.)
• Hemp Campaign Gains Momentum (According to UPI, the campaign to allow U.S. farmers to grow industrial hemp again is making progress. On April 19 North Dakota became the first state to enact an industrial hemp bill. Virginia and Hawaii have also passed similar legislation, and bills are pending in Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico and Vermont. Now the Wisconsin Assembly's Agriculture Committee has held its first hearing on a hemp bill.)
• With The Needle Came AIDS (An article translated from Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says that for a long time, the Chinese thought of drugs as merely a historical issue having to do with the Opium Wars against the British. Nowadays, though, disco-goers are popping ecstasy, young artists and businesspeople are smoking marijuana, and rock musicians and students are shooting heroin. Entire shiploads of drugs from neighboring countries are secretly making their way into China. The Asian economic crisis has spared China, which is now making life harder for drug investigators. "Because our currency is stable, the drug bosses are bringing far more drugs to us than to Southeast Asia," says Sun Dahong, director of the Drug Control Bureau in Yunnan. According to the government, two-thirds of all HIV-infected people become infected by injecting drugs; today their number is estimated at 400,000. Every drug addict caught by the police must enter forced treatment, and a return to drug use lands addicts in a labor camp.)
• Pro-Marijuana Activists Stage Own Talkfest (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia, says marijuana-law-reform activists gathered for an alternative drug summit outside State Parliament in Sydney yesterday. Michael Balderstone of the Nimbin Hemp Embassy said too much of the New South Wales drug summit was dedicated to heroin. "We reckon if there had been reasonable cannabis laws in the last 20 years there would not be anywhere near the heroin problem there is now," he said. Mr Balderstone estimates one million people in NSW smoke cannabis and argues they can't all be criminals.)
• Heroin Trial Inevitable: Penington (The Sydney Morning Herald says David Penington, the former professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne who chaired the Victorian Premier's Drug Advisory Council in 1995, told the New South Wales Drug Summit yesterday that a heroin-maintenance trial was an inevitable part of drug law reform, along with safe injecting rooms and the decriminalisation of marijuana. Decriminalisation was "long overdue", he argued, as messages about the herb's use would "only be heeded by young people in the context of health education, rather than in the context of criminality." Marijuana use in jurisdictions where it has been liberalised - in South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory - is not substantially greater than where it remains illegal. "To suggest that the legal status of the drug acts as an effective barrier to use is simply a nonsense," he said. "Prohibition is a simple, populist answer to a complex problem and, for this reason, holds political attraction. Clothing it in a moral dimension places it beyond rational argument and analysis.")
  Bytes: 57,000 Last updated: 6/8/99
  

  Monday, May 17, 1999:

• Marijuana research in Catch-22 (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian responds to an op-ed by the two principal investigators for the Institute of Medicine's March 17 report on medical marijuana. Drs. John A. Benson Jr. and Stanley J. Watson Jr. fail to address the issue that is currently preventing the development of cannabinoid drugs: prohibition.)
• B.E. Smith Trial in Sacramento (A bulletin from California NORML encourages advocates for medical-marijuana patients to show up Tuesday to support the Trinity County activist facing federal cultivation charges for 87 plants intended for the defendant and several other designated patients pursuant to Proposition 215. The judge has made it known he will not allow any medical testimony.)
• 'NewsRadio' Actor Arrested (UPI says Andy Dick, who played a neurotic reporter on the canceled NBC sitcom, was busted Saturday after crashing his car into a utility pole in Los Angeles and then trying to run away. A subsequent car search turned up marijuana and cocaine.)
• Officer, 5 Others Arrested In Gang Probe (The Miami Herald notes the arrest Thursday of Marvin Baker, a 16-year veteran Miami-Dade police officer who allegedly conspired to deal drugs with members of the Boobie Boys, which the newspaper calls one of the county's most notoriously violent street gangs. Baker was allegedly involved in a scheme to use bogus traffic stops to rip off cocaine dealers.)
• Ruling Allows Cops To Seize Cars (An Associated Press article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune says the U.S. Supreme Court today reversed the Florida Supreme Court, voting 7-2 to reinstate Tyvessel Tyvorus White's conviction for possessing crack cocaine police found in his car after seizing it without a warrant. The initial seizure of White's car was based on police officers' belief that it had been used several months earlier to deliver illegal drugs.)
• Let Farmers Grow Hemp (A staff editorial in the Capital Times, in Wisconsin, says this is the ideal time for Congress to lift the ban on industrial hemp. Paul Mahlberg, a professor of plant pathology at Indiana University, says law enforcement officials should have no problem distinguishing between legal and illegal marijuana because the two types of plants look completely different. Identification has not been a problem in Canada or Europe where hemp is grown legally, so that's an argument that has no weight.)
• Major Crime Continues To Decline (UPI says preliminary figures in the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, released Sunday evening, show that "serious" crime dropped for the seventh year in a row, and 7 percent from 1997 to 1998. Attorney General Janet Reno attributes some of the decrease in violent crime to the Brady Law, restricting guns. UPI, on the other hand, attributes the decline to some unspecified alteration in the crack cocaine market.)
• U.S. Crime Decreases Dramatically (The New York Times version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Doctors, Users, Unite For Drug Reform (The Canberra Times, in Australia, says 15 groups representing doctors, lawyers, drug users and their families have joined forces to lobby the New South Wales Government for drug reform, and will make a joint submission to the NSW Drug Summit being held in Sydney's Parliament House this week. The summit delegates, led by former Victorian premier Joan Kirner and National Party stalwart Ian Sinclair, will debate and vote on recommendations coming from 11 working groups.)
• Jerusalem (According to the Guardian, in Britain, a Gallup poll shows the Green Leaf party, which wants to legalise marijuana, is likely to win two or three seats in today's parliamentary election. Although the party's television ads have been like a rave party, with the words "love," "sex" and "marijuana" flashing over a trippy-techno beat in English, Hebrew, Russian and Arabic, the intriguing prospect looms that Green Leafers could hold the balance of power in a coalition government.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 19 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 36,700 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Saturday, May 15, 1999:

• Drug War Takes Daily Fight (A staff editorial in the Statesman Journal, in Salem, Oregon, says the war on drugs is a battle that can never be won. "It is an endless fight, one that must continue as long as drugs retain the ability to grab hold of users and shake the life out of them. . . . the fact that 49 percent of high school seniors reported having tried marijuana is cause for alarm." The fact that usage rates were lower before prohibition apparently doesn't register. The editors don't explain why people who use the least dangerous drugs should be criminalized, but not tobacco and alcohol consumers and traffickers.)
• Drug War Requires Daily Stupidity (A letter sent to the editor of the Statesman Journal responds to today's staff editorial urging war without end. "The delusions of prohibitionists like the Statesman Journal" are what rob users of their freedom and make them slaves to addiction, not the drugs themselves. "The Statesman Journal shares in the bloodguilt for all the needless death and destruction caused by an idiotic policy that causes a hundred times more trouble than drugs by themselves ever did.")
• Come To Sacramento, Lovers Of Liberty! (Best-selling author and medical-marijuana patient/activist Peter McWilliams urges you to attend the trial, beginning Tuesday, of B.E. Smith, who, like McWilliams, is facing federal cultivation-related charges despite California's Proposition 215. If Smith is acquitted, McWilliams' case may be dismissed as well. McWilliams calls this the "most important case yet in the medical marijuana movement. . . . If you ever said, 'I wish I had the chance to have marched with King in Selma,' then come to Sacramento.")
• Court Backs Border Patrol Traffic Stop (An Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News says a 2-1 ruling Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ignores widespread concern about racial profiling and allows Border Patrol agents to consider ethnicity among other factors when they make traffic stops.)
• County Wants To Stop Hemp Fest (The South Bend Tribune, in Indiana, says officials in Cass County, Michigan, want to nip Hemp Aid '99 in the bud. The four-day, three-night festival has taken place every Memorial Day weekend since 1993 at Rainbow Farm in Vandalia. Scheduled to appear this year are comedian Tommy Chong, the High Times Cannabis Cup Band and the Billy Bongster Band. A county ordinance requires permits for outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people, but not for events that are sponsored by non-profit organizations. At issue is whether Hemp Fest '99 is, in fact, sponsored by such an organization.)
• Miami Drug Gang, Suspended Detective Charged In Roundup (The Tampa Tribune says the Boobie Boys, a Miami gang blamed by police for 35 killings, including that of a 5-year-old boy, was dismantled Friday with a roundup targeting a suspended detective and 14 other reputed gang members. The police detective, Marvin Baker, a 16-year veteran of the Miami-Dade department, was accused of ripping off cocaine dealers during traffic stops, and federal prosecutors charged he worked with Boobie Boys leader Kenneth Williams and gang members to steal their customers' money and cocaine.)
• Overheated Hype About Hemp (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Erwin A. Sholts of the North American Industrial Hemp Council responds to a previous, anti-hemp, green-baiting letter from Jeanette McDougal of Drug Watch/Minnesota. "Our organization . . . is composed entirely of those who support the legal and regulated cultivation of industrial hemp for industrial products. None of us supports marijuana legalization.")
• House Panel Supports Anti-Alcohol Messages (According to the Arizona Republic, a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee voted Friday to require that the White House drug czar's five-year, $1 billion youth anti-drug advertising campaign include anti-alcohol messages.)
• Just Say No To Drug Reform (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says "parent" lobby groups such as PRIDE, the Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education, effectively grasped control of the drug debate in the United States back in the 1980s, and have had a disastrous effect. While marijuana use among American students has wavered up and down, the number of those addicted to cocaine and heroin has risen. As public funds were diverted to "zero tolerance" policies and prisons, funds for treatment facilities were slashed. But perhaps the most disturbing impact of the parent groups on U.S. drug policy has been the deep divide it created between public health experts and politicians wishing to court the vocal parent groups. In a perverse way, the parent groups are behind a campaign that pushed Americans in the aggregate away from softer drugs like pot toward harder ones like crack - the exact opposite of what the "gateway" theory would have predicted.)
• Using: Nearly Everybody's Doing It (The Sydney Morning Herald says the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that 39.3 per cent of Australians had used marijuana at some time in their lives, 10.7 per cent hallucinogens, 8.7 per cent amphetamines, 4.7 per cent Ecstasy and designer drugs, 4.3 per cent cocaine and 2.2 per cent heroin. One supposes most of the rest of the population had used more dangerous but legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and various pharmaceuticals - but the newspaper and maybe the survey don't say. Australians are estimated to spend about $14 billion a year on illicit drugs, not including a marijuana harvest "so big it is too difficult to estimate." Thirty per cent of males and 21 per cent of females said they had used marijuana "recently." The highest marijuana usage, 44 per cent, was among males aged 20-29.)
• Stoned Age Artists May Have Been On A Trip (The Guardian, in Britain, says hemp seeds and spores of 'magic mushrooms' found in excavations in France and Spain suggest that the hazy and often upside-down bison and stickmen of primitive artists may have been painted under the influence of psychoactive substances. "It is too early to talk about proof, but there are striking similarities with modern hallucinogenic art," said David Cowland, who delivers a lecture at Bradford university next week on cannabis finds at prehistoric sites.)
  Bytes: 59,200 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Sunday, May 16, 1999:

• Where's Public Outrage Over Nonviolent Criminals in Jails? (A letter to the editor of the Seattle Times notes the U.S. Justice Department recently reported the nation's jails and prisons now warehouse over 1.8 million individuals, and the Justice Policy Institute found 1.1 million of them were nonviolent offenders. Do the taxpayers really enjoy wasting $24 billion every year to house nonviolent criminals?)
• Court Rules Agents Can Consider Ethnicity When Stopping Drivers (An Associated Press article in the Houston Chronicle says a 2-1 ruling by a panel from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday upheld the convictions of two Hispanic men. The judges said a search of their car, which yielded "two large bags of marijuana" and a pistol, was justified partly by the men's ethnicity and partly because they turned their car around to avoid a checkpoint.)
• Students Fight Ban On College Funds For Drug Offenders (The Chicago Tribune says opposition is growing on college campuses to a provision in the Higher Education Act that withholds federal financial aid from students convicted merely of possessing "drugs," including marijuana.)
• A Public-Safety Fix - About Time (The Boston Globe says Elana Ennis, the chief of police in Burlington, Vermont, announced last week she would kill the local DARE program at the end of the school year, calling it "lame," and citing nationwide studies showing it does not work. While outspoken proponents of the program remain, several studies, including one by the U.S. Department of Justice, have suggested Drug Abuse Resistance Education is not worth the $750 million it costs every year. Burlington will be the first major city in New England to drop the program.)
• DARE Gets Updated In Some Area Schools, Others Drop Program (The Boston Globe says this fall, Lexington, Massachusetts, will become the third school district in the region to drop DARE, although retaining some elements of the national antidrug course taught by police officers mainly to fifth-graders. Lawrence public schools eliminated the once-a-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes two years ago, weaving elements of it into health classes. And schools in Bedford last fall introduced Project Adventure, an alternative health-physical education program that delivers much the same messages about peer pressure and decision-making as DARE. Otherwise, DARE appears to be thriving at other school districts in the region, except Arlington, which never adopted the program created by the Los Angeles police in 1983.)
• Drug-Law Reform Gains Steam (The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says numerous proposals to reform New York's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum drug laws are floating around the state capitol. Many legislators are waiting on a report due later this month from the conservative Manhattan Institute, whose scholars are criticizing the use of mandatory sentences in drug cases. The state's burgeoning prison population is now about 70,000, of which about 22,000 are drug offenders.)
• Drug Reform Sense (A staff editorial in the Times Union, in Albany, New York, says a proposal from a coalition headed by John Dunne, a former state senator who voted for the Rockefeller mandatory-minimum drug laws back in 1973, holds out the best hope for a just and humane compromise in achieving reform. Mr. Dunne offers common ground between those who want incremental change and those favoring an aggressive overhaul. He would not repeal the mandatory minimum sentences but instead lower them. More important, he would give judges the discretion to mandate treatment for offenders instead of prison, even if the prosecutor objects. The last provision is surely the most controversial. Under the Rockefeller laws, prosecutors hold most of the cards. They effectively decide the punishment in selecting which charges to bring against an offender. But justice should be about punishment fitting the crime, not about punishment imposed by blind mandate.)
• Employers Almost Free To Drug Test (The Star-Ledger says the New Jersey legislature is poised to pass a bill that would authorize employers to force all employees, no matter what their jobs, to submit to random drug testing. The bill would expand the power of employers to find out what their workers are doing on their own time in other ways, too.)
• Bill would OK drug testing for all workers, but ACLU hates it (The Associated Press version)
• Unequal Justice (An op-ed in the Baltimore Sun by David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University and author of "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," says that thanks to New York police, Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo have become household names. Thanks to state police in New Jersey, Maryland and elsewhere, "Driving While Black" has entered the general lexicon. For the moment, the nation seems to be taking seriously the issue of racial bias in the criminal justice system. It's about time. The issue is not new. Nothing corrodes public trust and faith in the criminal justice system like perceptions of bias. And much of what drives the disparities is the war on drugs. Cole then proposes four reforms.)
• Here's Why I Smoke Marijuana (An op-ed in the Toronto Star by Barbara Turnbull, a staff reporter, explains that in 1983, a bullet in the neck made her a quadriplegic. Pot helps her deal with the resulting muscle spasms in a way no legal drug can. "And I refuse to feel fear or shame because of that.")
• Son of Camilla Parker Bowles Snorted Cocaine (The Sunday Times, in London, says Tom Parker Bowles, 24, the son of the longstanding companion of Prince Charles, has admitted to having a drug problem after he was seen taking cocaine at a party. A friend who asked not be named said he had been provoked to disclose details of Parker Bowles's drug abuse because of his closeness to Prince William, the future king of England. Bowles was cautioned for possession of cannabis and ecstasy four years ago.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 16 May 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features - Science: Cannabis use appears not to affect cognitive functioning; Australia: Calls for treating drugs as a health and social issue; Canada: Ontario Superior Court permits AIDS patient to use marijuana; 4. News in brief; The comment.)
  Bytes: 80,900 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Saturday, May 15, 1999:

• Drug War Takes Daily Fight (A staff editorial in the Statesman Journal, in Salem, Oregon, says the war on drugs is a battle that can never be won. "It is an endless fight, one that must continue as long as drugs retain the ability to grab hold of users and shake the life out of them. . . . the fact that 49 percent of high school seniors reported having tried marijuana is cause for alarm." The fact that usage rates were lower before prohibition apparently doesn't register. The editors don't explain why people who use the least dangerous drugs should be criminalized, but not tobacco and alcohol consumers and traffickers.)
• Drug War Requires Daily Stupidity (A letter sent to the editor of the Statesman Journal responds to today's staff editorial urging war without end. "The delusions of prohibitionists like the Statesman Journal" are what rob users of their freedom and make them slaves to addiction, not the drugs themselves. "The Statesman Journal shares in the bloodguilt for all the needless death and destruction caused by an idiotic policy that causes a hundred times more trouble than drugs by themselves ever did.")
• Come To Sacramento, Lovers Of Liberty! (Best-selling author and medical-marijuana patient/activist Peter McWilliams urges you to attend the trial, beginning Tuesday, of B.E. Smith, who, like McWilliams, is facing federal cultivation-related charges despite California's Proposition 215. If Smith is acquitted, McWilliams' case may be dismissed as well. McWilliams calls this the "most important case yet in the medical marijuana movement. . . . If you ever said, 'I wish I had the chance to have marched with King in Selma,' then come to Sacramento.")
• Court Backs Border Patrol Traffic Stop (An Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News says a 2-1 ruling Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ignores widespread concern about racial profiling and allows Border Patrol agents to consider ethnicity among other factors when they make traffic stops.)
• County Wants To Stop Hemp Fest (The South Bend Tribune, in Indiana, says officials in Cass County, Michigan, want to nip Hemp Aid '99 in the bud. The four-day, three-night festival has taken place every Memorial Day weekend since 1993 at Rainbow Farm in Vandalia. Scheduled to appear this year are comedian Tommy Chong, the High Times Cannabis Cup Band and the Billy Bongster Band. A county ordinance requires permits for outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people, but not for events that are sponsored by non-profit organizations. At issue is whether Hemp Fest '99 is, in fact, sponsored by such an organization.)
• Miami Drug Gang, Suspended Detective Charged In Roundup (The Tampa Tribune says the Boobie Boys, a Miami gang blamed by police for 35 killings, including that of a 5-year-old boy, was dismantled Friday with a roundup targeting a suspended detective and 14 other reputed gang members. The police detective, Marvin Baker, a 16-year veteran of the Miami-Dade department, was accused of ripping off cocaine dealers during traffic stops, and federal prosecutors charged he worked with Boobie Boys leader Kenneth Williams and gang members to steal their customers' money and cocaine.)
• Overheated Hype About Hemp (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Erwin A. Sholts of the North American Industrial Hemp Council responds to a previous, anti-hemp, green-baiting letter from Jeanette McDougal of Drug Watch/Minnesota. "Our organization . . . is composed entirely of those who support the legal and regulated cultivation of industrial hemp for industrial products. None of us supports marijuana legalization.")
• House Panel Supports Anti-Alcohol Messages (According to the Arizona Republic, a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee voted Friday to require that the White House drug czar's five-year, $1 billion youth anti-drug advertising campaign include anti-alcohol messages.)
• Just Say No To Drug Reform (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says "parent" lobby groups such as PRIDE, the Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education, effectively grasped control of the drug debate in the United States back in the 1980s, and have had a disastrous effect. While marijuana use among American students has wavered up and down, the number of those addicted to cocaine and heroin has risen. As public funds were diverted to "zero tolerance" policies and prisons, funds for treatment facilities were slashed. But perhaps the most disturbing impact of the parent groups on U.S. drug policy has been the deep divide it created between public health experts and politicians wishing to court the vocal parent groups. In a perverse way, the parent groups are behind a campaign that pushed Americans in the aggregate away from softer drugs like pot toward harder ones like crack - the exact opposite of what the "gateway" theory would have predicted.)
• Using: Nearly Everybody's Doing It (The Sydney Morning Herald says the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that 39.3 per cent of Australians had used marijuana at some time in their lives, 10.7 per cent hallucinogens, 8.7 per cent amphetamines, 4.7 per cent Ecstasy and designer drugs, 4.3 per cent cocaine and 2.2 per cent heroin. One supposes most of the rest of the population had used more dangerous but legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and various pharmaceuticals - but the newspaper and maybe the survey don't say. Australians are estimated to spend about $14 billion a year on illicit drugs, not including a marijuana harvest "so big it is too difficult to estimate." Thirty per cent of males and 21 per cent of females said they had used marijuana "recently." The highest marijuana usage, 44 per cent, was among males aged 20-29.)
• Stoned Age Artists May Have Been On A Trip (The Guardian, in Britain, says hemp seeds and spores of 'magic mushrooms' found in excavations in France and Spain suggest that the hazy and often upside-down bison and stickmen of primitive artists may have been painted under the influence of psychoactive substances. "It is too early to talk about proof, but there are striking similarities with modern hallucinogenic art," said David Cowland, who delivers a lecture at Bradford university next week on cannabis finds at prehistoric sites.)
  Bytes: 59,200 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Friday, May 14, 1999:

• Update on HB 3052 - Medical Marijuana Compromise Legislation (An e-mail to advocates for medical marijuana patients from Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, forwards a message from Oregonians for Medical Rights about the status of the bill before the Oregon legislature that would nullify much of the voter-approved initiative. Yesterday the Oregon House approved HB 3052 by a vote of 49 to 8. The bill now goes on to the Senate judiciary committee. Please contact your state senator and ask him or her to vote "no" on HB 3502 when it goes to the floor. "Even more importantly, get involved in politics and rid our Capitol of extremists who have no concern for dying and suffering patients.")
• Lawmakers consider clipping the end off Oregon's cigar tax (The Oregonian says the Oregon House of Representatives Revenue Committee approved HB 3371 Thursday on a party line vote of 5-4. The bill would limit a voter-approved tax increase on cigars, now 65 percent of the wholesale price, to 50 cents a stogie. The bill's supporters point to evidence that cigar consumers in Oregon have been avoiding prohibitory state taxes for years by making their purchases through the mail or via the Internet. With the cigar-buying public avoiding the tax, the increase has hurt small businesses and cost the state money, said Rep. Bill Witt, R-Cedar Mill, the bill's sponsor. Democrats said the bill would undermine voters and send the wrong message about tobacco.)
• Panel approves rollback on cigar taxes (The Associated Press version)
• Judge cuts damages in Portland tobacco suit (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Anna J. Brown reduced a Portland jury's recent assessment of $79.5 million in punitive damages against Philip Morris to $32 million, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's insistance that punishment has to be proportionate to the level of wrongdoing. The $32 million, which is still the largest judgment against a tobacco company, could have been reduced even further but Judge Brown found that Philip Morris had not taken steps to keep from lying in the future, interpreting the multistate settlement sponsored by state attorneys general as lacking "substantial remedial steps" to prevent wrongdoing.)
• Judge cuts tobacco verdict from $79.5 million to $32 million (The Associated Press version)
• Port of Portland sells county land for jail (The Oregonian says the final price for Multnomah County's new jail will depend on a survey, but is expected to be about $5.5 million. The newspaper characteristically omits the cost to taxpayers of interest on bonds and the annual cost of maintaining the gulag, the funding of which hasn't been secured yet. The 525 beds could be expanded later to 2,000 beds.)
• Bill Prevents Cities From Banning Smoking In Bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives voted 36-22 Friday to approve HB 2806, which would prevent cities in Oregon - except Corvallis - from enacting smoking bans in bars and taverns. Some representatives said they found it ironic the House voted earlier in the day to let cities zone sex businesses into restricted areas, but then passed a bill taking away their rights to enact tavern smoking bans. The bill now goes to the Senate.)
• Bill curbs medical marijuana - Senate OKs pot limit, mandatory registry (The Anchorage Daily News says the Alaska state senate voted 15-5 Thursday in favor of SB 94, a bill that limits the medical marijuana law 60 percent of voters approved last fall. Most significantly, the bill would require patients to register with the state, and preclude a medical defense for nonregistered patients. It would also limit the amount of marijuana a patient can possess to one ounce or six plants. The bill now moves to the state house of representatives.)
• Eli Lilly targets weekend, late-night TV viewers with Prozac infomercial (An Associated Press article in the online Nando Times says the pharmaceutical company based in Indianapolis will begin airing a 30-minute advertisement for the world's top-selling antidepressant on May 17. The ad will be broadcast during time slots when more depressed people are expected to be slouched in front of the tube. Late-night viewers will also no doubt appreciate a break from all those Partnership ads.)
• Third Massachusetts News (UPI says Stephen Greaney, a police detective in New Bedford, Massachusetts, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of taking $3,500 from a drug dealer for the name of an undercover police agent who had infiltrated his operation.)
• Pot ruling indictment of Health Canada (A staff editorial in the Toronto Star, excerpted from an editorial in the Montreal Gazette, says Jim Wakeford, a 54-year-old Toronto resident dying of AIDS, should not have had to sue the Canadian government to safeguard his use of marijuana to relieve his pain and suffering. An Ontario Superior Court judge's ruling this week that he has waited long enough is a damning indictment of Health Canada's approval process for the medical use of pot.)
• Our ancestors knew better . . . (A list subscriber quotes an item in today's Sydney Morning Herald noting the sale at auction of the world's oldest cookbook, from 15th century Italy, that includes a recipe for cannabis bread.)
  Bytes: 46,900 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Thursday, May 13, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Long-term marijuana smoking doesn't impact cognition, study says; Medical marijuana patient exempt from criminal prosecution, Canadian appellate court rules; U.K. government to subsidize hemp housing; Police may not detain passenger during traffic stop, Florida appellate court rules.)
• Use in Oregon increasing for pill that packs power of pot (The Associated Press says Oregon doctors are increasingly prescribing Marinol, Roxane Laboratories' prescription drug consisting of synthesized THC, the primary cannabinoid in marijuana. The Oregon Health Plan covered more than twice as many Marinol prescriptions in the first three months of this year as it covered during the same period in 1998. Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, pointed out that Marinol is only the first isolated cannabinoid. "I'd like to see the most beneficial ones available in different forms including pills, inhalers and patches," said Dr. Bayer. He also pointed out that medical marijuana does not necessarily have to be smoked.)
• Oregon doctors are wary of prescribing marijuana (A different Associated Press version)
• Drug use by Oregon inmates drops (According to the Oregonian, records from the Oregon Department of Corrections show the percentage of positive drug tests produced by supposedly random tests of state prisoners has fallen to less than then 1 percent for 12 consecutive months. The average was 9 percent in 1989, when testing began. "The drug of choice is tobacco," said Les Dolecal, inspector general for the state's prison system. Drug tests don't check for nicotine. An estimated 68 percent of the state's inmate population has a history of "substance abuse," according to admission records - about the same percentage of people sentenced to hard time for felony illegal-drug offenses combined with alcohol-related excesses. The newspaper omits the cost of more than 50 dog-searches per day and drug tests for 5 percent of 8,500 inmates every month, together with the particular technology used and false-positive rate.)
• Epitope Announces Orasurer(r) Oral Fluid Drugs-Of-Abuse Testing Product To Be Used for STC Technologies/Lab One Agreement (A company press release on PR Newswire provides an update on the campaign by Epitope, based in Beaverton, Oregon, to cash in on the drug-testing industry with a technology that uses saliva samples. The company doesn't bother to mention any false-positive rate, since courts generally won't allow such evidence to be heard, even when plaintiffs or defendants can afford the expert testimony.)
• Medical pot case ends in mistrial: Jury deadlocks on intent to sell (The Sacramento Bee says the marijuana trafficking trial of Dr. Michael Baldwin, a medical marijuana patient and dentist in Rocklin, California, and his wife, Georgia, ended in a mistrial Wednesday after a Placer County jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked. "The big hang-up," said David Brownstein, the jury foreman, "is that there are no guidelines in Placer County that would define how many plants someone can have before that person should be arrested." "We have lost everything. They've totally destroyed our lives," said Dr. Baldwin. The District Attorney's office said no decision had been made on whether to retry the case.)
• Assembly Passes Needle Exchange Bill (UPI says the California state assembly today passed, with two votes to spare, previously vetoed legislation sponsored by Kerry Mazzoni, D-San Rafael, that would authorize needle exchange programs to slow the spread of AIDS and other diseases. California already has more than a dozen needle exchange programs authorized locally as emergency health measures. But cities and counties wanted a state law to give them legal protection.)
• Ventura Writes Tell-All Biography (The Associated Press says Minnesota Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura's new autobiography, "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Re-working the Body Politic From the Bottom Up," admits he used marijuana and steroids.)
• Attorney Arrested In Narcotics Bust (The New Haven Register says Richard P. Silverstein, a prominent local defense attorney, was arrested Wednesday afternoon after allegedly being observed by undercover drug prohibition agents buying crack cocaine in Fair Haven, Connecticut.)
• Action Class for Therapeutic Cannabis - 170 Plaintiffs to Testify (A list subscriber forwards an update from Lawrence Elliott Hirsch, the lead attorney for the federal class-action lawsuit in Philadelphia that seeks to end the ban on medical marijuana. Plaintiffs and attorneys have agreed to request a 90-day delay in the discovery process.)
• Bus Driver Had Been Fired for Drugs (The Associated Press account of a bus crash Sunday in New Orleans that killed 22 passengers sensationally emphasizes the probably irrelevant fact that the driver, Frank Bedell, tested positive for cannabis metabolites and had been fired previously for similar violations.)
• Court Upholds Ruling In 'Narc' Case (The Daily Times says the Maryland Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that Bernadette DiPino, an Ocean City police officer, had no probable cause to arrest Wayne Nelson Davis in 1991. Davis is seeking damages, alleging DiPino acted maliciously when he was arrested and jailed for two days after he identified her in public as a "narc.")
• Science and the End of Marijuana Prohibition (Jon Gettman, the former director of NORML who has been petitioning the federal government since 1995 to reschedule marijuana, shares the text of his lecture today at the 12th International Conference on Drug Policy Reform. Most people assume marijuana was classified as a Schedule 1 drug because it satisfied the required criteria. Instead it was the old con job called the bait and switch. There are three secrets to the success of marijuana prohibition. First, they made the fine print deceptive and difficult to understand. Second, they make it take forever to even attempt to change it. Third, they made sure there was a fall guy to deflect responsibility from the key decision-makers. Just what is the drug problem? Is it a health problem, is it a law enforcement problem? The drug problem is that the federal government of the United States won't follow the law when it comes to marijuana's regulation, and they never have.)
• Industry Opposes Push for Anti-Alcohol Ad Campaign (The Los Angeles Times says the U.S. alcohol industry has launched a vigorous counteroffensive to a move afoot in Congress to include anti-alcohol messages in the White House drug czar's five-year, $1-billion anti-drug advertising blitz. General Barry McCaffrey's office says it hasn't included anti-alcohol messages because it lacks the legal authority to do so. McCaffrey himself has said that "the most dangerous drug in America today is still alcohol" and cited its role in 100,000 deaths and $150 billion in socioeconomic and medical costs each year.)
• Drug Museum's Shining Example Of Decadence (Illustrating how drugs can drive some people who don't use them mad, the Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration museum, which opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, "lays bare the wilful self-delusion of the 1960s and 1970s, when Baby Boomers swept aside a mass of historical evidence and argued that drugs were intrinsic to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rather than the low road to ruin." The only problem is, as the newspaper proceeds to explain, the museum actually documents "drug" use going back to 1900, before drug prohibition, when just one of every 200 Americans was a "drug addict." If the Baby Boomers created the problem, the Telegraph doesn't explain why they also built a museum for the DEA and otherwise ratcheted up the drug war during their watch.)
• Pound for pound - B.C. marijuana exchanged for cocaine in California (The Richmond Review, in British Columbia, attempts to re-launch a myth local police spread a year ago, before it was debunked by other police in Calgary.)
• Heroin UK - Close-Knit Gangs Who Deal In Death (The Independent says British police and MI5 have identified 30 drug gangs who are controlling the distribution of heroin throughout Britain and Ireland. Detectives also believe there is a new threat from South American drug barons, notably Colombians, who are planning to ship large quantities of heroin into Europe. Most British heroin is controlled by Turkish groups based in north London and Liverpool, the two main distribution points. But criminal gangs from Kosovo and Armenia are also heavily involved. These groups are estimated to import between 85 per cent and 90 per cent of the heroin in the UK. Police and customs admit record heroin seizures have had almost no impact on availability or street price, which remains extremely low.)
  Bytes: 90,200 Last updated: 5/31/99
  

  Wednesday, May 12, 1999:

• Suspect In Slaying Of Political Activist Turns Himself In (The Associated Press says Russell Wayne Dean turned himself in Wednesday in Baker County, Oregon, after eluding a weeklong manhunt in a mountainous area near Florence. Dean is suspected in the April 27 shooting death of James Rix Anderson, 55, a well-known activist who once tried to recall the sheriff and accused county officials of involvement in a drug ring.)
• Printers sue company, saying smokers should go outside (The Associated Press says two employees have sued Sterling Business Forms in Medford, Oregon, claiming they've been subjected to secondhand smoke because the company won't give smokers breaks to go outside and light up.)
• Baldwins Get Hung Jury, DA Vows New Trial (A news release from medical-marijuana patient/activist/defendant Steve Kubby says a Placer County jury in Auburn, California, failed to convict patient/defendants Dr. Michael Baldwin and his wife, Georgia, on marijuana trafficking charges related to their cultivation bust. Another patient/defendant, Bob Ames, sends a different account of the Baldwins' acquittal.)
• Good News: No New Trial For Baldwins (A correction from Steve Kubby says the Placer County District Attorney has not indicated any intention to re-try the Baldwins, nor is there any reason to expect him to do so.)
• Dalton Hearing In San Francisco (The Anderson Valley Advertiser, in Boonville, California, says Redwood Valley resident John Dalton will receive an evidentiary hearing Monday in federal court. Judge Susan Illston has ordered the unprecedented hearng to explore the conduct of the Drug Enforcement Administration agents who busted Dalton two years ago on charges related to marijuana production. In his zeal to bust Dalton, DEA Special Agent Mark Nelson allegedly seduced Dalton's mentally ill wife, a longtime cop wannabe, and told her she had become a special agent for the DEA, even assigning Dalton's wife a "special agent number" that the DEA refers to in more than 30 internal reports.)
• Distinguished Citizens Commission to Examine U.S. War on Drugs (A news release from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based think tank, says the Los Angeles Citizens' Fact Finding Commission on U.S. Drug Policy will hold public hearings May 22-23 at the University of Southern California. Sponsored by the IPS and a coalition of Los Angeles organizations, and conceived in the wake of the CIA-Contra-Cocaine scandal, the hearings will feature expert witnesses on drug policy presenting testimony to a panel of six distinguished "citizen commissioners," including conservatives. Based on the testimony, the Commission will issue a report analyzing the social impact of U.S. drug policy and recommending policy alternatives. The news release concludes with a letter of invitation from Harry Belafonte, the commission's honorary chairperson.)
• Charges May Face Teen Who Turned In Pot (According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday it would file possession charges in Juvenile Court against an Arroyo Seco Junior High School student who turned over marijuana to his parents. Tyler Hagen, 13, of Saugus was forced to serve a five-day suspension beginning Monday for not going to school officials immediately to report a violation of the district's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal drugs.)
• Drug Use By Bus Driver Suspected (According to UPI, the New Orleans Times-Picayune said today that bus driver Frank Bedell was drug tested soon after the crash on Sunday in New Orleans that killed 22 people, and the results indicated he had used marijuana in the past month. In addition, Bedell is a diabetes patient with kidney failure who undergoes regular dialysis treatments, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, which should have resulted in automatic disqualification for a commercial driver's license. A doctor at Charity Hospital stressed that evidence of drug use in Bedell's system does not automatically show he was under the influence of "drugs" when he was behind the wheel of the doomed bus.)
• Firefighter Argues Girlfriend Spiked His Food (The Associated Press says Carl Chestnut, a firefighter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who lost his job after failing a drug test, wants his job back, claiming his ex-girlfriend laced his food with marijuana without his knowledge because of a dispute over custody of their two children.)
• Survey: Teen Drug Use Has Dropped (The MetroWest Daily News says preliminary results of a survey commissioned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association show that use of alcohol and other drugs among Bay State high school students is down across the board since 1996. The biggest drop came in the use of pain medications, which fell 11 percent among high-schoolers since 1996, from 28 percent to 17 percent. Those who smoke cigarettes decreased from 64 percent to 58 percent. Use of alcohol at least one day a week dropped from 67 percent to 60 percent. Use of marijuana fell from 41 percent to 32 percent.)
• Investigation Of DEA Shooting Full Of Surprises (The Daily Press, in Pennsylvania, describes the aftermath of an incident Jan. 14 in which Joseph Armento, a drunken DEA agent, shot Jason Temple in Temple's car. On Tuesday Hampton General District Judge Pat Patrick ruled invalid a subsequent search of Temple's car that yielded marijuana and cocaine. However, Temple's preliminary hearing raised more troubling questions about the Hampton Police Department's handling of a very sensitive and controversial crime. Armento was mad because he had been thrown out of Rooney's with two other agents for acting drunk and disorderly. Then, he was angry that Temple and two friends had dared to look at him and his fellow G-men as they fumed in the parking lot. The confrontation was never about drugs, and Tuesday's hearing only added to the mystery of how it got to be.)
• Press Clips: Raving Lunatics (The Village Voice's media-criticism column notes a newscast last Wednesday by WTTG-5, the Fox News affiliate in Washington, D.C., sensationalized local raves as rife with "pulsating music, illegal drugs, even sex." WTTG-5 emphasized the supposed dangers of MDMA and luridly demonstrated the lax attitudes about it shown by off-duty D.C. police who provide security at raves. But it turns out that in the District of Columbia, ecstasy isn't illegal. Due to a nearly 10-year-old typo in D.C. law, cops have no legal authority or obligation to arrest X users.)
• Medical Marijuana (UPI says the Canadian government has indicated that it doesn't intend to appeal Monday's Ontario Superior Court ruling that permits Jim Wakeford, a Toronto AIDS patient, to grow and use marijuana as medicine. However, federal Health Minister Allan Rock says the decision doesn't mean that smoking marijuana has been legalized.)
• Pot ruling to stand - Rock won't appeal (The Canadian Press version)
• Rock won't challenge pot ruling (The Toronto Star version)
• Pot Bust (The Parksville/Qualicum Beach Morning Sun, in British Columbia, says that on the heels of a major marijuana cultivation bust last week, the Parksville RCMP have announced the formation of an "intensive enforcement initiative to combat illegal marijuana production and distribution within the area." Supposedly, police say the unit was formed in response to "several violent incidents" involving individuals associated with the local drug trade, but no details are provided.)
• Hemp Activist Arrested For Hash (The Canadian Press says Jerzy Przytyk, the president of the Industrial Hemp Council of Canada, was arrested in Montreal after police seized 1,200 kilograms of hashish worth an estimated $18 million.)
• The Real Criminals (An op-ed in Colombia's Revista Semana by Antonio Caballero says that for years, he has received letters from Colombians imprisoned for drugs in the United States. They all tell him terrifying variations of the same story about the American criminal justice system. The vast majority of the prisoners who write are poor couriers or low ranking money launderers who are condemned to rot for two-and-a-half life sentences. If they denounce the DEA agents who provided the drugs, or the Customs Agents who allowed the drugs in, or the lawyers who convinced them to declare themselves guilty, or the director of prisons who prohibits any visits, or the prison priests who insist they convert to Presbyterianism - they'll be even worse off. Americans invented drug abuse. Unable to make their own citizens obey the law, they decided to export their laws. It's a fat business. U.S. banks keep 95 percent of the drug profits. DEA agents, or other undercover police, charge a commission on the confiscated drugs they help to import, and a commission on the money they help launder. The criminals are those that write the laws in the U.S. Congress.)
• Call For Look At Use Of Cannabis (The Sydney Morning Herald says the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre is urging the Premier's Drug Summit May 17-21 in New South Wales not to focus solely on heroin issues. According to a DARC spokesman, Mr Paul Dillon, a national survey last year showed that 39 per cent of the population said they had used cannabis, compared with 31 per cent in 1995.)
• Chika Admits Dope Just Hazy Memory (The Australian recounts yesterday's news about New South Wales Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski spreading misinformation about cannabis potency. Chikarovski admitted using marijuana as a university student, but said she was opposed to any reform now.)
• How I Took Pot Luck And Inhaled (The version in Australia's Daily Telegraph)
  Bytes: 80,900 Last updated: 6/5/99
  

  Tuesday, May 11, 1999:

• S.F. Mayor Wants Cops to Seize Drug Buyers' Cars - Goal is to curb out-of-town customers (The San Francisco Chronicle says Willie Brown will try to follow the lead of Oakland, across the Bay, by seeking the forfeiture of cars driven by people accused - but not convicted - of drug and prostitution offenses. The proposed seizure ordinance will probably be challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has unsuccessfully tried to block Oakland's 1997 program. "We have a problem with the notion of forfeiture," said Alan Schlosser of the Northern California ACLU. "If someone is arrested for sale of marijuana, which normally means a $100 fine, they can lose a $20,000 or $30,000 automobile. Some courts have ruled that excessive." Plus a list of San Francisco officials who can be lobbied to stop an escalation of the drug war.)
• Ex-Assistant DA Sentenced (The Houston Chronicle says Ramon Villafranca, 59, a former assistant district attorney in Laredo, Texas, was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison for taking bribes from drug defendants.)
• Legalizing Drugs Can Help Us Get Control (Dallas Morning News columnist Stanley Marcus says drug dealers following the basic rules of capitalism have turned the narcotics trade into the dominant economic force in many nations. It is obvious that the best way to reduce the drug trade is to take the profit out of it. Eliminate the profit by legalizing all drug products. If the public wants alternative methods of regulation to those brought forth by the groups that advocate the legalization of drugs, let those ideas be discussed and debated. The president should establish a panel of distinguished citizens to make a study of all the ideas presented and issue a recommendation to the nation.)
• Akron policeman accused of helping alleged drug dealer (The Associated Press says Timothy Callahan, a police lieutenant accused of running license plate numbers for an alleged drug dealer, is only the latest police officer to get in trouble in Akron, Ohio.)
• Deaths Linked To Drugs, Alcohol (A Cox Interactive Media article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes the deaths last week of two sports celebrities from substance abuse - while suggesting that alcohol is not a drug. Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Steve Chiasson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27 percent when he overturned his truck in North Carolina, and former Dallas Cowboys star Mark Tuinei injected heroin in Texas while using ecstasy.)
• Drugs May Have Been Major Factor In Death For Former Cowboys Star (The Charlotte Observer version)
• Dying man wins right to use marijuana (The National Post says Ontario Superior Court Justice Harry LaForme yesterday granted Jim Wakeford, a Toronto AIDS patient, a constitutional exemption from Canada's drug laws, allowing him to cultivate and smoke marijuana. The ruling is temporary, until Allan Rock, the Health Minister, decides whether to grant Mr. Wakeford a special exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but it implies that the judge expects Mr. Rock to eventually grant a permanent exemption. This is the second time a Canadian court has allowed the medicinal use of marijuana, but the first time a higher court has done so. Mr. Wakeford, whose illness prevents him from growing marijuana on his own, said he fears the decision may be only a partial victory because the judge did not say whether the friends who take care of him can legally help him grow cannabis.)
• Judge allows medical use of marijuana (The Toronto Star verson)
• Toronto AIDS Patient May Use Marijuana (The UPI version)
• Chikarovski Admits She Smoked Marijuana (The Associated Press says New South Wales Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski has admitted smoking marijuana while at university. But Chikarovski said the drug should not be legalised in Australia because it was much stronger now than in her youth. Her candour is certain to cause a stir less than a week before a drug summit begins in the NSW parliament.)
• Chikarovski admits inhaling (The ABC Radio version)
• MP Who Was Stoned In Parly Says Several MPs Smoke Grass (According to the Associated Press, Richard Jones, an upper house member of parliament, said today he used marijuana every couple of weeks to relieve stress and had once been "stoned" in parliament. Jones also said at least six New South Wales MPs currently smoke marijuana, and at least half the 135 MPs would have used marijuana, based on a survey of federal parliamentarians. Jones also disagreed with Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski's claim that the herb is 30 times stronger now than it was in her youth. "That's simply not true because in those days we used to have Buddha sticks and Lebanese wedding hash and Durban poison," he said.)
• Conscience Vote At Drug Summit (The Daily Telegraph, in Australia, says Labor MPs are likely to be given a conscience vote on all issues at next week's drug summit. Premier Bob Carr said delegates would vote on a wide range of issues May 17-21 at New South Wales Parliament.)
• NSW Drug Summit Website (A list subscriber forwards the URL where daily updates on the New South Wales drug-policy conference May 17-21 will be posted. The site will also feature updates on daily proceedings and a discussion forum.)
• Desperate Parents Doling Out Heroin (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says a network of Sydney parents, terrified that their addicted children will die alone in a laneway, are allowing heroin use at home - and in some cases financing and doling out the drug in a bid to stabilise their children's habit. The families, who have counterparts and supporters in Brisbane, have effectively created an underground drug resistance movement in a bid to stop their children resorting to crime and prostitution to finance their habits. They argue that stabilising drug dependency and guaranteeing safety during use allows parents and families to buy time, while a "zero tolerance" approach is tantamount to "standing by and allowing them to die.")
  Bytes: 53,700 Last updated: 5/22/99
  

  Monday, May 10, 1999:

• Baldwin Trial Update (Bob Ames, a medical-marijuana patient awaiting trial in Sacramento, e-mails a helpful account of court proceedings in the jury trial of his fellow medical-marijuana patients, Dr. Michael Baldwin and his wife, Georgia, on cultivation-related charges, in Auburn, California. Numerous patients attended, most awaiting their own trials. Placer County Detective Grant admitted on the stand last week that a majorify of his present cases involve medical marijuana patients. Judge Garbolino dropped cultivation charges, citing Proposition 215, but allowed the jury to weigh a charge of sales. The jury is still out after just over a full day of deliberations.)
• Letter from Prison - Marvin Chavez (A letter written from Wasco Prison in California describes the injustices encountered by the medical-marijuana patient/activist and founder/director of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse, Support Group. Chavez is serving a six-year sentence after being denied a Proposition 215 defense to charges related to his helping other patients obtain free marijuana.)
• Assembly bill eases marijuana penalties (An Associated Press article in the Las Vegas Sun says Nevada law makes the first-time offense for possessing any amount of marijuana a felony punishable by between one and four years of jail and a $5,000 fine. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, thinks the time has come for change. Her AB 577, pending in the Ways and Means Committee, would decriminalize the first-time possession of less than an ounce. The penalty of up to $500 would go to anti-drug programs. "Notice the absence of opposition here," Giunchigliani said. "It's risky for anyone in law enforcement to be at the forefront of this, but I've received calls from judges and DAs who say they support it. And there has been positive reaction from the public. Statewide, there really has been no major opposition.")
• The Drug War's Collateral Damage (Chicago Tribune columnist Salim Muwakkil reflects on Joshua Wolf Shenk's article, "America's Altered States" in the May edition of Harper's magazine. While we're fed scare stories and outright lies about the "controlled substances" our government has demonized, more dangerous drugs are being pushed legally through a pharmaceutical industry that is reaping huge profits by offering the same kind of chemical relief. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the group responsible for demonizing ads, receives most of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry. It's clear we would rather indulge our addiction to war metaphors and racial biases than seriously address the problem of drug dependency. Because of those unfortunate fixations the American people have become the drug war's ultimate casualty.)
• Why Some Get Busted and Some Go Free (An unusually perceptive staff editorial in the New York Times discusses how racial profiling and racist perceptions among police and in society at large exacerbate the racially disparate harms caused by the war on some drug users. For example, white intravenous drug users outnumber black users by at least five to one. But drug sweeps tend to concentrate on inner cities. Federal data show five arrests for every 100 white addicts, but 20 arrests for every 100 black addicts. As a result, white addicts tend to be less worried about random searches, and so tend to carry clean needles. But black addicts know they are much more vulnerable to random searches and so are less likely to carry clean needles. Instead, they share the needles of strangers. As a consequence, the rate of HIV infection for black drug users is many times that of whites.)
• Albany County Says No To Proposed Forfeiture Law (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says a proposal to allow police to forfeit the cash and cars of suspects arrested on minor drug charges failed 25-12 Monday as county legislators called the law illegal and potentially unfair.)
• Needle Exchanges Do Work (A letter to the editor of the New York Times from the president of Prevention Works, the organization that runs the District of Columbia's only needle-exchange program, corrects false assertions by a previous writer opposed to such programs. Studies from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the GAO, NIH and the Office of Technology Assessment unanimously concluded that needle exchanges reduce HIV transmission. None found that the programs increase drug use. Recently, University of British Columbia epidemiologist Martin Schecter explained that Canadian needle users have a higher rate of HIV infection because in Canada it is legal to purchase syringes in pharmacies. Those who can afford to buy syringes do not have to share needles. Those who participate in needle exchanges, though, cannot afford to buy clean syringes and are forced to share, significantly increasing their risk of HIV infection.)
• Medical Marijuana: Will IOM Report Encourage Clinical Trials? (The Scientist says the March 17 report from the Institute of Medicine should define the medical-marijuana issue more tightly. Do the report's conclusions encourage researchers who have long sought approval of clinical trials of marijuana? "I hope so," says one of the report's two principal investigators, John A. Benson Jr. Unfortunately, the magazine omits any discussion of who might have the money or desire to fund any of the six recommendations made by the report, all of which ignore the needs of patients trying to survive in the here and now.)
• Action Alert: Support the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, H.R. 1658 (A news release from the Drug Policy Foundation, in Washington, D.C., explains how to lobby your U.S. representative in Congress to support the bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and John Conyers, D-Mich. The bill would, among other reforms, force the government to prove that forfeited property is related to a crime, as opposed to the current practice of owners having to prove that their property is innocent.)
• FDA Moves to Reduce Accidental Drug Deaths (The Los Angeles Times says more than 100,000 Americans are inadvertently killed every year by prescription drugs - one of the leading causes of death in the country. In a 150-page document expected to be released today, the FDA plans to unveil several initiatives to prevent fatalities blamed on misuse of prescriptions.)
• 'Head shop' museum traces drug use, abuse (The Toronto Star says that in a country where there's a hall of fame for everything from bourbon to birth control, it had to happen: The United States opens its first drug museum today, in Arlington, Virginia. First official museum anyway - it's run by the DEA, the 10,000-member Drug Enforcement Administration that pursues drug offenders in 72 countries, including Canada. A poster at the museum entrance states that 4 million Americans admitted to using drugs in 1960; in 1999 the number is 74 million. It doesn't add the dollar signs announced this month by White House anti-drug czar General Barry McCaffrey: Illegal drugs are a $57 billion industry in America. Compare that with the $6 billion video game industry and the $4 billion gun industry.)
• Drug users can be good moms, book says (According to a Canadian Press article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "Using drugs does not equal poor parenting," says Susan Boyd, a Simon Fraser University professor whose new book, "Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths," sums up almost 10 years of research. Ms. Boyd argued that her survey of literature suggests legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco are of greater concern than illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin. And a spokesman for a province-wide addiction agency in Ontario agreed.)
• At War Over Drugs (The Sydney Morning Herald says with regard to Australia's youngest heroin users, asking who speaks for their parents is a raw and divisive issue. Most have lost children to drugs, but that does not give them common cause. The delegates selected for the New South Wales drug summit starting next Monday, as well as the parents who last week established a safe injecting room, are exposing a rift in parental lobby groups as deep as that running through the political and legal establishment. Many parents and a large number of frontline drug workers endorse harm minimisation strategies, believing that if you can support drug-dependent people through the worst of their addiction, they eventually will come out the other side. Even the ones who can't be reclaimed "don't deserve to be condemned to death." But most of the parent representatives who will be at Bob Carr's summit are lining up behind the prohibitionist view.)
• Heroin found on dead prison officer (The Scotsman says police in Tayside last night were investigating the discovery of thousands of pounds worth of heroin found on the body of Bruce Flight, a guard at Scotland's Perth prison who died in hospital after a drinking binge ten days ago.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 18 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 100,000 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Sunday, May 9, 1999:

• Medical-marijuana rules insulting (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from a man with incurable brain cancer says "no thank you" to such aspects of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act as the need to apply for a registry card, the $150 registration fee, and the likes of Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, and his merry band of morality police.)
• Marijuana activist convicted of cultivation, possession (Our Times, in Santa Monica, California, says Joe "Hemp" Kidwell, a motorcycle mechanic turned marijuana activist, faces a maximum of three years in prison after a jury convicted him of growing and possessing 14 pot plants on the roof of his office building in Venice last summer, despite his status as a medical-marijuana patient under Proposition 215.)
• Hemp's Backers Try For A Comeback (The San Francisco Examiner says Sam H. Clauder II, a strait-laced Southern Baptist political consultant from Orange County, is heading a campaign to get industrial hemp legalized in California. The quiet political campaign is gaining support, an Examiner/KTVU Channel 2 report found, but big obstacles remain. Clauder hopes to find a legislator willing to carry a bill or attract enough public enthusiasm for a ballot measure.)
• Drug Problem In Central Utah Called 'Epidemic' (According to an Associated Press article in the Salt Lake Tribune, prohibition agents say the illegal drug trade has reached "epidemic" proportions in south-central Utah. Cordell Pearson, commander of the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, said more people are involved with drugs on a per capita basis in the rural area than in some large cities.)
• Actress Plato Dies of Overdose (The Associated Press says Dana Plato, a former actress on television's "Diff'rent Strokes," died from an accidental overdose of Valium and Loritab, a painkiller, Saturday night in Moore, Oklahoma, while en route from Florida to Los Angeles.)
• Drug Abuse Fight Could Use Cash Fix (Houston Chronicle columnist Thom Marshall observes that both drug traffickers and the police, including DARE officers, make a good living off prohibition. Money, however, is in short supply at Houston's Palmer Drug Abuse Program, or PDAP, which offers free, outpatient substance-abuse recovery services for youth, using methods based on Alcoholics Anonymous.)
• Committee Considers Compromise On Hemp Legalization (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says a proposal before a Minnesota legislative conference committee would allow Governor Jesse Ventura to apply for federal permits that would allow state farmers to grow experimental and demonstration plots of industrial hemp. An earlier bill to legalize industrial hemp passed the Senate but was stopped in a House committee.)
• Inmates' Suits Target Wide Range Of Officials (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Missouri state Attorney General Jay Nixon is defending state employees against 711 prisoners who have filed 33 lawsuits over alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of Texas jailers. Prisoners blame not only the Texans who ran the jail, they blame leaders of the Missouri Department of Corrections for ignoring their complaints until the scandal got too big to cover up when a videotape surfaced in 1996 that showed Missouri prisoners being stomped on, bitten by attack dogs and zapped with a stun gun. "We're having to deal with about 2 million pages of documents . . . .," Nixon said. "It is the largest paper case we've had . . . ." Nixon has 26 lawyers on his staff working on the case. He also hired three private lawyers at $100 an hour or less, and rented space in an office park to use as a depository where 97 boxes and nine filing cabinets fill two rooms.)
• The Drug Odyssey Of A Senator's Son (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, recounts the 25-year heroin addiction and eventual healing of Doug MacLean, the son of William Q. "Biff" MacLean, a once influential state Senate majority leader. All three of MacLean's children became drug addicts, and all three recovered. The first-hand experience has given him new insight into the city's drug problems. "What I've learned from my kids is that you can spend a lot of money, but nothing will work until an individual makes up his or her mind that they want help and are ready to help themselves out." He's learned something else, as well. "Don't criticize people because it could happen to you.")
• Time To Prick A Drugs Myth (An op-ed in Britain's Sunday Times by Ian Oliver, the former chief constable of Grampian Police, says needle-exchange programs increase heroin use without reducing the transmision of disease.)
  Bytes: 70,900 Last updated: 5/23/99
  

  Saturday, May 8, 1999:

• It's legal, so confiscation improper (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian objects to a provision in HB 3052, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Mannix, which would prevent law enforcement officials from returning seized plants to medical-marijuana patients with valid state registry cards.)
• Ask patients to help heal themselves (An editorial in the Oregonian by Robert Landauer says new-generation psychiatric drugs put heavy pressure on the Oregon Health Plan budget. Let 'em eat St Johns Wort or wear pyramids on their heads. Landauer's call for mental patients to treat themselves apparently wouldn't extend to letting them use medical marijuana, however.)
• Cities should have freedom on tobacco use (An op-ed in the Oregonian by King City Mayor Jan Drangsholt urges Oregon legislators to reject HB 2806, which would preclude local governments - except in Corvallis - from passing their own laws governing tobacco use. It's not appropriate for state legislators to decide for any Oregon community how to handle an issue that needs to reflect community values. Unfortunately, it's not clear how Drangsholt would feel about letting local residents vote on other aspects of drug policy.)
• Referendum Madness (A staff editorial in the Bangor Daily News says the Maine legislature had a lot of good reasons to reject the citizen-initiated bill legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The one given - that voters should decide this by referendum - isn't among them. "This is about safe, effective medicine and good science. That's a matter for the laboratory, not the voting booth.")
• Drug War Makes More Trouble Than Drugs (A letter to the editor of the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the surest way to alleviate the problems concerning New Bedford's illegal drug traffic is legalization, which simply means replacing intensive criminalization with sensible civil regulation.)
• Police Shoot, Kill Henrico Man (The Richmond Times-Dispatch, in Virginia, says William Keith Green, a 29-year-old marijuana offender, was shot and killed by police early yesterday after several officers stormed his Lakeside house in search of "drugs." Police said Green told officers several times during the confrontation that "he was not going to be arrested, he was not going back to jail and that they would have to shoot him." So, first trying pepper spray, three prohibition agents shot Green five times after he was repeatedly told to drop his machete. A subsequent search, aside from yielding a bunch of personal effects the newspaper wouldn't mention except to excite prejudices, yielded "several ounces" of marijuana and a vial of a "white crystal substance.")
• Marijuana Is Medicine (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Robert D. Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project responds to a letter by former NIDA chief Robert DuPont about the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana. DuPont lists IOM's recommendations for short-term use but neglects to mention that IOM also urged the government to create compassionate-use programs for patients with long-term needs. "IOM does not want patients to be arrested," claims Kampia.)
• Hemp Is Marijuana (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Jeanette McDougal, co-chair of the drug warrior group, Drug Watch/Minnesota, criticizes Washington lawyer and former CIA director James Woolsey for representing the North American Industrial Hemp Council as a lobbyist. She just knows NAIHC members wear dirty underwear.)
• Health Department opposes marijuana as medicine (The National Post notes an internal Canadian Health Department memo prepared for minister Allan Rock is filled with discredited arguments against therapeutic use of cannabis, revealing bureaucrats' bias. An edited version of the memo, originally stamped secret, was obtained under the Access to Information Act.)
• 10% Of Those In EU Traffic Accidents On Drugs (The Irish Times says a report conducted for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction concludes that alcohol is "the biggest problem" in road accidents. However, there has been a four-fold increase since 1987 in the number of drivers killed who have traces of illegal drugs in their bodies. Alcohol was found to be involved in 19 per cent of injurious accidents and 22 per cent of fatal accidents in the EU. The author, Ms Rosalyn Moran of the Health Research Board, said there are no laws in the EU defining illegal blood limits of illicit drugs or medicines and said there is "insufficient" evidence to define safe levels.)
  Bytes: 41,500 Last updated: 5/24/99
  

  Friday, May 7, 1999:

• HJM 10 Update (A bulletin from supporters of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act says the resolution before the Oregon legislature calling on Congress to re-evalute its stance on medical marijuana failed 26-33 in the House of Representatives on Friday, but will be reconsidered Monday morning. Oregon residents are asked to contact a select list of legislators this weekend or first thing Monday morning, urging them to change their position. Plus contact information and links to previous news items on HJM 10.)
• Marijuana law is proving to be a pain (The Oregonian says more than 250 people have telephoned the Oregon Health Division's Medical Marijuana Program since it officially opened for business on Monday. People in Oregon with serious and debilitating illnesses who would like to take advantage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act are finding it difficult to obtain physicians' recommendations - or the herb itself. "Some are people who thought they'd never get involved with this - law enforcement and corrections officers and people who have been in the military," said Kelly Paige, who manages the program. Patients at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center face a special barrier. Because the federal government views marijuana as an illegal drug, doctors there can't approve its use.)
• Finally, county OKs purchase of land for jail (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved purchasing a 27-acre chunk of land along North Portland's Bybee Lake for the site of a new $55 million jail and alcohol/drug treatment center. The jail will include 225 beds and a 300-bed alcohol and drug treatment center. The facility will include 225 jail beds and a 300-bed alcohol and drug treatment center, each with a different staff and programs.)
• Put money in schools, not jails (A seventh-grader's letter to the editor of the Oregonian wonders why state lawmakers want to build more jails for those kids who drop out of school and become criminals, but they don't give enough money to schools so that teachers can do more things to keep kids in school.)
• Oregon spent $920 million on gambling in '98 (The Associated Press says a study conducted by Robert Whelan, a senior economist with ECONorthwest in Portland, shows gambling in Oregon has increased 24 percent from four years ago. Bill Eadington, professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada in Reno, says he puts Oregon second only to his home state for availability and accessibility to gambling. At $282 per capita, nearly as much was spent on gambling as was spent on fishing, boating, rafting, floating and windsurfing combined. For some unspecified reason, Whelan said the state's infatuation with gambling was leveling off.)
• Oregonians rank as high-rollers (The Oregonian version quotes Whelan saying the amount Oregon residents spend on gambling has leveled off in the past year, suggesting future increases will be limited.)
• House endorses drug treatment of sex offenders (The Associated Press says HB 2500, which would establish a so-called chemical castration program, passed on a 44-13 vote Thursday and now goes to the Oregon Senate.)
• Mother anguishes after daughter's leap from bridge (The Associated Press interviews the mother of 15-year-old Kimberly Christine Roca, who was driving her daughter to an unspecified drug treatment facility on Sunday, the day after she learned of Kimberly's LSD use, when Kimberly, "apparently high on LSD," jumped out of the car and threw herself off the top deck of the Marquam Bridge in downtown Portland. Characteristically, AP doesn't say how teen-agers in Oregon die every year after ingesting alcohol and "doing dangerous things.")
• 'What ifs' haunt mother after death of daughter, 15 (The Oregonian version)
• Michelle Holden Admits Sex With Minor, Is Spared Prison Term (The Los Angeles Times says three days after her husband stepped down as the mayor of Pasadena, Holden tearfully halted what would have been a sordid trial, pleading no contest to a felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor - the couple's 15-year-old male babysitter. Holden avoided a state prison term and having to register as a sex offender. Had the case gone to trial, it would have pitted two families, once close, against each other as Holden and her former babysitter told of their mutual marijuana use and several sexual encounters.)
• District Defends Suspending Student Who Turned Over Pot (The Los Angeles Times says officials from the William S. Hart Union High School District in Saugus, California, suspended Tyler Hagen, 13, for five days because he violated the district's "zero tolerance" policy by alerting his parents instead of school officials about marijuana on campus. The seventh-grader at Arroyo Seco Junior High School said he thought he was doing the right thing last Friday when, agreeing to help a scared friend dispose of some marijuana, he turned it over to his parents, who in turn gave it to sheriff's deputies.)
• California Police Cleared In Shooting Of Black Woman (According to the Baltimore Sun, Grover Trask, the district attorney, in Riverside, California, said yesterday that four police officers were justified when they fired 23 bullets at Tyisha Miller, 19, a young black woman they found sitting armed and unresponsive in a disabled car in December. Miller had pulled into a gas station parking lot with a flat tire. Relatives who arrived to help her said they called police after Miller appeared to be having a seizure and was foaming at the mouth. Toxicology tests showed Miller had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent - and cannabis metabolites.)
• No Charges for Police Shooters (The Associated Press version)
• Cigarette Smuggling: What Did We Expect To Happen? (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register responds to news that cigarette smuggling from Mexican to California is "exploding." It is immoral to tax one minority group of citizens at a rate so much higher than the general populace. Cigarette manufacturers don't pay taxes; people do.)
• Rethink Drug Laws? Rockefeller Would (A letter to the editor of the New York Times from Laurance S. Rockefeller says 26 years ago, his late brother, Nelson, as New York's governor, did indeed advocate harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. However, Laurance believes that in light of current knowledge, his brother would today be open to a thoughtful review of drug policy issues, particularly New York's mandatory minimum sentencing laws.)
• Federal Judge Sparks Probe Of DEA Agents (The Miami Herald says U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch has sparked a criminal investigation into two Drug Enforcement Administration agents who defied his order barring them from using a convicted smuggler to import drugs from Mexico. DEA agents Aldo Rocco of New York City and Sam Trotman of Camden, N.J., may face criminal contempt charges for for continuing to use drug pilot Jimmie Norjay Ellard as an informant. Charges have been dismissed against Ellard, who was arrested in September after flying 187 pounds of marijuana into Fort Lauderdale at Rocco's request.)
• Study Brings Breath of Fresh Air to Pot Smokers (The Medical Tribune News Service discusses the report in the May issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology finding that long-term use of marijuana does not lead to a decline in mental function. Eighteen years ago, Jeffrey Schaeffer, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, published a study in the journal Science about the effects of marijuana among 10 heavy or prolonged users. Using a more sophisticated test that gauged the brain's frontal systems that deal with mental flexibility, attention and dual processing, Schaeffer also concluded that participants showed no evidence of impairment.)
• Hey, Like, News About Cannabis (The Detroit Free Press version)
• U.S. Military Opens New Antidrug Bases (The Miami Herald quotes Raul Duany, a spokesman for the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, saying Wednesday that the United States "started counterdrug air operations effective May 1" from new bases in Ecuador and the Dutch Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba. The new bases replace the American base in Panama being vacated under the 1977 Panama Canal treaties.)
• Sick can apply for medical use of marijuana (The Toronto Star says the Canadian government announced yesterday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Harry LaForme guidelines for sick and terminally ill people to apply for the right to use marijuana. However, Justice LaForme called the guidelines seriously flawed because those who sell pot to sick people can still be charged as illegal traffickers. "It's unfair. It's just patently unfair," he said. Justice LaForme had summoned federal officials to his court to explain what Ottawa is doing in response to a request by Toronto AIDS patient Jim Wakeford to be granted an exemption from prosecution for drug possession. Carole Bouchard, associate director of the federal drug surveillance bureau, testified yesterday she still can't say when the government will rule on Wakeford's application - or that of 19 other Canadians. As part of the application process, Ottawa has asked Wakeford to name his marijuana supplier.)
• A tortuous reply to a dying man's request - 8 bureaucrats, 2 months (The National Post version)
• Some See Benefits In Pot Plan (The Hamilton Spectator, in Ontario, says Ian Stewart, the executive director of the Halton Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Program, sees benefits in a proposal by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Stewart doesn't think kids will rush to use marijuana if it is decriminalized because "kids today chose to use marijuana and I don't think the thought races through their head that they shouldn't partake because it is a criminal offence." He expects his organization would become much busier if marijuana offenders were forced into coerced treatment rather than prison.)
• Re: Some see benefits in pot plan (A letter sent to the editor of the Hamilton Spectator says diverting cannabis users away from clogged courts and into our backlogged drug abuse treatment programs is like mandating weight loss programs for all chocolate consumers. It is something to consider only when those who voluntarily seek treatment for opiate addiction start getting treatment in a timely manner.)
• Ex-Governor Who Fled Mexico Linked To Top Drug Cartel (According to the Chicago Tribune, the Mexico City daily Reforma said Thursday that Mario Villanueva, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo who has not been seen since shortly before his term ended April 5, was probably a high-ranking chief of the Juarez cartel, one of the country's most notorious groups of alleged traffickers.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 90 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original drug policy newsmagazine features these stories - DRCNet passes 10,000 subscriber mark, 90th issue of Week Online; Congressional Black Caucus chair calls for end of mandatory minimum sentencing, felony disenfranchisement; Medical marijuana petitioners file federal suit, allege threats, harassment at polling locations; Hyde, Conyers, Barr and Frank introduce asset forfeiture reform bill; Mounties back Canadian marijuana decriminalization effort; Special Report: Safe injection room opens in Sydney; Australian perspective; Los Angeles: Citizens' fact finding commission on US drug policy, 5/22-23; San Francisco: Medical marijuana researcher to speak at forum, 5/25; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith on the new DEA museum: A monument to failure.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 97 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - David Broder mistakenly thinks forced treatment will win the war on drugs, by Steve Young, MAP Focus Alert specialist. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy - US exports zero tolerance; US antidrug campaign to be closely monitored; New drug-war offensive showing encouraging results; Drug wars, part two; and, Study: Cheaper heroin encourages addicts. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - What happened when New York got businesslike about crime; Drug war unfairly targets black community; Activist jurors judge the law; Severity of drug laws troubles a jury foreman; and an editorial: New Jersey's trooper scandal. Medical Marijuana news includes - Therapeutic marijuana use supported while thorough proposed study done; Pot cultivation charges dropped; and, Amber waves of hemp? why not? International News includes - Canada: Weeding out Canadian criminals; Australia: Shot in the arm for drug debate; and, Moral muddle in the drugs debate. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net gives the URL for a great site compiling medicinal marijuana science findings. The Tip of the Week notes the DPF Conference will be available on RealAudio, so you can be there even if you can't be there. The Quote of the Week features three scary citations from Bill Clinton, "Lover of Liberty.")
  Bytes: 165,000 Last updated: 5/21/99
  

  Thursday, May 6, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Michigan first state to force welfare applicants to pass drug tests; Mounties back Canadian marijuana decriminalization effort; Medical marijuana patients open with their doctors, survey shows; Congress spends $349,000 building, opening DEA museum)
• A public-safety fix - about time (A staff editorial in the Oregonian says it's taken too long to build the monument to the newspaper's bias.)
• Pretty pictures, ugly habit (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the so-called anti-smoking posters that will soon fill the empty spots on billboards where cigarette advertising used to be will sell just as many cigarettes. Although the little missy says her handsome date's smoke is "carcinogenic," she's still very interested in him and he's still quite fetching.)
• A Gauge Of Distress With Public Schools (An op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle by drug warrior Joseph A Califano Jr. of CASA says parents are sending a powerful message they want out of schools that cannot protect their children's safety, let alone teach them. Schools like those in Washington, D.C., where the financial control board concluded that the longer students stay in school, the "less likely they are to succeed educationally.")
• Colorado School Shooting Jumpstarts Federal Efforts For School Drug Testing (Drug Detection Report: The Newsletter on Drug Testing in the Workplace, says several bills have been introduced in Congress in reaction to the shooting tragedy April 20 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Although the only drug involved in the incident was a pharmaceutical antidepressant, national leaders, illustrating their characteristic ignorance and demogoguery, are blaming carnage in schools on drug abuse, which they want addressed through drug-testing programs.)
• Dead, Dead, Dead (The Houston Chronicle recounts events leading up to the shooting death of Pedro Oregon by six Houston prohibition agents who broke into his apartment without a search warrant, particularly in view of other such killings in the past that were also perceived as racist by many in the community.)
• Legal Marijuana Debate Continues (A letter to the editor of the Jordan Independent by Paul M. Bischke of the Drug Policy Reform Group of Minnesota rebuts misinformation about cannabis imparted last March by Aaron P. Fredrickson of the Minnesota Family Council at a legislative hearing on a proposed medical-marijuana bill.)
• Medical Marijuana Issue To Go To the Voters in Maine (The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report says the Maine house of representatives defeated a bill Monday to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, setting the stage for a statewide referendum on the issue in November. State Rep. Thomas Kane, the co-chair of the committee that considered the bill, said, "People essentially felt that it ought to be a referendum issue and we should let the people speak on it.")
• Legalize It! (The Fairfield County Weekly praises the activist efforts of the Connecticut Cannabis Policy Forum and says CCPF will stoke the fires once again this Saturday, May 8, when it presents "Marijuana Prohibition: Why It Must End" at Yale University.)
• General Doubts: Sparking Up The Medical-Marijuana Debate With Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey (The Boston Phoenix says there's a thick cloud of smoke trailing the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy these days. The Institute of Medicine report released March 17 and authorized by McCaffrey himself was widely seen as embarrassing to the drug czar. D'oh. After piling on the rhetoric, General McCaffrey now finds himself spinning and backpedaling at the same time. Critics believe McCaffrey's hesitancy to embrace marijuana's potential medical benefits undermines his credibility with the public, which is increasingly supportive of medical marijuana. In other words, America's most significant drug discussion is already progressing - with or without the assistance of the country's highest-ranking drug official.)
• Brewery workers protest hair sampling for evidence of drug use (An Associated Press article from New Jersey Online says a Teamsters local representing 900 workers at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Newark has filed a lawsuit challenging the company's right to take hair samples while the sides are embroiled in a contract dispute. The Teamsters' lawsuit disputes the accuracy and the constitutionality of the hair analysis.)
• Growers Take Pot Plants Indoors (The St. Petersburg Times says the state of Florida on Tuesday released its annual marijuana eradication report, which suggests prohibition agents' efforts, drought and wildfires caused production to plummet last year. However, the same factors have driven marijuana cultivators indoors, where they now produce a more potent product - increasingly in urban areas.)
• Police Can't Stop Passengers In Traffic Stops, Court Rules (The Palm Beach Post says Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that police officers cannot summarily stop passengers from walking away after a car has been pulled over in a traffic stop. The ruling was made in the case of Jeff Wilson, 21, of Royal Palm Beach, who was arrested on charges of possessing cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia in July 1997. Michael Neimand of the state attorney general's office said prosecutors would ask for a rehearing or appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court.)
• McCaffrey Urges Anti-Drug Prayers (The Associated Press says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey - a man who has helped a lot of other people meet their Maker - announced at Thursday's annual observance of the National Day of Prayer that the White House had been reaching out to religious groups of all denominations to get them involved in the war on some plants and some drug users. Plus commentary from list subscribers, including "Bible Truth & Drug War Lies," by R Givens.)
• The Straight Dope: Drug Agency's New Museum Is a Monument to Self-Destruction (The Washington Post says the new Drug Enforcement Administration Museum and Visitors Center opening Monday displays hash pipes, hookahs, bongs, American-flag rolling papers and several bags of marijuana. Plus a diorama titled "An American Head Shop, Circa 1970s." It's a museum about dope. It was probably inevitable that somebody would create a museum devoted to two of America's multi-billion-dollar obsessions - getting wasted and trying to stop people from getting wasted.)
• Cannabis therapeutics: Medicine vs. Dependence (A list subscriber notes the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana says psychiatric patients "are particularly vulnerable to developing marijuana dependence and marijuana use would be generally contraindicated in those individuals" - without any reason.)
• Is pot going legal? Cops call for decriminalization (Eye magazine, in Toronto, takes a look at a recent proposal by the Canadian Chiefs of Police to decriminalize marijuana possession. Professor Alan Young, an attorney who routinely defends low-level marijuana miscreants, denies that Toronto police are ignoring minor marijuana offences, but says such a policy would be bad news. "De facto decriminalization is not an effective way to deal with the issue," says Young. "It's a smoke screen to block serious law reform.")
• Mike the ganja slayer (A staff editorial in Eye says it's not often the Toronto magazine finds itself more pro-cop than Premier Mike Harris. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is in favor of "decriminalizing" marijuana possession, but Harris is opposed. He smugly announces he "preferred booze" as a young man. We hope this doesn't send the wrong message to kids, because alcohol costs our health care system a lot more than cannabis does. According to the Addiction Research Foundation, alcohol costs health care nearly half-a-billion bucks a year. Tobacco's price tag is double that. And marijuana? It drains a mere $8 million from provincial health care each year. Harris feels obliged to oppose decrim because he's riding into an election on a law-and-order platform. Evidently being smart on crime doesn't enter the equation.)
• Anti-Drug Official Fired (The Orange County Register says Ruben Olarte, the head of Colombia's war on drugs, was fired Wednesday after unspecified mass media alleged he was corrupt and that he made personal use of property forfeited by cocaine kingpins.)
• Statement Of DPPs On Drug Law Enforcement (A statement issued prior to Premier Bob Carr's New South Wales Drug Summit, scheduled May 17-21, by the Directors of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales, South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory, makes a number of reform proposals. In particular, the prosecutors say "Consideration should also be given to a regime that would have cannabis treated in a similar way to tobacco.")
• Drug Blindness (A staff editorial in the Cairns Post, in Australia, says that despite their claims to the contrary, it is short-sighted politicians and religious tub-thumpers like the Rev Fred Nile who are turning the law into a joke, not the organisers of Sydney's illegal heroin shooting gallery. When the law is so completely at odds with reality and has proved impossible to enforce successfully, it is time to change it - not to keep trying to ram it down people's throats. The laws against illegal drug use have proved useless in nation after nation. Rather than talking to the FBI, Prime Minister John Howard should look at the latest, fully-researched reports on heroin-maintenance trials in Switzerland.)
  Bytes: 145,000 Last updated: 5/31/99
  

  Wednesday, May 5, 1999:

• Urgent! HJM 10 Update (A Portland NORML activist forwards a request that advocates for medical marijuana patients contact Oregon state legislators now and urge them to support the resolution asking Congress to reschedule marijuana. Includes legislators' contact information.)
• Crime in Oregon dips in 1998 from previous year (The Oregonian says new statistics from an unspecified source, possibly the Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting Program, indicate violent crimes such as homicide dropped 3.2 percent last year, while property crimes showed an 8.6 percent decline and overall crime dropped 6.3 percent. However, from 1989 to 1998, crime rose 13 percent while the population increased 17.1 percent. Apparently no statistics were collected on illegal-drug offenses.)
• Spokane, officers sued over home-search mix-up (The Spokesman-Review, in Spokane, Washington, says local resident Robert Critchlow has filed a $2.25 million lawsuit stemming from a fruitless police search for marijuana in Critchlow's home in 1997. Police said they could smell marijuana, and that's why they were knocking at his door at 4:17 a.m., the suit said. It claims Critchlow's civil rights were violated, alleging 18 causes of action, including trespass, false arrest, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of mental distress.)
• A Prop. 215 Violation (A letter to the editor of the Ventura County Star, in California, clarifies several inaccurancies in recent articles about the cultivation bust of medical-marijuana patient/activist Andrea Nagy, whose Agoura Hills home was raided April 19 by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.)
• Justice Department Report Contradicts Common Perception (The San Jose Mercury News notes a U.S. Justice Department report of methamphetamine use in Western cities suggests the connection between the drug and violent crime has been overstated by police and mass media. A study of 7,355 people arrested in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Portland and Phoenix for a variety of offenses in 1996 and 1997 found that meth users were "significantly less likely" than other drug arrestees to be charged with a violent offense. The largest segment - about 40 percent of adult users - were charged with drug or alcohol violations. By contrast, 25 percent were booked for property offenses and only 16 percent were arrested for violent behavior. Non-meth arrestees, on the other hand, were "significantly more likely to be arrested for a violent offense.")
• Study Says Methamphhetamine Use High In West (The Associated Press version in the Orange County Register emphasizes the drug warriors' spin.)
• Popularity Of Methamphetamines Surges, Report Says (A different Associated Press version in the Seattle Times)
• Special Prosecutor Urged For Police Abuse (The Los Angeles Times says the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will wrap up a long-running investigation into misconduct and bias among Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and Los Angeles Police Department officers by recommending that a special prosecutor be created to replace the county district attorney in pursuing allegations of abuse against law enforcement officers.)
• Hawaii to apply for permits (A list subscriber forwards a message from Hawaii state representative Cynthia Thielen confirming yesterday's news that the legislature has passed HB 32, an industrial hemp bill. Thielen also confirms that Governor Cayetano is expected to sign the legislation in June, and that the DEA is considering an end to the ban on hemp production.)
• ASU's Fletcher arrested on drug charge (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says Arkansas State University basketball player Chico Fletcher, a two-time Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and honorable-mention NCAA All-American, was arrested Sunday morning on a charge of possessing an eighth of an ounce of marijuana. Fletcher was arrested at a "safety checkpoint" where a drug-sniffing dog stood by as each and every vehicle was stopped for inspection.)
• State Authorities' Wiretapping Up (According to the Associated Press, the U.S. government said Wednesday that the number of wiretaps authorized by state courts rose 24 percent last year, to 763, while the number of federally authorized wiretaps held steady at 566. Seventy-two percent of all wiretaps were aimed at catching illegal-drug offenders, while 12 percent were aimed at racketeering and 7 percent at gambling.)
• U.S. Says Losing Panama Base Hurt Its Anti-Drug Efforts (An Associated Press article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says drug war sorties from Howard Air Force Base in the Canal Zone ended May 1, as part of the United States' scheduled withdrawal from Panama on Dec. 31. Clinton administration officials told a Government Reform subcommittee overseeing drug policy yesterday that missions were down 50 percent from the 2,000-a-year flown two years ago. Ana Maria Salazar, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for drug enforcement policy, said operations should be up to 85 percent next year as a result of new interim agreements for use of airfields in Ecuador and the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao. And the government was looking for a third location that would boost surveillance to 110 percent of the 1997 level by 2001.)
• Society Is Committing Genocide Against Intravenous Drug Users (According to the Victoria Times-Colonist, in British Columbia, that's what Dr. Martin Schechter, an epidemiologist and national director of the Canadian HIV trials, told the eighth annual Canadian conference on HIV/AIDS research Tuesday in Victoria. "The government has the means to stop it and they are not doing anything about it," said Dr. Schechter. "If someone from Mars landed here, they'd say this is social murder.")
• Convicted drug trafficker Howard Marks deported from Hong Kong (According to the Hassela Nordic Network, celebrated former marijuana smuggler Howard Marks has been denied entry to China and was put on a flight back to London. Marks had been was scheduled to give three appearances at Carnegie's bar in Wan Chai starting Tuesday night, speaking about his experiences and playing music.)
• KLA Linked To Enormous Heroin Trade (The San Francisco Chronicle belatedly helps break the American mass media's silence about how the United States' allies in its latest military conflict are - surprise! - funding their war effort by trafficking supposedly controlled substances throughout Europe.)
  Bytes: 69,900 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Tuesday, May 4, 1999:

• When Patients Want To Use Marijuana For Medical Purposes - How Physicians Should Respond (Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, forwards the Oregon Medical Association's new official legal guidelines for physicians on how best to help a patient whose condition might be improved by cannabis. The new guidelines have not been posted at the OMA website, and so far have been distributed only to about 300 OMA delegates and officers out of the more than 7,000 doctors in Oregon and 5000 OMA members. But this is a big change for the OMA from their "just say no to OMMA" message in December. There were no negative comments from any doctor about this change in OMA policy.)
• The pot issue: separating smoke from science (An op-ed in the Oregonian by the principal investigators for the Institute of Medicine's March 17 report on medical marijuana, Dr. John A. Benson of Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland and Stanley J. Watson Jr. of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, shows why the IOM's political document is destined - perhaps designed - to lead nowhere. The researchers continue to promote pie-in-the-sky pharmaceutical derivitives nobody is going to pay to develop while ignoring the essential question that prompted the report: How many patients with serious, life-threatening diseases should be persecuted and locked up at taxpayer expense right now, today, for using marijuana when it's recommended by their physicians?)
• Some die with their rights on (An editorial in the Oregon by Robert Landauer says that just saying no to drugs might someday get you locked up in Oregon, if a task force on civil commitment of the mentally ill manages to present a bill to the Oregon legislature this session. Strenuously opposing forced treatment are persons who call themselves psychiatric survivors. They particularly fear anything that might lead to forced use of mood-altering drugs. Some dwell on disagreeable side effects of certain medications. Others say that forced drugging reflects a conspiracy of the pharmaceutical industry, organized psychiatry and mental-health institutions to gain clients, profits and power. Passions run high. There is no chance for task-force agreement except for the need for more resources. That's a strong signal that a bill should not go to this Legislature. The problems and remedies need public airing.)
• Hawaii: "Second" State to Pass Hemp Legislation (A list subscriber says HB 32, an industrial hemp bill before the Hawaii legislature, passed today in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate vote was 13 to 11 and all House members, except three, voted affirmatively. Governor Cayetano has been supportive and will sign the legislation in June. North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer signed the first industrial hemp bill, HB 1428, into law on April 17. A statement from the DEA is also taken to mean the agency may be intending to once again allow industrial hemp to be grown in the United States.)
• Drug Czar' Stand On Marijuana Belied By Facts (A letter to the editor of the New London Day, by Mike Gogulski of the Connecticut Cannabis Policy Forum, takes issue with statements about the Insitute of Medicine report made locally by General Barry McCaffrey. Citing some excellent statistics and URL references, Gogulski says it's time for the General Assembly to follow the recommendations of the Connecticut Law Revision Commission's 1997 report on drug policy, and decriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana by adults over 21.)
• Old Drugs, New Uses (Style Weekly, in Virginia, says three professors at the Medical College of Virginia hope to market marijuana and nicotine derivatives as new medicinal treatments for cigarette addiction, severe pain, and slowing the progress of Alzheimer's disease. Louis S. Harris, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University's MCV, fellow researchers Billy Martin, also a pharmacology professor, and Richard Glennon, a professor of medicinal chemistry, have formed CogniRx Inc. in the hope of capitalizing on research advances and discoveries they made during their years at MCV. "The science that we're learning from marijuana can be very valuable in developing drugs that will be useful in treating a variety of conditions," says Harris.)
• Rep. Hyde to Introduce Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill (A press release from the Drug Policy Foundation, in Washington, D.C., says Henry Hyde, John Conyers, Bob Barr and Barney Frank will co-sponsor a bill in Congress today that would reform civil asset forfeiture laws.)
• Shot In The Arm For Drug Debate (The Australian says a half dozen volunteers trialled the so-called Tolerance Room, or T-Room, during a "practice run" last Thursday in the Wayside Chapel in Sydney's Kings Cross. The T-Room aims to be a safe place for long-term injecting drug addicts to shoot up, using clean equipment, under the eye of a trained nurse. The idea is that while the users will get high, at least they won't die. Everyone connected with the trial, including the chapel's Reverend Ray Richmond, could be arrested for aiding and abetting the administration of a prohibited substance. "But if we are closed down, if our energies and our suggestions are not taken up, the experiment will be continued in one form or another. We are very determined to get evidence-based policies relative to drug use," said the Reverend.)
  Bytes: 53,100 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Monday, May 3, 1999:

• 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.)
• 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.)
• Wyden seeks federal role in managing severe pain (The Oregonian says Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plans to propose legislation today that aims to help seriously ill patients manage their pain and deter them from considering physician-assisted suicide. A secondary purpose of the bill is to blunt congressional opposition to Oregon's voter-approved Death With Dignity Act, which last year became a target of conservative Republicans.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• 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.")
• What about Hatch's and Biden's challenge? (The Conservative News Service Bulletin Board notes the public debate over drug policy that Joe Biden and Orrin Hatch promised a year ago for the U.S. Senate Justice Committee has yet to materialize. Are they not men of their word? Are they chicken?)
• 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.")
• 'They' May Be Listening (Robyn E. Blumner, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, writes in the Oakland Tribune about Echelon, the U.S. National Security Agency's global communications surveillance system that allows government agents to intercept international phone calls, e-mails and faxes without a warrant or court order. In addition to spying on criminal and espionage activities, Echelon also has been known to eavesdrop on Princess Diana, Amnesty International, and help at least one American business engage in entrepreneurial espionage. So far Echelon has been operating under the radar screen of the American public. Because Echelon is steeped in secrecy, the NSA refuses even to acknowledge its existence. But if the NSA isn't willing to be accountable to the media, it should be accountable to Congress.)
• High Court To Decide On Stop-And-Search (An Associated Press article from the Chicago Tribune says the U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to decide whether police generally may stop and question someone who runs away after seeing them. The court said it would review an Illinois ruling. State prosecutors say such stops are justified in high-crime neighborhoods.)
• Can Cops Stop Someone Who Runs Off? (A different Associated Press version)
• Supreme Court Looks At Chicago 'Pat-Down' Case (The UPI version)
• 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.)
• KLA funding tied to heroin profits (The Washington Times breaks the American media's silence about heroin trafficking funding the Kosovo Liberation Army.)
  Bytes: 81,700 Last updated: 5/31/99
  

  Sunday, May 2, 1999:

• The Generation Gap, 1999-Style (An op-ed in the Oregonian criticizes the Baby Boom generation for its inattentiveness and fearfulness. As a so-called Gen-X'er, the writer has become alienated about the damage Baby Boomers are doing to society. Its fears have led to an increase in the size and intensity of our police forces, military operations and the development and expansion of the prison industrial complex. We have begun to see "punishment politics" - mandatory minimum sentences, debtors prisons for deadbeat dads, excessive use of the death penalty and so forth - guiding our political, legal and social policies. Boomer fear will be the true Boomer legacy.)
• Pushing Hemp - Industry Struggles With U.S. Rules That Link It With Pot (The Daily Courier, in Grants Pass, looks at the industrial hemp bill in the Oregon Legislature sponsored by Rep. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene. HB 2933 stipulates a $2,500 fine for growing hemp without a license. Rep. Larry Wells, R-Jefferson, chairman of the Agricultural and Forestry Committee, claims a hemp field "could serve as a fortress for a marijuana field inside.")
• The Economics Of Smuggling (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register reflects on the front-page story in Friday's Register that said "Four months after California levied the second-highest cigarette tax in the country, the smuggling of untaxed cigarettes from Mexico has exploded." The activists who devised the Proposition 10 tobacco tax, and the voters who supported it, should have spent more time thinking about economics.)
• Past Juror Granted Retrial (The Boulder Daily Camera says Laura Kriho, a former Gilpin County juror who caused a mistrial in a 1996 drug case and later was charged with contempt of court when her views on jury nullification became known, won her appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals, which ruled Thursday that Judge Henry Nieto wrongly considered jury-room transcripts in finding Kriho guilty of the contempt charge in 1997. A decision on whether Gilpin County District Attorney Dave Thomas will retry the Kriho case is unlikely until the state has exhausted its appeals.)
• Hair Analysis Company Draws Big-Name Clients And Vocal Critics (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in Missouri, notes the scientific community still thinks hair testing is junk science, and it's still forbidden in the federal workforce and in federally regulated industries, but Psychemedics Corp., headquartered in Boston, took in almost $18 million last year from more than 1,600 corporate clients, including such big names as General Motors, Toyota, Michelin and Anheuser-Busch.)
• Drug Testing: Why Your Boss Wants A Piece Of Your Hair (A second article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about hair testing says hundreds of studies have been undertaken on the new technology. Some scientists are convinced of its accuracy. Others aren't sure. Most of the research has been done by scientists who operate companies that seek hair-testing contracts or by scientists whose work is financed by hair-testing labs. Some scientists fear that blacks are more likely to be caught by such tests than whites because dark, coarse hair might absorb more drugs than does light, fine hair. Tom Mieczkowski of the University of Southern Florida cautions that "urinalysis is not 100 percent accurate, either." It's hard for aggrieved workers to file lawsuits, however. According to Lewis Maltby of the ACLU, "There's absolutely no law that says an employer has to use reliable testing, except in the federal testing program. You can use a Ouija board, and it's perfectly legal.")
• Hemp Backed By Ex-CIA Chief (The Washington Post says James Woolsey, the former CIA director who is now a Washington corporate lawyer, recently got his first lobbying client, the North American Industrial Hemp Council. Woolsey must convince Congress and key administration officials that reasonable precautions could build a booming domestic hemp industry.)
• To Win The War On Drugs (Washington Post syndicated columnist David S. Broder praises coerced treatment programs for drug offenders in Arizona and Maryland.)
• Pastrana, Rebel Chief Announce Talks (According to the Associated Press, Colombian President Andres Pastrana and FARC leader Manuel Marulanda announced Sunday that the Pastrana administration would begin substantive peace talks Thursday with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Without explicitly saying so, Pastrana was, in effect, announcing that he would continue excluding overnment forces from a region the size of Switzerland as a concession to the FARC. Pastrana's peace efforts have put him at odds with the U.S. Congress, who say it has hampered drug crop eradication efforts and given the FARC the opportunity to increase its profits from the local cocaine trade.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 2 May 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about the debate in the Canadian House of Commons on medical marijuana; and the drug commission in Switzerland that recommended legalizing cannabis.)
  Bytes: 61,600 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Saturday, May 1, 1999:

• Medical marijuana card will cost $150 per year (The Oregonian says patients who comply with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act's registry card system - which officially begins operating today - will have to pay their own way when it comes to state administrative funding. The Oregon Health Division approved the fee this week, hoping 500 patients will come up with $75,000 annually toward the $105,000 estimated cost of administering the 1998 law. The newspaper doesn't explain why one group of sick people is required to fund its own bureaucracy, but not other patients receiving similar state administrative support. However, Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for Measure 67, says the fee is fair - and suggests the health advantages of vaporizers over smoking mean the legislature may want to revisit the issue of how many plants patients should be allowed to grow.)
• Investors Profit By Prisoners (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian observes that the people known as inmates, convicts, criminals, parolees, ex-offenders and so on have become valuable commodities - like slaves.)
• Show to Focus On Reported Fakery of 'World's Wildest Police Videos' (The Fresno Bee says television cop show host John Bunnell, the former sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon, will be accused Monday of "duping" viewers by "Inside Edition." Although "World's Wildest Police Videos," on the Fox network, is supposedly based on raw footage of crimes in progress, Bunnell's episodes are described as elaborate exercises staged for the cameras, sometimes loosely based on fact and sometimes outright inventions. Bunnell says his 2-year-old program is entertainment, not a news broadcast.)
• Patients Protest for Medical Marijuana Rights (The Seattle Times publicizes today's Million Marijuana March rally at Volunteer Park, as well as a protest yesterday at Harborview Medical Center by patients whose doctors had refused to sign letters authorizing their use of marijuana. Francis Podrebarac, a retired psychiatrist, signed authorization letters for at least a half-dozen patients at the protest, saying he's not afraid of retaliation. But Thomas Hooton, the medical director of the clinic who makes his living off patients while refusing to serve them, said he had advised its doctors to "hold off" signing authorizations until a policy was created, as if a law passed by state voters last November weren't a policy. Doctors in the Veterans Administration hospital system have also been "advised" not to recommend marijuana use.)
• Letter from Dave Herrick (A list subscriber forwards some correspondence from Soledad Prison, where the medical-marijuana patient/activist has been incarcerated since being denied a Proposition 215 defense in court. An appeal hearing is scheduled before a 4th District Court of Appeal panel on June 21.)
• Contempt Ruling Reversed (The Denver Post notes Thursday's news about the Colorado Court of Appeals reversing a contempt conviction against Laura Kriho. The Gilpin County woman was accused of jury misconduct in a drug trial because, during jury selection, she failed to volunteer the information that she had once been arrested on a drug charge or that she might be inclined to engage in jury nullification.)
• Texas Reformers Test Federal Gag Order On Drug-Policy Debates (The May issue of High Times discusses the battle plan of the drug warriors, which involves avoiding any and all public debate with drug-policy reformers. The Drug Policy Forum of Texas is confronting the drug warriors' strategy of exploiting the mainstream media's timidity by offering $500 to anyone who can defend drug prohibition in a public forum. The DPFT's well-publicized offer has been standing for over three months now, and there is talk of upping the bounty to $10,000.)
• Pot Not Dangerous (A letter to the editor of the Daily Gazette, in New York, rebuts a claim in a recent editorial that the March 17 Institute of Medicine report confirms marijuana is dangerous. Nowhere in the IOM report is marijuana described as "dangerous." The report does state that marijuana smoke contains harmful substances, similar to those found in tobacco smoke. The most serious health risk of heavy marijuana smoking is probably bronchitis. Lung cancer is a possibility - but the IOM report noted that there is no evidence to confirm that theory.)
• Amber Waves Of Hemp? Why Not? (Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Lauren Rooney endorses the campaign by would-be hemp growers in Lancaster County to reform the law and save declining tobacco farms.)
• Snitch Turns Tables on DEA (The Miami Herald says Norjay Ellard, a daring pilot, drug smuggler, and undercover informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, was sentenced to five years in prison Friday in Fort Lauderdale for violating federal probation. Ellard was arrested in September after South Florida drug agents watched him fly 187 pounds of marijuana into Fort Lauderdale. Ellard told a Customs agent he was working for Sam Trotman and Aldo Rocco of the DEA - who denied it. But Ellard produced a secretly taped phone conversation in which Rocco urged him to flout a federal judge's order and consummate a 26,000-pound cocaine deal with Mexican traffickers, in violation of U.S. policy. So charges were dismissed, but the feds got their man with a Catch-22 - by maintaining that the smuggling flights and informant work they hired Ellard for violated his probation.)
• Cannabis use and cognitive decline (An abstract of a report in the May issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology by scientists from Johns Hopkins University medical school finds "There were no significant differences in cognitive decline between heavy users, light users, and nonusers of cannabis. There were also no male-female differences in cognitive decline in relation to cannabis use. The authors conclude that over long time periods, in persons under age 65 years, cognitive decline occurs in all age groups. This decline is closely associated with aging and educational level but does not appear to be associated with cannabis use.")
• America's Altered States (An essay in the May issue of Harper's magazine by Joshua Wolf Shenk, a psychiatric patient who has tried countless medicines, and still uses marijuana medically on occasion, deconstructs the primitive beliefs about drugs that prevail in the United States. The drug wars and the booming pharmaceutical industry are interrelated. The hostility and veneration, the punishment and profits, these come from the same beliefs and the same mistakes. Our faith in pharmaceuticals is based on a model of consciousness that science is slowly displacing. "Throughout history," writes chemist and religious scholar Daniel Perrine in The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs, "the power that many psychoactive drugs have exerted over the behavior of human beings has been variously ascribed to gods or demons." In a sense, that continues. "We ascribe magical powers to substances," says Perrine, "as if the joy is inside the bottle. Our culture has no sacred realm, so we've assigned a sacred power to these drugs.")
• Dr. Grinspoon seeks contributors (A bulletin from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies notes the Harvard medical school professor who specializes in cannabis issues has taken out an ad in the back of Harper's magazine seeking people who will share their positive experiences with marijuana. Includes contact information.)
• High Anxiety (The May issue of Reason magazine features senior editor Jacob Sullum reviewing "Drug Crazy," by Mike Gray, and "Marijuana Myths: Marijuana Facts," by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D. and Dr. John P. Morgan.)
• The Heroin Prescribing Debate: Integrating Science And Politics (Science reviews the experience of Britain and Switzerland with heroin-maintenance programs and concludes they will not replace oral methadone as the treatment of first choice for stabilization. Its "short-acting nature" and expense preclude its widespread introduction. More clinical trials are needed, but the prescribing of heroin is about medicalization, not legalization, and so does not violate the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.)
• RCMP Supports Call to Relax Pot Laws (According to the Calgary Herald, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced Friday that they "fully supported" the new policy of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police calling on the federal government to give police the option of ticketing people caught with 30 grams or less of marijuana, sparing them a criminal record.)
• Reefer Madness (New Scientist, in Britain, describes a social psychology experiment carried out by Elena Kouri of Harvard Medical School and reported in the latest issue of Psychopharmacology. The results supposedly showed 17 heavy users of marijuana who suddenly went cold turkey had aggressive impulses as powerful as those felt by people taking anabolic steroids - which is to say, not all that powerful. Moreover, the increased aggression completely subsided after 28 days of abstinence, and the results may reflect psychological dependence rather than physiological addiction. The magazine fails to note the methodological pitfalls in such studies, whether the study was peer-reviewed, and who funded it.)
  Bytes: 166,000 Last updated: 5/31/99
  

  Friday, April 30, 1999:

• Oregon Hemp Bill Appears Dead (The Register-Guard, in Eugene, says the industrial-hemp bill sponsored by state representative Floyd Prozanski apparently has been killed. Prozanski said Thursday that seven of the nine members of the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee - including Chairman Larry Wells, R-Jefferson - had told him they were willing to send the bill out for a floor vote. But Republican House Speaker Lynn Snodgrass told Wells not to take up HB 2933 again.)
• Insurers still unfair with mentally ill, study says (The Oregonian says a study released today by the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems and the Association of Behavioral Group Practices concludes that limits imposed by health insurers on mental health and drug-treatment coverage increased in 1998 despite a new federal law meant to restore balance between mental and physical health benefits. "We call it organ discrimination," said William Dalton, director of the Oregon branch of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "There is still a lot of stigma and antiquated thinking about mental illness and chemical dependency." Employers have found little resistance to cutting benefits for mental disorders because of the stigma. The cuts have gone on so long now that "There is not a lot of room for employers to decrease benefits any more without cutting them completely," said Kathleen Hessler of the Hay Group.)
• Medical marijuana policy still fuzzy (The Seattle Times discusses the problems faced by medical marijuana patients in Washington state, despite the passage of Initiative 692 last November. Today, a group of patients who receive care at Harborview Medical Center's HIV/AIDS clinic plan to protest in front of the building. They say that their doctors have left them legally vulnerable by refusing to sign letters authorizing their marijuana use. The real doctors are willing, but the medical director of Harborview's HIV/AIDS clinic, Dr. Thomas Hooton, unilaterally forbid clinic physicians from writing letters.)
• Medical pot comes to Auburn (The Auburn Journal, in California, provides an update on the medical marijuana trial of Michael and Georgia Baldwin, noting Ryan Landers, a Sacramento AIDS patient and trial observer, obtained the permission of Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino to smoke cannabis discreetly outside the courthouse.)
• Medical Marijuana Researcher to Speak at Forum (A press release from the Lindesmith Center publicizes a rare public address May 25 in San Francisco by Dr. Donald Abrams, the only U.S. researcher currently allowed to conduct a clinical trial on medical marijuana. Dr. Abrams' topic is "Medical Marijuana: Tribulations and Trials.")
• Standing up for equal rights and Pot Pride (Mikki Norris, a co-ordinator of the "Human Rights and the Drug War" exhibit and author of "Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War," shares an eloquent speech she will make tomorrow at San Francisco's Million Marijuana March. "Today, we demand equal rights. We don't want special rights, just the same rights that people who smoke tobacco or drink alcohol responsibly enjoy. Today we say, stop calling us losers, stupid, lazy, and unmotivated.")
• Shooter Used Often-Prescribed Drug (The Washington Post says Eric Harris had been taking Luvox, an antidepressant, before he went on a shooting rampage last week at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Judith Rapaport, chief of child psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, said "There is no reason to think it would have any relationship to any unusual or violent behavior," ignoring a similar case in Springfield, Oregon, and failing to acknowledge that kids' brains are different than adults' and that such drugs have never been thoroughly tested on children. For some reason Rapaport failed to recommend that parents try switching their teens' antidepressant to cannabis, a much less toxic remedy whose worst possible side-effect, amotivational syndrome, would have saved a few lives in Colorado. Plus a cartoon from the April 28 Daily News, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.)
• U.S. Court Overturns Juror's Contempt Conviction (The Associated Press notes yesterday's news about the Colorado Court of Appeals reversing the conviction of a juror, Laura Kriho, for contempt of court. Kriho was indicted because, during jury selection, she failed to volunteer the information that she had pleaded guilty 11 years earlier to possessing LSD, and is a member of a group that supports the reform of marijuana laws.)
• Drug Wars, Part Two (The Austin Chronicle notes Texas is such a closed society that the Drug Policy Forum of Texas has resorted to offering $500 to any drug warrior willing to debate its representatives in public. Alan Robison, a retired professor of pharmacology and Forum founder, complains that the unwillingness to debate has become a way for drug warriors to squash public discourse.)
• New Jersey's Trooper Scandal (A staff editorial in the New York Times says it was outrageous when state troopers were found to be using racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike in an effort to intercept illegal drugs. Now it turns out that the State Police have enlisted hotel workers along the turnpike to spy on guests and report behavior as common as speaking Spanish. This civil liberties nightmare has all the earmarks of a program out of control. The office of New Jersey Attorney General Peter G. Verniero says it is reviewing all drug interdiction efforts. The fact that this program has been in place for nearly a decade without a review shows how much institutional reform is needed.)
• Drug czar warns foreign cartels now high-tech (The Boston Herald says General Barry McCaffrey told an audience at Harvard University yesterday that "Dominicans, Mexicans, Nigerians and Russians, and criminals from Southeast Asia are the big drug pushers now and one-half of all people behind bars for drug crimes are foreign-born." He said the latest smuggling trick involves black cocaine, that is, cocaine with chemicals added that make it impossible for drug-sniffing dogs to detect.)
• Law Barring U.S. Aid To Drug Offenders Concerns Administrators And Activists (The Chronicle of Higher Education examines the new provision in the Higher Education Act that will strip students convicted of any drug-related offense of financial aid. Championed by U.S. Representative Mark E. Souder, the Indiana Republican, the law becomes effective July 1, 2000. Colleges, concerned about institutional liability, are arguing - and the Education Department appears to agree - that it should be up to the federal government, not campuses, to ascertain students' criminal status. Meanwhile, a national campaign has begun to try to galvanize student opposition to the measure.)
• Study: Cheaper Heroin Encourages Addicts (The Orange County Register says a report by Dr. Peter Bach at the University of Chicago, paid for by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found that the price of heroin in the United States dropped by half from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, and that the decline in price was apparently the sole factor that caused an incease in use by "addicts." The fact that only about 10 percent of heroin users are thought to be dependent isn't mentioned, but Dr. Back's study reinforces the views of drug warriors because it suggests that addicts as well as casual users are sensitive to price fluctuations, justifying a drug policy that attempts to drive up prices. Unfortunately, the newspaper fails to point out that the decline in heroin prices was inevitably caused by such policies in the first place.)
• Weeding Out Canadian Criminals (An op-ed in the Toronto Star by Dave Haans applauds the recent decision by the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs to press the federal government to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. The CAPC didn't always feel this way. When the feds were looking at introducing the present Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the CAPC was one of the few groups opposed to softening marijuana laws. The bill eventually passed with only minor modifications, so marijuana offenders are still given a criminal record, rather than a ticket or fine. What changed was that marijuana offenders could be processed through the courts more efficiently, actually exacerbating the previous situation by allowing police to bring even more possession cases.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 89 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine features - Arizona supreme court study: Proposition 200 has saved the state millions; Renting while non-white; Canada: Heroin prescription experiment debated in Parliament; Canadian police chiefs call for decriminalization of marijuana possession; Swiss panel calls for decriminalization of cannabis possession, sales; Heroin in Australia, Part 2: A conversation with Michael Moore, ACT Health Minister; Government's drug test ruled inadequate, Todd McCormick remains free pending trial; Media alert: May issue of Harper's magazine cover story: "Good drugs, bad drugs"; Patti Smith to play NYC's Bowery Ballroom to benefit the Drug Policy Foundation; Forfeiture reform conference in DC, justice reform protest in NYC and nationwide; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith: Arizonans ignore rhetoric, reap benefits)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 96 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Update on Steve and Michelle Kubby, by Steve Kubby. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Cannabis, Hemp and Medicinal Marijuana, including - Libertarians launch Prop. 215 web site inspired by Kubby arrests; Another victory for medical marijuana; Bad marijuana bill; Hemp: Now we're wearing it, eating it, even building with it; Drug-war supporters turned freedom fighters; and, $10 million claim filed in pot arrest. Articles about Drug War Policy and Law Enforcement & Prisons include - California police forced to return marijuana; Arizona shows the way on drugs; Reno at large; Study backs treatment, not prison, for addicts; Drug treatment said to reduce crime; Parents key in drug war, study says; and, U.S. antidrug campaign's impact to be closely tracked by surveys. International News includes - Police chiefs want possession of all narcotics decriminalized; Cops can't keep up with B.C. drug trade; and, Police like pot-penalty plan. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net notes Family Watch has announced an online bookstore. The Fact of the Week documents that the Institute of Medicine Report discounts the risk that medical use of marijuana will lead to increased non-medical use. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Jefferson.)
  Bytes: 147,000 Last updated: 5/15/99
  

  Thursday, April 29, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Reform Party, Canada's top cops back removing criminal pot penalties; California high court says police must return medical marijuana to [atients; Oregon first state to license medical marijuana patients; Swiss government committee says legalize marijuana; House reps. to introduce student drug testing bills in Congress)
• Rescheduling marijuana resolution HJM 10 (A list subscriber says the resolution before the Oregon legislature calling on Congress to make marijuana available to physicians and patients was approved by a 4-3 committee vote this morning.)
• Sheriff's deputy is accused of child sex abuse (The Oregonian says Robert William Morrissey, 44, a Washington County sheriff's deputy, was arrested Wednesday on accusations of sexually abusing two preschool-age girls.)
• Alterna Blankets Los Angeles With Hemp Again (A company press release on Business Wire says Alterna Applied Research Laboratories, which produces professional hemp hair care products, has re-posted its thought-provoking hemp-leaf ad images all over Los Angeles County in an effort to keep the message of industrial hemp alive. Alterna was forced to take down 100 of its hemp-shampoo ads last October in Los Angeles as a result of a drug-baiting campaign by DARE America.)
• Juror Conviction Reversed (A bulletin from the Jury Rights Project provides a URL to the text of today's ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals overturning the contempt of court conviction of Laura Kriho.)
• U.S. Court Overturns Juror's Contempt Conviction (Reuters says the Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial for Laura Kriho, a juror who was convicted of being in contempt of court because she was not asked and didn't reveal her opposition to drug prohibition when she was selected for a jury in a methamphetamine case.)
• Michigan To Begin Welfare Drug Testing (The Associated Press says Michigan Governor John Engler signed a bill into law Wednesday that will require drug tests of welfare applicants in three areas of the state beginning Oct. 1. The new law is believed to be the first in the nation to require drug tests of all welfare applicants, and requires such tests to be given statewide beginning April 1, 2003.)
• Tempest Over A Small Pot (A staff editorial in the Meriden Record-Journal says the bust of University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin for marijuana possession has distracted people from America's primary drug problem, which is not marijuana, but alcohol. To treat El-Amin's arrest as a momentous, even scandalous, event when high school and college athletes develop far more serious problems far more regularly from alcohol abuse is absurd. But we treat this problem with less severity. We do not cast the same opprobrium upon it as we do other drugs and, in fact, alcohol is seen by some as a natural part of the machismo that accompanies the sporting culture.)
• New Jersey Police Enlist Hotel Workers in War on Drugs (The New York Times says New Jersey state troopers have quietly enlisted workers at dozens of hotels along the New Jersey Turnpike to tip them off about suspicious guests who, among other things, pay for their their rooms in cash or receive a flurry of phone calls. The Hotel-Motel Program, modeled on a similar program in Los Angeles initiated by federal prohibition agents, routinely allows troopers, without a warrant, to leaf through the credit card receipts and registration forms of all guests, and provides $1,000 rewards to workers whose tips lead to "successful" arrests. Hotel and motel managers say they are assured that their workers will never be required to testify or have their names revealed in court documents. Police also tell them to take racial characteristics into account and pay particular attention to guests who speak Spanish.)
• Stanford Study: Films Show Drug Use, Omit Consequences (The San Jose Mercury News says a $400,000 study was released Wednesday by Stanford University researchers being paid by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The government researchers looked at the 200 most popular movies rented in 1996 and 1997 and found 98 percent showed characters using tobacco, alcohol or "drugs," yet only 12 percent showed "long-term consequences" of "risky behavior." Music was much less likely than film to include "questionable content." Tellingly, the researchers bemoan the fact that "even when the impact was shown - such as the late actor Chris Farley falling down drunk in the film 'Tommy Boy' - the effect was often played for laughs." Like, the feds don't think laughter can be used to teach realistic truths about alcohol abuse.)
• Films And Music Glamorize Substance Use, Government Says (The Associated Press version in the Orange County Register)
• Movies' Depiction Of Drug Use Scored (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)
• Drug Testing In Schools Proposed (The Associated Press says two Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, John Peterson of Pennsylvania and James Rogan of California, introduced different bills Wednesday that would fund random drug testing in schools, supposedly as a way to reduce youth violence such as the recent high school massacre in Littleton, Colorado. Toxicology tests revealed no alcohol or other "drugs" in the bodies of the Colorado gunmen, but Peterson said there had been incidents elsewhere that involved "drugs." Unfortunately, AP refused to ask where.)
• The Fix is In (A list subscriber forwards an excellent book review by Stanton Peele, from an upcoming issue of the International Journal of Drug Policy, of "The Fix," by Michael Massing, and "An Informed Approach to Substance Abuse," by Mark Kleiman. "It is hard to escape the conclusion that Kleiman and Massing ignore legal remedies for our current drug policy mess because they wish to avoid offending their audiences rather than due to their straightforward evaluation of the current drug scene. They support an anti-drug stance because it is essential for legitimacy in popular, scientific, and political circles in the U.S.")
• Cocaine Disguise (According to the Times, in London, Barry McCaffrey told a U.S. Senate committee in Washington that American narcotics agents were very concerned that Colombia's drugs cartels had developed a black cocaine that sniffer dogs and chemical tests cannot detect.)
• Seed production made illegal (A list subscriber forwards news from Britain that a law that took effect April 21 in the Netherlands bans the production of marijuana seeds. Possession is still legal, but those caught growing plants for seeds now face up to four years in jail.)
• Door Slams On Dealers - Marijuana Limit Cut To Three Plants (The Australian says that in response to police concerns that South Australia's current 10-plant cultivation limit is allowing traffickers sell cannabis in the eastern States in exchange for harder drugs, the Cabinet has approved in principle new regulations cutting the personal-use limit to three cannabis plants. Apparently nobody was allowed the opportunity to dispel police misconceptions. Mr Mike Elliott, the Australian Democrats State parliamentary leader, said the move would not make "an iota of difference in terms of supply. Cannabis consumption in SA is the same as in other States - it hasn't gone up because of our drug laws, so it's hard to see what this is trying to achieve.")
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 17 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 106,000 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Wednesday, April 28, 1999:

• Support petition to regulate cannabis, restore hemp, please! (Paul Stanford, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, says OCTA's political action committee, the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, in the first week of petitioning collected more than 1,000 signatures of the 90,000 needed.)
• County will discuss buying land for jail (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners will hold a closed meeting today to discuss land for a new $55 million, 225-bed, medium-security jail. In three years, the county has gone through more than 100 potential jail sites, dozens of public meetings and more than $2 million in taxpayer money - all without laying a single brick. The latest delay is caused by a dispute over where to put 300 beds for alcohol and drug treatment. A levy to operate the new jail will have to be approved by voters at some point, but the newspaper doesn't say how much it will cost to operate the jail or how commissioners will try to prevent voters from perceiving the levy as a referendum on the county's costly drug policy.)
• Accounts differ on Salem killings (The Oregonian says an attorney for Timothy E. Espinoza, 17, told a jury in Espinoza's murder trial Tuesday that the defendant was trying to sell two teen-agers marijuana when he thought he saw one of them reach for a gun and fired in self-defense. Juan Torres, 18, and Fidencio Ceja, 17, both students at McKay High School, died after being shot three times each on Oct. 11. Prosecutor Diana Moffat said Espinoza approached the two, pretending to sell marijuana in order to get them to step off the street so he could shoot them.)
• Pot Cultivation Charges Dropped (The Auburn Journal, in Auburn, California, says Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino on Wednesday dismissed cultivation charges against a Rocklin dentist and his wife who were busted with 146 plants, issuing what could turn out to be a landmark ruling - that Proposition 215 exempts patients from prosecution on cultivation charges once they obtain a physician's recommendation. Michael and Georgia Baldwin, however, still face charges of selling marijuana, and the defense began presenting its case Wednesday following the favorable ruling on cultivation.)
• Men, Not Women, Grab A Smoke To Lift Mood - Study (Reuters says a study presented at the American Lung Association conference in San Diego Tuesday suggests that contrary to popular belief, men are more likely than women to grab a cigarette if they are angry, anxious, sad or tired. Women are more likely to smoke for social rather than emotional reasons. Apparently unpublished, the study by Dr. Ralph Delfino and Dr. Larry Jamner of the University of California at Irvine suggests possible gender differences in the effect of nicotine on the central nervous system, possibly because of different interactions with hormones. The researchers arrived at their conclusions by tracking 25 women and 35 men ages 18 to 42 who made three diary entries an hour for up to 48 hours to record their mood and smoking behavior.)
• Colorado shooting - no drugs (A list subscriber says that, according to the Denver Post, no "drugs" or alcohol were found in the bodies of two adolescents thought to have committed mass murder-suicide at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Left unsaid is whether post-mortem drug tests checked for pharmaceutical drugs, for example, antidepressaants.)
• Gangbangers Ordered To Move Out Of Town (The Chicago Tribune notes officials in Cicero, Illinois, unanimously approved two ethnic cleansing ordinances Tuesday. Individuals shown to be gang members through a "preponderance of the evidence" can be ordered out of town, and face a $500-a-day fine if they stick around. Cicero officials also said they plan to follow up these ordinances by filing a $10 million lawsuit against more than 100 alleged gang members for violating other residents' rights. Town President Betty Loren-Maltese said the town also plans to erect gates in the most gang-infested areas to help keep evicted gangsters from re-entering the town. "If this is unconstitutional, then somebody ought to look at the Constitution," she declared.)
• Pataki Offers Drug Law Reform (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says New York's harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws would undergo their first major revision in 26 years under a soon-to-be-unveiled Pataki administration proposal that links sentencing reform with the elimination of parole.)
• What Happened When New York Got Businesslike About Crime (An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal praises the "management by objective" policies of New York police under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The results were stunning - crime dropped across the city's 76 precincts by 50 percent to 90 percent in three years. But this was stunning only because governmental problems are traditionally treated in such a way as to make them seem insoluble. Unfailingly, governmental problems, unlike business problems, become the occasion for "solutions" whose purpose is to please a constituency not directly related to the problem. Thus crime has been an occasion for promoting gun control, welfare spending, education spending, public housing, and myriad other causes for which powerful constituencies clamor. That's how politics works. It's not how business works.)
• Con Says He Ran a Pot Ring Inside Jail (An Associated Press article in the Daily Press, in Virginia, says the attorney for Michael Fulcher tried to separate his case from those of 21 prison guards and other defendants implicated in drug trafficking at Bland Correctional Center by claiming Fulcher was working for the government's war on drugs. The only problem is that authorities say they didn't know about it.)
• Give LSD To An Artist At Paris Cafe In 1952? (The Wall Street Journal describes a federal trial under way in New York in which the estate of the late Stanley Glickman is suing the late Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA scientist who tested the effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD on unwitting victims. The essence of the suit is that an American artist living in Paris in 1952 went to a cafe, where a club footed man slipped a mind altering drug into his drink. The artist ended up in the hospital suffering from hallucinations. He was treated with electroshock therapy and began a 40 year decline into mental illness. The defense contends Mr. Glickman actually suffered from naturally occurring schizophrenia.)
• The DEA Takes The Wraps Off Its New Training Facility (UPI briefly notes the Drug Enforcement Administration will open a 100-acre, $30 million training academy today in Quantico.)
• Therapeutic Marijuana Use Supported While Thorough Proposed Study Done (The Journal of the American Medical Association says the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana provided "advocates" support by recommending that clinical trials and drug development proceed. But marijuana's acceptance as a prescribed drug appears to be years away - if it happens at all. A brief summary of the IOM report includes the investigators' six recommendations.)
• Denying Education Is No Answer to Drug Use (A list activist invites you to point your browser to www.RaiseYourVoice.com to make a constructive protest against the provision in the Higher Education Act that bars financial aid to college students caught possessing marijuana or other supposedly controlled substances.)
• McGuinty, Hampton Admit To Past Marijuana Use (The Ottawa Citizen says both of Ontario's opposition leaders admitted yesterday to smoking marijuana in the past, and urged that possession of the drug be decriminalized. The admissions from Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Howard Hampton came immediately after Premier Mike Harris vowed that his Progressive Conservative government's zero-tolerance policy on crime will continue to include the herb. Yesterday, a private members bill was introduced by Reform MP Keith Martin from B.C. in the House of Commons to decriminalize marijuana in an attempt to free valuable police resources and backlogged courts so they can deal with more serious criminal cases.)
• Party leaders come clean on pot (The Toronto Star version)
• Pot Isn't Harris' Cup Of Tea (The Toronto Globe and Mail version)
  Bytes: 79,700 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Tuesday, April 27, 1999:

• Senate approves measure to clarify state's suicide law (The Associated Press says the Oregon Senate approved a bill Monday to revise the state's unique physician-assisted suicide law, saying it would give the Death With Dignity Act much-needed clarification. Health groups that oppose assisted suicide, such as Providence Health System, a network of Catholic hospitals, will now be able to punish affiliated doctors if help a patient under the voter-approved law.)
• Kubby Update (A bulletin from Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor, and his wife, Michele, describes their recent court hearing in Auburn regarding their indictment on cultivation charges. "Everyone in town is rooting for you," said a receptionist at their hotel. The trial date has been moved back, to July 20.)
• Medicine - Not Pot (An op-ed in the Washington Post by Robert L. DuPont, the former head of NIDA from 1973 to 1978, puts the drug-warrior spin on the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana.)
• Justices To Decide If FDA Can Regulate Cigarettes As A Drug (The Houston Chronicle says the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the Clinton administration's appeal of a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the federal government does not have the authority to regulate cigarettes as a drug.)
• Marijuana Bill Tabled (The Calgary Herald says Reform MP Keith Martin introduced legislation in Canada's Parliament yesterday that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, as recommended last week by the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs. The chiefs say they could maximize their dwindling resources by targeting organized crime instead of busting potheads. Justice Minister Anne McLellan is willing to look at the law, but not until after formally meeting with police chiefs in August.)
• Reform Party Tables Pot Bill (The Toronto Sun version)
• Magazine Stays (According to the New Zealand Herald, police in New Zealand are stymied in their efforts to remove High Times magazine from shop shelves. The Health Ministry was able to ban the importation of overseas cigar magazines by saying that they breached the Smokefree Environments Act, but the ministry decided it has "no jurisdiction over marijuana promotion.")
• Moral Muddle In The Drugs Debate (A staff editorial in the Scotsman ponders the varying public perceptions and moralities suggested by the sensationalism that ensued after the death of a teenager, Leah Betts, who took ecstasy, and the widely ignored deaths last year of 80 people who took street heroin in Strathclyde. "A sensible drugs policy would treat each drug according to the risk it posed to health. Criminalising the true killers, unfortunately, is impossible as we cannot end society's affair with alcohol and tobacco. What we can do is to try to redress the balance in the way we deal with illegal drugs.")
• Swiss Recommend Legalizing Cannabis (The Associated Press says a panel appointed by the Swiss government recommended Friday that the country legalize the sale and use of marijuana, but with controls to avoid becoming a "drug haven." The existing ban on marijuana hasn't worked and may even encourage its use among young people, the panel said. No other European nation, including the Netherlands, has technically legalized the possession or sale of cannabis.)
  Bytes: 33,600 Last updated: 5/15/99
  

  Monday, April 26, 1999:

• Suicide coverage passes review (The Oregonian says the Oregon Medical Association's House of Delegates voted Sunday in Sunriver in favor of a resolution allowing pharmacists to give "morning-after" contraception without a prescription, but voted against a resolution opposing coverage of physician-assisted suicide by the Oregon Health Plan.)
• Libertarians launch Prop. 215 web site inspired by Kubby arrests (The Libertarian Party of California announces the debut of www.215Now.com, intended to pressure government officials into fully implementing Proposition 215.)
• Million Marijuana March Tampa Florida 1 May 1999 (A list subscriber publicizes a rally Saturday at Gaslight Park being organized by the Florida Organization for Reformed Marijuana Laws, or FORML.)
• Drug Talks Cut Teen Use, Survey Says (According to an Associated Press article in the Houston Chronicle, a study released Sunday by the Partnership for a Drug Free America found that teens who received strong anti-drug messages from their parents were 42 percent less likely to use "drugs" than teens whose parents ignored the issue - "drugs" in this case meaning drugs that are illegal for adults. Among teens who learned a lot at home, 26 percent said they had used marijuana. Among those who said they learned nothing at home, 45 percent said they had used marijuana. For inhalants, the first group reported 14 percent, the latter group 28 percent. For LSD, the figures were 7 percent and 20 percent; for cocaine, 7 percent and 16 percent. But no figures are reported for tobacco and alcohol, which are illegal for teens and also the most widely used.)
• Parents Key in Drug War, Study Says (The Los Angeles Times version)
• Study: Drug Talks Work (The New York Times version in the Orange County Register)
• Reducing Abuse Of Drugs Begins At Home (An op-ed version by Eric Lichtblau of the Los Angeles Times in the San Jose Mercury News)
• U.S. Antidrug Campaign To Be Closely Monitored (The Wall Street Journal notes the $2 billion federally sponsored propaganda campaign to promote the drug war and keep kids from using certain drugs is putting the government into the unfamiliar business of measuring advertising effectiveness. U.S. drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four star general, said Friday he would hold Madison Avenue to the same high standard of accountability he was used to in the military. The government has hired the scientific survey firm Westat to question about 20,000 children and parents every six months to measure the campaign's progress. Market researchers also will do telephone sampling every month or two, for more immediate feedback. Early results are encouraging to the drug warriors, but it's not clear how they'd respond if the campaign backfired and "drug" use increased.)
• Needle 'Exchanges' Often Aren't (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from an official for the Drug Free America Foundation expresses doubt about the scientific basis for needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users.)
• Run-On Sentencing - How The Affluent Got An Exemption In The War On Crime (The New Republic magazine says that for those in the top quarter of the income-distribution scale, the fight against crime seems to have merged with indifference to the suffering of those being excessively punished. Even if they commit drug offenses, persons of privilege can often arrange to keep themselves out of jail. The threat of prison has become in the '90s what the draft was the Vietnam war - a burden for the typical person from which the elite are nearly exempt. During the Vietnam years, American society pronounced itself willing to oppose communism at any cost, but if that had really been so, the affluent would have borne an equal share. Now, in the war on drugs and crime, society has pronounced itself willing to impose any level of punishment. But if that were really so, the affluent would be as likely to be jailed, and that is not happening. From the standpoint of the upper middle class, the crime crackdown is almost all dividend: the more sleazy people taken off the street and locked away the better.)
  Bytes: 71,100 Last updated: 5/23/99
  

  Sunday, April 25, 1999:

• Hemp Issue Divides Farmers, the Law (The Register-Guard, in Eugene, covers Thursday's hearing by the Oregon House of Representatives' Agriculture and Forestry Committee on an industrial hemp bill. Rep. Floyd Prozanski, the Eugene Democrat who is sponsoring HB 2933, predicted that industrial hemp would become legal and widespread within five years. He also told a Senate panel that Oregon could become a center for high-quality hemp seed, much as it is now for grass seed. Plus the URL for an online audio recording of testimony on HB 2933.)
• Town questions inaction in police case (The Oregonian says residents of Gold Hill, Oregon, wonder why their city council was slow to put Police Chief David M. Crawford on leave after his indictment on five criminal charges. According to Alan Scharn, deputy director of the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, "In most police agencies in the state of Oregon, the mere fact that you've been arrested or indicted on these charges means you'd be out the door on your ear before you could bat an eye.")
• Marijuana as Medicine: Let's Make the Law Work (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle says the 25-member task force appointed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer shows state government finally appears ready to properly implement Proposition 215. More than 70 modern scientific studies and 2000 years of anecdotal evidence support claims that pot is a helpful folk medicine for people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, migraine headaches and an array of other ailments.)
• Drug War Unfairly Targets Black Community (An op-ed in the Dallas Morning News by a member of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas rebuts pro-drug-war statements to the Greater Dallas Crime Commission by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as well as Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's proud assertion that there are no major problems between the police department and the city's minority communities. Drug-crime statistics for 1998 and data obtained through the Open Records Act, the North Texas Council of Governments, and the National Institute of Drug Abuse reveal that Dallas police are clearly and unfairly targeting the black community in the drug war.)
• Most Nations Permit Growing of Industrial Hemp (The Knoxville News-Sentinel, in Tennessee, interviews Erwin "Bud" Sholts, director of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin and chairman of the North American Industrial Hemp Council. "Industrial hemp is grown in Canada, Germany, England - all over the place. Why is it illegal here? The United States is an island of denial in a sea of acceptance," Sholts said. Law enforcement officers claim they can't tell the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana. But proponents say the methods of cultivation are so different anyone can tell the difference. "Industrial hemp seed is planted with a grain drill about six inches apart so as to produce a lot of stalk," Sholts said. "Pot is planted 2 and 2 1/2 feet apart to produce a low bushy plant with leaves and buds. If you plant industrial hemp too close to marijuana, it will cross pollinate and ruin the marijuana crop," he said. "It's actually a marijuana fighter. The cross pollination leads to a lower THC.")
• Another Victory For Medical Marijuana (Rolling Stone magazine examines the political implications of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report. What drew the most attention was the IOM's finding that some of the 66 cannabinoids found in smoked marijuana have "potential therapeutic value . . . moderately well-suited for certain conditions." Less noticed, however, was the report's point-by-point dismantling of anti-marijuana arguments made by drug warriors, including the gateway theory, the supposed abuse potential of marijuana, the notion that medical use of marijuana will lead to wider recreational use, and the idea that marijuana is dangerous to its users. All of this doesn't help McCaffrey's War on Drugs, which in 1997 resulted in 695,000 marijuana arrests, 87 percent of them for possession.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 16 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 52,400 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Saturday, April 24, 1999:

• "Marijuana is Medicine" Rally April 30th in Salem (Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, urges advocates for medical marijuana patients to help solve the supply problem by lobbying legislators and showing up Friday at the capitol to support House Joint Memorial 10, a resolution introduced by state representative Jo Ann Bowman that would ask Congress to reschedule marijuana. Plus the current text of HJM 10, and addresses for a short list of key legislators.)
• Can you help? (A list subscriber summarizes Friday's 10-minute Oregon legislative hearing on HJM 10, and also asks you to lobby lawmakers. The chair of the committee, Rep. Mannix, indicated the rescheduling resolution would stand a better chance of passing out of committee if the wording was based from the standpoint that OMMA is the law and that marijuana in Schedule I is federal interference with Oregon Law. With amendments, the resolution may get a hearing before an April 30 deadline.)
• Juvenile crime package revived (The Oregonian notes a group of Republican Oregon state senators seeking to exploit for political purposes Tuesday's bloody rampage at a Colorado high school has supposedly "revived" Gov. John Kitzhaber's flagging $30 million "juvenile crime" prevention package and vowed to fight for its success. In addition to $30 million for at-risk youths, the plan also includes $20 million for alcohol- and drug-abuse prevention programs and $7 million for early childhood intervention. That the senators couldn't really care less about the high-school kids massacred in Littleton is evidenced by the comments of Sen. Gene Derfler, R-Salem, who says any money spent on prevention efforts after age 10 is "simply wasted." The newspaper fails both to describe the "drug abuse prevention" programs to be funded, and to explain why state politicians are linking "drugs" with school shootings, when the only drugs involved seem to be antidepresssants.)
• Judge shuts tap on strip club's free beer (The Oregonian says Marion County Circuit Judge Albin Norblad issued a temporary restraining order Friday that prohibits Scores Entertainment Inc., in Salem, from giving away beer. The "nude dance club" doesn't have a state liquor license but argues that it doesn't need one as long as it doesn't receive any financial consideration for the beer. The TRO remains in effect pending a May 18 hearing.)
• Judge Rules Marijuana Test Invalid (A news release from best-selling author Peter McWilliams says that after two days of exhaustive medical and scientific testimony, federal Judge James McMahon ruled Friday in Los Angeles in the case of Todd McCormick, McWilliams' co-defendant, that McCormick's bail should not be revoked because there is no way to distinguish between Marinol and marijuana in drug tests. McCormick originally secured bail after agreeing to submit to urine tests the government claimed would distinguish between Marinol and THC-V, which is unique to marijuana. McWilliams also notes the Society of Neuroscience in October 1997 said "New research shows that substances similar to or derived from marijuana, known as cannabinoids, could benefit more than 97 million Americans who experience some form of pain each year.")
• Arizona Shows The Way On Drugs (A New York Times staff editorial recaps Wednesday's news about the Arizona Supreme Court study documenting the benefits accruing from Proposition 200's requirement that drug offenders receive treatment instead of prison. The newspaper says Congress and the legislatures of New York and other states should take heed.)
• Drug Smugglers To Get No Dignity (The Globe and Mail, in Toronto, says the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday that subjecting travellers to a "bedpan vigil" is a fair price to pay in balancing the right to individual privacy with the state interest in detecting "drugs." The ruling overturned the acquittal of Isaac Monney, a citizen of Ghana who arrived in Canada on a flight from Switzerland and was detained in a "drug loo facility" before providing officers with the self-incriminating evidence they were hoping for.)
• Easing Drug Laws (The New York Times briefly notes yesterday's news about a Swiss government commission recommending that the sale and use of marijuana be legalized under certain conditions.)
• Swiss Panel Calls For Marijuana Legalization (A similarly brief Orange County Register version)
• News From Portugal - The Government Announces Decriminalisation (A list subscriber forwards a correspondent's e-mail saying the Portuguese government announced two days ago a decision by the council of ministers to decriminalise the use and the possession of drugs for personal use, replacing jail terms with fines, community service and driving restrictions. The decision appears framed in the new national drug strategy.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 88 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine features - HEA reform campaign gets boost; Report: District of Columbia drug policy a disaster; Heroin in Australia: a conversation with Brian McConnell of Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform; North Dakota becomes first state to legalize hemp cultivation; Oregon Supreme Court to review forfeiture as double jeopardy; Book: "No Equal Justice, Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System"; Report: In search of a new ethic for treating patients with chronic pain; Seminar in NYC, Friday, 5/28)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 95 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Learn from the Civil Rights Movement: Get organized, by Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, Law Enforcement & Prisons, including - U-Conn star El-amin faces a drug charge; Srawberry arrested for drugs, solicitation; Study slams corruption on border; City settles firefighter's suit in controversial drug case; Fairfax teacher suspended after arrest on drug charge in D.C.; Former cop in court; 2 correction officers to serve time; Firefighter's back after fine for pot; Students face drug charges; 89-year-old man sentenced for selling crack; Ex-candidate faces trial in medical marijuana case; and, Voices of our time: Joseph D. McNamara. Articles about Cannabis, Hemp and Medicinal Marijuana include - Marijuana hoax; Ready for medical marijuana research; and, Cannabis has herbal benefits research can help unlock. International News includes - US company to build 2 plants for hemp processing in Canada; and, Treatment demand stretches clinics. The DrugSense Volunteer of the Month features Gerald Sutliff. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net directs your browser to the Marijuana Policy Project's highlights of the IOM report; "Marijuana Rx: The Patient's Fight for Medicinal Pot" online; and an online transcript of the recent rebroadcast of "Sex Drugs and Consenting Adults." The Fact of the Week documents that 1 in 3 young blacks is under the control of the criminal justice system. And the Quote of the Week cites Horace Mann)
  Bytes: 99,900 Last updated: 5/12/99
  

  Friday, April 23, 1999:

• California Police Forced To Return Marijuana (A Reuters article in the Press Democrat, in Santa Rosa, says Christopher Brown sauntered into the Ukiah sheriff's office Thursday and walked out with a half pound bag of marijuana after the California Supreme Court dismissed the government's contention that any order forcing police to return the marijuana would transform officers into "drug pushers." Prohibition agents had confiscated Brown's medicine during a 1997 raid on his house in Willits, about 120 miles north of San Francisco.)
• Arcata Police Chief Finds 'Local Solution' To Pot Law (The Sacramento Bee looks favorably on the registry system for medical marijuana patients instituted by Mel Brown, the top cop in Arcata, California.)
• Pot Grower Has Home Confiscated (The Montana Standard, in Butte, says Duane D. Gray, a U.S. Marine veteran, tried painkillers, lithium and Prozac, watched what he ate and soaked in mineral-filled springs, but nothing worked like marijuana to relieve the nausea, fatigue and muscle pains he suffered from Gulf War Syndrome. On Thursday, Butte District Court Judge James Purcell gave him a three-year suspended sentence, fined him $1,000 and confiscated his home for growing 77 marijuana plants.)
• Decriminalize Therapeutic Marijuana Now, MP Says (According to the Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, Bernard Bigras of the Bloc Quebecois said Thursday during a visit to Vancouver that Ottawa should not wait until the completion of clinical trials before it decriminalizes marijuana for therapeutic reasons. Bigras's medical-marijuana bill is to be debated in June and he is on a national tour to raise the issue. Bigras said many MPs are still resistant to the idea of any reform, but the Quebec member of Parliament expects strong support from other Bloc members, the NDP, many Tories, some Liberals and Reformers, and national groups representing people with AIDS, hemophiliacs and senior citizens.)
• Cops Stir Up The Great Pot Debate (The Ottawa Sun says Canadian Parliamentary Bureau Justice Minister Anne McLellan is receptive to a pitch by the country's top cops to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot and hash. "We're going to take a look at this and we'll see where it leads us," McLellan said yesterday.)
• Senior Police Officer Calls For Rethink On Cannabis (The Herald, in Britain, says Mr Tom Wood, deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, told a major drugs conference in Edinburgh yesterday that Scotland's Parliament should re-examine society's attitudes toward cannabis. "Speaking personally, I do not and will not support the legalisation of cannabis. I merely think it is time to take a fresh look at drugs," he said. Mr Wood's comments on the cannabis issue came just days after Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace announced he remained "open-minded" on the legalisation of cannabis when he outlined his party's drugs strategy.)
• Swiss Recommend Legalizing Cannabis (According to the Associated Press, a government-appointed panel in Bern recommended Friday that Switzerland legalize the sale and use of marijuana - but with controls to keep the nation from becoming a drug haven. The committee's recommendation to the Cabinet will be considered as part of an ongoing study to revise Switzerland's drug laws, but would probably have to receive approval in a national referendum.)
  Bytes: 39,200 Last updated: 5/10/99
  

  Thursday, April 22, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (North Dakota becomes first state to legalize hemp cultivation; Drug czar's office endorses arresting, jailing medical marijuana smokers despite report backing drug's value; Hawaiian hemp research cultivation bill in final stages; Canada's parliament resumes historic medical marijuana debate)
• CMA Lobbies State Legislators (Synapse, a publication of the medical school at the University of California at San Francisco, describes the recent meeting of 500 members of the California Medical Association regarding various proposed state health care legislation, particularly the medical marijuana task force established by Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In addressing CMA members, Lockyer seemed to suggest that physicians could approve patients' use of medical marijuana without fearing federal intervention, if they did it quietly. He summarized his stance as, "We won't go looking, but don't bring yourselves to our attention.")
• Judge Suspends Baldwin Medical Marijuana Trial (The Auburn Journal, in California, says the trial of Michael and Georgia Baldwin was put on hold for one week Wednesday morning in order for Judge James D. Garbolino to read the meager case law on Proposition 215. Although both Baldwins have recommendations from their physicians, Placer County sheriff's detectives arrested them Sept. 23 for 146 plants at their Granite Bay home.)
• Hemp: Now We're Wearing It, Eating It, Even Building With It (The Orange County Register says hemp is so hot that many hemp manufacturers don't even bother anymore with doper jokes.)
• Controversy: The Legal Ties That Bind Hemp Farming (The Los Angeles Times says states are leading the drive to re-introduce industrial hemp production. On Saturday, North Dakota became the first state to permit the growth and sale of industrial hemp, although growers will still need permits from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Sales of hemp products are booming. In 1993, worldwide retail sales amounted to only a few million dollars. In 1997, sales surpassed $75 million, according to HempTech, a hemp research organization based in Sebastapol, California.)
• Possible April 20 (420) Connection to Pot Smoking Sub-Culture In Littleton Tragedy, FRC Says (A revealing press release from the drug-warrior Family Research Council, distributed by PR Newswire, jumps the gun by suggesting Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two teen-agers who committed mass murder-suicide Tuesday at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, were pot smokers celebrating "4-20" rather than abstemious Nazi sympathizers whose only "drug" use involved a pharmaceutical antidepressant.)
• Reno at Large - U.S. Would Do Well To Prescribe Truce In 'Other' Drug War (An op-ed in Newsday, in New York, by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno says America is fighting not one but two parallel and exceedingly costly drug wars. One is against suppliers of mood-altering illegal substances. The other is among manufacturers of mood-altering legal substances. The suppliers seem to be winning both wars. And the cost to the nation - measured in bulging jails, prohibition-associated violence, clogged courts, the rising cost of health care and a growing uninsured population - is huge. But Reno offers no evidence that the government is doing anything but abetting the problem, and offers no solutions to the systemic problems she presides over.)
• 'Just Say No': An Exchange (A letter to the editor of the New York Review of Books from Sue Rusch, often cited as the leader of the "parents' movement" that ended marijuana-law reform efforts in the 1980s, denies an allegation in "The Fix," by Michael Massing, that the movement ended a policy initiated in the Nixon administration to aggressively provide treatment to heroin addicts. Rusch's protests are ably dismissed by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of NYRB's review of Massing's book.)
• High On Fragrance (The Washington Post takes note of the moisturizing creams and soaps made with industrial hemp being sold by 300 Body Shop stores in the United States. Hempseed's protein-rich oil contains a fatty acid that penetrates dry skin. Body Shop, the trendy retailer of skin, body care and fragrance products in 47 countries, pushes the marijuana connection with a musky fragrance and suggestive pitch and packaging. "They can't arrest your skin," says one slogan. "The best moisturizer in the world and we promise you won't get the munchies," says another.)
• Police Like Pot-Penalty Plan (According to the Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, Vancouver police Chief Bruce Chambers says he's taking a "serious look" at supporting a plan to decriminalize possession of small quantities of cannabis products. The proposal was approved last week by directors of the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Andre Guertin said the Mounties support the plan, because it would reduce a court backlog and free police to investigate more serious offences.)
  Bytes: 56,700 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Wednesday, April 21, 1999:

• Female inmates need protection (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from a board member of Amnesty International USA seeks support for Oregon House Bill 3596, introduced by Rep. Kathy Lowe, D-Milwaukie, which would criminalize sexual misconduct between guards and inmates. Male prison and jail guards in this country fondle, rape and coerce sex from female inmates. Amnesty International was instrumental in getting custodial sexual-misconduct legislation passed in three states this year - Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. Oregon is one of the few states that still do not have statutory protection for female prisoners.)
• Don't link tobacco, schools (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the proposal by Oregon Treasurer Jim Hill to cash out the state's interest in its settlement with tobacco companies, thereby raising money to pay school costs, defers finding another source of education funding to the next biennium and leaves the tobacco-related health costs to be paid later, too.)
• $10 Million Claim Filed In Pot Arrest: Cancer patient had prescription (According to the Sacramento Bee, Robert DeArkland, 71, of Fair Oaks, California, who suffers from prostate cancer and arthritis, filed the claim against Sacramento County in response to prohibition agents from both Sacramento and Placer counties raiding his home last October and seizing 13 marijuana plants, $420 in cash and a scale. "I might not get a dime, but at least it may stop other people from being harassed," DeArkland said. He added that he would file a lawsuit against the county if his claim is rejected.)
• Police brutality at drum circle in Salt Lake City, Utah (A list subscriber forwards a first-person account of Sunday's confrontation that differs considerably from the Salt Lake Tribune's version.)
• Study: Drug Treatment Cuts Crime (The Associated Press says an Arizona Supreme Court study commissioned by the state legislature found that the mandatory treatment provision for nonviolent, first- and second-time drug offenders included in Proposition 200 led to reduced crime, saved taxpayers more than $2.56 million, and resulted in 78 percent of participants later testing drug-free. The 1996 law, which also allows doctors to prescribe marijuana, was repealed by the legislature but reapproved last fall in a second vote.)
• Arizona's Prop. 200 Saving Millions of Dollars, Cutting Drug Abuse, Says New Report by State Supreme Court (The PR Newswire version)
• Arizona Finds Cost Savings in Treating Drug Offenders (The New York Times version)
• Drug Diversion Law In Arizona Paying Dividends (The Los Angeles Times version)
• Study Backs Treatment, Not Prison, For Addicts (The Chicago Tribune version in the Seattle Times)
• Defendant Again Represents Himself In Marijuana Case (The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, in Iowa, says Gregory Sharkey argued at his retrial Tuesday that the plants he was busted for in October 1995 were just ditchweed and he was maliciously prosecuted. Sharkey was first sentenced to multiple 15-year sentences for 380 grams of marijuana and 66 marijuana plants. But in 1998 the Iowa Supreme Court reversed the conviction, saying his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated because a sufficient inquiry into his understanding of legal representation was not conducted.)
• The Double Standard - Inequality In Criminal Justice May Be A Good Thing For The Favored Classes (The New York Times reviews the book "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," by David Cole. "No Equal Justice" makes a strong case that we have tolerated a law enforcement strategy that "depends on the exploitation of race and class divisions." Cole offers three solutions. The first two admit the mistake, then revamp the rules to reduce the influence of race and class - but are probably unrealistic, especially as the new rules could reduce "the rights that the privileged now enjoy." Cole's third solution endorses "community-based criminal justice," the antithesis of the "tough on crime" approach, and would also be a tough sell.)
• Drug Law (A staff editorial in the Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, endorses a proposed local anti-paraphernalia ordinance, even though a similar state law already exists.)
• Cops Can't Keep Up With B.C. Drug Trade (The Kelowna Daily Courier says figures compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics show that in 1997, British Columbia had 13 per cent of Canada's population but was responsible for 25 per cent all the cannabis "incidents" in the country, 28 per cent of cocaine offences and 61 per cent of all heroin incidents. B.C.'s rate of drug charges is 26 per cent higher than the national average. But the drug problem is so prevalent, fewer than one in three cannabis offences resulted in criminal charges.)
• Police chiefs want possession of all narcotics decriminalized - Fight court backlog (According to the National Post, the newspaper has learned that Canada's police chiefs have recommended that the federal government decriminalize possession of small quantities of all illegal narcotics, including heroin. The proposal was approved last week by the board of directors of the Association of Canadian Police Chiefs and will be submitted to the membership for a vote later this year. The recommendation is meant to clear the courts of a backlog of drug cases and allow police to concentrate resources on more serious crimes.)
• Arthritis Drug Linked To 10 Deaths In US (According to the Scotsman, reports handed to the US Food and Drug Administration by the Wall Street Journal showed that Celebrex, a painkiller patented by Monsanto and manufactured by GD Searle, its St Louis-based subsidiary, has been linked to ten deaths and 11 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding in its first three months on the US market. More than two million people have taken Celebrex for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis since January. Scarlett Lee Foster, a Monsanto spokeswoman, said "You can't draw any conclusions from the adverse incident reports.")
  Bytes: 65,200 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Tuesday, April 20, 1999:

• Report on April 15 hearing regarding registry system for medical marijuana (Sandee Burbank of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse summarizes the recent public meeting in Portland sponsored by the Oregon Health Division regarding implementation of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Plus, details about the "Marijuana is Medicine" rally April 30 in Salem.)
• Los Angeles County Deputies Raid Andrea Nagy (A list subscriber forwards the marijuananews.com version of yesterday's news, interspersed with comments by Steve Kubby.)
• A Grass-Roots Effort To Legalize Hemp (The Santa Barbara News-Press, in California, spreads the news about industrial hemp as related by Al Espino, the owner of Hempwise, an Isla Vista store that sells hemp clothing. The article also publicizes the hemp bash today in Anisq' Oyo' Park in the heart of Isla Vista. According to a report in the Washington Post, worldwide sales have gone from $5 million in 1993 to $75 million in 1995.)
• Drums of Disapproval Are Still Pounding (The Salt Lake Tribune, in Utah, says local police armed with nightsticks, riot gear and gas launchers swept drum-circle celebrants out of Liberty Park Sunday afternoon, issuing citations to 16 people for alcohol violations, possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia or distribution of drugs and one for not keeping his dog on a leash. "We cannot afford to let that park deteriorate to open lawlessness, to where drugs and weapons are being brought into that park," Police Chief Ruben Ortega said Monday, without explaining who besides police had weapons. Police allege up to 150 people taunted them as they busted one man for selling marijuana. Many drum circlers saw it differently. Only a few incorrigibles taunted the police, they say. Some in the drum crowd say they never heard an order to disperse. Several in the crowd were hit with nightsticks, although no serious injuries were reported.)
• Mass E-Mail Protest Targets Rule Requiring Reports (The Salt Lake Tribune says civil libertarians and other groups are flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules on tracking bank customers' habits, and are organizing a campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Legislation proposed by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, would repeal the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to report customers' cash transactions of $10,000 or more, as well as "suspicious activities" to law-enforcement authorities.)
• Norwalk Drug-Ed Officer Charged (The Des Moines Register says Thomas Nolan, a police sergeant and DARE officer in Norwalk, Iowa, was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after the Marion-Warren County drug task force searched his home Sunday. Sgt. Dave Murillo of the Des Moines Police Department, who lives in Norwalk, said he learned from one Norwalk officer that "narcotics" evidence had been disappearing from the Norwalk department.)
• Veteran State Police Officer Pleads Guilty To Corruption Charges (UPI says Richard Corey Jr., of East Falmouth, a veteran Massachusetts state police officer, pleaded guilty today to charges of taking payoffs from a cocaine dealer in exchange for feeding him confidential information about police undercover agents and informants.)
• Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty (A lengthier version on PR Newswire)
• N.J. Report Admits Racial Profiling (According to the Associated Press, the New Jersey Attorney General's office acknowledged Tuesday that some state troopers have engaged in "racial profiling" in pulling over minority motorists. The state is also dropping its appeal of a 1996 court ruling that troopers demonstrated racial bias in making arrests along the turnpike. The court decision could affect dozens of pending criminal cases.)
• Useful excerpts from the IOM medicinal marijuana report (The Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., publicizes its new online guide, "Questions about medicinal marijuana answered by the Institute of Medicine's report." Despite a statement at the IOM's March 17 news conference by Principal Investigator Dr. John Benson that "we concluded that there are limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses," and a Gallup poll conducted March 19-21 that showed 73 percent of Americans support "making marijuana legally available for doctors to prescribe in order to reduce pain and suffering," the latest issue of Psychiatric News says the Drug Czar's office still endorses arresting medical marijuana users. Chuck Thomas of the MPP said that at first, the drug warriors pretended to like the IOM report, but for the past month they've been ignoring it and outright maligning it.)
• Pot Advocate Called Refugee From U.S. 'War' (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, says a legal battle began yesterday in the B.C. Supreme Court to keep Renee Boje, a 29-year-old California woman, from being deported to the U.S. to face marijuana-related charges in connection with the 1997 Bel Air bust of Todd McCormick.)
• Western Canadian Hemp Acres Could Be High As A Kite (Resource News says good yields from the first Canadian hemp crop and depressed prices for traditional crops like canola and wheat will fuel dramatic growth in hemp production this summer on the Western Canadian prairies. Bruce Brolley, a new crops specialist with the Manitoba provincial agriculture department, says he's estimating about 15,000 acres will be planted in the province this spring, up from approximately 1,300 acres last summer.)
  Bytes: 65,700 Last updated: 5/10/99
  

  Monday, April 19, 1999:

• HJM 10, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Rescheduling Memorial (A list subscriber says the resolution before the state house of representatives asking Congress to reschedule marijuana to make it available as medicine will receive a "tap-tap" hearing this week to keep it alive.)
• Andrea Nagy Raided (A list subscriber says the founder of the now-defunct medical marijuana dispensary in Ventura County, California, was busted by an unspecified agency today for her and her mother's 64 plants.)
• Industrial Hemp Legal in North Dakota (A list subscriber forwards an unsourced press release announcing that Governor Schafer on Saturday signed HB 1428, which reportedly means "any person in this state may plant, grow, harvest, possess, process, sell, and buy industrial hemp." North Dakota's Senate passed HB 1428 by a vote of 44-3 on April 12. The week before the House passed the bill 86-7.)
• U.S. Drug Policy, Problem Need Fix (According to an editorial in the Topeka Capital-Journal by Gene Smith, Barry McCaffrey, who says he didn't ask for his job as drug czar, came to Kansas last week to promote the national drug control strategy, spending nearly an hour with the newspaper's editorial board. General McCaffrey's attempt to tone down the language of the "war on drugs" may be too late. The past several years show the already tattered Bill of Rights may have suffered permanent damage. Maybe the white-haired ex-general can find a way to both wage the drug war and preserve the Constitution. "Let us pray that he does. And that, like a physician, he first does no harm.")
• Rally Held In Houghton In Support Of Legalization Of Marijuana (WLUC, the NBC affiliate in Marquette, Michigan, says Michigan Tech University students associated with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws held their annual campus rally Sunday.)
• Ritalin Abuse Is Rampant In American Schools Today (Syndicated commentator Betsy Hart writes in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, about an indictment of Ritalin in the most recent issue of the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review magazine - not a periodical most medical school libraries subscribe to. Hart emphasizes the DEA's classification of methylphenidate as a "stimulant," ignoring its role as one of the first antidepressants, and the doctors, pharmacologists and educators who could explain that, for psychiatric patients, including kids with Attention Deficit Disorder, it's not a stimulant at all. Unfortunately, Hart misses the boat by failing to endorse the sort of research that could reveal Ritalin's real hazards, for example, a longitudinal study of a representative sample of longterm users. Plus commentary from various list subscribers.)
• 2 N.J. State Troopers Indicted (The Associated Press says a grand jury today in Trenton, New Jersey, indicted John Hogan and James Kenna, the two cops who opened fire last April on a van on the New Jersey Turnpike containing four unarmed minority men. The two troopers were accused of falsifying records by misrepresenting the race of the motorists they had stopped and searched, and of illegally searching vehicles and occupants in the three months prior to the shooting.)
• DEA: Status of the proposed rescheduling of dronabinol (Jon Gettman, the former director of NORML who has been petitioning the Drug Enforcement Administration since 1995 to reschedule marijuana, based on the government's own science, shares a letter from the DEA indicating his objection to reclassifying Marinol as a Schedule 3 drug, apart from marijuana, is causing the DEA "concern" because, "by intertwining Mr. Gettman's petition with the proposed transfer of Marinol, the respective issues" have become "confused," a word Gettman would probably replace with "linked." Then the DEA has the incredible gall to imply that Gettman's objections may be harming sick people.)
• Statement on Marinol (Jon Gettman and High Times magazine officially repond to the DEA's "confusion" about the relationship between Marinol - pure THC - which the DEA wants to move to Schedule 3, and marijuana, which the DEA wants to keep in Schedule 1.)
• It's Time to Open the Doors of Our Prisons (An op-ed in Newsweek by Rufus King, a Washington lawyer and perhaps the longest-active drug-policy-reformer in the United States, explains how freeing first-time drug offenders now would make economic sense.)
• Jamaican Spring Break: Sun, Sea and Sex (The Salt Lake Tribune says about 20,000 students from northeastern U.S. universities are expected to spend their spring vacations at Jamaica's three main resort towns by the end of April - up from 13,000 last year - lured by the promise of hot sunshine, cool seas, all-night parties and plenty of booze. For some, an additional attraction is "ganja," or marijuana.)
  Bytes: 63,100 Last updated: 6/7/99
  

  Sunday, April 18, 1999:

• Friends pay tribute to Brownie Mary's life (The San Francisco Examiner says a candlelight vigil in the Castro District honored "Brownie" Mary Rathbun, the late activist who helped launch the medical marijuana movement by baking marijuana brownies for AIDS patients. "Brownie Mary was my friend," San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan told the crowd while standing on the back of a red pickup truck. "Brownie Mary was a hero. She will one day be remembered as the Florence Nightingale of the medical marijuana movement." Hallinan then pledged that as long as he is DA, "Nobody is going to prosecute in the city and county of San Francisco anyone who uses and cultivates marijuana with a legitimate doctor's recommendation.")
• Ready For Medical Marijuana Research (A staff editorial in the Oakland Tribune says the "unruly debate" over medical marijuana persists because the federal government is stubbornly obstructing the will of the people. Science is ready and the people have spoken, but are the bureaucrats ready?)
• These are your kids on drugs (An op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner by Steven Okazaki, an Academy Award-winning film maker who produced "Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street" for HBO, criticizes the White House drug czar's $1 billion anti-drug advertising campaign. "Not one of the kids I talked to was ignorant of the dangers of drug use when he or she began." Certainly, prevention is important. But it's not prevention to tell kids to stay away from drugs while we ignore the circumstances of their lives. Don't expect things to get better as long as policy makers refuse to back off the tough-on-crime bluster and address the frayed social services net and lack of treatment options for addicts.)
• Bad Marijuana Bill (A letter to the editor of the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, from the director of the Illinois State Crime Commission, pans HB 792, which would make it illegal for anyone to transmit "cannabis information" through the Internet. The crime commission oftentimes finds itself delivering new, sometimes groundbreaking information about illegal drugs. Supporters of the measure admit that HB 792 contains a number of "gray areas" that would have to be addressed by the courts.)
• El-Amin's Joint More Important Than War In Kosovo? Get A Grip (Republican-American columnist Ed Daigneault, in Waterbury, Connecticut, says hysteria surrounded the bust of University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin this week. El-Amin's possession of a tiny amount of marijuana became the lead story on local television news and received prominent play in Connecticut newspapers. Daigneault doesn't mention that if convicted, El-Amin faces the loss of student aid under the recently approved Higher Education Act.)
• El-Amin Gets Warm Reception (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, says Khalid El-Amin, arrested for marijuana on Tuesday, was clearly the fan favorite Saturday during a parade in Hartford honoring the University of Connecticut's NCAA championship basketball team.)
• Billboards Come Down In 45 States (The News-Times, in Connecticut, says a settlement with that takes effect Friday will remove all billboard and transit advertisements for four tobacco companies' cigarettes. The settlement also obliges tobacco companies to turn over the remaining time on their advertising leases to the states' attorneys general so the states can run anti-amoker propaganda. Until now, the tobacco companies spent $300 million a year in outdoor advertising.)
• D.C. Medical Marijuana Referendum Is In Limbo (The Kansas City Star describes how Congress quashed the results from Initiative 59 in Washington, D.C. last November. After five months, a federal judge still has not ruled on whether anyone should see them.)
• JAX Election Scam! (A bulletin from the Florida Cannabis Action Network says petitioners for a medical marijuana ballot measure being sponsored by Floridians for Medical Rights were once again prohibited from gathering signatures Tuesday near a polling station in Jacksonville, despite a federal court order prompted by similar repression November 3. A local law enforcement official allegedly threatened to arrest petitioners and another stood by as a Baptist preacher threatened them with violence.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 18 April 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about an Australian Survey on the medical use of cannabis; a science report on the Interaction of anandamide with dopamine, a basis for the treatment of movement disorders and schizophrenia; and a California town's attempt to implement the voter-approved medical marijuana law.)
• Russian Police Make Major Pot Bust (According to the Associated Press, the ITAR-Tass news agency said Sunday that police seized 1,320 pounds of marijuana from a truck crossing into Russia from the Central Asian republic of Kazakstan.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 15 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 66,400 Last updated: 5/10/99
  

  Saturday, April 17, 1999:

• Let Adults Decide What To Ingest (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian dismisses the newspaper's recent editorial on the Institute of Medicine report by asserting the primacy of individual rights.)
• Strip club suit keeps beer flowing for free (The Oregonian says Scores, in Northeast Salem, wants to continue to give away beer without a liquor license and is asking a judge to declare the practice legal in a lawsuit filed Friday in Marion County Circuit Court. The flow of free beer resumed Friday after a day's halt for a special event.)
• Hayden hearings (A bulletin from California NORML says SB 1261, a bill sponsored by state senator Tom Hayden that would create a commission on drug policy and violence, was approved by the senate Public Safety Committee on a 6-0 vote now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Here's some swing votes to lobby.)
• Cannabis Has Herbal Benefits Research Can Help Unlock (An op-ed by a professional herbalist in the Buffalo News, in New York, summarizes the pharmacological history of cannabis.)
• Drug And Alcohol Use Jump In Nation's Capitol (According to an Associated Press article in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which implies that alcohol is not a drug, District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams cited a new report by Drug Strategies that claimed adult cocaine and heroin use rates in the district were twice the national average in 1993, the latest figures available. The Drug Strategies report also showed heavy drinking was 50 percent more prevalent among adults in the capital than among their peers nationwide, and alcohol-related deaths in the district were double the national rate. Unfortunately, AP doesn't mention Drug Strategies' methodology or its agenda.)
• Study Finds Drug Abuse At Heart Of City's Ills (The Washington Post version is similarly one-sided and uncritical.)
• 'Crisis' Of Black Males Gets High-Profile Look (The Washington Post says nationally, one in three young black men is under the supervision of the criminal justice system, and the rate approaches 50 percent in some states. In all, 12 states and the District of Columbia imprison blacks at rates 10 times those of whites, according to the latest government figures. The composite picture has become so alarming that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights made it the subject of an unusual two-day conference this week in Washington, D.C.)
• New Drugs For Old Habits (The Economist, in Britain, says advances in the understanding of how alcohol, cocaine, heroin and nicotine affect the brain at the cellular and molecular level are leading to new approaches to treating substance abuse. A few companies such as Merck and DuPont have already taken the plunge, at least for alcohol abuse.)
  Bytes: 39,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, April 16, 1999:

• Oregon legislative hearings on HB 2933, for industrial hemp, and HJM 10, for medical marijuana (A list subscriber says a hearing has been scheduled for Rep. Prozanski's hemp bill at 8:30 am Thursday, April 22, in Hearing Room D at the capitol. A hearing on Rep. Bowman's medical marijuana resolution is also likely to take place by April 23.)
• Oregon high court OKs double-jeopardy review (The Oregonian says the state Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear an appeal claiming double jeopardy in a 1994 Portland case involving the civil forfeiture of a house and a criminal indictment based on the same marijuana arrest. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that civil forfeiture is not punishment for purposes of considering a double-jeopardy claim. But the Oregon Supreme Court never has reviewed the state civil forfeiture statutes under the state Constitution. According to Stephen Kanter, a professor at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College, in Portland, the Oregon Constitution's ban on double jeopardy is broader than the U.S. Constitution's.)
• Control Dispute Reappears At Jail Meeting (The Oregonian says about 300 beds for inmates undergoing treatment for alcohol or other drug abuse are being considered for a proposed 225-bed Multnomah County jail along North Portland's Bybee Lake. A county attorney pointed out a new wrinkle at a Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday. If the county puts the jail and the treatment beds in the same facility, it could create constitutional problems for inmates undergoing coerced treatment who have served out their sentences.)
• Students questioned over drinking at model U.N. (The Associated Press says as many as 100 students from two Portland High Schools are being questioned about drinking at a model United Nations event last week at the University of Oregon in Eugene.)
• Model U.N. students quizzed about drinking (The Oregonian version)
• A Josephine County medical marijuana martyr (A rural Oregon man dying from hepatitus C, contracted in the Marines, rues his legacy.)
• Seattle Million Marijuana March sign-making gathering April 26 (A list subscriber invites local activists to the Queen Anne Library to prepare for the Seattle rally scheduled in conjunction with others around the world Saturday, May 1.)
• Norman Vroman's views on crime, punishment and paying taxes set him apart (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat says the newly elected district attorney in Mendocino County, California, has charted a new course in dealing with domestic violence, drunken driving and marijuana cultivation. Vroman also signaled a new tack toward asset forfeiture by ousting a veteran prosecutor who had handled such drug-related cases. He says there are two types of criminals, those who are predatory and violent, and those who make mistakes but who are basically benevolent. The newspaper says concern is stirring within law enforcement and victim advocacy groups, but that Vroman continues to receive strong support from both sides of Mendocino County's political spectrum, which share a common distrust of the government.)
• Brownie Mary dies, but lives on in memorials this week (An obituary in the Bay Area Reporter for Mary Jane Rathbun quotes Dennis Person saying, "Mary adopted every gay kid in San Francisco. She was there before we knew what AIDS was, when it was referred to as 'GRID,' and even back then she always had a batch of brownies there to relieve the pain of her kids.")
• Report: Lett Fails Drug Test (According to UPI, the New York Times is reporting that Leon Lett, the Dallas Cowboys' defensive tackle, has failed a drug test for the third time and faces a lifetime suspension from the National Football League. The Times report did not say what drug was involved. One of Lett's agents, Michael Claiborne, told the Dallas Morning News that his client had been tested an average of ten times a month for the past four years.)
• Senate Hardens Pot-Sale Penalty (The Des Moines Register says a bill that would make it a felony to sell even the smallest quantity of marijuana in Iowa passed 34-11. The bill would also provide up to five years in prison for anyone who gave away one-half to 1 ounce of marijuana. Having already sailed through the House. It still needs Gov. Tom Vilsack's signature to take effect. Sen. Jeff Lamberti, R-Ankeny, who guided debate of the bill, said it treats marijuana more like other illicit drugs.)
• Couple Sent To Prison For Growing Marijuana (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says Gary & Dawn Roth forfeited their 460-acre farm in Vernon County and were sentenced to 10 years, and three years and one month, respectively, after police found 4,244 marijuana plants in a converted hog barn in December.)
• Illinois "Cannabis Info" bill dead (A list subscriber forwards a message from an ACLU-Illinois legislative coordinator predicting the demise of HB 792, which would make it a Class A misdemeanor to "transmit information by the Internet about a controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in furtherance of illegal activity.")
• Four Co-Defenders Say Cop Was Drug Kingpin (The Chicago Tribune says four co-defendants pleaded guilty Thursday to drug conspiracy charges and accused Officer Joseph Miedzianowski, a Chicago policeman, of leading a double life as a cocaine kingpin who allegedly interfered with a murder investigation, armed gang members with semi-automatic weapons and betrayed fellow officers working undercover. In exchange for their cooperation and their testimony against Miedzianowski and others, the four likely will receive sharp reductions in prison sentences that could have sent them away for anywhere from 17 years to life.)
• Merle Haggard Still Calls The Tune (A Boston Globe feature article on the country music legend from Bakersfield, California, quotes him saying "Okie from Muskogee" was a kind of joke, and that conservatives - especially the anti-marijuana forces - have gone too far. "America has sure gone to some sort of a police state in the last 10 years," he said. Thanks to "zero tolerance" policies by U.S. authorities at the Canadian border, he won't play in Canada now for fear of having tour buses forfeited.)
• El-Amin Apologizes, Gets One Day Of Community Service (The Middletown Press says University of Connecticut basketball star Khalid El-Amin apologized Thursday to his family, his teammates and the people of Connecticut and Minnesota for his arrest on marijuana possession charges 15 days after leading the Huskies to their first national championship. The 19-year-old Minneapolis native was stopped for a traffic violation in Hartford and a small amount of marijuana was discovered during a pat-down search.)
• 89-Year-Old Man Sentenced For Selling Crack (The Associated Press says Brose Gearhart, who turns 90 today, was sentenced Monday to up to four years in prison for running a $1,000-a-week operation from his home in Saugerties, New York, and routinely trading drugs for sex with prostitutes.)
• Strawberry Arrest Adds Bleak Note To Yankees (The Washington Post recounts yesterday's news about the cocaine bust of baseball legend Darryl Strawberry in Florida.)
• Yankees' Strawberry Is Charged With Drug Possession, Solicitation (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
• Report: Strawberry Begged To Be Let Off (The UPI version says the Yankees slugger told Tampa police he was only joking when he offered $50 to an undercover police officer for sex. He also said he knew nothing about the cocaine that was allegedly found wrapped in a $20 bill in his wallet, claiming he found the money in the glove compartment of a borrowed car.)
• Million Marijuana March web endeavor - millionmarijuanamarch.com (A list subscriber forwards information about the worldwide reform rally scheduled for Saturday, May 1. The world wide web is making it all possible.)
• Zero tolerance sparks mutiny in police ranks (The Australian News Network says New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who has overseen a sharp drop in crime with a much-vaunted zero-tolerance policy, faces a mutiny in the ranks for turning the city into a "police state" where people despise men and women in uniform. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, representing police officers, has cast a unanimous vote of no confidence in Safir amid rising concern about police misconduct.)
• Salvos Stop Saying 'No' (The Australian says the Salvation Army has jettisoned its "just say no" approach to drug and alcohol rehabilitation, forcing Prime Minister John Howard's chief drug adviser and his best-known advocate of zero-tolerance policies to concede the agency had allowed itself to be depicted as too hardline.)
• Moral Crusaders Must Be Ignored (A letter to the editor of the Canberra Times says prohibition never works. All that making a drug illegal does is put money into the hands of organised crime. The "war against drugs" does not exist. It is a war waged by certain sections of Australian society to impose their moral beliefs and drug of choice - alcohol - onto the rest of society.)
• Treatment Demand Stretches Clinics (According to the Irish Examiner, representatives of the Eastern Health Board, the main treatment provider in Dublin, told the Dail Public Accounts Committee yesterday that at any one time, 600 people are on waiting lists seeking treatment for heroin addiction.)
• WHO Cautious On Swiss Experiment (The Associated Press says a study sponsored by the United Nations concluded Friday that while Switzerland accepts the evidence that its heroin maintenance program leads to health gains for addicts, its claims must be tested carefully in "rich" countries before other "rich" countries copy the program. The World Health Organization criticized the Swiss for not including a control group, even though last year, 209 drug-related deaths were reported, down from a peak of 419 in 1992. The Swiss put the heroin program on a permanent legal footing last year.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 87 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine includes - HEA reform campaign online petition launched; Conyers reintroduces racial profiling legislation; Conyers introduces legislation to end federal disenfranchisement; Unarmed boy shot in drug raid; California legislators consider "three strikes" modification; Doctor's undertreatment of pain draws penalty; Nevada legislature mulls marijuana decriminalization bill; Seminars at the Lindesmith Center; and an editorial: Disparity dilemma)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 94 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Kosovo is Small Potatoes Compared to the Drug War, by Mark Greer. The Weekly News in Review spotlights several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Drug survey of children finds middle school a pivotal time; Iowa report: 1 in 25 workers showed evidence of drug use; Editorial: the Fourth Amendment suffers at court's hands; 'Black tar' grimly covers S.F. streets; and, Number of drug deaths in Florida rises. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - As inmate population grows, so does a focus on children; Losing battle to revise drug law; The politics of punishment; Editorial: federalizing crime; and, Feds to join local war on drugs. Articles about Cannabis & Hemp include - Farmers show interest in hemp; Hemp-Ventura; High court hears man's case to grow marijuana for medicine; Marijuana as medicine - state bill inches forward; and, Movement on 215. International News includes - Australia: Bid for zero tolerance in schools doomed; Fugitive former governor of Mexican state charged with trafficking; and, Canadians favour the use of medical marijuana. The weekly "Hot Off The 'Net' feature points you to Steve Young's online book, "Maximizing Harm." The Fact of the Week uses the government's own statistics to document that mandatory minimums increase crime. The Quote of the Week shares an e-mail from British Member of Parliament Paul Flynn, who uses the DrugSense and MAP web sites.)
  Bytes: 178,000 Last updated: 5/8/99
  

  Thursday, April 15, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (NORML Foundation Family Custody Project victorious in New Jersey parenting rights case; Nevada decriminalization legislation clears first hurdle; Hawaii medical marijuana resolutions move forward in senate; U.K. researchers to use DNA technology in drug testing, tracking marijuana; New Hampshire lawmakers say no to marijuana decriminalization measure, halt further debate until 2001.)
• Appeals Court OKs city's restrictions on suspects (The Oregonian says a three-judge panel from the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday allowing Portland police to resume handing out exclusion orders that prohibit people charged with drug or prostitution offenses from going into designated parts of the city. A 1997 lower court ruling said that issuing a temporary exclusion order and prosecuting someone for the same drug arrest violated the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.)
• Police volunteer indicted in Portland bank robbery (According to the Oregonian, Louie Lira Jr., who was supposedly excluded from the United States altogether after drug and robbery convictions in California led him to be banished to his native Mexico, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Portland. The longtime gang outreach worker and volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau faces charges of armed bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for monitoring a police scanner and giving suspects details that allowed them to escape.)
• State group offers proposals to reduce underage drinking (According to the Oregonian, yet another closed committee of self-designated experts appointed by Oregon Gov. John "Prisons" Kitzhaber, this one charged with examining the problem of alcohol use by minors, issued vague recommendations Wednesday that appear to be destined to lead to yet another hugely expensive and useless lawmaking bureaucracy. Underage alcohol use has dropped in recent years.)
• State says free beer at strip club a violation (According to the Oregonian, Dylan Salts, the manager of Scores cabaret in Salem, said he's ready to resume a recent tavern promotion offering two free beers for customers age 21 and over, even though Scores has no license to serve alcohol from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Scores argues that the club doesn't need a license if it gives away the booze instead of selling it.)
• Pot, Police, And Prostitutes (Seattle Weekly sex columnist Cherry Wong compares and contrasts pot and prostitution policies in America and the Netherlands. People make up their own minds about certain vices with or without the law on their side. By keeping prostitution illegal in most of this country, it's giving the message that Americans don't have the individual common sense to choose what's right or wrong for them. Ditto for the pot.)
• Ex-Candidate Faces Trial in Medical Marijuana Case (The Los Angeles Times examines the prosecution of medical marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby in the context of Proposition 215's history and prospects. Prosecutors aren't even debating Kubby's tale of herbal success. Instead, they contend the number of plants cultivated by Kubby and his 33-year-old wife, Michele, were too many for personal medical use. "If the jury feels 265 plants is sufficient for medical use, then justice is done," said Christopher Cattran, a Placer County deputy district attorney. "If they decide 265 plants is too much, then justice is done, too." The case is set for trial May 18 in Auburn. Charles Lepp, a 46-year-old Vietnam War veteran who uses pot for a variety of ailments, including chronic back pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and manic depression, was acquitted in December in Lake County of charges that he grew 131 marijuana plants for sale.)
• Obituary - 'Brownie Mary' (The San Francisco Examiner says a candlelight vigil in memory of Mary Jane "Brownie Mary" Rathbun will be held in the Castro District Saturday night. A second memorial is being planned for May 1 at Laguna Honda Hospital.)
• Council Moves to Repeal Drug Tests for Members (The Los Angeles Times says the city council in South El Monte, California, voted 4-1 Tuesday to take the first step toward repealing "voluntary" random drug tests for its members.)
• Teacher Held on Charges of Shipping Drugs (The Los Angeles Times says William D. Hubbell, a junior high school teacher in Burbank and the son of a local school board member, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of trafficking in cocaine after prohibition agents observed him shipping a box with $80,000 worth of cocaine to Hawaii.)
• Marijuana Lesser Of Two Evils? (The Summit Daily News, in Colorado, can't believe that a U.S. Department of Transportation study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded drunk drivers pose a far greater threat than drivers who had smoked marijuana. The study shows marijuana's adverse effect on drivers is "relatively small" compared to alcohol and even some medicinal drugs. "Marijuana impairment represents a real, but secondary, safety risk. THC is not a profoundly impairing drug. Of the many psychotropic drugs, licit and illicit, that are available and used by people who subsequently drive, marijuana may well be among the least harmful.")
• Hemp Help - Two Area Republicans Are Among The Backers (The Capital Times, in Madison, Wisconsin, says two local Republicans, state representative Eugene Hahn, of Cambria, and state senator Dale Schultz, of Richland Center, are among the backers of a resolution calling on Congress to legalize the commercial production of industrial hemp.)
• 2 Correction Officers To Serve Time (UPI says Rafael Lopez and Victor Cabrera, two former New York City jail guards, were sentenced to 2 to 6 years for attempting to smuggle drugs into the Rikers Island jail. Both men were trapped in sting operations.)
• Quality of Life Policing: Giuliani Cop System Doesn't Work (An op-ed in Newsday, in New York, by Joseph D. McNamara, a former New York police officer, says that when Amadou Diallo, an innocent man, died in a hail of 41 bullets, so did quality-of-life policing, an errant style of law enforcement promulgated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the two police commissioners he appointed, William Bratton and Howard Safir, who have been exporting it to other cities.)
• Fatal Error Shouldn't Undo The Good Done In New York (Columnist Mona Charen writes in the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, that most New Yorkers are delighted with the change Mayor Giuliani has wrought.)
• Strawberry Arrested For Drugs, Solicitation (UPI says Darryl Strawberry, the baseball player for the New York Yankees, was busted Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, with three-tenths of a gram of cocaine after offering an undercover policewoman $50 for sex.)
• Study Slams Corruption On Border (According to the Houston Chronicle, a yearlong study by the General Accounting Office found that drug interdiction efforts in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California are compromised by federal agents and other field staff on the payrolls of Mexican drug cartels.)
• Fairfax Teacher Suspended After Arrest On Drug Charge In D.C. (The Washington Post says Fred Benevento, a math teacher at Fairfax High School in Virginia and former head football coach at Langley High School, has been suspended without pay due to his arrest March 19 for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. District of Columbia police conducting a stakeout said they found 13 bags of crack in his car. Benevento told police that the bags of cocaine "came flying through his open window" and that he "was just looking at them when the police officers arrived." Police found $136 on the man who allegedly sold Benevento the 13 bags.)
• Students Face Drug Charges (UPI says an unspecified number of Lake Brantley High School kids were among 32 people busted yesterday in Longwood, Florida, for selling marijuana and cocaine.)
• City Settles Firefighter's Suit In Controversial Drug Case (The Charlotte Observer says lawyers for Karen Goff, a former firefighter, and the city of Gastonia, North Carolina, agreed to a $30,000 settlement Tuesday arising from a search of Goff's locker that supposedly yielded cocaine. Prosecutors dropped charges after tests by the State Bureau of Investigation showed the substance to be inositol, an over-the-counter nutritional supplement. Then Goff filed suit, so the city did more tests and found traces of cocaine in the nutritional supplement. A laboratory worker for the city also said inositol is commonly used to dilute cocaine. Still more tests by a laboratory chosen by Goff's lawyers found no cocaine at all.)
• Firefighter's Back After Fine For Pot (The Edmonton Sun, in Alberta, says Dean Troyer, an Edmonton firefighter who was fined $2,500 after being convicted of growing medical marijuana, is back on the job. "The department is satisfied that the courts have dealt with this matter and it doesn't affect his job performance," said Jean Kirkman, a fire department spokesman.)
• US Company To Build 2 Plants For Hemp Processing In Canada (According to the Journal of Commerce, in the United States, Douglas Campbell, the president of the Canadian division of Consolidated Growers and Processors, says CGP plans to build two hemp-processing plants by 2001 in Manitoba.)
  Bytes: 106,000 Last updated: 5/8/99
  

  Wednesday, April 14, 1999:

• Fundamentally Flawed (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week, in Portland, criticizes the task force created by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers that has proposed legislation to coerce patients with severe mental illnesses to take psychiatric drugs. The only way the mental-health system knows how to "treat" people is with powerful drugs. Many mental-health clients reject these drugs not because of "side effects" but because of real effects that can be painful, permanently disfiguring or even result in death.)
• Laws separate euthanasia and assisted suicide (The Oregonian vies with the Catholic Sentinel for right-to-life subscribers.)
• Brownie Mary's Legacy (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle eulogizes "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, the grandmotherly volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital whose marijuana-laced brownies helped launch the medical-marijuana movement. It isn't always the job of society's critics to find the exact solutions to painful problems. Raising the issue and marching forward can be enough. It would be a fitting legacy if a workable solution could be found to passing out Brownie Mary's goods to those who need it.)
• Driving While White (Alexander Cockburn's column in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, in California, summarizes an article in this month's Esquire magazine about "Operation Pipeline," by Gary Webb. According to Webb, Operation Pipeline takes us beyond the basic "driving while black" scenarios that presume that cops pull over people merely because they are black or brown and show that millions and millions of federal DEA dollars and training sessions by the thousand have sent cops out on the roads to look for the trace signs that spell "drug carrier." Police commands in 48 states now participate in Pipeline in some fashion.)
• State Spending Big Bucks To Tell Us What To Do (The San Francisco Examiner says more than ever before, the government wants to change the way you think. Public officials are spending billions on new campaigns, even buying expensive ads on prime-time television. It's called social marketing - part behavioral science, part propaganda, part Madison Avenue - and it has become the most popular political antidote to society's many shortfalls. California alone has spent $220 million on such propaganda since 1997. Federal anti-drug and anti-tobacco campaigns have $2.45 billion budgeted for advertising over the next five years. "The bottom line is it's all about politics," said Bob Belinoff, a sort of social marketing guru from New Mexico who has a Web site on the subject, www.mkt4change.com. "The people who are putting this stuff on the air are all politicians elected because of television.")
• Reefer Madness in Illinois (The online version of Wired magazine notes legislation drafted by Bill Mitchell, a Republican state representative, would make it a Class A misdemeanor to "transmit information by the Internet about a controlled substance knowing that the information will be used in furtherance of illegal activity." The bill passed the state house of representatives last week and was presented to a state senate committee on Wednesday.)
• Marijuana Legislation Raises Free-speech Concerns (The Associated Press version)
• Lawmakers: Marijuana Is A Dangerous And Addictive Drug (UPI says the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted "overwhelmingly" today to reject a bill sponsored by Tim Robertson of Keene that would have decriminalized possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.)
• U-Conn Star El-Amin Faces A Drug Charge (The Philadelphia Inquirer says Khalid El-Amin, who last month helped the University of Connecticut win its first national basketball championship, was arrested in Hartford yesterday and charged with possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. Star junior Richard Hamilton was with El-Amin, but was not charged. Members of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force also impounded the late-model red Cadillac the players were in.)
• Ann Landers: U.S. Approach To Drug Use Inhumane (A letter to the syndicated advice columnist, in the Washington Post, applauds her proposal last January to reduce the harm caused by marijuana laws.)
• Ancient Treatment Helps Fight Addictions (The Washington Post examines the increasing use of acupuncture as a treatment for people dependent on alcohol, nicotine, opiates and cocaine. The only place in Prince George's County that offers it, the Underground Railroad, is a private "community center for wellness and recovery" that opened two months ago in Suitland. Alaine Duncan of Hyattsville, a licensed acupuncturist, hopes to expand the center into a state-supported operation, similar to acupuncture detox programs in Baltimore and Portland, Oregon. The 1997 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on Acupuncture approved it for the treatment of various pains and ailments, including such things as tennis elbow, vomiting and dental pain.)
• Petition: Raise Your Voice to Congress Today for HEA Reform (A bulletin from the Drug Reform Coordination Network asks you to take two short minutes to raise your voice to Congress asking for a repeal of the provision in the Higher Education Act of 1998 that delays or denies all federal financial aid for any drug conviction, no matter how minor - including marijuana possession.)
• Canadian House of Commons debates medical marijuana (The Media Awareness Project provides a URL to a lengthy transcript of today's debate.)
• Green Light For USA To Operate From Curacao And Aruba (Jane's Defence Weekly says that last week, Dutch and U.S. government officials reached an agreement to station U.S. counter-drug forces in the Caribbean at Hato Airfield on the Dutch Antilles island of Curacao and Reina Beatrix on Aruba following the closure of U.S. bases in Panama.)
  Bytes: 71,100 Last updated: 4/26/99
  

  Tuesday, April 13, 1999:

• Drug death rate doubles in Oregon (The Oregonian notes yesterday's news about the 80 drug-related deaths recorded in the state during the first three months of the year, compared with 39 during the same period in 1998. Seventy deaths involved heroin, up from 27 a year ago. The newspaper continues to perpetuate the heroin "overdose" myth exposed more than two decades ago by the Consumers Union, blaming the deaths on increasing purity rather than toxic contaminants, or concurrent use of alcohol.)
• Bill wouldn't let local governments prohibit smoking in bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives' Commerce Committee heard testimony Monday on HB 2806, which would allow Corvallis to continue to be the only city in the state with its own drug policy.)
• Marijuana club challenges closure, wants jury trials (The Associated Press says lawyers for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative on Tuesday presented oral arguments for the club's appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The cooperative said its forced closure last October by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer violated the rights of its 2,000 patient-members, who should have been allowed to argue their medical necessity. The club also said the closure failed to recognize the legal effect of the city of Oakland's involvement in the club's operations. AP doesn't say when a ruling is due.)
• Mary Jane Rathbun, 77 (The Associated Press obituary for "Brownie Mary," the San Francisco activist, says her arrests for distributing marijuana brownies to AIDS patients built momentum for the medical marijuana movement.)
• 'Brownie Mary' Gave Pot To Dying AIDS Patients (The Reuters version in the Toronto Star quotes Dennis Peron saying, "Before it was a cliche, Brownie Mary was compassionate. She was willing to go to jail for her kids.")
• Activist Whose Pot Brownies Fueled Medicinal-Marijuana Push (The Chicago Tribune obituary)
• Brownie Mary in the San Francisco Chronicle (A list subscriber forwards relevant excerpts from Scott Ostler's column.)
• Existing Law Goes Bit Too Far (A staff editorial in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune endorses California state senator Tom Hayden's bill to reform the state's "three strikes" law. In one case, a young man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for serving as a lookout for a drug deal. The law would work better if it were tempered - in certain situations - not with mercy, but with fairness.)
• 'Black Tar' Grimly Covers S.F. Streets (The San Francisco Chronicle previews Steven Okazaki's "Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street," a documentary premiering tomorrow on cable television as part of HBO's "America Undercover" series. The documentary follows the lives of five bruised and ailing San Francisco junkies as they alternately try to support their habits and kick them. The film director says he's frustrated by the city's lack of counseling and rehab programs. "The addict population has gotten much younger: The average age 10 years ago was 27; now it's 19 to 20," he says. "The mayor and the city government people should be ashamed. They're part of the problem.")
• Voices Of Our Time: Joseph D. McNamara (The San Jose Mercury News features the former cop and veteran drug-war critic saying, "I think that improved Internet communication in the long run is more likely to spread human freedom and prosperity, provided governments don't suppress it.")
• Feds To Join Local War On Drugs (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, has agreed to send a team of federal drug experts to New Bedford to help assess needs and to develop a drug-fighting strategy. Gen. McCaffrey's three paragraph letter to Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. does not specify when the team will arrive, nor what exactly it will do.)
• Probation Officer Sentenced To Prison (The Tampa Tribune says Debra D. Leeks, a 13-year veteran Polk County probation officer, was sentenced to 30 months in prison Monday for her role in shaking down a cocaine dealer under her supervision. Leeks pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to commit extortion, conspiring to obstruct justice, lying to federal agents and tampering with a witness. But Monday, appearing before U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr., the resident of Lake Wales, Florida, declared her innocence.)
• Jury Clears Lawyers In Federal Case (The Tampa Tribune says the federal jury in Tampa, Florida, acquitted Paul D. Lazarus of Miami and Howard Freidin of Fort Myers, who were charged with conspiring to get an illegal sentence reduction for Daniel Hostetter, a cocaine dealer.)
• Strike A Balance In The Marijuana Debate (An op-ed in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by John A. Benson Jr. and Stanley J. Watson Jr., the co-principal investigators of the Institute of Medicine's March 17 report on medical marijuana, reiterates the study's conclusions without clarifying its contradictions, or its failure to realistically "weigh the reality of this crude drug-delivery system against the benefits it might bestow." Nor do they acknowledge that the purported "risks" of smoking marijuana are theoretical rather than epidemiological. Instead, Benson and Watson say "Our review of the science behind marijuana and cannabinoids convinces us that the debate so far has been miscast. Rather than focusing on drug control policy, the medical marijuana debate should really be about the promise of future drug development." Like countless patients suffering right now give a hoot about helping pharmaceutical companies' bottom line.)
• Media Alert: "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults" Rebroadcast this Thursday, 4/15 (A bulletin from the Drug Policy Foundation, in Washington, D.C., says ABC is rebroadcasting last May's report by John Stossel on consensual crime in America. Check local listings for the time.)
• Another '60 Minutes' Apology on a Drug Smuggling Story (The Washington Post follows up on CBS' retraction of a story implying corruption on the part of Rudy Camacho, the San Diego district director of the U.S. Customs Service.)
  Bytes: 65,100 Last updated: 5/8/99
  

  Monday, April 12, 1999:

• Oregon Drug Deaths More Than Double In First Quarter Of 1999 (According to the Associated Press, the state Medical Examiner's office said Monday that 80 people died of "drug"-related causes, compared to 39 during the same period last year. However, as usual, the office didn't mention that nobody died from marijuana. And, as usual, the Medical Examiner didn't count the deaths from legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical medicines - more than 100 times the deaths from illegal substances. Heroin again was the leading killer, playing a role in 70 deaths. Cocaine figured in 20 deaths. Last year, there were 235 drug-related deaths, 179 of them involving heroin.)
• House considers bill to bar communities from banning smoking in bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives' Commerce Committee held a hearing Monday on a bill to strip local governments' authority to prohibit smokers from lighting up in bars and taverns. HB 2806 is a response to a successful campaign by prohibitionists in Corvallis, the first Oregon city to ban smoking in all enclosed public places. Twice in the past two years, Corvallis city councilors and voters have upheld the decision. Under HB 2806, Corvallis could keep its ban, but other cities would be prevented from instituting their own drug policies.)
• Wheeler County officers seize mobile methamphetamine lab (The Oregonian notes the suspicions of a police officer in the rural north-central Oregon county - where approximately 1,600 residents are spread thinly over 1,713 square miles - were first raised because "strangers tend to be noticed.")
• Sacramento County Dismisses Cultivation Charges! (A forwarded e-mail message says charges were dropped against medical marijuana patient Robert DeArkland regarding 13 plants. The dismissal is thought to be the first such act of compliance by the county with the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996.)
• Cannabis Conundrum (The San Diego Union Tribune recaps the prosecution of medical-marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, to illustrate the failure to implement Proposition 215 in California. In the vacuum created by the failure of two successive attorneys general to defend the law, local district attorneys' varying interpretations mean some prosecutors file charges against people with just a few plants while others, such as the Kubbys, claim they need hundreds of plants for their own use.)
• AIDS Activist Rathbun Dies (The Associated Press says "Brownie Mary" Rathbun, the grandmotherly activist whose arrests for distributing pot brownies to AIDS patients built momentum for the medicinal marijuana movement, has died at 77 in San Francisco.)
• Cops Allege Drive-Through Drug Sales (A Reuters article in the San Jose Mercury News says Sadik Sufi, 26, the night manager of a Burger King in Novato, California, was arrested early Friday for allegedly using the drive-through window to sell cocaine.)
• Study Finds Link Between Incarceration, Prior Abuse (According to the Washington Post, a report made public yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics said that almost half the women and a tenth of the men in state and federal prisons and local jails reported prior physical or sexual abuse. Among those in state prison systems, 16 percent of male inmates and 57 percent of female inmates reported prior abuse. A third of the female inmates in state prisons said they had been raped before their incarceration. Much of the abuse occurred when the future prison inmates were children.)
• Former Cop In Court (The North Shore News, in British Columbia, says Scott Randall Simpson, a 12-year veteran of the North Vancouver RCMP, appeared in court on Wednesday to face six marijuana trafficking charges. Simpson, 38, is also charged with possessing marijuana, psilocybin, hashish and stealing a "cobra fashioned smoking pipe.")
  Bytes: 41,300 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Sunday, April 11, 1999:

• Case should give Ninth Amendment new life (An op-ed in the Oregonian by Randy E. Barnett, a former prosecutor and Boston University law professor, says the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative deserves to win its appeal Tuesday to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Oakland's brief argues that the people have reserved the power to enact popular initiatives. When the people pass an initiative protecting a particular liberty, judges should respect this unenumerated liberty as they would an enumerated right. In other words, the initiative process enables the voters of each state to decide themselves if a liberty is fundamental, rather than leave that decision solely to judges. While popular initiatives that restrict personal or economic liberties should be given the same constitutional scrutiny as any other state law, the people who approved medical marijuana ballot measures in California, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington decided to protect a liberty.)
• Harsh sentences chop crime (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian reveals the ignorance of a man who is unfamiliar with the arrest rates for marijuana offenses and other basic aspects of the history of drug prohibition in America.)
• Cigarette-maker knew of danger (Another letter to the editor of the Oregonian defends the recent decision of a Portland jury to award a record $80.3 million to the family of a dead former smoker. Despite tort law, which clearly holds smokers personally responsible for the risks they take, the author contends Philip Morris also breached its responsibilities, negating Jesse Williams' responsibility and making the company - in reality, current tobacco consumers - liable for damages. The author claims "cigarettes are the only consumer product that, when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer, addicts, sickens and kills," which would seem to ignore substances such as alcohol and a number of FDA-approved and doctor-prescribed medicines.)
• Movement On 215 - In the Courts and the Capitals, the Case is Made for Medical Marijuana (Orange County Register columnist Alan W. Bock examines the federal and state developments that are converging in ways that could lead to dramatic break-throughs in the medical marijuana movement. On the federal front, the Institute of Medicine Report released March 17 shows that marijuana shouldn't remain a Schedule 1 controlled substance. On the state front, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer was elected to enforce California law. Barry McCaffrey and Janet Reno are appointed federal officials attempting to nullify a law put into place by the people of California. Lockyer's loyalty should be to the people who elected him and voted for Prop. 215. The federal government had every opportunity to challenge Prop. 215 in court. It chose not to do so. To try to nullify it by administrative fiat is despicable. Bock also reviews several pending court cases that could lead to reform, including Jon Gettman's rescheduling petition.)
• The Politics of Punishment (Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters writes in the Oakland Tribune that the California Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved state Senator Tom Hayden's bill to reform California's "three strikes" mandatory-minimum sentencing law by requiring the third offense to be a violent or serious one. The committee also approved another bill to study the "three strikes" law. But the Assembly Public Safety Committee cleared a $4.1 billion bond issue to build six more state prisons. The debate continues.)
• Principal Charged In Cocaine Sales (The Chicago Tribune says Delores Hill, 53, a principal known for tough words about drug abuse, has been charged with running a cocaine ring at the Tabernacle Church of God Elementary School in Brooklyn, New York. Authorities shut down the private, 160-student school when Hill was arrested along with the school nurse, a janitor and another worker after she allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover policewoman on school grounds.)
• Losing Battle To Revise Drug Law (Newsday, in New York, says reformers' campaign to soften the state's 1973 Rockefeller mandatory-minimum drug laws is stymied by several political factors. According to state lawmakers, those include the continuing opposition of Senate Republicans intent on building prisons; a change in Governor Pataki's position that some believe is linked to his national ambitions; and the reluctance of top Democrats to tackle an issue they say was used as recently as last year to label them as soft on crime. It doesn't matter that a statewide poll released last month showed that 69 percent of New Yorkers favored giving judges sentencing discretion.)
• Earth to Supreme Court: Woman's Purse More Than a Container (Marianne Means, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, writes in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision giving police even greater latitude in searching motorists. Men carry billfolds to hold money and credit cards, usually in those pockets the court is protecting. But women carry purses in order to keep with them at all times their most intimate possessions. The "Supremes" do not realize the mischief they are creating here. No self-respecting woman is likely to hand over the secrets of her purse to police snoops without a fight. We have not heard the last of this issue.)
  Bytes: 50,600 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Saturday, April 10, 1999:

• After 11 years, man has "LSD" tattoo removed from forehead - free (The Associated Press says that thanks to a White Bird counselor, a dermatologist and a PeaceHealth hospital policy of community service, Curtis Surpless of Eugene is getting rid of the tattoo he received at the age of 16. Surpless started using hallucinogenic mushrooms when he was 9 and is currently in rehab, but the tattoo drew tons of unwanted attention and derision. Cops searched him. Workers at McDonald's and Greyhound refused to serve him. Even a Eugene Mission employee checked with a superior before helping him when he arrived in March.)
• San Mateo County Wants Pot Study (The San Francisco Examiner recounts the recent news about San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, seeking permission from the federal government to carry out its own research to document the efficacy of medical marijuana.)
• Federalizing Crime (A staff editorial in the Houston Chronicle praises the American Bar Association's recent report on the trend in Washington, D.C., to federalize local crime problems. While 95 percent of all crime is prosecuted by the states and only 5 percent or less by the federal government, federalization has led to an unhealthy concentration of policing power at the federal level, clogged the dockets of federal courts and created disparate sentences for similarly accused defendants. Congress and President Clinton should stop the inappropriate federalization of criminal activities and let states combat local crime.)
  Bytes: 13,500 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, April 9, 1999:

• Portland-area police chiefs denounce racist auto stops (The Oregonian says Oregon State Police, 23 Portland-area police departments and police unions plan to send a unified message today that they will not tolerate police actions based on a person's race. The cops plan to sign a resolution that takes a strong stand against "race-based profiling." Spencer "Mike" Neal, a Portland attorney who specializes in police misconduct cases, dismissed the resolution as politics. "Talk is cheap," said Neal, who as a Filipino American has experienced racially motivated police stops, he said. "When I start seeing people being disciplined for those things, then I'll believe it.")
• Medical Marijuana Users Licensed (An Associated Press article in the Las Vegas Sun examines the policies being implemented by Mel Brown, the police chief in Arcata, California, with the help of a community task force. Brown personally issues photo identification cards bearing his signature to medical marijuana patients after confirming their doctor's recommendation. So far, he has issued about 100 "stay out of jail" cards. Arcata is in Mendocino County, where District Attorney Norman Vroman plans to announce a similar ID card system next month.)
• Hemp-Ventura (An Associated Press article excerpted from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says that despite the support of Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who was recently featured on the cover of Hemp Times, an industrial hemp bill that had been approved by the state Senate died in committee after it was sent to the House.)
• Reno calls on police to deal with 'profiling' incidents (An LA Times-Washington Post news service article in the Oregonian says U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno made an impassioned plea at her weekly news briefing Thursday, asking local police and other law enforcement officials to deal with citizen complaints about searches based on "racial profiles." A proposal to require a national study of why police stop and search drivers died in Congress last year but will be taken up again.)
• Marijuana smell insufficient reason for arrest: Court (The Toronto Star says Ontario's highest court ruled yesterday in the case of Peter Polashek that police do not have an automatic right to arrest someone for suspected drug possession based on the smell of marijuana coming from a vehicle. In Polashek's case, the officer couldn't say whether the smell of burned or unburned marijuana was coming from the car. Polashek's lawyer, Alan Young, said such incidents give rise to questions about whether police ever fabricate claims of smelling drugs as an excuse for a fishing expedition. Mr. Justice Marc Rosenberg, writing for a unanimous three-judge court, said "The sense of smell is highly subjective and to authorize an arrest solely on that basis puts an unreviewable discretion in the hands of the officer.")
• Bid For Zero Tolerance In Schools Doomed (The Age, in Melbourne, says most state and territory leaders at today's Premiers' Conference are expected to oppose Australian Prime Minister John Howard's push for a policy of zero tolerance towards drug users in schools.)
• ME Sufferer Grew 'Pot' To Ease Pain (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Candace Kelly, a 51-year-old woman in Halwell, Devon, had her sentence for growing marijuana suspended because she used it medicinally to treat a form of chronic fatigue syndrome.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 86 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine includes - Driving while non-white; Search and seizure protections weakened; 53-year-old grandmother robbed, beaten while trying to buy cannabis for her arthritis; California's Y2K+1 crisis; Illinois bill criminalizes marijuana information on the internet; Report: Crises of the anti-drug effort, 1999; New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition - action alert; Leaders of South American indigenous peoples challenge U.S. ayahuasca patent; Exhibit: "Human Rights and the Drug War" in Virginia; Gore 2000 or Gore 1984?; Lies, damn lies and statistics; Cato Forums: Jesse Ventura, prosecutorial abuse, forfeiture reform; Editorial: There oughta be a law: protecting the masses from themselves)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 93 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article, a Statement to the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in Vienna, by Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt. The Weekly News in Review features several articles on Drug War Policy, including - U.S. targets drugs, violence in schools, crime; Federal officials forge anti-drug partnership with Maryland, Oregon; General sends anti-drug message to kids; and, Drug war without a plan. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Drug seizure money bypassing schools; Drug dealers' property on auction block; Providence police lack records on seized cars; We're all prisoners of our incarceration policies; and an editorial, Enough prisons? Pieces about Cannabis & Hemp include - When the means clash with the ends; The smoke clears: marijuana can be medicinal, but the smoke is not; and, Farmers lobby to legalize the growing of hemp. International News includes - Peruvian police seize two tons of cocaine; Thai villagers killed in apparent drugs dispute; Tories demand life sentences to combat drugs menace; 'Too pure' heroin claims 14 lives; Australia: More teenage girls using illicit drugs; and an Australian editorial: The PM must listen on drugs. Two items in the weekly Hot Off The 'Net note DrugSense is now providing web services for MarijuanaNews.com; and how Peter McWilliams' "Online Mall" helps support his case. The Tip of the Week provides a URL for the War on Drugs Clock, a good way to make a quick point. The Fact of the Week documents that the IOM Report is not new information with an excerpt from the 1972 Shafer Commission report. The Quote of the Week cites Albert Einstein.)
  Bytes: 99,200 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Thursday, April 8, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Marijuana like chemical could hold key to treating movement disorders; Illinois bill criminalizes marijuana information on the Internet; California county submits medical marijuana research proposal to federal government; Nearly eight out of 10 Canadians favor medical marijuana)
• Tobacco fast cash gets cool reception (According to the Oregonian, the Oregon House of Representatives' majority whip, Mark Simmons, R-Elgin, and other lawmakers said Wednesday that a plan to convert part of Oregon's annual tobacco settlement payments into $400 million in immediate cash could be a wise move, but not as a solution to the state's budget impasse. State Treasurer Jim Hill has proposed selling $400 million in bonds, which would be repaid with $900 million in tobacco revenues during the next 20 years. Oddly, the newspaper doesn't ask why politicians are worrying about the "risk of future settlement payments drying up.")
• Meth labs potential chemical nightmares (The Oregonian continues to present just one side of a recent story about a house that was allowed to burn down in Portland after a methamphetamine lab was supposedly found in the basement. An otherwise quotidian bit of fear-mongering about the toxic chemicals and risks posed by such labs typically fails to note they are the inevitable result of the law of supply and demand. The newspaper also typically fails to explain such labs within the context of the history of amphetamine prohibition.)
• Lawmakers Asked To Soften Nevada's Marijuana Possession Law (The Sacramento Bee says Assemblywoman Chris Guinchigliani urged Nevada lawmakers Wednesday to vote for her bill, AB 577, which would reduce the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor. First-time offenders could be fined $500 but would face no jail time. Currently the offense is punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.)
• The Fourth Amendment Suffers At Court's Hands (A staff editorial in the Greensboro News and Record, in North Carolina, says bit by bit, the U.S. Supreme Court has been dismantling the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. The justices' ruling this week that a police officer who stops a car may rummage through a passenger's personal belongings without a search warrant is nonsense. The Supreme Court has been all too willing to put the convenience of law enforcement ahead of the rights of citizens. Where will it end? Random pat-downs on street corners?)
• High court hears man's case to grow marijuana for medicine (According to an Associated Press article in the Naples Daily News, the attorney for 61-year-old George Sowell, who says smoking marijuana is the only way to ease his glaucoma and nausea, asked the Florida Supreme Court Wednesday to let his client grow the illegal herb in his yard. Sowell received a kidney transplant 17 years ago after glaucoma drugs caused his to fail. Sowell's trial judge refused to allow a "medical necessity" defense, but the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned Sowell's conviction and probation sentence on the grounds that the argument should have been allowed. The state attorney general's office appealed to the state Supreme Court, which likely won't make a final ruling for several months.)
• State Justices Hear Debate On Use Of Pot For Illnesses (The Miami Herald version)
• Zoned Out (The Daily Planet, in Tampa, Florida, says Hillsborough County law enforcement agencies have delineated 47 areas of the county off limits to the 2,200 county residents on probation for drug offenses, mostly possession.)
• Drug Survey of Children Finds Middle School a Pivotal Time (The New York Times notes a new nationwide survey by PRIDE, the Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education, based in Atlanta, is the first to include elementary-school children among the respondents. The survey found, not surprisingly, that more youngsters use "drugs" in middle school than primary school, but both PRIDE, the New York Times and General Barry McCaffrey frame the survey results to benefit their pro-drug-war, anti-marijuana agenda.)
  Bytes: 58,000 Last updated: 5/18/99
  

  Wednesday, April 7, 1999:

• Taking Civil Liberties (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week, in Portland, says Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle is overstepping the boundaries of his position by using his official title and resources to amend Oregon's medical-marijuana law.)
• A Modest Proposal (A like-minded letter to the editor of Willamette Week proposes an addendum to the legislation that would largely nullify the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Rep. Mannix and Sheriff Noelle would be the people who make the random searches of ill citizens who are certified to grow and smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. If they propose such invasive and offensive laws, they should carry them out themselves - if the Oregon Legislature proves to have the same kind of forward thinking as the good sheriff and his political pal.)
• Need For Addiction Services Exceeds County Aid (The Oregonian says Jim Peterson, Multnomah County's addictions services manager, told the county Board of Commissioners in Portland Tuesday that the $10.8 million budgeted for about 8,200 drug treatment slots in this fiscal year was inadequate by about 25 percent. Sometimes, he said, the treatment programs end up competing with the county's Corrections Department for money.)
• Plan seeks tobacco money in lump sum (The Oregonian says state Treasurer Jim Hill plans to propose today that Oregon swap its rights to part of $2.4 billion in tobacco settlement payments over 25 years for a lump sum that could be used right now to solve the Legislature's school finance stalemate.)
• The Smoking Gun (Willamette Week, in Portland, says last week's record $80.3 million judgment against Philip Morris is mostly attributable to the jury being exposed to confidential tobacco industry documents, which revealed that executives knew about the addictive and carcinogenic properties of cigarettes but engaged in a decades-long effort to suppress such information.)
• Tobacco judgment a sad victory (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from Wendy Bjornson of the Tobacco-Free Coalition of Oregon says a Portland jury's recent $80.3 million judgment against Philip Morris was sad because Jesse "Williams' death was among more than 6,000 in Oregon caused by tobacco every year." Bjornson's logic is clearly prohibitionist, suggesting all sorts of problems will magically disappear just by targeting tobacco companies.)
• Freedom of Choice (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week from a 56-year-old woman with severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder follows up on a recent article on Ritalin, noting it is a drug that can give some patients more choices by freeing them from the impulse to respond to every new stimulus.)
• One Size Doesn't Fit All (Another letter to the editor of Willamette Week says its recent article about proposed legislation that would lock up some people with mental illnesses and force them to take dangerous drugs omitted the perspective of patients who have experienced civil commitment.)
• Careful What You Wish For (A similar letter to the editor of Willamette Week says that making civil commitment and forced treatment easier won't affect just a tiny group of weirdos. Psychiatrists claim that most people are crazy. A 1993 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health claims that over a lifetime, more than half the population is mentally ill, yet only 4 percent who "need" it receive treatment. Think about that before advocating that people should be forced to take psychiatric drugs, which cause serious brain damage and turn people into bloated and numbed-out near-zombies. The rights the attorney general wants to take away may be your own.)
• Student Drug Use, Violence Rising, Survey Finds (The Seattle Times says the seventh annual Kids Count Data book survey of Washington students suggests the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs that are illegal to Washington schoolchildren is on the rise, with "regular" use starting in sixth grade and escalating to more than one in four 12th-graders reporting they went to school drunk in the past year. More than one in three adolescents also showed signs of clinical depression.)
• Dr. Donald Abrams to Speak on "Medical Marijuana: Tribulations and Trials" (A list subscriber says the Lindesmith Center will sponsor a talk May 25 at the San Francisco Medical Society by the UCSF professor who is carrying out the first research with marijuana allowed by the federal government in this decade.)
• Judge keeps smoking verdict, cuts damages (According to the Oregonian, a judge in San Francisco refused Tuesday to grant a new trial or to overturn a local jury's verdict against Philip Morris, but lowered from $51.5 million to $26.5 million the amount the company must pay to a former three-pack-a-day smoker with inoperable lung cancer. When Patricia Henley won $51.5 million in February, it was the largest award ever in a tobacco liability lawsuit filed by an individual smoker. However, that verdict was surpassed last week by a Portland jury, which ordered Philip Morris to pay a record-setting $80.3 million in damages to the family of Jesse Williams, a school custodian and longtime Marlboro smoker. Philip Morris said it will take the case to the California Court of Appeal.)
• Truth or DARE - The Dubious Drug-Education Program Takes New York (The Village Voice says over the next four years, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program will implement its full curriculum - kindergarten through 12th grade - in all of New York City's public schools. After first gaining a foothold in the city in 1996, DARE America now donates $1.5 million worth of supplies annually for 271 New York City elementary schools, while the NYPD covers $8.5 million a year in salaries and benefits for the city's DARE officers. Since 1983, DARE has become the world's dominant drug prevention program. The $230 million operation conducts courses in all 50 states and in 44 countries, from Sweden and England to Brazil and Costa Rica. Eighty percent of U.S. school districts have DARE. More than a dozen studies have concluded that DARE has no lasting impact. And one six-year study found increased drug use among suburban kids who graduated from DARE.)
• As Inmate Population Grows, So Does A Focus On Children (The New York Times examines some of the unintended consequences for families of America's booming prison-industrial complex. There are 7 million children with a parent in jail or prison or recently released on probation or parole. Experts warn that the nation's emphasis on imprisonment may be helping to create the next generation of criminals.)
• Farmers Show Interest In Hemp (The Intelligencer Journal, in Pennsylvania, says Lancaster County Farm Bureau president Jane Balmer believes that falling prices for corn, soybeans and tobacco mean the time is ripe for local farmers to consider planting alternative crops, including hemp. The farm bureau board voted Tuesday night to investigate the matter, so an organizational meeting to explore the viability of forming the Pennsylvania Hemp Growers and Processors Co-op will be held April 16 in New Holland. According to Shawn Patrick House, owner of Lancaster Hemp Co., a wholesale distribution business, Lancaster County in 1850 was growing 540 tons of hemp, the same amount that was imported to the United States in 1996.)
• Number Of Drug Deaths In Florida Rises (The Tampa Tribune says deaths in Florida last year attributable to illegal drugs increased dramatically. There were 206 deaths caused by contaminated street heroin and the ignorance of users, up 51 percent from 1997. More than five times as many people - 1,128 - died from cocaine-related causes, up 65 percent since 1992, including last year's 8.6 percent jump. The state's new drug czar, James McDonough, formerly of the White House drug czar's office, said many of the victims were long-term addicts in their 30s and 40s who finally succumbed to years of drug abuse.)
• FBI investigating death of DEA agent (The Associated Press says George Gehring, 34, who had been assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, was found Wednesday morning with a bullet wound to the temple. Police recovered a pistol at the scene. The wire service doesn't say whether a copy of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana was also found nearby.)
• Smoke eater fined $2,500 for pot (The Edmonton Sun says Dean Troyer, a city firefighter, was sentenced yesterday in an Alberta court for growing 15 cannabis plants to combat depression and physical pain.)
• Canadians high on medicinal pot: poll (According to the Edmonton Sun, a recent Decima poll showed 78 percent of Canadians support the use of marijuana as medicine. Only 18 percent of respondents opposed it. The strongest support, 83 percent, came from households with at least $60,000 annual incomes and individuals with a university education. The poll shows medical marijuana "is more popular than any of the political parties. They're lucky to get 40 percent support," said Amanda Stewart, director of the Cannabis Re-legalization Society of Alberta. Stewart estimated about 10 percent of the population in Edmonton already uses the herb to ease physical pain and-or mental anguish.)
• Canadians Favour The Use Of Medical Marijuana (The National Post version)
• Fugitive Former Governor Of Mexican State Charged With Drug Trafficking (An Associated Press article in the Seattle Times says the indictment of Mario Villanueva yesterday, the day after the expiration of his term as governor of the state of Quintana Roo, came nine days after he dropped out of sight. Prosecutors denied they delayed the criminal case to avoid charging and impeaching a sitting governor, something that has never been done in Mexico. Villanueva said in a letter published yesterday by Mexican newspapers that the case was politically motivated.)
  Bytes: 106,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Tuesday, April 6, 1999:

• HB 3052 Hearing Alert (A list subscriber forwards news about a "public" hearing tomorrow in Salem on Rep. Kevin Mannix's bill that would eviscerate Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Notice of the hearing was published Monday morning and news of it did not spread even at the capitol until Monday afternoon.)
• Tobacco verdict shows wisdom (A letter to the edtior of the Oregonian praises a Multnomah County jury's recent, record $80.3 million verdict against Philip Morris.)
• Claim part in destructive habits (Another letter to the editor of the Oregonian suggests the recent $80.3 million verdict against Philip Morris wouldn't be duplicated if someone using the same logic sued alcohol manufacturers or the state lottery.)
• Legislature 1999: House won't touch pot bill - Measure to refine voter-passed medicinal marijuana law dies in committee (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, says the Washington state House Judiciary Committee failed to vote on Senate Bill 5704 Friday, essentially killing it. Representatives were leery of changing the law this session because they didn't want to change something the voters had approved.)
• Clinic and medical legal colloquium on medical cannabis (An e-mail from Jim Rosenfield, who maintains one of the drug policy reform sites making up the Drug Reform Coordination Network online library, publicizes a clinical session with a "well-known California physician" June 11 in Los Angeles for people who feel that cannabis might help with their medical problems, but who have had difficulty getting a recommendation from their frightened physicians. A separate legal colloquium will be held that evening for physicians on recommending medical marijuana under California law.)
• McCaffrey Has The Gall To Meddle In State Business (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register says the drug czar has a lot of nerve, threatening to arrest California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Why did it take a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol but only an act of Congress to prohibit marijuana?)
• The McWilliams Mall (Peter McWilliams, the best-selling author and AIDS/cancer patient being murdered by the federal government in the land of Proposition 215 as he awaits trial on trumped up marijuana conspiracy charges, needs money. Please check out his new online mall at http://www.mcwilliams.com/mall "where you can buy practically anything.")
• Benefit for "Brownie" Mary Rathbun, San Francisco Legend (An e-mail list notice publicizes a variety show featuring the best talent from San Francisco's gay community Monday, April 19, at Theater Rhino. Along with comedians, singers and dancers, Dennis Peron is scheduled to appear. "Brownie" Mary gained fame for distributing marijuana in medicinal brownies she baked for AIDS patients at San Francisco General Hospital.)
• In Search Of A Good Death (The second part of a two-part article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the problem of chronic pain focuses on issues related to chronic pain in the dying. Four out of 10 such patients are in severe pain most of the time, according to one recent survey. Experts insist that the statistics only mask the real tragedy: Most of the suffering can be avoided. But four months of interviews and bedside visits with people in terminal stages of illness revealed that adequate pain relief remains an elusive goal - the exception rather than the norm.)
• Prisons Bulge With Drug Offenders (A staff editorial in the Valley Morning Star, in Texas, endorses "The Effective National Drug Control Strategy" recently proposed by a consortium of drug policy reform groups. "As politically dangerous as these proposals may be, they offer a realistic alternative to an ever-expanding and costly prison-building campaign that continues to fill the prison with drug offenders, and not just those who are menaces to society.")
• Iowa Report: 1 in 25 Workers Showed Evidence of Drug Use (The Omaha World-Herald, in Nebraska, says the first in what is to be annual report by the Iowa Public Health Department required by law, private employers in 1998 conducted 31,740 drug tests on workers or job applicants, and 1,379 - or 4.3 percent - indicated traces of "drugs," mostly marijuana.)
• Allentown drug dealer wins high court battle (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in the case of Amanda Mitchell, a relatively low-level seller of cocaine, that defendants have a right to remain silent about evidence at their sentencing hearings and, if they invoke that Fifth Amendment right, it cannot be held against them. The ruling means Mitchell, who originally received a 10-year sentence, will probably be sentenced again.)
• Medical Marijuana Suit (A news release from the Cannabis Action Network says supporters of medical marijuana patient Joe Tacl and his family will demonstrate tomorrow at the courthouse in Levy County, Florida, as Gainesville attorney Gary S. Edinger files a lawsuit alleging that a sheriff's deputy vandalized and stole items in the Tacl home during a cultivation bust. Mr. Tacl, his wife and son all face felony charges for the same five plants.)
• The Irrelevance of Evidence (Jim Rosenfield, who maintains a huge online library of information about the failures of DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, forwards some fascinating excerpts from a February 1998 study on "The Irrelevance of Evidence in the Development of School-Based Drug Prevention Policy, 1986-1996," by D.M. Gorman. Since the late 1960s drug prevention courses have never worked; they have always tended to correlate with increased use of illegal drugs by students. To understand why such counterproductive policies continue to be funded, it's instructive to compare Soviet agricultural policy as it developed in accordance with the theories and research of Trofim Lysenko during the Stalin era. Lysenko's "science" thrived under Stalin's regime, in the face of disastrous consequences, as it was totally in accord with the prevailing political philosophy: research data were irrelevant.)
• Lobbyists Winning Marijuana Fight (A letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune recalls a picture that appeared in Life magazine in the mid-1960s that showed wall-to-wall liquor lobbyists packed together in the halls of Congress with representatives. The alcohol lobbyists declared there would never be legal marijuana as long as they were around.)
• High Court Expands Police Power In Traffic Searches (The Los Angeles Times recounts yesterday's news about the U.S. Supreme Court expanding the drug exception to the Constitution. The judges ruled that a police officer who stops a car and has reason to suspect that it contains illegal drugs or guns may search everything in the vehicle, including a passenger's belongings. Monday's decision concerned only purses, bags and other belongings, the court stressed. Officers cannot search the passengers themselves and check their pockets, the justices said, reaffirming a 1948 ruling.)
• High Court Backs Searches Of Car Passenger Belongings (The Associated Press version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Court Loosens Car Search Rules (The Los Angeles Times version in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune)
• Justices Expand Car-Search Rules (The Chicago Tribune version)
• Court Broadens Police Search Powers (The New York Times version in the Orange County Register)
• Police Searching Car May Include Passenger's Things (The original New York Times version)
• Ruling Expands Police Powers In Car Searches (The Washington Post version in the San Francisco Chronicle)
• High Court Expands Car Search Authority - Passenger Property May Be Examined (The original Washington Post version)
• Car Search Police Power Expanded (The Florida Times-Union version)
• The PM Must Listen On Drugs (A staff editorial in the Age, in Melbourne, says Australian Prime Minister John Howard's vocal support for the decision by Pymble Ladies College in Sydney to expel nine girls for smoking marijuana exemplifies an approach that has demonstrably failed. Drugs have become more readily available and cheaper on Australian streets than ever before. The number of young people dying from heroin as a consequence has risen at an alarming rate. A prohibitive regime alone does not and cannot work. By enunciating such views yet again, Mr Howard sends all sorts of messages, particularly to the young: that he is out of touch with street realities, and that he is stubborn in his refusal to accept the advice and views of others more experienced in the drugs question.)
  Bytes: 120,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Monday, April 5, 1999:

• Public gathering to kick off the OCTA 2000 petition drive (A news release from the American Antiprohibition League, in Portland, publicizes the opening of the signature-gathering campaign for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative petition 2 pm Tuesday, April 20, at Mt. Tabor Park in Portland. Speakers include the three chief petitioners: Dr. Phillip Leveque, a retired professor of pharmacology and toxicology; Portland attorney Paul Loney; and D. Paul Stanford of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, the organization promoting OCTA.)
• Oregon Industrial Hemp Bill - HB 2933 (A list subscriber urges Oregon residents to contact their state representatives and urge them to support Rep. Floyd Prozanski's industrial hemp bill.)
• Hemp Farming: Learning From The Past - Saving The Next Generation's Future (The spring issue of the Central Oregon Green Pages features a plug for the restoration of industrial hemp farming.)
• Industry entwined with politics (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the FDA doesn't regulate the tobacco industry and Congress doesn't prohibit tobacco because the tobacco industry pays a lot of taxes and makes a lot of campaign contributions, both of which are inimical to the author's apparent objective - prohibition.)
• Living in Pain - Part 1 - For chronic pain sufferers, even hope can hurt (The San Francisco Chronicle examines the problems faced by chronic pain sufferers such as Chris Ally of San Francisco, who smashed his motorcycle nearly 28 years ago. Chronic pain - the kind that lasts longer than the injury that may have caused it - afflicts nearly 100 million people in the United States, more than a third of the population, according to the Society for Neuroscience. Chronic pain can detrimentally "rewire" the nervous system, but is misunderstood, misdiagnosed and mistreated in as many as half of affected patients. At least 16,000 Americans die each year from gastrointestinal problems caused by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs, widely used pain relievers such as ibuprofen and aspirin. Yet physicians and patients alike are often reluctant to use narcotics because of the stigma surrounding them. The medical system routinely fails pain patients. "Pain patients require a lot of talking and a lot of listening," said Gerald Gebhart, a pharmacologist.)
• Small Farm Town's SWAT Team Leaves Costly Legacy (The Los Angeles Times says a federal jury last month ordered Dinuba, California, to pay out $12.5 million for brutality after its elite special-weapons-and-tactics squad shot a 64-year-old farm worker, Ramon Gallardo, 15 times, killing him. With insurance covering only $9.5 million, and its annual budget less than half the size of the award, residents now face the very real prospect of crippling cuts in public services. Now, everyone wonders why Dinuba, known as Raisinland U.S.A., with a dozen cops on the beat and not a single murder on the books in 1997, thought it needed a paramilitary police unit complete with submachine guns and head-to-toe combat gear. A 1996 survey of small-town police departments nationwide showed that 65 percent boasted a fully operational paramilitary unit.)
• Nearly 5,000 Gather For 27th Hash Bash (The Michigan Daily, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says about 5,000 people attended Saturday's festival, including Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong and Steve Hager of High Times. Some at the rally raised the issue of using marijuana as medicine. Belleville resident Rachel Gagnon is epileptic and has spent much of her life suffering from seizures. For years she was on a prescription drug that caused her to lose her hair, lose control of her bowels and even stop breathing one day. "I quit taking that drug and now I smoke marijuana," Gagnon said. "I feel normal. It keeps me calm so I don't have seizures.")
• A2 Police Report Fewer Offenses (A second article on the 27th annual Hash Bash in the Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan says only 29 people were cited for being in possession of marijuana and taken to the DPS office for processing - a decline from last year. Police found more violations unrelated to marijuana, including nine people who were ticketed for carrying or consuming alcohol on city streets and four minors who were ticketed for using and/or carrying tobacco. The campus newspaper doesn't say how many of the marijuana offenders were UW students who will now lose their student loans or other financial aid under the Higher Education Act.)
• City's Marijuana Ordinance Gets Rehashed (According to the Detroit Free Press, Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon said Sunday that she and other Republican council members are studying whether to put the city's $25 marijuana possession penalty on the local ballot again. The city's pot penalty has come under attack recently as too lenient by Republican Wisconsin state senators Mike Rogers and Beverly Hammerstrom, who are backing a bill to prevent local communities from levying drug penalties less stringent than the state law. The bill passed the Senate 36-1 last month and is headed to the House. Sheldon said that while she does not oppose the state penalty, she is concerned that lawmakers are "trying to interfere with what Ann Arbor citizens have voted on.")
• Conveyor-Belt Justice (Syndicated columnist William Raspberry writes in the Washington Post that one of the recurring gags on the old "I Love Lucy" television show had Lucy working on an assembly line, when the boss sped up the line. Suddenly there was no way for the frantic Lucy to keep up. She wrapped or boxed as quickly as she could, obviously determined to do her best under dreadful circumstances, but the packages always overwhelmed her - until someone thought to pull the switch. It was funny when it happened to Lucy. It's not funny when it happens in the criminal justice system. In state after state, jailers are overwhelmed. It is the incarceration rate, not the crime rate, that is the problem.)
• High Court Says Police Can Search Passengers In Vehicle (An Associated Press article in the Seattle Times says the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 today in a Wyoming methamphetamine case that police can search the personal belongings of all passengers inside a car when lawfully seeking criminal evidence against the driver.)
• Ruling Expands Scope Of Traffic-Stop Searches (The version in the Omaha World-Herald)
• Crackdown on Corruption (The Washington Post says the U.S. Customs Service, faced with concerns that its inspectors are increasingly vulnerable to bribes by drug smugglers, plans to make the fight against corruption a priority for agency officials. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has started to shake up his top management, strengthen disciplinary procedures, improve training for employees and revise hiring procedures. He also has asked for authority to use polygraphs when hiring new agents. However, the Customs Service is already embroiled in internal conflicts such as that between criminal investigators and Internal Affairs agents.)
  Bytes: 88,900 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Sunday, April 4, 1999:

• Tribulations of tobacco trial steel victors for followup (The Oregonian interviews the two Portland attorneys, Ray Thomas and Bill Gaylord, who won an $80.3 million judgment from Philip Morris this week. Thomas harbors dark and deeply personal thoughts about the tobacco industry. A lifelong smoker himself, he has tried numerous times to quit. "I'm not the world's smartest person," he says. "If we can beat 'em, they ought to be worried.")
• Don't Prohibit Guns (A letter to the editor of the Bulletin, in rural Bend, Oregon, compares the prospect of gun prohibition with the realities of drug prohibition. Despite 80 years of drug prohibition, at a cost of billions of dollars, and at great loss to our civil liberties, anybody of any age that has a couple of bucks can buy illegal drugs. They're cheaper, more pure, more diverse and more widely available than ever before. The illicit drug market is an unregulated free market with no age limit and no ID required. As with drugs, gun prohibition would only create more of what gun opponents claim they want to stop.)
• Million Marijuana March in Seattle (A press release from Seattle Events Inc., producers of the Seattle Hempfest, publicizes events May 1 organized in conjunction with the worldwide reform rally.)
• We're All Prisoners Of Our Incarceration Policies (Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large says everybody knows we've been sweeping something under the rug. The lump is too big not to notice, but until recently few people have had any inclination to clean house. Terry Kupers thinks that is changing. Kupers, an Oakland psychiatrist, says that for too long, mentally ill people have been disappearing into prisons while the rest of us looked the other way. His new book gives his diagnosis and prescription for our penchant for hiding people with whom we do not want to be bothered. "Prison Madness," arriving in book stores this month, provides anecdotes, statistics and a very large pill: Stop using police and prisons to treat social ills.)
• A Poet In Exile (Los Angeles Times columnist Al Martinez describes the plight of Peter McWilliams, the best-selling Los Angeles author who is dying of AIDS because the Feds won't let him smoke marijuana, even though California voters legalized its use for medicinal purposes three years ago.)
• Medical Marijuana Action Welcome (A staff editorial in the Ukiah Daily Journal supports efforts by Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver and District Attorney Norm Vroman to help local medical marijuana patients by implementing the California Compassionate Use Act of 1996. However, the newspaper is concerned that "doctors under federal scrutiny for the slightest adherence to the new medical marijuana law will be put in compromising positions if asked to go on record prescribing pot, since federal drug war storm troopers have threatened to yank prescribing licenses from doctors who do.")
• Founder Of Co-Op Hopes To Receive Pot In Prison (The Orange County Register says James Silva, the attorney for Marvin Chavez, the founder of Orange County's medical marijuana co-op who is serving a six-year sentence at Wasco State Prison for giving away marijuana to Proposition 215 patients, plans to "push" the California corrections department a second time to allow Chavez access to marijuana behind bars for his debilitating back pain.)
• Prison Chief Says State's Facilities At Breaking Point (According to an Associated Press article in the Orange County Register, Robert Presley, California Governor Gray Davis' new Cabinet secretary for prisons, said that by April 2001, the state will have run out of prison space, even with the use of temporary housing. The state system now holds 160,000 inmates. California spent more than $5 billion in an attempt to build its way out of over-crowding in the 1980s and early 1990s. But voters stopped approving prison bonds in 1990.)
• Drug Seizure Money Bypassing Schools (The Omaha World-Herald says when Nebraska police confiscate large bundles of cash linked to drug dealing, the state's constitution directs that half the money go to schools. But that rarely happens. Instead, police take forfeiture cases to federal court, which takes a 20 percent cut for the government and returns the rest to the local law-enforcement agency that confiscated the money. Besides getting to keep the cash, local police find that the Feds don't require proof of a crime before suspected drug money can be forfeited.)
• Smaller Crowd, Fewer Arrests At Annual Pro-Marijuana-Legalization Event (The Detroit Free Press says 3,500 to 4,000 people mixed politics mixed with partying at Saturday's 27th annual Hash Bash at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.)
• CIA's Gottlieb Ran LSD Mind Control Testing (The New York Times publishes an obituary for Sidney Gottlieb, a Bronx-born biochemist with a Ph.D. from Caltech whose job was to concoct the tools of espionage: disappearing inks, poison darts and toxic handkerchiefs. Gottlieb also worked during the 1950s and 1960s on MKULTRA, the agency's secret experiments with mind-altering drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. While the CIA was still examining the drug's possibilities as a means of mind control, many young Americans were dropping the hallucinogen as a vehicle of mind expansion and recreation, thanks, in part, to the CIA's activism in the '50s in the name of national security. It was not until 1972 that Gottlieb called a halt to the experiments with psychedelics, concluding that they were "too unpredictable in their effects on individual human beings . . . to be operationally useful.")
• Politicized Drug-War Issues (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post criticizes yesterday's duplicitous staff editorial about medical marijuana. That smoked marijuana is a crude delivery system, and an irritant to the anti-smoking and the anti-drug stalwarts, does not justify the actions of government leaders who willfully obstruct the delivery of effective medicine to the sick. At this point in time, it would be better to err on the side of a smoking Camel, a coughing Marlboro man or appetite-enhancing marijuana brownie than continue witchcraft politics that prohibit medicinal marijuana. It is wrongheaded for national leaders, editorial boards and drug czars to lag so far behind an informed public opinion on the medical marijuana question.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 4 April 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about several developments in Germany - The drugs commissioner shows sympathy for the medical use of cannabis; Handing over of signatures in support of the Frankfurt Resolution; and, an announcement of a trial before the Constitutional Court. The science report discusses the new patent for dexanabinol as a TNF-alpha inhibitor.)
  Bytes: 79,100 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Saturday, April 3, 1999:

• Federal officials forge anti-drug partnership with Maryland, Oregon (The Associated Press says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, signed an agreement Friday with Maryland to make the state, along with Oregon, a national model for a joint federal-state partnership in the war on some drug users. The partnership agreement does not involve any funding commitments. It does set up a series of committees and working groups with representatives from the state and federal governments, and commits the groups to work together to cut illegal drug use in half by 2007.)
• Court of Appeals affirms decision against physician (The Oregonian says the Oregon Court of Appeals has affirmed the state Board of Medical Examiners' actions in disciplining a Corvallis internist for his role in a euthanasia case. The board had reprimanded and temporarily suspended the medical license of Dr. James Gallant in 1997 for unprofessional or dishonorable conduct in allowing a nurse to give a dying and comatose patient a lethal injection. Gallant has said that his patient "was adamant in obtaining my promise that I would not let her suffer should she become ill with no hope of recovery to a meaningful life.")
• Judge says Keizer doesn't owe former police chief more termination pay (The Associated Press says Marion County Circuit Court Judge Albin Norblad has ruled that the city of Keizer does not owe Charles Stull, its former police chief, any more termination pay. The husband of Shirley Stull, the Oregon legislator who backed marijuana recriminalization in early 1997, was fired in June 1997 after an investigation concluded he had intimidated and harassed employees.)
• Hayden Drug Reform Bill (An action alert from California NORML urges California residents to contact their legislators in support of Sen. Tom Hayden's bill, SB 1261, which would set up a state commission to study the connection between drug laws and violence. California NORML has endorsed SB 1261 as a welcome step in the right direction which could set the stage for a serious discussion of marijuana and drug decriminalization.)
• Enough Prisons? (A staff editorial in the Fresno Bee says there's widespread agreement, and considerable evidence, that jailing more violent and repeat criminals has contributed to the sharp drop in crime against both persons and property. But as John J. Dilulio Jr., a leading conservative criminologist, pointed out recently, the same evidence suggests that we've now reached the point where jailing more offenders, particularly nonviolent ones, draws dollars away from more promising and efficient crime-control spending: drug treatment, policing, improved probation and parole and programs aimed at preventing juvenile crime.)
• San Francisco May 1 Event Announcements (A news release from California NORML publicizes events scheduled in conjunction with the global Million Marijuana March reform rally, including speakers, music and a dance party. Volunteers are needed!)
• Utah Meth Problem Gets Publicity While Rising Use Of Marijuana Goes Unnoticed (The Salt Lake Tribune says Utah ranks third in the nation for meth lab seizures, but a survey of 10,000 students in grades seven through 12 in May 1997 by Brigham Young University shows marijuana use by Utah children has gone up 50 percent in the last 13 years.)
• State Jail Warden Arrested (The Houston Chronicle says Jeffrey Jeffcoat, the warden of the 2,100-inmate Gist State Jail in Beaumont, Texas, was arrested Friday on allegations that he accepted a bribe from a prison employee seeking a promotion.)
• City Betrayed Officers In Oregon Case, Fired Cop Says (According to the Houston Chronicle, James Willis, the lone officer charged in connection with the shooting death of Pedro Oregon Navarro during a warrantless break-in by six prohibition agents, says Houston city and police officials betrayed him and his fellow officers to avoid taking political heat.)
• Oregon's Family Clears A Hurdle (The Houston Chronicle says the federal civil rights lawsuit over the death of Pedro Oregon Navarro hasn't gone to court yet, but his family's lawyers have already won a small victory. By keeping Oregon's brother, Rogelio, off the stand in the misdemeanor criminal trespass trial of former Houston police Officer James Willis, attorneys for the family have protected their key witness in the civil rights suit, several criminal defense lawyers agree.)
• Semi-Legal Drugs - A Field Full Of Buttons (The Economist, in Britain, examines the peyote industry sanctioned by Congress for American Indians only. In the United States, the peyote cactus - Lophophora williamsii - grows naturally only in four counties in Texas, and it cannot be cultivated successfully elsewhere. The Texas Department of Public Safety regulates the harvesting and transportation of peyote buttons by licensing seven people - peyoteros - and monitors them on a quarterly basis. But the supply of peyote is shrinking even as Native American Church demand increases. There is an easy solution: using peyote stocks that stretch 300 miles or more into Mexico, a reserve that might produce twice the output of the United States. Yet, ironically for a government that has often run into trouble with American officials for enforcing drug laws too weakly, Mexico continues to stand firm on peyote, preventing any harvesting or possession of the cactus on its side of the border.)
• Beyond DARE - Dane County Communities Search For New Ways To Prevent Teen Drug Abuse (The Wisconsin State Journal looks back on the 16 years since the nation's first crop of fifth-graders DARE'd to be substance free. It's been 13 years since Nancy Reagan pleaded with Generation X-ers to "Just Say No." Use of alcohol and marijuana is increasing. There is no evidence that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has had any more beneficial effect than Nancy Reagan's attempt to shift public attention away from the news that her astrologer was running the country. Three Dane County school districts - Madison, Deerfield and Mt. Horeb - have dropped DARE. So has Lodi in Columbia County. Those who still back DARE no longer view it as an end-all. Some say answers lie in a new buzzword for the millennium: assets. But even those buying into it admit there's little proof that it works either.)
• Providence Police Lack Records On Seized Cars (The Providence Journal-Bulletin, in Rhode Island, says its investigation into how a 1991 Honda Accord obtained in a drug arrest wound up in private hands has led Capt. John J. Ryan, the Providence Police Department's director of administration, to disclose that over the past eight years, the department has sold 250 cars seized in drug arrests, but has almost no records of how much the cars were sold for, or who bought them.)
• Former Chief Turns Against His Men (The New York Times says Alexander V. Oriente, the former police chief in West New York, New Jersey, a small blue-collar town across the Hudson River from Manhattan's Upper West Side, has already admitted to payoffs, kickbacks, shakedowns and bribes. He has declared himself a liar, a loan shark, even a common thief. Even more surprising, for more than a week, Oriente has been testifying as a government witness against four of his former officers accused of taking bribes and kickbacks. The indictments in the case paint a detective-novel picture of illicit after-hours bars, illegal video gambling dens and police-protected prostitution rings. With its shady characters and film noir backdrop, Oriente's tale is exceptionally noir. For nearly a decade, prosecutors say, Oriente and his officers turned their department into a bustling organized crime enterprise that collected and shared as much as $1.5 million in illegal gains.)
• Do We Fear Pot - Or Those Who Smoke It? (A letter to the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in Virginia, pans a recent editorial cartoon. "Why does our society spend so much time and effort on this prohibition? I believe we can find a hint in your cartoon. While it depicts a clean-cut doctor, the patient has long hair. Could it be there is something other than marijuana that bothers us about its users?")
• Medical Marijuana (A typically duplicitous staff editorial in the Washington Post about the March 17 Institute of Medicine report says "There are good reasons to be skeptical of the movement for medical marijuana. The issue has become a kind of stalking horse for marijuana legalization generally, one that avoids the serious public policy questions legalization presents." This after more than 25 years of activists' efforts to get government to confront "the serious public policy questions legalization presents" and a lengthier period of stonewalling by government, including, most recently, the quashing of voters' rights in Washington, D.C.)
• FDA Approves Drugs Even When Experts On Its Advisory Raise Safety Questions (A letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal questions the journal's conclusion that the Food and Drug Administration is "probably not" approving drugs too fast. For example, the transcript of the meeting of the FDA's advisory committee for mibefradil, which is available at the administration's website, supports the increasingly common view that the FDA has become the pharmaceutical industry's partner rather than its watchdog.)
• 'Too Pure' Heroin Claims 14 Lives (The Guardian, and the British police the newspaper gets all its information from, promote the myth that it's the heroin rather than the contaminants in street drugs that are killing users. This in a country where addicts receive 100 percent pure heroin in maintenance programs that have recorded no deaths from "overdoses," which the Consumers Union explained 25 years ago to be a misnomer anyway.)
  Bytes: 99,800 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Friday, April 2, 1999:

• Oregon Medical Marijuana Rules - Public Hearing April 15 (Sandee Burbank of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse publicizes a hearing in Portland on the Oregon Health Division's proposed rules for implementing the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, scheduled to take effect May 1. Plus a follow-up with more details by Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for Measure 67.)
• Senate panel passes bill to tighten assisted suicide law (The Associated Press says the Oregon state Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved SB 491, a bill that would give Catholic-affiliated hospitals that oppose assisted suicide a firmer hand to punish doctors who flout hospital policy and help patients end their lives.)
• Revision of suicide law draws less heat (The Oregonian version)
• Drug Czar - Hung By His Own Report (Orange County Register columnist Alan Bock gives a close reading of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana and says it may be true that its conclusions are "politically colored, but that may not be such a bad thing. Perhaps including a few politically correct demurrers like undue fear about the effects of smoking per se in an era in which smoking anything has been so demonized is a small price to pay for enhancing the credibility of the nuggets of valuable truth the report contains." And Bock proceeds to tease a number of profound implications from one sentence in the report that says "it is the legal status of marijuana that makes it a gateway drug.")
• Medical Marijuana Stalls (The Orange County Register responds to a threat by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, to arrest California Attorney General Bill Lockyer for carrying out medical marijuana research by urging Lockyer to defy the political appointee. "Mr. McCaffrey's bullying attitude is intolerable. Attorney General Lockyer can be a hero. He should seize the day.")
• Prosecutors move to vacate drug trafficking convictions (The Associated Press says nearly 20 convictions were overturned and at least two prisoners were set free Friday in New Hampshire because the convictions were based on illegal searches by Rockingham County Deputy Sheriff Wayne Powers, who opened about 100 air freight packages without warrants while assigned to the state attorney general's drug task force.)
• Evidence Used To Prosecute The Cases Was Illegally Obtained (The UPI version)
• Arthritic Grandmother Beaten, Robbed Trying To Buy Pot (The Associated Press says police in Winnabow, North Carolina, are considering filing charges against Tinkey Mae Sullivan, 53, who was robbed while trying to buy marijuana for her rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments with her 13-year-old grandson in the car. Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C., defended Mrs. Sullivan. "Clearly you're not contributing to the delinquency of a minor if what you're doing is trying to get drugs that are in some cases lifesaving and relieve pain and suffering. It's almost a human right.")
• The Holy Grail of drug testing (A list subscriber forwards the URL to a recent report assessing the accuracy of all currently manufactured urine tests used in pre-employment screening. "This study proves their total unreliability." Another forwarded message points out the study cited concerns only on-site testing, rarely used by employers.)
• U.S. Targets Drugs, Violence In Schools, Crime (The Los Angeles Times says U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announced Thursday an "unprecedented partnership" between three Cabinet-level departments - Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services - would commit $300 million in new grants to school districts that can demonstrate effective ways of combating violence and drugs. The grants are ostensibly a response to last year's "spate" of school-yard shootings, neither of which were linked to illegal "drugs.")
• U.S. DEA helps Mexico hunt for missing governor (According to Reuters, the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Thursday that its agents had joined Mexican authorities in a search for Mario Villanueva, the governor or the Mexican state of Quintana Roo who disappeared days before he faced possible arrest for alleged ties to drug traffickers. Although the D.E.A. denied it was engaged in any criminal investigation of Villanueva, his lawyer said Villanueva fears he will be arrested and subjected to an unfair trial in Mexico. The Washington Post said Thursday that law enforcement officials in the United States, Mexico and other countries were investigating bank accounts in the names of Villanueva, family members and friends that allegedly contain millions of dollars, including a Swiss account with $73 million in his name.)
• Under Drug Probe, Mexican Governor Disappears (A different Reuters version)
• Peruvian Police Seize Two Tons Of Cocaine (Reuters says Thursday's bust was the largest in four years. Most of the cocaine was being shipped to Europe, where it would have been worth $185 million on the street.)
• Cannabis DNA bid to beat traffickers (The Herald, in Glasgow, Scotland, says forensic scientists at Strathclyde University have developed a DNA test for marijuana that will allow police to trace different cannabis samples to the same source, while detailing the supply routes of "drug" traffickers across the world. The new technology would seem to suggest that cultivators might want to think twice about whom they give away their clones to.)
• Thai Villagers Killed In Apparent Drugs Dispute (According to Reuters, police in Bangkok said on Friday that a group of about 30 gunmen, believed to be members of the United Wa State Army based in Myanmar, attacked Maesoon village in Chiangmai province, taking an unknown number of hostages and killing nine.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 85 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original online drug policy newsmagazine includes - Portland, Oregon police called to account for surveillance operation; Two new polls show strong public support for drug policy reform; Courts place limits on drug testing in workplace, schools; Hash Bash draws ire of state lawmakers; California Democrats give nod to industrial hemp; Government reports: prison, drug use trends; ACLU: Financial privacy update; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith - Funding the unknown soldier)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 92 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Marijuana and Medicine - Assessing the Science Base - Report of the Institute of Medicine, by Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - It's a 1980s policy on 1990s drug crime; Slow the drug-test frenzy; Heroin use is unabated, report says; Heroin use booming in Spokane; Condemning dissident authors to death; and, Net becomes battleground in drug war. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Taking a hard look at state's jammed jails; More than 1m nonviolent prisoners; High court asked to hear challenge to prosecution deals; and, You're under arrest, and on tv. Cannabis articles include - The grass roots of teen drug abuse; Bill toughens marijuana laws; Calaveras man convicted of cultivating marijuana; Lockyer: U.S. will end push for nuke dump at desert site; and, Why is marijuana for the suffering still illegal? International News includes - U.N. to create own satellite program to find illegal drug; Scotland: National unit to wage war on drugs; UK: 10-year-olds being offered drugs; and, German health minister supports medical marihuana. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net points you to the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana, now online and fully scanned; the DrugNews archive of more than 20,000 searchable news articles; and the Conservatives for Reform web site. The Tip of the Week notes four recent letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal are worth $18,000 to the reform movement, and shows you how you can help. The Quote of the Week cites a 19th-century article in Scientific American by Dr. W.H. Stokes.)
  Bytes: 128,000 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Thursday, April 1, 1999:

• NORML Weekly Press Release (Marijuana induces minimum driving impairment compared to alcohol, Toronto study says; Gallup poll shows Americans support medical marijuana by three to one margin; California Democrats adopt resolution supporting hemp; Senate okays bill forcing Michigan cities to impose criminal penalties for marijuana offenders; Crime committee kills Minnesota hemp bill)
• Pedal Pusher (Willamette Week, in Portland, tries to make sense of a press release sent to it by a local bicycle messenger calling himself Jolly Dodger, who hopes to set up a non-profit organization to deliver medical marijuana to qualified patients. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act clearly forbids such activity, but Geoff Sugerman of Oregonians for Medical Rights says Jolly Dodger's idea proves that the federal government needs to get involved in developing a regulated distribution system.)
• Philip Morris case is far from over (The Oregonian says the tobacco company will appeal the $80.3 million judgment against it by a Portland jury. Punitive damages make up $79.5 million of the verdict.)
• School informant project runs into objections (The Oregonian says the Brooklyn Action Corps, a neighborhood association in Southeast Portland, wants to put a stop to the Campus Crime Stoppers, a citywide school program that offers money to students to turn in their peers for criminal activity such as underage drinking and drug possession, even if it happens after school. "It scares a lot of people," said John Mathiesen, a member of the association. At a recent meeting attended by parents, teachers and others in the neighborhood, nobody was in favor of the program. Mathiesen pointed to a recent situation involving his son, an eighth-grader at Sellwood Middle School. He said his son and a classmate were falsely accused by another student of marijuana possession.)
• Award sets off emotional ride (The Oregonian follows up on yesterday's news about a Portland jury awarding a record $80.3 million to the family of Jesse Williams, a dead smoker. The family is pretty happy about it.)
• Overnight, Addicts Get Parkinson's, Scientists Get Breakthrough (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer describes how Dr. Phil Ballard and Dr. J. William Langston set out in 1982 to solve the mystery of a patient paralyzed by contaminated street drugs and ended up making a major breakthrough in the study of Parkinson's disease. "Addicts" in strangely frozen postures were turning up in emergency rooms all over the San Francisco Bay area. They had one thing in common. Each had been using designer street "narcotics." By chance, one researcher recalled reading an obscure journal report years earlier about a young college student who had ended up with identical symptoms after synthesizing his own drugs. Ballard found the article, though it wasn't even in the medical center library. It turned out that a contaminant called MPTP caused both the college student's symptoms and those of the street addicts. MPTP can slip across the blood-brain barrier, where it converts into a chemical that kills the dopamine-producing cells in the brain. A shortage of dopamine - the main neurotransmitter involved in coordinating movement - leads to Parkinson's disease.)
• Dying AIDS Patient Peter McWilliams Demands Drug Czar Implement Recommendations From Institute of Medicine Report (A harrowing e-mail from the best-selling author and medical-marijuana patient describes his suffering, denied marijuana as he awaits trial on federal conspiracy charges in Los Angeles. Includes a URL to the complete 15-page letter to General Barry McCaffrey.)
• Pot Has Little Effect On Driving, Study Says (The Orange County Register recounts the University of Toronto research suggesting that people who smoke moderate amounts of marijuana are not much more dangerous behind the wheel than completely sober drivers.)
• Gang Escapes With $1 Million In Cigarettes (An Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News says an armed gang backed a truck up to a warehouse in Corona, California, Wednesday and made off with what was believed to be the state's biggest cigarette heist since the first of the year, when prices jumped nearly $1 a pack to about $3.50.)
• When The Means Clash With The Ends (Daily Pilot columnist Joseph Bell, in Costa Mesa, California, comments favorably on the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana, as well as the recent study by the Justice Policy Institute of San Francisco that found no correlation between California's general drop in crime and its three-strikes sentencing law.)
• Marijuana As Medicine - State Bill Inches Forward (The Little Rock Free Press says HB 1043, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act penned by state representative Jim Lendall, has been placed on the active agenda of the state House's Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, though it may not be taken up before the legislature is expected to adjourn on April 9.)
• Drug Dealers Play Musical Chairs (A letter to the editor of the New London Day, in New London, Connecticut, by George Klinch Clarke, a local drug warrior, describes his efforts to promote the war and how they led him realize they were counterproductive.)
• Drug Dealers' Property On Auction Block (The Philadelphia Inquirer runs a free ad for an April 24 auction in Bristol Township, to be conducted by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office, of personal property seized from convicted drug dealers during the last eight months. The auction is the 16th since 1987 in a series that has generated $745,342 to pay for undercover narcotics investigations and crime-fighting equipment. Another $872,909 has been raised by auctioning seized real estate.)
• General Nonsense (The April issue of Reason magazine features senior editor Jacob Sullum reviewing the reign of error by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey. When McCaffrey took over the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1996, he invited Americans to think about the difference between drugs as an enemy and drugs as a cancer. Lately, though, the former general has been prompting us to ponder the fine line between appalling ignorance and bald-faced mendacity. For example, McCaffrey wrote to USA Today in October that "Marijuana is now the second leading cause of car crashes among young people." But, typically, McCaffrey's allegation contradicts the government's own researchers.)
• Culture Vultures: Call Off The War On Drugs (A contrarian but sometimes insightful and often delightful critique of the war on some drug users in the April issue of American Spectator magazine by Mark Steyn, a resident of New Hampshire, begins by observing that one of the few things his state does require of every grade school is that they post signs on the road warning motorists they are now entering a "Drug-Free School Zone." "It irks me. At board meetings, I'm tempted to stand up and demand we replace it with 'You Are Now Entering a Latin-Free School Zone' - which at least has the merit of being indisputable. And instead of being quietly ashamed of this stunted redefinition of education, we flaunt it as a badge of pride, out on the highway, even at a rural north country elementary school. For even kindergartners and first-graders must understand that they, too, are foot-soldiers in the 'war on drugs.' Best of all, like almost all other awards in the American school system, you get it automatically: every educational establishment in the state triumphantly displays the same sign, regardless of whether it's a Drug-Free School Zone or a School-Free Drug Zone.")
• General Sends Anti-Drug Message To Kids (The Meriden Record-Journal, in Meriden, Connecticut, covers a talk Wednesday night by the White House drug czar, General Barry R. McCaffrey, who rallied the troops at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington. Laura Spitz of Burlington - a member of a state-based group called Efficacy that aims to legalize marijuana - said she purchased a $25 ticket to question the general's policies, but she was never picked to ask her question.)
• Farmers Lobby to Legalize the Growing of Hemp (The New York Times says legislation to revive hemp passed in Hawaii this month and has been introduced in legislatures in North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Virginia, Vermont and Hawaii. In North Dakota, the Republican-controlled legislature also appears likely to enact laws promoting hemp. Until recently, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy asserted that making hemp legal would send the wrong message. But in late March its director, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, indicated in an interview that his opposition was softening. "If people believe that hemp fiber can be sold in the marketplace for a profit, and aren't actually trying to normalize the growing of marijuana around America, to the extent you want to grow hemp fiber we'd be glad to work with you," McCaffrey said. But as a profitable crop, he said, "I think it's going nowhere.")
• Deals On Wheels (The Face, in Britain, prints a rare and excellent feature article portraying a day in the life of a messenger working for a marijuana delivery service in Manhattan. The article also explains how the underground marijuana economy works in New York, including an account of the origins and auspicious future of the market. Pot sellers such as "Dean," who makes $250,000 to $300,000 a year tax free, are indebted to New York Mayor Rudolph Giulani's recent crackdown on street dealers, which has expanded the pager trade, rapidly increasing the demand for deliveries to apartments and offices.)
• Drug War Without A Plan - Needed: A Florida Drug Czar (A staff editorial in the Miami Herald calls for the creation of an office to coordinate and evaluate the efforts of "14 state agencies, thousands of private nonprofit social-service organizations and hundreds of police departments" waging the drug war. An audit showing the total budget of all those drug warriors or a cost-benefit analysis apparently doesn't interest the newspaper, however.)
• Hemp Farmers High on Profits (The Winnipeg Free Press says 27 hemp farmers in Manitoba who planted approximately 1,700 of hemp grossed almost $500 an acre last year. This year, 125 Manitoba farmers are contracted to plant more than 12,000 acres, said Douglas Campbell, general manager of Consolidated Growers & Processors Canada. CGP hopes to build a $15 million, 25 employee hemp processing plant in Manitoba. There are no such facilities in Canada. All the crop is exported overseas or to the United States for processing.)
• Joint Ventures (The online April issue of Saturday Night magazine, in Canada, features an excerpted account of a tour through the underground marijuana economy in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ten years ago, you could have symbolized the red-blooded British Columbia resource sector with a photograph of a commercial fisherman and a hog-fat chinook salmon. But now the salmon has turned into a bale of marijuana. Police estimate that the annual British Columbia crop is worth about $2 billion. Reform activists say it's larger, but nobody disputes that cannabis growing has become a mammoth resource industry in B.C., worth at least twice as much as all the wholesale fisheries revenues combined. Law enforcement authorities estimate they intercept only about one percent of exports to the United States.)
• More Teenage Girls Using Illicit Drugs (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says a federal survey released yesterday, a week before Prime Minister John Howard is scheduled to unveil a new strategy in his war on drugs, shows 46 per cent of Australians admitted last year to having used illicit drugs - up from 39.3 per cent in 1995. More than half of teenage girls, 51.6 per cent, said they had used illicit drugs, up from 33.5 per cent in 1995. That compares with a rate for teenage boys of 50.6 per cent, up only marginally from 50.3 three years previously. Cannabis use among girls rose from 24.4 per cent to 44.8 per cent, while for teenage boys a small decrease was reported, from 44.7 per cent to 44.5 per cent. In fact, the survey shows women of all ages are using cannabis more. Even for those older than 60, the proportion using the drug climbed from 0.9 per cent to 4.3 per cent. For all age groups of women, the rise was from 24.4 to 35.1 per cent, compared to an increase among all men from 37.7 per cent to 43.7 per cent.)
• Japan Police Seize 210 Kg Of Stimulants (According to Reuters, Japanese police on Thursday seized 462 pounds of a supposedly controlled substance they did not identify, the fourth largest haul of illegal drugs in the country's history, estimated to have a street value of $109 million. The haul brings the quantity of confiscated drugs this year to 650 kilograms, already surpassing the total for all of 1998.)
• U.S. Exports Zero Tolerance (A translation of an article from Le Monde Diplomatique by Loic Wacquant analyzes the dubious punitive social policies that have evolved in the United States during the past two decades and are now being exported to Western Europe, including France.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 13 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 169,000 Last updated: 5/10/99
  

  Wednesday, March 31, 1999:

• Scoreboard: This week's winners and losers (Willamette Week, in Portland, briefly notes the lawsuit against the Portland police regarding the Marijuana Task Force's trap-and-trace device at American Agriculture has resulted in police deciding to give up "the dirt" to defense attorneys for cannabis cultivators, while trying to keep it secret.)
• Suit may change how landlords operate (The Oregonian says Gregory Amerson and his sisters talked to at least eight attorneys before they finally found one who would take their groundbreaking case against the landlord of a suspected drug house in Northeast Portland. Now, without even being fully litigated, the case seems likely to increase the price for Portland landlords and tenants of the war on some drug users. The law firm that represented Amerson's family has already used it to encourage another landlord to evict tenants from a problem house.)
• Latest jail fight pits sheriff vs. board (The Oregonian says a disagreement between Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle and the county Board of Commissioners over 300 beds for inmates receiving treatment for alcohol and other drugs may impede planning for a $55 million, 225-bed, medium-security jail next to Bybee Lake in North Portland.)
• Philip Morris told to pay $81 million in damages (The Oregonian says a Multnomah County jury ordered Philip Morris Inc. to pay record damages to the estate of Jesse Williams, a former Portland school janitor who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboro cigarettes for 42 years. Jurors didn't buy the tobacco company's principal defense: that smoking is a personal choice and that choices carry responsibilities.)
• Company documents prove key to verdict (According to the Oregonian, jurors say it was Philip Morris' own documents - some of them decades old - that led them to award $81 million to the estate of a Portland man who died of lung cancer. One juror, April Dewees, a science teacher at Sherwood High School, said she and other jurors were upset by documents that showed that Philip Morris apparently knew about the addictive properties and cancer-causing potential of cigarette smoke but avoided telling its customers.)
• A Few Bills We Like (Willamette Week, in Portland, supports Oregon Senate Bill 529, sponsored by Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, which would require insurance companies to increase coverage for mental-health and substance-abuse treatment programs.)
• County Seeks Medical Pot Study Appproval (The San Mateo Independent says San Mateo County, California, submitted a proposal to the National Institute on Drug Abuse on March 19 seeking approval for a clinical study of the medical use of marijuana by AIDS and cancer patients. If it can obtain NIDA approval, the county will next seek the blessing of the Food and Diug Administration. Clinical trials in the county could start this summer at the earliest.)
• House Panel Dumps Hemp Bill After Hearing Crime Concerns (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the Minnesota House of Representatives' Crime Prevention Committee voted 10 to 7 Tuesday against the hemp bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Dehler, R-St. Joseph, after Tim McCormick, the head of the Minneapolis office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, testified there is no difference between marijuana and its fiber-crop cousin.)
• ISU Financial Aid, Professors Don't Approve Of New Ban (The Indiana Statesman at Indiana State University examines the ramifications of the misguided U.S. Higher Education Act, which forbids loans and oher financial aid to students convicted of possessing marijuana.)
• Drug convict gets new trial (The Associated Press says U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha, in Vermont, set aside the 1992 conviction of Robert A. Bloomer Jr., who is free after serving seven years in federal prison for manufacturing and conspiring to distribute methamphetamine. Bloomer's appeal concerned the jury instructions of now-retired U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Billings, who said the jury "may" rather than "must" acquit if government prosecutors failed to prove Bloomer's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Billings, a former Vermont Supreme Court justice, also equated "reasonable doubt" with "substantial doubt," something the Second Circuit ruled was "clearly and ... obviously constitutionally deficient." Bloomer faces a new trial in six months.)
• Phila. Man Guilty Of Dealing From Cell (The Philadelphia Inquirer says Michael Diaz, who admitted he set up cocaine sales from behind bars in a Philadelphia jail, was sentenced yesterday to two to four years in Bucks County Prison.)
• Murder Suspect "Panicked" (UPI says the attorney for Roy Lee Carver, an Okeechobee, Florida man charged with the 1998 murder of Christian Giotis, a Clementsville cultivator, says Carver "panicked" when Glotis confronted him in the course of a marijuana rip-off, and he shot Glotis six times.)
• The IOM report 'Marijuana and Medicine' on line (A list subscriber posts the URL for an .html version of the Institute of Medicine report released March 17.)
• Reefer Madness Logic (Four letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal rebut the recent op-ed by Joseph Califano trying to discredit the conclusion of the March 17 Institute of Medicine report that marijuana is not a "gateway" to harder drugs.)
• Amazon Tribal Leaders Challenge U.S. Patent (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Amazon medicine men adorned in shell necklaces and exotic bird feathers visited the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in suburban Washington Tuesday in order to challenge the validity of a patent awarded a California entrepreneur for the main ingredient of their healing potion - the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca. The 13-year-old patent has become an issue of such magnitude that it has stirred physical threats, led to the cancellation of U.S. aid to South American tribes and all but shut down "bioprospecting" for valuable plants in Peru, Ecuador and the rest of the Amazon basin.)
• Cop probe launched (The Calgary Sun says the Edmonton Police Commission wants Alberta Justice to direct another police service to investigate allegations of coverups and possible criminal activity made against the capital's police service by one of its own. Yesterday, the commission held an emergency closed-door meeting to discuss what to do about a formal complaint made against Edmonton Chief John Lindsay by 24-year veteran Det. Kenneth Montgomery.)
• Anti-Drugs Chief Backs 'Medicinal' Cannabis (The Times, in London, says Keith Hellawell, the Government's chief anti-drugs campaigner, endorsed the medical use of cannabis yesterday, saying doctors should be allowed to prescribe the class B drug to ease pain and suffering. "There appear to be many qualities within the herb that are likely to have an impact on different suffering," he told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.)
• Cannabis 'No Longer Rebellious' (According to the Independent, in Britain, Keith Hellawell, the British drugs tsar, admitted yesterday that the use of cannabis is so commonplace among British schoolchildren that smoking it is no longer regarded as an act of rebellion.)
  Bytes: 83,200 Last updated: 4/12/99
  

  Tuesday, March 30, 1999:

• Jury awards $81 million in Oregon smoking suit (The Associated Press says a jury in Portland, Oregon, ordered Philip Morris to pay a record $81 million to the family of Jesse Williams, who died of lung cancer in 1997 after smoking Marlboros for four decades. No similar verdict against the tobacco industry has survived on appeal.)
• Prisoner allowed to cultivate while on probation (A San Francisco Bay area list subscriber recounts the case of Greg Richey. Busted for cultivation a year ago in San Bernardino County, California, Richey was sentenced yesterday to 250 days in jail and three years' probation. The court ruled that under Proposition 215, Richey could, while on probation, cultivate, use and possess marijuana - just what he was busted for.)
• The Smoke Clears: Marijuana Can Be Medicinal, But The Smoke Is Not (A staff editorial in the Sacramento Bee infers that the political challenge posed by the March 17 Institute of Medicine report is "how to handle marijuana" in the coming years before a "real," that is, pharmaceutical, alternative to herbal cannabis is on the market. The report doesn't resolve the ongoing legal deadlock. The IOM does, however, provide considerable ammunition for relaxing federal law to allow states, which now regulate the practice of medicine, to decide medicinal uses of marijuana as well.)
• Cop Who Planted Drugs Wins Round (The Cincinnati Post says Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman granted a motion Monday to suppress a statement by fired Cincinnati police Sgt. John Sess in which he admitted planting marijuana in 1984 on Shadarle Ragan.)
• Marijuana May Yield Medicines, Panel Says (The Washington Post conservatively interprets the Institute of Medicine report released March 17.)
• Pot users take fewer road risks than drunks study says (The Toronto Star says a new University of Toronto study suggests that while marijuana, like alcohol, impairs performance, people who drive after smoking moderate amounts of pot compensate for any impairment by driving more slowly and cautiously.)
• Pot called less risky than booze on the road (The Globe and Mail version)
• Mexican banks to plead guilty to laundering drug money (The Los Angeles Times says that with their trial in Los Angeles just days away, two of Mexico's biggest banks have agreed to plead guilty to laundering millions of dollars for the Cali and Juarez drug cartels. Indicted as a result of the United States' "Operation Casablanca" sting, Bancomer will pay $9.9 million in fines while Banca Serfin will pay $4.7 million. Bancomer is the second-largest bank in Mexico and Banca Serfin is the third-largest. After the indictments were issued, U.S. authorities instituted forfeiture actions against the U.S. assets of 14 Mexican and Venezuelan banks and confiscated more than $68 million, including $16 million from Bancomer and $9.5 million from Banca Serfin.)
• Cannabis Growers Bask In Spotlight (The New Zealand Herald says two Northland growers wanted to show the world the "honest and authentic" New Zealand, so they led a BBC travel show crew to a cannabis plot in the bush. But when the show screened in Britain recently, it upset expatriate New Zealanders who protested that it showed "the wrong image.")
  Bytes: 34,400 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Monday, March 29, 1999:

• An Oregon initiative - the Innocent Property Initiative (John Flanery, the chief petitioner for a state ballot measure that would require a conviction and prevent forfeiture proceeds from being used by law enforcement, posts the text of the proposed law.)
• Bill would use lottery money to treat addicts (The Associated Press says SB 118, a bill that would dedicate 1 percent of lottery proceeds to programs to help problem gamblers, has cleared the Oregon state senate Trade and Economic Development Committee. The measure would raise $6 million, 50 percent more than the current budget. It would also create a permanent funding source to help gambling addicts.)
• Project puts 80 inmates to work in woods (The Oregonian says that starting in May, about 80 Oregon prisoners will spend two months in a new work program in a remote area of the Deschutes National Forest, living in tents pitched in the woods about 30 miles outside Bend and working 10 hours a day, six days a week. Creating work for Oregon inmates will have cost the state $34 million by the end of the budget biennium.)
• Heroin Use Booming In Spokane (The Seattle Times says a Washington Department of Social and Health Services report released last week shows the number of Spokane County residents admitted for heroin treatment nearly quintupled between 1992 and 1998, from 78 to 367. Spokane County, in rural Eastern Washington, is the state's per capita leader in treating heroin addicts. Rates exceed those in Seattle during the mid-1990s' heroin boom. Roger Silfvast, head of Community Detox, said heroin prices have fallen to $20 to $25 for a large quarter-gram dose as dealers flood the market.)
• San Francisco Million Marijuana March May 1 (A list subscriber posts details about the gathering noon-5 pm at Civic Center Plaza organized in conjunction with reform rallies elsewhere around the world.)
• Taking A Hard Look At State's Jammed Jails (According to a staff editorial in the Orange County Register, one might have imagined that with a Democratic majority in both houses and a Democratic governor, and with prisons filled to the bursting point with some people who have little or no business being there, that the California legislature would be full of bills seeking to reform the prison and criminal justice system. Instead it's a mixed bag - and some of the legislation that in the past might have been viewed as "liberal" is being carried by conservative Republicans. It is time for Californians to take a step back from the urge to incarcerate, and to take a look at the ongoing and projected costs of locking up so many people for non-violent and victimless crimes.)
• Congress nothing but trendy (Denver Post columnist Diane Carman observes that the Congressionally mandated loyalty oaths of the '60s and '70s have been replaced by the war on drugs. And once again federal financial aid programs are being manipulated for political gain. A new provision of the Higher Education Act denies financial aid to any student convicted of a drug offense, including marijuana possession. Murderers and rapists, on the other hand, can continue to receive financial aid under the act. Furthermore, the act makes no provision for enforcement. Obviously, Congress doesn't care about the fair and efficient administration of this program - or the justice system in general. Their reality has been completely distorted by the war on drugs and the political high they get from exploiting it.)
• 2 Colo Deputies Face Drug Charges (According to UPI, the FBI says Ouray County Undersheriff John Radcliff, his wife, the sheriff's two daughters and a deputy sheriff are among 19 people charged with methamphetamine trafficking in western Colorado.)
• Next Hash Bash May Be Just For Tourists (The Detroit News previews the 28th annual Hash Bash beginning at noon Saturday at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Michigan state Senator Beverly Hammerstrom, a Republican from Temperance - no kidding - has introduced a bill to nullify Ann Arbor's $25 fine for marijuana possession and enforce the state's $100 penalty. Hammerstrom's bill won easy approval in the Senate last week, and is expected to get a receptive hearing in the House.)
• Behind the Blue Wall (An e-mail message publicizes a web site about New York Police Department officer Kenneth Eurell, convicted on federal RICO charges. The site also is said to detail Eurell's cooperation with the DEA against Colombian drug dealers and his former partner, Michael Dowd.)
• Exclusionary Rule Challenge Fails (The Associated Press says the U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from a Florida woman, Alishia Pryor, who said her 11-year sentence for possessing and intending to distribute crack cocaine was twice as long as it would have been if authorities hadn't taken into account evidence they seized illegally. In a series of recent rulings, the court has narrowed the exclusionary rule, which, since 1914, supposedly bars evidence obtained by violating the Fourth Amendment. As a result, prosecutors can now use evidence illegally seized by police in deportation cases, grand jury and civil tax hearings and certain other legal proceedings. The justices never ruled that the exclusionary rule doesn't apply to sentencing, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did so in rejecting Pryor's first appeal.)
• Judge - Company's Drug Policy Violates ADA (The The Legal Intelligencer says a lawsuit filed on behalf of John A. Rowles, an epileptic, over drug testing in the workplace has led Chief U.S. District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo to rule that employers can be sued for wrongful discharge when their policy requires employees to disclose any prescription drugs they are taking that force them to reveal their medical conditions.)
• No Green Light Yet (Newsweek magazine suggests the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana was so timid that the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, decided he didn't have to act on its conclusions that cannabis does not have a high potential for abuse, but does have medical value, conclusions that flatly contradict the rationale for its being a Schedule 1 controlled substance.)
• Gallup Poll on Medical/Recreational Marijuana Use (A list subscriber forwards the results of a survey of 1,018 adults showing 73 percent would vote for medical marijuana but only 29 percent would vote for "legalization.")
• Net Becomes Battleground In Drug War (The Washington Times admits the two new web sites sponsored by the office of the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, are just a reactionary response to all the "Web sites put out by people who think drugs should be legalized." But Allen St. Pierre, the director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says the Internet is dominated by those who want to see drugs legalized because this is the general consensus.)
• Mexican Politicians Face Probe (The Associated Press says in the past, men in top business and political positions were allowed to flee abroad until things cooled off in Mexico, but international pressure to clean up Mexico's drug mess has prosecutors cracking down on once mighty members of Mexico's freewheeling elite. The reputation for corruption earned by Mexican law enforcement, however, has helped make it possible for some Mexicans to believe that members of the ruling class are now the victims of a witch-hunt.)
• Bin Laden Buys Child Slaves For His Drug Farms In Africa (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, accuses Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, of buying child slaves from Ugandan rebels and using them as forced labour on marijuana farms in Sudan to fund his international terrorism network.)
  Bytes: 74,600 Last updated: 4/17/99
  

  Sunday, March 28, 1999:

• Snohomish County Needs A New Jail For The Future (A timid staff editorial in the Everett, Washington, Herald heralds the construction of a new jail in Everett within 18 months, saying the current county jail, built just 13 years ago for 277 inmates, is already over its revised capacity of 477 prisoners, with 511 inmates. Unfortunately, the newspaper believes "Voters have repeatedly said they want stiff sentences attached to drug crimes," so its observation that the local "tough-on-drugs policy may be beginning to back-fire" falls a little flat. Even though Sheriff Rick Bart says 80 percent of crime in the county is directly related to alcohol and other drugs, the editors believe a new jail is still necessary. As with other American mass media, the newspaper instinctively shrinks from providing any estimate of what it would cost to fully enforce the laws against consensual crimes.)
• Different Kind Of Drug War Being Waged In S. El Monte (The Los Angeles Times says the tiny San Gabriel Valley community of South El Monte is believed to be the first in California to approve voluntary, random drug tests for its City Council members. Councilwoman Blanca Figueroa sponsored the policy, which was approved 3-2 by the council, after her students - citing the cocaine possession conviction of Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez and Eastside Councilman Richard Alatorre's testing positive for cocaine - questioned how she could preach against drugs when two potential role models ran afoul of them. "It's voluntary only in name," said ACLU attorney Elizabeth Schroeder.)
• What The Ruiz Ruling Wrought (The Houston Chronicle says in the early 1980s, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice first ruled that Texas' overcrowded prisons were unconstitutional, and set population limits. He also banned the use of building tenders, a hierarchy of inmates who helped maintain order through brutality and threats. Texas has spent an estimated $10 billion since then to comply with Judge Justice's humane micromanagement of the state prison system. The judge now says solitary confinement is unconstitutional, and the state is suing to regain control.)
• The Way Things Are In Prison (The Houston Chronicle provides a brief, insider's history of Texas prisons through the eyes of Roger Pirkle, who entered his first state-run institution at 11 and emerged from his last one at 46, three years ago. A class-action lawsuit that grew out of complaints filed by him and David Ruiz led to the dismantling of the building tender system in the mid-1980s. The trouble was, they didn't do anything to fill the void. The gangs sprang up in 1984 and '85 - and, at first, prison officials didn't seem to mind. "They let us gamble. They let us smoke marijuana." They did all that because they had to to keep order by themselves. Then, the guards were co-opted into them. Then it got out of hand and they couldn't stop it. Now, when a kid comes into prison, he's going to be recruited. "If he doesn't join, he better be able to fight or he's going to be raped and turned out by somebody.")
• 8th Graders Face Lewdness, Drug Charges (UPI says residents of Belmar, New Jersey, are shocked with the Monmouth County prosecutor's decision to charge a group of rowdy kids with drug possession, lewdness, simple assault and improper touching.)
• More Class Action documents (Carl Olsen, a founding member of the Drug Reform Coordination Network online library, publicizes his growing archive of documents about the lawsuit against the federal prohibition on medical marijuana being litigated in Philadelphia by public interest attorney Lawrence Elliott Hirsch.)
• Medical marijuana not acceptable in Georgia (The Associated Press says Superior Court Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet sentenced paraplegic Lewis Edward Covar of Augusta to seven years' probation and a $1,000 fine for possession of marijuana, warning the newly created criminal to "keep it to yourself.")
• Healer Weed (A Vancouver Province article focuses on "Jackie," a 61-year-old medical marijuana patient dying of cancer in Surrey, British Columbia, and the 700-member Compassion Club, in Vancouver. A devout, non-drinking Christian, Jackie had sold her car, turned her house over to her son, and was suicidal when a friend who is a prison guard recommended marijuana to her. It dulled the pain. She overcame the mid-afternoon depressions. A couple of puffs before bedtime and she'd sleep like a baby. She gained 50 pounds. The most recent poll shows 83 percent of Canadians sympathize. While Allan Rock, the health minister, dithers, police are taking a hands-off approach. Abbotsford lawyer John Conroy is preparing to force the issue by putting together a request for medical marijuana exemptions on behalf of about 500 members of the Compassion Club.)
• Tories Demand Life Sentences To Combat Drugs Menace (According to Scotland on Sunday, David McLetchie, the leader of the Scottish Tory party, said yesterday that drug dealers convicted for the second time should be given mandatory life sentences.)
• U.N. To Create Own Satellite Program to Find Illegal Drug Crops (The New York Times says the International Drug Control Program received unanimous approval last week in Vienna from 53 countries making up the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs to acquire its own satellite system to monitor production in source countries. Pino Arlacchi, the executive director of the drug control program who has set a goal of eliminating drug cultivation in 10 years, estimated that the satellite monitoring could cost as little as $15 million a year, and would start in about a year. The accuracy of satellite spying is dubious, however. The Colombian government said it had eradicated 123,500 acres of coca last year, while the CIA said only 14,000 acres were defoliated.)
  Bytes: 65,100 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Saturday, March 27, 1999:

• Sheriff's deputies follow tip to drug lab (An Oregonian article about the bust of a methamphetamine lab Friday in a Southeast Portland apartment - the 11th such investigation this year - quotes Sgt. Lane Sawyer of the special investigations unit making false claims that "Methamphetamine is our fastest-growing threat" and that "Meth is the No. 1 drug of choice in Multnomah County.")
• Gold Hill's police chief faces charges of assault, coercion (The Oregonian says David Crawford has been indicted in Jackson County on assault and coercion charges for allegedly roughing up a dirt-biker and threatening to arrest him for drunken driving if he complained. Chief Crawford already faces trial April 22 on two unrelated charges of coercion after an elderly Shady Cove couple complained that he threatened to burn down their home if they reported a July 1996 incident of road rage.)
• Roseburg doctor faces penalty on pain control (The Oregonian says the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners intends to discipline Dr. Paul A. Bilder for failing to give six seriously ill or dying patients adequate pain medication.)
• A Kilo Of Cocaine Hits The Streets, Courtesy Of The Police Department (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, notes undercover prohibition agents in Bellevue, Washington, who allegedly sold 2.2 pounds of cocaine to a would-be dealer arrested him and kept his $17,000 - but failed to retrieve the cocaine. Unfortunately, the newspaper doesn't bother to explain how police can sell controlled substances on the street under a controversial clause in the Controlled Substances Act.)
• Lockyer: U.S. Will End Push For Nuke Dump At Desert Site (The Sacramento Bee says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, threatened California Attorney General Bill Lockyer with arrest Friday when Lockyer told McCaffrey that state law authorizes him to conduct certain marijuana-related research.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert No. 103 - Califano in the Wall Street Journal (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to the editor of the business daily in New York to rebut the op-ed defending the "gateway" myth by Joe Califano of CASA.)
• Prison Terms Change Crime Fighters (According to the Associated Press, three former high-profile public officials who were once proud to show how tough they were on crime spoke at a meeting Saturday of Families Against Mandatory Minimums in Arlington, Virginia. Webster Hubbell, a former associate attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department; former Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr., and former California Republican leader Pat Nolan said they discovered the humanity of the prison population and the error of their crime-fighting ways when they became prisoners themselves. Preate said "we're on a collision course with social catastrophe" unless more is done to rehabilitate criminals and find alternatives to prison for the 65 percent of inmates locked up for nonviolent crime.)
• Teacher Busted For Pot (UPI says Kaye Seymour, 44, was busted at Ravenswood Middle School in Orlando, Florida, for having marijuana in her car after a suspicious principal called police.)
• Re: Water pistols with bong water to fool drug sniffing dogs (A list subscriber shares a recycling tip.)
• Institute Of Medicine Says Marijuana Has Benefits (The Lancet, in Britain, summarizes the report released March 17 in the United States.)
• Let them smoke pot (The version in Britain's New Scientist)
• Why your brain is primed for a high (New Scientist briefly summarizes the recent Nature Neuroscience article about research by scientists at the University of California at Irvine who found that cannabinoids may be effective in treating dopamine-related movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Tourette's syndrome.)
• You're Under Arrest, And On TV (The Economist, in Britain, says the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases that raise the question of whether media "ride-alongs" with police carrying out search or arrest warrants violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. If the court decides to restrict the practice, many local-news and tabloid television shows will, at a stroke, be deprived of a staple subject. An amicus brief was filed by 26 media organisations.)
  Bytes: 51,500 Last updated: 4/8/99
  

  Friday, March 26, 1999:

• Portland jury begins deliberating in case of family vs. Philip Morris (The Oregonian says a jury in Multnomah County is drawing national attention as it begins to decide today whether Philip Morris Inc. is liable in a $101 million lawsuit filed by the family of Jesse D. Williams, who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboro cigarettes for many years. Much of the medical testimony on both sides tried to show that Williams' cancer arose either before or after 1988. If the jury concludes that Williams' cancer was caused by cigarettes smoked before 1988, Philip Morris can't be held liable under Oregon law.)
• Calaveras Man Convicted Of Cultivating Marijuana (The Modesto Bee says a jury in Calaveras County, California, on Thursday convicted Robert Galambos, a medical-marijuana patient, of cultivating cannabis, but deadlocked on a charge of possession for sale. Galambos was busted in 1997 with 382 plants and about 6 pounds of bagged marijuana at his home in Paloma. He admitted to growing not only for himself, but also for an Oakland cannabis club, under the auspices of Proposition 215. Galambos will be sentenced May 14; he faces a sentence ranging from probation to three years in prison.)
• Condemning Dissident Authors To Death (Vin Suprynowicz, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ponders the politically inspired prosecutions of author/publishers Peter McWilliams and Steve Kubby, both California medical marijuana patients charged with growing "too many" plants.)
• Where Pot Activism Grows (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat interviews veteran medical-marijuana activist Dennis Peron at his marijuana farm in Lake County, California. Peron feels vindicated by the Institute of Medicine report released last week that said marijuana effectively counteracts pain, nausea and weight loss. "Even the study said certain patients have to use marijuana. The handwriting is on the wall: Medical necessity is greater than federal law.")
• $500,000 Worth of Pot Found Growing in House (The San Francisco Chronicle says police in South San Francisco, in San Mateo County just south of San Francisco, busted Jay Chen for 125 plants supposedly worth $4,000 each. A "concerned citizen" notified police about the marijuana.)
• Nation's top drug officials not high on Proposition 215 (The Associated Press says California Attorney General Bill Lockyer returned from the nation's capital Friday after failing to persuade U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey to reclassify marijuana. Apparently it hasn't occurred to Lockyer to do the only thing he's really qualified to do and file a lawsuit to uphold the California constitution.)
• California Demos set to endorse industrial hemp (A press release from Chris Conrad, the director of the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp, says the state Democratic Party Resolutions Committee voted 27-2 today to include a plank supporting industrial hemp on the consent calendar for the party platform at the state convention this weekend in Sacramento.)
• Officer Cleared In Oregon Case (The Houston Chronicle says a jury in Houston took about 70 minutes Thursday to acquit the only police officer charged in connection with the killing of Pedro Oregon Navarro, who was shot 12 times - nine times in the back - during a warrantless entry last July by six prohibition agents who never found the crack cocaine they were looking for.)
• Sole Indictment Of Willis Confounded Many (The Houston Chronicle analyzes the quick acquittal Thursday of fired Houston prohibition agent James Willis, the only one of six police charged in connection with the shooting death of Pedro Oregon Navarro during a warrantless entry. As to why Willis was indicted in the first place, one source said some grand jurors just didn't like Willis, thought he was arrogant and were angry that he would not concede that he and the other officers might have done something improper.)
• 'Cheech and Chong Medicine' (Arkansas Times columnist Mara Leveritt says the White House drug czar, Barry R. McCaffrey, didn't let a little thing like being debunked by the Institute of Medicine report prompt him to re-examine his position on medical marijuana. After the report's release on March 17, he explained that "the future of marijuana as medicine lies in things like inhalers" and in drugs extracted from the plant - certainly not in the raw vegetation. Development will take years. It has never mattered in the past how many people's lives, how many civil liberties, or how much of the nation's wealth had to be sacrificed to keep marijuana illegal. Nothing appears likely to change that - neither science, nor sense, nor mercy.)
• Bill Toughens Marijuana Laws (The Des Moines Register says that with no discussion and little dissent, the Iowa House on Thursday approved a bill that would make giving away marijuana weighing more than a half-ounce a felony. Under current law, giving away an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor. Even Democrats were silent as the bill was quickly approved 86-5.)
• Bensenville Cops Tainted By Charges Of Tampering (The Chicago Tribune says the police department in Bensenville, Illinois, wants to fire William Wassman, an officer charged with stealing cocaine. Meanwhile, Sgt. Joseph DeAnda, who once headed the department's detective division, was put on administrative leave Wednesday after an investigation of evidence taken in drug and gambling cases.)
• The Grass Roots of Teen Drug Abuse (An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by 'Smokin' Joe Califano of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University assails the conclusion of the recent Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana that "there was no conclusive evidence that marijuana use leads to harder drugs." Califano, a lawyer with no apparent understanding of statistics who has made a career at CASA based on the "gateway" theory, cites the usual illusory correlations, but completely fails to acknowledge why correlation isn't necessarily causation.)
• Marijuana-Like Chemicals Could Treat Disease (Reuters says a report published in the April issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience by researchers from the University of California at Irvine found that anandamide, a marijuana-like chemical in the brain that helps regulate body movement and coordination, might be useful in treating diseases that produce tics and shaking, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. The researchers found that anandamide interferes with the effects of nerve cells that transmit dopamine. Uncontrolled production of dopamine has been blamed for some of the symptoms of schizophrenia and the nervous tics and outbursts associated with Tourette's syndrome. A lack of dopamine is blamed for the shaking and motor hesitation that marks Parkinson's disease.)
• Widely used diabetes drug linked to liver failure, deaths (According to the Associated Press, officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said today they have linked 38 cases of acute liver failure to the diabetes drug Rezulin and believe the risk of liver problems grows over time as patients take the drug. At the same time, several doctors said Rezulin helps many of their most afflicted diabetes patients, and the benefits outweigh the risk.)
• N. Korea Sponsoring Drug Trafficking (According to UPI, today's Washington Post quotes U.S. and international drug officials saying that Korean diplomats have been captured in recent years carrying large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine. South Korean intelligence sources and North Korean defectors confirm North Korea's entry into the illegal drug business.)
• The North Korean Connection (According to the original Washington Post version, U.S. officials said in 1990 there have been at least 26 documented incidents of North Korean diplomats being arrested on drug trafficking charges, and many more involving other smuggled goods. North Korea has become the largest recipient of U.S. aid in Asia in recent years.)
• National Unit To Wage War On Drugs (The Scotsman says Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, announced yesterday that a Scottish drug enforcement agency would be in place by the end of the year to "wage war" on the relentless rise in drugs crime. Apparently not satisfied that drugs offences had more than quadrupled in the past decade, from 7,000 to 31,500, the Government promised to invest £36 million more to train and equip 200 extra detectives to catch drug dealers and importers, doubling the specialist police manpower to combat drugs at a national level.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 84 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - New report finds one million Americans incarcerated for non-violent offenses; IOM findings strengthen administrative challenge to repeal marijuana's prohibited status; Alert: support California syringe decriminalization bill; American Pharmaceutical Association adopts syringe deregulation position; Vancouver needle exchange study clarifies previous study's results; Newsbriefs; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Rolling back the tide)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 91 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - A Viagra-model solution to the war on drugs, by Bernhard Haisch, Ph.D., who really is a rocket scientist. The Weekly News in Review includes several articles about Drug War Policy, including - High court limits drug testing of students; School drug testing proposal moves through senate; Senators pledge 1,000 more agents for border patrol; and, When a bad policy fails. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - The prison boom; America, land of prisons; and, Prison policy is both costly and irrational. Articles about Forfeiture include - When can police seize private property?; Stealing by the state; and, Property seizures trample the Constitution; News about Cannabis includes - Study: Marijuana helps fight pain; Let science run marijuana debate; Medical marijuana smoking to remain illegal; Lockyer gives quiet OK to S.F. pot clubs; Judge denies advocate's request to smoke pot; and, Federal judge lets lawsuit on medical marijuana go on. International News includes - Heroin users' starting-up age plummets into teens; Anti-drugs drive fails to stem abuse; RCMP drug raid was dopey; and, Top Mexican off-limits to U.S. drug agents. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net points you to the new Commons Sense for Drug Policy web site at http://csdp.org; and to the full text of the IOM report online. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Jefferson.)
  Bytes: 144,000 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Thursday, March 25, 1999:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Bill to restore student loans to minor drug offenders introduced in Congress; Nevada legislature mulls bill to decriminalize marijuana possession; Marijuana-like drug to receive patent for use treating multiple sclerosis; IOM findings strengthen administrative challenge to repeal marijuana's prohibited status)
• So Much For The Mormons (Mike Assenberg, the disabled medical-marijuana patient in Waldport, Oregon, who gained notoriety in January after threatening to sue the Abby's Pizza in Newport for not letting him smoke cannabis, now has a legitimate complaint. The Mormon church has excommunicated him for using medical marijuana, even though it's legal.)
• Driver's license stripe idea stalls (The Associated Press says an Oregon House committee Wednesday shelved a bill that would put a red stripe on the driver's licenses of convicted drunken drivers, criticizing it as nothing more than a toothless gesture.)
• Congressman attacks suicide law (According to the Oregonian, U.S. Representative Tom Bliley of Virginia, an opponent of Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law, is pursuing a new strategy to limit the law's effectiveness. Bliley, the chairman of the House Commerce Committee, on Wednesday accused the federal Health Care Financing Administration of paying for assisted-suicide services in Oregon in violation of a law banning federal funds for such services.)
• Jury out on medical pot claim (The Modesto Bee says a jury in Calaveras County, California - where voters opposed Proposition 215 - deliberated for nearly two hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the cultivation trial of Robert Galambos, a medical-marijuana patient who says his 382 marijuana plants were intended for himself and an Oakland medical marijuana dispensary. Galambos' defense attorney from San Francisco, J. Tony Serra, the subject of the Hollywood movie "True Believer," made an impassioned argument alternating between whispers and roars.)
• Breaking The Medical-Marijuana Logjam (The Chico News & Review, in Northeast California, says Humbolt County medical-marijuana activist Robert Harris and others are convinced that an Arcata ordinance designed to implement Proposition 215 could serve as a model for other California cities, particularly Chico. Arcata Police Chief Mel Brown and local marijuana caregivers fashioned the measure together. After being approved by the Arcata City Council it became law in March 1998. Four members of the Chico City Council say they would be willing to discuss implementing an ordinance similar to Arcata's, but two others remain skeptical of the very legitimacy of medical marijuana.)
• Oregon Drug Raid Detailed (According to the Houston Chronicle, fired Houston police officer James Willis told a jury Wednesday that the investigation that led to the death of Pedro Oregon Navarro turned sour when his brother, Rogelio Oregon, bolted from Houston prohibition agents at the door of their apartment, leading them to believe he was either going for a gun or about to destroy evidence. The plan had been to do a knock-and-talk, since the police had no search warrant.)
• Principal's Principle (UPI says the principal of Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic School near Cincinnati, Ohio, will suspend all the sixth grade students for one day for not informing on another student who brought marijuana to school.)
• Why Is Marijuana For The Suffering Still Illegal? (An op-ed in the Bergen Record, in New Jersey, says the United States is a great nation, dedicated to freedom, roaming the planet to bring justice to the oppressed, comfort to the suffering, democracy to all. And yet, we remain unspeakably cruel to our fellow citizens. No other word exists to describe the federal government's steadfast refusal to allow the medical use of marijuana. It is cruel - heartless, sadistic, mean-spirited. "I have a friend with a chronic disease of the nervous system. Marijuana is the only thing that alleviates the symptoms. The medical establishment knows this. Others with the disease know it. The government knows it. And yet, she cannot get relief from excruciating pain because to do so would be to risk everything - her career, her good name, her freedom.")
• Cities and towns that have discontinued the DARE program (A list subscriber forwards a comprehensive list and asks for additions or corrections.)
• Pot-Like Substance May Offer Tic, Shaking Relief (The Orange County Register describes the report published in the April issue of "Nature Neuroscience" finding that anandamide, a cannabinoid-like brain chemical, acts as a kind of brake on dopamine production in rats, suggesting a potential treatment for such maladies that produce tics and shaking as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. "This shows for the first time how anandamides work in the brain to produce normal motor activity," said Daniele Piomelli, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of California at Irvine who helped lead the study. "Patients with schizophrenia and other diseases have reported that marijuana appears to relieve some of their symptoms, but scientists have never found a physiological reason why," Piomelli said.)
• Over One Million American Non-Violent Prisoners (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer cites a Justice Policy Institute figure.)
• More Than 1M Nonviolent Prisoners (A lengthier Associated Press version says U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, D-New York, cited the study as he pushed for legislation eliminating mandatory five-year penalties for crack cocaine crimes and an end to the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine.)
• ACLU Calls for Reform of Racially Discriminatory Cocaine Laws (A press release from the American Civil Liberties Union provides more details about the reform bill introduced today by U.S. Representative Charles Rangel.)
• Internet: War On Drugs Launches Web Sites (The Dayton Daily News, in Ohio, notes the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, has managed to get ABC and America Online to provide web sites promoting fear, ignorance, misinformation, and other aspects of the government's war on some drug users.)
• Anti-Drug Web Sites (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)
• It's a 1980s Policy on 1990s Drug Crime (Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy, in New York, notices the Clinton administration claims to have a new approach, but is using the same battle plan to fight the drug war that George Bush drafted a decade ago. Two-thirds of the budget still goes to law enforcement and only one-third to treatment, prevention and research. Instead of arresting marijuana smokers, we should be going after hard drugs and treating addicts. At McCaffrey's press conference, he repeated a remark he heard somewhere that "the most dangerous person in America is a 12-year-old smoking marijuana on a weekend." If that's what the war on drugs is about, we're in deep trouble.)
• More details about the U.S. House hearing on drug legalization and medical marijuana (A list subscriber follows up on Monday's USA Today story by publicizing a web site listing the members of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources - and showing you how to lobby them.)
• Bumper crop in Mexico resulting in large marijuana seizures (The Associated Press says a bumper crop of marijuana is apparently making its way to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, resulting in huge seizures. From Falcon Dam to Boca Chica, where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico, agents have seized 222,304 pounds of marijuana valued at $178 million in the last six months - 50 percent more than the same period a year ago.)
• GOP To Seek Change On Mexico (The Washington Post says U.S. Representative John L. Mica, R-Florida, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, and Representative Benjamin A. Gilman, R-New York, the chairman of the International Relations Committee, cited new allegations yesterday that senior Mexican military and political officials were involved in drug trafficking as they announced they would co-sponsor a bill that would overturn President Clinton's certification of Mexico as an ally in the war on some drug users, but waive economic penalties.)
• Grandson Of Italian King Faces Drugs Trial (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Prince Serge of Yugoslavia, a grandson of the last king of Italy, faces five years in jail after he was allegedly caught last year buying cocaine in Turin, where he has a home and works as a design consultant.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 12 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 94,800 Last updated: 5/30/99
  

  Wednesday, March 24, 1999:

• Pot need not be controlled (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian addresses the allegation that Measure 67 had loopholes that need a legislative fix. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act is a carefully crafted statute. It was written so that if implementation problems do arise, they can be handled legislatively in the next session. No need currently exists to amend the act other than to further the agenda of those who opposed its passage.)
• Unlocking Doors (Willamette Week, in Portland, says nobody is happy with Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers' proposal to coerce mentally ill people to take drugs they perceive to be worse than their disease.)
• Measures avert early jail releases (The Oregonian says Multnomah County averted the early release of inmates from its five jails Tuesday after taking several measures to keep the prisoner population from exceeding its unspecified federally mandated limit. The county now maintains 2,063 beds.)
• Burned house center of eviction battle involving Ingerid Pearson (The Oregonian says a Southeast Portland residence at the center of a dispute between mother and son led to an eviction of the mother, which in turn led to the alleged discovery of what appeared to be a methamphetamine lab in the basement. Portland firefighters waited for specialists to deal with the hazard until smoke mysteriously started coming from the home's basement about 4 p.m. Fire Bureau policy bars risking firefighters in houses with drug labs unless someone's life is in danger. So firefighters allowed the house to burn - and any evidence of a meth lab with it.)
• Operators Of Cannabis Clubs Plead Guilty (The Sacramento Bee says Steven McWilliams and Dion Markgraaff, who operated a couple of San Diego County medical-marijuana dispensaries, pleaded guilty Tuesday to maintaining a place for distribution of a controlled substance. In exchange for their pleas, prosecutor David Songco dropped seven other felony charges. The two men each face up to three years in prison when they are sentenced April 20, but lawyers on both sides said they will likely receive probation.)
• Medicinal Marijuana Trial Starts March 30th in Placer County (A list subscriber invites you to the trial in Auburn, California, of two medical marijuana patients, Dr. Michael Baldwin and his wife, Georgia Chacko, for cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to sell.)
• Slow the Drug-Test Frenzy (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle finds hope in this week's U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the ruling of an appellate court that a high school in Anderson, Indiana, went too far in requiring drug tests of all students who had been suspended but wanted to return to school.)
• The Secret Society Among Lawmen (The Los Angeles Times says tattooed groups like the Grim Reapers are enjoying renewed popularity in the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. A federal judge hearing class-action lawsuits against the department in 1996 described the most well-known of the groups, the Lynwood Vikings, as a "neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang" and found that deputies had engaged in racially motivated hostility. The county paid $9 million in fines and training costs to settle. Today, some of the lawyers now suing the Sheriff's Department on behalf of clients who say they were beaten, shot or harassed, have demanded that deputies accused of misconduct roll down their socks and reveal if they have one of the distinguishing tattoos. In one case pending in federal court, attorneys want two deputies who allegedly shot a man to death to show whether their ankles bear the Vikings insignia.)
• 2 admit cross-border drug corruption (The Arizona Daily Star says two men admitted their involvement in drug corruption on the Arizona-Mexico border yesterday in U.S. District Court. Former immigration inspector Jesus A. Corella acknowledged he accepted a $75,000 bribe in exchange for allowing 1,289 pounds of cocaine to cross at Nogales in 1996. And Fernando L. Suarez of Rio Rico admitted driving a load of cocaine across the border and paying a bribe. A federal grand jury indicted Suarez and Corella on Jan. 27 along with seven other defendants, including two other immigration inspectors. All but one were charged with drug-related crimes.)
• Witness: Pedro Oregon Dealt Drugs (According to the Houston Chronicle, an informant told a jury Tuesday that Pedro Navarro Oregon, the man slain by Houston police during a supposed drug raid, helped his brothers deal crack cocaine and agreed to supply it the night of his death, even though no drugs were found at the scene. But a legal fight to keep the dead man's brother from testifying overshadowed the misdemeanor criminal trespass trial of former Houston police Officer James Willis, who is charged in connection with the shooting of Oregon.)
• The First National Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics (A press release from Patients Out of Time says the advocacy group for medical-marijuana patients has joined with the College of Nursing and the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa to sponsor a symposium at the university in April 2000. The conference will feature experts in the clinical use of cannabis as well as six of the eight patients in the United States who receive their medical cannabis from the federal government.)
• Former Candidate, Editor Gives Herself Up In Marijuana Case (The Des Moines Register says Lois Kennis, a 1998 independent candidate for lieutenant governor, turned herself in to Urbandale authorities Tuesday on cultivation-related charges. The editor and publisher of Iowa Lady Magazine is also the wife of Mark Kennis, host of the local cable television show "Big People News" and an advocate for marijuana-law reform.)
• Heroin Use Is Unabated, Report Says (The New York Times describes the latest semiannual "Pulse Check" report on national trends in illegal-drug use released Tuesday by General Barry McCaffrey in New York. The survey, based on reports from 200 treatment centers and law enforcement officials in 16 cities, shows heroin use in New York City remains high, with more young people trying heroin and more users now sniffing the drug than injecting it. McCaffrey said that in the last month, nationwide, illegal drugs were used by 13 million Americans, of whom 4.1 million were "chronically addicted," which must be like, the opposite of "temporarily addicted"?)
• Press Clippings - Pot Shots (The Village Voice, in New York, credits Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., for waging a superb behind-the-scenes public relations campaign that helped produce a favorable spin in American mass media regarding the March 17 Institute of Medicine assessment of medical marijuana. "It's too early to tell, but so far, no major paper has defended McCaffrey's wait-and-see attitude." By calling marijuana smoke a risk factor for cancer and lung damage, it gave the government one last myth to work with: the idea that marijuana is dangerous. If McCaffrey's strategy was to play up the harmful effects of smoking, it definitely worked. the New York Times even used the word "toxic" to describe pot smoke. Obviously, there is some risk in smoking burning leaves, but marijuana is relatively safe, as drugs go, according to the report. And the IOM found no proof that it causes cancer.)
• Medical Pot: Knee-Jerk Opposition (A notably rational staff editorial in the Charleston Gazette, in West Virginia, is prompted by the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana to conclude that cannabis should be made "legal for desperately ill people - and probably for everyone." The newspaper thinks political resistance to reform is rooted more in posturing against "sin" than in intelligent science.)
• "Officer Of The Year" Facing Drug Charges (UPI says the FBI has arrested William Alonzo Banks Jr., 31, a police officer in Lakeland, Florida, on charges of possessing and dealing cocaine over the past two years.)
• Seizure Of Drug Suspect's Vehicle Stirs Supreme Court (The Houston Chronicle says the U.S. Supreme Court weighed the constitutionality of the drug war Tuesday as it considered whether police in Florida need a warrant before seizing and searching a car suspected of having been used in a cocaine deal. The issue was whether police violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures when they failed to get a warrant before impounding and examining the car of a man suspected of dealing drugs from the vehicle. David Gauldin, a Florida assistant public defender representing Tyvessel White, said Florida's goal was not to take White's car off the streets but to secure evidence against his client, an effort that, he said, required a warrant.)
• High Court Asked To Hear Challenge To Prosecution Deals (The Baltimore Sun says Sonya Evette Singleton of Wichita, Kansas, is filing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to rule that federal prosecutors may not offer defendants leniency in exchange for testimony against another defendant - a practice followed by generations of prosecutors. Singleton is serving a 46-month sentence after being convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The only evidence against her was testimony by another defendant who was promised leniency if he implicated her. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Denver agreed with Singleton's argument in July, but the full court reconsidered the case and reversed that decision in January.)
• Anti-Drug Internet Sites Unveiled (According to an Associated Press article in the New York Times, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy announced Wednesday it was sponsoring two new web sites where children and their parents can get information about fighting "drugs.")
• Marijuana Hoax (A syndicated column by Jacob Sullum recasts his Reason magazine essay about how the Institute of Medicine report commissioned by General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, contradicts the statements he made in 1996 and 1997 while campaigning against medical-marijuana ballot initiatives in California and Arizona. If, as the IOM report indicates, marijuana's benefits are genuine and its hazards have been greatly exaggerated, the real hoax is the one that men like McCaffrey have perpetrated on the American public for more than half a century.)
• Brain has marijuana-like chemicals that may fight disease (The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recounts yesterday's news about researchers at the University of California at Irvine finding that anandamide, a natural cannabinoid-like brain chemical, interferes with another chemical in the brains of rats: dopamine. Still unanswered is how the new study seems to contradict the much-publicized contention of U.S. government scientists a couple years ago that marijuana increases dopamine production.)
• Mexico Extradites Drug Trafficker (The Associated Press says Tirso Angel Robles, who escaped to Mexico from a California prison in 1995, was returned to U.S. officials on Tuesday, just as two key Republican U.S. House members moved to overturn President Clinton's certification of Mexico last month as a fully cooperating drug war ally.)
• Drugs money linked to the Kosovo rebels (The Times, in London, notes the sudden ascendancy of Kosovan Albanians in the heroin trade in Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavia coincides with the sudden growth of the Kosovo Liberation Army from a ragamuffin peasants' army two years ago to a 30,000-strong force equipped with grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons and AK47s. Senior police officers across Europe think the KLA, which has won the support of the West for its guerrilla struggle against the heavy armour of the Serbs, is led by Marxists and funded by dubious sources, including drug money.)
  Bytes: 117,000 Last updated: 4/21/99
  

  Tuesday, March 23, 1999:

• New scanners refine airport luggage exams (The Oregonian says Portland International Airport has installeda a pair of $1 million devices that employ CAT-scan technology to check baggage for explosives and "narcotics" - apparently the newspaper's attempt to make you think most of the contraband being found isn't "marijuana.")
• Eviction takes twist when home burns (The Oregonian says what began as an eviction from a Southeast Portland home Monday turned into the discovery of a suspected methamphetamine lab, which somehow led to a two-alarm fire that consumed the $450,000 house. Firefighters, fearing toxic chemicals, watched the house burn to the ground. Plus the Associated Press version, and commentary from two skeptics familiar with the case and official testilying.)
• California cop: Feds need to make a decision about marijuana (According to the Associated Press, Walt Allen, vice president of the California Narcotic Officers Association, says the federal government must soon decide whether to ease restrictions on the use of pot so that states can figure out how to implement voter-approved medical marijuana laws.)
• A Drug War Fought On Ideology (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer notes the Institute of Medicine report last week found that marijuana isn't addictive or a gateway to harder drugs, and the effects of marijuana smoking are no more threatening than smoking cigarettes. So why then is the cultivation, trade and use of pot regarded as a crime? Every other serious study of the effect of marijuana has concluded the same thing. The huge and highly profitable antidrug war industry is hooked on marijuana as justification for its enormously expensive and disruptive crusade. Madness can properly be defined as a state of mind in which facts and logic are of no consequence. What better way to describe our failed drug policy?)
• Study: Caffeine not as addictive as, say, cocaine (According to the Associated Press, a study funded by the French coffee industry and released Monday at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Los Angeles indicates that drinking up to three cups of coffee a day has no effect on the part of the brain responsible for addiction. And it may actually be good for you - if you're a rat. But caffeine studies are all over the map when it comes to health effects. One skeptic is Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, who says "there is pretty substantial literature in animals and humans showing chronic administration of caffeine produces acute dependency syndrome.")
• Actor died on day of scheduled court appearance in drug case (The Associated Press says David Strickland, an actor on television's "Suddenly Susan," apparently committed suicide by hanging himself in a Las Vegas motel room the night before he was due to give a Los Angeles court a progress report on the coerced treatment he was sentenced to after pleading no contest to cocaine possession. Warner Bros. and NBC said production of "Suddenly Susan" was being halted indefinitely.)
• Police Arrest Singer Ray Price On Marijuana (The Associated Press says the Grammy Award-winning country singer known for hits such as "For the Good Times" and "Release Me" was arrested last Friday at his ranch near Mount Pleasant, Texas, charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and fined $700.)
• Marijuana-Scented Cigarettes Tested (According to the Associated Press, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press claims that tobacco industry documents reveal Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. sought to cash in on the popularity of marijuana in the 1970s by developing a cigarette that mimicked the herb's smell. A company chemist noted in a June 3, 1974, memo that mixing Virginia and Turkish tobaccos, pekoe teas, alfalfa and oregano produced "a foreign taste, liked by some, with a sidestream aroma easily mistaken for marijuana.")
• Candidate Has Two Kinds Of Aspirations (The Des Moines Register interviews Mark Kennis of Grimes, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States who was charged last week with manufacturing marijuana and conspiring to distribute it to a minor. Kennis, who is also a former independent candidate for Iowa governor, uses the herb to relieve pain from diabetes and heart problems. During his campaign he says he will advocate the "legalization" of marijuana.)
• District Replaces DARE Program (The Chicago Tribune says the Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 Board of Education announced plans Monday night in Buffalo Grove to replace its Drug Abuse Resistance Education program with a new class called C.O.D.E., which stands for Community Organized Drug Education.)
• Former Officer Gets A Life Term In 10 Murders For A Drug Gang (The New York Times says John Cuff, a former housing police officer in the Bronx, avoided the death penalty Monday by pleading guilty to Federal charges that he had killed 10 people after he was recruited by the Preacher Crew.)
• Pinellas Teacher Busted On Drug Charges (UPI says Sofia Forte, a 29-year-old teacher in Pinellas County, Florida, is facing drug charges after a police dog found cocaine in the teacher's lounge at Osceola Middle School.)
• Puerto Rico Police Suspended On Drugs Allegations (Reuters says eight Puerto Rico commonwealth police agents allegedly offered protection to drug dealers, and were involved in importing drugs into Puerto Rico from Caribbean islands such as St. Croix and Curacao, as well as from Mexico.)
• Pharmos Corporation Receives Notice Of Allowance On Dexanabinol Patent For Use In The Treatment Of Multiple Sclerosis (A company press release on PR Newswire says the Pharmos Corporation has filed a claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering the use of its synthetic cannabinoid, as well as various other non-psychotropic analogs, derivatives and metabolites, in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. A recent, successful Phase II clinical study also showed dexanabinol, invented in Israel, to be safe and well-tolerated by patients suffering from severe head trauma. The worldwide market for dexanabinol in the treatment of severe head trauma may reach $1 billion annually and is significantly larger if other neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and stroke are treated with the drug.)
• Scientists Find How Brain Chemical Acts Like Pot (The San Jose Mercury News says scientists funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse announced Monday that their research, to be published in the April issue of the journal "Nature-Neuroscience," shows they have discovered how one of the body's natural cannabinoids, anandamide, counteracts another brain chemical, dopamine. Their research suggests that natural THC-like compounds may prove useful in the development of medications for treating diseases that seem to involve dopamine imbalances in the brain, such as schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome.)
• The Scoop, Medical Marijuana (Mother Jones Wire says never mind what the drug czar's own study by the Institute of Medicine recommends. Barry McCaffrey insists that medical marijuana is gonna stay illegal - because it impairs memory, interferes with motor skills, and impairs memory.)
• Snorting Heroin Becoming More Popular - U.S. Report (Reuters says the semi-annual "pulse check" released Tuesday by General Barry McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy indicates the practice of inhaling heroin is growing more popular, while the drug is being used increasingly by women, the affluent and suburbanites. Reuters doesn't say so, but implicitly the report shows the U.S. war on some drug users continues to correlate with lower heroin prices and increased availability and increasing deaths. The use of methamphetamine on the West Coast and "club drugs" generally is also increasing.)
• Court Refuses To Review Guidelines On School Drug Checks (The Washington Post expands on yesterday's news about the U.S. Supreme Court upholding an appellate court's decision that a high school in Anderson, Indiana, can't require drug tests from all students who want to return to school after being suspended.)
• High Court Rejects Proposal to Expand School Drug Tests (The Washington Times version)
• Supreme Court Actions Affect Teens (The Associated Press version in the Orange County Register notes the justices also left intact a curfew for children under 17 imposed by Charlottesville, Virginia.)
• Court Limits Drug Tests (A different Associated Press version)
• High Court Limits Drug Testing Of Students (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• When Can Police Seize Private Property? (The Christian Science Monitor says the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in a case involving police who used Florida's forfeiture law first to seize and then to justify a warrantless search of a car belonging to Tyvessel White, who was subsequently convicted of possessing two pieces of crack cocaine. The Florida case marks the first time the high court will consider whether a warrant is needed in forfeiture cases.)
• Anti-Money Laundering Rules Dropped (The Associated Press says U.S. banking regulators, responding to a public outcry over privacy concerns, on Tuesday scrapped the "Know Your Customer" anti-money laundering rules that would have tracked the transaction patterns of bank customers. The rules were put out for public comment in December by four federal banking agencies. Since then, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alone has received about 225,000 e-mail messages and letters, nearly all opposing the rules.)
• The Prison Boom (Washington Post columnist Geneva Overholser says the combination of strong opinions and little expertise among lawmakers has given us a huge and continuing boom in prison building, but little else in the way of sound public policy to deal with the problems filling the cells. Perhaps the 15-minute spotlight supposedly being focused now on the prison-industrial complex will nudge us toward the better path that social science research is bringing to light.)
• 10-Year-Olds Being Offered Drugs (The Belfast Telegraph says a recent survey by the Health Promotion Agency found that almost a quarter of 10 to 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland had been offered "drugs." Of those who had been offered drugs, more than half had experimented with them at least once and a third had continued using drugs.)
• German Health Minister Supports Medical Marihuana (A list subscriber translates excerpts from Stuttgarter Zeitung about Christa Nickels, the German health minister, speaking in Bonn yesterday on "Marihuana as Medicine." Nickels said it was sensible to use marihuana and hashish for therapeutic purposes, noting they are "more cost effective than synthetic substitutes.")
  Bytes: 123,000 Last updated: 4/8/99
  

  Monday, March 22, 1999:

• Pot eases spasms that harder drugs didn't touch (The Business Journal, in Portland, describes the painful difficulty John Crause has encountered in obtaining medical marijuana. Although the quadriplegic living at the Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles complies with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, he can't easily access the herb. He says he's called pharmacies and no one wants anything to do with it.)
• Prevent, treat drug abuse (A staff editorial in the Oregonian shows editors are too uninformed to recognize the patent duplicity in the 1999 National Drug Control Strategy, outlined by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, in his visit to Portland last week.)
• Barbers get more training than police, law enforcement officials complain (The Associated Press says police in Washington state get 440 hours of training, far less than barbers, cosmetologists or even embalmers. Law enforcement officials and some lawmakers are asking the legislature for $1.5 million a year to increase training to 720 hours.)
• The Smoke Clears (A staff editorial in the Fresno Bee about the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana says it remains unclear whether the government is willing to fund studies to isolate marijuana's medicinal components. Even if the government did, would a drug company be willing to gamble on investing in a product that may prove less popular than its illegal counterpart? In the meantime, the case becomes more compelling for Congress to let states experiment with various ways to regulate marijuana while researchers work on finding a better, safer and less controversial alternative.)
• Medical-Pot Activist More Hopeful (The Orange County Register says local medical-marijuana activist Anna Boyce is optimistic that the new sheriff, Mike Carona, "will be listening to all sides" after she met Thursday with his right-hand man, Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo. Carona, who campaigned on a promise to find a way to enforce Proposition 215, was elected to replace Brad Gates, who campaigned against the initiative.)
• Ex-Candidate Kubby And Wife Plead Not Guilty In Drug Case (The Orange County Register notes medical-marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, were arraigned Friday on cultivation charges in Placer County, California.)
• Candidate Pleads Innocent To Drug Charges (The San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune version)
• Double Talk On Medicinal Pot (A letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune agrees with columnist Doug Grow that Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura was the real killer of Sen. Pat Piper's medical-marijuana bill. Ventura let the bill die despite his pro-medical-marijuana campaign stance and despite this month's Mason-Dixon Research poll, which shows 65 percent of Minnesotans favoring medical use and only 20 percent opposed. Indulging in the bait-and-switch politics-as-usual he forswore only weeks ago, Ventura sided with Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver.)
• Medical Marijuana Deserves Try (A staff editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Institute of Medicine report helps expose the folly of the federal government's hard-as-granite position on marijuana.)
• America, Land Of Prisons (A staff editorial in the Chicago Tribune responds to the latest figures showing the U.S. prison population rose to 1.8 million last year, rivaling Russia's. There is considerable evidence, however, that the imprisonment binge does not explain falling crime rates. For one thing, the growth in the jail population has been attributable almost exclusively to tougher charges and longer sentences, not more arrests by police.)
• Medical Panel Sees Benefits Of Marijuana (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, summarizes last week's Institute of Medicine report.)
• A Drug War Against The Sick (An op-ed in the New York Times by Richard Brookhiser of the conservative National Review recounts his illicit use of marijuana while undergoing chemotherapy, and says the Institute of Medicine's report last week medical marijuana raised serious questions about the toxicity of marijuana smoke. But many medicines are toxic. The relevant question is, toxic compared to what? Support for medical marijuana is not an exception to conservative principles but an extension of them.)
• Debate Is Re-ignited: Is Pot A 'Gateway'? (USA Today says last week's Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana has infuriated many drug abuse experts, prosecutors and lawmakers by concluding that "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs." Lynn Zimmer, a sociologist at Queens College in New York and co-author of the book, "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts," says the gateway theory is as likely to be true as the idea that early bicycle riding "causes" motorcycling. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, called the Institute of Medicine report "the biggest waste of money in the entire war on drugs." However, Mica announced plans to hold hearings in late April on drug legalization and medical marijuana.)
• Supreme Court Rejects School's Drug Test Appeal (Reuters says the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld an appellate court's decision that a high school in Anderson, Indiana, can't require drug tests from all students who want to return to school after being suspended.)
• Ruling Bars Mandatory Drug Testing Of Students (The Associated Press version)
• Suits vs. City Cops Soar - $28m In Settlements (The New York Daily News notes New York City residents are filing 57 percent more lawsuits since 1988 claiming rights violations by police. And the city is paying a record amount for police misconduct - $28.3 million last fiscal year, nearly three times the $10 million taxpayers were soaked for a decade ago.)
• What teens hear in marijuana debate (According to the Christian Science Monitor, which fails to interview a single young person, Mark Kleiman, the notorious drug warrior in residence at the University of California at Los Angeles, claims last week's Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana could lead teens to think "first, marijuana is sort of healthy, and second, the government is stupid and doesn't get it. . . . The argument about medicinal marijuana carries a greater threat to changing juvenile attitudes than any policy that's adopted." The nationally distributed newspaper says Mr. Kleiman and other "experts" worry that the medical-marijuana debate is, for teens, "morphing into questions about marijuana itself, and even drugs in general." Good heavens, we can't have that, can we? The newspaper doesn't say whether the national policy of defunding education while expanding the prison-industrial complex might have some bearing on teens' concerns about drug policy.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert No. 102 - IOM Report (A bulletin from DrugSense says the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana has virtually destroyed the main arguments against medical marijuana. At the same time, the IOM report dispels the myths that prohibitionists have relied for on for decades to prevent general legalization. Also included are a few related media reports and a list of newspapers to send letters to about the IOM report.)
• Drug And Alcohol Use In The Workplace (The Los Angeles Times prints some discredited propaganda from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institute on Drug Abuse about the supposed cost of alcohol and other drugs to workers' productivity, apparently hoping to benefit the drug-testing industry. The drag on productivity from having a correctional population of almost 6 million isn't considered, nor the recent research showing that drug-testing workers reduces a business's productivity by almost 20 percent.)
• Hope for AIDS man - Judge to re-open medical pot case (The Toronto Sun notes Saturday's news about Judge Harry LaForme's decision to allow AIDS patient Jim Wakeford to resume his lawsuit seeking access to medical marijuana. The Canadian government has refused to enforce a provision in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act the judge thought Wakeford could use to obtain the medicine.)
• Arrested RCMP officer resigns (The North Shore News, in British Columbia, says Constable Scott Simpson, a 12-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in North Vancouver, was arrested Feb. 16 under suspicion of possessing and distributing marijuana.)
• Anti-Drugs Drive Fails To Stem Abuse (The Guardian, in Britain, says unpublished results from the first national audit carried out for the drugs tsar, Keith Hellawell, designed to provide the first glimpse into the state of the government campaign against drug abuse, show the war on drugs in Britain is proving ineffective. The results from three of the 100 drug action teams around the country show many initiatives are overloaded or never even get evaluated, despite being in place for years. All three reports showed drug treatment services were already overloaded, with many agencies reporting that they were finding it difficult to meet current demand levels. Publication of the audit is being delayed until after the Scottish, Welsh and local elections in May.)
  Bytes: 99,200 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Sunday, March 21, 1999:

• Congress should heed pot report (A staff editorial in the Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, says Congress should take the recommendations from the Institute of Medicine report seriously for two reasons. First, it is wrong to allow politics to stand between sick people and whatever drugs might alleviate their suffering. Second, lifting the federal classification of marijuana as a therapeutically useless drug will preclude "awful ballot initiatives like Oregon's which makes pot available to just about anybody who feels he needs it for medical reasons.")
• Lockyer stance on pot praised (The San Francisco Examiner gauges local reaction to announcement by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer that he won't intervene if local officials allow medical-marijuana dispensaries to operate.)
• Let Pot Clubs In City Operate Quietly (The Orange County Register version)
• Libertarian Candidate Pleads Innocent To Pot (UPI notes Steve Kubby, the medical marijuana patient/activist and 1998 candidate for California governor, faces a May 18 trial after pleading not guilty Friday to cultivation charges in Placer County.)
• Drug Firms Try To Cash In On Pot (A letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News responds to the Institute of Medicine report by expressing the concern that "the pharmaceutical companies and others who insist that the only way marijuana can become a viable medicine is for some huge company to make it into something that they can sell back to the public for a profit. Marijuana is, and should remain, a free medicine. Anyone can grow it and use it to help with aches and pains.")
• Benefits of Medicinal Pot (A staff editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune says the recommendations in the recent report by the Institute of Medicine add to what is becoming a preponderance of evidence that some patients benefit from marijuana and that government has no more right withholding it than it would to refuse penicillin to someone who could benefit from it.)
• POWD Alan Carter McClemore's Executioner (A list subscriber forwards an update on the case of the former Texas lawyer who was disbarred and imprisoned four years ago for growing his own medicine to alleviate his debilitating depression, eating disorder and migraine headaches. Two and a half months ago, the prisoner of the war on drugs was allowed to enter a halfway house in Beaumont, Texas. His doctor worked it out with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons so Alan could be put back on Marinol. The transformation in his health has been dramatic. But now Kenneth Laborde, the local head of probation for the B.O.P in Beaumont, allegedly says he will violate McClemore if he takes Marinol and fails his urine tests. So McClemore will soon be very sick again, and when he is put on five years' probation, the person he will report to is Kenneth Laborde.)
• Prison Policy Is Both Costly And Irrational (A staff editorial in the Capital Times denounces Wisconsin's correctional spending policies - but not the war on some drug users at the heart of the problem. At a time when state officials say they do not have the money to keep tuition at the University of Wisconsin affordable, to provide adequate consumer protection or develop mass transportation, the Department of Corrections has requested an additional $120 million over the next two years to cover the skyrocketing costs of transferring prisoners out of state. At the same time, the department is spending $228 million to open four new prisons over the next two years, while closing down entire units at existing prisons.)
• Support For Marijuana Use Grows In Medical Circles (The Philadelphia Inquirer presents patients' perspectives on Wednesday's Institute of Medicine report.)
• Parents Warned On Drugs (The Sunday Mail, in Adelaide, says Australia's top Scouting organisation has told parents that if they use marijuana, their children should be allowed to smoke it too. The Scout Association's national executive committee also told parents the illegal herb is not addictive and does not cause cancer or birth defects. The new Scouts Australia publication, "Issues in Adolescent Health," which was designed as a "common sense" information guide for parents, says girls and boys have been entering puberty younger and younger over the past 200 years by an average advancing age of three months every decade. Scouts Australia say there is no sign of the phenomenon "flattening," and predicts that in 100 years, girls will be sexually mature at an average age of 8 and boys at 10.)
• ACM Bulletin of 21 March 1999 (An English-language news summary from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, focuses on the U.S. Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana; new research on the treatment of Tourette's Syndrome with marijuana and THC; and the official response of the House of Lords to the rejection of their recommendations regarding medical marijuana by the British government.)
  Bytes: 58,300 Last updated: 4/6/99
  

  Saturday, March 20, 1999:

• Putting pot in its place (A staff editorial in the Oregonian mischaracterizes the Institute of Medicine assessment of medical marijuana, asserting that the report's endorsement of medical marijuana is quite limited and making too much of its suggestion that the "widespread smoking of pot is not the best route." Oddly, the newspaper vaguely contradicts itself, faulting the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act for being "weak.")
• The Humane Approach (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian says the mass media are spinning the Institute of Medicine report. People should read the report for themselves.)
• Is This Really America? (A list subscriber forwards a first-person account from Twin Falls, Idaho, illustrating how the war on marijuana users has led to blatant disregard by cops for Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted searches.)
• Lockyer Gives Quiet OK To S.F. Pot Clubs (According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told San Francisco authorities yesterday that medical marijuana distribution in the city can proceed if it continues discreetly, so federal authorities won't feel the need to intervene. Lockyer tacitly acknowledged medical marijuana is quietly being dispensed in San Francisco despite the ruling last year by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ordering the closure of the Cannabis Cultivators Club.)
• Lockyer Suggests Medical Marijuana Be Distributed Quietly (The Associated Press version in the Sacramento Bee)
• Life As A Drug War Prisoner (The web site promoting the campaign of Libertarian Steve Kubby for governor of California in 2002 releases a heartbreaking first-person account of the prosecution of Pete Brady, the medical-marijuana patient and journalist who faces up to four years in prison for interviewing Kubby.)
• Couple Pleads Not Guilty (The Sacramento Bee says Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in California, and his wife, Michele, entered not-guilty pleas to cultivation charges Friday in Placer County Superior Court. A trial date of May 18 was set.)
• Libertarian Candidate Enters Innocent Plea To Drug Charges (The San Francisco Chronicle version)
• Libertarian Candidate Enters Innocent Plea (The Associated Press version)
• Invitation to a Trial (A list subscriber forwards information about the trial beginning Tuesday, March 23, of Steve McWilliams and Dion Markgraaff from San Diego's Shelter From the Storm Cannabis Collective. McWilliams and Markgraaff were busted a year ago after the medical marijuana dispensary tried to deliver a van full of plants to a quadrapeligic patient whose garden had previously been destroyed by the San Diego county sheriiff's department.)
• New Steps Sought Against Drugs, Alcohol (UPI says a poll of Californians by the Field Institute shows 70 percent favored shifting money from prisons to treatment programs for alcoholics and other drug abusers.)
• TV Personality Faces Drug Charges (The Des Moines Register says Mark Kennis of Grimes, Ohio, a former independent candidate for govemor who advocated the legalization of marijuana and was busted for cultivating it Friday, is also the host and producer of "Big People News," which focuses on perceived discrimination against large people.)
• Marijuana As Medicine (A staff editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Institute of Medicine report says that if reason and compassion trumped politics, the fears of the drug warriors would be realized. But the U.S. government is so invested in a drug war that has targeted marijuana as an irredeemable enemy that it is unlikely to be moved by the new evidence. A polite thank you and an acknowledgment that more study is necessary is the standard response.)
• Class Action Goes To Trial (The best critique yet of the Institute of Medicine report comes in a message forwarded from Lawrence Elliott Hirsch, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in a class-action federal lawsuit filed in Philadelphia against the government's ban on medical marijuana. "It is our contention that the binding agreement between the first legal recipient Robert Randall and the government of the United States created a law and a policy that bound the United States government to supply medical marijuana to all citizens who have a medical need to use cannabis. . . . This report, however, lacks any substantial foundation. The very first question that should have been addressed by the IOM was the establishment of the Compassionate Access Program, which was started in 1978. . . . I was particularly disturbed at the report's suggestion that medical marijuana is not a good medical treatment for glaucoma. Robert Randall received therapeutic cannabis for glaucoma, as a medical necessity. Elvy Musikka, the third legal recipient, had her eyesight saved by therapeutic cannabis supplied by the government. Corrine Millet of Nebraska also is a legal recipient for glaucoma. The government intentionally failed to perform any research or analysis of any of the legal recipients because it never wanted the research to be on the books and subject to disclosure to the public.")
• The humane approach (A staff editorial in the Savannah Morning News, in Georgia, about the recent Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana notes the IOM already concluded in 1982 that the active ingredients in marijuana could help seriously ill patients and should be studied at greater length. Perversely, the newspaper contradicts the 1999 report by asserting that marijuana is a stepping stone to harder drugs. But it also agrees scientific studies should go forward, and if the efficacy of medical cannabis stands up to scrutiny, "then the humane response is to make marijuana accessible to those who will benefit.")
• Federal Report Supports Case For Legalizing Medical 'Pot' (A staff editorial in Florida Today summarizes last week's Institute of Medicine report, and concludes Florida needs to join the growing list of states that have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana.)
• Health Care Science Is Needed (An editorial by the drug warriors on the staff of the Florida Times-Union tries to put a negative spin on the Institute of Medicine report. Like other American media, the Times-Union notes the IOM report "warned that smoking marijuana can cause respiratory disease and lung cancer," but, like the report, it fails to note no cases of cancer or other lung disease have been linked to smoking the herb after 5,000 years of recorded use. The newspaper alleges "Head shops have sprung up all over California" as a direct result of Proposition 215. "Anyone can walk in with a slip of paper that says they need pot, and get it.")
• Actions are louder with words! (A list subscriber posts a few URLs for sites featuring contact information for state and federal representatives, as well as attorneys general, and asks you to write letters to the upholders of prohibition regarding the Institute of Medicine report.)
• Republicans In Senate Unveil Their Crime Agenda (An Associated Press article in the Orange County Register says the GOP unveiled a $17.5 billion bill Friday that would impose tougher penalties for drug traffickers.)
• Senate Republicans Challenge Reno's Bid To Cut Money For Fighting Crime (A lengthier version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Medical Marijuana: The Smoke Clears (The Economist, in Britain, says the endorsement of medical marijuana recently issued by the Institute of Medicine was expressed "in the most timid possible terms.")
• Feds told to testify in pot use hearing (The Calgary Herald says Harry Laforme, the Ontario judge presiding over the constitutional challenge of AIDS patient Jim Wakeford, on Friday ordered a Health Canada official to testify as to when the government plans to decide whether Wakeford can legally use marijuana. Wakeford initially filed suit in February 1998. Laforme ruled in September that Wakeford should seek immunity from prosecution not through the courts but under section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. However, Wakeford on Friday told the judge that did not work. Wakeford's lawyer, Alan Young, said he wrote six letters to the Department of Health asking for exemptions for Wakeford but received only one reply that stated the department was looking into the "extraordinary request.")
• AIDS Victim Back In Court (The Toronto Star version)
• Mayday press release text (A news release from the International Cannabis Coalition publicizes worldwide rallies May 1 calling for the end to cannabis prohibition. So far events are confirmed on four continents, in six countries and seventeen cities.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 11 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 94,300 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, March 19, 1999:

• Time doesn't fit the crime (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian contrasts two recent news articles to illustrate the injustice of the war on some drug users. A Portland bus driver who raped a mentally disabled passenger was previously released from prison after serving nine years for a 1973 murder, while a young woman with a cocaine habit is still serving a life sentence for cocaine possession.)
• Restaurant owners fight smoking ban in Corvallis bars (The Associated Press says the Oregon Restaurant Association urged the Oregon Court of Appeals Wednesday to overturn a Corvallis ordinance that bans smoking in drinking places, citing a state law that exempts taverns. The restaurant association says the issue is whether cities are free to make choices of policy that go beyond what the legislature decides, and is appealing a decision by Benton County Circuit Judge Robert Gardner last April that local governments can establish smoking restrictions that are more strict than the state's. This would seem to be a case to watch for marijuana-law reformers in Portland and elsewhere in Oregon who want to sponsor local reform initiatives.)
• Lawmaker held in DUI investigation (The Seattle Times says Washington state representative Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, was arrested early Friday on a drunken driving charge.)
• Study: Marijuana Not A 'Gateway' Drug (The Arizona Republic summarizes the Institute of Medicine report released Wednesday.)
• Marijuana As Medicine (A staff editorial in the Arizona Daily Star says the Institute of Medicine assessment of marijuana as medicine was "measured and responsible," in contrast to the Arizona legislature, which as recently as September passed a resolution declaring marijuana addictive and opposing its medical use.)
• McCaffrey Opposes Use Of Marijuana, Even For Medical Reasons (A staff editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times about the Institute of Medicine report says the White House drug czar's continued opposition to marijuana as medicine shows General Barry McCaffrey is apparently in search of a yes man - or at least a group of scientists who sees things his way. Why bother ordering studies if they are to be disregarded? The medical community should be the one to determine what are appropriate medications to grant relief for patients suffering terrible diseases.)
• Politics And Marijuana's Promise (A staff editorial in the Chicago Tribune says the Institute of Medicine report released Wednesday will likely be ignored and the federal ban on medical marijuana will probably continue due to politicians' fear of appearing "soft on drugs.")
• Hemp Growing (Foster's Daily Democrat says the New Hampshire House on Thursday voted 183-174 to defeat a bill that would have made it legal to grow hemp in New Hampshire. Supporters asked that the bill be returned to committee for reworking since the vote was so close.)
• Case Shows Legal Problems With 'Zero Tolerence' (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the "zero tolerance" drug policy enacted by school officials in Easthampton led to the town paying undisclosed settlements to four students who sued after being expelled for marijuana possession.)
• Marijuana Rx: Legalize Pot to Treat Cancer, AIDS (A staff editorial in Newsday, in New York, says the Institute of Medicine's carefully nuanced assessment of medical marijuana ought to end the arguments over the principle of using marijuana to treat the sick.)
• Report On Medical Use Of Marijuana Brings New Fight (A New York Times analysis of the Institute of Medicine report released Wednesday says the study ostensibly concerned the herb's medicinal uses, but has opened a debate into marijuana's longstanding role as a linchpin to the national policy of zero tolerance toward illicit drugs.)
• For A Very Few Patients, U.S. Provides Free Marijuana (The New York Times describes the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program, sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Eight patients still receive 300 mediocre but efficacious joints every month under the federal program. A trial scheduled for June will challenge the Bush administration's arbitrary and unilateral 1992 decision to close the door to new patients.)
• Patients Using Marijuana As Medicine Hail Report Backing Claims (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service notes the Institute of Medicine issued its long-awaited report last week lending scientific credence to the potential medical benefits of marijuana touted by AIDS patient Kiyoshi Kuromiya of Philadelphia and other activists.)
• Debate Heats Up Study: Marijuana Has Medical Uses (The Virginian-Pilot version)
• For The Record (The Washington Post interviews an assiduously ignorant U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno about the Institute of Medicine report she still hasn't read.)
• Marijuana, Science, and Public Policy (Jon Gettman, the former director of NORML who for the last five years has been petitioning the DEA to get it to admit that the science shows marijuana does not belong in the Controlled Substances Act's list of Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 drugs, announces his related library on cannabis, science, medicine and the law has been reposted at the High Times web site after disappearing from NORML's site more than a year ago.)
• Heroin Users' Starting-Up Age Plummets Into Teens (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, says the Australian Illicit Drug Report 1997-98, prepared by the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and released yesterday, reveals a continued fall in the age of first-time heroin users - now on average just 17.5 years old - an alarming increase in multiple drug use among injecting drug users, and a gradual increase in heroin purity. The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, yesterday refined his "zero tolerance" message on drugs. Announcing $20 million in new funding for rehabilitation programs, he said he had compassion for drug users and their families but contempt for traffickers.)
• US Lights Up Marijuana Controversy (The New Zealand Herald summarizes Wednesday's U.S. Institute of Medicine report on the efficacy of medical marijuana.)
• Philippine congressman identifies 285 drug syndicates (The Kyodo News Service, in Japan, says Congressman Roilo Golez has identified 285 drug syndicates and gangs operating in the country, 61 of which have connections to military and police officials. Golez added the illegal drug trade rakes in $6.6 billion annually and about 1.8 million Filipinos are using illegal drugs. The congressman said he decided to reveal the list to generate public support for the government's antidrug campaign.)
• RCMP Drug Raid Was Dopey (A staff editorial in the Ottawa Citizen says the sight of AIDS victim Jean-Charles Pariseau crying as he watched Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers smash marijuana-growing equipment outside a Vanier home this week brought the issue of medical marijuana home with a thud. That is the real face of the debate over medical marijuana, a debate that is slowly beginning to make official waves in Canada.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 83 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - Institute of Medicine report confirms marijuana's medicinal value; Higher Education Act reform bill introduced in Congress; Rep. Rangel seeks end to cocaine sentencing disparities; Canada: Husband of medical marijuana user arrested as government announces clinical trials, possible medical exemption; Minnesota hemp bill progressing; DPF grant deadline coming up; and an editorial: IOM report leaves only one thing left to say)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 90 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Spinning the IOM report: what policy changes can we expect? by Tom O'Connell M.D. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Nightline: getting straight; The wrong way to fight drug war; The drug war has failed; Customs Service reworks controversial airport drug searches; Gramm and Boxer sponsor legislation that would alter the US drug-certification process; and, Suit blames CIA for crack epidemic. Law Enforcement & Prisons articles include - Americans now the most jailed people on earth; Two million prisoners are enough; Stop the prison madness and build schools; and, Incarcerated by illusions? Articles about Medical Marijuana include - Judge denies AIDS patient's request for marijuana; Libertarian Party vows to fight marijuana case; Feds rebuff marijuana researchers; and, The latest buzz on hemp. International News includes - Pot charges on the rise; Cabinet rules out legalising cannabis; Financial notes - the buying power of illegal narcotics; and, The changing face of the drug trade. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net lets you point your browser to read worldwide media coverage of the IOM report; Volunteer of the month - Ashley H. Clements. The Quote of the week cites Rodney S. Quinn.)
  Bytes: 136,000 Last updated: 4/10/99
  

  Thursday, March 18, 1999:

• Study backs medical pot use (The Oregonian describes the report released yesterday by the Institute of Medicine on the efficacy of medical marijuana.)
• National marijuana report doesn't pacify Oregon lawmaker (According to the Associated Press, state representative Kevin Mannix, the chairman of the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee and sponsor of a bill that would eviscerate the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, said that despite the Institute of Medicine report released Wednesday, "The negative aspects of making marijuana available strongly outweigh the positives." Only 60 people have sought to register with the state as patients so far, but Mannix insists Measure 67 is loosely crafted and full of loopholes.)
• Confirmed child abuse cases hits record high (The Associated Press says a report released Wednesday by the State Office for Services to Children and Families claims the number of child abuse cases rose 4 percent last year to hit a record high that state officials blame mostly on "drug" use by parents. Unfortunately, AP doesn't explain how the state of Oregon has merely changed the definition of what constitutes child abuse, and is devoting all the resources it can to identifying parents who use cannabis and stealing their children from them, regardless of how well such children are actually cared for. And unfortunately, AP doesn't explain the numbers involved, including the unsustainable cost of the state's ethnic cleansing campaign.)
• Senate OKs change in marijuana law (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, says a bill that would let the Washington state Health Department write rules to "flesh out" the state's new medical marijuana law squeaked by the state Senate on Wednesday 33-12. Because the bill would change a voter-approved initiative, it required the approval of two-thirds of the senators. It now heads to the House.)
• Scientists Back Use Of Marijuana For Medical Therapy (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer summarizes the Institute of Medicine report released yesterday.)
• Pot Farm: Group Serves Ill And Offers Support (The San Jose Mercury News does a feature article on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, or WAMM, a non-profit collective of patients at a tiny medical marijuana farm in northern Santa Cruz County. While cooperating with law enforcement authorities, members help the plants thrive, even as they themselves wither and die. Patients contend the companionship, hard work and soft ocean air are as valuable as the marijuana. Valerie Corral, who with her husband, Michael, founded and helps run the group, says "Our model could work throughout the state. It could work throughout the nation.")
• Lockyer Working To Carry Out State's Law (The Sacramento Bee joins the ranks of California media who continue to maintain that Attorney General Bill Lockyer is trying to implement Proposition 215, even while letting cases proceed against dozens if not hundreds of patients, and prison terms to continue for dozens of patients such as Marvin Chavez.)
• Testimony begins in trial of a man accused of growing marijuana (The Sacramento Bee says testimony was set to begin today in the trial of Robert Michael Galambos, a Calaveras County man charged with growing 382 pot plants for himself and to supply a medical marijuana club in Oakland.)
• Kubbys Update (A news release from the web site promoting the campaign of Libertarian Steve Kubby for governor of California in 2002 says the medical marijuana patient/activist and his wife, Michele, were arraigned Friday in Auburn Superior Court on cultivation charges. A trial date will be set April 26.)
• Report: Marijuana Has Some Benefits (The Orange County Register summarizes the Institute of Medicine report assessing the efficacy of medical marijuana.)
• Marijuana As Medicine Still Debated Topic (A different Orange County Register version)
• Federal Study Says Pot Has Medical Value (A staff editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle summarizes Wednesday's Institute of Medicine report and says the federal government should put politics aside and sponsor serious scientific research into pot's potential. Meanwhile, California should find a way to distribute medical marijuana to patients whose doctors recommend it, the way Proposition 215 originally intended.)
• Federal Panel Urges Tests of Medical Pot (A different San Francisco Chronicle version)
• Report finds medical value in marijuana (The version in the Santa Rosa, California, Press Democrat)
• Report Says Marijuana May Be Medically Useful (The version in the Santa Maria Times, in Santa Maria, California)
• Marijuana Has Treatment Value, Study Finds (The Los Angeles Daily News version)
• Study Sees Limited Medicinal-Marijuana Role (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• The Medicinal Marijuana Debate: Pot Proponents Gain A Victory (A different San Jose Mercury News account focuses on the IOM report's implications for medical marijuana policies in California.)
• Marijuana Has Medicinal Value, Panel Says (The Associated Press version in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune)
• Let Science Run Marijuana Debate (A staff editorial in the San Mateo County Times, in California, says this week's Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana should send a message to the feds that it's time to start letting science - not politics - steer the debate. The federal government is finding itself defending a less and less defensible position. It's time for policy makers to get smart - and compassionate - and allow clinical studies to move forward.)
• Re: Let Science Run Marijuana Debate (A letter sent to the editor of the San Mateo County Times from a local physician says the newspaper's hope that the Institute of Medicine report would allow reason and evidence to control implementation of California's medical marijuana law is naïve. For one thing, General McCaffrey has already flatly stated even though a pure aerosolized cannabinoid is not available, "smoked marijuana" will remain illegal on the grounds that it is unhealthy - never mind that many of the patients who gain unique relief from it are already dying and most have no other effective alternative. "There is absolutely no evidence that the requisite amount of smoking has ever produced one cancer - in other words, the smoking objection is entirely theoretical.")
• Remove The Roadblocks To Medicinal Marijuana (San Jose Mercury News columnist Joanne Jacobs discusses the scientific aspects and political ramifications of the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana. Scientific data shows that the active ingredients in marijuana, known as cannabinoids, may relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting and stimulate appetite. And "The psychological effects of cannabinoids may contribute to their potential therapeutic value.")
• Clearance For Marijuana? (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register notes the Institute of Medicine already found marijuana to be medicine in 1982. The most significant policy implication of the IOM report released yesterday is that marijuana does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, which by law is reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. The study should give the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, the firepower it needs to rule favorably on Jon Gettman's rescheduling petition - and soon.)
• Scientists Urge Study Of Medicinal Marijuana (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in Missouri, summarizes the Institute of Medicine report released yesterday.)
• Medicinal Marijuana Bill Dead In 1999 Legislature (The St. Paul Pioneer Press says Minnesota, state senator Pat Piper, DFL-Austin, the chief Senate author of a medical marijuana bill, asked for an indefinite postponement of a committee vote Wednesday night, citing a lack of consensus, effectively ending any hope of passing the legislation this year.)
• Panel Touts Marijuana - Without The Smoke (The Wisconsin State Journal version)
• Marijuana Is Boosted As Benefit To Patients (The Detroit Free Press version)
• Drug Czar's Study Supports Uses For Medical Marijuana (The Chicago Tribune summarizes the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana released yesterday.)
• Institute Advocates Medical Use Of Pot (The Akron Beacon-Journal, in Ohio, summarizes the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana released yesterday.)
• Research: Pot Helps Ill, Study Finds (The Dayton Daily News version)
• Study: Marijuana Can Be Medicinal (The Cincinnati Enquirer version)
• Medicinal Marijuana Uses Seen (The Boston Globe version)
• Scientific Report Backs Medical Marijuana (The Associated Press version in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts)
• Study Backs Marijuana's Medical Use (The Hartford Courant version)
• Government Study Labels Marijuana A Useful Medicine (A characteristically misleading New York Times version of yesterday's news about the release of the long-awaited Institute of Medicine report asserts the IOM scientists found marijuana smoke to be "toxic," meaning it kills, something demonstrably false, rather than "risky," the latter term reflecting only on the current state of the science - which the government apparently will continue to suppress.)
• Panel Sees Value In Medical Marijuana (A different New York Times version)
• The Medical Dope - Independent Panel Says Marijuana Can Help Patients (The version in New York's Newsday)
• Federal judge lets lawsuit on medical marijuana go on (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin Katz ruled on March 10 in Philadelphia that a class-action lawsuit challenging the federal government's refusal to legalize marijuana for medicine can move ahead. Katz concluded that the plaintiffs have a right to delve more deeply into the fairness of a federal program that gives marijuana to some ill people but not others. However, Katz dismissed other legal claims in the lawsuit, including those challenging the constitutionality of the federal Controlled Substances Act. The judge put the case in his June 21 trial pool, meaning it could go to trial then. Lawrence Hirsch of Philadelphia, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, predicted the trial would last all summer.)
• Medical Study A Score For Marijuana (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version of yesterday's report from the Institute of Medicine)
• Medical Marijuana Is Endorsed By Researchers In A Federal Report (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
• A Summary Of Findings On The Effects Of Medical Marijuana (A Philadelphia Inquirer sidebar summarizes key points in the Institute of Medicine report issued yesterday.)
• National Institute Urges Medical Marijuana Use (The Knight Ridder Newspapers version in the Centre Daily Times, in Pennsylvania)
• Study: Pot 'Moderately' Useful As Medicine (The Washington Post version in the Tampa Tribune says Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar who requested the report, said he endorsed it "thoroughly." McCaffrey said he wouldn't oppose limited studies of smoked marijuana until a less harmful way of inhaling the substance's active ingredients is found.)
• U.S. Panel Sees Potential For Medical Marijuana (The original Washington Post version)
• Report Concedes Pot Has Medical Benefits (The Washington Times version)
• Medical Role For Pot Is Seen (The Richmond Times-Dispatch version quotes Dr. Billy Martin of Virginia Commonwealth University, a government researcher who served as an adviser for the report, saying the additional clinical trials it recommends "are not a politically positive thing to do.")
• Medicinal Marijuana Gets Support (The News & Observer version, in North Carolina.)
• U.S. Experts Advocate Marijuana For Patients (The Miami Herald version)
• Medical Pot Gets Support (The Orlando Sentinel version notes U.S. Representative Bill McCollum, the Republican control freak from Longwood, Florida, who led the fight to get the House to condemn medical marijuana last fall, said he is "deeply concerned" the Institute of Medicine report might encourage people to smoke marijuana, failing to note that the IOM explicitly said there was no evidence that medical use of the drug would increase nonmedical use. The newspaper apparently didn't think to ask if McCollum had actually read the report. McCollum said he would rather let AIDS and cancer patients suffer and die than allow them to use herbal cannabis "because there is no way to control that.")
• Legalize It, Group Says, For The Sick It Should Be Option, Local Patients Say (The Northwest Florida Daily News interviews local patients and advocates about the medical efficacy of marijuana.)
• Reno: Go Slow On Marijuana (A UPI account of the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana notes U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno admitted today that she hadn't read it yet, and said only that "testing can give information that gives a medically sound approach.")
• Politics & Policy (The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, in Washington, D.C., summarizes the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana.)
• Medical Marijuana Supporters Elated (The Associated Press says the Institute of Medicine report hands advocates for medical marijuana patients an important weapon - science - in their battle with the federal government to legalize the herb for medical use. Apparently reason won't be enough, however. Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who led the fight to get the U.S. House of Representatives to condemn medical marijuana last fall, condemned the IOM study, saying he is "deeply concerned" the report by itself might encourage people to smoke marijuana.)
• Drug Czar: More Money Needed (The Orange County Register says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, wants Congress to pass legislation that would require insurance companies to include drug and alcohol treatment in health plans.)
• Excite Poll on Medical Marijuana (A list subscriber forwards details about yet another online poll showing support for medical marijuana, 82 percent to 8 percent, with 10 percent unsure.)
• Drug Policy Foundation Network News (The original monthly online summary of drug policy news from DPF, in Washington, D.C., examines - Barney Frank's drug policy reform bills; Anti-Know Your Customer bills; Rangel addresses crack cocaine sentencing disparity; Hatch seeks expansion of maintenance therapies; McCain attacks methadone; White House releases strategy; Mexico certified as fully cooperating in drug war; Gov. Ventura slams drug war; Other legislation to watch.)
• U.S. report backs easing of restrictions on pot (A Reuters article in the Toronto Star summarizes the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana.)
• Medical Marijuana Gets Nod (The version in Canada's National Post)
• Canna Pharm shut down in Ottawa (A list subscriber forwards a photo from Le Droit, a French language newspaper.)
• Feds Screwed Up On Pot (NOW magazine, in Canada, says federal health minister Allan Rock has made no move to improve the lot of medical marijuana patients. His announcement last week that the government intended to establish guidelines for clinical trials is considered by many a cynical manoeuvre to lend the appearance of sophistication and compassion to a stalling operation. Marie Andree Bertrand, a member of the government's famous Le Dain commission that recommended the decriminalization of pot in the early 1970s, says Rock's insistance on more studies before allowing medical use is to "laugh in the face of the Canadian public." The research, she says, was done and paid for 25 years ago. Among other evidence, the Le Dain commission cited a series of classified U.S. army studies from the 1950s showing a number of potentially valuable therapeutic effects from the use of synthetic cannabinoids for everything from fever and epilepsy to high blood pressure. Says the commission's Bertrand, "We spoke of all the symptoms that would be alleviated by cannabis," contradicting what she calls "lies" emanating from public health authorities.)
• Mexico Furious Over Report Linking Official To Drug Cash (An Associated Press article in the Chicago Tribune says the Mexican Embassy has formally asked the Clinton administration to respond to charges by a former U.S. Customs official, William Gately, published in the New York Times Tuesday, that his undercover investigation into Mexican drug trafficking was shut down after the name of Mexico's defense minister, Gen. Enrique Cervantes, surfaced in it.)
• Experts Tell the White House That Marijuana Makes Medicinal Sense (The Guardian, in Britain, briefly summarizes the U.S. Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana.)
• US Urged By Panel To Give Medical Trial To Marijuana (The version in Ireland's Examiner)
• US Medical Report Backs Marijuana Use (The Scotsman version)
• Official US Report Backs Medical Use Of Marijuana (The Reuters version in Pakistan's Dawn)
  Bytes: 97,900 990318a: 101,000 990318b: 74,000 990318c: 92,300 Last updated: 6/4/99
  

  Wednesday, March 17, 1999:

• 60 Oregonians declare intent to use marijuana (The Oregonian says the Oregon Health Division won't issue registration cards for patients protected by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act until May 1. But Dr. Grant Higginson, state health officer, says 60 people have sent in the paperwork needed to get the cards.)
• Dope Meddlers (Willamette Week, in Portland, describes the attempt by state representative Kevin Mannix to nullify the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, incorrectly asserting that "even proponents" of Measure 67 "conceded that it needed some fine-tuning.")
• City must explain 'trap and trace' or concede it's illegal, judge says (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael Marcus yesterday gave Portland until March 29 to either disclose how its Marijuana Task Force used a "trap and trace" telephone tap at the American Agriculture hydroponics store to identify 20 defendants now charged with growing the herb - or to concede that the practice was illegal. If the city refuses to reveal the phone-tapping information and will not concede the practice is illegal, it also could dismiss the cases or seek an immediate appeal of Marcus' ruling that would take the proceedings to the Court of Appeals before the cases proceed.)
• Judge orders city to explain pot-tracking method or admit it's illegal (The Associated Press version)
• NewsBuzz: Passing the Sniff Test (The Willamette Week version)
• Police volunteer goes to prison for illegal immigration (The Oregonian says Louie Lira Jr., a former employee of the Portland Youth Gang Outreach program and a volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Tuesday for entering the country as an illegal immigrant twice in the past 15 years. The newspaper fails to mention Lira was deported the first time partly because of a drug offense. The Mexican national still faces a trial over an accusation that he used his police-issued scanner to assist a Nov. 4 bank robbery in Southeast Portland.)
• Marijuana Facts (Another letter to the editor of the Hood River News, in Hood River, Oregon, debunks recent assertions about marijuana by Maija Yasui of the state Commission on Children and Families, and recounts a few more government lies that led to or have perpetuated pot prohibition.)
• Scientific Report Says Marijuana May Be Medically Useful (An Associated Press article in the Argus Observer, in Oregon, summarizes the report on medical marijuana released today by the Institute of Medicine.)
• New Government Study Vindicates People's Vote on Medical Marijuana (A press release on PR Newswire from Washington Citizens for Medical Rights summarizes the Institute of Medicine report released today. Dr. Rob Killian, sponsor of Washington state's successful 1998 state ballot proposal on medical marijuana, says "The Federal Government can no longer make the claim that marijuana has no medical value. The only issue that remains is for our political leaders to find a way to provide this safe and effective medicine to our patients who need it.")
• Campus Crime Stoppers conjures visions of Big Brother (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from a Grant High School junior criticizes the Campus Crime Stoppers program that pays up to $1,000 to student informers in Portland whose tips lead to the arrests, but not necessarily the convictions of other students for such crimes as smoking marijuana off campus after school. "The use of monetary incentives makes a commodity of citizenship and corrupts our sense of community responsibility. Instead of teaching students how to think about right and wrong, these programs teach that everything is for sale.")
• Socal Group Expects Good News From Drug Report (According to UPI, Americans for Medical Rights, in Southern California, says it's expecting good news from the report to be issued this morning by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C.)
• Institute of Medicine Confirms Medical Value of Marijuana, Sidesteps Critical Drug Policy Concerns (California NORML says the $1.1 million review of the scientific literature on medical marijuana commissioned by the White House drug czar in 1997 confirms the herb offers potential therapeutic benefits for a broad range of symptoms, including pain relief, nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. While dismissing the notion that marijuana is a gateway to drug abuse, or that its medical use sends a dangerous message to children, it refrains from judgments about current marijuana laws. The full report is online at http://www2.nas.edu/medical-mj/index.html.)
• Data Supports Medical Pot Argument (The Oakland Tribune summarizes the Institute of Medicine report released today.)
• Medical pot gets cautious kudos (The San Francisco Examiner version)
• Lockyer on medical marijuana (A list subscriber forwards a press release about the IOM report from California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.)
• Institute of Medicine Report on Medicinal Cannabis to Be Released March 17, 1999 (The Colorado Hemp Initiative Project forwards a summary of the IOM report by Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, who asks you to call today requesting the resignation of the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, based on his statement in 1996 to the effect that "marijuana has no shred of medical evidence to show it has therapeutic qualities." Plus, a request from the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., asking you to call your U.S. seantor and representative, seeking support for H.R. 912, the medical-marijuana bill recently introduced by Rep. Barney Frank.)
• Backers Call Medical Marijuana Report a Victory (The Arizona Daily Star interviews several locals who offer "pro" and "con" views about today's release of the Institute of Medicine report, "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base.")
• Backers Praise Report On Pot Medical Uses Cited By Federal Study (The Arizona Republic summarizes the Institute of Medicine study on medical marijuana.)
• School Drug Testing Proposal Moves Through Senate (The Tulsa World says Oklahoma House Bill 1289, sponsored by state Rep. Dale Smith, D-St. Louis, and state Sen. Brad Henry, D-Shawnee, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. For the first time, the bill would give schools legal authority to drug test tens of thousands of students who engage in extracurricular activities, including sports, band, debate, choir or any other school-connected activity. The House has already approved the bill. Apparently everyone knows whether the governor will sign it.)
• Medical marijuana bill hits snag (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says a state senate committee held a hearing Tuesday on a medical-marijuana bill introduced by Sen. Pat Piper, DFL-Austin, which would allow adults with a physician's recommendation to possess 1 ounce of marijuana. The committee meets again tonight to try to reconcile differences.)
• Panel delays decision on medical marijuana (The St. Paul Pioneer Press version says the Minnesota Senate Health and Family Security Committee postponed a vote on the medical marijuana bill in order to allow the bill's sponsor and top officials in Gov. Jesse Ventura's administration to try to negotiate compromise amendments addressing the concerns that Public Safety Commissioner Charlie Weaver said Governor Ventura has with the bill. The committee is tentatively scheduled to resume debate on the bill 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Capitol.)
• Medical marijuana use still mired in politics (Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Doug Grow describes the hearing Tuesday for a medical-marijuana bill before a Minnesota senate committee. The witnesses poured out their pain. They explained that marijuana had comforted them when other drugs had failed. They were passionate and powerful. But the unhearing drug warriors mouthed the same old canards. The people who testified about their horrific pains only could shake their heads at the old, cold words they were hearing. It's 1999 in most of the world, but in government, we're still in dense, dark times whenever the subject is medicinal use of marijuana. Even Gov. Jesse Ventura's cabinet was sending mixed messages.)
• Record For The Man Imprisoned Longest (Boston Globe columnist David Nyhan discusses America's prison-industrial complex and the recent statistics on America's prison population. The Guinness Book of World Records notes Paul Guidel is the man imprisoned longest in the United States. He was 17 when he committed second-degree murder. He lived in a New York prison for 68 years, eight months, and two days before being released at age 85. But he's got a lot of company these days, and there's no hope of reform in the near term. Longer sentences and harsher penalties sound great on the evening news to fearful voters, eager-to-please pols, and those making money off the billions we spend for new $100,000-a-pop prison cells, where it costs 30 grand a year to keep some wretch locked up. Academic studies have shown a direct correlation between voters' fear of crime and media hype, tabloid outrages exploited by news reports, with television the leading offender. "If it bleeds it leads" is cynical TV shorthand for the allure of bloody tales to jack the ratings up. Our print brethren gasp trying to catch up in the titillation department. The ultimate result is harsher treatment of criminals.)
• Official U.S. Report Backs Medical Use Of Marijuana (Reuters says the Institute of Medicine report released today looks likely to prompt a thorough review of U.S. efforts to ban almost all marijuana use as dangerous drug abuse. Cannabinoids work on both the brain and the body. They can help to modulate pain and alleviate other symptoms of serious illness such as anxiety, lack of appetite, and nausea. Regarding the smoking of herbal cannabis, the IOM report says, "We acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions." To help these patients, the report suggests doctors be allowed to carry out single-subject clinical studies. Bill Zimmerman, director of Americans for Medical Rights, said "They are in effect saying that most of what the government has told us about marijuana is false . . . it's not addictive, it's not a gateway to heroin and cocaine, it has legitimate medical use, and it's not as dangerous as common drugs like Prozac and Viagra.")
• Study: Marijuana Helps Fight Pain (The Associated Press version)
• Federal Panel Recommends Scientific Trials Of Medical (A slightly different Associated Press version in the Seattle Times)
• Report: Marijuana May Have Medical Uses (The UPI version has a hard time getting past drug-warrior preconceptions.)
• Marijuana Report Draws Mixed Reactions (A quite different UPI version quotes Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School, who wrote 20 pages of criticism as a peer reviewer for the IOM report, saying "they certainly have shied away from an honest assessment of its use as a medicine." Grinspoon criticized the report for, among other things, emphasizing the hazards of smoking. He said machines have been developed overseas that allow for the vapors of marijuana to be delivered to patients without smoking the plant. Dr. Kathleen Boyle, a psychologist at the UCLA Drug Abuse Research program, said she was "pleasantly surprised" by the report . . . . "but I think they too narrowly focused on AIDS and cancer-type diseases.")
• Federal Report Reignites Medical Marijuana Debate - Panel Finds Therapeutic Benefits (The CNN version)
• Marijuana's Components Have Potential as Medicine; Clinical Trials, Drug Development Should Proceed (The official National Academy of Sciences press release about the Institute of Medicine report being released today.)
• IOM Medical Marijuana Report is Important First Step in the Right Direction (A press release from the Drug Policy Foundation comments on the Institute of Medicine's review of the scientific literature on marijuana as medicine.)
• U.S. Government Study: Benefits of Medical Marijuana Outweigh Risks, Long-Awaited Science Review Concludes (A similar press release from the Lindesmith Center)
• Institute of Medicine Releases Report on Medicinal Marijuana (A company press release from Roxane Laboratories, Inc., the manufacturer of Marinol, ungrammatically asserts that the ONDCP and IOM agree that "chemically-defined drugs" such as Marinol is the future of cannabinoid drugs.)
• Reefer Madness or Reefer Medicine? (Cable News Network broadcasts a panel discussion about the medical marijuana report released today by the Institute of Medicine. Mary Tillotson moderates commentary from General Barry McCaffrey, former cancer patient Richard Brookhiser of the National Review, Betty Sembler of Drug Free America; and Dr. Ann Mohrbacher, a cancer specialist at the University of Southern California.)
• Institute of Medicine Issues Report Strongly Supporting Medical Use of Marijuana (Cable News Network medical correspondent Eileen O'Connor comments on the impact of the Institute of Medicine report, noting patient advocates are angered, saying "the calls for more research are basically just calls for more stalling. And they are pointing to the research that the IOM has done, saying that it itself admits that for some patients there is no alternative.")
• Statement by General Twaddle (A list subscriber forwards the official statement made by General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, about the report he commissioned on medical marijuana, to be released today by the Institute of Medicine.)
• Medical Marijuana Smoking To Remain Illegal (Reuters notes the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, said Wednesday in response to the IOM report that marijuana would remain on the government's list of illegal drugs despite a report saying smoking it could be beneficial to certain patients.)
• Senators Pledge 1,000 More Agents For Border Patrol (The Orange County Register says several Senate Republicans pledged Tuesday to overrule the Clinton administration and add 1,000 new Border Patrol agents next year.)
• Alcohol and driving (The ADCA News of the Day, from the Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia, says a survey released yesterday by Curtin University's National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse suggested cannabis use by drivers is a relatively minor safety hazard compared to alcohol use.)
• Health - Support for medicinal use of cannabis (The BBC summarizes the report on medical marijuana released today by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.)
  Bytes: 101,000 990317a: 111,000 Last updated: 6/5/99
  

  Tuesday, March 16, 1999:

• Hemp for Health & Wealth (A press release - rendered into an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file here - from Sister Somayah Kambui, the medical-marijuana activist and sickle-cell anemia patient, publicizes the May 1 Million Marijuana March at Magic Johnson Park in Los Angeles.)
• CIA Sued For Not Reporting Drug Trade (The San Francisco Chronicle says two Oakland women filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oakland against the Central Intelligence Agency Monday, alleging that the agency's decision not to report drug smuggling to other authorities in the 1980s caused the crack epidemic to spread in inner-city communities. A similar suit was filed in Los Angeles.)
• Suit Blames CIA For Crack Epidemic (The version in the Oakland Tribune says the lawsuits are based on testimony from CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee a year ago today.)
• Drug Crimes Allegation Leads To CIA, Justice Suit (The San Francisco Examiner version)
• Suits Allege U.S. Failed To Stanch 'Crack' Epidemic (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Communities Sue U.S. Agencies Over Lack Of Drug Interdiction (The Orange County Register version)
• CIA, Justice Department Sued Over Cocaine Damage (The Seattle Times version combines accounts from Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press.)
• Officials working out details on medical marijuana bill (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says a medical marijuana bill proposed by Minnesota state senator Pat Piper faced an uncertain future Tuesday after a senate panel hearing.)
• Stealing By The State (According to a staff editorial in the Cincinnati Post, prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, spent hours last January convincing a jury that Michael Nieman was an innocent victim, a jeweler murdered in his bed by a stripper girlfriend who just wanted his money. But as soon as the trial was over, federal prosecutors turned around and launched legal proceedings to seize Nieman's house, vehicles, cash, jewelry and other assets, arguing that he had really been a drug dealer, even though he had no record of drug crimes. The Hamilton County sheriff helped seize Nieman's estate. An attorney for Nieman's daughter called it legalized stealing. The attorney is right. Congress and states such as Ohio should sharply curb their pre-conviction asset forfeiture laws.)
• Prison Population: 18 Million, Growing (A staff edtitorial in the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, suggests the latest U.S. prison population figures are a good thing because they have reduced crime. The editors express fleeting concern about mandatory minimum sentences and the fact that the prison population includes a "disproportionately large number of black men," which has "serious implications" for urban black communities. Failure to find ways to improve the situation "could carry devastating economic and cultural consequences," as if they weren't happening already.)
• The 'War On Drugs' Cannot Be Won (A letter to the editor of the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the drug war is not, as advertised, a war "against drugs." Like all wars, it is a war against people. It may be "excused" by shouting the talismanic word "drugs," but drugs are just inanimate objects. The war is against the people of America and, now, all the peoples of the world.)
• They Are Humans, Not 'Cockroaches' (Another letter to the editor of the Standard-Times responds to a New Bedford resident who likened neighborhood drug dealers to "cockroaches," explaining why "we could get a lot further on this problem if we could remind ourselves that drug dealers, hard-core addicts and others whom we don't approve of are human beings and fellow citizens in need of help and education, and not cockroaches to be exterminated.")
• Incarceration Rates A Victory For Prisons (An op-ed in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, in Washington, D.C., says the United States' latest prison-population figure, 1.8 million, is six times the number of people incarcerated just 25 years ago. Since the 1980s, every state has adopted some form of mandatory sentencing, most often for drug offenses. Half the states have also enacted a "three strikes and you're out" law, requiring a sentence of up to life without parole for a third felony. To divert money to education and other needed services, Mauer recommends several reforms lawmakers should embrace: Divert drug offenders to treatment. Reconsider mandatory sentencing. And divert low-level property offenders to community-based supervision.)
• When A Bad Policy Fails (Syndicated columnist Sean Gonsalves of the Cape Cod Times, in Massachusetts, discusses the report released two weeks ago by the Network of Reform Groups, "The Effective National Drug Control Strategy," which concluded that the so-called war on drugs had failed to protect America's children from drug abuse and had failed to reduce the availability of cocaine and heroin. The report was released on the same day the drug czar testified before a House subcommittee on his fiscal year 2000 budget request.)
• Property Seizures Trample the Constitution (A staff editorial in the Greensboro News & Record, in North Carolina, says in America, no one can take your property except through a legal process involving a finding of guilt. So says the Constitution of the United States in Articles IV, V and XIV. But don't kid yourself. Administrative actions based on nothing more than allegations of criminality, and not court trials, are taking property from people who many times are set free and not even prosecuted. The spreading of the practice and the piling up of evidence of abuses and injustices has coalesced civil rights advocates and politicians such as Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who are pushing for reforms of the forfeiture laws, mainly by mandating that government has to show "clear and convincing evidence" for taking the property.)
• Drug Testing Positivity Rates Down 65% in Past Decade (A press release from SmithKline Beecham, the largest processor of urine tests in the United States, features biannual statistics on the percentages of workers who tested positive for supposedly controlled substances in the last six months. As usual, nobody tested positive for alcohol, and not a single false positive is noted. Needless to say, no mention is made of the recent study suggesting companies that resort to drug testing suffer almost 20 percent lower productivity.)
• Marijuana Report Expected Next Week (A UPI brief inaccurately says the Institute of Medicine report reviewing the research on marijuana as medicine will be released "next Wednesday," though in fact the release date is tomorrow.)
• NORML Special News Bulletin - Politics, Science Clash In IOM Medical Marijuana Report (NORML says the Institute of Medicine's review of the scientific literature on medical marijuana is a political rather than a scientific document, finding that cannabinoids hold value as medicine to treat a number of serious ailments, but should not be used by most patients until a non-smoked, rapid onset delivery system becomes available. Allen St. Pierre of NORML said, "It is nothing less than an act of political cowardliness for the IOM to admit that inhaled marijuana benefits some patients, while at the same time recommending to those patients that their only alternative is to suffer." The IOM report did dismiss allegations that marijuana is causally linked to the subsequent use of other illicit drugs, that the drug has a high potential for addiction, or that it holds short term immunosuppressive effects. The researchers also concluded that "the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications.")
• Marijuana Rescheduling Facts (An email from Jon Gettman, the former director of NORML who for years has been successfully fighting a lawsuit against the federal government to reschedule marijuana, comments on the Institute of Medicine report to be released tomorrow. "If the IOM report concludes that marijuana has an abuse potential less than cocaine and heroin, then the IOM report will have verified the scientific argument made by my rescheduling petition.")
• IOM and the Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. Agree: Smoking Marijuana is Not Medicine (A press release on Business Wire from the Drug Free America Foundation, in St. Petersburg, Florida, mischaracterizes the Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana to be released tomorrow.)
• U.S. Said To End Mexico Drug Probe (According to the Associated Press, the New York Times reported today that an undercover U.S. probe into Mexican drug trafficking was shut down by the Clinton Administration even as U.S. Customs agents were looking at Mexico's defense minister, Gen. Enrique Cervantes, as a suspect.)
• Top Mexican Off-Limits To U.S. Drug Agents (The original New York Times version)
• U.S. Reportedly Closed Cash-Laundering Probe That Implicated Official (The Chicago Tribune version)
• U.S. May End Mexico Drug Probe (The Associated Press says the Mexican embassy formally asked the Clinton administration Tuesday to respond to charges from a former U.S. customs official that his undercover probe into Mexican drug trafficking was shut down after the name of Mexico's defense minister surfaced in it.)
• Americans Now The Most Jailed People On Earth (The Irish Independent recounts yesterday's news about the latest statistics from the U.S. Justice Department.)
• US Has 1.8 Million In Prison (The version in Britain's Independent notes America's prison population is so large that it distorts US unemployment figures and skews the voting register. Texas and Louisiana both have more than 700 per 100,000 of their populations in jail, well over the Russian figure of 685 per 100,000.)
  Bytes: 111,000 Last updated: 4/6/99
  

  Monday, March 15, 1999:

• Report says state failing to meet its own goals in many areas (The Associated Press says the Oregon Progress Report, which gauges 92 indicators of the state's economic, social and environmental health, suggests Oregon is flunking its own Year 2000 goals for fighting child abuse, job distribution and halting high-school dropouts. Kay Toran, director of Services to Children and Families, blames an increase in child abuse on an increase in "substance abuse," without clarifying whether she was talking primarily about legal alcoholics, tobacco consumers, people who need coffee in the morning, or just casual pot smokers. "When you have parents that are addicted, they aren't able to provide the care and nurturing children need," she said, without clarifying the role of prohibition in making certain addictions more damaging than others.)
• Oregon at its best earns C-plus grades in progress (The Oregonian version)
• Medicinal marijuana nears mainstream (USA Today focuses on the experiences of JoAnna McKee of the Green Cross in Washington state in an update on the political battle for medical marijuana. The medicinal use of the herb is now legal all along the West Coast, and more state ballot victories seem likely. On Wednesday the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is expected to release a long-awaited study commissioned by White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey on the effectiveness of marijuana as a medicine.)
• Communities Sue Over Crack Epidemic (The Associated Press says two federal civil rights lawsuits were filed in Oakland and Los Angeles today against the CIA and U.S. Justice Department. The lawsuits, which claim the federal government did nothing to stop neighborhood crack-cocaine sales in the 1980s, were partly prompted by last year's disclosure of a 1982 agreement between CIA Director William Casey and former Attorney General William French Smith that the spy agency had no duty to report drug crimes to the Justice Department. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of "mostly black residents whose babies were born addicted to crack, whose relatives died in drug-related drive-by shootings and whose communities were affected by crowded emergency rooms and gutted business districts.")
• Senate Considers Marijuana Proposal (The Duluth News-Tribune says Minnesota citizens and legislators who favor a medical-marijuana bill proposed by Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, are counting on the growing support among cancer patients and the popularity of Gov. Jesse Ventura to push their bill through the legislature. The measure will receive its first hearing Tuesday morning in a senate committee. A move to tighten the bill's language appears likely.)
• He Dares Question Idiocy Of Drug War On College Campus (Columbus Dispatch columnist Steve Stephens reflects on an encounter with Heath Wintz, 21, a clean-cut, well-spoken sophomore studying environmental engineering at Columbus State Community College, in Ohio. Wintz was gathering signatures last week, seeking to reform the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1998, which allows murderers and rapists to obtain federal student aid, but not pot smokers. That idiocy, however, is not what turned Wintz against the drug war. DARE did that, back when he was in middle school. In an earlier attempt to petition, campus officials and security guards forced him to scram. Some students refuse to sign Wintz's petition because they fear government reprisal. One can't fault them. In times of war, there's no such thing as paranoia. Stephens' stand on casual drug use resembles Hillary Rodham Clinton's on casual adultery: He doesn't endorse it, but he tolerates it for the sake of the Constitution.)
• Federal Judge OKs Pot Case (UPI briefly notes U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz in Philadelphia has refused to dismiss a class-action lawsuit seeking access to medical marijuana.)
• Ballplayer Killed In Police Chase (UPI notes police in Tallahassee, Florida, nabbed one man and 28 bags of cocaine early Friday after a high-speed chase ended at an Interstate 10 interchange. The suspect's car crashed into a van carrying a baseball team from Bluefield State College in West Virginia, killing Shannon Stewart, a freshman.)
• Study Links Prenatal Smoking To Offspring's Criminal Actions (The Philadelphia Inquirer publishes the Reuters version of yesterday's news about the study published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, a subsidiary of the American Medical Association. Researchers looked at the arrest histories of 4,169 men born between 1958 and 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and found that those born to women who smoked during pregnancy ran a higher risk of criminal behavior. The researchers speculated the correlation was caused by central nervous system damage from cigarettes.)
• Doubling Of Prison Population Has U.S. On Track To Be Leading Jailer (According to an Associated Press article in the Chicago Tribune, a Bureau of Justice Statistics report released by the U.S. Justice Department Sunday indicates the number of American adults imprisoned in county, state and federal jails and prisons in mid-1998 was a record 1.8 million, an increase of 4.4 percent from mid-1997. The number of prisoners has more than doubled in the last 12 years. There were 668 inmates for every 100,000 residents in the U.S., compared to 685 out of every 100,000 in Russia. However, a planned amnesty of 100,000 prisoners in Russia and the expectation of continued increases in the U.S. inmate population means the United States will likely become the world's leading jailer in a year or two. Even worse, the wire service neglects to mention the total correctional population is actually more than 7.3 million, much greater than in Russia, which can't afford to supervise 5.5 million people on probation, parole, under house arrest, doing community service and so on, as reported in the latest BOJ figures released at the end of 1996.)
• Prison Population Still Rising, but More Slowly (The Washington Post version notes the federal prison system is growing faster than state prisons and local jails, with drug offenders making up 60 percent of the federal inmate population. Only 23 percent of state prisoners have been convicted of drug-related crimes - but the figures for local jails are omitted. Similarly, the newspaper notes parole violators now account for about 35 percent of inmate admissions, but doesn't say how many of such inmates were violated for failing junk-science urine tests or committing other "non-drug" offenses that were really drug offenses.)
• Inmate Population Reaches Record 1.8 Million (The New York Times version)
• Prison Population 1.8 Million, Rising (The Oakland Tribune version)
• The Drug War Has Failed (A New York Times staff editorial in the International Herald-Tribune agrees with the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, when he says "We have a failed social policy and it has to be re-evaluated." Unfortunately, the newspaper's opinion that that "The drug war was created in reaction to a wave of urban violence triggered by crack cocaine" is so patently ignorant that nobody but a moron would ever look to the New York Times for insight again.)
• War On Drugs Has Woman In Hiding (The Coast Independent, on the Sunshine Coast, in British Columbia, recounts the case of Renee Boje, 29, an American on the Sunshine Coast who is facing deportation to California, where she's wanted by the federal government on charges related to Peter McWilliams' indictment for conspiracy to cultivate marijuana. Boje says she was hired only to do free-lance artwork for a magazine Todd McCormick was publishing. The B.C. Compassion Club Society is providing two lawyers to help Boje, who faces an April 19 extradition hearing.)
• War On Marijuana Waste Of Time, Money - Critics (The Halifax Daily News, in Nova Scotia, describes the enormous amount of resources spent by Canadian police to detect, prosecute and punish marijuana growers such as Leland Dosch of rural Saskatchewan. Police taped 2,000 hours of his family's phone calls, studied his daily routine and even broke into his home to plant listening devices. Then, in a carefully planned raid of his farmhouse, they found only 30 immature plants and a kilogram of herb. The Dosch case and others like it - as well as the latest statistics showing marijuana accounting for 72 per cent of all drug offences in Canada - have some experts questioning the wisdom of devoting so much time and money to battle a drug that many people regard as harmless and millions of Canadians use. "There's nothing more costly than a drug case for Canadian criminal justice," said Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto.)
• Financial Notes - The Buying Power Of Illegal Narcotics (An op-ed in the Independent, in Britain, by David Yallop, the author of "Unholy Alliance," says the international market for supposedly controlled substances amounts to $500 billion a year. "Imagine a multi-national company so big that its annual turnover is equal to China's gross national product. A company whose gross turnover for just one financial year is sufficient to buy at current market value the world's three largest public companies, General Electric, Royal Dutch Shell and Microsoft. A company where just 10 days turnover is in excess of the combined assets of the world's top 50 banks.")
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 10 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 88,600 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Sunday, March 14, 1999:

• Democracy overruled (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian urges Oregon residents to contact their state representatives and ask them to oppose Rep. Kevin Mannix's attempt to nullify the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act by voting against HB 3502.)
• Compassionate Use Benefit - Call 530-272-5333 (A list subscriber publicizes a public gathering featuring speakers with information about medical marijuana, plus music and festivities, April 10 in Grass Valley, California. The NORML Foundation is sponsoring the event.)
• Due Process Key in Eviction Law (A staff editorial in the Los Angeles Times pans the experimental new California law that mandates fines for landlords in Buena Park who refuse to evict someone the police allege is a drug-law offender, even if that person has not been convicted of anything. A landlord who runs afoul of the law four times in a year can be jailed.)
• Incarcerated By Illusions? (An op-ed in the Oakland Tribune by Sean Gonsalves, a former Oakland resident who writes for the Cape Cod Times, recalls William James' observation that some people who think they are thinking are really only re-arranging their prejudices. Such "thinking" colors the popular "debate" on race and the American criminal justice system. Whenever Gonsalves writes a column about the numerous studies indicating racism is part and parcel of the criminal "justice" system, some self-proclaimed "conservative" writes to point out the "obvious" reason there are a disproportionate number of blacks behind bars: blacks commit more crime than white people do! It's that kind of thinking that probably led J.S. Mill to say: "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that all stupid people are conservative.")
• Prosecutors Turn Their Sights on California's Mexican Mafia (The New York Times says cops in California are turning their sights once again on la Eme, known as the Mexican Mafia, one of California's oldest and most powerful prison gangs, charging its members under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act with waging a brutal campaign for control of Southern California's gangs and drug trade. Those often in harm's way from la Eme are the group's own members. Federal prosecutors hoped to break the gang's power by sprinkling members throughout the larger federal prison system. That somewhat weakened la Eme. But as a result, a truce that was once enforced by the Mexican Mafia is in tatters, and 24 people have been killed on the streets of East Los Angeles in the resulting gang war over the last six months.)
• U.S. Medical-Marijuana Movement Awaits Key Report (Reuters says the $1.1 million report on medical marijuana from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, commissioned by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, will be released Wednesday. The U.S. battle over medical marijuana has been waged on the streets, in the courts and at the ballot box. This week the fight focuses on science. The report is supposed to assess claims that marijuana can alleviate suffering associated with everything from AIDS and cancer to glaucoma and chronic pain. While few believe the report will offer specific policy recommendations, marijuana-law-reform activists say that even a suggestion that further research should be conducted would be powerful new ammunition.)
• Study shows link between smoking during pregnancy, adult crime (The Associated Press says a study published in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry is the first to examine the relationship between mothers who smoke tobacco and their children's adult behavior. The researchers - from Emory University in Atlanta, the University of Southern California and the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Denmark - found that more than a quarter of the men whose mothers had the highest levels of smoking and delivery complications were arrested for a violent crime as an adult. However, David Fergusson, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the Christchurch School of Medicine in New Zealand, wrote an accompanying editorial saying there is not enough research to add prenatal smoking to the list of established risk factors for adult crimes.)
• Dealer To The Desperate Faces Court (The Province, in Vancouver, British Columbia, says AIDS patient Ernest Stanking faces a trial May 3 in a Port Coquitlam courtroom on a charge of possession for the prupose of trafficking. For the past 15 years, Stanking has been growing a forest of top-notch pot in his Port Coquitlam back yard. He sniffs at the hydroponic stuff grown quickly - and profitably - in basements across the Lower Mainland. "There's only one way you can grow medical marijuana," he insists. "It's in the ground, in clean living soil." Stanking supplies about 130 medical marijuana patients - people who suffer from AIDS or cancer - for $125 an ounce, about one-third the going rate.)
  Bytes: 37,100 Last updated: 4/12/99
  

  Saturday, March 13, 1999:

• Don't Exaggerate (A letter to the editor of the Hood River News, in north central Oregon, by Sandee Burbank of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, debunks recent assertions about marijuana by Maija Yasui of the state Commission on Children and Families. MAMA thinks it is better to teach children skills to evaluate the risks of all drug use and provide them with accurate information about all drugs. This will serve them far better than lies.)
• State failed inmates who had X-rays, judge rules (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael Marcus ruled Thursday night that the Oregon Department of Corrections has not followed a state law intended to protect the health of 69 former inmates exposed to radiation experiments between 1963 and 1973. Marcus said the state had failed to adequately notify the former inmates, failed to provide psychological counseling and failed to conduct a study to determine the long-term effects of the testing. A law passed in 1987 required the Department of Corrections to provide for any resulting medical needs of the men. Instead of issuing an injunction, Marcus ordered the state to make changes and told the two sides to try to come up with a resolution based on his findings.)
• 1 in 4 Oregon high schoolers drops out (The Oregonian says an Oregon Department of Education report released Friday shows 25.26 percent of Oregon students who enter high school will drop out before graduating. The four-year rate projected for Portland Public Schools was 40 percent. If you don't understand the connection to the war on marijuana users, check out Portland NORML's "Oregon Services Plundered for Drug War" page.)
• Los Angeles Million Marijuana March (A list subscriber publicizes the reform rally scheduled for Saturday, May 1.)
• Million Marijuana March Rallies Scheduled Around the Globe May 1 (A preliminary press release from Cures Not Wars, in New York, publicizes reform rallies scheduled in Seattle and elsewhere.)
• Drug War Backfires (A staff editorial in the New York Times finds encouragemnt in a statement by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, in the newspaper's recent article about how the 1986 crack cocaine scare has created a booming prison-industrial complex. "We have a failed social policy and it has to be re-evaluated," said McCaffrey, who also repeated a statement he made after replacing Lee Brown, that "We can't incarcerate our way out of this problem." Unfortunately, the newspaper fails to note that such hypocritical statements by McCaffrey have been consistently contradicted by his budget priorities.)
  Bytes: 35,200 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, March 12, 1999:

• Re: Making a hash of the law (A letter to the editor of the Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, applauds the newspaper for opposing state representative Kevin Mannix's HB 3502, which would nullify the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. "It's perhaps most constructive to note that Mannix won his seat in Salem by less than 300 votes. But old 'Mad Dog' Mannix does serve one good purpose. He is a prime example of how this 'winner take all' election system fails and why so many Oregonians have given up on it. Here's a man who got into office by the skin of his teeth. Yet he is warmly embraced as though he won by a landslide and appointed by the Republican leadership to the Chair of the very powerful House Judiciary Committee. Then, the first thing he does is try to overthrow the will of The People!")
• Guinea-Pig Kubby (Orange County Weekly gives an update on the prosecution of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor who was recently busted on cultivation charges. "Orange County is leading the way on this issue - the media, the OC Weekly, the Orange County Register, the OC Libertarians, Marvin Chavez," Kubby said. While in Orange County, Kubby will undergo medical examinations so doctors can try to learn more about why Kubby's use of marijuana seems the sole barrier between life and death from an incurable form of adrenal cancer. Kubby has already announced plans to run for governor again in 2002. His wife, Michele, a UC-Berkeley graduate with degrees in political science and international studies, is considering a run for the U.S. senate.)
• Medical Marijuana Debate Continues In House (The Keene Sentinel says advocates for marijuana law reform, including Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a Harvard Medical School professor, testified Wednesday before the New Hampshire House Criminal Justice subcommittee in favor of two bills sponsored by Rep. Timothy N. Robertson, D-Keene that would allow the medical use of marijuana and decriminalize those who possess the herb. Nicholas Pastore, the former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, said the nation's war on drugs was a failure. The jails are full of marijuana smokers who have no history of violence and pose no danger to society, he said.)
• Two Million Prisoners Are Enough (An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by John J. DiIulio Jr., a professor of public policy at Princeton University, says the justice system is becoming less capable of distributing sanctions and supervision rationally, especially where drug offenders are concerned. It's time for policy makers to change focus and aim for zero prison growth. Five reforms to aim for include: Repeal mandatory minimum drug laws. Reinvent and reinvest in probation and parole. Stop federalizing crime policy and modify federal sentencing guidelines. Study and promote faith-based crime prevention and restorative justice. And redouble efforts at juvenile crime prevention.)
• Stop The Prison Madness And Build Schools (Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan observes in the Grand Rapids Press, in Michigan, that that while bond issues to build schools often fail, the United States is building a 1,000-bed jailhouse or prison every week. Millions of Americans, conservative and liberal, are awakening to the reality that incarcerating 400,000 people on drug charges has not reduced the curse of drug abuse in America. The uprising against the current outrageous situation seems great enough that any number of politicians might take the lead without fear of falling to the old cries, "soft on crime." Enough Americans seem now to understand that the current punitive policy has been a failure. Still, both will and courage to admit error and change policy seems to be in short supply in Washington these days. Millions of more voices are needed.)
• Feds Rebuff Medical Marijuana Researchers (UPI says the Institute of Medicine study commissioned in 1997 by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, is scheduled for release on Wednesday, March 17. No original research has been allowed by the federal government for more than 10 years. Several cases illustrate how the government has stonewalled would-be scientists. Researchers who want to conduct clinical trials on the efficacy of medical marijuana say the government publicly invites such studies, but privately works to quash them. Ultimately, the researchers tell United Press International, the federal government unfairly works to end the movement to legalize the drug as a medicine for seriously ill patients.)
• Customs Service Reworks Controversial Airport Drug Searches (Florida Today says new statistics show the number of cocaine and heroin smugglers caught at airports dropped by one-fourth in 1998, while investigations and lawsuits alleging abusive tactics have increased. So the Customs Service is retraining officers who check airline passengers for drugs and trying new technology to reduce the need for invasive body searches.)
• Gramm and Boxer Sponser Legislation That Would Alter the U.S. Drug-Certification Process (The Orange County Register says a political odd couple, conservative Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and liberal Sen. Babara Boxer of California, introduced legislation Thursday that would revamp the current process that causes an annual rift between the United States, Mexico and other countries battling the illegal international trade in supposedly controlled substances.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 82 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - Internet campaign convinces Congress to condemn "Know Your Customer," battle not yet over; George Bush Jr. hires private eye to dig up own past; Report: US anti-drug forces corrupted; Alaska bill introduced to amend state's new medical marijuana law; Drug policy campus activism conference; Washington state bill would increase judges' discretion in drug cases; Judge denies California AIDS patient's urgent plea for medical marijuana; Federal judge allows medical marijuana class action suit to proceed, questions why government supplies medical marijuana to some patients, not others; Events; Online petitions)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 89 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - How important is the drug policy reform effort? by Rolf Ernst; The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Smugglers corrupting U.S.'s anti-drug forces, study says; War on drugs needs a new battle plan; America's misguided drug war; Chronic pain under treated, expert says; and, Senators join outcry to halt new bank rules. Articles about Law Enforcement and Prisons include - Less crime, more criminals; Criminal justice system just plain bizarre; Incarceration won't solve drug problem; and, US criticism of China rings hollow in US prisons. Articles about Medical Marijuana include - MP challenges Rock pot move; The Kubby prosecution; Not fit to print? The medical marijuana class action hearing; and, a letter to the editor, Medical marijuana. International News includes - another letter to the editor, Copy successful anti-drugs policy; Expert rejects zero tolerance stand; Caribbean nations suspend US treaty; and, New drug army rules atop 'Golden Triangle.' The weekly Hot Off The 'Net publicizes a transcript from the medical marijuana class action lawsuit in Philadelphia; and gives the URL for a RealVideo episode of television's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" featuring Joe Califano and singer Dave Matthews. The Fact of the Week documents that the "Land of the Free" is No. 1 in imprisoning its citizens. The Quote of the Week cites state senator John Vasconcellos, the Democrat from Santa Clara, California.)
  Bytes: 110,000 Last updated: 4/6/99
  

  Thursday, March 11, 1999:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Judge denies California AIDS patient's urgent plea for medical marijuana; Marijuana successfully treats Tourette's Syndrome, study shows; New Hampshire considers medical marijuana, decriminalization legislation; Federal judge allows medical marijuana class action suit to proceed; questions why government supplies medical marijuana to some patients, not others)
• Making A Hash Of The Law (A staff editorial in the Bend, Oregon, Bulletin says the newspaper still thinks voters erred last November in approving the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. But the attempt by state representative Kevin Mannix to gut the law by introducing HB 3052 with the support of the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police is a terrible idea too. His objections may be valid, but the decision of voters to ignore them last fall clearly indicates that Measure 67 reflects their will. Mannix should respect it. Subverting it will merely encourge future petitioners to forsake statutory initiatives and play around with the Constitution instead.)
• Oregon class sizes grow (The Oregonian says limited data show Oregon's classroom student-teacher ratios, already the fourth worst in the nation, are still deteriorating. If you don't understand the connection to the war on marijuana users, check out Portland NORML's "Oregon Services Plundered for Drug War" page.)
• Schoolrooms feel the squeeze (The Oregonian, which, like Oregon legislators, would rather bankrupt public education than end the war on some drug users, says Oregon lawmakers Wednesday held their first hearing this session on reducing large classes in crowded schools. Supposedly nobody knows where more money for schools can be found.)
• Police seek way to halt traffic stop race bias (According to the Oregonian, Oregon State Police Superintendent LeRon Howland and Portland Police Chief Charles Moose say that documenting traffic stops would help determine how frequently minorities are stopped for no other reason than the color of their skin. But don't expect that to happen in Oregon anytime soon. Characteristically, the newspaper doesn't even mention it's the drug war that leads to such profiling.)
• May 1st Marijuana Rally in San Francisco (A bulletin from California NORML publicizes the Million Marijuana March, co-sponsored by the Drug Peace Campaign and California NORML as part of a coordinated worldwide effort to promote reform.)
• States Push Medical Marijuana Challenge (UPI notes Alaska this week joined the small but growing list of states with medical marijuana laws in effect that defy the federal government. The Minnesota legislature is also considering similar legislation. Efforts to get the federal government to change its position on medical marijuana include a bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank March 2 to lift the federal ban and reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug. And in Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz on Wednesday allowed a class-action suit seeking to legalize the herb's use for medical reasons to proceed.)
• The Drug War: Suppression Tactics Will Never Work (An op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star by Rodney S. Quinn, the former Maine secretary of state and a retired Air Force officer, notes Thomas Constantine, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, blames the failure of the war on some drug users on a public that is unwilling and unable to fight the war. It seems more likely the public is willing to fight, but dissatisfied with current tactics. From the beginning, official exaggerations and manipulation of statistics have guided the drug war, elevating "drugs" in the public consciousness from a behavioral and psychological concern to a major national depravity. These essentially natural products that have been with us for history have suddenly become evil incarnate - the 20th century snake in the American Garden of Eden. The war on drugs is simply not winnable as long as we insist on using the tactics of suppression. The true measure of drug availability is cost. For the past 20 years, the street price of drugs, in constant dollars, has hardly kept up with inflation.)
• Judge Wants Pot Explanation (The Philadelphia Daily News says U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz ruled yesterday that the federal government must explain why it provides marijuana to some sick people for medicinal reasons, but not to others. The Compassionate Investigational New Drug program stopped taking new applicants in 1992 and only about eight people continue to participate. Katz's ruling stems from the class action lawsuit for medical marijuana filed on behalf of 170 plaintiffs by Philadelphia public interest attorney Lawrence Elliott Hirsch.)
• U.S. Judge Will Allow Pot Lawsuit (A second account in the Philadelphia Inquirer says U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz refused yesterday to dismiss a class-action medical-marijuana lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiffs deserved the chance to prove the government had no reason to deny the drug to seriously ill people. The victory for Philadelphia attorney Lawrence Elliott Hirsch keeps alive the lawsuit that many legal experts assumed had no chance of success when it was filed in July.)
• Judge declines to dismiss medical marijuana lawsuit (A slightly longer version of the Philadelphia Inquirer article, apparently from a different edition)
• Breaking News: Judge rules against government in medical marijuana class action suit (A list subscriber posts a URL where Judge Katz's decision is located, and summarizes key elements of his decision.)
• Ann Landers: Views On Marijuana Come In All Varieties (The nationally syndicated advice columnist based at the Chicago Tribune shares a variety of "pro" and "con" responses to her recent column calling for the reform of marijuana laws.)
• Nightline: Getting Straight (ABC News' last night of a three-part series by Dave Marash continues last night's focus on Rafael Flores, a freelancer who combs the streets of New York at night trying to con addicts into accepting treatment and treatment centers into giving them a bed. Flores is also a walking barometer of our own failure. No matter how much we succeed in cutting the supply, no matter how many dealers we throw in prison, until we make drug treatment accessible to those who need it, we're losing the war.)
  Bytes: 86,500 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Wednesday, March 10, 1999:

• Defense Lawyers Want Police To Disclose Task Force's Ways (The Oregonian says lawyers for Neil Jeffery Hauser of Bend are demanding to know whether Portland police illegally used a "trap and trace" device to provide Portland's Marijuana Task Force with the phone numbers of everyone who called American Agriculture, a Portland hydroponics supply store. Hauser is charged with posing as a police officer when he taped a phone conversation with an officer on the task force. Hauser's lawyers say the case could lead to the reversal of hundreds of marijuana grow convictions if a judge rules the trap was illegal and that evidence obtained as a result must be thrown out. In addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug forfeiture assets might be up for grabs. According to cops, the Multnomah County District Attorney's office prosecuted an estimated 175 marijuana grow cases last year, 248 in 1997 and 364 in 1996. Official figures claim the Marijuana Task Force seized 126 marijuana grows last year and got $186,000 in forfeited cash, property and real estate.)
• Knock, Knock, You're Busted (A lengthier version in Willamette Week, in Portland, includes the transcript of the second of two phone calls to the Marijuana Task Force in Portland by Neil Jeffery Hauser of Bend. Willamette Week also dicusses other nefarious tactics used by police to ferret out pot gardens without having to bother getting warrants. But the free shopper believes "there's no real way to measure whether the task force has dampened Portland's ganja habit," so here's a clue: Ask a few medical marijuana patients in Portland and California, and you'll find cannabis on the illicit market costs more in California.)
• Bill gutting the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act/Measure 67, HB 3052, now available online (A list subscriber posts the URL for the full text of legislation recently proposed by Oregon state representative Kevin Mannix with support from the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police.)
• Pierce County teacher suspended in drug investigation (The Seattle Times says an unidentified teacher at Curtis High School, a 15-year-veteran of the University Place School District, has been suspended with pay after police found several bags of a substance believed to be methamphetamine in his private desk on campus.)
• Feds Want McWilliams To Die (USA Today briefly notes a federal judge refused Tuesday to allow Los Angeles writer-activist Peter McWilliams to use medical marijuana while awaiting trial on drug cultivation, trafficking and possession charges.)
• Judge Denies AIDS Patient's Request For Marijuana (The Los Angeles Times version)
• State Reversing Stand On Medicinal Pot (The Los Angeles Times claims California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who so far has failed to lift a finger to stop the persecution of patients protected by Proposition 215, is finally going to do something.)
• Lockyer Pushing Ways To Make Pot Law Work (A slightly different version of the Los Angeles Times story, apparently from a different edition)
• Monitoring Mary Jane - The Difficulty In Regulating Medicinal Pot (The Pacific Sun, in California, discusses the struggle to implement Proposition 215 in Marin and Sonoma counties and California at large.)
• Ex-officer gets 27-year prison term - Former cop made $10,000 in drug scam (The Houston Chronicle says Michael Lee Bogany, a Houston police officer who was fired in November, was sentenced to 27 years in prison Wednesday for stealing controlled substances from illegal dealers and then selling them to other dealers.)
• The Wrong Way To Fight Drug War (Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson discovers that the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, is a flaming hypocrite. From some of the things he says, it sounds as if McCaffery wants to end the hysteria that has turned the drug war into Vietnam. But McCaffrey does not yet have the courage to put enlightenment into action. Last week, McCaffrey went to Capitol Hill to detail his $17.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2000. The portion of the budget reserved for prevention and treatment, $6 billion, is only 34 percent of federal drug-war spending, exactly the same percentage as in 1991. But the portion of the budget for domestic law enforcement, i.e. cops and incarceration, rose from 41 percent in 1991 to 52 percent in 2000. While the budget for prevention and treatment would rise by 3.6 percent, the budget for the Bureau of Prisons would go up 13 percent, 19 percent for the FBI and 50 percent for the US Attorney's office. A spokesman for McCaffrey said the prison budget is difficult to control because there has to be a place to put the people already arrested. The spokesman said McCaffrey wants more money for prevention, but the need for prisons is so great that it will take several years to see a change in funding.)
• Ruling on the Philadelphia Medical Marijuana Suit: We are still alive (California NORML breaks the news that U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz has allowed the class action lawsuit to proceed. A member of the legal team headed by Lawrence Elliott Hirsch summarizes Judge Katz's decision in Philadelphia.)
• Nightline: Getting Straight (The second part of ABC's three-night series by Dave Marash focuses on the inadequacy of funding for treatment in U.S. drug policy. "Getting addicts to accept treatment is tough enough. Getting the treatment centers to accept the addicts can be even tougher.")
• Pot Charges Higher Than Ever, Even Police Call For Softer Law (The London Free Press, in Ontario, says marijuana prohibition has become the leading cause of drug-related criminal charges in the 1990s, despite growing ambivalence about whether the weed should remain illegal. Figures from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, released yesterday by Statistics Canada, indicate the overall number of offences hasn't changed much since 1983. But marijuana-related charges accounted for 72 per cent of the total in 1997, compared with 58 per cent in 1991. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is against "legalization," but wants Ottawa to look at decriminalization in some circumstances. Barry King, the police chief in Brockville, said officers are getting fired for using their discretion and Ottawa has to take the lead on giving police the option of letting minor drug offenders go.)
• Weed leads to most charges (The Canadian Press version)
• Pot charges on the rise (The Toronto Star version)
  Bytes: 123,000 Last updated: 4/6/99
  

  Tuesday, March 9, 1999:

• Lawmaker Takes Aim At Medical Marijuana Measure / Oregon Medical Marijuana update (Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for Measure 67, forwards an undated Associated Press article about state Rep. Kevin Mannix's attempt to gut the voter-approved law. Preceding the AP article is Dr. Bayer's assessment of today's meeting of the Oregon Health Division OMMA Rules advisory committee, together with an advance notice about the committee's next rule-making meeting, 2-5 pm Thursday, April 15, at the Oregon State Office Building in Portland. Dr. Bayer also details what physicians should and should not do in order to help their patients comply with the OMMA while minimizing the legal risks to themselves.)
• Judge denies advocate's request to smoke pot (KNBC, the Los Angeles affiliate of NBC, says U.S. District Judge George H. King has sanctioned the government's murder of Peter McWilliams, the AIDS patient being denied medicine while awaiting trial on cultivation charges.)
• Libertarian Party Vows To Fight Marijuana Case (According to UPI, the California Libertarian Party says it has "not yet begun to fight" the indictment of 1998 gubernatorial candidate and medical-marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, on cultivation charges.)
• Senate Gives Preliminary Approval To Legalized Hemp (An Associated Press article in the Duluth News-Tribune says the Minnesota senate approved a bill Monday that would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp.)
• Chicago Cop Is Facing Drug Charges In Mississippi (The Chicago Tribune says Peter Ramon was being held Monday in a Mississippi jail after deputies said they found 120 pounds of marijuana in a van in which he was traveling.)
• Detecting Teen Substance Abuse (The Washington Post notes new guidelines were released last week by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, SAMHSA, as a free advertisement for the coerced-rehab industry. The guidelines are designed to give physicians, teachers, coaches and others who regularly deal with teens "screening tools" to determine who may have "a substance abuse problem." Among the indications for undergoing substance abuse screening are "psychological difficulties, substantial behavior changes, hospital emergency room visits for trauma injuries as well as for gastrointestinal disturbances, sudden changes in grade-point averages, unexplained school absences and a general tendency toward being accident prone.")
• Nightline: Getting Straight (Dave Marash of ABC News begins a three-night examination of U.S. drug policy based on the perspective of Michael Massing's book, "The Fix," which in turn looks at U.S. drug policy from the perspective of a 1994 report by the Rand Corporation that found drug treatment to be 10 times more effective than border interdiction. The latest federal survey showed just one addict in four desiring treatment actually getting it. Over the first seven years of the Clinton administration, the share of drug control money spent for demand reduction has actually fallen slightly. The White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, says, "I think the bigger problem . . . is we simply lack health parity for drug treatment in the private sector.")
• Dope Activist's Hubby Charged (The Edmonton Sun, in Alberta, says police raided the Cannabis Compassion Centre in London, Ontario, arresting Mike Harichy, 47, the proprietor and husband of Lynn Harichy, the multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana activist.)
• Husband Of Pot Crusader Arrested (The version in the London Free Press, in Ontario)
• Cabinet Rules Out Legalising Cannabis (According to the Dominion, in New Zealand, the New Zealand Government has rejected the recommendation of its parliamentarian health select committee that the Government review the legal status of cannabis. The Government has not only ruled out decriminalising cannabis, saying that making the herb legal would send confusing messages to young people, it also announced that it would ban drug paraphernalia such as "bongs.")
  Bytes: 65,800 Last updated: 4/6/99
  

  Monday, March 8, 1999:

• The Kubby Prosecution (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register gives an update on the prosecution of Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor. Local drug warriors, in conjunction with state and federal officials, argued in court last Tuesday that the 265 plants found growing in the Kubby home constitute evidence of cultivation for sale, so Kubby should be prevented from invoking California's medical-marijuana law. For prosecutors to press forward, despite Kubby's compliance with Proposition 215, smacks of malice or worse - an overt effort to turn a duly passed law into a dead letter.)
• Another Border Shooting Disputed (The Houston Chronicle version of the shooting of Abecnego Monje in the back Jan. 25 while the 18-year-old was attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with only a jug of water. Monje was paralyzed by Wilbur Honeycutt, a Texas law enforcement officer participating in a federal Drug Enforcement Agency programan. Honeycutt says he saw the flash of a gun and fired. Last September alone, the U.S. Border Patrol was involved in four shootings of illegal immigrants in San Diego, two of them fatal.)
• Chronic Pain Undertreated, Expert Says (According to the Omaha World-Herald, in Nebraska, Dr. Steven D. Passik, a psychologist who is director of oncology symptom control research at the Indiana Community Cancer Care Center in Indianapolis, told an ethics conference Saturday at Creighton University in Omaha that many Americans with chronic pain don't receive the treatment they need due to doctors' and patients' unmerited concern that the use of opioid painkillers would lead to substance abuse, and doctors' worries about legal problems.)
• Not Fit to Print? The MMJ: Class Action Hearing (MAP, the Media Awareness Project, protests the lack of media coverage of developments in the federal class-action medical-marijuana lawsuit being litigated in Philadelphia by Lawrence Elliott Hirsch, by posting several news accounts or URLs to news accounts from alternative online media such as High Times and marijuananews.com. "Judge Katz himself reacted with surprise when the feds acknowledged that the IND program's suspension had absolutely nothing to do with medicine.")
• The Latest Buzz On Hemp (U.S. News & World Report, in Washington, D.C., suggests American farmers are starting to get serious about reforming the country's ban on industrial hemp production. In North Dakota last year, wheat, barley, and canola farmers such as David Monson endured floods, heavy snow, pelting rains, and crop disease while watching neighbors' farms go bust. In the fall, Monson's profit was a paltry $25 an acre. Meanwhile, 20 miles away, across the border in Canada, Brian McElroy, who had planted his first hemp crop, earned $225 an acre. Last month, the Virginia legislature endorsed "controlled, experimental" cultivation of the plant. Similar pro-hemp action is pending in 11 other state legislatures, including Hawaii and Vermont. An unlikely hemp proponent, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, who represents the North American Industrial Hemp Council, says "If you want to get rid of marijuana, there's nothing better to do than plant a lot of industrial hemp." The reason is that hemp pollinates marijuana, lowering its potency.)
• America's Misguided Drug War (An op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor by Mike Tidwell, author of "In the Shadow of the White House: Drugs death and redemption on the streets of the nation's capital," says there is no credible evidence that stringent enforcement of America's prohibition of controlled substances actually reduces drug use. Indeed, the opposite seems true: Law-enforcement efforts actually promote illicit drug use. The endless police raids on crack houses, shooting galleries, and various open-air markets simply help push drugs block-by-block through the city, guaranteeing that every D.C. teenager will eventually have a full-blown market on his street corner. Attacking supply without addressing demand guarantees it will continue. It's important to be very clear on this point: Our law-enforcement efforts actually help peddle drugs.)
• Jailed Colombia Drug Lords Said Preparing For War (According to Reuters, anonymous Colombian police officials claimed Monday that jailed Colombian illegal-drug exporters were preparing to launch a domestic campaign of terror against their possible extradition to the United States and have earmarked $9.6 million dollars to finance it. The fact that the Columbian police and military have been carrying out just such a campaign against civilians for decades isn't mentioned. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno also exhibited a little bloodlust in a highly publicized visit to Colombia last week when she said she would like to see the death penalty imposed in some drug cases tried before U.S. courts.)
• Detective Alleges Mass Corruption By Senior Police (According to the Examiner, in Ireland, Scotland Yard Detective Chief Superintendent David Wood, head of CIB 3, the elite anti-corruption squad, told the Sunday Telegraph in London that corrupt senior officers were passing information to criminal gangs for sums exceeding £350,000. "The kind of criminals involved in large-scale drug smuggling don't hesitate to use violence," he said, without citing a single such incident or explaining why illegal-drug distributors had passed up so many opportunities.)
• Copy Successful Anti-Drugs Policy (A letter to the editor of the Examiner, in Ireland, says a proposal to start imprisoning young people who experiment with soft drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy won't work. One has only to look at the US, which has the largest proportion of its population behind bars of any of the developed countries in the world, a sizeable minority, if not a majority, of them for non-violent drugs offences. And yet drug use continues to soar in the US. The proposal also ignores the fact that Ireland already incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than any other EU country. And the suggestion that Ireland should copy the UK's example ignores the fact that the UK is the only country in the EU with a higher rate of teenage drug use than Ireland. The report of the Crime Forum, issued towards the end of last year,actually suggested we should seriously consider the option of legalising drugs. At the time, one national newspaper even called for a public debate on the matter. Nothing has been heard since.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 9 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 62,200 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Sunday, March 7, 1999:

• Alaska Law Allows Marijuana Use (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, notes the medical marijuana law approved last November by nearly 60 percent of voters went into effect last week. Alaska is the sixth state to offer a legal shield to people who smoke the weed for a short list of medical ailments.)
• Minnesota Legislature Ponders Medical Marijuana Measure (UPI says Austin state senator Pat Piper, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1987, has introduced a bill to permit the limited use of marijuana as medicine.)
• Agriculture Chief's Son Arrested In Methamphetamine Raid (An Associated Press story in the Rockford Register Star says Christopher Hampton, the son of the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, was arrested Friday by state and federal agents who were searching the home of another man accused of manufacturing methamphetamine. Hampton was accused of supplying anhydrous ammonia from the family farm. Joe Hampton, Christopher's father, wept as his handcuffed son was led away.)
• Campus Activists Hit Law Stripping Aid From Drug Offenders (The Boston Globe says New Hampshire Youth Mobilization, a group based at the University of New Hampshire, in Durham, that focuses on social justice issues, will work to repeal a provision of the U.S. Higher Education Act of 1998 that denies or delays federal education grants, loans or subsidized job opportunities to any student convicted of possessing or selling "drugs," particularly marijuana. New Hampshire student activists say the law is punitive and discriminates against less affluent students. The Drug Reform Coordination Network, in Washington, D.C., is organizing students across the country to lobby Congress to repeal the provision, charging that it turns the nation's drug war into "a war on student access to higher education.")
• Welfare Law May Limit Addiction Recovery (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says a wrinkle in the 1994 federal welfare reform law has prevented some people from receiving substance abuse treatment and may jeopardize the existence of some recovery programs. The law bars states from providing cash assistance and food stamps to anyone convicted of a drug-related felony. But many drug treatment programs depend on benefits such as food stamps and welfare cash payments to help pay for treatment.)
• Less Crime, More Criminals (New York Times columnist Timothy Egan ponders America's inability to control its prison-industrial complex. Later this month, the U.S. Justice Department will release new figures showing that 2 million people - one of every 150 people in the United States - is in prison or jail - omitting approximately 5 million additional people under house arrest, or on probation or parole. With the crime rate having fallen for six straight years, by all logic, prisons should be experiencing a few vacancies. But because the war on some drug users has failed to reduce the use of supposedly controlled substances, a prison peace dividend is nowhere in sight. Instead, the guessing game now is: At what point does the world's largest penal system hit a plateau - 2.5 million inmates, 3 million? Cleaning up after a crusade, some lawmakers say, has proven much harder than they anticipated. Edwin Meese, attorney general under President Reagan, has started to look favorably on treatment for low-level offenders rather than jail. "I think mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders ought to be reviewed," said Meese.)
• Medical Marijuana and Herpes (A list subscriber forwards a first-person account testifying to the efficacy of raw cannabis used as a poultice to alleviate symptoms of a herpes outbreak quickly.)
• Smugglers Corrupting U.S.'s Anti-Drug Forces, Study Says (A Knight Ridder news service article in the Seattle Times says the U.S. General Accounting Office is about to release a yearlong study that concludes that drug-related corruption along the U.S.-Mexico border is a serious and continuing threat, according to a draft of the report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Last month the U.S. Customs Service called drug trafficking "the undisputed, greatest corruption hazard confronting all federal, state and local law enforcement agencies today." The number of state and local law enforcement and other public officials convicted for drug corruption has increased from 79 in 1997 to 157 last year. Between 1994 and 1997, there were 46 drug-related indictments in the United States of border law enforcement officials.)
• Caribbean Nations Suspend US Treaty (According to the Associated Press, Caribbean Community nations have agreed to suspend a treaty of cooperation with the United States to fight drug trafficking, angered by the U.S. position in a trade dispute over banana exports to Europe.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 7 March 1999 (An English-language news bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, focuses on a United Nations report encouraging research into the medical use of cannabis; the Canadian health minister's announcement about clinical trials into medical marijuana; the introduction of a bill in Britain's parliament to allow the medical use of cannabis; and the introduction of a medical marijuana bill in the U.S. congress.)
  Bytes: 56,200 Last updated: 3/13/99
  

  Saturday, March 6, 1999:

• More Using Jury Box For Civil Protest (The Seattle Times adds the local angle to a rewrite of a recent Washington Post article alleging an increase in jury nullification.)
• Leman Targets Marijuana Law (The Anchorage Daily News says state senator Loren Leman, a Republican from Anchorage, has introduced a bill to roll back large parts of the medical marijuana initiative approved by Alaska voters in November. "He's not hiding his motives," said David Finkelstein, treasurer of Alaskans for Medical Rights, the group that pushed the initiative. "He'd like to repeal it." The Alaska Constitution bars the Legislature from repealing a citizen initiative for the first two years after it takes effect. But lawmakers can amend initiatives.)
• Drug Statistics Don't Square With 'War' (A letter to the editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, in Massachusetts, debunks a central concept underlying the war on some drug users - that prohibited drugs are far more dangerous than non-prohibited drugs. Actually, marijuana kills no one, and other prohibited drugs account for less than 1 percent of all deaths from non-medical drug use, about 14,000 annually. Reactions to prescribed medications also kill 100,000 Americans annually.)
• Doubt Cast On Brain Chemical Role Of Dopamine Not So 'Feel-Good' (The Florida Times-Union recounts Thursday's news about a report in the journal Nature which suggests that, rather than being the key player in the pleasure process, dopamine is only a "messenger" and just one of several components of addiction. What chemical or process is ultimately responsible for the pleasure is "not really clear right now," said Anthony Grace, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.)
• Senators Join Outcry To Halt New Bank Rules (An Associated Press article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says the U.S. Senate voted 88-0 Friday to ask the government to withdraw its proposed "Know Your Customer" anti-money-laundering rules that would invade bank customers' privacy. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the Banking Committee on Thursday adopted an amendment to a big financial services bill that would kill the proposed banking rules.)
• Peddling Drugs (An editorial in New Zealand's online Newsroom by Matthew Thomas discusses how New Zealand's politics and political system block reform of marijuana laws.)
  Bytes: 39,400 Last updated: 4/21/99
  

  Friday, March 5, 1999:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (House Of Commons holds first ever debate on medical marijuana - considers motion to legalize drug for medical purposes; British MP backs marijuana by prescription; House rejects South Dakota governor's plan to impose mandatory jail time for pot offenses; Alaska medical marijuana law takes effect this week)
• War On Crime Doesn't Win Many Battles (A staff editorial in the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, discusses how the media and politicians are mostly ignoring the American Bar Association report in which former Reagan Administration attorney general Ed Meese and 15 other panelists found that Congress has gone too far in federalizing crimes that should be dealt with locally.)
• Aiming to alter pot law (The Juneau Empire says that, on the same day medical marijuana became legal in Alaska, state senator Loren Leman, an Anchorage Republican, introduced Senate Bill 94, which would severely restrict the new law.)
• Medical Marijuana Legislation Dead In Hawai'i For 1999 Session (A media advisory from the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i blames stiff opposition from cops and a "lack of political will" by the chairs of the Hawaiian legislature's house and senate judiciary committees for blocking a public hearing on a medical marijuana bill.)
• Customs Seeks Own Intelligence Unit (According to the Associated Press, U.S. Customs Director Ray Kelly said Thursday that current tip-sharing arrangements with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the CIA do not give him the tactical information he needs, so the Customs Service should be able to gather its own overseas drug intelligence.)
• Clinical Trials Of Marijuana Will Not Halt Arrests Of Terminally Ill (The National Post, in Canada, says that despite Health Minister Allan Rock's announcement Wednesday that his office will conduct clinical trials on the medical use of marijuana, police will continue to arrest terminally ill Canadians who are growing and smoking marijuana. According to Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, Mr. Rock has the power, under section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and the Substances Act, to exempt any person from the application of the law.)
• MP Challenges Rock Pot Move (According to the London Free Press, in Ontario, Bernard Bigras, a Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament, accused Health Minister Allan Rock yesterday of plotting to derail his Commons motion to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. "I think it's a minister's campaign to destabilize all the people working on the proposal." Bigras said if Rock honestly plans to move forward with the tests, he should support the Bloc motion when it comes to a vote in June.)
• The Changing Face of the Drug Trade (Inter Press Service says the Peruvian government has officially notified Washington that it will not allow the United States to set up an anti-drug military airbase in Peru. Washington has sounded out several other Central American countries about the possibility of obtaining authorisation for the installation of military bases - negotiations that are no longer based on the concept of "hemispheric security," but on "cooperation" in the war on some drug users.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 81 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - HEA reform campaign gains momentum - DRCNet attacked by Republican Rep. Souder; Hundreds rally against Rockefeller drug laws; Amnesty International charges that women behind bars suffer "rough justice"; Drug policy coalition calls for reversal of budget priorities; Federal bill reintroduced to legalize medical marijuana; Canada's House of Commons debates medical marijuana; Australian prime minister criticized over FBI invitation; Sen. Hatch advocates for expansion of maintenance therapies for opiate dependency; Hemp reform efforts underway; an editorial by Adam J. Smith, "Million man madness"; and an Errata note)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 88 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - "An Effective National Drug Control Strategy," by Kevin Zeese. The Weekly News in Review includes several articles about Drug Policy, including - The war on drugs retreats, still taking prisoners; Soldiers of the drug war remain on duty; Blacks getting AIDS at record rates; Gains cited in drug war; New York mayor tilts to totalitarianism; Political fallout over New Jersey State Police Col. Carl Williams; and, Coalition protests government's hard-line drug policies. Drug Policy articles about Certification include - Mexico, Colombia drug efforts approved; Drug war pretenses; Congressmen want Mexico blacklisted for drugs; Sinaloa: Mexico's capital of drug crime. Articles about Prisons include - Juvenile jail sought; Number of blacks in prison nears 1 million; GOP lawmaker seeks to reform drug sentencing. Articles about Medical Marijuana include - Writer faces jail after interviewing medical marijuana activist; Listen up Washington; and, Canada to test medical marijuana. International News includes - Shipley signals tougher anti-drugs stance; and, Start heroin trials, urges Australian politician. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net discusses the "Effective National Drug Control Strategy." The Tip of the Week discusses how to use the "Effective National Drug Control Strategy" to our advantage. The Quote of the Week cites Mark Crossley.)
  Bytes: 116,000 Last updated: 4/21/99
  

  Thursday, March 4, 1999:

• A Garden Gone To Seed (A letter to the editor of the Source, in Oregon, says locking up drug dealers and throwing away the key does no good so society as a whole, especially when forfeiture laws give police a motive to fabricate evidence.)
• California NORML Report on 1999 State Marijuana Legislation (A bulletin from California NORML summarizes six bills that have been introduced to the legislature, and includes the URL for current legislative information and who to lobby.)
• Alaska Medical Marijuana Law Starts (The Associated Press says the medical marijuana law approved by 60 percent of voters in November goes into effect today. Ned Tuthill wishes the law had come about a few years earlier. The retired airline pilot was busted for growing his own medicine to ease chronic pain caused by a severe car crash. The terms of his probation forbid him from smoking marijuana. "I have period of times when my pain is so severe that I just can't do anything," said Tuthill, 48, who says other pain medications nauseate him.)
• Fairmont State Baseball Coach Quits (The Associated Press says Donnie Retton, the baseball coach at Fairmont State University in West Virginia and brother of Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton, has resigned after being charged with drunken driving and possession of marijuana.)
• Dopamine Apparently Isn't The Pleasure Chemical After All (An Associated Press article in the Orange County Register says a study published today in the journal Nature suggests dopamine, discovered in 1957, may not be the brain's only "feel good" chemical. Scientists trying to unlock the secrets of drug addiction may therefore have been off target for the past two decades. The report infers that the brain chemical, rather than being the key player in the pleasure process, is only a "messenger" and just one of several components of addiction.)
• Brain Chemical Dopamine May Not Be Addiction Key (A longer version in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Role Of Dopamine In Doubt (The version in the Augusta Chronicle, in Georgia)
• War On Drugs Needs A New Battle Plan (Cox news service columnist Tom Teepen, writing in the Arizona Daily Star, notes the war on some drug users has failed, and discusses the proposals put forth yesterday in a report issued by the Network of Reform Groups.)
• Frank Supports Medical Marijuana (The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, in Massachusetts, notes local U.S. Representative Barney Frank introduced a bill Tuesday that would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II controlled substance, meaning it could be prescribed by doctors.)
• Abuse of Female Prisoners in U.S. Is Routine, Rights Report Says (According to the Washington Post, a report scheduled for release today by Amnesty International USA finds that women inmates in the nation's prisons and jails are routinely subjected to sexual abuse by male guards. The document also describes serious problems with medical care, including the use of shackles while prisoners are giving birth. Primarily as a result of the war on some drug users, the number of female inmates rose about 11 percent each year between 1985 and 1996, compared with 7.9 percent for men.)
• The Politics Of Pot - A Government In Denial (Eric Schlosser, in Rolling Stone magazine, devastatingly critiques the failure in the United States of governments and politicians at all levels to deal rationally with marijuana-related issues.)
• Ottawa to test medicinal use of pot (According to the Calgary Herald, Health Minister Allan Rock announced in the House of Commons Wednesday that the government plans to conduct human clinical tests to determine if smoking marijuana can reduce pain in terminally ill patients, a first step toward legalizing the drug for medical purposes.)
• Ottawa Approves Clinical Marijuana Trials (The Globe and Mail version, in Toronto, says the Canadian Health Department has already consulted with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - which is also planning similar trials - about acquiring a supply of the herb for the clinical trials. Making marijuana available to patients by prescription will not require an amendment to the criminal code, a Health Department source said.)
• Rock OKs Clinical Trials Of Medicinal Marijuana (The National Post version notes the health minister's announcement comes more than a year after an Ontario judge, Justice Patrick Sheppard, ruled that it was legal for Terry Parker, an epilepsy patient in Toronto, to grow and use marijuana for medical use. Sheppard said criminalizing Parker deprived him of his "right to life, liberty and security.")
• Canada to test medical marijuana (The Ottawa Citizen version)
• Marijuana health test backed (The Toronto Star version)
• Canada Orders Clinical Trials Of Medical Marijuana (The Reuters version)
• Medicinal marijuana - background materials (The Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy posts the URL for House of Commons' transcripts and media reports related to the announcement by Minister of Health Alan Rock about the clinical trials for medical marijuana.)
• An Outpost In The Banana And Marijuana Wars (The New York Times says that when American troops in December helped destroy more than one million marijuana plants in the rugged northern regions of St. Vincent, the Caribbean island nation, growers were outraged. There is also a marked hostility against Clinton for waging war with Europe over banana trade preferences, the backbone of the legitimate economy. Some government and business leaders say the United States risks undermining its anti-drug efforts if banana growers turn to drugs - not just marijuana - as an alternative. At the very least, the banana issue is creating such deep resentment that it may compromise the willingness of Caribbean countries to continue cooperating in anti-drug efforts. "When Caricom countries meet in July, I think you'll see a bold statement of resistance," said Ivelaw Griffith, a Caribbean expert at Florida International University in Miami.)
• Simich Taken To Task For Marijuana Comment (According to the Dominion, New Zealand Police Minister Clem Simich was taken to task yesterday by a former undercover policeman for saying in Parliament that marijuana was harmful, while at the same time allowing undercover policemen to use the drug. Simich also had a novel theory to explain police perjury. The former agent, whose name has been suppressed by the High Court, claimed officers were required to smoke marijuana every day during their training to familiarise themselves with its affects and to build up tolerance. The former agent is a spokesman for a group of more than 50 former policemen who are claiming exemplary damages from the police for stress and addiction. A recent survey showed a 20 per cent to 50 per cent rate of drug addiction among undercover agents.)
  Bytes: 99,200 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Wednesday, March 3, 1999:

• Health Care: Drinking and Voting (Willamette Week, in Portland, promotes Oregon Senate Bill 529, the Mental Health Parity Act, which would force insurance companies to deal with disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and alcoholism the same way they deal with chronic physical illnesses such as asthma and diabetes - without imposing arbitrary limits on the amount of money spent, the length of a patient's stay or the number of visits allowed. A poll commissioned by the Oregon Medical Association, released March 3, shows 85 percent of Oregon voters favor parity for mental illness, and 66 percent favor parity for chemical dependency. But SB 529 remains bottled up in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Chairman Bill Fisher, a Roseburg Republican, said he would not schedule a hearing.)
• Crime and Justice: The Snitch Switch (Willamette Week says a bogus police report circulating among gang members in Northeast Portland makes Isaac Harden look like an even bigger stool pigeon than Aaron Walker, who testified against Isaac and Danny Harden in their recent attempted-murder trial. As a result, when Harden enters prison, he'll be considered a snitch, a marked man.)
• Sidestepping Side Effects (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week, in Portland, says the newspaper's recent article on Ritalin failed to mention the serious side-effects children can suffer. Some have developed Tourette's syndrome after long-term use.)
• Pot shots: Peron stages sit-in at Migden's office (The San Francisco Bay Guardian says medical marijuana activist Dennis Peron and a handful of supporters staged a 45-minute sit-in at the San Francisco office of state assembly member Carole Migden on Feb. 26 to protest Migden's refusal to sponsor a bill that would legally reschedule marijuana in California if and when it's rescheduled by the federal government.)
• California State Sen. John Vasconcellos Has Just Touched The Tip Of The Iceberg (A letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times explains the mindset among federal judges caused by Congress killing the federal sentencing commission. As a result, judicial timidity is subverting the constitution and murdering medical marijuana defendant Peter McWilliams. California officials should storm the Bastille and protect their citizen from a federal government gone mad.)
• Marijuana Brings Relief (A testimonial letter to the editor of the Bangor Daily News from a veteran caregiver who is currently watching her sister-in-law die "an inch at a time" from pancreatic cancer urges Maine voters to support a November ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for medical conditions.)
• Place Called Mena - Just Some Facts (Wall Street Journal editorial writer Micah Morrison clues in corporate America to what is probably the real Clinton administration scandal - the officially sanctioned smuggling of illegal drugs through Mena airport while Clinton was governor.)
• Report Due This Month On Medical Marijuana (An otherwise unremarkable letter to the editor of USA Today by Francis X. Kinney from the Office of National Drug Control Policy reiterates federal policy on medical marijuana - but notes the comprehensive review of existing research on marijuana's potential "benefits and harms" will be released by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine "this month.")
• Medical Marijuana Bill Introduced (The Associated Press says U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts proposed legislation Wednesday that would reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, meaning it could be prescribed by doctors under certain conditions, just as cocaine and other controlled substances are. The bill would set aside the federal ban on marijuana in those states where voters have permitted medical use of the drug, but would not affect states that have not permitted such use.)
• DRCNet Newsflash (A bulletin from the Drug Reform Coordination Network alerts online activists to two developments - a "48 Hours" newscast on chronic pain, and opposing op-eds by U.S. Rep. Mark Souder and DRCNet's Adam J. Smith in the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, regarding the Higher Education Act's ban on loans to student pot smokers.)
• US Criticism Of China Rings Hollow In US Prisons (Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson contrasts the U.S. State Department's report last week on human rights abuses in China with Sunday's New York Times article about human rights abuses in America attributable to the crack cocaine scare of 1986. It is increasingly difficult for the United States to demand that China be on the "right side of history" when you could take many parts of the State Department report, change only the location, and have the same report about the United States. For example, the State Department complains that China is in denial about racism against its ethnic minorities, yet nearly every serious study of the American criminal justice system has found that it profoundly discriminates against African-Americans and Latinos.)
• Dad lacks strength to read dead son's journal (A letter to the editor of the Province, in British Columbia, from a father whose son was poisoned in 1993 by adulterated street heroin, says prohibition also killed Allister Marselje, who weighed out gram bags of cannabis in a Vancouver smoke-easy. Bigoted and ignorant citizens are needed to maintain the war on drugs. Jean Chretien, the Canadian prime minister, could do something, but refuses to lift a finger to save the lives of our children. Allister's death must be laid at Chretien's door.)
• Canada To Study Medical Marijuana (The Associated Press says Canada's health minister, Alan Rock, has authorized clinical trials to determine if marijuana is a useful medicine for people suffering from terminal illnesses and other painful conditions. Rock stressed during debate in Parliament Wednesday that the decision did not mean the government was moving toward wider legalization of marijuana for non-medical purposes. Aside from gathering scientific evidence, The health minister also said he wants officials to examine how to provide access to a safe supply of medical marijuana for those who might need it.)
• Rock agrees to pot trials (The Canadian Press version)
• Canada Orders Clinical Trials Of Medical Marijuana (The Reuters version)
• Dope Inquiry Aside, Status Quo To Stay (The New Zealand Herald says that despite a parliamentary committee's report in December encouraging the Government to review cannabis policies, the Minister of Police, Clem Simich, has indicated that no changes are in the pipeline.)
• New Drug Army Rules Atop 'Golden Triangle' (According to an Associated Press article in the Seattle Times, the U.S. State Department calls the United Wa State Army, one of many ethnic groups not controlled by the central government of Myanmar, part of "the world's biggest armed narcotics-trafficking organization." A generation ago, the Wa were feared headhunters. Now, Thai officers monitoring the border say the Wa are becoming the masters of the Golden Triangle, where the frontiers of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand converge. Tensions have risen as the central government has demanded that the Wa head back toward their old strongholds near China. The Wa, unwilling to lose heroin gateways through Thailand, have ignored the order and begun preparing for war.)
  Bytes: 67,400 Last updated: 4/21/99
  

  Tuesday, March 2, 1999:

• NORML Special News Bulletin: Federal Bill Reintroduced To Legalize Medical Marijuana (A press release from NORML says Rep. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat, introduced the "Medical Use of Marijuana Act" today in Congress. Keith Stroup of NORML said, "Historically, states have been more receptive to the medical marijuana issue than the federal government," noting that 36 state legislatures have passed laws recognizing marijuana's medical value. "This legislation addresses this paradigm and effectively gets the federal government out of the way of those states that wish to make marijuana available as a medicine." Co-sponsors of the bill include Reps. Tom Campbell, R-Calif.; John Conyers, D-Mich.; John Olver, D-Mass.; Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Pete Stark, D-Calif.; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.)
• Minorities cringe at the sound of sirens (The Oregonian notes a group monitoring the effect of a one-year-old law that gives police virtually limitless powers to stop and search anyone delivered a report to the state legislature Monday. House Bill 2433, sponsored by "the law enforcement community" and passed by the 1997 legislature, allows police to stop a person if an officer "reasonably suspects" the person is about to commit a crime. While the newspaper suppresses the actual results of a survey of Oregon minorities included in the report, it suggests minorities do not think relations with police have declined since the law went into effect because civil rights violations by police couldn't get much worse anyway.)
• Lawmakers May Soften Drug Penalties To Cut Prison Costs (The Seattle Times says skyrocketing prison costs are causing Washington legislators to concede mandatory minimum sentencing hasn't worked, especially with drug offenders. House Bill 1006, introduced by state Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, would free judges from imposing mandatory sentences on controlled-substance violators and allow some offenders to be sentenced to treatment programs in lieu of more prison time. The bill is popular. It was approved unanimously by the House Criminal Justice and Corrections and has the backing of prosecutors, judges and most lawmakers.)
• State Liquor Board is due for a wholesale makeover / Five things you can do to support the McCoys (Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin gives an update on the city of Seattle's attempt to close the business of innocent restauranteers Oscar and Barbara McCoy under a drug-abatement law. The Washington Liquor Control Board is accused of serving as a patsy for the city attorney in helping to close Oscar's II. Tomorrow a grass-roots group called Citizens for Free-Market Liquor will file a statewide initiative to privatize liquor sales. Exempt from market forces and political accountability, the liquor agency has gradually amassed unchecked authority and personnel. Plus a list subscriber tells you how to help prevent the closure of Oscar's II.)
• 3 Strikes Law Found to Be of No Effect (The Los Angeles Times says a new study by the Justice Policy Institute, to be released today and published this fall in the Stanford Law and Policy Review, says California's law mandating 25 years to life for a third felony offense has had no measurable effect on reducing violence. Crime has fallen at about the same rate in counties that aggressively enforce the three strikes law as in those that do not. The study also found that the one age group most affected by the law, felons ages 30 to 39, have committed more crimes. "In other words, the age group that is most likely to be sentenced under three strikes witnessed increases in felony arrests and violent crime," the study reports. About one fifth of third-strike inmates were found guilty of a violent offense, including robbery. By contrast, 37 percent were convicted of property crimes, such as theft, and 30 percent were found guilty of "drug" offenses, mostly possession.)
• Real Justice in Riverside, California. Tyisha Miller (A list subscriber forwards a statement that it's "time to force the Riverside Police Department to admit the drug tests for the four police officers that gunned down Tyisha Miller got lost. . . . That explains why the retired doctor was blown away in Redlands. He got access to those test results and they had to kill him.")
• Incarceration Won't Solve Drug Problem (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer comments on Sunday's seminal New York Times article about the role of the 1986 crack cocaine scare in exacerbating America's prison-industrial complex. There are 400,000 people in American prisons simply because the government claims it must save them from themselves. What will it take for Americans to give a damn that so many people who pose little or no threat to others are nonetheless languishing in prison due to an out-of-control "drug war" that has irrationally defined their vices as more dangerous than others that are demonstrably more risky to others? Even driving drunk is punished much less severely than the mere possession of crack cocaine. The nation's drug war is irrational, racist, draconian and hugely expensive.)
• Medical marijuana legal on Thursday (The Juneau Empire notes the law approved by Alaska voters last November goes into effect March 4.)
• Judge keeps supervision of prisons - System remains cruel, he says; AG to appeal (The Dallas Morning News says after three weeks of hearings in January and February, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice issued a 167-page decision Monday finding that Texas prisons are still brutal and inhumane, and ordered Texas prisons to remain under federal oversight. Attorney General John Cornyn said "All along we felt the final decision would be made by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, and that's where we head next.")
• California Medical Marijuana Bills (A news release from California NORML says two medical marijuana bills have been introduced in Sacramento by state senator John Vasconcellos. The first, S.B. 847 would establish a $1 million medical marijuana research program. The second, S.B. 848, would establish a distribution system based on recommendations from the Attorney General's working group on medical marijuana.)
• What casualties has the drug war left behind? (Molly Ivins, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's syndicated columnist, recapitulates yesterday's seminal New York Times article on what fear of crack cocaine has done to the American criminal justice system. "Unless you are a drug user or know somebody in the joint, all this may seem far removed from your life. It's not. They're taking money away from your kids' schools to pay for all this, from helping people who are mentally retarded and mentally ill, from mass transit and public housing and more parkland and . . .")
• Pataki To Propose Stiffer Sentencing Laws (The Times Union, in New York, says Governor George Pataki, the former cannabis consumer, will propose next week a ban on parole for nonviolent felons. Last year, the governor succeeded in abolishing parole for violent felons. Now, his focus is on nonviolent offenders.)
• Firing Renews Police Debate (The San Jose Mercury News says the allegation that police single out minorities for car stops has arisen again and again, in class-action lawsuits from Gloucester County, N.J., to Toledo, Ohio, to Eagle County, Colo.; in a new suit in Maryland; in judges' findings; in calls for federal legislation - and now, in the firing of New Jersey's state police superintendent, Col. Carl Williams.)
• Police Chief Fired For Race-Drugs Slur (The Irish Independent version)
• Political Fallout Over NJ State Police Col. Carl Williams (The Philadelphia Inquirer says a day after New Jersey Governor Whitman ousted Col. Carl A. Williams as the head of the state police for saying the drug trade is handled mostly by minorities, a top black leader and Democratic legislators demanded that she delay the nomination of her attorney general to the state Supreme Court until his office completes a review of the state police force.)
• Racial Attitudes In Jersey's State Police (A staff editorial in the New York Times says New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman did the right thing in dismissing Col. Carl Williams as superintendent of the state police. Williams' comments linking minorities with drug trafficking provided new insight into the possibility that racial profiling may be deeply rooted in the police agency.)
• Judge Says Ban Against Hemp Growing Doesn't Hurt Kentucky Farmers (The Lexington Herald-Leader says U.S. District Judge Karl S. Forester has dismissed a lawsuit filed last May by Kentucky farmers and the 100-member Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, seeking to overturn the state and federal ban on industrial hemp. The judge never actually examined the law and how it affects hemp. Forester ruled that the farmers do not have standing to challenge the law that prohibits growing hemp because they are not being hurt by it. And they are not being hurt by the law because nobody grows hemp.)
• Number Of Blacks In Prison Nears 1 Million (A Boston Globe article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says an analysis of Justice Department statistics by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, an Arlington, Virginia, legal reform group, shows the number of black adults behind bars will hit the 1 million mark - roughly one in 10 black men - for the first time in 2000. That represents nearly an eightfold increase from 30 years ago. "We're incarcerating an entire generation of people," said Laurie Levensen, a former federal prosecutor and associate dean at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.)
• "Effective National Drug Control Strategy" released (A news release from Common Sense for Drug Policy, in Virginia, says the Network of Reform Groups, a coalition of two dozen organizations working for more sensible drug policies and representing more than 100,000 people, will release a report tomorrow while the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, testifies before a House subcommittee on his year 2000 budget request. The report - available online - used government data and independent research to show current policies have failed to protect America's children from drug abuse and failed to reduce the availability of cocaine and heroin. The report also suggests a comprehensive alternative strategy.)
• U.S. Congressmen Want Mexico Blacklisted For Drugs (Reuters says a group of Republican congressmen introduced a resolution Tuesday to overturn President Clinton's decision last Friday to certify Mexico as a fully cooperating ally in the United States' war on some drug users. But Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia said he did not think decertification of Mexico would pass in the Senate.)
• Drug War Pretenses (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register about the annual battle over certifying Mexico as an ally in the drug war says the president will pretend that Mexico is cooperating. The Mexican government will go along with the pretense. But the annual pretense is only a small part of a larger, ongoing game of pretense and denial. The government pretends that the drug war is a good idea. It pretends that dealing with drug use as a law-enforcement problem rather than a personal or medical problem doesn't make every aspect of drug use worse rather than better. Until citizens are ready to deal with the larger game of "Let's Pretend," the annual pretense over certifying Mexico will continue.)
  Bytes: 116,000 Last updated: 3/14/99
  

  Monday, March 1, 1999:

• Public Health Emergency: Oregon health officials remain silent as record drug deaths fall hardest on the poor, minorities (A bulletin from Floyd Ferris Landrath, who exchanges needles for intravenous drug users at the Harm Reduction Zone in Portland, discusses the recent report that heroin-related deaths in Oregon have hit a new high. Local health officials are showing the usual dereliction of duty by failing to respond to a study on the health emergency caused by the war on some drug users, published by Dr. Ernest Drucker in the January-February issue of Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Public Health Service.)
• Quiet Death In Oregon (A New York Times staff editorial in the International Herald-Tribune says Oregon's unique physician-assisted suicide law seems to show that it is possible to make law and bureaucratic rules that allow people to take responsibility for themselves, without the state or anyone else abusing them. That is cause for relief.)
• Clicking For Contraband (The San Francisco Chronicle says the black market has never been more accessible. Anyone with a computer and an Internet account can find all sorts of contraband for sale on the Web: machine guns, marijuana, prescription drugs, switchblade knives, endangered species, Cuban cigars and much more. Even when law enforcers are aware of black market activity, it is not easy to take action.)
• Juvenile Jail Sought (The San Jose Mercury News says the Alameda County Board of Supervisors is proposing to spend $250 million to build a 540-bed jail for kids to relieve crowding at its juvenile hall, despite some concerns that too many children will end up locked away. Targeted to open in 2003, the jail would be second in size only to Los Angeles' facilities, which hold about 1,500 children. Alameda County probation officials say the expansion is desperately needed, in part because a rise in juvenile crime is predicted over the next several years.)
• Bill Seeks To Clarify Who Gets Drug Loot (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says the large amount of supposedly drug-tainted cash forfeited to police has prompted Sen. Wayne Dowd, D-Texarkana, to introduce Senate Bill 555. Dowd's bill seeks to resolve some of the conflict between state and federal authorities over which entity gets the booty in such seizures and how seized property is recorded. Dowd claimed that agencies are taking forfeiture cases to federal court so they can keep more of the loot. Dowd also said he had heard stories of prosecutors using forfeited vehicles for personal use. SB 555 would put an end to prosecutors' practice of releasing some people while signing forfeiture orders against their property. Dowd said no one's property should be taken without a judge's order.)
• Crack's Legacy: Second Of Two Articles: Soldiers of the Drug War Remain on Duty (The New York Times says it was the escalation of the drug war that brought military-style policing, particularly SWAT teams, into most American cities. The police said they felt outgunned and underarmored against gangs. But now that the worst violence associated with the gang and crack wars of the '80s has faded, the police presence has remained and, in many cases, escalated. The expanding role of SWAT teams across the country has been fed by the forfeiture laws that allow the police to keep much of what they take in raids. But there are no figures on the total amount of property seized by all police departments nationwide.)
• Lawyer says people's militia may be answer to combating police brutality (The Associated Press says New York City attorney Roger Wareham and a civil rights group called the December 12th Movement are planning a commmunity forum Monday evening at a Harlem church. The purpose of the meeting is to consider forming a people's militia, because local, state and federal officials have failed to address the problem of police brutality in the city.)
• N.J. Police Superintendent Is Fired (The Associated Press follows up on yesterday's news about New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman firing State Police Superintendent Col. Carl Williams on Sunday after he said in an interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark that minority groups were more likely to be involved in drug trafficking.)
• N.J. Police Leader Fired As Critics Claim Bias (The version in the Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina)
• NJ Gov. Ousts Police Superintendent (The UPI version)
• Police Chief Fired Over Remarks (The New York Times version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Emergency Last Minute Plea For Help (A bulletin from a publicist for the federal medical marijuana class action lawsuit being litigated by Lawrence Elliott Hirsch seeks donors to help as many patients as possible attend oral arguments March 3 in Philadelphia.)
• Treatment of Tourette's Syndrome With Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (The March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry features a report by four German physicians about their single-subject experiment documenting the efficacy of the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana as medicine for the neuropsychiatric disorder.)
• Dear Abby: Battle Lines In Drug War Not So Easily Drawn (Abigail Van Buren, America's venerable syndicated advice columnist, says marijuana laws are overdue for an overhaul, that she looks favorably on the use of marijuana as medicine, and recommends parents learn the facts about marijuana by reading "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts," by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D., and John P. Morgan, M.D., published by the Lindesmith Center.)
• McCaffrey Denies Rumors of Resignation (An excerpt from Semena, a magazine in Colombia, quotes General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, denying a recent Washington Times claim that he will leave soon for the American Red Cross.)
• Hemp BC's Final "Show-Cause Showdown" With the City (A news release and call to action issued by Cannabis Culture magazine, in Vancouver, British Columbia, notes a city hearing on March 8 will be the hemp store's last chance to renew its business licence. Actually, the "decision" seems to have been made already. The only thing that might make a difference is a public outcry. Hemp BC's Sister Icee has already attended four of the city council hearings. The hearings, characterized by the local media as a "kangaroo court," have been fraught with shows of bad faith, disrespect for the Supreme Court of BC, and blatant lying by the city and its lawyers. Fear-mongering police officers, instrumental in past busts against Hemp BC, have been called as witnesses to slander Icee's store. In the gallery, a disaffected public hiss and boo at the outrageous injustice of the city's machinations.)
• Censoring Pot (A letter to the editor of the National Post says the United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board recent criticism of Canadians' freedom of speech deserves the scrutiny of the International Misleading Rhetoric Control Board.)
• Mexico Drug Certification Likely (The Associated Press says congressional critics of the Clinton administration's decision to certify Mexico as an ally in the United States' war on some drug users are moving to formally challenge the president. But opponents - mostly in the House - seem unlikely to muster the necessary votes.)
• Paraguay Suggests Politics Behind U.S. Drugs Policy (Reuters says Paraguay attacked U.S. drug policy on Monday, after the United States' government decertified Paraguay Friday as an ally in its war on some drug users. Paraguay suggested political considerations unrelated to the drug war explained how the United States' government went about certifying or not certifying various nations.)
• Prescriptions Put 80,000 In Hospital: Study (According to the Age, in Melbourne, Australia, a study released today in the Journal of Quality in Clinical Practice, written by Ms Libby Roughead, a pharmacist at the school of pharmacy and medical science at the University of South Australia, More than 80,000 people are taken to hospital each year because of adverse drug reactions, between 32 per cent and 69 per cent of them avoidable. Between 2.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent of all Australian public hospital admissions were likely to be "drug-related," costing hospitals at least $900 million annually. Meanwhile, a study by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners found that 50 per cent of adverse events in general practice were drug-related. Apparently neither study estimated the number of pharmaceutical-related deaths.)
• Parents Fit Secret Cameras To Spy On Their Children (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says American parents, who 30 years ago got high and hallucinated that there was a police state in placid middle America, are resorting to Cold War espionage techniques to fight drug and alcohol abuse, bugging their children's telephones, installing secret cameras in clock radios and sending strands of hair retrieved from pillows for analysis at drug laboratories.)
  Bytes: 127,000 Last updated: 4/14/99
  

  Sunday, February 28, 1999:

• Grand jury finds shooting by Bend officer justified (The Oregonian says a Deschutes County grand jury Friday found that the Bend policeman who shot and killed 21-year-old Adam Gantenbein acted in justifiable self-defense. The family of Gantenbein, who moved to Bend from Portland several months ago, says he was a "nice guy" whose steady behavior is at odds with police accounts of the incident. Adam's father, Calvin Gantenbein, a former Portland Police officer, said that he and another retired Portland police officer had interviewed people who witnessed the shooting. What those witnesses said "does not match what the police were saying," he said in an interview Saturday. They intend to conduct their own investigation. "The family questions why the police department and the DA's office find it necessary to violate Oregon public records law," he said.)
• Thurston County wraps up case against marijuana advocate (The Associated Press says Gideon Israel is supposed to report to the Thurston County Jail on Monday to begin serving a nine-month sentence for conspiracy to deliver and manufacture marijuana and possession with intent to deliver LSD and psilocybin mushrooms. Israel is the former proprietor of Rainbow Valley, 42 acres on the Black River south of Littlerock, where he lived and held rock concerts for 12 years. The People's Land Trust has filed a lawsuit against the county task force and the King County Sheriff's Office, seeking to save Rainbow Valley from forfeiture.)
• Showdown Looms On California Medical Pot Law (An editorial in the Auburn Journal by the newspaper's city editor, Pat McCartney, says this week, two high-profile cases in Placer County will test California's medical marijuana law. On Monday, Rocklin dentist Michael Baldwin and his wife Georgia will return to court in Auburn to answer felony cultivation charges. The next day, online magazine publisher Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, will attend a preliminary hearing before Superior Court Judge James D. Garbolino, seeking the return of some of the marijuana they grew. All we need is some compassion to implement Proposition 215. In Steve Kubby's case, it's a matter of life or death.)
• Rational Talk On Pot A Rare Event (Jim Wasserman, a columnist for the Fresno Bee, says marijuana is an old cause that never quite dies. Although the government blows ever more money trying to eradicate it and imprisons ever more citizens trying to stop it, people will still drift into a Fresno art gallery on a Thursday night to talk about it. But outside, it's a law-and-order world, where corporations make drug testing the newest solution and elected officials make illegal drugs impossible to talk about rationally. You wouldn't even know medical marijuana is legal locally.)
• War On Drugs Is Not Right (A letter to the editor of the Log Cabin Democrat, in Arkansas, says reform of medical marijuana laws has been supported by the DEA's own administrative law judge, Francis L. Young, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York City Bar Association and the National Research Council of the National Academy of Science.)
• Is There A Ventura In Kentucky's Future? (Robert T. Garrett, a columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, says Annie Shimp is the stuff of nightmares, or at least insomnia, for Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton. She's a swing voter who is highly disgruntled with both major political parties. She might vote for a Jesse Ventura-type candidate, if there were an option comparable to the new Minnesota governor on this year's ballot. Shimp, 66, of Prospect, called the newspaper the other day to find out how to help Gatewood Galbraith obtain the 5,000 signatures he needs to qualify this fall as an independent candidate for governor. She thinks his idea of restoring hemp cultivation on Kentucky farms is a good one.)
• Crack's Legacy: First of Two Articles - The War on Drugs Retreats, Still Taking Prisoners (The New York Times notes the worst legacy of the crack cocaine scare the newspaper took the lead in hyping in 1986 has been the harsh laws passed by Congress that have increased the number of incarcerated drug offenders by more than 400 percent, shifted money from schools to prisons and transformed police work, hospitals, parental rights, and courts. Marijuana was never mentioned in the floor speeches in Congress when the drug laws were rewritten in 1986, but the new penalties for crack were accompanied by harsher sentences for most "drugs." Ten years later, more people were sentenced under the federal system for marijuana than for any other substance. What the prison boom has not done, however, is reduce illicit drug use. The most recent National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, for 1997, estimated about 14 million people had used an illegal drug in the last month, a number barely changed since 1988. Of those, 600,000 had smoked crack, unchanged since 1988. In Congress, which enacted the 1986 drug laws without a single hearing, another major legacy has been an inability for more than a decade to engage in policy discussions about prisons and drugs.)
• N.J. Police Superintendent Is Fired (The Associated Press says New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman fired State Police Superintendent Col. Carl Williams on Sunday after he said in an interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark that minority groups were more likely to be involved in drug trafficking.)
• Mom Mourns Son Lost To Mean Streets (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, travels to Calgary to interview the grieving mother of 21-year-old Allister Marselje, who died trying to navigate safely through the seamy underbelly of the marijuana culture in Vancouver created by prohibition. Allister's beaten body was discovered last December in a dumpster behind the Cross Town Traffic Cafe, a smoke-easy off Vancouver's West Hastings Street where Marselje earned a living weighing out gram bags. Police believe he was the victim of a struggle for power and money in the city's lucrative, world-famous marijuana underworld, killed because he was believed to have information about a contract on the life of a major player in the cafe's business. The contract may not even have existed. Charged with Allister's murder is Alhaj Hadani, 28; Ross Living, 22, and Jamie Yochlowitz, 25. All three will appear in court tomorrow to set a trial date.)
• Re: Mom Mourns Son Lost To Mean Streets (A letter sent to the editor of the Vancouver Province says prohibition, not marijuana, killed Allister Marselje. A 1998 study by the U.S. National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found the number of state inmates incarcerated for violent crime who were under the influence of cannabis alone at the time of their offense was too small to be recorded statistically. The report found 21 percent of state inmates incarcerated for violent crime were under the influence of alcohol alone when they committed their crime. Only 3 percent were under the influence of cocaine and 1 percent were under the influence of heroin alone.)
• Judge Sentenced For Laundering Drug Cash (The Chicago Tribune version of Friday's news about Robert Flahiff, the Quebec Superior Court judge who is free on bail while appealing a penalty of 3 years in prison for laundering more than $1 million in drug money between 1989 and 1991, while he was still a lawyer)
• Clinton Certifies Mexico As Full Partner In Drug War, Despite Reports Of Corruption (The Buffalo News, in New York, says President Clinton on Friday gave his stamp of approval to Mexico as a fully cooperating ally in the "crusade against drugs," despite testimony from U.S. law enforcement officials that illegal-substance syndicates south of the border had gained enormous power.)
• A Forgiving Relationship (An editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune ponders President Clinton's whirlwind summit in Merida this month with Mexican President Zedillo. Mexico detests the certification process and the annual criticism it foments from its overbearing neighbor to the north. It is American drug consumption that provides the rich incentives for narco-criminals, whose work undermines law and order in Mexico. "We feel that it's a unilateral, subjective and unfair process," said Mexico's former ambassador to the United States, Jesus Silva-Herzog. "It's difficult for us to understand how is it possible that the largest consumer of drugs in the world becomes the judge." There is a vast disparity between living standards in Mexico, a nation of 95 million people with an average per capita income of $4,400 per year, and the United States, where, with 250 million people, per capita income averages seven times that.)
• Sinaloa: Mexico's Capital Of Drug Crime (The San Francisco Examiner rewrites a recent Los Angeles Times article about the social disintegration in the Mexican state caused by prohibition in America.)
• Mexico Holds Former Police Chief For Drugs - Reports (According to Reuters, El Universal newspaper and Reforma daily said Rodolfo Leon Aragon, the former head of Mexico's equivalent of the FBI, the federal judicial police, was arrested Friday in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on charges of taking up to $1 million in bribes from the Juarez drug cartel. Leon Aragon's detention meant police had carried out six of the just-under-40 arrest warrants issued last weekend in connection with the drugs trade and money-laundering operations in the state of Quintana Roo.)
• Pilots Face Tough New Breath Tests (The Mail on Sunday says Britain's aviation minister, Glenda Jackson, is reacting to fears that pilots are flouting the ban on consuming alcohol 48 hours before flying by unilaterally requiring pilots to submit to breath tests. Foreign pilots are the main target. Refusal to take the tests will result in an immediate ban from flying into or out of UK airports.)
• Anger as police take pupils to cannabis cafes (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says certain parents and teacher groups are angry about a plan to take 60 schoolchildren to visit cannabis cafes in Amsterdam's red light district as part of a drugs education project run by police. Police believe the teenagers need to have a rounded picture of drug-taking, even if that means taking them to places where drugs are legal and taken freely. A spokesman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations said: "There is a danger that in giving children too much information about drugs, we encourage them to experiment.")
  Bytes: 112,000 Last updated: 3/14/99
  

  Saturday, February 27, 1999:

• State sees more neglected children, many left to wander (The Oregonian prints a classic piece promoting the war on some drug-using parents, alleging that throughout Oregon, "Parents who can't hear their children crying through a fog of drugs or alcohol" leave "Toddlers wandering alone in busy parking lots. Children living in homes full of garbage, rats and lice." The newspaper avoids discussing one aspect of the impossible task faced by caseworkers, who give the highest priority to removing children from the homes of parents who use cannabis or other illegal substances, failing to note the actual numbers involved or the fact that the vast majority of parents who use alcohol or other drugs do so responsibly.)
• Moose reiterates volunteer policies (The Oregonian says Portland Police Chief Charles Moose alerted staff Friday that background investigations must be carried out on all civilian volunteers. Moose's memo comes in the wake of the arrest for bank robbery of Louie Lira Jr., a former gang outreach worker and police volunteer who turned out to have re-entered the country illegally after being expelled for robbery and drug convictions in California.)
• Smokers responsible for plight (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian raises an issue the newspaper ignored in its sympathetic article about the $110 million lawsuit against the tobacco company, Philip Morris, which went to trial last week in Portland. Namely, how the family of Jesse Williams, a man who smoked Marlboros for 42 years, apparently until he died, in 1997, can get around the issue of personal responsibility as defined by tort law.)
• No space: Jail sends 19 home (The Herald, in Everett, Washington, says the Will County jail has exceeded its 318-bed limit by more than 100 prisoners. Will County Executive Chuck Adelman said, "When I first came on the county board, law enforcement accounted for a third of the budget. Now it accounts for about three-quarters. . . . We've got some tough decisions in the next few years." Ending the war on some drug users apparently hasn't occurred to anyone, however.)
• Renegade Jurors (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Laura Kriho corrects the newspaper's recent article about jury nullification, noting her conviction in Colorado was for an unprecedented crime - sitting on a jury and not reading the mind of a prosecutor and not volunteering information that wasn't asked.)
• DEA Is Sued Over Border Shooting (The Associated Press says the family of Abecnego Monje Ortiz, an unarmed 18-year-old Mexican man shot in the back and paralyzed last month by Wilbur Honeycutt, a drug task force officer stationed in Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border, is seeking $25 million from the Drug Enforcement Administration.)
• Ex-tobacco executive charged in smuggling scheme (The Associated Press says Leslie Thompson, a former R.J. Reynolds marketing executive, was arrested this week in Detroit on money laundering charges for allegedly helping smugglers scheme to sell nearly $700 million worth of cigarettes on the Canadian black market. Two dozen people have been convicted in the case and are awaiting sentencing. In December, Northern Brands International, an R.J. Reynolds subsidiary, admitted helping the smuggling ring and paid $15 million in fines and forfeitures.)
• Veteran Bensenville Police Officer Is Accused Of Evidence-Tampering (The Chicago Tribune says William Wassman, a 14-year veteran of the police department in Bensenville, Illinois, was charged Friday with switching evidence that eventually was used to convict an unnamed defendant in a 1995 cocaine possession case. Steps are being taken to vacate the conviction, according to Joseph Birkett, a DuPage County state's attorney.)
• Agitation for softening harsh drug statutes more vocal than ever (The Associated Press says vocal opposition to New York state's mandatory minimum Rockefeller Drug Laws has never been louder. Calls for reform from the chief judge of the state's highest court, Judith Kaye, and the state's newly elected attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, have been seconded by Human Rights Watch and a group that includes Warren Anderson, Douglas Barclay and John Dunne, three former Republican state senators who voted in favor of the laws when they were first passed 25 years ago.)
• The Cost Of Banning Dope (Syndicated columnist William F. Buckley writes in the New York Post about the pretrial death sentence being inflicted by the federal government on medical marijuana defendant Peter McWilliams in California. In the heated polemical traffic on the McWilliams case one letter stands out, from ex NORML director Richard Cowan: "One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.")
• AIDS Epidemic Hitting African-Americans The Hardest (The Baltimore Sun covers the first medical conference on AIDS among black Americans, where about 1,000 health care providers and activists gathered in Washington, D.C. AIDS in the United States is evolving from a disease that once mostly affected white homosexuals into one largely of poor blacks, often infected from dirty drug needles or heterosexual encounters. Blacks make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population but a devastating 45 percent of new AIDS cases, receive poorer care than whites and die faster. Prisons are one cause of the disproportionate spread of AIDS to black women. Disproportionate allocation of medical resources outside black communities is another.)
• Health Workers Fight An AIDS Racial Divide (A lengthier version in the Austin American-Statesman identifies the source as Cox Interactive Media.)
• Details Surface Of Deputy's Drug Arrest (The Charlotte Observer says Sgt. Bryant Reginald Hudson, a sheriff's deputy in Sumter County, North Carolina, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly selling cocaine to pay for his sick child's medical expenses.)
• McCaffrey Wants Mexico Certification (The Associated Press says the Clinton administration was expected to announce today that it would certify Mexico as a fully cooperating ally in the United States' war on some drug users. The White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, warned drug warriors in Congress that refusing to certify Mexico would send an unwise and wrongheaded political message.)
• Many Mexicans See Little Use For Certification (Reuters says there is a growing realization among all classes that the United States' annual certification ritual is not a viable policy with regard to Mexico. One thing is for sure. Next year's certification exercise, which will coincide with the start of a presidential election campaign, will be far more stormy. If the United States were to take the plunge and decertify Mexico, it could play straight into the hands of Mexican politicians with a nationalist agenda, analysts said.)
• Despite Flood Of Drugs, U.S. Says Mexico Is Staunch Ally (According to the Wilmington Morning Star, in North Carolina, President Clinton certified Mexico and Colombia Friday as fully cooperative allies in the United States' war on some drug users, even though most "hard drugs" flooding the United States come from those countries.)
• Mexico, Colombia Certified As Anti-Drug Allies (The New York Times version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Clinton OKs Mexico's Effort At Fighting Drugs (The Des Moines Register version)
• Clinton Praises Mexico As He Certifies It As Partner In Drug War (The Associated Press version in the Orange County Register)
• U.S. Certifies Mexico As Drug War Ally (The Cox Interactive Media version in the Austin American-Statesman)
• Mexico Grumpy But Pleased With Drug Certification (An Associated Press article in the San Diego Union Tribune quotes an undersecretary at the Foreign Secretariat saying Mexico was happy "that an obstacle has not been imposed to cooperation." "It should be us who certify the United States," said Vicente Yanez, the president of the National Chamber of Manufacturing Industries.)
• Quebec Judge Sentenced To 3 Years (The Associated Press version of yesterday's news about Robert Flahiff, a Quebec Superior Court judge, remaining free on bail pending his appeal of a three-year sentence for laundering more than $1 million in drug money while he was still a lawyer)
• Are cannabis and psychosis linked? (The Lancet, in Britain, continues its unscientific revisionism on cannabis issues, asking an epidemiological question and finding an Australian drug warrior to provide a subjective answer that ignores what little epidemiological evidence exists. Wayne Hall, executive director of National Drug and Alcohol Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, makes the classic error of looking only at the schizophrenia patients for whom cannabis was not effective. Using the same logic and methodology, one could blame Thorazine for causing or exacerbating psychosis by studying only those whom it didn't help. And both Hall and the Lancet examine the issue without context or degree, as if it hadn't been established long ago that alcohol use is much more prevalently associated with psychosis.)
• Start Heroin Trials, Urges Australian Politician (The Lancet says Jeff Kennett, the premier of Victoria, where heroin-related deaths outnumber traffic fatalities so far this year, has lent his support to national heroin maintenance trials.)
• Acne and Ecstasy - Spots might show that drugs are destroying your liver (In a monument to reductionist thinking, New Scientist, in Britain, uses the cases of two German patients exposed to a street drug supposed to be MDMA to assert that a rash that looks like acne may identify people who risk suffering severe side effects from ecstasy. Not mentioned - the same sort of rash is a not uncommon side effect of some antidepressants. As well as, one assumes, whatever contaminants tainted the street drugs used by the two German patients.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 8 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
  Bytes: 100,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, February 26, 1999:

• Cigarette sales go down in Oregon (According to the Associated Press, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that local sales of cigarettes decreased 11.3 percent from 1996 to 1998, despite a 2.7 percent increase in Oregon's population. The CDC says a tax increase of 30 cents to 68 cents a pack, passed by voters in November 1996, contributed to a 6.3 percent decline in cigarette sales. However, AP doesn't mention the latest state figures showing an increase in tobacco consumption among 11th-graders, or the extent to which cigarette consumers may be boycotting the formal market.)
• Group criticizes Oregon's assisted-suicide report (The Associated Press says Americans for Integrity in Palliative Care, a group opposed to physician-assisted suicide that lists former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop among the nine doctors and two lawyers who founded it late last year, criticized an Oregon state report on the Death With Dignity Act Thursday, saying the study's positive conclusions are unfounded. The group said, for example, that just because patients didn't convey cost concerns to their doctors didn't mean that the patients weren't worried about their pocketbooks.)
• Prison mistakenly feeds TV reporter a false story (The Associated Press says a public information officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton taking part in a drill caused a false story to be broadcast by KATU, Portland's ABC affiliate.)
• U.S. to Fight Man's Plea to Use Medicinal Marijuana (The Los Angeles Times describes the plight of Peter McWilliams, the best-selling author, AIDS patient and medical-marijuana activist in Los Angeles who is being killed by the federal government. Prosecutors are preventing him from using marijuana while he awaits trial on marijuana cultivation charges, and will fight his motion for mercy at a pretrial hearing today.)
• War Against Medical Marijuana Causes Misery (A letter to the editor of USA Today from Peter McWilliams scorns the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, for abandoning the field while people are still dying from his mistakes.)
• Ann Arbor Hash Bash Days Numbered (UPI says state senators Mike Rogers and Beverly Hammerstrom have introduced a bill intended to end Ann Arbor's annual "hash bash" at the University of Michigan by prohibiting local governments from instituting lower drug penalties than the state imposes. Currently, possesssion of marijuana in Ann Arbor carries a $25 fine while state law mandates a $100 fine and 90 days in jail. A similar proposal over drug penalties was introduced in Michigan in 1998, but got stymied in the Democratically controlled House.)
• Hash Bash Organizer Fires Back At Critics (According to the Ann Arbor News, James Millard, the organizer of this year's Hash Bash, said an effort by Michigan legislators to toughen up Ann Arbor's relatively lenient marijuana ordinance in an effort to stop young people from coming to Ann Arbor the first Saturday in April only provided publicity for the event. "We can drop all our advertising money" for the Hash Bash because of the news coverage, Millard said.)
• GOP Lawmaker Seeks To Reform Drug Sentencing (The Times Union, in New York, says state senator John DeFrancisco, a conservative from Syracuse, announced Friday he was introducing a bill to reform the state's Rockefeller laws. DeFrancisco's bill would allow more lenient prison sentences for non-violent, low-level drug dealers by doubling the quantity of drugs that would have to be sold or possessed before the tougher terms kicked in.)
• New York Mayor Tilts To Totalitarianism (New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, syndicated in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani likes to push people around. His latest targets are people suspected of driving drunk. The cops have been given the power to seize their vehicles on the spot. Why bother with an annoyance like due process? Hizzoner makes the rules. And he says even if the drivers are acquitted they may not get their cars back. Richard Emery, a local attorney, says "The problem is that Giuliani has a vision of what is essentially an unconstitutional society. He views privacy and the rights of innocent citizens as a far lower value than law enforcement's domination of not only the streets, but also private areas of people's lives. He's doing it for what he believes are good reasons. He wants a civilized society. One understands his vision. It's not new. But it's an idealistic, totalitarian vision that tramples on everything a free society stands for.")
• Accountability Comes With Aid (An op-ed by Indiana U.S. Representative Mark Souder in the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, defends the Higher Education Act's ban on student loans to pot smokers. "There are those organizations, though, who work to create controversy and twist common sense principles in order to advance their own agendas. Take the Drug Reform Coordination Network, for example. My office has received calls from college newspapers from all over the country who have been fed propaganda by this group. If their website is any indication - the address includes the manifesto, 'stopthedrugwar' - their primary goal can only be the legalization of drugs.")
• Blacks Getting AIDS At Record Rates (The Associated Press says about 1,000 health care providers and activists gathered Thursday in Washington, D.C., for the first medical conference on AIDS among black Americans - almost 20 years into the AIDS epidemic. AIDS in the United States is evolving from a disease that once affected mostly white homosexuals into one largely affecting poor blacks, infected from dirty drug needles or heterosexual encounters. Blacks make up 12 percent of the U.S. population but a devastating 45 percent of new AIDS cases. AIDS is the leading killer of blacks between 25 to 44. Blacks receive poorer care than whites and die faster. One in 50 black men and one in 160 black women are estimated to be infected.)
• Gains Cited In Drug War (The Associated Press says the U.S. State Department today released a massive 733-page annual report on the illicit drug trade worldwide. The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report claims the United States and allied countries made "solid gains" in 1998, citing progress in crop reduction and drug interdiction. Separately, President Clinton was issuing his assessment of the counterdrug performance of 28 countries.)
• Violence plagues city's top pot spot (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, says the badly beaten body of Allister Irvine Marselje, 21, who made a living by weighing, bagging and delivering one-gram bags of marijuana to sellers at the Cross Town Traffic Cafe at 314 W. Hastings St., was found Dec. 5 in a downtown Vancouver dumpster. Mark Smith, a friend of Marselje's and a pot dealer who now runs a private smoking club off a hallway in the cafe, said last year's shift of power to "ruthless gangsters" dramatically altered the culture in the area.)
• Clinton OKs Mexico Antidrug Efforts (The Associated Press says that, as expected, the U.S. president on Friday certified Mexico as a fully cooperating ally in America's war on some drug users, even though seizures of illegal drugs along the border decreased in the past year. At the time, Colombia was certified and Haiti was decertified with a national interest waiver, as were Cambodia, Nigeria and Paraguay. Afghanistan and Burma were decertified with no national interest waiver. All told, 22 countries were certified as fully cooperative with American counterdrug efforts. Meanwhile, a 733-page State Department study titled "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report" and released simultaneously with the certification announcement said Mexico continues to be the primary route for northbound South American cocaine and is a major source of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine.)
• Mexico, Colombia Drug Efforts Approved (The UPI version)
• Mexico Engaged In War Vs Drugs, McCaffrey Says (According to a different Associated Press article in the Orange County Register, the White House drug czar on Thursday told the House Government Reform Committee's panel on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources, that it would be a mistake for the U.S. government to decertify Mexico as an ally in the United States' war on some drug users.)
• Judge gets three years in prison for laundering drug money (A Canadian Press article in the Ottawa Citizen says lawyers for Justice Robert Flahiff of Quebec Superior Court, who was found guilty in January of laundering $1.7 million while he was still a lawyer, immediately filed an appeal, paving the way for Flahiff's possible release later Friday.)
• Paraguay angry with US decertification in drug war (The Associated Press notes Paraguay reacted sarcastically Friday to the U.S. decision to decertify it as an ally in its war on some drug users, saying it understood the concerns of a nation with such a huge appetite for controlled substances. Paraguay's $10 billion official economy is "dwarfed" by its black market. One study estimated the revenue generated just from smuggling at $12 billion a year.)
• Expert Rejects Zero Tolerance Stand (According to the Age, in Australia, Mr John Fogarty, who recently retired from the Family Court and is now a board member of Defence for Children International, a United Nations-affiliated child-welfare group, yesterday condemned the zero-tolerance heroin strategy that the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, is considering. "The idea that deep-seated social and personal issues of young persons leading to drug use can be miraculously overcome by prosecuting and imprisoning is nonsense. It is akin to a reversion to the penal attitude of 200 years ago at the beginning of the establishment of our society," Mr Fogarty said.)
• Dutch Minister Takes High Tone Over Marijuana Jobs (According to Reuters, the Netherlands' social affairs minister, Klaas de Vries, said this week he was astonished at a decision by officials in Leeuwarden to subsidise the work experience of four unemployed people by having them sell marijuana in coffee shops. Municipal officials, citing the law, don't see what the fuss is about.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 80 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - UN drug control board laments reform, urges member nations to tow the drug war line; Iran says executing drug smugglers "unsuitable solution" - but US legislators want to try it here; DEA chief Constantine rips US drug war efforts, bemoans Mexican situation; Jesse "the Governor" Ventura on the drug war; Sen. McCain seeks radical cutbacks in methadone maintenance; California officials comment on medical marijuana; South Carolina mulls making sale of urine a felony offense; American Farm Bureau reverses position on hemp at convention; Canada: terminally ill man will continue to smoke marijuana despite conviction; Author of "Drug Crazy" lecturing in Dallas March 2nd; and an editorial: Mr. Ventura comes to Washington)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 87 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Black leaders and public health advocates criticize misinformation by drug czar. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - DEA chief: drug fight lacks desire; Customs admits its own drug corruption; Border patrol adds high-tech tools to its arsenal; Editorial: ACLU is off base on city drug tests; Bad hair days; Testing the drug test labs; and, Drunken drivers' cars to be seized at arrests. Articles about Mexican Drug Policy include - Mexico greets Clinton like an old friend; Mexico's troubadours turn from amor to drugs; and, Minuet in Mexico. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Authorities release account of shooting, say marijuana found in house; Shaking this habit will be tough; Texas inmates tell US judge of abuses; and, The Nazi comparison. Articles about Medical Marijuana include - The politics of pot: a government in denial; AIDS groups plead for 'medical marijuana'; and, Kubbys reassure Libertarians. International News articles include - MP's marijuana motion gathering steam; Addicts fuel 7 bil. Industry; And, Freeh advice on drugs: inject money and political will. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net provides a Happy99.exe Virus Explanation and Fix; and notes the Kubby Web Site has been updated. The Tip of the Week points to some Windows "Tune Up" Hints. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Carlyle.)
  Bytes: 153,000 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Thursday, February 25, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (U.N. calls for medical marijuana research, maintains hardline on recreational use; Body Shop owner sends White House hemp, congratulations; South Dakota governor proposes mandatory jail time for pot offenses; South Carolina mulls making sale of urine a felony offense)
• Trial begins in dispute over responsibility in smoker's death (The Associated Press says a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury on Wednesday heard opening statements in a lawsuit brought by the family of Jesse D. Williams of Portland, a lifetime cigarette smoker and lung cancer fatality whose survivors are seeking $110 million in damages from Philip Morris. His family says Philip Morris Inc. duped Williams into thinking smoking wasn't harmful. The cigarette company says Williams knew the health risks. Legal experts say the trial's outcome could have national significance, coming as it does after a San Francisco jury's groundbreaking award earlier this month of $51.5 million to a former smoker with inoperable lung cancer.)
• AG Seeks Pot Reclassification (Yahoo says California Attorney General Bill Lockyer will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to ask the federal government to re-classify marijuana as a prescription drug.)
• Bay Area Coalition for Alternatives to the War on Drugs sponsors workshop Friday in Oakland (The Oakland Tribune publicizes a public meeting that will focus on such topics as "Drugs and the CIA," featuring former Los Angeles police narcotics officer Michael Ruppert. Other topics include the courts, youth drug prevention, and jury nullification.)
• Government: State voters approved the use of medical marijuana. The feds should honor that. (An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by California state senator John Vasconcellos says state and federal governments have colluded to thwart the will of voters who passed Proposition 215 in California. Together, they closed most of the providers of medical marijuana in California, threw several legitimate caregivers in jail and currently are preventing a seriously sick defendant - author Peter McWilliams, now in failing health as a result - from using medical cannabis. A tidal wave of support for medicinal marijuana has begun in the Western United States. The future of many federal officials will depend, in large part, on whether they ride that wave into a compassionate future or, standing in the way, are rendered irrelevant by the voters.)
• Peter McWilliams Hearing 3:30 p.m. Friday in Los Angeles (The best-selling author, medical-marijuana patient/activist and federal defendant invites Southern California activists to attend his court hearing tomorrow, where he will seek permission to resume using cannabis to combat AIDS.)
• Is The Party Over For The Hash Bash? (The Detroit News says Republican state senators Beverly Hammerstrom and Mike Rogers, who represent districts bordering Ann Arbor, have co-sponsored a bill in the Michigan legislature that would prohibit local communities from enacting drug ordinances with penalties less severe than state law. The bill was introduced about a month before the 28th annual Hash Bash, scheduled for the first Saturday of April. Ann Arbor levies a $25 fine for marijuana possession. It's the only city that deviates from the state law, which calls for a $100 fine and up to 90 days in jail.)
• Discrimination Plagues Act (An op-ed in the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, by Adam J. Smith of the Drug Reform Coordination Network points out the racial and social iniquities to be fostered by the Higher Education Act's ban on aid to students convicted of possessing marijuana or other controlled substances.)
• Coalition Protests Government's Hard-Line Drug Policies (According to the Los Angeles Times, more than two dozen scholars and activists joined in Washington, D.C., to protest the federal government's anti-drug strategy, and accused the White House of spreading misinformation. The campaign, organized by the Virginia-based nonprofit group Common Sense for Drug Policy, issued a letter to the White House drug czar, saying participants were "deeply troubled" by Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey's "inaccurate and misleading statements" in opposition to needle exchange programs and medicinal marijuana, among other issues.)
• DEA: Mexican Cartels Penetrate U.S. (The Associated Press says Thomas Constantine of the Drug Enforcement Administration reported Wednesday to a Senate panel that monitors illegal-drug trafficking that the leaders of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organization, the Arellano-Felix group, appear to be immune from any law enforcement effort. Constantine said corruption in Mexican law enforcement has no parallel with anything he has seen in 39 years of police work. The DEA chief sidestepped a question from Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., as to whether Mexico should be certified as an ally in the United States' war on some drug users. But, he said, there has been a dramatic increase over the past five years in the "penetration" of the United States by Mexican illegal-drug importers.)
• D.E.A. Chief Warns Senate On Traffickers In Mexico (The New York Times version)
• Mexico Rails At U.S. Drug Cop's Finger-Pointing (According to Reuters, Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida said DEA director Thomas Constantine was "totally wrong" to hold Mexican crime syndicates responsible for a large chunk of the drug distribution, violence and crime north of the border. Constantine told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that Mexican illegal-drug traffickers had more money and firepower today in the United States than the Mafia ever did in its heyday.)
• Don't Advocate A Trial, Advisers Told (According to the Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard's hand-picked advisory body on drugs has been told the Government will never support a heroin-maintenance trial and is not interested in receiving contrary advice, even though up to 12 of the 15 council members favour the option.)
• PM Puts Drugs On Agenda (The Age, in Melbourne, says Australian Prime Minister John Howard will try to enlist the support of state and territory leaders for his war on drugs by offering more money for anti-drug education and rehabilitation programs when he meets the premiers on April 9.)
• This Is A Potty Situation, Surely? (An op-ed in the Independent, in Britain, by Sue Arnold, a medical marijuana patient, responds to the sentencing yesterday of Eric Mann, a Welsh grandfather, to a year in prison for growing cannabis to relieve his arthritis. At least this way he'll be guaranteed a regular supply without having to grow his own. Everyone knows that getting hold of pot in prison is easier than growing it organically oneself on the outside, as Mann did. "When I talked about the Welsh Connection to my friend Lester Grinspoon yesterday, his chief concern was that even now Mr Mann was being prescribed some really dangerous drug to relieve his arthritic symptoms by well-meaning prison authorities - aspirin for instance.")
  Bytes: 68,800 Last updated: 4/14/99
  

  Wednesday, February 24, 1999:

• Crime, arrest rates down in Oregon (The Associated Press says the latest statistics from the Oregon Law Enforcement Data System indicate crime in Oregon dropped 1.2 percent in the first six months of 1998. Violent crimes declined 0.6 percent, property crimes were down 0.8 percent and "behavioral crimes," including child abuse, drunken driving and illegal gambling, were down 2 percent. However, crime increased in 20 of the state's 36 counties - 0.4 percent in Clackamas County, 1.8 percent in Lane County, 3.1 percent in Marion County and 2.1 percent in Washington County. In Portland it dropped 13.7 percent.)
• Lockyer Plans D.C. Trip To Talk Changes In Pot Laws (According to the San Jose Mercury News, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Tuesday he and attorneys general from other West Coast states with medical marijuana laws will meet next month with federal officials to discuss reclassifying marijuana as a drug that can be prescribed by physicians.)
• Ex-Corona Del Mar High Student Sues To Bar 'Zero Tolerance' (The Orange County Register says Ryan Huntsman, 19, a student at Loyola Marymount University who last year successfully fought the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's "zero tolerance" policy, filed a lawsuit Monday in Orange County Superior Court, seeking to have zero-tolerance policies declared unconstitutional on the grounds that they violate due process and are cruel and unusual punishment.)
• Indiana News Briefs (UPI notes Marion County prosecutor Scott Newman says his office is going to start forfeiting houses where "drugs" are sold.)
• Ex-Teacher Admits Growing Marijuana (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says Paul Langhoff Soik, who formerly taught computer science at Oak Creek High School, faces up to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of keeping a drug house and a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.)
• Disabled Man Faces Another Drug Charge (The Associated Press says Daniel Asbury of Oregon, Ohio, a quadriplegic who was convicted three years ago of growing marijuana in his backyard for medicinal purposes, has been charged with felony drug possession after he allegedly received three pounds of marijuana in the mail.)
• We Ended Vietnam War 26 Years Ago; We Also Can Call Off The War On Drugs (A letter to the editor of USA Today by Gene Tinelli, an addiction psychiatrist at the State University of New York in Syracuse, says if you include all psychoactive drugs - alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, performance-enhancing substances and others - the vast majority of Americans use psychoactive drugs. We can't defeat them because they are us. We have been here before. Thirty years ago, the Vietnam conflict was sucking us dry, and we apparently were addicted to that horrible war. How did it end? Eventually, when the leaders of the war and media realized that our country was unwilling and unable to win the battle, we just said "no" to the war.)
• DUI Technician Arrested On Drug Charges (UPI says Michael Albaladejo, a technician for Orange County, Florida, who processed motorists suspected of driving under the influence, was arrested after he allegedly purchased three grams each of powder cocaine and crack cocaine from an undercover deputy sheriff.)
• British MPs Show Some Support For Cannabis Bill (Reuters says the bill has virtually no chance of becoming law, but British members of parliament on Wednesday allowed Paul Flynn of the Labour Party to introduce legislation in Parliament that would make it legal for doctors to prescribe the herb. Flynn pointed out that earlier this week a British pensioner, Eric Mann, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for growing cannabis to relieve his chronic pain.)
• Plea For Cannabis On Prescription (The version in Britain's Independent)
• U.N. Drug Board Urges Research on Marijuana as Medicine (The New York Times version of yesterday's news about the International Drug Control Board in Vienna recommending that governments conduct impartial scientific research into the herb's benefits. "The increasingly politicized battle over cannabis must end, since it has had a negative effect on attitudes toward drug abuse, particularly from young people," said Dr. Hamid Ghodse, an Iranian-born psychiatrist working in Britain and speaking without benefit of any evidence.)
  Bytes: 33,200 Last updated: 3/13/99
  

  Tuesday, February 23, 1999:

• Pot Law Backer Shuns Legislative Tinkering (According to the Associated Press, Dr. Rob Killian of Seattle, who sponsored Washington's voter-approved law legalizing the medical use of marijuana, said Monday he's wary of legislative attempts to "clarify" the measure. But state prosecutors are backing Senate Bill 5771, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, which would require doctors to notify the state every time they "advise patients to try marijuana" and allow employers to fire patients if they deemed marijuana smoking to pose a safety risk or to leave a patient "too stoned to work." Senate Bill 5704, on the other hand, a supposedly milder bill sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, would prescribe the same amount of medicine for all patients, nullifying the "60 day supply" clause.)
• Medical Marijuana Sponsors Blast Senate Attempt to Gut I-692 (A press release from Timothy W. Killian, the campaign manager for Initiative 692, the Washington state medical marijuana ballot measure approved by voters in November, criticizes SB 5771, proposed legislation that would allow police to inspect patients' medical records, require physicians to report to the state every time they advised a patient about the medical use of marijuana, and allow employers to fire workers who used medical marijuana with their doctors' approval.)
• Court Refuses to Return Kubbys' Office Equipment (A list subscriber forwards a message from a friend of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor. Steve and Michele Kubby attended their first preliminary hearing Monday at the Tahoe City Justice Court regarding their bust for marijuana cultivation. Although it's been over a month now and no evidence of sales has been shown, Judge James Garbolina ruled that the Kubbys should still be denied the use of their office equipment and the tools they need to manage their magazine, 'Alpine World.' As a result, the Kubbys have been forced into bankruptcy and presented a letter to Judge Garbolina from their bankruptcy attorney directly blaming the raid on the Kubbys for their financial difficulties. Attorneys for the Kubbys continue to demand the return of their medical marijuana and have submitted two letters from physicians which argue that Steve may die if denied medical marijuana.)
• Montana's Industrial Hemp Resolution (A list subscriber posts the text of HR 0002, a resolution passed 95-4 today by the Montana House of Representatives, which asks the federal government to repeal restrictions on industrial hemp production.)
• Drug, Alcohol Abuse Up Among Teens (UPI says a survey of 158,324 students in grades seven through 12 released by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse shows more than a third said they had used "drugs" at some point in their lives, and 72 percent had used alcohol - suggesting the news service and about 40 percent of Texas secondary school students don't realize alcohol is a drug. About 10 percent of secondary students said they had attended class while drunk during the past year, while 13 percent said they had attended class high on marijuana. Seventh, eighth and ninth graders showed modest declines in marijuana use.)
• Marijuana Has Therapeutic Uses (An op-ed in the Kansas City Star by Paul Armentano of NORML says the best established medical use of smoked marijuana is as an anti-nauseant for cancer chemotherapy. During the 1980s, researchers in six different state-sponsored clinical studies involving nearly 1,000 patients determined smoked marijuana to be an effective anti-emetic.)
• Drug War Lacks Honesty and Integrity in its Leadership (Michael Levine, the former DEA agent who left the agency in disgust and now hosts the "The Expert Witness Radio Show" in New York, responds to a recent statement by DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine in USA Today, that the nation lacks the will and resources to fight the drug war. What he should have said is that we lack the honesty and integrity in both our leadership and the so-called Fourth Estate. Our "watch dog" media has turned out to be more of a pig for taking a $2 billion bribe from the White House Office of National Drug Control - enough money to buy every single coca leaf grown in South America.)
• Pot Smoker To Disregard Sentence (According to the Halifax Herald, in Nova Scotia, Mark Crossley, a terminally ill cancer patient in Noel, says he'll keep on smoking marijuana despite a conviction Monday on cultivation charges. He was handed a four-month sentence to be served at home, followed by 18 months' probation.)
• Cancer Patient Convicted (The Toronto Star version)
• Freeh Advice On Drugs: Inject Money And Political Will (According to the Sydney Morning Herald's New York correspondent, Louis Freeh, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, says the war on some drug users requires two key ingredients - an abundance of funding and an equally generous amount of political will. Australian Prime Minister John Howard may not like Freeh's message. Money and bravery are the two commodities most governments find hardest to provide.)
• Churches Join Drug Trial Call (According to the Age, in Melbourne, Australia, the leaders of Melbourne's Anglican Church and Uniting Church joined the call yesterday for a heroin-maintenance trial, saying their welfare agencies had noticed an alarming increase in drug use and a drop in the age of drug users.)
• U.N. Seeks Medical Marijuana Study (The Associated Press says the annual report released today in Vienna by the International Drug Control Board, a 13-member, quasi-judicial organization overseeing U.N. drug treaties, recommends ending the politicized debate over medical marijuana by conducting in-depth and impartial scientific research into its possible benefits. "Only scientific evidence can end the current debate.")
• Canada contributing to global drug trade (The National Post, in Canada, says a report issued today by the International Narcotics Control Board, a 13-member United Nations organization based in Vienna, criticizes Canada for its effort in the war on some drug users. The annual global survey for 1998 said the chief problem is a sharp increase in potent, high-quality cannabis being produced in British Columbia. The yearend roundup also criticizes the Canadian and U.S. governments for failing to tackle the problem of drug-promoting Web sites.)
• Re: Canada contributing to global drug trade (A letter sent to the editor of the National Post protests the United Nations' opposition to freedom of speech. The International Narcotics Control Board's 1997 report also whined about favorable reportage concerning drugs and asked governments to consider whether "freedom of expression cannot remain unrestricted when it conflicts with other essential values and rights.")
  Bytes: 60,200 Last updated: 3/13/99
  

  Monday, February 22, 1999:

• Man sentenced to 25 years for killing friend over marijuana stash (The Associated Press notes Cameron Blaine Perry of Wimer, Oregon, was given a mandatory minimum sentence Monday for murdering his childhood friend, Paul "Bern" Miller, for stealing his stash of marijuana. Perry's defense attorneys argued that Perry shot Miller in a rage because he suffered from a psychological condition known as intermittent explosive disorder. What do you think? Would Miller still be alive and Perry free if marijuana weren't illegal?)
• Effort to pin tobacco ills on firms alights in Oregon (The Oregonian says a Multnomah County jury trial beginning this week will weigh a $110 million lawsuit against Philip Morris filed by the family of Jesse Williams, a former janitor the newspaper describes as "a retired Portland Public Schools employee" who smoked Marlboros for 40 years.)
• State hooch outlets battle wedge efforts (An editorial in the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, by D. Michael Heywood says Washington state's hard-liquor stores and workers fought progress, but consumers can now buy beer and wine in grocery stores, even after midnight and on Sunday. The latest effort to wedge open another crack in the state's control over alcohol is a bill pushed by Tennessee-based Brown-Forman, which wants to sell Lynchburg Lemonade, Downhome Punch and other premixed cocktails in grocery stores and convenience markets. The full and immediate privatization of the state's monopoly on hard liquor might make better sense than the long-drawn skirmish between the private sector and the official jug store. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen.)
• Don't Gut Marijuana Law (A staff editorial in the Seattle Times says Washington state's new voter-approved medical marijuana law needs to be tweaked, not turned over. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles' proposal is the more reasonable of two bills that would fine-tune I-692, while maintaining the law's spirit of compassionate public policy.)
• Medical-Marijuana Forum Set (The Fresno Bee notes KFCF 88.1 and the Fresno Free College Foundation will present a public forum on "Medical Marijuana - The Real Story" 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Spectrum Gallery in Fresno.)
• Let Us Be Compassionate With Medical Marijuana (A staff editorial in the San Mateo County Times asks, why should the U.S. government continue stalling on medical marijuana, while allowing physicians to prescribe protease inhibitors and other AIDS medications before clinical trials are completed? The feds should extend the Food and Drug Administration's flexibility on emerging AIDS-related drugs for HIV and AIDS patients to marijuana without further delay. It's sensible to play safe and pursue additional research, but it could be years before it proves beyond doubt what the anecdotal evidence of terminally ill patients has already shown. They shouldn't be asked to wait, or, if they don't, to die as criminals.)
• Snail's Pace On Prop. 215 (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register says California Attorney General Bill Lockyer ran as a supporter of Prop. 215 and has promised to reverse the foot-dragging policies of the previous attorney general. He has appointed a task force headed by Democratic state Sen. John Vasconcellos of San Jose to recommend implementation policies, but the task force has held only a preliminary general meeting. If new laws are to be passed this year, they must be introduced in the legislature by this Friday. It's long past time for the politicians to catch up with the people.)
• Legislators Hold Back Bill On Medical Marijuana (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin notes the death of a bill before the Hawaii state legislature that would have allowed the medical use of marijuana. Sidney Hayakawa, the agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Honolulu, said the Health Committee is doing the right thing in not moving the bill forward. He then contradicted himself, saying, "[W]e're law enforcement officials and it's our duty to enforce the law, not to make law or change law.")
• Shaking This Habit Will Be Tough (A staff editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Governor Tommy Thompson's vow to build no more prisons flies in the face of the fact that Wisconsin has the nation's fastest-growing inmate rolls. The governor's budget calls for spending by the Department of Corrections to jump $228 million during the next two years. Drunks not uncommonly vow that their present binge is their last. How much credence should go to Thompson's vow that the present prison-building binge is the state's last depends on how much support Thompson can muster from other politicians.)
• Drunken Drivers' Cars To Be Seized At Arrests (A New York Times article in the San Jose Mercury News says New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced Saturday that police would begin Monday seizing the cars of everyone arrested for drunken driving. City officials described the new municipal policy against drunken driving as the toughest in the nation.)
• Drug Abuse (A letter to the editor of the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, counters a recent editorial and column supporting the section in the Drug-Free Student Loan Amendment that takes away student loans from anyone caught possessing marijuana.)
• Foolish Rule (Another letter to the editor of the Cavalier Daily also protests its recent column endorsing the provision in the Higher Education Act that bans student loans for anyone caught possessing marijuana. "The absurdity of the proposal baffles the mind! It is the logic of a political class hell-bent on punishment no matter the cost to society . . . . What any rational society should engage itself in is the education of criminals, not the criminalization of students.")
• Unfair Clause (A third letter to the editor of the Cavalier Daily also rebuts its editorial and column supporting the Higher Education Act's ban on loans to pot smokers. "Why does the government insist on making the consequences of drug laws more damaging than the consequences of drug use?")
• Shipley Signals Tougher Anti-Drugs Stance (The Dominion, in New Zealand, says that rather than listen to the recommendations from a New Zealand parliamentary committee, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley plans to pursue tougher policies after discussing Australia's drug problems with its prohibitionist prime minister, John Howard.)
• Drugs Trade 'The Third Largest Economy' (According to the Independent, in Britain, the Financial Action Task Force of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations has estimated that at least $120 billion from the illegal-drugs trade are laundered through the world's financial system a year, making it the third biggest economy in the world today. In fact, according to more alarmist estimates of its value, it could even be starting to catch up with the United States as the leading player in the world economy. In Russia, the illegal economy created by prohibition has filled the vacuum created by the transition from Communism, and its dominance now prevents the emergence of normal economic institutions.)
• Riots In Mauritius After Reggae Singer Dies In Jail (Reuters says about 2,000 protesters clashed with police after Joseph Reginald Topize, or Kaya, a local reggae singer, died in jail Sunday, three days after his arrest for smoking marijuana at a rally to decriminalise the herb in the Indian Ocean nation.)
  Bytes: 62,300 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Sunday, February 21, 1999:

• Gang outreach a tempting tightrope (The Oregonian describes the downfall of Louie Lira Jr., also known as Gerardo Morales Alejo, enlisted by Portland police as a gangbuster but now in custody awaiting charges of aiding a bank robbery. Portland police knew he was using an alias, but they apparently were unaware he was in the country illegally after being deported to Mexico in 1985 following robbery and drug convictions in California. Police said they don't routinely check U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service records.)
• 'She was my girl; she was my best friend' (The Oregonian eulogizes Ashley Carlson, a 7-year-old girl who was lured from a park in Astoria and killed. Her mother couldn't watch her because she was in jail being punished for a "drug" violation.)
• California Pot Law Author Charged Along With Spouse (The Washington Times, in the District of Columbia, recounts the cultivation bust of Steve Kubby, the California medical marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for governor.)
• The Suit Behind The Men's Wearhouse (The San Francisco Examiner does a feature article on George Zimmer, the Oakland founder of the Men's Wearhouse, a clothing chain with 420 stores - yes that's 420 - in 40 states. A self-described child of the '60s, Zimmer donated more than $250,000 to California's successful Proposition 215 campaign in 1996.)
• Pioneer Drug Pilot Blazed Illicit Trail (An obituary in the Albuquerque Journal eulogizes Martin Willard Houltin of Columbus, New Mexico, a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Aleutian Islands. Houltin was an innovator among drug smugglers, using small aircraft to ferry tons of Mexican marijuana across the border into the United States. He was the first U.S. pilot to have an aerial confrontation with federal officials while drug smuggling, in 1967, in an incident from which he walked away free. He achieved minor celebrity status in 1978 when High Times magazine published an interview calling him the "Flying Ace of the Dope Air Force." Houltin never carried a gun, never smoked marijuana himself, and never imported hard drugs. He began his career as a smuggler going the other direction - flying merchandise subject to high import duty fees, including heavy machinery, candy bars and liquor, into Mexico. He did it largely for the challenge.)
• Painkillers Deterring Suicides (The Chicago Tribune says a survey of American Society of Clinical Oncology members showed support for doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia among cancer specialists declined by more than 50 percent during the last three years. Some believe the reason is that doctors are being more careful about prescribing adequate amounts of narcotics - despite the study of Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, which found the law was not being used by people afraid of extreme pain.)
• Sinaloa Pays In Blood For Drug War (The Los Angeles Times says the assassination of Aguirre Meza, the esteemed police chief of Navolato, Mexico, and a founding member of the Sinaloan Commission for the Defense of Human Rights, is only the latest outrage in a state grown numb to social disintegration. For the last five years, Sinaloa has been besieged by warfare and executions among competing drug gangs, who increasingly target prominent citizens like Aguirre Meza. Sinaloa is home to the Mazatlan tourist resort. It is also the birthplace of Mexican drug smuggling. Virtually every major Mexican drug lord is from Sinaloa. Today, more than 200 well-armed gangs are based in Sinaloa, according to police officials. Those allegedly murdered by drug traffickers in recent years include 47 lawyers, 40 state police officers and 12 university professors. Prominent farmers, ranchers, merchants, professionals and social activists have been kidnapped or killed.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 21 February 1999 (An English-language news bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news of a potential pain therapy based on blocking the reuptake of endogeneous cannabinoids; pregnant women and drugs; and an Australian report finding males with high testosterone levels consume relatively more cannabis.)
  Bytes: 70,600 Last updated: 5/12/99
  

  Saturday, February 20, 1999:

• Family, friends bewildered by man's rampage (The Oregonian recounts a case of demon rum turning "a nice guy" from Bend, Adam M. Gantenbein, into a would-be cop killer - and then a corpse.)
• The Oregon Case Federal Grand Jury (The Houston Chronicle says U.S. District Judge Sim Lake refused Friday to issue a gag order sought by six fired Houston prohibition agents involved in the fatal shooting of Pedro Oregon Navarro, and denied their request that they not be deposed by the family's lawyers until a federal criminal investigation of the incident is complete. Also on Friday, Oregon's brother-in-law and a family friend, both of whom were in his apartment the night agents burst in without a warrant, testified before the federal grand jury that began investigating the shooting this week.)
• 16-year-old To Be Tried As Adult On Cocaine, Marijuana Charges (The Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, says Richardo Marquez, a 16-year-old McHenry County youth, recently found out he would be prosecuted as an adult on drug charges, meaning he faces a minimum prison term of 9 years and a maximum of 40.)
• Renegade Jurors (Three letters to the editor of the Washington Post respond to the newspaper's recent one-sided articles on jury nullification.)
• Scientists Urge Presidential Order for Marijuana Testing (A list subscriber posts a press release from the Federation of American Scientists web site saying the group today urged President Clinton to instruct the National Institutes of Health to carry out research on marijuana wherever there are prima facie indications of possible efficacy, without waiting for the Institute of Medicine to complete a study focused on a review of relevant literature.)
• Corrections Corporations of America profits (A list subscriber posts an excerpt from the Joshua Report showing the stock of the private prison business has increased from $8 in 1992 to $30 in 1996. State legislator Kevin Mannix of Oregon has issued an invitation to Nike to shift its operations from Indonesia to his state. At 17 cents per hour, "We could offer competitive prison labor," says Mannix. The drug war is good for business. Invest your son.)
  Bytes: 35,000 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Friday, February 19, 1999:

• Oregon Health Division Rules for Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the new law approved by voters in November, notifies advocates for medical marijuana patients of a public meeting of the OMMA Rules Advisory Committee in Salem on Monday, March 8. "This may be your best chance at having an impact on the rules that govern the Registry ID card, maturation of the plants rule, and the application for 'new debilitating conditions' rules to be added. Those are the only three topics that will be discussed at this public OHD rules meeting but they are very important." Plus Dr. Bayer's related letter to Dr. Grant Higginson, the Oregon Health Division official in charge of implementing the OMMA.)
• Man enters guilty plea in fatal crash (The Oregonian says James J. Parkins, 27, will spend at least the next three years in prison after pleading guilty Thursday to criminally negligent homicide for a drunken-driving crash in Portland that killed a passenger in his car.)
• Two will file complaint against Eugene police (The Oregonian says two women are suing police to make them stop demanding people's Social Security numbers as an "alternative form of identification." The federal Privacy Act states that it is unlawful to deny an individual's rights because of that person's refusal to disclose a Social Security number. But according to Eugene police spokeswoman Jan Powers, "There's no law that prevents us from asking. If a person refuses . . . we have the right to take that person in and ask for anything that confirms that person's identity.")
• ACLU Is Off Base On City Drug Tests (A staff editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer opposes the American Civil Liberties Union's attempt to block mandatory drug testing of Seattle municipal job applicants. The civil rights group is appealing the ruling last month by King County Superior Court Judge R. Joseph Wesley upholdng the city's revised policy.)
• Peter McWilliams Court Date Change (An e-mail from the best-selling author and medical marijuana defendant being killed by the federal government says today's hearing in Los Angeles has been postponed until next Friday, Feb. 26.)
• Clinton Gets Off; I Head to the Cemetery (An op-ed submitted to the Los Angeles Times by Peter McWilliams, the bestselling author, AIDS/cancer patient, and federal defendant being put to death pretrial by having medical marijuana denied to him, despite Proposition 215, says McWilliams' viral load has skyrocketed to more than 250,000. "Finding no mercy in either the legislative or executive branches, among Republicans or Democrats, I wonder if I will find it among the judiciary. Meanwhile, I have purchased for myself a crypt for my ashes in Westwood Memorial Park, midway between Marilyn Monroe and Oscar Levant. What a place to spend eternity.")
• Pot Eradication Opponents Eager For Program Review (The Hawaii Tribune Herald says Hawaii County's delay in undertaking a review of its marijuana eradication program has left reform advocates who have long demanded the investigation questioning if it will ever be finished.)
• Hemp Takes Root In Senate Committee (The West Central Tribune, in Minnesota, says the state senate's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee voted unanimously Thursday to legalize hemp production. Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe introduced the bill. Sen. Dallas Sams, chairman of the agriculture committee, said the legislation has been endorsed by the Farm Bureau, Farmers Union and a host of other farm organizations. A similar bill is moving through the house.)
• Police Release Marijuana Figures For 1998 (According to an Associated Press body count in the Bangor Daily News, Roy McKinney, the head of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, said this week that Maine law enforcement agencies last year seized a total of 9,900 marijuana plants worth an estimated $23 million, seized 127 pounds of processed marijuana, 117 guns and nearly $250,000 in cash. They also made 87 marijuana-related arrests.)
• DEA Chief: Interdiction Won't Succeed - Drug Fight Lacks Desire (According to USA Today, DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine, in an interview Thursday, said the nation has neither the will nor the resources to win the drug war. Despite the confiscation of record amounts of drugs at the borders, Constantine said interdiction will not solve the problem. "The key is not in the source countries," he said. "The key is in the United States, within those things we can control.")
• Border Patrol Adds High-Tech Tools to Its Arsenal (The Washington Post says the U.S. Border Patrol, after years of waging a losing battle to control the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, is increasingly throwing high technology into its fight against illegal immigration and drug trafficking. According to the newspaper, the high-tech equipment, much of it originally developed for the military, combined with a major increase in manpower, is making the agency more "efficient" - without having turned the tide. People and drugs still flow across the border in large volumes, as does all sorts of contraband from Freon to avocados.)
• Mexico's Troubadors Hail New Kind Of Hero (A New York Times article in the Orange County Register says hundreds of Mexican country bands are playing drug ballads, known in Spanish as narco-corridos, that chronicle illegal-drug traffickers' daily lives and violent routines. The extraordinary popularity of their music in Mexico and the United States shows how deeply the "drug" industry has sunk roots into North American popular culture. The phenomenon suggests that millions of fans quietly admire the smugglers' fabled wealth, anti-establishment bravura and bold entrepreneurial skills.)
• Mexico's Troubadors Turn From Amor to Drugs (The original New York Times version)
• Addicts Fuel 7 Bil. Industry (The Herald Sun says a study by Access Economics found that "The illegal drugs industry in Australia is a major industry, equivalent in size to the oil industry and larger than the tobacco industry." However, the war on some drugs is an even bigger business. Taxpayers paid an average of $13 billion annually over the past 15 years to fight the drug war, spread across law enforcement services, public health, treatment and counselling services, crime, prisons, social security and costs to families. Despite the massive cost, crime authorities admit the fight against drugs under present policy has been lost.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 79 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original publication featuring drug policy news and calls to action includes - Less than three weeks left to defeat "Know Your Customer" rules; ABA to Congress: stop federalizing drime; Connecticut addressing racial disparities in drug enforcement, sentencing; U.S. Customs Service report acknowledges corruption; Man shot dead in home by police, small amount of marijuana found; Medical marijuana opponents mount challenges in Oregon, Washington; Hemp beer served on Air Force One; Oregon schools to pay students for anonymous tips; Rally: mothers in prison, children in crisis, New York City, May 9; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith: Another isolated incident)
  Bytes: 100,000 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Thursday, February 18, 1999:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (AIDS Coalition Demands White House Legalize Medical Marijuana; Medical Marijuana Opponents Mount Challenges In Oregon, Washington; Medical Marijuana Gains Ground in Hawaii)
• Firefighter exposed to chemicals (The Oregonian says neighbors saw three people leaving a house Wednesday in Gresham, Oregon, a suburb east of Portland, before smoke started coming out of it and they called 911. A Gresham firefighter was exposed to chemicals associated with the manufacture of methamphetamine, but returned to work later. The newspaper doesn't say whether the victim intended to complain to his state legislators for maintaining a public nuisance by perpetuating the prohibition on amphetamine-related drugs.)
• Suicide Law Painless, Oregon Says (An Associated Press article in the Chicago Tribune says a report published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine by Oregon health officials summarizes the state's first year of experience with the nation's only physician-assisted-suicide law. The study found 15 terminally ill people in Oregon had used the law to end their lives. There was no evidence they suffered painful, lingering deaths as opponents had warned. The authors said fears that the law would be used as an easy way out by people afraid of financial ruin or extreme pain proved unfounded. Rather, officials found that the law so far had been invoked overwhelmingly by strong-willed patients who wanted to exercise some control over the way they died.)
• Suicide backers to Legislature: Hands off suicide law (According to the Associated Press, backers of the physician-assisted suicide law passed by Oregon voters say a favorable report released Wednesday by the state Health Division shows there's no need for the legislature to try again to revise the state's Death with Dignity Act.)
• 15 Oregonians chose assisted suicide in '98, report says (The Oregonian version)
• Lawmakers question whether federal dollars paying for assisted suicide (The Associated Press says Republicans in the Oregon House of Representatives are questioning whether Oregon is complying with federal law by covering assisted suicides in its health plan for the poor. Congress in 1997 prohibited the use of federal funds for assisted suicide. The Oregon Health Plan is funded in part by federal Medicaid dollars, but state officials have said assisted suicides are paid for entirely by the state.)
• Former King County Deputy Prosecutor Faces Drug Charges (The Seattle Times updates its story yesterday, saying Douglas Willas Miller, 36, is the name of the man arrested Tuesday night and charged with attempting to sell $2,400 worth of amphetamines to an undercover officer. Miller resigned last year after he was arrested for bringing cocaine into the King County Courthouse.)
• Drug Arrest Tests The Charmed Life Of Ex-Prosecutor (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer version says what proved to be Miller's undoing was a former roommate who had been his alibi in the courthouse incident.)
• The hidden war - Narcs are arresting medical pot patients and the state is investigating their doctors (The Sacramento News & Review says that more than two years after California voters approved Proposition 215, a behind-the-scenes war is still raging. Dozens of patients have been investigated, arrested and jailed for growing pot. And now a number of physicians who have recommended marijuana to patients under the provisions of Prop. 215 are being investigated by the Medical Board of California. The investigation of Dr. Alex Stalcup, a physician in the Bay Area community of Concord, is but one of the grand ironies of the war against Prop. 215. The prominent physician is considered by law enforcement officials to be one of the nation's leading authorities on illegal drugs and has worked for years as a consultant to the California Narcotics Officers Association.)
• Jailbird or Lab Rat? Medical Expert Says Kubby Should Be Studied, Not Busted (Orange County Weekly, in Costa Mesa, California, says Steve Kubby, the medical marijuana patient/activist, 1998 Libertarian candidate for governor, and now cultivation defendant, credits the herb for his surviving malignant pheochromocytoma, a rare form of adrenal cancer that is generally fatal within five years of its diagnosis. Now Kubby has a champion. USC Medical Center's Dr. Vincent DeQuattro first diagnosed Kubby's disease 15 years ago. In a letter to Placer County authorities, Dr. DeQuattro, one of America's leading specialists on the disease, said he contacted a colleague in Michigan who is also an expert on the disease and on Kubby's treatment. "He told me that every patient other than Steve with Steve's condition had died" within the usual five-year time frame. "Steve was the only survivor," Dr. DeQuattro wrote.)
• Very Important Message from Peter McWilliams (Marijuananews.com forwards a message from an unwell Peter McWilliams announcing an ACLU press conference Feb. 19 in Los Angeles regarding McWilliams' prosecution. McWilliams also shares a statement of support for him issued today by California state Senator John Vasconcellos, who eloquently pleads with the federal government to quit killing the medical-marijuana defendant by denying him access to cannabis. The viral load of the best-selling author has risen from fewer than 400 copies per milliliter to more than 250,000.)
• Letter from Marvin Chavez (A list subscriber forwards a letter from the medical-marijuana patient and founder of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group, recently sentenced to six years for helping sick people. Please write a letter to Chavez - here's his address.)
• Exploration Of Medical Marijuana Should Go On (A staff editorial in the Honolulu Advertiser suggests the debate in the medical community among politicians, quacks, and real physicians over the medical utility of marijuana would be enough to scare most lawmakers away from considering reform. Fortunately, Gov. Ben Cayetano and a handful of state legislators are more farsighted than that. The House Health Committee has - admittedly with reservations - kept alive Cayetano's proposal to permit the medical use of marijuana. The decision to move the debate forward, to give Hawaii a real chance to decide for itself whether this idea makes sense, is both progressive and sensible.)
• Medical Use Of Marijuana Sends Right Message (A letter to the editor of the Honolulu Advertiser addresses the concern that allowing sick people to use marijuana as medicine would send a "mixed message" to young people about condoning marijuana use. In supporting humane policies regarding the health needs of our sickest community members, we are sending a message to our children that we care about - and have compassion for - those of our neighbors who are suffering most and need our help. To do anything less is not only immoral, but sends the message to our children that we will not do everything in our power to care for those in our community who are suffering, even though we have the means to do so.)
• Medical Marijuana Alleviates Suffering (A letter to the editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin rebuts a drug warrior's flawed reasoning.)
• NYPD officer arrested in North Carolina for trafficking cocaine (The Associated Press says Andre Formey, a New York City police officer, was arrested Thursday while driving through North Carolina with his five children, ranging in age from 2 to 14, and more than two pounds of cocaine.)
• Drug Use Doesn't Deserve Aid (An editorial by freshman Erin Perucci, an associate editor for the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, defends the Higher Education Act's ban on aid to students convicted of possessing marijuana.)
• Drug War Has Been Lost (A letter to the editor of the Tampa Tribune, in Florida, says making drug abuse a medical problem instead of a criminal one could prevent 10,000 deaths a year, cut major and minor crime by 50 percent, allow everyone to have cheap or free medical care, stop drug dealers and cartels from making money, stop gangs, cut medical costs 30 percent to 90 percent, stop 10 million lives from being destroyed each year, and provide a 25 percent tax cut to everyone.)
• AIDS Groups Issue First Call for Drug Czar to Approve Medical Marijuana (A press release on PR Newswire provides more details about yesterday's letter from the heads of 17 AIDS organizations to General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office for National Drug Control Policy, asking for physicians to be allowed to prescribe marijuana as an emergency measure to people with HIV/AIDS without further research. Includes the text of the letter and its signers.)
• AIDS Groups Urge U.S. to Approve Medical Marijuana (The Reuters version)
• Iranian Aide Says Executions No Answer To Drugs (According to Reuters, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, on Thursday quoted Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai, the Iranian president's designated expert on drug issues, saying "The execution of this country's youth is no loss to mafia gangs which direct the region's drug trade." Iran has executed nearly 2,000 drug dealers and traffickers since 1989. However, 2,500 of its police and soldiers have been killed in clashes with drug traffickers in the past 20 years. Official statistics indicate one out of every 50 Iranians is "addicted to drugs, mostly opium." Unofficial estimates say the rate is three times that.)
• Russia Police Seizing Just 12 Percent Of Narcotics: Official (According to Itar-Tass, in Russia, Vladimir Kharetdinov, the head of Moscow's prohibition force, told a news conference Thursday that police at the present time seize only 10 percent to 12 percent of all "drugs" smuggled into Russia. Moscow is the destination of 80 percent of the smuggled drugs.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 7 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 86 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense leads with the weekly Feature Article - Something you can do right now! The Weekly News in Review features several articles about domestic drug policy, including - Gore: drug policy to tackle `spiritual problem'; Accountability promised for drug effort; Major antidrug effort is unveiled; and, Federal `drug war' strategy is bound to fail - again. Articles about drug policy and Mexico include - Mexico strains drug ally status; Mexico rejects extradition for 5; and, Mexico slams U.S. drugs certification policy. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Drug money investigation to be started; 19 inmates moved in bid to bust drug ring; and, Drug reform: it's time. Articles about Medical Marijuana & Hemp include - Auburn grand jury to hear Kubby marijuana case; Medical marijuana collides with power politics; Human body found to produce its own version of marijuana; and, Ventura says he'll sign hemp bill. International News includes - Cocaine production exploding; Peru army No. 2 arrested in drug case, sources say; Myanmar raps Britain, U.S. over drug talks; I won't budge on heroin: PM; and, 'Contribution to ending the war on drugs'. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net notes a RealAudio interview with Larry Hirsch regarding his medical marijuana class action suit. The Fact of the Week notes National Guard drug agents are much more numerous than DEA agents. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Sowell.)
  Bytes: 150,000 Last updated: 4/15/99
  

  Wednesday, February 17, 1999:

• Legislators Aim To Tighten Medical Marijuana Law (The Statesman Journal, in Salem, Oregon, says that three months after voters approved medical marijuana at the ballot box, Rep. Kevin Mannix and the Oregon Police Chiefs Association unveiled draft legislation today that would strip some of the measure's provisions. Aspects of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act to be dismantled would include the so-called "affirmative defense" for those who exceeded the three-plant limit; and the mandate that police preserve marijuana seized from someone who claims a medical marijuana defense. "Starting from the assumption that we don't approve of the law, we would generally welcome constructive clarification of the law," said Bob Applegate, a spokesman for Governor Kitzhaber. Follow this link to the Oregon legislature's web site for the email addresses of your state senator and representative - and please send a brief protest note.)
• Three men stage home-invasion robbery in Vernonia (A cautionary tale in the Oregonian says three men between the ages of 16 and 19 burst into a home in a quiet neighborhood thirty miles northwest of Portland on Monday and held two women at gunpoint, apparently believing they would find a marijuana grow operation. The newspaper doesn't say whether the victims intended to complain to their state legislators for maintaining a public nuisance by perpetuating marijuana prohibition.)
• NewsBuzz: Coveting Their Assets (Willamette Week, in Portland, says state Rep. Jo Ann Bowman of North Portland has drafted a bill that would siphon half of all forfeited "drug" assets away from local police departments and use it to fund programs to help parolees be successful when they finish their mandatory minimum sentences, such as alcohol and drug treatment programs, job-readiness training, child care, and housing. Although Bowman is on the House Judiciary Committee, she's concerned that the police lobby is so powerful her bill will never get a hearing.)
• Readin', Writin' and Ritalin (Willamette Week, in Portland, says the state of Oregon released a survey three weeks ago showing that kids' use of marijuana, cocaine and speed had leveled off over the past two years. What the survey didn't show is the extraordinary increase in kids' use of Ritalin, a Schedule II controlled substance. While kids have been learning to say "no" to drugs, their parents have been learning to say "yes" to Ritalin. Drug Enforcement Agency figures show Ritalin use has soared more than 700 percent in the '90s. Experts in Portland estimate that nearly 5 percent of all school-age children take it - more than 4,000 kids in Multnomah County alone.)
• Marijuana Backers Wary Of Tinkering (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, Washington, says the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys is already lobbying the legislature to nullify Initiative 692, the state's new medical marijuana law, claiming they only want to improve it, of course. But Senate Bill 5704 would allow the state Department of Health to write rules to flesh out the law. Its primary sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, who supported the initiative, said the department could clarify the law without encroaching on patients' newfound rights. The really bad bill is SB 5771.)
• Former Prosecutor Held In Drug Case (The Seattle Times refuses to name the former King County deputy prosecutor who was arrested last night in North Seattle for investigation of possession of methamphetamine residue and paraphernalia. Last year, the former prosecutor, 36, was accused of possessing a crank pipe in the King County courthouse.)
• THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer (AIDS Treatment News, in San Francisco, summarizes and comments on a 126-page draft report of a major toxicology study of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The study was completed over two and a half years ago, and passed peer review for publication, but has been kept quiet until this month, when someone leaked copies of the draft report. The public apparently has never been told about this research - for example, the drug-reform movement seems not to have known about its existence. It may have been hushed because its findings are not what the drug-war industry wants. "The newly available Federal toxicology study provides the best evidence yet that the risks of THC are small. What other drug would increase life expectancy of rats when given in huge overdoses daily for two years?")
• High crimes? Writer faces jail after interviewing medical marijuana activist (The San Francisco Bay Guardian recounts the case of Pete Brady, a medical marijuana patient and freelance journalist whose New Year's Day interview with fellow patient/defendant Steve Kubby may land him five years in a California prison. Brady's arrest for possession of about an ounce of marijuana came on the last day of his five-year probation term for possession.)
• Medical-Marijuana Fight Is About Power, Not Medicine (Sacramento Bee columnist Peter H. King, syndicated in the Orange County Register, discusses the cultivation bust of medical-marijuana patient/activist Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian Party candidate for California governor.)
• Medical Pot Bill Advances (The Hawaii Tribune-Herald says the Hawaii House of Representatives' Health and Public Safety committees agreed to forward a medical-marijuana bill to the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday following a hearing that lasted more than three hours in which people who were ill or caring for sick people made sometimes eloquent pleas for legislative relief. The committees combined elements of two bills - one submitted by Gov. Cayetano, one crafted by Health Committee Chairman Alex Santiago. If the bill becomes law, Hawaii would become the first state to approve use of medical marijuana through the legislative process.)
• Authorities Release Account Of Shooting, Say Marijuana Found In House (An Associated Press article in the Topeka Capital-Journal says prohibition agents in Osawatomie, Kansas, shot Willie Heard dead early Saturday when he picked up a .22-caliber rifle in his bedroom after they burst into his house. Police had a warrant to look for crack cocaine but all they found were two or three roaches. Heard's 16-year-old daughter, who was sleeping on the couch when officers burst in, said they never identified themselves.)
• Friend in Oklahoma City (A list subscriber forwards a note explaining why Oklahoma Governor Keating refused to sign the parole papers for Will Foster, the medical marijuana patient originally sentenced to 93 years in prison on cultivation charges. Keating was a member of the DEA under Reagan. His reputation rests largely on his stance against "drugs.")
• Apathy, America's Greatest Vice (An op-ed in the Little Rock Free Press by Jack Page, a veteran of the Proposition 215 campaign in California and now president of NORML Arkansas, faults the apathy that allows marijuana prohibition to continue. "Marijuana has become the symbol of oppression in our country and across the globe. . . . As an insider I'd like to reveal a little known fact about the now historic Prop. 215. . . . Just as we were resigning ourselves to failure, it happened. Someone very rich and powerful in the state got busted buying marijuana for a sick family member.")
• The Nazi Comparison (A compelling op-ed in the Rock River Times, in Rockford, Illinois, by Dr. John Beresford, a retired psychiatrist who visited Nazi Germany in his youth, says America's vast network of prisons, boot camps, and jails invites comparisons to the detention machinery of totalitarian regimes. With its war on some drug users, America is treading the same path as Nazi Germany. The War on Drugs and Hitler's war on anyone he took exception to share the same symptoms. Where it all ends depends on reformers' efforts.)
• Best Drug Policy Is Straight Ahead (An op-ed in Newsday by Marsha Rosenbaum of the Lindesmith Center West says the Clinton administration's new plan to reduce drug use by half by the year 2007 is a natural response to our country's ongoing struggle with drug use. The problem is that Clinton's plan is just more of the what we've already been trying - and look at the results. More drug education, of the sort existing already, cannot be expected to reverse the trend. Indeed, study after study shows that current drug education programs have no effect on drug use whatsoever. Quite simply, they lack credibility. Our first priority ought to be gaining the trust of young people.)
• TV Notes: Bad Hair Days (New York Times television reviewer Lawrie Mifflin praises the CBS Morning News for Roberta Baskin's three-part series this week on hair testing for illegal-drug use. Many experts say the tests are unreliable and possibly racially biased. Testing the testers, Baskin found that different labs came up with widely different results on samples from identical heads of hair. Drug testing labs also came up with different results on hairs of darker or lighter color but exposed to the same level of drugs.)
• Testing The Drug Test Labs (A CBS news broadcast by Roberta Baskin says she had identical batches of eight hair samples tested by three corporations - Associated Pathologists Laboratories in Las Vegas; United States Drug Testing Laboratories, outside Chicago; Psychemedics' home testing kits. The results showed just how flawed hair testing can be. "Consider this: if drug testing labs were wrong just one percent of the time, it would add up to 250,000 wrong results.")
• Ex-Officer Found Guilty In Drug Case (The Philadelphia Inquirer says a federal jury yesterday convicted Peter Henry, a former Philadelphia police officer, of using his police credit-union account to help launder the gains of his extended family's illegal marijuana dealings.)
• Nighttime Drug Raid - Wrong House (The Miami Herald describes a recent home invasion by prohibition agents in Hallandale, Florida. Wrong apartment. Wrong building. Mixed-up search warrant. Innocent people terrorized. Wrong man arrested, humiliated and jailed in his wife's underwear.)
• Police Officer Perjury Not Rare, Observers Say - Indictment May Be a First in Pr. George's (The Washington Post says Cpl. Rickey Rodriguez Davis, a nine-year police veteran in Prince George's County, was indicted on two counts of perjury in connection with his 1994 court testimony that fellow officer Timothy J. Moran did not hit a handcuffed man. Moran later admitted in federal court that he did hit the man. "Officers are more likely to get struck by lightning" than prosecuted for perjury, said Chris Slobogin, a University of Florida law professor. "It's extremely rare for prosecutors to indict what is essentially a co-worker," Slobogin said. In Philadelphia, at least 283 cases of police perjury have been dismissed in the wake of a corruption scandal involving two officers who were convicted of framing suspects and lying on the witness stand.)
• Medical Marijuana: AIDS Activists Call On McCaffrey To Intervene (According to the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, this morning's USA Today says a coalition of 17 AIDS organizations has written a letter to General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, asking him to speed government approval of marijuana for medical uses, contending that just "as promising AIDS medications have been made available prior to final Food and Drug Administration approval, so too should marijuana, when recommended by a physician." Government officials are waiting for an Institute of Medicine study due out next month before taking further action.)
• AIDS Groups Plead For 'Medical Marijuana' (The original USA Today version)
• Body & Mind; Kids Getting More Antidepressants (The Cincinnati Enquirer says dentists are concerned about the rapid increase in children taking antidepressants, because a common side effect of such drugs is reduced saliva production. Children on antidepressants are at increased risk of developing cavities and mouth infections because saliva coats teeth with protective minerals and is a natural bacteria-fighter. According to a 1998 study by IMS, a research company, 800,000 American children were prescribed Prozac, Zoloft or Paxil, three common antidepressants, and another half million were taking anti-seizure drugs.)
• U.S. Customs Admits Its Own Drug Corruption (The New York Times says U.S. Customs Service officials acknowledged Tuesday in a report to Congress that the agency had failed to combat corruption aggressively. In an atmosphere of neglect, internal affairs inquiries languished and were sometimes impeded because of infighting. In addition, the agency announced Tuesday the appointment of William A. Keefer, a former federal prosecutor, to head Internal Affairs. Keefer is replacing Homer J. Williams, a Customs official who was transferred after he became the subject of a federal inquiry in California into whether he told a colleague that she was under scrutiny in a corruption case.)
• Minuet in Mexico (An op-ed in the Washington Post by Michael Kelly, the editor of National Journal, ponders the annual certification of Mexico as an ally in the United States' drug war, and finds the Clinton administration hypocritical, but doesn't say whether Mexico should be decertified or the dance should be ended by Congress.)
• Policeman Tipped Off Friend Over Raid (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says Senior Constable Christan Bruce, a crewman on a New South Wales police helicopter, admitted to the NSW Police Integrity Commission yesterday that he had tipped off a friend and former police officer that police were about to raid his home for ecstacy and cocaine. The phone was tapped. The hearing continues today.)
  Bytes: 157,000 Last updated: 3/13/99
  

  Tuesday, February 16, 1999:

• Alert - Medical Marijuana Under Attack (John Sajo of Voter Power responds to list subscribers' alarm over news of an attempt by Rep. Mannix in the Oregon legislature to dismantle the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, saying Oregonians for Medical Rights are carefully watching the legislature and are working to prevent any changes to OMMA. Sajo also forwards the text of a resolution drafted by Voter Power that has been introduced by Rep. Jo Ann Bowman, calling on the federal government to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. The idea behind the resolution is to have those who won the marijuana votes last fall set the agenda, not the people who lost. "Mannix and our other opponents will help us in the long run. We need them to articulate their ideas, which are no longer aligned with most voters.")
• Hyping The Drug War (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register pans the Clinton administration's latest drug-war battle plan, saying the real issue is whether America should continue to step up its drug war, or seek out less politically expedient, but more promising approaches. What's missing is the realization that most low-level drug use poses no harm to society. Most disturbing about the administration's plan: It uses the specter of a teen drug epidemic to maintain popular support. But the nation's drug problem is most severe among aging baby boomers. Focusing on the teen drug problem is dishonest.)
• Just Say So: D.A.R.E. Doesn't Work (An op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner by Kendra E. Wright of Family Watch says drug education and prevention will never succeed as long as DARE - the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program - is ensconced in 70 percent of our children's schools. Over the last five years, studies have been conducted for the federal General Accounting Office and Justice Department and for the California Department of Education. They describe how DARE and other anti-drug programs fail to reach the teenagers most at risk of drug abuse. Joel Brown of Berkeley-based Educational Research Consultants was hired by the California Department of Education to conduct one of the most extensive qualitative studies of drug education programs to date. He found that DARE and other programs may actually be hurting our kids.)
• Lawmakers Consider Bills To Permit Use Of Marijuana For Medical Reasons (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin says three committees in the Hawaii legislature considered two different bills today that would allow the medical use of marijuana. While commending Gov. Ben Cayetano for introducing HB 1157, advocates for medical marijuana patients generally preferred the less restrictive HB 1341, submitted by House Health Chairman Alex Santiago.)
• Drugs Won't Pay (An editorial in the Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, argues against the Drug Reform Coordination Network's campaign to organize college students to overturn the ban in the Higher Education Act on student loans to anyone convicted of possessing marijuana or other supposedly controlled substances.)
• Hemp Beer Served Aboard Air Force One (The online Drudge Report says stewards passed out Hemp Golden Beer Monday evening to the president, members of Congress, the press and other personnel returning from Mexico aboard Air Force One. The tasting came just weeks after the Air Force banned the use of all products containing hemp oil - including Hemp drinks. "The president tasted, but did not swallow," laughed one reporter aboard the plane.)
• Clinton Talks Of Self Renewal (An Associated Press account of the U.S. president's visit to Mexico concludes by confirming "Stewards passed out Hemp Golden beer" on the trip back home aboard Air Force One.)
• Panel Finds Too Many Crime Laws (The Associated Press says a 56-page report prepared over two years by a blue-ribbon task force sponsored by the American Bar Association and chaired by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III has concluded that the avalanche of new laws Congress has passed since 1970 to make America's streets safe has failed. "There is no persuasive evidence that federalization of local crime makes the streets safer for American citizens," says the report. More than 40 percent of all federal criminal laws enacted since the Civil War were passed since 1970.)
• Many Anti-Crime Laws Not Needed, Study Says (The Orange County Register version)
• Meese Panel Urges Curbs on Federal Offenses (The New York Times version)
• Tougher Laws Fail To Stem Use Of Drugs (The Dayton Daily News, in Ohio, briefly notes the American Bar Association has released a new report showing illegal drug use has increased despite record expenditures on punishment.)
• Medicinal Marijuana Battle to Heat Up with Release of Long-Awaited Institute of Medicine Report Next Month (A press release from the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., says MPP is preparing to challenge the likely interpretation of the Institute of Medicine's long-awaited medicinal marijuana report, to be released in mid-March. Government officials are sure to misrepresent the report's findings in order to justify the existing laws prohibiting the use of medicinal marijuana.)
• Australian report on cannabis and testosterone (According to the Australian Associated Press, a new study by Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, director of psychiatry for the Dandenong Area Mental Health Service, showed that in a small group of 40 males, those with the highest levels of testosterone also showed the highest levels of cannabis use - as well as symptoms of psychosis. The study suggests there may be a biological reason why males use cannabis more prevalently than females, which until now has been put down to social factors. Plus more research on cannabis, THC and reproductive biology.)
  Bytes: 66,900 Last updated: 4/21/99
  

  Monday, February 15, 1999:

• Survey respondents feel good about how Oregon is run (The Associated Press says a telephone survey released today by the Oregon Progress Board and the state Office of Economic Analysis found that 41 percent of respondents said the state was doing a good job of "controlling drug use," an increase of 2 percent from a 1996 survey.)
• Good times are rolling, survey says (The Oregonian version)
• Ex-Candidate Defends Drug Use (The San Jose Mercury News says Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor who was recently busted on cultivation-related charges, together with his wife, Michele, told a Libertarian state convention in San Jose Sunday that "There were no sales." Kubby turned over most of his time Sunday to his wife, who talked with emotion about what their family has been through. "We have no business anymore," she said of their online magazine. "They have taken our computer, our printer, our digital scanner. They took all our plants, all our lights. They've destroyed our business and our life.")
• Kubbys Reassure Libertarians (The Sacramento Bee version)
• Bay Area briefs (The Sacramento Bee version)
• Drug Reform: It's Time (A staff editorial in the Times Union, in New York, says the modest reforms of the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders proposed by the chief judge of New York, Judith Kaye, are a welcome beginning toward returning sanity, not to mention justice, to the drug war. Gov. Pataki and the legislature should lend their support.)
• Reform Rockefeller Drug Laws (A staff editorial in the Daily Gazette, in New York, also endorses Judge Kaye's call for reforming the state's Rockefeller-era mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders.)
• Group Attempts Overturn Of Financial Aid Drug Act (The Cavalier Daily at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, describes the Drug Reform Coordination Network's effort to organize college students nationwide to overturn the Higher Education Act's ban on aid to students convicted of possessing a supposedly controlled substance, including marijuana. U.S. Representative Mark Souder, R-Ind., introduced the provision last spring and it was signed into law Oct. 7.)
• Mexico Greets Clinton Like An Old Friend (The News & Observer, in North Carolina, says President Clinton basked in a warm reception Sunday in Merida, Mexico, the tropical capital of the Yucatan, on arriving for talks with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. The affectionate welcome came even though the leaders are expected to address such thorny issues as drug policy and immigration during the one-day visit.)
• 15 Feb 1999 Survey of German Language Newspapers (Translations of three items include - an article titled "Contribution to ending the War on Drugs," in Nordkurier Online, which says Martina Bunge, the Schwerin social affairs minister, voiced the opinion that decriminalizing drugs could help end the war on drugs, as well as strike a "blow for freedom." A Berliner Zeitung article looks at the projected crackdown making it illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of more than 0.5 per cent. And the visit to Mexico of our American friend, Bill Clinton, is covered by Die Welt.)
• Egypt Judge Jailed For Cocaine Possession (Reuters says Edmond Hefzi, an Egyptian judge, has been sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour for 70 grams.)
  Bytes: 40,700 Last updated: 4/14/99
  

  Sunday, February 14, 1999:

• Medical Marijuana Collides With Power Politics (Sacramento Bee columnist Peter H. King recounts the recent cultivation bust of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 California gubernatorial candidate. Prohibition agents obtained a search warrant after they observed Kubby showing a plant to a man they believed was a customer. In reality, the man was Pete Brady, a correspondent for High Times magazine.)
• Diluted cocaine may be tied to Richmond killings (According to the Contra Costa Times, in California, police in the Bay Area community of Richmond theorize that a recent spate of shootings and perhaps even two of this year's homicides may be linked to an alleged shortage of cocaine. Police believe the supposed shortage is caused by their successful interdiction efforts and as a consequence, there is an increase in "bunk dope" cut with everything from detergent to plasterboard.)
• Valentine's Massacre Marked End Of Era (Katie C. Moore, a columnist for the Daily Herald, in in Arlington Heights, Illinois, says the warehouse where bootleggers killed their rivals in 1929 was demolished in 1967, when a Canadian businessman purchased the wall, once stained with the blood of the seven gangsters executed in front of it, and rebuilt it, brick by brick, in a men's club in Saskatchewan. "There's no question that what [Al Capone] did in the 1920s and '30s laid the foundation for organized crime today," said Ross Rice, a spokesman for the FBI. Some of the Mafia leaders of the 1970s were Capone's underlings in the 1920s. While street gangs and mob crime families do not now deal in illegal alcohol, they still have their hands in drugs, gambling and businesses in the Chicago area.)
• Study shows minorities more likely to do time for drug-related crimes (The Associated Press says a study by the Connecticut General Assembly's Office of Legislative Research found that while 62 percent of those arrested on drug offenses in 1997 were white, that group made up only 11 percent of those serving prison time for drug convictions. Statistics from the U.S. Justice Department show that nationwide, blacks account for 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted.)
• Dad Fights School On Drug Tests (UPI says the father of a teenager who was suspended from school in Ewing, New Jersey, for refusing to take a drug test after he fell asleep in class, says he and his son are ready to fight the school board.)
• 19 Inmates Moved In Bid To Bust Drug Ring (The Washington Post says hundreds of prison guards and state police, under the guise of conducting an emergency drill, yesterday removed 19 inmates from Maryland's maximum security House of Correction in Jessup. The exercise was intended to break up a network that officials said was dealing drugs and bootleg liquor in the 1,200-prisoner institution. Three correctional officers were also stopped as they came to work when special ion-scan machines at the prison entrance detected illegal drugs on their bodies.)
• Newspaper: Probes launched into Customs Service (According to the Associated Press, the Miami Herald said Sunday that investigators from the U.S. Senate and Treasury Department had launched nationwide probes into alleged mismanagement in the U.S. Customs Service. The probes were prompted in part by stories in the Herald that recounted dozens of examples of employees whose careers flourished despite instances of dating drug smugglers, tampering with evidence, skimming seized drug cash and having sex with a paid informant.)
• Federal Probes Target Customs (The Knight-Ridder news service version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Clinton To Discuss Drug War, Trade In Mexico (Reuters says U.S. President Clinton was due to arrive in the Yucatan city of Merida Monday for talks with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo that will focus heavily on the two countries' strained alliance in the drug war.)
• Clintons, Lawmakers Headed For Mexico (The UPI version notes Clinton was accompanied by two dozen members of Congress. On March 1 Clinton is expected to certify Mexico as a fully cooperating ally in the war on some drug users.)
• Clinton Turns Focus To Mexico (The Chicago Tribune version)
• Clinton And Zedillo To Talk About Drug War (The Houston Chronicle version)
• Clinton for Mexico for quick summit (The Associated Press version)
• Clinton To Go To Mexico (A different Associated Press version goes into more detail on the behind-the-scenes certification struggle.)
• U.S. Is Brushing Off Mexico's Drug Data (A New York Times piece about the annual contortions experienced by the United States government while certifying Mexico as an ally in the drug war says that by most statistical measures, the Mexican record looks especially bad this year. Drug seizures by the Mexican police have fallen significantly. Nearly all of the most important Mexican narcotics traffickers identified last year remain at large. The promised extraditions of some Mexican drug suspects to the United States have not materialized, and drug enforcement programs have been rocked by a series of public conflicts between the two governments. But "This is not about what Mexico has done," said one official with the Clinton administration. "This is about convincing the Hill that whatever Mexico has done is enough.")
• Pot Gets Judge's Approval (The Sunday Mail, in Australia, says Justice Alan Demack of Queensland last week discharged an invalid pensioner, 54, who had pleaded guilty to unlawfully producing and possessing a dangerous drug and two related charges. The judge ruled that marijuana use is acceptable for pain relief and noted once Anthony George Bulley used marijuana, he was able to stop using oral narcotics.)
• US Tinky Stink Makes British Week (A Boston Globe dispatch from London says the Brits are beside themselves over the Rev. Jerry Falwell's "Parents Alert" Thursday to guard children against the alleged gay influence of Tinky Winky, the largest of the four Teletubbies, the British import that has become a staple on US public television for toddlers. Commenting on stupidity among Americans is a favorite pastime here, but it takes a vivid imagination to find anything sexual about the Teletubbies. In London, teenagers and young adults have been known to take drugs and hold parties watching tapes of the show. Some critics here have suggested the underlying theme of the children's series is not sex, but the ingestion of prodigious amounts of hallucinogens.)
  Bytes: 79,100 Last updated: 2/17/99
  

  Saturday, February 13, 1999:

• Outpatient Commitment Bill (A list subscriber forwards an alert from Support Coalition Northwest, in Eugene, asking you to take action against a bill being drafted by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers that would radically expand "involuntary outpatient commitment." Already allowed in 40 states, including Oregon, the Orwellian and Kafkaesque law currently requires psychiatric patients to take certain drugs in order to remain free - no matter how useless or toxic such drugs are to them. The Myers bill would reportedly allow any two Oregonians to begin the process of an "investigation and intervention" of any other Oregonian who was not yet commitable. After an "investigation," if the subject refused to appear before the judge, the subject could be arrested. The judge could then order the subject to follow a "treatment plan," including taking psychiatric drugs against his or her will.)
• Patients get wrong mixture in dialysis (The Oregonian says one Portland-area patient is in critical condition and 84 others had abnormally low levels of sodium bicarbonate in their blood after they received the wrong kind of chemical solution this week during their dialysis treatments by Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and Providence Newberg Hospital.)
• Rogue Of The Week (Willamette Week, in Portland, jumps on the bandwagon of Oregon media trying to whip up voters' emotions over Oregon's new medical marijuana law, faulting Mike Assenberg for not knowing his rights under the voter-approved initiative.)
• Police Impound Store's Alleged Drug Paraphernalia (The Herald, in Everett, Washington, says local prohibition agents confiscated bongs, cigarette lighters, scales and other alleged drug paraphernalia from the Evergreen Smoke Shop Thursday afternoon.)
• Medical Synthetic Marijuana Is Expensive (A letter to the editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin rebuts an earlier letter from a drug warrior opposing medical marijuana.)
• Book Can Help Explain Medicinal Marijuana (Another letter to the editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin rebuts untrue statements about marijuana by plugging "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence," by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D., and Dr. John P. Morgan.)
• Ventura Says He'll Sign Hemp Bill (According to UPI, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura told a radio talk-show Friday in the Twin Cities that he and state Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson both support an industrial hemp bill pending in the state senate.)
• Judge Asks Sheriff For Drug Case List (The Topeka Capital-Journal, in Kansas, says Shawnee County District Judge Eric Rosen on Friday ordered Sheriff Dave Meneley to hand over a list of cases investigated by five of his prohibition agents. Rosen also ordered the district attorney's office to hand over copies of recent memos between prosecutors and the sheriff's office in which District Attorney Joan Hamilton requested explanations from Meneley for the decreased weight of the marijuana seized in the arrest of Carlos Hernandez, who is seeking dismissal of two drug charges from 1995.)
• Texas Inmates Tell U.S. Judge Of Abuses (A New York Times article in the San Jose Mercury News says Texas prisoners and their lawyers have been arguing for three weeks that the federal court supervision to which the state's prison system has been at least partly subject since 1980 should continue. Much of the testimony from prisoners has been a grim litany of abuses and humiliations. One man described being locked in a cage for five days. Another suffered a stroke, but his guards, failing to recognize it, simply ridiculed his stumbling gait rather than immediately summoning medical help. Yet another, driven to despair by abuse, tried to kill himself by biting into his arm until he hit a vein. Prisoners told of being raped by other inmates, beaten by guards, and covered in pepper spray. With 73 prisons and more than 140,000 prisoners, Texas's correctional system is second in size only to California's.)
• In Encounter, Police Altered His Opinions (The New York Times says Charles Padro stopped supporting New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's "quality-of-life" campaign after an encounter with the police themselves, who arrogantly ignored his civil rights. Padro said the two plainclothes officers told him he fit the profile of people who come to Washington Heights to buy drugs. "I'm Puerto Rican," Padro explained. "But I look more Italian. . . . Being a victim of crime prevention is an interesting thing," Padro said. "Once it happens, you start looking at the police very differently. You don't trust them.")
• With Liberty For Some: 500 Years Of Imprisonment In America (The Economist, in Britain, reviews the new book by Scott Christianson, "A Land Of Bondage," which examines the origins of the United States' prison-industrial complex. After Russia, America has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world. One in every 163 Americans is in jail or prison, a rate six times the average in Europe. America's zeal for imprisonment is usually attributed to a recent shift towards harsh law-enforcement policies, especially against drug users. To some degree, this is true. The number of people locked up has tripled since 1980. But the recent surge is not an anomaly. Bondage of one sort or another has played a central role in American history from the beginning. Popular support for mass incarceration and ever longer prison sentences is not merely a by-product of the past two decades' war on crime, but a consistent and ugly side of American society which has remained unquestioned for far too long.)
• Clinton To Go To Mexico Tomorrow (The Associated Press says Mexico's war against drug traffickers, highlighted by a new $400 million, land-sea-and-air battle plan, tops the agenda for a two-day meeting between U.S. President Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo beginning Sunday on the Yucatan Peninsula.)
• Mexico Anti-Drug Cooperation Key To Clinton Trip (The Reuters version)
• Clinton's Visit To Mexico Shadowed By Paradoxes (A different Associated Press article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer tries to explain the Mexican perspective on relations with the United States, and the role of the drug war in that relationship. While U.S. drug war hawks criticize Mexico for refusing to extradite its citizens to face American charges, Mexican officials have been trying for three years to convince a U.S. court to return former Deputy Attorney General Mario Ruiz Massieu to face charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. U.S. courts have said they lack evidence.)
• Mexico slams U.S. Drugs Certification Policy (According to Reuters, Mexican Interior Minister Francisco Labastida criticised the United States on Friday ahead of a visit by President Clinton, saying Washington's practice of certifying allies in the war on drugs was unfair and inhibited cooperation. Diplomats from both countries said the certification issue was not a topic scheduled for discussion by Clinton and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. But the two will dedicate a big part of their meeting to drawing up new accords linked to the "Binational Alliance against Drugs," created in May 1997 during Clinton's first visit to Mexico.)
• Mexico Freed Drug Suspect, Official Says Release Ordered Despite Warrant (The Washington Post says the Mexican attorney general's Organized Crime Unit recently captured Humberto Garcia Abrego, the man believed to be the country's most notorious drug money launderer, detained and interrogated him for three weeks, and then set him free despite a federal warrant for his arrest.)
• Jail Breeds Gang 'Virus' Say Analysts (The Edmonton Sun, in Alberta, says a program to be broadcast tonight on CBC's "Rough Cuts," produced by Katerina Cizek, a filmmaker who documented Winnipeg's street gang problem, shows that a divide and conquer anti-gang policy in Manitoba prisons has sent the once local problem countrywide.)
  Bytes: 85,600 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Friday, February 12, 1999:

• Campus weapons violations top 540 (The Oregonian says a report by the state Department of Education shows Oregon public schools also expelled 692 students for violations involving alcohol and other drugs during the 1997-98 academic year.)
• Former California Candidate, Wife to Make First Public Appearance Sunday (A press release on U.S. Newswire announces a news conference to be held in conjunction with the Libertarian Party of California state convention at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel. Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for governor, and his wife, Michele, will speak about their recent Prop. 215 arrest for cultivating marijuana.)
• Police Sued Over Arrest, Pot Seizure (The Los Angeles Times says Dean Jones of Simi Valley filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city's Police Department, alleging that officers illegally arrested him and seized marijuana plants that he was cultivating for medicinal use. Jones, 62, is seeking an injunction against the department forcing officers to investigate whether a person is allowed by law to cultivate marijuana before making an arrest or seizing pot plants.)
• Narc Dog Sniffs Out 'Niner Fan (San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler says the money that Christine Clark Fed-Ex'd to a friend in Virginia to pay off a losing bet on the 49ers-Falcons playoff game was delivered by two badge-flashing narcs who thought the package seemed suspicious - maybe because it was the shape and size of a Cheech and Chong doobie.)
• A Selective Passion For Truth (Arkansas Times columnist Mara Leverett follows up on her call last week for less scrutiny of President Clinton's dealings with Monica Lewinsky and more scrutiny of his connection to Barry Seal's officially sanctioned cocaine smuggling through Mena airport. Republican Arkansas U.S. Representative Asa Hutchinson, the House manager who has been so aggressive in his prosecution of Clinton, expounding repeatedly on his desire only to get at "the truth" of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, was the U.S. attorney for western Arkansas back in the 1980s, when he had a chance to prosecute Seal, the smuggler, and expose the drug trade's connections to Clinton, Bush, and the CIA. But in fact, various witnesses indicate Hutchinson stymied several investigations into alleged drug-trafficking at Mena. At the time, and to this day, Hutchinson casts himself as an anti-drug crusader.)
• Public Education With A Twist: Office Of National Drug Control Policy Reaches Youth In Unconventional Ways (A press release on PR Newswire from the White House drug czar's office about your tax dollars at work says ONDCP will spend some of its new $2 billion anti-drug advertising budget on an online concert Feb. 15 by an Australian rock band, Silverchair.)
• McCaffrey: Headed For Red Cross? (According to the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, today's Washington Times says the White House drug czar will take the helm at the American Red Cross by June 1, and a search for the third Clinton drug czar is underway.)
• Using Diet To Combat Addiction (The Toronto Star says that when Kathleen DesMaisons, the head of Radiant Recovery, an addiction centre in New Mexico, seriously delved into the research about sugar, brain chemistry, mood disorders and alcoholism, there was a lot to review. Besides scores of scientific papers and journals linking sugar and brain chemistry to alcoholism, there were many books published. Her research became the basis for a diet program with an unheard of 92 per cent recovery rate for alcoholics. This has stayed at 85 per cent in a five-year follow-up. Recovery rates for alcoholism programs vary from as low as 25 per cent to about 50 per cent, depending on the support available and how recovery is defined. Today she believes that even people who are not addicted to alcohol or other drugs can have a skewed body chemistry that plunges them into a type of sugar sensitivity that leads to what has often been labelled "an alcoholic personality" - prone to mood swings, poor impulse control, and excess in many aspects of living. Her research became her doctoral thesis, then a book, "Potatoes Not Prozac," now being released in paperback.)
• Clinton To Visit Mexico For Crucial Negotiations (A Knight-Ridder news service article in the Orange County Register says U.S. President Clinton is traveling to Merida, on the Yucatan Peninsula, to meet Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo on Monday for their seventh - and probably most important - summit. The meeting may yield new agreements on fighting drug traffickers.)
• Mexican official balks at certification (According to UPI, Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Mexico's interior minister, criticized the unilateral American practice of certifying drug-war allies in a radio interview today in Mexico City, in advance of a trip to Mexico by U.S. President Clinton on Sunday and Monday.)
• Cocaine Production Exploding (According to UPI, General Barry McCaffrey, citing previously secret CIA crop estimates that now will be made public periodically, told a group of diplomats and academics at the University of Miami Thursday that coca production rose 26 percent in Colombia last year. He also said that between 1995 and 1998, coca cultivation declined by 56 percent in Peru and 22 percent in Bolivia.)
• U.S. Rethinks Anti-Drug Aid To Colombia (A Dallas Morning News article in the Orange County Register says a decision by Colombian President Andres Pastrana to halt anti-drug efforts and extend leftist rebel control over a giant demilitarized "peace zone" the size of Switzerland has prompted a potentially serious policy dispute with Washington, putting $289 million in U.S. drug war funding under scrutiny.)
• Peru Army No. 2 Arrested In Drug Case, Sources Say (Reuters says an anti-drugs court in Peru ordered the arrest of Gen. Tomas Marky, the army's second-in-command. Gen. Marky was detained early this month following accusations by an army lieutenant - himself in prison on drug-trafficking charges - that the general failed in 1995 to inform authorities that he had confiscated traffickers' suitcases believed to hold $1 million.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 78 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - As certification debate nears, Mexico declares "total war" on drugs; White House releases drug strategy amid criticism from reformers; New York state's top judge calls for rethinking of Rockefeller drug laws; County requests federal okay to conduct medical marijuana study; Impact of the closure of a needle exchange program; an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Young entrepreneurs and the culture of prohibition)
  Bytes: 83,300 Last updated: 2/25/99
  

  Thursday, February 11, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Employee Fired For Legal Marinol Use Can Sue, Federal Appeals Court Rules; No Link Between Miscarriages And Marijuana Use, Study Says; County Requests Federal Okay To Conduct Medical Marijuana Study; Air Force Forbids Use Of Legal Hemp Seed Oil; Congressman Introduces Bill Banning Research On Drug War Alternatives)
• Vote on prison bill causes a stir (The Oregonian says Republicans in the Oregon Senate have forced a vote today on a prison-siting bill that would reverse Governor Kitzhaber's attempt to put a new women's prison and intake center near Wilsonville, just south of Portland. The GOP legislation would instead put the 1,300-bed complex in the Eastern Oregon city of Umatilla. The governor's office says the bill gives unfair financial incentives to the Umatilla area.)
• Marion County seeks anti-gang funds (The Oregonian says county law enforcement officials want $4.6 million from the Oregon legislature. The unpleasantness in Eugene seems to have been forgotten.)
• High schoolers can get $1,000 bounty under new drug "snitch" program (A press release from the Libertarian Party, in Washington, D.C., protests a plan by three high schools in Portland, Oregon, to reward teenagers who anonymously turn in other students on drug charges.)
• Kubbys Knew Of Impending Arrest (Tahoe World, in Tahoe City, California, recounts the cultivation bust and legal strategy of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for governor, and his wife, Michele.)
• Auburn Grand Jury To Hear Kubby Marijuana Case (The Tahoe World says the district attorney in Placer County, California, will withdraw the existing indictment for marijuana cultivation and possession for sale against Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, so the case can be presented to a criminal grand jury on Feb. 17. Dale Wood, the attorney representing the Kubbys, said the decision would deprive them of a public hearing.)
• Marijuana Never Killed Anyone, Unlike Other Drugs (A letter to the editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is skeptical about a drug warrior's rhetoric. "If marijuana isn't a medicine, why are patients being supplied marijuana by the federal government, and why is the active ingredient in marijuana used as medicine in pills?")
• Is Hemp Economically Sound? (MSNBC KTSM-TV, in El Paso, Texas, says an industrial hemp bill before the New Mexico legislature passed its first hurdle when the House Agriculture Committee recommended its passage. The bill has to pass through one more committee before it can go to the full house. The proposed law would allocate $50,000 to New Mexico State University to study the economic feasibility of a state hemp industry.)
• Drug Money Investigation To Be Started (The Associated Press says Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill announced Wednesday that her office had begun an accounting of the way police departments deal with seized property. Police have been diverting from public schools millions of dollars seized in drug cases. State law requires such money seized by police to go through a state court, which usually designates the money to be used for educational purposes.)
• Make Pot Fine $5,000, Brookfield Judge Says (According to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, in Wisconsin, Judge Richard J. Steinberg says the $2,000 fine currently assessed for marijuana possession locally is "getting the attention of pot smokers," so the threat of a $5,000 maximum fine might have a bigger impact still. Judge Steinberg suggested adopting the higher fine to the city attorney's office this week. But according to Brookfield Police Chief Robert Jacobs, "I don't see any increased benefit from doing that. If a kid doesn't care about the $2,000, they're not going to care about the $5,000, either.")
• Two Freedom Fighters With One Stone (Diane Fornbacher, High Times magazine's Freedom Fighter of the Month for January, describes her latest arrest and that of May 1998 Freedom Fighter Julien Heicklen at Penn State University.)
• Man Arrested A Second Time For Marijuana Operation (A cautionary tale revealing typical American journalistic objectivity, by MSNBC WMSV-TV, Channel 4 in Nashville, Tennessee, says the station informed on Terry Barbour, a somewhat naive local cannabis retailer and enthusiast, after it interviewed him following his arraignment on pot charges, and taped him and friends using "drugs" in the news crews' presence. Barbour is now being held in the Putnam County jail without bond.)
• Federal `Drug War' Strategy Is Bound To Fail - Again (San Jose Mercury News columnist Joanne Jacobs says this year's Clinton administration blueprint for the war on some drug users reveals the same old strategy, and it's likely to produce the same old results. Despite this year's $17.8 billion budget, the cost to eradicate coca crops in South America keeps going up, while the street price of cocaine keeps going down. The one strategy that works - treatment for addicts - gets only a fraction of the funding.)
• MP's Marijuana Motion Gathering Steam (The Toronto Globe & Mail notes Bloc Quebecois Member of Parliament Bernard Bigras is sponsoring a motion in the House of Commons asking the government to study the benefits of medical marijuana. Mr. Bigras is suggesting that Health Canada conduct a three-year research program involving 400 to 600 patients before considering legalizing the substance. His motion will force the government to come up with a position on this issue before it comes to a vote in May.)
• Howard's Drug War Strategy Misfires (An op-ed in the Age, in Melbourne, notes the Australian Prime Minister claimed in Parliament on Tuesday that his Government's "tough on drugs" strategy was working. The evidence? Howard quoted figures to show that the authorities were making record seizures of illicit drugs. But a cap of heroin on the streets of Melbourne is now about the same price as a slab of full-strength beer. For two or three teenagers looking for a buzz or oblivion, heroin represents good value by comparison to booze - and it's easier to obtain. The war on drugs has failed. The function of society is to ensure that experimentation with drugs occurs as safely as possible and, for those who become addicted, supply and distribution is organised so that the addicts can lead a productive life outside crime.)
• U.S. Troubled By Interpol's Myanmar Drug Meeting (According to Reuters, the United States said Thursday it would not attend an Interpol anti-narcotics meeting in Myanmar because it believes Yangon may use the event to give a false picture of its drug suppression efforts.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 6 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 85 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Scapegoating teens buttresses drug war, by Mike Males. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Hitting a wall of opposition; Welfare drug test plan gets mixed reaction; Court files: truth or DARE; and, The erosion of our rights. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Drug arrests continue; Westbound I-40 pours drug cash on police; Feds pay drug case witness $2 million; Is plea bargaining an illegal tactic?; and, The prison craze and the crime rate. Articles about Medical Marijuana include - Supporters are grim as Chavez led away to jail; Kubbys prepared for marijuana arrests; Not-so-secret farm keeps growing; and, Hard data trickles in as scientists study marijuana. International News articles include - Mexico turns to high-tech tools in war on drugs; Mcleish set to create a task force of drug busters; Chirac calls for EU to harmonise anti-drug laws; Heroin overdose deaths hit a record 600; and, Anti-drug aid endangered. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net points your browser to Pritchett cartoons on drug policy; and the "face lift" at the Legalize-USA site. Volunteer of the Month: Mike Gogulski. The Quote of the Week cites Stanislaw Lec.)
  Bytes: 112,000 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Wednesday, February 10, 1999:

• Stealing Newborn Children Due To Cannabis (D. Paul Stanford, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, explains how poor expectant mothers who have to use the Oregon Health Plan for their primary health insurance can avoid secret drug testing in the doctor's office and hospital that would incite the state of Oregon to steal their children.)
• CRRH e-mail list, TV show and more (D. Paul Stanford of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp invites people interested in cannabis-related issues to join the CRRH e-mail list. Plus, find out about CRRH's weekly 30-minute cable television show in Oregon called "Cannabis Common Sense," and the online video library maintained by CRRH.)
• $20 million damages against drug company upheld (The Associated Press says the Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the punitive damages assessed by a jury after Douglas Axen of Multnomah County went blind from taking amiodarone, manufactured by American Home Products' pharmaceutical division, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, under the brand name Cordarone.)
• Bill would ban live TV coverage of police tactical events (The Associated Press says the Oregon Council of Police Associations has asked the legislature to ban live television news coverage of tactical police operations, apparently concerned that local news broadcasters showed Portland police trying to kill Steven Dons last winter by trussing his naked bleeding body over a police van and withholding medical care from him for several hours.)
• Police want to pull plug on live broadcasts (The Oregonian version)
• Take two chocolates and call me in the morning (The Oregonian marks Valentine's Day with a review of what's been learned in recent years about chocolate as a psychoactive substance. One intriguing study about chocolate's chemicals that appeared in the journal Nature nearly three years ago continues to receive attention. Daniele Piomelli of the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego reported chocolate contains substances that might mimic the effects of marijuana.)
• DEA Employee Kills Himself in Field Office (The Los Angeles Times says Charles Carlon, a civilian employee of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, suspected of using his computer to download child pornography, shot himself to death Sunday at the agency's Los Angeles field office.)
• Legalize, Then Tax Drugs (A letter to the editor of the Austin American-Statesman, in Texas, says that in order to understand what happened to the unkept promises of progress for racial minorities in the 1960s, one has to consider the history of prohibition and today's illicit drug trade, which was spawned in the '60s. Prohibition is a recipe for disaster, which is what we have. If you want to start healing the damage, by all means teach personal responsibility, but teach by example, by first legalizing, taxing and regulating all drugs, gambling and other vices, so that users, not the purveyor or the state, are solely responsible for the consequences of their behavior.)
• DEA Bust Leads To School Bus Crash (According to UPI, the Drug Enforcement Administration says a car containing 50 kilograms of cocaine and a special agent's unmarked car both hit a school bus in Yonkers, New York, during a chase, sending 28 children and the driver to the hospital.)
• Lemmy Motorhead Frontman Lemmy Wants Drugs Legalised (According to World Entertainment News Network, the hard rock icon said, "I can't understand why people are so stupid as to put kids in jail for smoking a few joints." However, Lemmy draws the line at decriminalising heroin.)
• Woman Tests D.C.'S Ban On Medicinal Use Of Marijuana (An Associated Press article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer notes multiple sclerosis patient Renee Emry Wolfe is being prosecuted for lighting up a joint in the office of Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla.)
• Medical Marijuana: Movement Finds Unexpected Ally (The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report says this week's National Journal, published by Kaiser, reports that former Reagan administration aide Lyn Nofziger has penned a laudatory foreword to the new book "Marijuana Rx: The Patients' Fight for Medical Pot." Nofziger writes that he obtained "marijuana illegally to help his daughter ease the effects of the chemotherapy used to treat her lymph cancer.")
• Prison-Industrial Complex Is A Growing Threat (Washington Post columnist Neal R. Peirce, syndicated in the Houston Chronicle, belatedly recounts Eric Schlosser's disturbing report, "The Prison-Industrial Complex," in the December issue of Atlantic Monthly. Noting the violent crime rate in America is at a 25-year-low, Peirce says the idea that crime is declining because of high incarceration rates is reprehensible on three counts: the bestial nature of prison life, a race-based denial of equal rights and civil rights reminiscent of the old South Africa, and a bloated, overwhelmingly white prison-industrial complex making money off the whole. The prison craze besmirches the name of America. In the best of economic times, in a nation dominant on the world stage, it's more intolerable than ever. We need a vigorous political debate: how to build safer communities without incarcerating so many millions of our fellow citizens.)
• Schools To Get Tough On Drugs (The Daily Courier, in Kelowna, British Columbia, says that in response to more students showing up stoned and drunk in local classrooms, the school district will unveil an innovative anti-drug program tonight that promises to help teenage drug users kick their habit, curtail distribution and educate students before they start experimenting. The new, improved program is based on an existing anti-drug initiative in schools, but will have a lot more money behind it. Of the 1,300 suspensions of up to 10 days handed to students last year, about 50 were due to drug use or trafficking in school. Of the 68 students suspended for 10 days or more last year, a dozen were drug-related and another dozen showed up drunk.)
• Clinton Faces Thorny Issues In Mexico Visit (Reuters says U.S. President Clinton is set to visit Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo this weekend to discuss the thorny issues of drug trafficking, illegal immigration and border pollution.)
• Mexico Strains Drug Ally Status (The Washington Post says Mexico has produced such dismal results in combating drug trafficking in the past year that Mexican and U.S. officials say they are braced for an aggressive attempt by the U.S. Congress to decertify its southern neighbor as an ally in the drug war and add it to the "black list" of nations judged failures in the antidrug effort.)
• I Won't Budge On Heroin: PM (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, says drug experts denounced Prime Minister John Howard last night after he refused to drop his opposition to heroin-maintenance trials despite new statistics showing a sharp increase in drug-related deaths.)
• Myanmar Raps Britain, U.S. Over Drug Talks (According to Reuters, Myanmar's military government said Wednesday it greatly regretted decisions by the United States and Britain to boycott an Interpol conference on heroin production and trafficking to be held later this month. Yangon said Britain and the United States, as two of the largest markets for heroin, had a "special responsibility" to take part. The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway have also said they will not attend.)
• Scientist's Knife Trick Leaves Testing In Chaos (The Daily Mail, in Britain, says Dr David Brown, a physical chemist, believes he has proved what athletes have long claimed - that the security packs in which their urine samples are transported to laboratories for testing can be opened and resealed without detection. The implications are enormous. In three minutes, with just a kettle of boiling water and a small knife, Dr Brown has so drastically damaged the credibility of drugs testing that sports federations worldwide could be left facing huge claims for compensation from athletes whose careers have been shattered.)
  Bytes: 89,300 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Tuesday, February 9, 1999:

• Former drug tester admits taking shortcuts (The Oregonian says Sherrie L. Kaneaster, the former owner of a Portland-area urine-testing business, pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to taking shortcuts in testing truck drivers from 1995 to 1997. U.S. Department of Transportation drug-testing regulations require a physician trained to evaluate drug tests to review the results, both negative and positive. Kaneaster falsely certified that such evaluations had occurred.)
• Heroin overdose deaths soar in Oregon (The Associated Press doesn't admit the war on some drug users has failed, but says deaths in Oregon attributable to injecting tainted street heroin totaled 179 in 1998, 10 times the 18 deaths recorded in 1991. The wire service ignores the toll from alcohol, prescription drugs and coerced medicating in order to assert that heroin accounted for 76 percent of the state's total so-called drug overdoses.)
• Kubby Case To Go Before Grand Jury (The Auburn Journal, in California, says 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby's marijuana cultivation case will be presented to a criminal grand jury on Feb. 17. The district attorney's office will withdraw the existing indictment. Dale Wood, a Tahoe City attorney representing the Kubbys, said the decision would deprive Kubby of a public hearing of his case.)
• California NORML Report: 1999 State Marijuana Legislation (A news release from California NORML reviews the status of several cannabis-related bills in the state legislature. Expect a repeat of Sen. Vasconcellos's medical marijuana bill, S.B. 535 to be passed and signed into law by Gov. Davis - minus some undesirable details that were incorporated to win former Attorney General Lungren's support.)
• Federal Drug Law Is Racist (An op-ed in the Capital Times, in Wisconsin, from an attorney in Madison says Madison Urban Ministry and other groups fighting racism are to be applauded for their efforts, but there is a general failure to recognize and address one area in which racism continues to be both institutionalized and pervasive: the criminal justice system and the war on drugs, particularly mandatory minimums and the crack cocaine/powder cocaine sentencing disparity.)
• Madison A Major Center Of Drug-Testing Industry (The Wisconsin State Journal says millions of dollars are spent in Madison by the federal government and pharmaceutical companies to clinically test products for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The number of drugs that actually make it to the market is extremely small. About one in 5,000 drugs will eventually make it to human trials. The University of Wisconsin typically does about 500 new trials a year, meaning there are between 1,000 and 1,500 trials being conducted there at any given time.)
• Top New York Judge Calls For Easing Some Drug Laws (The New York Times says New York state's chief judge, Judith Kaye, proposed several reforms to the state's Rockefeller drug laws that would reduce sentences for some defendants found guilty of selling or possessing narcotics.)
• The Police Misconduct We Never See (An op-ed in the New York Times by an attorney experienced in police-misconduct cases recounts several local instances of outrageous behavior by New York's finest. Most claims of police misconduct never make headlines, but the reality is that accusations against the police for excessive force, illegal arrests and the like have risen sharply in New York City in the past four years, much more so than other claims against the city.)
• Martin In Federal Court (The San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune, in California, says eight days after playing in the Super Bowl, Atlanta Falcons receiver Tony Martin was brought to court in manacles and charged Monday with money laundering and conspiracy stemming from his longtime friendship with a seller of illegal drugs. Martin is not accused of involvement in his friend's drug business. Prosecutors said he wrote checks to lease luxury cars and pay legal fees because his friend's lawyers wouldn't take cash.)
• MS Patient Faces Marijuana Trial (The Associated Press notes Renee Emry Wolfe, a 38-year-old mother of three from Ann Arbor, Michigan, faces a trial April 26 in Washington, D.C., and up to 180 days in jail for lighting a joint Sept. 15 in the office of Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., to bring attention to the issue of medical marijuana. "This patient has run out of patience," said Mrs. Wolfe.)
• Medical need or publicity stunt? (A slightly different Associated Press account in the Ann Arbor News)
• Please help publicize the prosecution of a medicinal marijuana user (A press release from the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, D.C., asks you to call your local mass media about the upcoming trial of multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana activist Renee Emry-Wolfe.)
• Vice President Unveils Plan To Fight Drugs (The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, in Texas, says Al Gore yesterday released the Clinton administration's $18 billion, five-part strategy for escalating the war on some drug users.)
• New Anti-Drug Proposal Puts Focus On Children (The Tulsa World version)
• Gore Says Drug Issue Is In Part 'Spiritual' (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version suggests Vice President Al Gore apparently wants to be in charge of the theocracy.)
• Gore: Drug Policy To Tackle `Spiritual Problem' (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Former Toronto Cop Faces Drug Charges (The National Post, in Canada, says that when Abraham Norman Chesley Bailey was arrested at his Coffee Time doughnut shop in Toronto last Friday, a place frequented by local high school students, and charged with a sheaf of drug trafficking offences, his former colleagues at the Toronto Police department weren't in the slightest surprised. Roughing up prisoners may be okay; framing suspects is arguably tolerable if they're believed to be guilty anyway, but dealing heroin to young people? Well, that's beyond the pale.)
• U.S. officials say Colombian cocaine production is booming (According to the Los Angeles Time, General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, said cultivation of cocaine has jumped 26 percent in the past year in Colombia, with signs of an increase in opium production there as well.)
• Major Antidrug Effort Is Unveiled (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
• Heroin Overdose Deaths Hit A Record 600 (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says a study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has found that heroin-related deaths have increased 10 per cent in the last year. The centre's executive director, Professor Wayne Hall, didn't mention that alcohol and tobacco probably killed more than 100 times as many Australians, but he did predict that the heroin toll is likely to continue increasing because people do not tend to die early in drug use. He warned that this peak in the cycle of deaths "throws up a desperate search for one-stop solutions" which could not work for a problem that had developed over 30 years. He called for a State or national drug summit to try to find solutions and lift the issue out of the political arena. "I don't think there is an answer," he said. "There are a variety of things which could be done." Ensuring safer injecting and giving users somewhere to inject away from the street could contribute, he said.)
• Vatican Killer Had 'Traces Of Cannabis' (According to the Times, in Britain, the Vatican said yesterday, after a nine-month investigation, that the case of a Swiss Guard who killed his commanding officer and then shot himself was closed. The Vatican also suggested for the first time that the murderer had been under the influence of cannabis, apparently because "traces of cannabis" were in his system. Just like a zillion other 23-year-old Italians who smoked cannabis at some point in the last few weeks, but didn't kill anybody. Vice-Corporal Cedric Tornay's mother contested the Vatican's conclusions, insisting her son had been "framed" as part of a Vatican plot to eliminate the commander.)
• Pot, Brain Cyst Might Explain Vatican Killing (A brief but surrealistic Orange County Register version says the Vatican based its conclusions partly on ".38 interviews.")
• 2 Policemen Sentenced In Rostov-On-Don (Itar-Tass, in Russia, says the two prohibition agents were sentenced to three and four years, respectively, for abuse of office, illegal entry, robbery, battery, bribe-taking and narcotic drugs storage. Paradoxically, the crimes were committed in the "Order" operation and exposed by a hardened criminal.)
  Bytes: 100,000 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Monday, February 8, 1999:

• Virtues Of Hemp Winning Over Fans In Farm-Minded Idaho (A Spokane, Washington, Spokesman-Review article in the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune says Mike Schlepp, president of the Kootenai-Shoshone chapter of the Idaho Farm Bureau, and a lot of other Idaho farmers like him are interested in growing industrial hemp. The Idaho Farm Bureau, which represents 11,300 members, voted in 1996 to "encourage the legalization of cultivation and production of industrial grade hemp." Pat Takasugi, the state's director of agriculture, says "Agriculture in Idaho is under the gun. We're looking for alternative crops.")
• Escaped Inmate Jailed for 10 Days (The Associated Press notes Circuit Judge Charles Stone today mercifully sentenced Alfred Odell Martin III, who was extradited from Michigan to Virginia after leading an "exemplary" life for 25 years while on the lam for selling $10 worth of marijuana to an informant. Martin is currently serving a one-year jail sentence for his original marijuana conviction. But he has been held for more than two months and could be released early for good behavior.)
• Florida Initiative (A list subscriber posts the text of a medical marijuana ballot measure that would amend the state constitution.)
• In Jury Rooms, A Form of Civil Protest Grows (A lengthy article in the Washington Post says jury nullification is increasing to unprecedented levels - and the newspaper wants to help stamp it out so much that it completely ignores the legal and constitutional foundations for jury nullifaction. The most concrete sign of the trend is a sharp increase in the percentage of trials that end in hung juries. If jurors vote not to convict because they don't believe drug laws are fair, they may disguise their true feelings by simply saying the evidence wasn't there or the prosecution didn't make its case. Otherwise, they risk being ejected from the jury box.)
• One Juror's Convictions (A sidebar to the Washington Post's article on the increasing prevalence of jury nullification recounts the prosecution in Colorado of Laura Kriho. The 34-year-old college research assistant was convicted of obstructing justice for failing to reveal during the jury screening process that she had been arrested for LSD possession 12 years earlier, and for failing to disclose that she was opposed to the enforcement of some drug laws. The Colorado Court of Appeals is expected to rule on her case any day.)
• Pot Fight Unites Clinton Nemesis With The Man Who Didn't Inhale (The Washington Post notes the constitutionality of the budget resolution sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr preventing District of Columbia voters from learning whether they approved a local medical-marijuana ballot measure last November is being defended in the courts by the Clinton administration's Justice Department, Barr's nemesis.)
• Greener Grass (U.S. News & World Report says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, wants out.)
• New Anti-Drug Strategy Announced (An Associated Press article in the Orange County Register says the Clinton administration is announcing a five-part plan designed to cut the nation's drug problem in half by 2007, emphasizing the need for a drug-control strategy that measures success and failure - apparently so the government can know which statistics to manipulate.)
• Drug Warriors To Be Held Accountable In 5-Part Plan (The headline of the Arizona Republic version seems a little optimistic.)
• Accountability Promised For Drug Effort (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)
• Fact Sheet on 1999 National Drug Control Strategy (A White House press release announces today's release of the 1999 National Drug Control Strategy, described as "a comprehensive long-term plan to reduce drug use and availability to historic new lows.")
• Remarks by the Vice President on the 1999 National Drug Control Strategy (A White House transcript of Al Gore mouthing the obligatory platitudes and inanities about the purported progress of the war on some drug use.)
• Briefing by Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and General Barry McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (A White House transcript of the official spin on the drug strategy just announced by the Vice President.)
• In A Course For Drug Users, Emphasis Is On Saving Lives (The Province, in Vancouver, British Columbia, describes Peer Support Training offered by the Vancouver-Richmond health board. It isn't trying to talk users out of their drugs. Instead, it offers addicts blunt lessions on how to survive illegal hard drugs and what to do to revive a friend having a toxic reaction.)
• Mexico Rejects Extradition For 5 (According to the Chicago Tribune, Mexico on Sunday rejected the U.S. request for the men implicated in "Operation Casablanca," the largest money-laundering case in U.S. history, saying it would instead try them in Mexico.)
• U.S. Offers To Help Mexico Convict Drug Suspects (Reuters says the dispute between the United States and Mexico over America's "Operation Casablanca" money-laundering sting continued Monday when the U.S. offered to "help" Mexico prosecute the five accused bankers it refuses to extradite.)
• Govt Plans Drugs Debate (The Illawarra Mercury, in Australia, says the New South Wales Government announced a parliamentary summit on the drugs crisis yesterday as a Health Department report cleared staff at Redfern's Caroline Lane exchange of supplying needles to a youth who was pictured in the Sun-Herald shooting up in the gutter.)
• Police Unable To Hinder Youths Narcotics Use (A translation of an article from Svenska Dagbladet, in Sweden, says a report from the Crime Prevention Council has concluded that the involvement of police in two drug education programs appears to have had little effect on pupils' attitudes. The study investigated VAGA, the Swedish DARE franchise; and the Rave Commission. Criminal statistics shows that drug use among Swedish youths is on the increase.)
  Bytes: 127,000 Last updated: 3/2/99
  

  Sunday, February 7, 1999:

• Oregon Medical Marijuana Act patient forms (Contigo-Conmigo, an Oregon non-profit group dedicated to supporting patients who use medical marijuana and educating health-care professionals who should know about it, provides two forms, rendered here into Adobe Acrobat .pdf files: a Cannabis Patient Drug Information Sheet, of dubious value due to unmerited warnings, such as that cannabis is "not recommended if patient has liver failure,"; and application instructions for patients seeking registry cards from the state Health Division.)
• East Side Still Hazy On Marijuana Law (The Spokesman-Review, in Spokane, Washington, says medical marijuana may be legal west of the Cascades, but in Eastern Washington, the new state law has so far been all smoke. Vague definitions in the law leave police, physicians and patients in an odd game of cat-and-mouse, anxiously waiting for someone to make the first move. Although police in Eastern Washington apparently haven't busted any medical-marijuana patients yet, the commander of the Spokane Regional Drug Task Force, sheriff's Lt. Chan Bailey, says police are grappling with the uncertainty of the law, particularly the undefined "60-day supply" it allows. The Food and Drug Administration says that's a pound. The California Attorney General's Office draws the line at two ounces.)
• Reason Has Been Lost In The War On Crime (Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large slams America's prison-industrial complex, making reference to Eric Schlosser's article in the December Atlantic Monthly, Angela Davis's recent eloquence on the issue, and Washington state Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, whose daughter was murdered by a convicted sex offender, and who introduced a bill to save taxpayers money by reducing sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. The Atlantic article traced the current emphasis on prisons back to liberal politicians who needed a shield against conservative claims they were soft on crime. They found that building prisons was an easy retort. And now everyone is afraid to stop for fear of seeming weak.)
• Idaho Farmers Look To Hemp As New Crop (The Spokesman-Review, in Spokane, Washington, says Mike Schlepp, president of the Kootenai-Shoshone chapter of the Idaho Farm Bureau, and a lot of other Idaho farmers like him are interested in growing industrial hemp. The Idaho Farm Bureau, which represents 11,300 members, voted in 1996 to "encourage the legalization of cultivation and production of industrial grade hemp." Pat Takasugi, the state's director of agriculture, says "Agriculture in Idaho is under the gun. We're looking for alternative crops.")
• Ex-Candidate Knew Of Probe (The San Jose Mercury News says the cultivation bust of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor, promises to become one of the highest-profile tests to date of Proposition 215.)
• Former Gubernatorial Candidate Tipped Off To Marijuana Investigation (A lengthier version in the Sacramento Bee identifies the article's source as the Associated Press.)
• Steve Kubby requests LTEs to Sacramento Bee (The Media Awareness Project forwards a plea from the medical-marijuana patient/activist seeking letters to the editor of the most widely read newspaper in Placer County, where the 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor was arrested for growing marijuana. The grand jury hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16.)
• Arrest Of California Cannabis Journalist Shows That The War On Medical Marijuana Has Become A War on The First Amendment (Richard Cowan of marijuananews.com analyzes the disturbing arrest of Pete Brady, a veteran reporter for marijuana-related publications. Brady is on federal and state probation arising from a 1994 marijuana arrest, and faces two to four years in prison after being charged by federal and state authorities in connection with the arrest of Steve Kubby in California. Using the law to persecute medical marijuana users and activists is intolerable. When the people being persecuted also happen to be professional journalists doing their job, it becomes political prosecution of the sort that is dangerous to everyone. Organizations such as PEN that are devoted to defending journalists who risk their lives covering civil wars in other countries must not turn their backs on people like Pete Brady.)
• Chavez Sentence Is Terribly Unjust (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register expresses dismay over the six year prison sentence imposed on Marvin Chavez, a spinal arthritis victim, for illegally distributing marijuana to cancer patients in severe pain. Chavez is an activist! Activists are heroes, not criminals. They deserve medals, not prison sentences. Our country was founded by activists. Whether you agree with an activist's cause is academic, once you recognize that his motivation is social change, not personal gain.)
• IOM report release date (Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative says the release of the long-awaited report on medical marijuana from the Institute of Medicine, commissioned two years ago by the White House drug czar, has been delayed again, until at least mid-March.)
• 1999 California NORML State Conference at Pismo Beach, California - Feb. 13-14 (California NORML posts the program agenda for its gathering next weekend.)
• Anti-Marijuana Legislation in Sacramento (A news release from California NORML asks activists to lobby against S.B. 273, introduced by Senator Bill Knight, which would increase the fine for marijuana possession from $100 to $1,000; and ABX1-21, introduced by Assemblyman Ken Maddox, which would require schools immediately to suspend and recommend expulsion of students caught possessing less than an ounce of marijuana.)
• Cigarette Hikes Fire Up Black Market (The Oakland Tribune says that after tax hikes on Jan. 1 nearly doubled the price of cigarettes in California, stolen and illegally imported cigarettes are feeding a burgeoning black market. Far from getting smokers to quit, the tax hike is simply forcing them to get creative, retailers say. Russell Graham, manager of the Tobacco Loft in Pleasanton, said his store had sold out of rolling machines.)
• Truth or DARE (The Los Angeles Times version of last week's news about the private corporation that administers DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, seeking $50 million, alleging it was libeled in a March 1998 article by freelance writer Stephen Glass)
• By Look And By Deed Cops' Tactics Can Cast Suspicion On Innocent (The Arizona Republic says that, to police, Mickel Morales behaved like a drug dealer after he flew into Tucson on a one-way airline ticket bought at the last minute. However, a two-day investigation that included following him and finally asking to search his belongings revealed the actions of a fiber optics repairman sent to Tucson on an emergency repair job. Morales said Friday that he was considering filing a harassment complaint against police in Tucson. And he is not alone. The repairman's experience shows the pitfalls of racial profiling and judging people simply by their appearance and actions.)
• Most Dangerous Occupation: Cop? Narc? Fireman? Cab Driver? Soldier? (According to a list subscriber, ABC News indicates being a narc is 30 times less dangerous than commercial fishing.)
• Local Woman Arrested In Congressman's Office (Ann Arbor News, in Michigan, notes a trial begins Monday for Renee Emry Wolfe, the local multiple sclerosis patient busted Sept. 15 for lighting a marijuana cigarette in the outer offices of U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, the Florida Republican.)
• Law Without Mercy (Washington Post editorial staff writer Fred Hiatt ponders the irony in the "private bill" introduced last month by Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., to prevent the deportation of a "drug-using, check-kiting, parole-busting immigrant from Canada" who was ordered out of the country under tough legislation McCollum backed in 1995 and 1996. McCollum says it's irrelevant that the immigrant's father is the Republican county treasurer in the congressman's district. The bill backed by McCollum in 1996 widened the definition of deportable crimes from murder, rape and drug trafficking to encompass possession of small quantities of "drugs" and other offenses punishable by a year in jail. Congress then removed judicial discretion. But over the telephone, McCollum now tells Hiatt he believes that the 1996 bill was "too harsh" - and that he will submit legislation to correct some of its unfairness.)
• White House unveils new strategy to halve drug use by 2007 (The Associated Press says the Clinton administration is announcing a five-part plan consisting of: educating children, decreasing the addicted population, breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, securing the nation's borders from drugs, and reducing the supply of drugs. Achieving the goal would mean just 3 percent of the U.S. household population aged 12 and over would be using illegal drugs. The current figure is 6.4 percent - up from 6.0 percent when Clinton took office. A major piece of the effort is an advertising campaign that hopes to generate more than $195 million a year in matching contributions from mass media.)
• Drug Czar To Be Named (UPI says Florida Governor Jeb Bush is expected to fill the new office by appointing James McDonough, the retired Army colonel and flak from the White House drug czar's office.)
• Have You Voted? Medical Marijuana Poll at Snap (A list subscriber alerts you to an online poll at snap.com.)
• Mexico Rejects Extradition Request (The Associated Press says Mexico on Sunday rejected an American extradition request for five men wanted in the largest money-laundering case in U.S. history - "Operation Casablanca" - saying it would instead try them in Mexico. Seventy other people are still being sought in the case.)
• Magazine Links N. Korea To Drugs, Counterfeiting (According to Kyodo News Service, the latest edition of the weekly U.S. News and World Report says North Korea earns more than $100 million per year for its nuclear-weapons program through state-run opium and ephedrine production, counterfeiting rings and other illegal operations. North Korean diplomats have been arrested in over nine countries on suspicion of smuggling illegal drugs such as heroin, hashish and cocaine.)
  Bytes: 93,000 Last updated: 3/10/99
  

  Saturday, February 6, 1999:

• Hard Data Trickles In As Scientists Study Marijuana (The San Mateo County Times narrowly summarizes the history and status of research into medical marijuana in the United States. Three studies in particular - the University of California study of AIDS patients led by Dr. Donald Abrams, a completed National Institutes of Health workshop, and a review by the Institute of Medicine expected to be released next month - are anxiously awaited by both sides of the smoldering debate over marijuana's medicinal value. San Mateo County also hopes to launch a $500,000 project next month. New research and political sea changes led the California Medical Association's legal adviser to issue an internal memo last month suggesting the organization could participate actively in a new marijuana distribution structure to ensure patient health and safety.)
• County To Seek Federal Approval (The San Mateo County Times says county officials will file an application March 1 seeking permission from the federal government to carry out a $50,000 study to see whether marijuana can ease the suffering of critically ill people. A reply is expected by April 1. Officials hope to use the study eventually to receive federal permission to distribute marijuana for medicinal uses.)
• Is Marijuana Medicine? California Focuses On Legal Distribution Of Pot To Patients (The San Mateo County Times discusses the prospects for medical marijuana reform in California. Attorney General Bill Lockyer has formed a task force to figure out how the herb can be distributed. State senator John Vasconcellos, cochairman of a legislative task force on medical marijuana, intends to introduce a bill, as yet unwritten, which would create a legal framework for distribution. Meanwhile, the California Medical Association, recognizing that the state's new administration "appears to have quite a different attitude toward Prop. 215," might position itself to play a key role in distributing medical marijuana.)
• Not-So-Secret Farm Keeps Growing (The San Mateo County Times portrays the Lake County Cannabis Cultivation Project operated legally by Dennis Peron and other medical-marijuana activists in northern California. The group cultivates juvenile plants for Proposition 215 patients, who pay only for the group's labor, about $50 per plant. Each plant will yield roughly two ounces of smokeable weed in six to eight weeks, after budding in a patient's bathtub or closet. The article includes rare testimony from a psychiatric patient about marijuana's efficacy for her severe condition.)
• Your efforts are paying off! (A list subscriber forwards an update on the prosecution of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor, for growing marijuana. Kubby asks activists to keep up their appeals to the district attorney's office.)
• State's Rights (A letter to the editor of the Sacramento Bee says California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has a responsibility to defend patients protected by Proposition 215 from federal civil rights violations. The federal government's insistence that federal law supersedes state law, even in areas not specifically granted in the Constitution, deserves to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.)
• Corrections Board Approves Prisoner Surtax (The Des Moines Register notes the war on some drug users just got more lucrative Friday as the Iowa Board of Corrections approved plans for state inmates to pay a 6 percent surtax on cigarettes, candy, shampoo and anything else they buy in order to pay more of their cost of incarceration. Collection of the 6 percent surtax already began in November.)
• Trooper Says State Police in New Jersey Discriminate (The New York Times says Emblez Longoria, a 10-year veteran of the New Jersey State Police, has filed a lawsuit accusing fellow state troopers of using race-based profiles to stop black and Hispanic drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike in the hope of making drug arrests. Longoria, who is of Puerto Rican descent, alleges he too is the victim of discrimination.)
• US Agency Curbs Psychosis Tests, Reviews Funding (According to the Boston Globe, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Steven E. Hyman, said yesterday that he had suspended controversial studies that sought to induce psychotic symptoms in mentally ill patients, and had begun to review funding of such research. "We are not going to be funding research that will produce harm," he said. The suspended studies used ketamine, an approved anesthetic drug that also is abused on the streets for its hallucinogenic properties under such names as "Special K.")
• To City Hall, Sister Icee is Public Enemy No. 1 (Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew says city officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, have resorted to the lowest kind of character assassination in an attempt to keep Shelley Francis, a marijuana-law reform activist also known as Sister Icee, from obtaining a business license for Hemp B.C. and the Cannabis Café. The city's licensing and legal departments have basically argued that Francis is either a puppet of Marc Emery or is following in his scofflaw footsteps. There is scant evidence of that, and more than 10,000 people have signed petitions of support. But it doesn't appear to matter. The city council's egregious conduct of the hearing Thursday night left little doubt about where it stands.)
• Ex-Cop Held On Drug Rap (The Toronto Sun reluctantly identifies Abraham Bailey as the former Toronto police constable who was charged yesterday with selling heroin and cocaine in a school district. After receiving community complaints about "drug" trafficking, Toronto Police raided Bailey's Coffee Time store Thursday, seizing heroin, cocaine and marijuana with an estimated value of $14,000, plus $25,000 in Canadian currency, $4,000 U.S. in greenbacks, jewelry worth $10,000, and three video game machines.)
  Bytes: 59,000 Last updated: 2/17/99
  

  Friday, February 5, 1999:

• Appeals court asked to decide the status of paid petitioners (An Associated Press article in the Oregonian says the state Employment Department asked the Oregon Court of Appeals Thursday to decide whether paid signature collectors for state ballot measures are independent contractors or employees. Apparently the Employment Department doesn't think a related recent U.S. Supreme Court decision applies to it.)
• City Of Seattle's Drug Testing Upheld (The Seattle Times says King County Superior Court Judge R. Joseph Wesley on Jan. 26 upheld a nearly 3-year-old policy requiring urine tests of applicants for some safety-related jobs. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state, which originally filed suit in 1997, said it would appeal the decision to an unspecified court.)
• Where the Grass is Greener (The San Francisco Chronicle says Dennis Peron's urbanite days are mostly behind him now. The former proprietor of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club has turned over a new leaf, and is rusticating on a 20-acre farm in Lake County, growing and giving away what he once sold. "I'll never deal pot again," he vowed. "No more buying it and selling it. From now on, I'm strictly growing it.")
• Marvin Chavez update 2/5/99 (A list subscriber describes a visit to the Orange County jail to visit the medical marijuana patient/activist just sentenced to six years in a Caifornia prison.)
• New Mexico's Medical Marijuana Program Hinges On Outcome Of Class Action Suit (A press release comes from an unusual source, Bryan Krumm, a registered nurse who is one of 165 litigants in the class action federal lawsuit seeking access to medical marijuana that has been filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania by Lawrence Elliot Hirsch. Krumm says Judge Marvin Katz's decision in the case may revive New Mexico's moribund Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act of 1978, the first state law in the nation to re-legalize medical marijuana.)
• Missing Marijuana Prompts Request to Dismiss Case (The Topeka Capital-Journal, in Kansas, says a public defender once again asked the Shawnee County District Court to dismiss marijuana charges against her client Thursday, since law enforcement officials got to smoke more of it than he did. In her appeal, Kris Savage summarized the 1996 Kansas Bureau of Investigation probe into the theft of 0.75 ounce of cocaine from a sheriff's department property room.)
• Lobbyists May Push For Limited Legalization Of Hemp (An Associated Press article from the Free Press of Mankato, republished in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, features an interview with Minnesota state Representative Bob Gunther, a conservative grocer from Fairmont who plans to support an industrial hemp bill in the legislature. Kentucky is already allowing hemp to be cultivated in a demonstration project. "It proves to be more profitable in Kentucky, apparently, than corn and soybeans," Gunther said. He also notes that hemp was grown in Blue Earth County and other parts of Minnesota during both world wars.)
• High Court Asked To Clarify Rules In No-Knock Drug Cases (The Wisconsin State Journal says state appellate judges want the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether evidence obtained by prohibition agents who burst into homes unannounced can be used at trial. The dispute arises from three southern Wisconsin cases affected by a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said Wisconsin's highest court erred when it allowed no-knock searches in all felony drug cases.)
• State High Court Is Asked For Ruling On Drug Searches (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel version)
• Less Lewinsky, More Barry Seal (Arkansas Times columnist Mara Leveritt considers the impeachment trial unfolding in Washington, D.C., little more than a tawdry spectacle - bread and circuses, if you will - distracting us not only from crucial affairs of state, but from a far nastier scandal that could tarnish Democrats and Republicans alike. President Clinton has yet to offer the slightest explanation for why Barry Seal was allowed to smuggle cocaine unimpeded into Mena airport in Arkansas for years, even though the nature and scope of Seal's activities were known to the DEA, the FBI, the IRS, the Louisiana State Police, and the Arkansas State Police.)
• Westbound I-40 pours drug cash on police (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette describes the lucrative local drug-interdiction business along Interstate 40. Prohibition agents refer to the eastbound lanes of I-40 as "the drug side" and the westbound lanes as "the money side," where the cash is hauled back to the drug manufacturers. Under Arkansas forfeiture law, the maximum state police can keep from any single confiscation is $250,000. Any amount over the cap must go to the state's asset forfeiture fund. Because state and local law enforcement agencies that have confiscated more than $250,000 have always gone through federal forfeiture procedures to get back the money, as in Missouri, the state's asset forfeiture fund is penniless.)
• Drug Arrests Continue (The Southwest Times Record serves as police spokesman in a one-sided account of a roundup of 22 alleged drug offenders in Van Buren, Arkansas, after a three-month undercover investigation by the 21st Judicial District Drug Task Force.)
• Daughter: Wynette was taking narcotics and wanted divorce when she died (The Associated Press says one of the daughters of Tammy Wynette, the country music star, says her mother was taking narcotics and wanted a divorce from her fifth husband when she died last year in Nashville, Tennessee. Jackie Daly says she has no evidence of wrongdoing, but wants an exhumation and autopsy performed in order to know if her mother's death was drug-related.)
• City officer faces drug charges (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says Thomas W. Ritter was charged with theft and possession of a controlled substance Thursday, a decade after the Bethlehem police vice officer stole cocaine worth about $1,600 from a police evidence room. Police say the case was broken when Ritter's wife filed for a protection-from-abuse order in early January and told police he was addicted to drugs and had stolen cocaine from an evidence locker.)
• 5th-Grader Busted For Selling Drugs (The Associated Press says the 11-year-old boy in Middletown, New York, was charged with selling marijuana mixed with oregano and fake crack cocaine to his classmates. The news service fails to note adult prohibition has, for the last 25 years, made marijuana and other illegal substances more accessible to kids than adults: According to annual Monitoring the Future surveys, about 85 percent of high school seniors have consistently reported that marijuana is or would be easy for them to find, if they wanted it.)
• Need your coffee? Here's why if you can't get going (According to an MSNBC broadcast, a new study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth shows that for women, addiction to caffeine may "be genetic.")
• McCaffrey reported to pack heat (A list subscriber posts an excerpt from the Washington Times saying the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, has been "deputized" by the U.S. Marshals Service so that he can legally carry a concealed firearm. It's sort of surprising, since McCaffrey is never seen in public, where someone might challenge his record of lies and disinformation.)
• Clinton Budget Is Soft On Crime, Republicans Say (According to a Los Angeles Times piece syndicated in the Seattle Times, Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday said the White House's newly released budget proposal would mean deep cuts in the war on drugs, money for local police, and other law-enforcement black holes. White House officials dismissed the GOP claims, noting that since 1993, when Clinton took office, Justice Department funding has increased 88 percent. Clinton's proposed budget calls for $17.8 billion for the federal war on some drug users, an increase of about $800 million from Clinton's budget proposal last year.)
• Mexico Declares 'Total War' On Drugs (A Knight Ridder news service article in the Orange County Register says the Mexican government unveiled a new armada of high-tech weapons Thursday, from satellites to radar-equipped speedboats. The government's demonstration of sincerity began just as U.S. lawmakers launched their annual debate over whether to certify Mexico as an ally in the war on some drug users.)
• Mexico Turns To High-Tech Tools In War On Drugs (The Los Angeles Times version in the San Francisco Chronicle)
• Doctors Warn On Danger Of Heroin-alcohol Mix (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, says a four-month study last year that analysed treatments at St Vincent's Hospital emergency department for intravenous drug-related problems, including overdoses, found that nearly one in four intravenous drug users treated in emergency had used alcohol or other hard drugs in conjunction with the drug which supposedly caused their "overdose." While the newspaper performs a public service by alerting intravenous drug users to a real peril, it fails to note the recent study only confirms the 1972 Consumers Union Report on Licit & Illicit Drugs, particularly the chapter on "The 'Heroin Overdose' Mystery and Other Hazards Of Addiction," which explains why so-called "heroin overdoses" are caused by prohibition, not heroin itself.)
• Charmed Life Of Smuggler Who Got Away (According to the Daily Telegraph, in Britain, it could be said in the wake of a case dismissed yesterday at Bristol Crown Court that Brian Charrington, a car dealer, police informant and convicted drug smuggler, has enjoyed a remarkably charmed life. As he sits in the sun at his luxurious Spanish seaside villa, he can reflect on the fact that he has prevailed in two of the biggest drugs cases in British criminal history, after investigations by police and Customs which have cost British taxpapers tens of millions of pounds.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 77 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - Fungus funding; Clinton's new drug control strategy repeats mistakes of the past; Pentagon restricts use of troops in border drug war; Interview with Timothy Dunn, author of "The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992"; Needle exchange controversy in Australia; Memorial - Rod Sorge; Event info; First prisoner released under Michigan 650 Lifer Law reform; Increased penalties, prison sentences don't deter drug use, ABA study finds)
  Bytes: 130,000 Last updated: 2/22/99
  

  Thursday, February 4, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Post-arrest approval for medical marijuana no protection, California appeals court rules; Increased penalties, prison sentences don't deter drug use, ABA study finds; Athletic association mandates drug testing for Louisiana high school students; Portland, Oregon schools offer students $1,000 incentive to snitch on classmates)
• Lockyer Task Force to Look at Medical Marijuana Law (The San Francisco Chronicle says California's new attorney general, Bill Lockyer, invited about 35 law enforcement officials, health professionals, politicians and medical-marijuana patient advocates to the state Justice Department's Sacramento office yesterday for the first meeting of a new task force whose mission is to clear up the legal questions still remaining more than two years after the passage of Proposition 215.)
• Criminal Prosecution Body Count Grows In War On Medical Marijuana (Orange County Weekly surveys local law enforcement officials' war on medical marijuana patients, particularly the six-year sentence handed down last week to Marvin Chavez of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group. Jim Silva, the attorney for Chavez, said, "Judge Borris' decision took me completely off-guard. It may change the whole political landscape. Marvin only provided marijuana to patients or to undercover cops pretending to be patients. But Judge Borris didn't even consider that as a mitigating factor in his sentencing." Silva said the 30-page probation report used to justify Chavez's sentence noted, "Mr. Chavez says he would continue to travel around the state and 'educate' people about medical marijuana." Silva says "The report makes it abundantly clear they don't want Marvin to exercise his rights to free speech.")
• Kubby To Test State Pot Law (Tahoe World, in California, examines the prosecution of Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian candidate for governor, and his wife, Michele. Both are Olympic Valley residents and medical-marijuana patients and both are charged with possession of marijuana for sale, cultivation of marijuana, and conspiracy. Christopher Cattran, the deputy district attorney, said the approximately 300 marijuana plants found in four grow rooms in the Kubbys' home "was for more than personal use." But then, police also estimated the value of each plant at $14,000, so what do they know? Kubby noted there is no limit to the amount of cannabis patients can grow under Proposition 215. Michele Kubby said, "My husband has a terminal illness. No one else has survived this illness. My question is, how much is too much?")
• Some Good News Re: Peter Baez (A list subscriber forwards news that a judge in San Jose County, California, ruled in favor of all three motions heard today in the case of the former operator of Santa Clara County's only medical marijuana dispensary.)
• Court Says Airline, Rail Workers Can Sue for Disability Bias (An Associated Press article in the Sacramento Bee says the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that an airline mechanic who was fired in May 1996 for using Marinol, a prescription drug consisting of synthetic THC, the primary cannabinoid in marijuana, can sue for disability discrimination. The three-judge panel also ruled unanimously that the victim of drug testing could also claim he was fired in violation of public policy, which could bring punitive damages for emotional distress. Saridakis' doctor prescribed Marinol to relieve the pain and insomnia he suffered from injuries.)
• The Erosion Of Our Rights (San Diego Union Tribune columnist Joseph Perkins writes in the Oakland Tribune about recent encroachments on civil liberties carried out or sought by police in Buena Park, California, who stopped every car looking for invalid licenses; by police in New York City, who want the DNA of anyone arrested; and by police in three Northern California cities - Palo Alto, Menlo Park and San Pablo - who want to keep "problem drinkers and common drunkards" from being served by local merchants. One need not be soft on crime to recognize that when the government is able to chip away at any of our rights under whatever seemingly reasonable pretext, it is not long before it finds other seemingly reasonable pretexts to further erode those rights until those cherished rights no longer exist for all practical purposes.)
• Major Ariz. Pot Smuggler Of '80s Is Buried After Shooting in Mexico (The Arizona Daily Star says Manuel Federico Meraz Samaniego, a former resident of Douglas who was convicted of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana smuggling operation in the 1980s, was shot and killed early Monday in a small farming village near Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. According to Chihuahua police, Samaniego was shot in what is believed to have been an ongoing dispute with another former drug kingpin.)
• 3 Boston Police Officers Fail A First Drug Test (The Boston Globe says the Boston Police Department, which implemented a policy Jan. 4 of drug testing all 1,500 patrol officers, confirmed yesterday that three officers of 197 given hair tests so far had come up positive for unspecified illegal substances.)
• Study strengthens smoking-cocaine-miscarriage link (The Associated Press says a study in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine regarding 970 pregnant women who sought emergency room treatment for miscarriage or other problems at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found no link between marijuana or alcohol use and spontaneous abortion. The report suggested smokers were almost twice as likely to miscarry as non-smokers, and cocaine users were nearly 1 1/2 times as likely to miscarry as non-users. Still, the link between cocaine use and miscarriage was not entirely persuasive, said an accompanying editorial by Dr. James Mills of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The increased risk was small, and other factors could have skewed the results. "One of the things we have learned from this study is that self-reporting is far from perfect," said Dr. Roberta Ness of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, the lead author of the report.)
• Drug Study At Odds With Drug Czar Findings (USA Today says a study released Thursday by the American Bar Association found that increased drug arrests and longer prison sentences had not impeded illegal drug use. The report used statistics from several federal reports and surveys to find that illegal drug use increased 7 percent from 1996 to 1997, to 14 million people. The report contradicts a study earlier this year by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Barry McCaffrey, the ONDCP director, said he had not seen the ABA study, but said the general issues it raised were being addressed. There were 1.2 million Americans arrested on drug charges in 1997.)
• Keep Financial Privacy, New Legislation Urges (The Denver Post says U.S. Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican, unveiled a far-reaching legislative package Wednesday that would, among other things, block proposed anti-money-laundering rules that would track the habits of bank customers. At least two federal banking agencies are reconsidering the proposed "Know Your Customer" rules in response to the public outcry that started in December.)
• Hitting A Wall Of Opposition (According to the Chicago Tribune, federal regulators said Wednesday in Chicago that the "Know Your Customer" regulations proposed for U.S. banks would be rewritten or even scrapped because of public outcry.)
• GOP Wants Drug Smuggling Stopped (The Associated Press recounts recent Republican agitation for increased interdiction efforts in the war on some drug users. About 14 percent of President Clinton's proposed budget for 2000 would go to interdiction programs, compared with nearly 18 percent in 1999. The wire service fails to point out who wins when traffickers' cost of increasing production is cheaper than the government's cost of increasing interdiction.)
• Drug Approved To Fight Heroin Addiction (The Daily Telegraph, in Australia, says the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee has approved the anti-addiction drug Naltrexone, which can rescue heroin and alcohol addicts from their deadly habits. The drug, to be marketed as Revia, will be available by prescription beginning in March. The drug reportedly can remove cravings and is seen as superior to methadone, which is a replacement for, not a counter to, dangerous drugs. Previously, Naltrexone has been available only in trials of rapid detoxification programs. Desperate heroin addicts have paid up to $30,000 for treatments in the US and Israel.)
• Needle Swap Could Get Nod (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, says that after the newspaper revealed yesterday that a teenager whom authorities knew was HIV-positive was sent to the Malmsbury youth training centre, where he shared a syringe with six other boys, the state government indicated it was prepared to consider experimenting with needle exchange programs in juvenile jails. The opposition party called instead for the appointment of a panel of experts for advice on the issue.)
• There Must Be An Election Due Soon (A letter to the editor of the Canberra Times, in Australia, explains why Andrew Refshauge, the New South Wales Health Minister, didn't have the public's best interests in mind when he suspended a needle-exchange program in Redfern after a photo appeared in the Sun-Herald the day before showing an as-yet unidentified boy injecting an unknown substance.)
• McLeish Set To Create A Taskforce Of Drug Busters (The Scotsman says Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, will create a taskforce to oversee a new multi-million pound campaign against "drugs." Under the proposals, the Scottish Crime Squad - which already spends 90 per cent of its time tackling drugs, at an annual cost of £7 million - would be doubled in size from 100 to 200 officers to create a new Drug Enforcement Agency. Drugs squads in the eight individual police forces in Scotland would also be increased in strength by 100 officers. Mr McLeish has also proposed changing the law to allow the civil courts to confiscate the assets of suspected drug dealers, a system already in place in the republic of Ireland and in the US.)
• Chirac Calls For EU To Harmonise Anti-Drug Laws (Reuters says French President Jacques Chirac told an audience in Lisbon, Portugal Thursday that illegal drug use in Europe was reaching "dramatic" levels, and urged European Union members to agree on common laws to help fight the problem - which he previously has identified as the Netherlands.)
• Doping Summit Ends In Disarray (The Associated Press says the International Olympic Committee "drug summit" in Lausanne, Switzerland, which ended Thursday, laid the groundwork for major anti-drug initiatives in the future. But AP editorializes that what progress was made fell far short of the tough, immediate action the IOC needed to reassert its legitimacy. The IOC had to back off the two main planks of the meeting: creating an international anti-doping agency and imposing a mandatory minimum two-year sanction for positive drug tests.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 5 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
  Bytes: 100,000 Last updated: 2/22/99
  

  Wednesday, February 3, 1999:

• NewsBuzz: What Are They Smoking In Those Newsrooms? (Willamette Week, in Portland, says the Oregonian and other local media sensationalized the results of the 1998 Oregon Public School Drug Use Survey last week, suggesting the results meant "bad news on teen substance abuse." In fact, however, marijuana use among eighth- and 11th-graders was down from the previous survey in 1996, and only tobacco use among 11th-graders showed a significant increase.)
• Man commits suicide during police car chase (The Associated Press says an unnamed 18-year-old Portland man wanted on "drug" charges and being chased by police committed suicide Wednesday, sending his car through a fence and slamming into a parked vehicle.)
• Man gets 27 years in prison for killing (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge Joseph Ceniceros sentenced Bryant Wayne Howard to life in prison Tuesday with a minimum of nearly 27 years for murdering a rival gang member. "There is more to life than tattooing yourself, selling drugs and killing people," said the judge.)
• Kubbys Prepared For Marijuana Arrests (The Auburn Journal, in California, describes the prosecution of medical marijuana patients Steve & Michele Kubby on cultivation-related charges, in spite of Proposition 215. The North Tahoe Task Force launched its investigation based on an anonymous letter claiming the 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate was financing his campaign by selling marijuana.)
• Hawaiian Medical Cannabis (A press release from the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i provides background information about public hearings on the medical use of marijuana, scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8. Senator Inouye and Governor Cayetano are advocating for patients, and the DPFH is seeking patients, physicians, and others who will testify to the positive medical benefits of smoked marijuana.)
• Don't Send The Cops (A letter to the editor of the Arizona Daily Star applauds the recent demise of Pima County's DARE program, citing several possible reasons why at least one national study has shown the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program doesn't work.)
• INS agents in Nogales indicted (UPI says four current and former Immigration and Naturalization Service agents were arrested Tuesday. Three were charged with waving 20 tons of cocaine across the border in exchange for more than $135,000.)
• Border Inspectors Held In Drug Case (The Arizona Republic version)
• Border Inspectors Face Constant Temptation (The Arizona Daily Star says agents for the federal Office of the Inspector General have arrested 18 employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service on drug-related corruption charges in the past five years, apparently including four Nogales inspectors indicted yesterday. But 27 other INS workers have been arrested for alleged corruption related to immigration documents.)
• Gov. Bush 'Very Interested' In White House Run (Reuters says Texas Governor George W. Bush, son of the former U.S. president, told CNN in an interview broadcast Tuesday that there was nothing in his background to disqualify him from running for president, but dodged a question about whether he had ever used "drugs." The elder Bush told the French daily newspaper, Le Figaro, in an interview published Wednesday, that "There was a time when he drank a lot, but for the past 11 years, he hasn't touched a drop. He was never an alcoholic, it's just he knows he can't hold his liquor," Bush said.)
• Rates For Cirrhosis, Drinking Don't Add Up (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says a report in today's issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal paradoxically shows that Wisconsin has the highest rate of alcohol consumption in the nation - 69 percent - but one of the lowest death rates from cirrhosis of the liver. Wisconsin also has the nation's fourth-largest per-capita alcohol consumption rate, at 3.4 gallons for every man, woman and child every year. Nationwide 51 percent of Americans consume alcohol, at a per capita rate of 2.5 gallons per person.)
• Boogie's Logic (A letter to the editor of the Little Rock Free Press, in Arkansas, from one Bob "Boogie" Oliver, says "Every issue of the Free Press that addresses the war on drugs has been right on in their analysis," but then paradoxically comes out against the war, saying "the law against drugs is the main problem.")
• Tobacco, Crack Raise Miscarriage Risk (According to UPI, a study in tomorrow's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Agency on Health Care Policy Research, found cigarettes to be deadlier than crack cocaine to unborn babies. Marijuana and alcohol did not have a similar effect, said Roberta B. Ness, who led the research on 970 pregnant women and who is the director of the Women's Health Program at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She points out, however, that a mother's drinking can harm babies in other ways.)
• Study links miscarriages to cocaine, tobacco use (The Reuters version)
• The Nation - Reprising Zero Tolerance (The New York Times, noting the plan announced this month by New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir to seize the vehicles of drunk drivers, interviews Dick Weart, who, a decade ago, was the ombudsman for the federal government's zero-tolerance drug crackdown. From his desk in Washington, he fielded frantic telephone calls from customs inspectors all over the country who had just turned up a few marijuana seeds or a roach in a car or boat. Within 18 months, the program had been revised three times, evolving into a relatively lenient approach in which people were cited and released without any confiscation of their property.)
• Prison Drug Program Draws Suit (The Philadelphia Inquirer says an inmate at a New Jersey state prison who was convicted of "drug" use and "drug" possession has sued the Department of Corrections, saying that when he asked to be removed from the religion-based Nu Way drug-treatment program, he was told he would lose his eligibility for a community-release program. Staff frequently led group meetings in prayer and invoked God's name, but the inmate was told that if he quit Nu Way, he would be punished with a "failure to comply" charge.)
• Rolling Stone Magazine Being Sued (The Associated Press says the private corporation in Culver City, California, that administers DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, wants $50 million, alleging it was libeled in a March 1998 article by freelance writer Stephen Glass, who said the program tries to "silence critics, suppress scientific research and punish nonbelievers." Glass later admitted making up an unspecified portion of the story. The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Rolling Stone sought a derogatory article about DARE to further editor-publisher Jann Wenner's "ongoing efforts to discredit anti-drug organizations.")
• Immigration Inspectors Indicted (The Associated Press says three current and one former inspector for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have been indicted on bribery charges in Phoenix, Arizona. The three current INS agents are accused of allowing suspected cocaine traffickers to pass through the Nogales port of entry in exchange for cash. The fourth is alleged to have taken money to approve immigration documents.)
• First Do No Harm - An Overview Of Dutch Tolerance (The Little Rock Free Press, in Arkansas, travels to the Netherlands to study Dutch drug policy. Tolerance seems to be the official party line, taught in school and church. The Dutch make it hard not to be ashamed of the United States. "The normal American citizen has such an idiotic picture of drugs," says Herman-Louis Matser of Adviesburo Drugs. America's influence on Dutch drug use has been profound. Oregon and California marijuana growers originally developed the strains of high-potency pot the Dutch have been perfecting.)
• Bitter Pills: Inside The Hazardous World Of Legal Drugs (The Journal of the American Medical Association reviews the new book by Stephen Fried, a medical investigative reporter from Philadelphia who begins by describing his wife's misfortune with prescription drugs. Over several years he grew aware that severe complications from use of a medication are widespread. Initially the book seems a vendetta against drug companies and the US Food and Drug Administration. Much of the book describes in detail drug research, drug approval, market forces on drug companies and the medical industrial complex, and the FDA regulatory process. Criticisms aside, the book is overall informative and engaging. It serves as an excellent primer and source of information for consumers of medication and professionals alike.)
• Bitter Pills, by Stephen Fried, Prologue (A list subscriber posts the prologue to the new book about how and why the pharmaceutical industry developed into such a deadly but unrecognized disaster.)
• Smoking Out The Hypocrites (Deborah Orr, a columnist for the Independent, in Britain, ponders the fall of Tom Spencer and hypocrisy's role in the drug war as she recounts the extremely relaxed Sunday she spent last summer with a prominent but unnamed British member of the European Parliament, sharing a couple of joints of "skunk" marijuana.)
• Dutch Lawmakers Vote to Lift 1912 Ban on Brothels (The Associated Press says an overwhelming majority in the Netherlands' lower house of parliament passed the bill Tuesday, saying officials could better control crime if sex clubs were legitimate businesses. The legislation still needs to be passed by the upper house before it can become law. The bill is an attempt to crack down on the use of underage girls and illegal immigrants, as well as to control trafficking in illegal drugs and weapons.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 84 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - Protecting yourself against overzealous law enforcement, an essay inspired by the arrests of Steve & Michele Kubby, by Mark Greer. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Pentagon changes policy on use of troops in war on drugs; Program pays students to snitch on classmates; ACLU questions aspects of drug search in schools; Balto. County to provide drug test kits; Senate backs bill to add drug prosecutors; Banks' big brother; and, From the hill, evidence of our decline. Several articles about Prisons include - Prison system grows fat from fear and greed; State's prisons not keeping up with increase in prisoners; and, Prisons aren't answer to drug problem. Articles about Marijuana include - Medicinal marijuana law leads needy to distribution impasse; Cannabis club founder gets six-year sentence; Marvin Chavez doesn't deserve jail time; and, Dope show! arresting Kubby may have been Prop. 215 opponents' worst mistake. International news articles include - Jails nearing crisis: report [Canada]; Colombia's internal security; Drug trafficking through Cuba on the rise, investigators say. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net alerts you to "Drug Crazy," reviewed in the Los Angeles Times. The Quote of the Week cites Jay Leno, from a story in the Washington Post. And a Special Notice proffers thanks to DrugNews Screeners Don Beck and Kevin Fansler.)
  Bytes: 151,000 Last updated: 2/24/99
  

  Tuesday, February 2, 1999:

• February 1999 Phantom Gallery Schedule (Floyd Ferris Landrath of the American Antiprohibition League posts a calendar of reform events planned this month at the AAL's Portland headquarters.)
• 62 arrested for driving drunk (The Oregonian says state police arrested 62 people on Super Bowl Sunday for driving drunk on Oregon roads.)
• Trooper faces probe over outburst (The Associated Press says Joseph Michael Jansen, 28, an Oregon state police trooper assigned to the Madras patrol office, has been charged with disorderly conduct in Eugene, where he was attending a wedding. A police report says Jansen appeared to be extremely intoxicated while yelling racial slurs against blacks and Mexicans 2 a.m. Jan. 24 on the first floor of the Valley River Inn.)
• Wilsonville death brings reward offer (The Oregonian publicizes a $1,000 reward offered by a woman in Columbus, Ohio, for information regarding the heroin-related death of her brother last month in Wilsonville, a suburb of Portland. Christopher Dell, 37, died Jan. 23. Emily Boothe, his sister, thinks someone might have sold her brother a lethal batch of heroin. Her family is offering the reward to anyone who knows who might have sold him the drugs.)
• Bill requires 'chemical castration' (The Oregonian says state Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby has introduced House Bill 2500, which would require that all repeat sexual offenders be chemically castrated with Depo-Provera before they were paroled from Oregon's prisons - but there is no provision for providing counseling in conjunction with the drug. The proposed bill would also grant the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision the discretion to inject first-time offenders when paroled - something that already happens on a case-by-case basis. The proposal also gives inmates "the option" of surgical castration. In 1996, California became the first state to pass a "chemical castration" law. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Montana passed measures in 1997. Efforts are under way to enact similar legislation in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin. A Texas law allows repeat sex offenders to elect for surgical castration under certain conditions. Schrader argues that the shrinking availability of treatment programs for sex offenders is precisely why chemical castration is needed now.)
• DARE Files Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone Magazine (A press release from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education web site says DARE President and founder Glenn Levant is a co-plaintiff in the $50 million lawsuit, which alleges an unspecified article in Rolling Stone maligned DARE's reputation with fabricated quotes, incidents, and fictitious sources.)
• Always Keep An Exact Goal In Mind (An op-ed in the Santa Maria Times, in California, by Will Powers, a clinical psychologist, ponders a little wisdom once imparted by golf legend Jack Nicklaus, and how the war on some drug users characteristically lacks tangible goals.)
• Inebriated End to Cop's Exemplary Life (San Francisco Examiner columnist Stephanie Salter eulogizes Jake Stasko, a "good" San Francisco police captian who slammed his car into a tree on the way home to Petaluma while driving drunk.)
• Prison moratorium bill in Colorado (A list subscriber says Colorado's Senate Judiciary Committee voted to gut SB 95 yesterday, turning it into a study of sentencing practices and recommendations for reform.)
• Ex-Basketball Star Convicted Of Killing Woman Over Drugs (The Philadelphia Inquirer says a Montgomery County jury yesterday convicted Howard McNeil, a Seton Hall University basketball star drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982, of killing a Norristown drug dealer to get her stash and feed his thirst for crack cocaine. McNeil has faced murder charges before. At a party in 1976 McNeil shot and killed his best friend, but a jury found the shooting accidental.)
• A $475,000 Bribe Is OK, If Paid By DA (Paul Carpenter, a columnist for the Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, pans the recent decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing its own three-judge panel in the Singleton case. Prosecutors who "pay" witnesses with leniency should be seen as violating a federal bribery law, and Carpenter, a veteran court reporter, recounts several instances of injustice attributable to such prosecutorial bribery.)
• Ex-Hialeah Officer Accused Of Drug Trafficking (The Miami Herald says Osvaldo Guillermo Heredia, a former police officer in Hialeah, Florida, has been indicted on charges that he ran cocaine, served as lookout for members of a drug-trafficking operation and gave them information on police activities while on the force. Heredia was fired in 1994 for leaving the city while on duty to help a friend get a driver's license. But the department had been suspicious of his alleged drug activity since 1989.)
• Former Officer Arrested On Drug Charges (The UPI version)
• Dutch Parliament Votes To Lift Brothel Ban (Reuters says the vote on Tuesday to legalise brothels was based on arguments that proper regulation of the sex industry would help reduce trafficking in women, exploitation of minors and drug-related crime. The draft law now passes to the upper house for "rubber stamping." If the reform becomes law, an estimated 2,000 brothels will become legal January 1 next year.)
• IOC Panel Proposes Bans for Drugs (The Associated Press says Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympics Committee, in Lausanne, Switzerland, opened a world summit on drugs in sport by calling for the creation of an autonomous international anti-doping agency to coordinate drug testing around the world.)
• Anti-Drug Chief Zings IOC (The Associated Press says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, sharply criticized the International Olympic Committee today in Lausanne, Switzerland, saying its legitimacy had been damaged by "alleged corruption, lack of accountability and the failure of leadership" in the Olympics bribery scandal. McCaffrey and European government officials demanded that a proposed anti-doping agency be kept out the control of the scandal-tainted IOC.)
  Bytes: 60,200 Last updated: 2/24/99
  

  Monday, February 1, 1999:

• Fugitive arrested in Hood River cache (The Oregonian says Dale Allen "Pappy" Bush, a fugitive since late August, was arrested Jan. 24 at a truck stop in Wilsonville by officers from the FBI and the Hood River County sheriff's office and charged with 20 counts of possessing explosive devices, a machine gun and methamphetamine at his rural home in the Dee area.)
• Seeing No Offense In Medicinal Marijuana (Newsday, in New York, says the inauguration of Bill Lockyer as California Attorney General means the days are over when state agents beat the feds to the punch in closing down medical marijuana dispensaries. "I can't and won't interfere with an action by a local district attorney," Lockyer says, which means patients such as Steve Kubby and his wife, in socially conservative counties, will get no help, while medical marijuana dispensaries may reopen in such traditionally supportive counties as San Francisco.)
• Write/Visit Marvin Chavez (A list subscriber posts instructions on how to cheer up the Orange County Cannabis Co-op founder and medical marijuana martyr just sentenced to six years in prison.)
• How you can help Marvin Chavez (A list subscriber seeks donations to pay off more than $4,000 in overdue bail funds and save the home of Marvin's wife.)
• Juror's Stand Of Conscience Leads To State High Court (The San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune describes an appeal facing the California Supreme Court involving a man who was convicted of statutory rape because his girlfriend was three months' younger than him - and because the trial judge removed a juror who said voting "guilty" violated his conscience. Nancy King, the author of a major article on jury nullification in a recent issue of the Michigan Law Review, says that what's facing the California court is trying to come up with a rule governing the circumstances in which allegations of nullification may or must be investigated, procedures for investigating them and what proof is required to remove a nullifier from a jury.)
• Marijuana Active Ingredient May Reduce Pain Sensation (The February issue of Anesthesiology News finally gets around to noting the research carried out by Ian Meng at the University of California at San Francisco, as reported in Nature magazine last September. Unfortunately, the magazine inaccurately inserts the word "may.")
• Feds Pay Drug Case Witness $2 Million (The Associated Press says attorneys for defendants in the United States' "Operation Casablanca" money-laundering sting against Mexican and Venezuelan bankers argued Friday during a pretrial hearing before U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird in Los Angeles that the payments to the unnamed informant, believed to be a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Colombia, amounted to government misconduct. The first of four trials in the case is scheduled to begin March 29. Forty bankers have been arrested; 70 are still fugitives.)
• Press Release: Patients Out of Time (The advocacy group for medical marijuana patients says the National Association for Public Health Policy has joined the ever expanding list of organizations opposing current prohibitionist policies in the United States.)
• Organizations Supporting Access to Therapeutic Cannabis (An updated bulletin from Patients Out of Time lists 64 supporters in the United States and around the globe.)
• Drug Cautions Judged A Success (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, says Victoria's experimental cautioning program for people found possessing illegal substances other than cannabis appears to be working, with new figures revealing that one drug offender a week has been diverted from the criminal justice system to treatment agencies. Police Chief Superintendent Peter Driver, the commander of the district where the trial started, said: "I think the strict law-enforcement approach to illicit drug use has been shown that, in itself, it has not worked. It's good to be able to adopt more of a community-based approach, of harm minimisation, early intervention and treatment.")
  Bytes: 37,000 Last updated: 3/17/99
  

  Sunday, January 31, 1999:

• Medical pot law remains untested in mid-valley (The Albany Democrat-Herald says law enforcement officials in the mid-Willamette Valley haven't encountered any medical-marijuana cases yet, two months after the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act began to take effect. However, Benton County, District Attorney Scott Heiser still thinks the law is ripe for abuse. For instance, he worries about what would happen if somebody is arrested and insists on smoking medicinal marijuana while in jail on the grounds that his illness is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Albany Police Chief Pat Merina says "Marijuana is used pretty subtly in this community," meaning that pot smokers don't usually beat up women or get in car accidents with the dope in their vehicles. "Maybe they're not as dumb," Merina allows, begging the question, what good purpose is served by persecuting nonmedical marijuana consumers?)
• Supporters Call for Legislation to Implement Prop. 215 after Orange County Medical Cannabis Provider is Sentenced to 6 Years (A press release from California NORML says the harsh prison sentence handed down to medical marijuana patient/activist Marvin Chavez by Superior Court Judge Thomas Borris, who did not allow Chavez to invoke Proposition 215 in his defense, has outraged patient advocates and sparked calls for further reform of the state's marijuana laws. California NORML is aware of more than 20 medical cannabis cases in the past three or four months. In Tulare County, medical-marijuana patients Penny and C.D. McKee were convicted of felony cultivation for growing 43 plants, while a Lake County jury acquitted patient Charles Lepp for growing 131 plants.)
• Drug War Priorities (A letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle from a marijuana offender incarcerated in Texas says the drug war is not about kids dying of heroin. It is about money. Some drugs can kill, such as heroin. Some drugs can't kill, such as marijuana. Until the American people understand the difference and demand a change in enforcement priorities, they will continue to bury their children and pay to incarcerate marijuana offenders.)
• Pot Holds No. 1 Spot (The Arizona Republic briefly notes a recent survey of Express Personnel Services franchises found that 82 percent of franchise owners reported drug testing revealed marijuana smoking to be the No. 1 reason for penalizing workers and applicants. Ten percent of respondents said drug tests revealed alcohol to be their biggest problem, while 6 percent cited amphetamines and 1 percent cited cocaine.)
• Welfare Drug Test Plan Gets Mixed Reaction (The Tulsa World says the American Civil Liberties Union is questioning the Oklahoma Department of Human Services' plans to start drug testing welfare recipients. Earlier this week, DHS Director Howard Hendrick said his agency, beginning in mid-March, will require welfare recipients and those seeking aid to take a written exam to determine their propensity to abuse drugs and alcohol. The results will be used to determine which clients will be required to give a urine sample for analysis. Welfare recipients who don't cooperate will be denied benefits.)
• When police work goes fatally wrong (An op-ed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune by Neil Haugerud, a former law enforcement officer and state legislator, says something has gone drastically wrong in law enforcement. Shouldn't we be asking ourselves: Has this pervasive drug war, this win-at-all-costs mentality, made innocent men, women and even children expendable in Minnesota? Considering that upwards of 60 percent of our total law enforcement and judicial resources are spent on the war on drugs, we should begin to ask the questions posed by Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore. At public meetings, the mayor asks three questions: Have we won the drug war? People laugh. Are we winning the drug war? People shake their heads. If we keep on doing what we are doing, will we have won the drug war in 10 years? A resounding no.)
• Man Says Drug Use Is Religious (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says Richard W. Nichols, of West Burke, Vermont, is challenging the constitutionality of Vermont's laws prohibiting the herb, claiming he uses marijuana for medical and religious reasons. Burke will appeal drug convictions handed down to him Wednesday, citing his Christian values, certain Bible verses, and his assertion that marijuana helps him meditate and alleviates his depression.)
• Re: Religious Defense (A list subscriber posts URLs for the text of the Boyll decision and a good review of the religious defense to illegal drug charges.)
• Is Plea Bargaining An Illegal Tactic? Lawyer Says The Age-Old Practice Gives Prosecutors An Unfair Advantage (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says John V. Wachtel, the lawyer in Wichita, Kansas, who represents Sonya Singleton, intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the recent decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that federal prosecutors who offer leniency to one defendant in return for testimony against another do not violate a federal bribery statute. Allentown lawyer Tommaso Lonardo has used Wachtel's argument in the case of Stephen M. Konya, charged with running a cross-country methamphetamine ring. "The cooperating witnesses were bought and paid for," Lonardo said. So far, at least four cases in state and federal courts have challenged such plea bargains and won when judges said such testimony couldn't be used.)
• The dope on hemp (The Toronto Star says industrial hemp is poised to become big business in Canada, largely because it is still illegal to grow in the United States, the world's biggest importer of hemp fibre and textiles. The excitement surrounding this wonder plant is so widespread that even Disney is planning a new exhibit on the bio-based economy at Disney World in Florida. Cadillac has announced plans to build a car using hemp, in which everything but the engine and drive train are biodegradable. Some estimates put worldwide trade in hemp products at more than $100 million last year. That dollar figure could double in the next few years as new hemp-based businesses spring up globally.)
• Mexico hires lobbyists in drug-certification bid (The Dallas Morning News says Mexico has stepped up its lobbying and hired three public relations firms to help win the annual battle to be certified by Congress that it is cooperating with the United States in the war on some drug users. Even Mexico's staunchest friends on Capitol Hill acknowledge that Mexico faces a tough fight. The White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, is outspoken in his defense of Mexico.)
• Anti-Drug Aid Endangered (A Washington Post article in the San Jose Mercury News says there has been a recent spate of massacres in Colombia carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups who rely on illegal-drug trafficking to finance their operations. The massacres pose a new challenge to the Clinton administration's policy of combating the country's illegal-drug trade by increasing aid to Colombia's police and military.)
• Massacres Imperil US Aid To Colombia (The uncut Washington Post version)
• British MEP Faces Grilling Over Gay Video, Cannabis (Reuters says Tom Spencer, a senior Member of the European Parliament from Britain's Conservative party and the chairman of the parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, withdrew from this year's European parliament elections on Sunday after two cannabis cigarettes and a gay sex video were found in his suitcase after it was discovered unattended by airport security officers.)
• Gay MEP Guilty Of Importing Porn And Drugs (The version in Britain's Observer says Spencer was also caught with 1.5 grammes of cocaine.)
• UK MEP Caught With Drugs Withdraws From Election (A subsequent Reuters version)
• Gay Porn And Drugs Found On Top Tory (A more elaborate account in the Daily Telegraph says Spencer denied using marijuana.)
• Euro-Lawmaker Suspended for Drugs (The Associated Press version)
  Bytes: 92,500 Last updated: 2/19/99
  

  Saturday, January 30, 1999:

• Cannabis Club Figure Gets 6 Years (The Los Angeles Times version of yesterday's news about Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op, being sentenced to six years in a California prison for selling marijuana to undercover prohibition agents and mailing pot to a cancer patient.)
• Medicinal-Pot Advocate Gets Prison Term (The Associated Press version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Marijuana Co-Op Founder Sentenced (A different Associated Press version from America Online)
• Marijuana Co-Op Founder Gets Prison (The Orange County Register version)
• Supporters Are Grim As Chavez Led Away To Jail (A different Orange County Register account)
• Chavez Sentence Is Criminal (Orange County Register senior editorial writer Alan W. Bock says Marvin Chavez's severe six-year prison sentence shows the importance of developing guidelines and protocols for the implementation of Prop. 215. Others need to step up on this issue. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office says he is assembling a task force to develop a statewide plan to implement Prop. 215. Perhaps he should enter the appellate process on Mr. Chavez's behalf as well. Newly elected Gov. Gray Davis has the authority to pardon Mr. Chavez or to commute his sentence.)
• Pot Club Lawyers Try For A Merger (The Long Beach Press-Telegram, in California, says Venice attorney James Silva and San Francisco attorney J. David Nick are scrambling to file an appeal for Marvin Chavez of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group. The attorneys plan to link the Chavez appeal to another for cannabis co-op volunteer David Lee Herrick, previously sentenced to four years. Meanwhile, the attorneys are now scheduled to defend yet a third member of the cannabis co-op, Jack Shachter, a Garden Grove resident whose case has been on hold pending the completion of Chavez's trial.)
• Medical Marijuana Distribution Imperfect (The Associated Press examines the difficulties faced by patients in California in the wake of the federal closure of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and other dispensaries. Many former co-op members are forced to seek out small, low-profile groups and buy from street dealers. Dozens have been arrested for having plants. Ryan Landers, who has AIDS, travels to Middletown, 90 miles north of San Francisco, where Proposition 215 author Dennis Peron and members of his two defunct San Francisco pot clubs grow marijuana. This summer, Peron plans to begin delivering plants to thousands of San Francisco patients who will pay for them at cost.)
• Ground Troop Use On Border Curtailed, Officials Say (According to the Dallas Morning News, the U.S. military says the use of ground troops along the U.S.-Mexico border has "almost ended" now that the Pentagon has issued new rules that require special permission for armed anti-drug units there. The lack of policy change comes well over a year after Esequiel Hernandez Jr., a high school sophomore, was shot and killed by camouflaged U.S. Marines near the small border town of Redford, Texas, while tending his family's goats.)
• Search Of Couple's House 'Within Law,' Judge Rules (The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says Washington County Circuit Court Judge William Storey ruled Friday that the arrest in Texas of Stephen Miller, a former alderman in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and his wife, Janette, was valid, and that a subsequent search of their Fayetteville home was proper. Defense attorneys argued that prohibition agents went onto the Millers' property without a search warrant, and that the preceding search of their car was illegal. The ruling allows their criminal trial to proceed Feb. 11.)
• Mistrial Declared In Case Of Jury Foreman Accused Of Taking Bribe (The Chicago Tribune says a judge declared a mistrial Friday in the trial of Miguel "Mike" Moya, a jury foreman in Miami, Florida, charged with selling his vote for $500,000 in a major 1996 cocaine-smuggling case. Jurors said they were "at each other's throats." Defense attorneys said Moya's wealth came not from any bribe but from a cousin, Ramon "Ray" Perez, a convicted drug smuggler and former Miami police officer. Prosecutors said they would try the case again in April.)
• 'Willie And Sal' Case Creates Lots Of Headaches (The Miami Herald recounts the background to the Moya jury-tampering case. Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta were indicted on racketeering charges in 1991 and acquitted in 1996 of bringing 75 tons of cocaine into the United States over 13 years, amassing $2.1 billion in assets. Eventually the government imprisoned them both on other charges.)
• Mexican Rights Activist Killed (The San Jose Mercury News says Jorge Aguirre Meza was a lawyer and president of the Sinaloa state bar who had been demanding that the government clean up organized crime. He is the third of four activists to be killed who had waged a campaign in 1990 against police torture and abuse that led to the creation of the National Human Rights Commission.)
• Prozac's Irish Life (The Irish Times says Prozac has become the most prescribed antidepressant in the Republic since its introduction in June 1989. It has "revolutionised" the management of depression because the same one-capsule-per-day dosage is prescribed for every sufferer, and because it acts on numerous mental illnesses. More than 200,000 people in the State suffer major depression, while one in three will have an episode of major depression, which has been linked to the majority of the 380 suicides in the Republic each year.)
• The Shrug Drug (A feature article in the Irish Times by Elizabeth Wurtzel, the author of "Prozac Nation" and one of the early beneficiaries of the anti-depressant, assesses the drug's legacy 10 years after it first became available to her. In 1997 patients in the United States filled 65 million prescriptions for anti-depressants. In the US, where there is no National Health Service and doctors' duties are dictated by insurance companies, Prozac has been a perfect solution to the financial unmanageability of mental health care. Indemnifiers would no longer cough up for therapy sessions, but they would gladly pay for a pill. The Food and Drug Administration eventually endorsed Prozac to cure obsessive-compulsive disorder, obesity, attention deficit disorder - a whole range of mental illnesses. Essentially, Prozac became the shrug drug, it was one big "why-not?" Prozac's permanent legacy may be that it medicalised mental health, even when the symptoms were fairly slight.)
• Israeli Government to Give Marijuana Guidelines (The Lancet, in Britain, says the Israeli Health Ministry established a committee Jan. 20 to provide the country's doctors with guidelines for prescribing marijuana. The six-member group of physicians, jurists, and public officials was asked to define the medical conditions under which physicians will be permitted to prescribe marijuana. Until now medical marijuana has been available only on an ad hoc basis by special permit, provided by police from confiscated supplies. Boaz Lev, an internist and the ministry's deputy director-general for medical affairs, said "we don't want people to have to break the law to get treatment when no other drug is effective.")
  Bytes: 69,400 Last updated: 2/10/99
  

  Friday, January 29, 1999:

• State's prisons not keeping up with increase in prisoners (The Seattle Times says prisons account for the fastest-growing chunk of Washington state's budget, almost $500 million annually. The Stafford Correctional Center in Aberdeen, opening a year from now, will be swiftly crammed with 1,936 convicts. Another $200 million prison for another 2,000 inmates will be needed three years later. Washington's prison population has more than doubled since 1989, to 14,300. An estimated 4,000 people are imprisoned because of more punitive drug laws passed by the legislature since 1989. Taking care of one prisoner costs about $23,000 a year. So the new drug sentences alone are costing the state about $92 million annually.)
• Marvin Chavez Doesn't Deserve Jail Time (A column in the Orange County Register by senior editorial writer Alan W. Bock pleads for leniency at the sentencing today of the founder of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op. Marvin Chavez made some mistakes and may have broken the law, he was engaged in a good-faith and above-board effort to implement the will of the voters when they passed Prop. 215. Officials should explain what he did wrong, then work with him to do things right, not throw him in jail.)
• Cannabis club founder gets six-year sentence (An Associated Press article in the Sacramento Bee says Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Borris sentenced Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op, to six years in a California prison for selling marijuana to undercover officers and mailing pot to a cancer patient. Prosecutor Carl Armbrust maintained that Chavez was nothing more than a sophisticated street pusher, using Proposition 215 as a front. Chavez winced on his way to prison as a bailiff cuffed his hands behind a back brace.)
• Medical Pot Advocate Gets Prison (A different Associated Press version from America Online)
• Medicinal Cannabis Patient Marvin Chavez Sentenced to Six Years (A local correspondent's version says a tear-filled courtroom of about 30 supporters addressed Judge Borris, to no avail. A man who was a member of the jury that convicted Marvin told the judge there hasn't been a night he's gone to bed not thinking about Marvin and the consequences the verdict has had on his life. Julie Ireland, a caregiver for her terminally ill son who was a member of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group, told the judge that, as a retired police officer, she could not understand how the Orange County DA's office would set up a sting on a law abiding citizen trying to implement Proposition 215. She brought up the case of a Los Alamitos police officer who was found guilty of stealing methamphetamine from a police evidence locker and received one year in jail and three years' probation.)
• Founder of medical marijuana clinic sentenced to six years in prison (A different Associated Press version)
• Kubbys Enter Plea (A list subscriber says Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor, together with his wife, Michele, pleaded not guilty in a Superior Court in Placer County, California, to a variety of charges stemming from their cultivation bust last week.)
• Former Gubernatorial Candidate, Wife Plead Innocent To Drug Charges (The Associated Press version incorrectly describes the Kubbys' plea of not guilty.)
• Dope Show! Arresting Kubby May Have Been Prop. 215 Opponents' Worst Mistake (According to the Orange County Weekly, Steve Kubby said of his cultivation bust: "We set a trap, and they fell for it. We received a tip six months ago that Dan Lungren had ordered surveillance on us. When the raid came, we were prepared." Even so, Michelle contracted pneumonia in the unheated jail and Steve spent the night vomiting and shivering.)
• Libertarians 'Disappointed' With Lockyer, Call for Meeting To Discuss Kubby Case (PRNewswire relays a message from the Libertarian Party of California's web site responding to a statement by a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who said Lockyer would not intervene in the prosecution of Steve & Michele Kubby for growing medical marijuana. State Libertarian Party Director Juan Ros said, "Placer County law enforcement is ignoring the will of the voters and harassing two innocent people. It is the Attorney General's constitutional responsibility to intervene.")
• Report From the Trenches: Marijuana vs Ondansatron (Don't expect to read about it in the Journal of the American Medical Association, since it wasn't paid for by a pharmaceutical company, but a list subscriber in San Francisco describes his recent scientifically valid single-subject experiment showing that cannabis controlled his nausea much more effectively than Zofran, the top-of-the-line pharmaceutical antiemetic administered intravenously at $400 a pop.)
• Action Alert! Prison Moratorium Bill (The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center provides some interesting background on the bill that would suspend Colorado's prison-building boom for three years, now under consideration by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. The group also provides contact information for committee members, and asks you to lobby them to support the bill.)
• DARE is scrapped - Anti-drug effort goes down drain in budget squabble (The Arizona Daily Star says Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik yesterday made good on his threat to dump the supposedly popular Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to cut his $2 million deficit. Elimination of DARE is expected to put 10 officers back in service and save about $234,000 allegedly expended on 21,000 schoolchildren, which would be about $10 each.)
• Pentagon Changes Policy On Use Of Troops In Drug War On Border (The Houston Chronicle says that well over a year after Esequiel Hernandez Jr., a high school sophomore, was shot and killed by camouflaged U.S. Marines near Redford, Texas, the Pentagon has "all but" ended the use of ground troops along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a Defense Department spokesman.)
• Son Killed When Used As 'Shield' (According to the Associated Press, police say an Indianapolis, Indiana crack addict who used his children as "shields" when he bought drugs in dangerous neighborhoods was charged with murder Friday after his 6-year-old son was fatally shot Jan. 4 during a $20 deal gone bad.)
• Million Marijuana March (A list subscriber forwards a program and schedule of events for the mass reform rally March 5-7 in New York City.)
• Clinton Seeks Drug Prevention Money (The Associated Press says the Clinton administration's budget proposal, to be outlined Monday, will include more money for methadone treatment for heroin addicts, drug courts, and urine-testing of prisoners, all of which the administration characterizes as drug prevention and treatment efforts. However, some Republicans would like more focus on eradicating illegal narcotics at their source.)
• From the Hill, Evidence of Our Decline (An excellent column in the Washington Post by Judy Mann ponders the significance of President Clinton's impeachment and trial. While parenthetically condemning the war on some drug users, Mann suggests the Meaning of It All is that America's transformation into a banana republic is essentially complete. There was never a country on Earth so rich as ours in the promise of social justice for its people, or so powerful in its potential to do good in a tormented world, that has been so determined to fritter away the opportunity.)
• Bloc wants to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes (The Canadian Press says Bernard Bigras, a Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament, has tabled a motion in the Commons aimed at legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. Debate is supposed to begin on Feb. 19 but a Commons subcommittee will decide Wednesday if it meets the criteria to go to a vote by MPs. The New Democratic Party also supports the motion, and Bigras said he believes Conservative, Reform and Liberal MPs are also sympathetic to the cause.)
• Drug Trafficking Through Cuba on the Rise, Investigators Say (The Miami Herald says that Cuba, once considered off-limits to drug trafficking, is confronting a noticeable narcotics problem amid signs that the island has become a conduit for multi-ton shipments of cocaine. Police in Colombia on Dec. 3 seized a 7.2-ton load of cocaine packed in shipping containers and bound for Cuba. Castro accused two Spanish investors of masterminding the 7.2-ton shipment, saying Jose Royo Llorca and Jose Anastasio Herrera fled Cuba for Spain. But their lawyer told The Herald that neither Spaniard had anything to do with the cocaine and that Havana may be seeking to confiscate some $550,000 in assets they invested in a small factory. "Strains had developed with the Ministry and they were in the process of negotiating the factory's closure. It's possible this is being used as an excuse by the Cuban government to seize my clients' assets," he said.)
• Police Ready To Pounce On Music Festival Drugs (The Advertiser, in Australia, describes the efforts of prohibition agents to prepare for today's Big Day Out music festival. The authorities were allegedly deluged with calls from alarmed parents after the Advertiser said herbal stimulants would be on sale at the festival.)
• Drug Policy Foundation's Network News (Headlines in the monthly publication from the Drug Policy Foundation, in New York, include - Senate Republicans push a drug-free century; Rep. Ron Paul to introduce financial privacy legislation to block intrusive "Know Your Customer" banking rules; Chief Justice of Supreme Court criticizes over-federalization of crime and Sentencing Commission's demise; 1998 Higher Education Act targeted by college students and faculty across the country; New coalition formed to bring drug policy reform to Congress; DPF to feature congressional visits at drug policy reform conference May 12-15, 1999; Drug-related legislative activity of the 106th Congress)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 76 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original dispatch of news and calls to action, including - Your tax dollars at work: U.S. developing fungi to kill narcotics plants; Higher Education Act student reform effort; Rep. Ron Paul to introduce financial privacy legislation to block intrusive 'Know Your Customer' banking rules; Hemp for victory; Israel to set standards for medicinal use of marijuana; Life for nonviolent juveniles proposed in Virginia; The Lindesmith Center drug policy seminar series, January through April; Conferences and events; Harm Reduction Training Institute, winter '99 calendar; Report: militarized democracy in the Americas; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Strange logic, regarding the the "Drug-Free Century Act" proposed in Congress.)
  Bytes: 159,000 Last updated: 2/18/99
  

  Thursday, January 28, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Justice Department Rejects Judge's Request To Expand Medical Marijuana Distribution Program; Minnesota Pins Agriculture Hopes On Hemp; Governor Rejects Parole For Medical Marijuana Patient Will Foster; California A.G. Won't Intervene In High Profile Medical Marijuana Bust)
• Steven Dons/MTF Fiasco, 1 year later (A commemorative news release from Floyd Ferris Landrath of the American Antiprohibition League, in Portland, says Colleen Waibel, the Portland police officer killed by Steven Dons during a warrantless break-in by the Marijuana Task Force, died a meaningless death in a meaningless war.)
• Drug (Warrior) Reform (Seattle Weekly portrays Chris Hurst, a veteran King County prohibition agent who is currently a police officer in Black Diamond, Washington, a newly elected state legislator, and purported opponent of the war on some drug users. "I've worked at this so long, I've put the same people in prison three times." That's how Hurst came to realize he was helping throw money and lives away: "We're going broke, and we're not dealing with the real problems. It costs a fortune to house someone in prison, and we're increasing our prison population at an exponential rate. There's got to be better way." Hurst is among a broad coalition of House Republicans and Democrats that wants to expand drug courts, which the free weekly shopper apparently thinks will make the drug war more affordable.)
• Marvin Chavez sentencing tomorrow, Jan. 29 (A list subscriber asks supporters of the medical-marijuana patient/activist and founder of the Orange County Cannabis Co-op to attend the court Friday morning at Orange County Superior Court in Westminster, California.)
• Letter from Dave Herrick (A list subscriber forwards a letter from the California medical-marijuana martyr sentenced by Orange County to four years in prison after being denied a Proposition 215 defense. Herrick notes, among other things, that Blacks Law Dictionary defines a "care giver" as an individual, organization, or entity. Herrick and his lawyers are asking reformers to write letters to California media publicizing his appeal.)
• David Herrick's Address (A list subscriber urges you also to write to the incarcerated California medical-marijuana patient himself.)
• Advocates Of Marijuana Legalization Split And End Rift (The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio, says the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will resolve a rift in the northwest Ohio chapter of the grass-roots organization by splitting the group. One will be in Toledo, and the other will remain in Port Clinton.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 4 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
  Bytes: 42,900 Last updated: 2/14/99
  

  Wednesday, January 27, 1999:

• Marijuana Probation Terms Relaxed (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge Janice Wilson eased the terms of probation Tuesday for Diane R. Densmore, convicted of drug dealing for operating the Alternative Health Center in Portland, which dispensed marijuana for medicinal use. The judge also allowed Densmore to apply to the state Health Division to use marijuana for her own health problems under the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. The paper notes too that in Multnomah County, home-detention prisoners of the war on some drug users are now obliged to fund the system that persecutes them an average of $12 per day just for those earning minimum wage.)
• The Need For Weed (Willamette Week, in Portland, belatedly discovers how the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act is so weak that cancer sufferers and other seriously ill patients still have to resort to illegal means to obtain medicine - or go without. Even those who can wait six months to grow plants have to obtain seeds or starts illegally. The free weekly shopper also promotes the myth that some cannabis buyers' clubs in California became "notorious hangouts for recreational users" - a media-generated lie that partly explains why patients in Oregon have to cope with the ridiculous limitations of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.)
• Data give bad news on teen substance abuse (The Oregonian says the 1998 Oregon Public School Drug Use Survey of nearly 20,000 students in grades 6, 8 and 11 at 230 schools across the state showed that 43 percent of 11th-graders drank alcohol, nearly one in three smoked cigarettes, and nearly one in four used an "illicit drug" - almost invariably, marijuana - in the month prior to the survey. The state's most complete indicator of drug and alcohol use among young people also indicated that among eighth-graders, one in four drank, one in five used tobacco, and nearly one in five used marijuana. Since there was no increase in marijuana use, according to an accompanying graph, the newspaper tries to sensationalize the non-news that drug use cuts across all socioeconomic groups, while ignoring the startling evidence that current drug policy has more than doubled the deaths from hard drugs since 1993. Both the survey takers and the newspaper equate marijuana with heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine, calling it an "illicit drug," while denying that alcohol and tobacco are drugs, and illicit for teens, yet seem to wring their hands about how kids aren't listening.)
• Butane sniffing, called huffing, is a growing health threat (The Associated Press notes prohibition agents are trying to capitalize on the death of an 18-year-old man in Salem, Oregon, who sniffed butane after hearing that it would enhance the high from marijuana. Dave Driscoll, a so-called drug recognition expert for Salem police, said of the fatality that "It sounds like a typical sad end result of typical huffers.")
• Kubbys To Enter Pleas Jan. 28 (U.S. Newswire says recent California gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby and his wife, Michele, will plead not guilty tomorrow morning in Placer County Superior Court to a variety of charges stemming from their marijuana arrest last week. According to Steve Kubby, a medical-marijuana patient/activist, "An anonymous letter with vague accusations - information called 'weak and non-specific' by Det. Don Atkinson of the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department - was the 'probable cause' under which four different law enforcement agencies monitored our every move for the past six months.")
• Shasta County Medical Marijuana Meeting Feb. 2 (An action alert from California NORML asks reformers to attend a meeting Tuesday of the county board of supervisors, where the Shasta Patient Alliance will urge supervisors to recognize and honor California's medical marijuana law and respect patients' rights. The meeting was prompted by the busts of medical-marijuana patient/defendants Kim & Rick Levin, charged with cultivating 41 unsexed marijuana seedlings.)
• We Thought You Knew (A staff editorial in the Echo, the student newspaper at the University of Central Arkansas, responds to a critic of the newspaper who is angry that it printed a humorous memoir in its opinion section last week, about a staff writer's first experience smoking marijuana. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for the staff's deviance - the First Amendment, not to mention a famous decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.)
• Honor Student Charged in Robbery (The Associated Press says a high school honor student and gymnast in the Detroit suburb of Berkley, Michigan, has been charged with armed robbery and is a suspect in several others, allegedly to support a heroin habit. Sarah Plumb, 16, is in a juvenile lockup, awaiting trial as an adult on charges that could land her a life sentence.)
• Air Force Drug-Use Program Threatened (The Air Force Print News, an internal Air Force wire service providing copy to service newspapers, says Air Force drug testers have banned the use of hemp seed oil products, claiming they contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has found some level of THC in all hemp seed and hemp oil products tested, which might seem to counter previous research showing that the human body manufactures THC metabolites from hempseed oil. Lt. Col. Peter Durand of the Air Force Surgeon General's Office, the program manager for the Air Force drug abuse prevention and treatment program, said that without the ban on hemp products, drug users who failed urine tests could hide their crime simply by claiming they ingested a hemp-based dietary supplement.)
• Colombia's Internal Security (Jane's Defence Weekly gives the more-or-less official US interpretation of Colombia's civil war as a struggle between democratic nationalists with the government against Communist drug traffickers with FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. "It is believed" that FARC charges a 20 percent tax on coca in the regions it controls, adding up to $230 million in 1997. "It is widely believed" that FARC and the cartels can only be dealt with by the police and military acting together. Now, US policy is beginning to warm to this view and as a result greater ties are being formed between the US armed forces and its Colombian counterparts.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 83 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with a note - About this week's issue. The weekly feature article explains the Significance of the Kubbys' arrest, by Thomas J. O'Connell, M.D. The Weekly News in Review features Medicinal marijuana advocate, wife busted; Outrage in law; Lockyer won't get involved in prosecution of gubernatorial candidate. Recently published letters to newspaper editors include - Medical marijuana and the legal mess; Pot laws and big brother; Maine doctor should look at the facts of marijuana; Lockyer on medical pot; Failed drug policies and the heroin glut; Drug tests a waste; It's time to honestly review drug policy; and Let users get drugs at corner store. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net feattures the Free The Kubbys Web Action page. The DrugSense Tip Of The Week looks at subscribing to and unsubscribing from various services and lists. The Quote of the Week cites Bill Clinton.)
  Bytes: 84,700 Last updated: 4/17/99
  

  Tuesday, January 26, 1999:

• Portland: Free Screening of "Sex, Drugs & Democracy," 1/28 (A news release from the Drug Reform Coordination Network says director Jonathan Blank and producer Barclay Powers will attend the showing Thursday night at the Fifth Avenue Cinema of the documentary about the success of Dutch cannabis policies.)
• Steven Dons: New Information Developed (A list subscriber who's apparently been reading the Portland NORML news notes prohibition agents from the Marijuana Task Force apparently became interested in the future cop killer while violating a legal settlement in which they had agreed to stop using a "trap-and-trace" device identifying callers who telephoned American Agriculture, the hydroponics store at Southeast 92nd Avenue and Stark Street.)
• Records Show Drugs On Treasurer's Shirt (The Herald, in Everett, Washington, says police documents obtained Monday by the newspaper allege traces of cocaine were found in the pocket of the pajamas worn by Snohomish County Treasurer Bob Dantini during a May altercation with his former fiancee. Dantini indicates the woman is trying to frame him, and the woman has stopped cooperating with authorities. No charges will be filed and Dantini will seek re-election.)
• Drug Tests Support Claims Against Snohomish County Official (The Seattle Times version)
• Cops Spied on Kubbys' Bedroom (A list subscriber and associate of Steve Kubby, the medical marijuana patient/activist and 1998 Libertarian for California governor, says the police report on the investigation that led to Kubby's bust for cultivation last Tuesday indicated prohibition agents videotaped Kubby and his wife and co-defendant from a hill behind their home with a clear view of the master bedroom. A DEA agent also lied to the Kubbys' landlord in an attempt to have her evict them.)
• Lockyer Won't Get Involved In Prosecution Of Gubernatorial Candidate (According to the Associated Press, a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told the Auburn Journal that Bill Lockyer would not intervene in the prosecution of the 1998 Libertarian candidate and his wife, who are accused of growing marijuana at their home, despite their status as medical-marijuana patients.)
• Banks' Big Brother (A staff editorial in the Gazette, in Colorado, pans the Know Your Customer rule proposed for banks in the United States, which would be obligated ot track the transaction histories of depositors and develop profiles on them, in search of behavior deemed suspicious. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and three other federal agencies are accepting public comment until March 8.)
• Prison System Grows Fat From Fear And Greed (Milwaukee Sentinel Journal columnist Eugene Kane ponders the prison-industrrial complex in Wisconsin after reading Eric Schlosser's article in the December issue of the Atlantic Monthly, which defines the complex as "a confluence of special interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum." Gov. Tommy Thompson has based his political fortunes on building more prisons while cutting welfare for the poor. Doreatha Mbalia of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee took a look at the difference in money spent for prisons and education and found that Wisconsin spends $241 million to incarcerate minorities, compared with $81.3 million in funding grants earmarked for minority students. In some neighborhoods young people come to view prison as a rite of passage instead of college. A few months ago in Milwaukee, young people were buying orange jumpsuits similar to those issued to inmates at Milwaukee County Jail, to wear as fashion statements.)
• State's Highest Court Asked To Decide Free Speech Issue (The Associated Press says the Maryland Supreme Court will decide whether Wayne N. Davis of Ocean City was exercising his right to freedom of speech in 1991 or hindering prohibition agents in the line of duty when he disclosed the identity of two undercover narcs.)
• Senate Backs Bill To Add Drug Prosecutors (The Florida Times-Union says the Georgia state senate unanimously passed a bill yesterday to provide additional prosecutors to go after "drug" peddlers. The bill was proposed by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor last fall during an election campaign in which he admitted using cocaine in his 20s without ever being arrested. Hiring, equipping and training one additional prosecutor for each of the 47 judicial circuits in Georgia would cost an estimated $3.6 million the first year, but the bill doesn't include any funding. "The costs to the state are relatively low when the benefits are considered," Taylor said. Apparently nobody asked to see his cost-benefit analysis.)
• Cuban Exile Arrested In Drug Case (According to the Miami Herald, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said Monday that one of the seven Cuban exiles charged in Puerto Rico with plotting to kill Fidel Castro has been arrested in Miami in a major cocaine-smuggling case.)
• Assassination Suspect Charged (The UPI version)
• Jails nearing crisis: report (The Montreal Gazette says a wide-ranging, year-long study of Quebec's 17 prisons, released yesterday by the provincial ombudsman, Daniel Jacoby, finds dangerous overcrowding, rampant drug use and a tension-ridden system that must be fixed immediately. Jacoby saved his most critical comments for the zero-tolerance drug policy, saying it was "a fiasco that hasn't achieved its goals." He estimated that between $40 million and $60 million in drugs flow through the prisons annually. "There is a commercial enterprise of drug dealing in the prisons," he said. Jacoby went so far as to characterize the explosion of drug use in prisons as an unintended effect of the province's crackdown on outlaw bikers and warring criminal gangs. Reacting to the report, Public Security Minister Serge Menard said, "We're in the strange situation where criminal activity is going down, but the number of prisoners is going up." Last year, Quebec cut $5.2 million from its prison budget and 600 workers were laid off from the correctional system.)
• US Anti-Drug Chief Criticizes IOC Bribe Scandal (Reuters says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, criticized the Olympic bribery scandal on Monday, saying it raised doubts about whether the International Olympic Committee could police illegal drug use by its athletes. McCaffrey, who is leading a U.S. delegation to an IOC conference on drugs in sports next month in Lausanne, Switzerland, said IOC reforms are needed if the sporting body is to stop its athletes from using illegal drugs and end blood doping.)
• Lettuce: Nature's Narcotic (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says the most commonly mentioned remedy for insomnia is lettuce. In a learned article in the British Medical Journal, Dr Tony Carter, a consultant anaesthetist at North Staffordshire Hospital, points out that, in France, the wild lettuce, Lactuca virosa, is a commonly used sedative and, combined with other herbal compounds, induces anaesthesia. The lettuce - also advertised as a smoking herb in High Times, by the way - contains morphine-like chemicals.)
  Bytes: 65,300 Last updated: 2/18/99
  

  Monday, January 25, 1999:

• Volunteer with Portland police linked to bank heist (The Oregonian says Louie Lira Jr., a gang outreach worker and volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau, served as a lookout during the Nov. 4 holdup at a Southeast Portland Wells Fargo bank. Lira was deported in 1985 after being convicted of robbery and drug charges in California. Police say their background check didn't include running Lira's fingerprints, begging the question, how many other criminals have been recruited by the Portland police force?)
• Doctors prescribe more antidepressants than any other drug, records show (According to the Associated Press, an investigation of Oregon Health Plan records by the Statesman Journal, in Salem, Oregon, shows that doctors prescribe more antidepressants for poor children in Oregon than any other drug, although such drugs have not been tested or approved for children by the Food and Drug Administration. The use of such drugs is increasing. Administrators of the Oregon Health Plan, which covers poor Oregonians, say doctors supplied nearly 10,000 Oregon children with psychotherapeutic drugs last year.)
• Federal claims on tobacco settlement make Oregon's share uncertain (The Associated Press says the federal Health Care Finance Administration claims it is entitled to $109 billion of the $196 billion settlement that 46 states hope to receive over the next 25 years. That means Oregon's annual share of the extorted funds - originally estimated at $2.2 billion - will come out to $71.9 million during the coming budget cycle instead of $180.6 million.)
• Spending tobacco money proves tricky for lawmakers (The Oregonian version)
• Court Date Set For Medical Marijuana Activists (MSNBC/KNBC, in Los Angeles, says the federal trial of Todd McCormick, Peter McWilliams and other defendants who thought they were protected by Proposition 215 will begin Sept. 7 in Los Angeles. McCormick is also due in court March 17 for a bail revocation hearing.)
• Pete Brady also busted in California (A list subscriber says the bust of Steve & Michelle Kubby has obscured the bust of a visitor to the Kubbys' house, a writer for High Times, Hemp Times and Cannabis Culture magazines and a bona fide medical marijuana user under Proposition 215. On probation for a 1994 marijuana cultivation charge, Brady faces much more trouble than the Kubbys.)
• Pot Laws And Big Brother (A brief letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune says government in California needs prohibition in order to keep its 32 prisons full and correctional officers employed.)
• Balto. County To Provide Drug Test Kits (The Baltimore Sun says the Baltimore County Bureau of Substance Abuse will begin a pilot urine-testing program this week that will let parents know within minutes if their child has taken "drugs" and, if so, provide immediate counseling. But the newspaper doesn't discuss the ramifications of its revelation that the test to be used is only 95 percent accurate. So unless more than 5 percent of those tested have actually used prohibited substances, more kids will yield false positives than true positives.)
• Magistrate Attacks Drug Testing Delays (The Daily Telegraph, in Australia, says Newcastle Local Court Magistrate Mick Morahan criticised the Division of Analytical Laboratories at Lidcombe for what he called an unacceptable 10 week delay in the testing of drug samples required for criminal court proceedings. Morahan expressed concern that the problem was contributing to long delays within the court system, and the newspaper says at least one murder investigation has been impeded by the backlog.)
  Bytes: 48,200 Last updated: 2/23/99
  

  Sunday, January 24, 1999:

• Employee drug tests challenged on philosophical, technical grounds (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, Washington, examines the brief history of urine testing in the United States, noting a 1996 survey from the American Management Association showed that employee drug testing among major U.S. firms increased by 277 percent in the previous 10 years, to 81 percent of all businesses polled. The association admits that "no finding . . . can confirm with statistical certainty that testing deters drug use," since marijuana consumers make better employees. The ACLU is encouraging companies to instead use computer-assisted performance tests that measure eye-hand coordination and response times.)
• Junkie Nation (The Los Angeles Times prints an excellent review of four books: "Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out," by Mike Gray; "Ending the War on Drugs: A Solution for America," by Dirk Chase Eldredge; "The Fix: Under the Nixon Administration, America Had an Effective Drug Policy. We Should Restore It. (Nixon Was Right)," by Michael Massing; and "Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies and the History of the International Drug Trade," by Kathryn Meyer and Terry Parssinen)
• Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (A review of Gary Webb's book in the Los Angeles Times ignores the CIA's recent corroboration of Webb's "Dark Alliance" series for the San Jose Mercury News and continues the newspaper's campaign against Webb. It asserts, for example, that "To maintain against this backdrop that the Contras and the CIA played a key part in spreading crack seems a grab for headlines.")
• ACM-Bulletin of 24 January 1999 (An English-language news bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, focuses on a new dronabinol/THC preparation from the Bock pharmacy in Frankfurt, Germany, extracted from industrial hemp and manufactured in conjunction with the company THC Pharm at one-quarter the cost of synthetic Marinol; and the questioning in the U.S. of states rights being trumped by federal law.)
  Bytes: 47,900 Last updated: 2/26/99
  

  Saturday, January 23, 1999:

• Treasurer Says Cloud Removed (According to the Daily Herald, in Everett, Washington, Snohomish County Treasurer Bob Dantini said Friday he was relieved to learn that he would not face criminal prosecution based on his former fiancee's allegations, including her charge that he used cocaine.)
• Let Users Get Drugs At Corner Store (A letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, from parents who lost their 19-year-old son to heroin, says Bos Scaggs' understandably emotional notion of a "plague of heroin" is misguided. Heroin is not a poison. It is the prohibition of various substances that poisons users.)
• ACLU Questions Aspects Of Drug Search In Schools (The Billings Gazette covers a search of schools by a drug-sniffing dog in Deer Lodge, Montana. Out of 350 students, three were charged with drug possession and a fourth was cited for being under 18 and having cigarettes. But Scott Crichton, executive director of the Montana ACLU in Billings, says "they're pushing the line . . . when they are searching kids themselves and going into the parking lot.")
• Customs officers stole drug cash, Mountie says (The National Post, in Canada, says court documents discovered by the newspaper show that customs officials at Pearson International Airport in Toronto who were supposed to fight money-laundering were themselves involved in the theft of at least $1 million in "drug" cash and its transfer to various foreign accounts. Information sworn Wednesday by Sergeant Robin Smith of the London, Ontario, RCMP proceeds-of-crime unit outlines the basis for 12 charges.)
• Hemp crop was meant for oil production (A letter to the editor of the Toronto Star says Canadian entrepreneur Paul Wylie rots in a Nicaraguan prison - presumed guilty - because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency continues to prop up the ridiculous and evil prohibition of cannabis hemp.)
• Marijuana myths go up in smoke, man (The Calgary Herald reviews the book, "Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower," by Michael Poole. The author is not saying that everybody should smoke marijuana, and "I'm not convinced that I should smoke marijuana. But I am convinced that some of my opinions about it need reconsidering. The book has accomplished its mission. Whether you think marijuana should be legal or not, this is a bold, engaging and thought-provoking work.")
• 'One Joint Changed My Life' (The Times, in London, says a friend who showed Clare Hodges how to roll her first joint transformed her life. The former television producer had suffered from multiple sclerosis for nine years and was experiencing bladder spasms that made sleeping at night almost impossible. Shortly afterwards Mrs Hodges and two other MS patients founded the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics. The group's first major breakthrough came in 1997 when the British Medical Association voted overwhelmingly for cannabis products to be made available on prescription.)
  Bytes: 27,800 Last updated: 2/18/99
  

  Friday, January 22, 1999:

• Oregon Medical Marijuana Act patient application instructions (A list subscriber forwards the latest draft - rendered into an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file here - of proposed guidelines for patients seeking to obtain a registry card from the Oregon Health Division.)
• A local medical marijuana case (Floyd Ferris Landrath of the American Antiprohibition League, in Portland, seeks your support for Diane Densmore, the Portland medical-marijuana patient/activist busted for saving sick people's lives at the Alternative Health Center. Please show up for a probation hearing 1:30 pm Tuesday, Jan. 26, in Room 216 of the Multnomah County Courthouse, 1120 SW Fourth Ave. Densmore is seeking early release because she is destitute and can no longer pay the fee for the electronic bracelet she is forced to wear.)
• Patients Air Frustrations With Pot Law (An Associated Press article in the Herald, in Everett, Washington, says medical-marijuana patients told lawmakers in Olympia Thursday about their frustrations with Initiative 692, the new voter-approved medical marijuana law. The problems include doctors who won't write a recommendation out of fear of the federal government, having to grow the herb themselves, not knowing how much constitutes a 60-day supply, and not having any easy source of accurate information. When patients turn for answers to the state Department of Health, they are rebuffed or just quoted the text of the statute. A legislative analyst said the Health Department cannot write rules that would offer a clearer interpretation because the initiative does not explicitly give the department rulewriting authority. And state officials are wary of drawing the wrath of the federal government.)
• Snohomish County treasurer won't face drug charge (The Seattle Times says Snohomish County Treasurer Bob Dantini will not be charged with cocaine possession because, according to authorities, the evidence against him is too slight to take to trial. It consists of a vial of cocaine found in the shoe of a woman who turned it over to authorities while attempting to get Dantini busted. Dantini's lawyer characterizes the woman as a scorned, jealous former lover who was drunkenly irate over another woman.)
• Support Rich Evans in San Francisco Jan. 27 (A list subscriber asks medical marijuana activists to show up for Evans' arraignment, 9 am Wednesday at 850 Bryant.)
• Libertarian Party Candidate Arrested (An Orange County Register news account catches up with yesterday's staff editorial about the cultivation bust of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and 1998 California gubernatorial candidate.)
• '98 Candidate Is Arrested In Marijuana Case (The Contra Costa Times version)
• Stifling Dissent (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register says the cultivation bust of Steve Kubby, the medical-marijuana patient/activist and Libertarian candidate for California governor, shows that once again political dissidents are being "rounded up." Could it be related to the fact that the United States has signed the International Convention on Drugs treaty, which specifically calls for the suppression of free speech on drug issues?)
• Drug Lord Sentenced After 20-Year Flight (The San Francisco Examiner says a federal judge on Friday sentenced recaptured fugitive Nicholas Sand to an additional five-year term, to be served consecutively. Sand, a disciple of Augustus Owsley Stanley and one of the Bay Area's leading manufacturers and distributors of LSD, fled a 15-year prison sentence in 1976 while out on appeal.)
• Parole board frees woman imprisoned for 20 years on drug charge (The Associated Press says Michigan officials unanimously agreed Friday to release JeDonna Young, 44, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1978, making her the first person freed under a new law that allows parole for lifers after 20 years. Ms. Young was driving with her boyfriend James Gulley in 1978 when Detroit police stopped her car and found nearly 3 pounds of heroin. Gulley said it was his; Ms. Young said she didn't know it was there. They were both convicted. Gulley died in prison last year.)
• New additions to the Stanton Peele Addiction Web Site (A press release provides summaries of case studies and other papers recently added to the web site of the only treatment specialist belonging to the Drug Reform Coordination Network.)
• The Cannabis Nation Radio Hour - We're High on Air! (A news release from Cannabis Culture magazine in British Columbia publicizes a new syndicated radio show devoted exclusively to cannabis issues - plus a list of about 80 stations in British Columbia that will broadcast the show.)
• Ontario students file suit over strip search (The Associated Press says nine ninth-grade students are suing local and provincial school authorities for $100,000 each. The boys were among 19 ninth-graders at Kingsville District High School in southwestern Ontario who were told to strip on Dec. 4 after a student complained that $90 had been stolen from his gym bag. No money was found.)
• Papal Blessing Unlikely For Mexican Saint Of Narcos (Reuters says Pope John Paul may not know or approve, but the country where he was due to arrive for a four-day visit on Friday has a "Patron Saint of the Drug Traffickers" in its panoply of unofficial icons. In Culiacan, the capital of Mexico's northern state of Sinaloa, a plaster image stands in a rudimentary "chapel" in honour of Jesus Malverde, a Mexican-style Robin Hood who robbed the rich to help the poor earlier this century. The chapel now attracts a following of misfits - everyone from common crooks to big-time drug dealers.)
• Marilyn Manson Gives Drugs For Christmas (According to World Entertainment News Network, the so-called shock rocker told Australian journalists that he can't be bothered visiting department stores, but still has to wrap his presents "to avoid the suspicions of the police in case they stop me.")
• Student Drug Use Report Withheld (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says the withdrawal of a report said to show alarming patterns of drug use among adolescents, based on the 1996 Australian School Students' Alcohol and Drugs Survey, has been condemned as politically motivated. The report was the second this week to have its release cancelled. On Wednesday a drug users' advocacy group abruptly cancelled the release of a needle exchange report that contradicted State Government policy.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 75 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - Will Foster parole denied; Senate Republicans push a Drug-Free Century Act; New York Mayor Giuliani reverses himself on methadone; California gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby arrested for medical marijuana; Humboldt residents testify to environmental harmof anti-marijuana helicopters; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Standing at the schoolhouse door.)
  Bytes: 83,900 Last updated: 2/2/99
  

  Thursday, January 21, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Advocates Anticipate Reopening San Francisco Medical Marijuana Facility; State Marijuana Eradication Program Poses Environmental, Human Hazards, Residents Testify; American Farm Bureau Drops Opposition To Hemp)
• Bill would add restrictions to assisted-suicide law (The Associated Press says two at least Oregon legislators want to thwart the will of voters a third time, and have introduced separate bills intended to restrict Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, the Death With Dignity Act. Senator Neil Bryant, a Republican from Bend, denied his bill was meant to nullify the law. The sponsor of the other bill isn't named.)
• Bill would tighten assisted-suicide restrictions (The Oregonian version)
• Ruling will halt use of civilians to oversee convicts on parole (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge David Gernant ruled Wednesday that the county just stop using civilian employees to supervise convicts on parole or probation. Multnomah County Employees Union Local 88 filed a lawsuit in February challenging the county's use of civilian "corrections technicians." The county currently has 133 parole and probation officers supervising nearly 11,000 convicts. The newspaper doesn't say so, but at least half of all related costs to taxpayers are attributable to the war on some drug users.)
• Report says temporary judgeships unconstitutional (The Associated Press says the Oregon constitution allows nonelected judges to serve "temporarily," but it stops short of setting a time frame. A Joint Committee on the Creation of New Judgeships appointed by the legislature has concluded that any pro-tem judge serving regularly for more than two years is not temporary. But there are 34 full-time pro-tem judges in Oregon who have been serving for more than two years, and are on the bench almost as often as the state's 163 elected circuit court judges. So the committee recommended that lawmakers spend about $4 million a year for 16 new judgeships. It's not clear if someone could appeal a sentence or decision by an illegal judge regarding a drug penalty, but assuming more than 50 percent of all cases involve illegal drugs, the remedy would mean the cost of Oregon's war on some drug users would increase more than $2 million.)
• Police Sergeants Off Hook In Ostrich Scheme (The Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, says a Vancouver Police Department internal-affairs investigation has cleared Sgt. Rex Gunderson, still a patrol supervisor, and Sgt. Byron Harada, who died of cancer last October, of a scheme to defraud investors in their ostrich-egg "business.")
• Medicinal Marijuana Advocate, Wife Busted (The Sacramento Bee version of yesterday's news about the cultivation bust of the cancer patient and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor)
• Libertarian Candidate For Governor Arrested In Marijuana Investigation (The Associated Press version in the Oakland Tribune)
• Libertarian Candidate, His Wife Jailed After Raid (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Medicinal Marijuana Advocate Arrested For Cultivation (The Tahoe Daily Tribune version)
• Candidate Arrested For Pot (The Tahoe World version)
• Former Calif. Governor Hopeful Held On Drug Charge (The Reuters version)
• Outrage In Law (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register says the arrest of the Libertarian candidate for governor is outrageous, and raises yet again the question of whether Proposition 215 will ever be implemented properly in California. It would be helpful to hear more from Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who could do much to ensure compassionate and uniform enforcement of the law. The refusal of the local sheriff's department to provide Mr. Kubby any marijuana while he is in jail is outrageous. But it highlights the need to develop guidelines for the implementation of Prop. 215, a responsibility the previous attorney general shirked.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert - Steve Kubby Arrested (DrugSense asks you to write a letter protesting the cultivation bust of the medical marijuana patient and 1998 Libertarian candidate for California governor.)
• Kubbys Released OR! (The Media Awareness Project breaks the news that medical marijuana patients Steve and Michele Kubby have been released from jail on their own recognizance following their cultivation bust in Tahoe City, California.)
• Poppy Plea (New Times, in California, says Arroyo Grande residents Tom Dunbar and Jo-D Harrison, raided last May by the Narcotics Task Force and busted for a legitimate medical marijuana grow and 200 poppy plants in the back yard, have accepted a plea bargain. Dunbar will plead "no contest" to possession of opium and Harrison will plead to possession of more than an ounce of marijuana, giving him a six-month jail sentence and her one year of informal probation. Rather than fight the charges, the couple decided to focus their energies on building a life together - they were married Jan. 1.)
• Hawaiian Officer Warns On Cannabis (The Dominion, in New Zealand, says Honolulu police officer Leighton Kaonohi, founder of the No Hope in Dope programme, has just returned to Hawaii after a two-week observation trip to New Zealand. He said New Zealand politicians appeared to be seriously considering loosening the law on cannabis use and possession, and police were half-hearted about enforcing the law. "I was appalled. In America, I know of no law enforcement agency that would ever succumb to legalisation in any form," he said. The high proportion of people of indigenous heritage in prisons - 80 per cent in Hawaii and 50 per cent in New Zealand - was a direct result of drug use, he said.)
• Will Foster's parole is denied! (A bulletin from NORML, in Washington, DC, says Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating has refused to free the medical marijuana prisoner originally sentenced to 93 years in prison.)
• HPD chief unveils plan to expand DARE programs (The Houston Chronicle says that five months after an independent study found the city's $3.7 million a year DARE program largely ineffective, Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford on Wednesday announced plans to expand the drug awareness program so it reaches students in fourth grade and 10th grades, as well as parents.)
• Prisons Aren't Answer To Drug Problem (An op-ed in the Des Moines Register by an attorney in Cedar Rapids says roughly 60 percent of the inmates in Iowa prisons have been arrested for drug offenses. The drug war - with its billions of dollars spent, with its mandatory jail sentences, with its additional prisons - hasn't reduced demand one whit. The London Economist raised the question, "How long will the American people permit this bloody and useless war to continue?" The answer is - just as long as people fall for the propaganda that decriminalizing drugs will make zombies of us and just as long as they fall for the political propaganda that drug usage can be controlled or eliminated by force.)
• NYPD to begin seizing cars of people arrested for drunk driving (According to the Associated Press, New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir said Thursday that police would implement a Zero Tolerance Drinking and Driving Initiative in the next month, under which anyone arrested for driving drunk will have their car forfeited.)
• Ex-trooper gets jail for cocaine theft (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, says Charles F. Ondo, an undercover state trooper who stole 2-1/2 kilos from an evidence room in Bethlehem to feed his own addiction, was sentenced Wednesday to eight months in prison. According to the prosecutor, the sentence was more than a civilian with no criminal record in a similar situation may have gotten.)
• $6 million study to sniff out the appeal of coffee (The Associated Press says Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is due to open its Institute for Coffee Studies in the next six months with $6 million from trade groups in top coffee-growing nations in South America. "We're going to help people get over the idea that coffee is caffeine," said Peter Martin, the director of Vanderbilt University's Addiction Center, who will head the institute. "Caffeine actually is a very small component of coffee. There are a lot of other components in coffee that are not very well understood." Some studies have suggested coffee can help relieve depression, treat alcoholism and prevent colorectal cancer. The institute's mission is to understand why.)
• ACLU of Florida Defends Man Who "Just Said No" to Workplace Urine Test (A news release from the American Civil Liberties Union describes a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of preemployment drug testing, filed on behalf of "Magic Man" Thomas Baron, an accountant who lost his job with the city of Hollywood, Florida.)
• Most Overdoses On Legal Drugs (The Age, in Australia, says statistics prepared for the newspaper by the Victorian Injury Surveillance System at Monash University Accident Research Centre, leading public hospitals, and the Metropolitan Ambulance Service, show that slightly more than 1 per cent of all hospital admissions, or about 10,000 patients a year, are being treated in Victoria for drug overdoses. Most overdoses involve prescription or legal drugs, including tranquillisers, anti-depressants and analgesics. Doctors said the number of victims suffering overdoses was higher than the hospital statistics indicated because hundreds of victims were not brought to hospitals.)
• Public Schools Accept Drug Culture (The Independent, in Britain, says a survey of 2,400 pupils in 20 schools, carried out by the Schools Health Education Unit, found that one in three 14-year-olds in leading public schools had tried "drugs" and one in ten was a regular user. The survey also showed that more than four out of ten sixth-formers have tried "drugs." The heads of the fee-paying schools who commissioned the survey are said to be "stunned" by the findings. A report from the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference argues that illegal drug-taking "is no longer limited to a disaffected and rebellious few. It is part of the culture of teenagers." The report also suggests that schools should end the "zero option" of expelling pupils for all drug offences.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 3 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
  Bytes: 115,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Wednesday, January 20, 1999:

• Program Pays Students To Snitch On Classmates (An Associated Press article in the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, notes the mayor of Portland, Oregon, Vera Katz, unveiled the Campus Crime Stopper program Tuesday, which will pay students up to $1,000 to snitch on classmates who tote weapons, drink alcohol or use "drugs" around school. The mayor said the program would be launched in three school districts around Portland.)
• Crime Stoppers wants students to report weapons, drug use (The Oregonian version says the teen-age snitch idea was originated by a police officer at a high school in Boulder, Colorado. Similar programs already exist in Salem, Oregon; Charleston, South Carolina; Thousand Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles; Indianapolis, Canada and Britain.)
• Burned-out landowner might sell to county (The Oregonian says Multnomah County wants the property in North Portland owned by Larry Anderson. The county raided his home, charged him with methamphetamine trafficking - later reduced to possession - shot his four dogs, and destroyed his business. Then a mysterious fire broke out and burned his house down. Anderson doesn't think he has much choice now but to accept the county's offer for his land. David Crowther, a Portland prohibition agent, was fatally shot there in 1979 during an illegal drug raid that led to the resignation of three detectives who had lied to obtain their search warrant.)
• NewsBuzz: Volunteering Information (Willamette Week says Louie Lira, a volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau's Crisis Response Team and an employee of the Youth Gang Outreach program, is suspected by the FBI of using his police-issued scanner to facilitate a Nov. 4 bank robbery.)
• Mad Season bass player Baker dies of overdose (The Seattle Times doesn't say whether Seattle musician John Baker Saunders, who went by the single name Baker while in Mad Season, died from alcohol or whatever. According to the Consumers Union, it couldn't have been from heroin. Toxicology tests are pending.)
• Medical Cannabis Proponents Steve and Michele Kubby Jailed - Bail Set at $100,000 (Jeff Jones of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative forwards a message from the son of Steve Kubby, who runs one of the most important sites on the web about medical marijuana and was the Libertarian candidate for California governor in November's election. Busted for cultivating an unspecified number of plants by the South Lake Tahoe Drug Task Force, Kubby was made to stand with just a shirt on in the middle of a snowstorm and then punished in jail because he was too sick to fill out the intake form - and could suffer a stroke at any time while denied medicine and medical attention.)
• Libertarian candidate for governor arrested (An account from best-selling author and federal medical-marijuana defendant Peter McWilliams says Steve Kubby has already experienced three hypertensive episodes in jail, and his blood pressure is dangerously high. A deputy district attorney at their home personally ordered the Kubbys arrested. Police and sheriff's deputies also seized the Kubbys' computers, which are their source of income. Steve overheard his arresting officers say, "That 215 doesn't apply here. Maybe it'll work in San Francisco, but not out here.")
• Libertarian Candidate For Governor Arrested In Marijuana Investigation (The Associated Press version says prohibition agents in Tahoe City, California, found "some 300" marijuana plants in the home of Steve Kubby, who uses cannabis as part of his treatment for cancer and hypertension, and his wife - who also has a doctor's recommendation to use cannabis. The couple's attorney said the marijuana was being legally grown and that the amount of bail - $100,000 - was "insane.")
• '98 Gubernatorial Candidate, Wife Jailed In Placer County, Calif. (The U.S. Newswire version notes Kubby was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 215. What happens when you don't win an election for Governor in California? Like in many third world nations, you go directly to jail without passing Go.)
• News From The Libertarian Party Of California (The state party that solicited Steve Kubby to run as its candidate for governor denounces the medical marijuana patient's arrest on cultivation charges and challenges Attorney General Bill Lockyer to live up to his pledge to implement Proposition 215.)
• Supreme Court Refuses To Hear 3-Strikes Case (The San Francisco Chronicle says the U.S. Supreme Court left California's three-strikes law intact yesterday, refusing to hear the appeal of a man sentenced to 25 years to life for stealing a bottle of vitamins from an Albertson's grocery store that the sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.)
• High Court Rejects '3 Strikes' Appeal (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette version)
• Despite Concern, Court Lets 'Third Strike' Stand (The version in the News & Observer, in Raleigh, North Carolina)
• Drug-crazed teen hurts self in rampage (The Arizona Daily Star says a 17-year-old Canyon Del Oro High School student seriously injured himself yesterday after running in front of a school bus. When paramedics arrived, they found the teen under the bus ripping out wires. The youth told a friend he was on acid, but Department of Public Safety Officer Jason Stevens said he suspects the teen may have been on PCP, or phencyclidine hydrochloride, an overdose of which can cause symptoms similar to an acute schizophrenic reaction, putting the person at a high risk for suicide or violence toward others.)
• Wild Shootout Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Wounded In Fort Worth (The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, in Texas, says a convoluted feud over a drug debt alleged by one man who fled a car wreck, leaving another man holding his drugs to be arrested, led to an attempted slaughter yesterday and a sniper ambush on the would-be attackers.)
• Teacher charged on drug and weapons offenses opts to resign (The Associated Press says Alexander Horvath, 48, a high school science teacher in East Brunswick, New Jersey, who was initially suspended without pay after police said they found knives, illegal hollow-point bullets and marijuana in his van on Nov. 6, will use sick and personal days accumulated over his 26-year career to be paid until his retirement date of Oct. 1.)
• Olympic Medals Sought In Drug Cases (The Associated Press says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, will try to have duplicate medals awarded to Olympic athletes known to have lost to competitors using illegal drugs, particularly swimmers beaten by East Germans in the 1976 and 1980 games. McCaffrey plans to pursue the matter at next month's world doping summit despite the IOC's recent rejection of at least two similar pleas.)
• Former Mountie Won't Do Time For Corruption (The Toronto Star says Jorge Leite, the former drug agent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police convicted of corruption in Portugal for selling out the RCMP to the Cali drug cartel, walked out of court with a suspended sentence and a $1,500 fine. "I think if they [RCMP] had done a thorough investigation they would have found that everyone on that drug squad was corrupt," said Carlos Leite, Jorge's brother.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 82 (The lead article in the original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense is an Open letter to newly elected California AG Bill Lockyer, by Dr. Tom O'Connell. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Policy, including - Drug prohibition and public health; US drug policy failing, report says; Drug use down, drug deaths up; A drug sniffing society; Medical marijuana - the six-state sweep. News about Law Enforcement & Prisons includes - Channel surfing: Snitches; Interview with Eric Sterling for "Snitch"; Federalizing crime, conservatives are expanding federal power; Federal drug fighters to open office in city. Articles about Drugs include - Sixties drug is in again; New marijuana strain boosts drug trade; Blue nitro worries poison experts. International News includes - UK: Doctors volunteer to test cannabis; Fighting rising drug abuse inside Mexico's borders; Kenya rivals Colombia in drug trafficking; Tajikistan, Rakhmonov to speak on drugs; Colombian death squads endangering peace talks. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net notes Steve Kubby has been arrested. The Quote of the Week cites Carl Sagan. The Fact of the Week documents that the U.S. incarceration rate rose from 313 per 100,000 in 1985 to 645 per 100,000 currently, three to 10 times higher than rates in modern democratic societies.)
  Bytes: 101,000 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Tuesday, January 19, 1999:

• Glaring Bias (A letter to the editor of the Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, says the paper's recent staff editorial about a medical marijuana patient who wanted to light up at a Waldport pizza parlor maligned Oregon voters when it said that "Some laws get the supporters they deserve.")
• Victim of police shooting led dual lives (The Associated Press describes the curious case of Peter C. Gilbaugh, who held down a $55,000-a-year job, shot the occasional round of golf, and lived in a tiny room in a low-income building with a bathroom down the hall. That's where he was shot to death on Dec. 31 during a late-night struggle with police who were called after he urinated on a neighbor's door. Authorities have not released information about Gilbaugh's blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting, but his friends say Gilbaugh was a friendly, level-headed man even when he had been drinking.)
• Raids on California's medical marijuana outlets eased (The Washington Times, in the District of Columbia, says California's new attorney general, Bill Lockyer, promises that when local law enforcement agents refuse to shut down pot clubs, he will not intervene. Mr. Lockyer also cautioned activists not to expect his office to jump in and help them if and when local district attorneys or federal authorities make arrests. "I'm not interested in frivolous windmill tilting," Mr. Lockyer said. "If I can think of a theory under which I can defend the state law the people passed, I will. But my inclination is toward consensus, not confrontation, with the policy-makers.")
• Richard Evans re-arrested in San Francisco (A list subscriber forwards a disturbing message from the medical marijuana activist about strange and frightening police activity in San Francisco. Prohibition agents raided his home again late at night a week ago and held him incommunicado for five days.)
• Helicopters In Pot Raids Kill Birds, Spook Stock, Residents Say (An Associated Press story in the San Jose Mercury News says residents of California's rugged north country testified Monday in Redway that prohibition agents hunting for marijuana in low-flying helicopters routinely kill birds, stampede farm animals, violate environmental laws and terrify innocent homeowners. The public hearing where more than two dozen people testified was ordered as part of a settlement in a lawsuit challenging Operation Greensweep, an August 1990 drug raid.)
• Maine Doctor Should Look At The Facts Of Marijuana (A letter to the editor of Foster's Daily Democrat, in Dover, New Hampshire, from a woman with glaucoma, responds to some questionable comments about marijuana and glaucoma by Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of Maine's Health Bureau.)
• Hunt For Cannabis Cure (The Daily Mail, in Britain, says two separate research initiatives this year will try to establish if cannabis has medicinal properties. The one carried out by a private company, GW Pharmaceuticals, will involve an "aerosol mixture of pure cannabis." The second, organised by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, will examine whether the active ingredients in cannabis can be extracted and formulated into a new medication somebody can make a lot of money off of.)
• These Women Could Be The First To Take Cannabis Legally - But Should They Be Allowed? (The Daily Mail interviews several British patients and "pillars of the community" who currently break the law by using marijuana as medicine. Each could be among the first Britons who will inhale cannabis legally as part of a unique and controversial new study trying to establish if the herb has medicinal effects. Why the women would break the law now in order to purchase cannabis from street dealers if it didn't alleviate excruciating pain and muscle spasms isn't explained.)
  Bytes: 34,400 Last updated: 2/22/99
  

  Monday, January 18, 1999:

• Drug War Chipping Away At America's Grip On Basic Rights (An excellent column in the Columbus Dispatch by Steve Stephens comments on the DEA's seizure of $19,000 from the automobile of Los Angeles Laker Corie Blount, a resident of Columbus, Ohio, who was pulled over on Christmas Eve because the tint on his car windows was deemed too dark. The police undoubtedly would intervene if citizens began seizing squad cars and returning them only when cops proved the vehicles were not being used for doughnut runs. But the rules applying to citizens do not apply to the authorities. Maybe that's why we have so many authorities.)
• DEA agent charged in shooting (The Associated Press says Joseph Armento, an off-duty federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle and unlawful wounding in Hampton, Virginia, after a parking lot confrontation left two men wounded, one critically. The incident early Thursday morning started when three men leaving a bar got into an argument with Armento and two other off-duty DEA agents.)
  Bytes: 9,610 Last updated: 1/21/99
  

  Sunday, January 17, 1999:

• Torn police relations resist repair (The Oregonian says hardly anyone attended a forum Saturday morning meant to promote healing between police and Northeast Portland residents. Last August when neighborhood residents tried to tell police Chief Moose how they felt about not having any civil rights, police fired beanbags at them from shotguns.)
• The union of kids and coolers (Oregonian columnist Steve Duin wants to throw a wet blanket on ski tours organized by ISTours of Seattle that take Portland-area high school students to the slopes and spas of Whistler, 75 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia. Alcohol consumption is a popular part of the affair.)
• Should high schools in Clark County institute voluntary urine tests for students? (Two editorial writers for the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, take opposing sides in discussing a proposal before the Camas School District to begin a "voluntary" drug testing program for students.)
• Pot law's vagueness concerns activists (The Olympian, in Olympia, Washington, says Thurston County law enforcement officials have vowed to follow the state's new medical-marijuana law to the letter, but local activists say patients should not be subject to arrest or jail simply because of vagueness in the new law. Fred Mayer, an Olympia man whose wife uses medical mariuana, said he is concerned that the initiative does not define what a 60-day supply is. Some patients may need more marijuana than others, he said.)
• Tiny North Coast town site of unusual public hearing (The Sacramento Bee says residents of Humboldt and Mendocino counties in California's "Emerald Triangle" marijuana-growing region are still angry at prohibition agents' tactics during "Operation Greensweep" nearly a decade ago. Under the terms of a federal lawsuit settlement, residents are gathering in Redway for an unusual two-day public hearing to begin Monday, complete with a court reporter to provide a stenographic record and a retired appellate judge with the authority to issue findings. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are required to come up with environmental guidelines governing future raids on outdoor cannabis stands, and the hearings will take testimony about the public's concerns.)
• Rehab Parents Lament Loss Of Kids (The Oakland Tribune says officials locally and elsewhere in California and around the nation are wresting children away from supposedly unfit parents at a much faster rate than before. This is happening because new state and federal laws - passed in response to an alleged flood of abused children from drug-addicted families entering the foster system at ever younger ages - emphasize finding good, permanent homes for the children as soon as possible. In California, the number of children in foster care by the end of 1997 had soared to more than 92,000, after climbing an average rate of 6.2 percent in each of the previous five years. Stepped-up adoptions have failed to keep pace with the supply of kids. The term "legal orphans" has been coined to describe the unadopted children.)
• Alleviate Pain (A letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune says virtually all end-of-life pain is controllable with available medications, but unfortunately some physicians impose it upon patients with self-righteous cant about its worth. Others are too intimidated by the FDA, which has made far too many pain patients unwitting casualties of the war on drugs. Perhaps the most hopeful result of the legalization of assisted suicide in Oregon is that the amount of pain medication prescribed for severe pain has increased dramatically there. Because patients have a legal alternative, physicians are finally taking their duty to alleviate pain seriously.)
• APB Online Launches Police And Crime Internet Service (A press release on PRNewswire says APB Online, the first and only Internet news service devoted to covering police and criminal-justice issues, has been launched at http://www.apbonline.com.)
  Bytes: 45,400 Last updated: 5/13/99
  

  Saturday, January 16, 1999:

• Haze of Uncertainty (The Daily Courier, in Grants Pass, Oregon, says the state's new law that allows the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is still embroiled in a . . . haze of uncertainty. The Dubs Cancer Center at the Rogue Valley Medical Center, for example, is waiting for the Oregon Medical Association to release guidelines in the spring.)
• Applications Coming In From Around The State (The Daily Courier, in Grants Pass, Oregon, says the state isn't issuing medical marijuana registration cards yet, since the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act doesn't require the state Health Division to iron out its procedures until May 1, but several people have already applied. The newspaper then provides some helpful information to patients on how to submit applications for registration cards.)
• Law Enforcement Group Drafting Legislation To Revise Marijuana Law (The Daily Courier, in Grants Pass, Oregon, notes the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police is drafting legislation to gut Measure 67, the medical marijuana initiative voters approved in November. Follow this link to the Oregon legislature's web site for the email addresses of your state senator and representative - and please send a brief protest note.)
• State approves plan to employ prison inmates (The Oregonian says the state Prison Industries Board, trying to fulfill Measure 17's mandate to provide full employment to all inmates, finalized two contracts Friday that will supposedly provide private-sector work to 65 prisoners. Research Data Design Inc. of Portland agreed to use a minimum of 6,000 hours of inmate labor a month to staff a portion of a new telemarketing center under construction at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. Under the second contract, Acorn Engineering Co., the nation's largest supplier of prison plumbing fixtures, will sell unfinished stainless steel toilets and sinks to the Corrections Department. Inmates will assemble and weld the fixtures, which will be used in four new Oregon prisons slated for construction. Only about 60 percent of eligible inmates now work full time.)
• Police arrest gang violence suspects (The Oregonian says police from the Portland Gang Enforcement Team and Youth Gun Anti-Violence Task Force surrounded the Rodeway Inn in Vancouver, Washington, for hours Friday before they took seven suspects into custody and seized a cache of weapons. Police believe the suspects are connected to two recent gang-related shootings and the seizure of 3 1/2 ounces of crack cocaine in North Portland. The men, from Anchorage, Alaska, had been feuding with members of a Portland gang called the "Flips.")
• Making I-692 Work (A staff editorial in the Seattle Times says Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg held up his end of Initiative 692, Washington state's new medical-marijuana law, when he announced this week he would not charge a blind AIDS patient and his mom after they were arrested for growing three marijuana plants in their home. Unfortunately, it is I-692's chief sponsor, Dr. Rob Killian, who flunked the first test of the law by not providing documentation to his patient.)
• Sixteenth California News Summary (According to UPI, Los Angeles City Attorney Jim Hahn said he will begin enforcing a new state law immediately that allows him to step in and evict "drug" users and dealers when landlords fail to do so. The City Council unanimously approved a plan today to fund Hahn's new Narcotics Eviction Team. It's not clear whether the standard is a conviction, indictment, or merely an accusation.)
• New Attorney General Concentrates On Civil Rights (According to the San Francisco Examiner, Bill Lockyer, the newly elected Democrat, said Friday on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's birthday that he will double the budget and staff devoted to combating civil rights violations in California. One thing he won't be doing, he added, is look for ways to prosecute people who distribute marijuana under the state's medical marijuana provision.)
• Failed Drug Policies And The Heroin Glut (A letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle says increased heroin use isn't limited to "young, middle- and upper-middle class-kids like the 21-year-old son of blues rocker Boz Scaggs." The heroin glut is global and occurring despite record budgets for such never-proven concepts as "drug Interdiction." It's another convincing indicator of the failure of prohibition.)
• Police Arrest Miami Coach (The Tulsa World says Rusty Dean Roark, a first-year teacher and wrestling coach at Miami High School, in Miami, Oklahoma, was arrested at the school with a student 2 a.m. Friday and charged with possession of a controlled substance - methamphetamine - on school grounds, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a weapon while in commission of a felony.)
• Advocates On Both Sides Gear Up For Medical Marijuana Battle Here (The Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, says the Illinois Drug Education Alliance is launching a campaign today to block attempts to bring medical marijuana to Illinois. They also are working to repeal a 1978 law that allows marijuana to be used for research in Illinois. Judy Kreamer, a past president of the group, proved that marijuana can make people who don't use it insane, saying "People can get marijuana to treat athlete's foot," without offering a shred of evidence.)
• Judge Rules Against Drug Stops (The Des Moines Register says Polk County District Judge Robert Blink ruled Friday that the Iowa State Patrol went too far last July when troopers questioned drivers merely because they had pulled over after seeing signs on Interstate Highway 80 that warned, "Drug Stop 4 Miles Ahead." There was no drug stop. Instead, plainclothes troopers were waiting at the Mitchellville rest stop to see who pulled in to hide or dispose of drugs before proceeding to the supposed checkpoint.)
• Drug Smugglers And Cops Match Wits (An Associated Press article with an Indianapolis dateline describes the highway drug interdiction efforts of state troopers and border agents in every state, coordinated through Operation Pipeline, a federal Drug Enforcement Administration program. Its hub is the El Paso Intelligence Center, or EPIC, a one-story brick building at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, where more than 250 state and federal law enforcement officials track smugglers, scan criminal databases to link cases, and provide 24-hour intelligence to officers in the field. Despite Operation Pipeline, the drug business is worth $52 billion a year in the U.S. according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.)
• Giuliani changes his stand on methadone for heroin addicts (According to the Associated Press, the mayor of New York City told the New York Times that drug treatment experts had persuaded him not to eliminate methadone programs, which researchers across the country consider the best hope for most recovering heroin addicts.)
• Mayor Relents On Plan To End Methadone Use (The New York Times version)
• After Crash, Police Informant Use Re-Evaluated (The Asbury Park Press, in New Jersey, says the state attorney general is considering setting guidelines for police use of "civilian sources" in the wake of a Sunday night crash that left a woman maimed and an informant for the New Jersey state police charged with drunken driving and aggravated assault. Joseph M. Everett, the driver, whose extensive record includes numerous motor vehicle violations, was freed from a cell only two days earlier so he could assist in a police investigation.)
• Bureaucrat (A list subscriber posts the email address of the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey. You have a constitutional right to petition for a redress of grievances at MCCAFFREY_B@a1.eop.gov.)
  Bytes: 79,300 Last updated: 2/22/99
  

  Friday, January 15, 1999:

• Waiting to Exhale (Eugene Weekly, in Eugene, Oregon, interviews Gary Webb, author of the San Jose Mercury News' "Dark Alliance" expose about the CIA-Cocaine-Contra scandal, prior to his Jan. 16 talk at the United Methodist Church in Eugene. Webb, whose appearance will be sponsored by Eugene Media Action, tells the newspaper that ". . . given what has come out since my series - there were two investigations that were done, by the Justice Department and by the CIA internal investigations - I didn't go nearly far enough in retrospect. The CIA knew a lot more about this than I would have imagined, and they've now admitted it. The problem is you haven't seen these stories in the paper because they contradict everything they were writing two years ago. The agency has basically confessed and nobody wants to hear the confession because [the big papers] had all declared them innocent.")
• Police Intrusions (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register says police in Buena Park, California, who have begun to randomly stop cars in search of unlicensed drivers, violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. "Unfortunately, the D.A. is correct that these kinds of searches have been deemed by the Supreme Court to pass muster," said Tim Lynch of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In 1987 the California Supreme Court said drunken driving checkpoints are constitutional. In 1990 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a similar verdict.)
• Prison Shootings To Be Reviewed (According to the Orange County Register, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office will "independently assess the circumstances of each" of two dozen shootings of inmates by guards at Corcoran State Prison. Last fall, a special state review panel concluded that five fatal shootings and 19 incidents in which inmates were wounded between 1989 and 1995 were unjustified. Guards argued the shootings were needed to break up fights, even though California is the only state that breaks up inmate fights by shooting to kill.)
• Woman Cleared In Deputy Shooting (The Tulsa World says a pistol-packing 70-year-old was cleared Thursday of criminal wrongdoing for shooting a law officer during an ill-fated drug raid in 1996. After the prohibition agents' warrant was ruled invalid, Mary Lou Coonfield was able to invoke Oklahoma's "Make My Day" law, enacted in 1991, which states that an "occupant of a house is justified in using physical force, including deadly force, against another person who has unlawfully entered the house if the occupant reasonably believes that the other person might use any physical force, no matter how slight, against any occupant of the house.")
• A Small Victory in the War on Drugs (An op-ed in the Dallas Morning News tells a poignant tale about a Texan vacationing in London who apologizes to a Colombian for U.S. drug policy - and gets a surprising response.)
• Repeal Of Drug Zones Law Is Sought (The Baltimore Sun says Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke will ask the City Council to eliminate Baltimore's "drug-free zones" law on behalf of Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, who wants the council to help devise legislation that would allow officers to more effectively seize illegal guns and drugs.The council established 50 drug-free zones in 1989, but prosecutors and judges have opposed the law because they consider it an infringement on the constitutional right to assemble. Schmoke noted that the city's circuit courts are so clogged that four first-degree murder suspects were set free.)
• Shot By DEA Agents (According to UPI, police in Orlando, Florida, are saying little about the fatal shooting Thursday by Drug Enforcement Administration agents of a man in a sport utility vehicle said to be a former Central Florida law enforcement officer.)
• Former Deputy Killed (UPI says a man killed for refusing to obey federal DEA agents Thursday in Orlando, Florida, has been identified as Robert Pasteur, a former Orange County Sheriff's deputy.)
• Theories On Ritalin Revamped - Found To Stimulate Regulator Of Mood (The San Diego Union Tribune says a new study published in the journal Science suggests that Ritalin diminishes hyperactivity not by lowering dopamine levels in the brain, as previously thought, but by boosting serotonin levels, like an antidepressant.)
• Study Shifts Thought On How Ritalin Works (A slightly longer version in the Orange County Register is identified as coming from Scripps Howard News Service.)
• Research outlines how drugs calm kids (The Associated Press version)
• Tajikistan, Rakhmonov To Speak On Drugs (Itar-Tass, in Russia, says Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov will address the nation on Friday on the problem of illegal drugs, which has acquired immense scope in the Central Asian republic.)
• Two Hang For Drug Trafficking (Reuters says the staunchly anti-drug city-state of Singapore hanged two of its citizens Friday for trafficking in an unspecified drug. More than half of the 300 people executed in Singapore since 1975 have been convicted drug traffickers. Singapore mandates the death sentence for anyone over 18 guilty of trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of morphine or 500 grams of cannabis.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 74 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - 10th Circuit overturns Singleton ruling: feds may trade leniency for testimony; "Snitch"; Voice of the prisoner; Forfeiture scandal in Missouri; Report: prohibition and public health; Health emergency 1999; City of Oakland files states' rights brief in defense of cannabis co-op; Peyote foundation tests patience of local law enforcement, may test Arizona religious freedom law; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith: Buying testimony, perverting justice)
  Bytes: 80,000 Last updated: 1/25/99
  

  Thursday, January 14, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Body's Own Marijuana-Like Agents Holds Hope For High Blood Pressure Patients; Marijuana For Pain, MS Trials Approved In England; Support for Medical Marijuana, Industrial Hemp Strong, State Survey Shows; Oklahoma Governor To Decide Medical Marijuana Patient's Fate This Month)
• Federal agents arrest man who aided police (According to the Oregonian, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service says Louie Lira, who did anti-gang work in Portland for the last eight years and served as an unpaid volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau's Crisis Response Team, is really Gerardo Morales Alejo, who was deported to Mexico in 1985 after robbery and drug convictions in California.)
• Weapons will boost firepower for police (The Oregonian says that with little discussion or debate, the Portland city council awarded a $103,771 contract Wednesday to Specialized Armament Warehouse of Chandler, Arizona, to provide the Portland Police Bureau with 175 semiautomatic rifles. Officials didn't cite any local incidents that might have turned out more favorably if police had had bigger guns.)
• Air scope turns up heat on crime (The Oregonian says the Oregon State Police have a new helicopter equipped with a Forward-Looking Infrared Detection unit, or FLIR, that will allow them to find the warm bodies of fleeing felons in the dark. One assumes the unit will spend the rest of its time flying around looking for midnight gardens.]
• Three firefighters slightly injured after propane explosion (The Associated Press notes Multnomah County has apparently resorted to forfeiture by other means in its campaign to take the property where a Portland prohibition agent was justifiably homicided in 1979 during a warrantless break-in.)
• Senate briefing I-692 (A list subscriber forwards a notice from Washington state senator Jeanne Kohl about a Department of Health briefing in Olympia Jan. 21 regarding implementation of Initiative 692, the voter-approved medical marijuana law.)
• A Drug Sniffing Society (Officials at Boise High School who are considering urine tests for students who wish to participate in extracurricular activities cause Boise Weekly columnist Bill Cope to come out against the drug war. One of these days, we Americans - Idaho Americans in particular and Canyon County Americans in particular - are gonna have to sit down and figure out exactly what and how much we're willing to give up to keep waging the war on illegal drugs. Don't expect it to happen anytime real soon, though. To conduct a reasonable community discussion that might result in some reasonable community solutions, it's going to take some reasonable community leaders. At this point in the endless war, you'd have more luck spearing squid out of Lake Lowell than in finding a local official with the guts to suggest the drug problem has not been, nor will it be, solved by the us-versus-them policy that's been flopping about on the deck of America's ship of state for three decades now, all the time crushing more and more of what keeps the boat afloat in the first place.)
• Political Shift May Usher In New Pot Club (The San Francisco Chronicle says that despite pledges from the federal government to shut her down, Jane Weirick, the executive director of the San Francisco Patients Resource Center, plans to open a new medical marijuana dispensary. She hopes to have the facility running in six weeks or less, as soon as she locates a building to house the club. The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative has agreed to handle the club's eligibility paperwork and issue membership cards. Organizers are hoping the election of Bill Lockyer as Attorney General will lead to a compromise with the federal government that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to re-emerge in California to fulfill the mandate of Proposition 215.)
• 2 Convicted for Running Indoor Marijuana Farms (A cautionary tale in the Los Angeles Times says Drug Enforcement Administration agents picked up the trail of the defendants, Daniel Carson Adams, and his son-in-law, Earl Martin Torgerson, by staking out a hydroponics equipment store in North Hollywood and following one of the suspects after he purchased supplies. Six defendants have now been convicted for growing more than 1,800 plants in three houses. All face mandatory minimum federal sentences, except the leader of the conspiracy, Gary Manuel Margado, who was the chief witness against the others, apparently in an attempt to shorten his 10-year term.)
• San Francisco Marijuana Reform Forum Feb. 11 (A bulletin from the Lindesmith Center West publicizes a public meeting featuring Keith Stroup of NORML and Dale Gieringer of California NORML.)
• South Dakota Governor Proposes Mandatory Jail For Drug Offenses (USA Today says Gov. Janklow told state lawmakers in his State of the State address that anyone caught with "drugs" in South Dakota should have to spend at least 30 days in jail.)
• Marijuana Inhaling May Be Healthy (The Daily O'Collegian at Oklahoma State University covers a campus teach-in by the Drug Policy Forum of Oklahoma. Michael Pearson, the forum's organizer and a registered pharmacist, said studies have proven marijuana to be helpful with multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury spasms, high blood pressure, migraines, joint pain, menstrual problems, asthma and rheumatism. Pearson said patients get prescriptions for Valium from doctors and then trade it on the black market for marijuana, which is rumored to be more effective. Drug companies are reluctant to accept the drug because a plant is difficult to patent, he said, and because marijuana works as an anti-depressant. "What would happen to Prozac and other drugs that make up half [the drug companies'] money?")
• Progress Made In War On Drugs, Federal Official Reports (The Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, says Donald Vereen Jr., deputy director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce that use of marijuana among eighth-graders did not increase in 1997.)
• Drug Testing Expands (The Washington Post, which apparently does not consider alcohol to be a drug, says the number of "drug addicts" released on parole and probation in Maryland who are now required to take twice-weekly urine tests has increased five-fold in the past two months under the state's new "Break the Cycle" program. Under the plan, all 25,000 drug addicts on parole and probation in Maryland eventually will be required to undergo treatment and frequent testing - and face swift, escalating punishments if they skip a treatment session or test positive for "drug" use. The enterprise faces a range of obstacles, particularly if large numbers of ex-offenders test positive and the state is unable to "punish them effectively.")
• Clinton To Propose Spending $6 Billion To Battle Crime (The Orange County Register says President Clinton was scheduled to venture across the Potomac River today to Alexandria, Virginia, to unveil a new community-policing initiative. The five-year, $6 billion anti-crime package would fund the last 11,500 police officers of the 100,000 a Clinton initiative began to put on the street in 1994.)
• Police don't have to tell how to get seized property back, high court rules (An Associated Press article in the Miami Herald says the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously threw out a California couple's lawsuit, prompted by the difficulty they had recovering cash taken by police during a search of their home. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "Once the property owner is informed that his property has been seized, he can turn to . . . public sources to learn about the remedial procedures.")
• DrugSense Focus Alert! PBS Frontline gives reform a major boost (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to the Public Broadcasting Service and other media praising Frontline for its Jan. 12 television documentary on federal drug informants. Plus URLs where you can view or listen to the program.)
• Pray For Peace Foundation News, December 1998-January 1999 (A periodic summary of drug policy and other news from the Pray for Peace Foundation, whose members are "committed to the legalization of sacred natural medicines for spiritual healing, for all people.")
• Anti-pot fungus poses eco hazard (Now magazine, in Canada, says the U.S. Congress passed a $690 million anti-drug package this week that included $23 million for a fungus purported to kill marijuana, poppy and coca plants. Unspecified scientists are criticizing the project, saying other plants may be susceptible to the bio-engineered fungus. For example, they note that an alkaloid similar to one in the coca plant is also present in tobacco and coffee plants.)
• 900 In Trials To Test Claim That Cannabis Has Medical Benefits (The Daily Mail, in Britain, says the legalisation of cannabis moved a step closer yesterday as doctors announced details of the first medical trials for the herb. Over the next three years, 900 sufferers of multiple sclerosis and post-operative pain will be given regular doses of cannabis through an inhaler or as a pill. If the drug is shown to ease the volunteers' symptoms without causing side effects, doctors could be prescribing cannabis pills to some of Britain's 85,000 MS sufferers within five years.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5 No. 2 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
  Bytes: 91,100 Last updated: 2/23/99
  

  Wednesday, January 13, 1999:

• Making a hash of the law (A mean-spirited staff editorial in the Bend, Oregon, Bulletin, tries to arouse ill will over the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act by publicizing an empty threat by an ill-mannered medical marijuana patient in Newport to sue Abby's Pizza for not letting him smoke cannabis - something the voter-approved initiative clearly does not allow.)
• The drug war is a war on people (A letter to the editor of the Lynnwood Enterprise, in Lynnwood, Washington, from a member of the Washington Hemp Education Network responds to the yuletide bust and jailing in Tacoma of a blind man with AIDS and his caregiver mother for three cannabis plants. The prosecutor's office has reportedly decided to drop charges, but what about the family's dignity? Does society really desire protection from the helplessly ill?)
• Cannabis Club Exerts Legal Rights (The Oakland Tribune says the city of Oakland, California, filed a legal brief Monday in support of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, which is appealing an Oct. 19 order by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to close the club down. The city is banking on the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution in an amicus curiae brief in the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the Constitution doesn't allow federal law to automatically trump states' rights.)
• Lockyer On Medical Pot (A letter to the editor of the San Francisco Examiner says bravo for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's commitment to enforce Proposition 215.)
• KGB-Ing America (An op-ed in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, in Boonville, California, by Tony Serra, a San Francisco criminal defense attorney, says that when he started to practice law in the late 1960s, he confronted a phenomenon that he hoped would diminish, but which has instead increased steadfastly - the KGB-ing of America. In every criminal case in our alleged system of justice, some type of informant or spy mentality is now present.)
• Urgent Alert: Oklahoma Gov. Deciding Foster Parole, Calls and Letters Needed (The Drug Reform Coordination Network asks you to write a letter seeking mercy for the medical marijuana patient originally sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing his own medicine.)
• A.C. family stands to lose home under forfeiture law (The Atlantic City Press describes the federal government's plan to forfeit a family's home in Atlantic City - dispossessing 10 children - because a marijuana transaction was discussed there. Plus a request from FEAR - Forfeiture Endangers American Rights - asking you to write a protest letter.)
• PBS Frontline's "Snitch" now online (A bulletin from the Media Awareness Project features the URL for a RealVideo version of the television documentary aired last night by the Public Broadcasting Service.)
• Journal Blasts U.S. Drug Policy (UPI says the lead article in the latest issue of Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, harshly criticizes U.S. drug policy, and reveals how increased U.S. drug enforcement has fueled overdose deaths and drug-related emergencies. "From a public health point of view, drug prohibition is a disaster," said Dr. Ernest Drucker, a professor of epidemiology and social medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and the author of the study. "While our government officials claim success in reducing drug use, drug-related deaths and diseases have increased sharply. That's the best measure of the impact of our drug policies - and they are failing.")
• New Marijuana Strain Boosts Drug Trade (According to USA Today, U.S. and Canadian prohibition agents say British Columbian indoor cannabis growers are achieving potency rates of about 25 percent to 30 percent THC. Police say the herb is so potent it is being traded pound-for-pound for cocaine in the United States, and the cocaine obtained by Canadian drug dealers in exchange for the marijuana has begun fueling a fledgling crack cocaine trade north of the border. However, as documented just yesterday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and on page 61 of the January issue of High Times, and by the Flower Therapy medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco before it closed under threat of federal prosecution, it's not unusual for indoor sinsemilla growers in the United States to achieve similar potency levels.)
• High on Hemp (The Victoria Times Colonist, in British Columbia, says hemp seed wholesalers are chipping away at mainstream mores about marijuana by using its natural seeds in foods neither the health conscious or health oblivious can ignore. Hemp seed is a highly versatile natural source of protein, fibre, vitamins, and essential fatty acids and amino acids. Gone are the days when hemp seed was peddled by hippies smoking pipes and wearing bad hemp suits, said Viteway's Paul Griffin and Canadian Hemp Corporation's Richard Plotnikoff.)
• Hustler's Hitlist - The other trial? Politicians v Larry Flynt (The Morning Herald, in Sydney, Australia, mischaracterizes the muck raked up against Rep. Bob Barr, the nemesis of Washington, D.C.'s medical marijuana ballot measure, claiming Barr did not perjure himself.)
• Smoke And Mirror (A letter to the editor of the Independent, in Britain, notes more people in the Third World die from American tobacco than there are Americans who die from Third World heroin and cocaine.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 81 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense leads with a feature article, Anti-drug programs miss mark, by Marsha Rosenbaum. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Drug war key may lie in past; Clinton to request funding for prison anti-drug program; Pressured FDA seeks more funds; Editorial: changing the guard; Marad calls for added private anti-drug efforts. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Treating the cause; 'Win at all costs': the Justice Department responds; Police keep cash intended for education; Court reverses ban on leniency for witnesses. Articles about Drug Use Issues include - Young, rich and strung out; It's madness not to investigate pot's medical use; What's not to like? International News articles include - Australia: heroin deaths soar; Alone and accused in a Nicaraguan prison; 2 dead Mexican police found near Brownsville; British anti-drugs chief attacks 'arrogance' of professional classes; Colombian rebels say they might switch, fight coca. The weekly "Hot Off The 'Net" features Frontline's "Snitch," Ernest Drucker's new article, and DrugPeace. The DrugSense Tips Of The Week focus on the May DPF Conference and the FEAR on-line chat group. The Quote of the Week cites Howard Rheingold telling the digerati to get active. The Fact of the Week - Drug testing a poor indicator.)
  Bytes: 93,100 Last updated: 2/2/99
  

  Tuesday, January 12, 1999:

• Concert in Portland Friday, Jan. 22, to benefit the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (A news release from CRRH, sponsors of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, says the show at the Aladdin Theater features Huffy, Jealous Rage, Pedro Luz, the Daylights, Nicotine, and Hurricane Joe.)
• Portland, Ore., Monthly Potluck (Floyd Ferris Landrath of the American Antiprohibition League publicizes meetings for drug policy reformers on the last Sunday of every month in 1999 - including Jan. 31.)
• Alameda County Joins Lawsuit Against Feds (A bulletin from California NORML says the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted today to join the city of Oakland in a legal brief in support of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative. The brief, filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, argues that the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow federal law to automatically override California voters' rights.)
• Colorado Senator Introduces Prison Moratorium Bill (An action alert from the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project asks Coloradans to write letters to state legislators and everyone to write letters to Colorado media regarding SB 95, a moratorium on prison construction sponsored by Senator Dorothy Rupert, a Democrat from Boulder.)
• Border Patrol Can Be Sued for Stops (The Associated Press says the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, reinstated a class-action lawsuit on behalf of two groups: Hispanics who drive in an eight-county area of southern Arizona at any time, and people of any ethnicity who drive in the same area after dark, ruling that the U.S. Border Patrol can be sued for stopping drivers just because they look Hispanic.)
• U.S. Supreme Court Nullfies Colorado Ballot Initiative Rules (A list subscriber forwards a summary and URL leading to the full text of the court's decision today in Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation. The court affirmed the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that three sections of the Colorado law regulating initiative petitions were invalid. Specifically, the court held that Colorado could not require petition circulators to be registered voters or to wear identification badges, and that it could not require proponents of an initiative to report names and addresses of all paid circulators and amounts of money paid to each circulator.)
• Supreme Court Strikes Down Colorado Ballot Initiatives System (The Associated Press version)
• Supreme Court on Ballot Initiative Regulations (A list subscriber forwards the syllabus of today's decision and a URL for the full text, noting the decision affects the signature collection process in every state that has the ballot initiative.)
• Juries And The Law (A letter to the editor of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram rebuts several erroneous assertions in a recent article about the Lone Star Fully Informed Jury Association's plans to take four proposals to the state legislature this year regarding jury nullifaction. Like it or not, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1794 that jury nullification is a basic, constitutional right of the American people. Chief Justice John Jay wrote: "The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.")
• Utmost Care (A staff editorial in the Ft. Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram, says Troy Dale Farris, scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday night, should be granted a stay of execution and have his case re-examined. The murder scene was trampled by investigating officers, much of the evidence was lost or stolen, and at least one law enforcement official removed marijuana from the dead deputy's pocket. Although the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that the circumstantial and forensic evidence offered at the trial "failed to connect [Farris] to the killing," it affirmed Farris's conviction.)
• Witness May Be Able To Testify In Oregon Case (According to the Houston Chronicle, prosecutors and an attorney for a key witness in the criminal trespass trial of James Willis, a former Houston police officer charged in connection with the shooting death of Pedro Oregon Navarro during a botched drug raid, said Monday that they were working to clear the way for Rogelio Oregon, Pedro's brother, to testify. Last week, attorneys for the Oregon family hinted that Rogelio Oregon might not cooperate unless they were assured that prosecutors wouldn't use his immigration status against him.)
• State Lawmaker Attempting To Legalize Industrial Hemp (According to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, Wisconsin state representative Eugene Hahn, a Republican whose uncle was a hemp farmer during World War II, said Monday that he's drafting a bill to legalize industrial hemp to help Wisconsin farmers facing bankruptcy from plummeting pork prices. During the 1940s the hemp industry accounted for 30,000 acres and 10 processing plants in Wisconsin.)
• Dear Abby: Warning Signs Help Identify Drug Abuse (The Chicago Tribune's syndicated advice columnist prints some "warning signs of a potential problem" for parents of teen-agers, from the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey.)
• Channel Surfing: Snitches (The Chicago Tribune previews tonight's broadcast of a documentary on federal drug informants by the Public Broadcasting Service's "Frontline.")
• Interview With Eric Sterling For 'Snitch' (The Public Broadcasting Service's "Frontline" interviews the man who served as a congressional legal adviser from 1979 to 1989 and who helped write the current mandatory minimum federal sentencing laws for drug offenders. He later disavowed the legislation and become a reform activist and founder of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.)
• Snitch (A transcript of the "Frontline" documentary on the role of federal informants and mandatory minimums in the war on some drug users, produced by the Public Broadcasting Service)
• Supreme Court: Garbage Search Upheld (An excerpt from an article about several U.S. Supreme Court decisions Monday, in the News & Observer, in North Carolina, says the court refused to consider a case from Urbana, Illinois, that raised the issue of whether police have the right to conduct a warrantless search of a homeowner's trash when the trash can is adjacent to the house or garage, well within the property line. In a 1988 case, the court upheld the search of a garbage can left at the curb. But Monday the court rejected an appeal of a cocaine-related conviction by Joseph Redmon, who placed his can at the top of his 28-foot driveway.)
• Publisher Larry Flynt Levels Accusations at Rep. Bob Barr (CNN says the Hustler magazine publisher is accusing Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia - the nemesis of Initiative 59, the Washington, D.C., medical-marijuana ballot measure - of hypocrisy and lying under oath.)
• Clerics lose bid to legalize pot (According to the Toronto Star, a Canadian federal court has ruled that "The constitutionality of legislation controlling cannabis in the face of religious requirement is a possibly serious issue," and gave Walter A. Tucker and Michael J. Baldasaro of the Church of the Universe until Jan. 10 to refile their suit against the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.)
• Mayor gets protection (The Toronto Star says Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside got a free $2,200 home security system two months ago after declaring a war on drugs in the city.)
• Mexico Governor Has Secret Accounts Abroad - Paper (According to Reuters, a Mexico City daily, El Universal, said Tuesday that an intelligence report by Mexico's Interior Ministry had traced the ownership of $10 million stashed away in secret bank accounts in California, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, to Mario Villanueva Madrid, governor of Mexico's Caribbean state of Quintana Roo.)
• Colombian Death Squads Endangering Peace Talks, Analysts Say (The Houston Chronicle says a three-day rampage by paramilitary death squads that killed at least 139 people began just a day after peace talks opened last week between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Colombia's largest anti-government militia. Colombians are demanding that their government either negotiate with the outlawed militias or fight back, but the government is owned by the same small landed class that funds the paramilitary groups. Some of the groups provide protection for illegal-drug traffickers.)
• New Zealand press release (A list subscriber forwards a statement from New Zealand's ruling National Party saying any change to cannabis laws would require a non-party-line "conscience vote" in Parliament. The party is obligated to respond to a Parliamentary select committee's recent report, and is supposed to do so on an evidentiary basis, but instead claims - with no scientific reference at all - that more than 20 percent of cannabis users face mental health problems.)
• Doctors Check Cannabis For Medical Benefit (The version in the Dominion, in New Zealand, of yesterday's Reuters article about the governing body for British pharmacists saying two clinical research doctors would volunteer to run the first government-sanctioned trials on the therapeutic value of cannabis.)
• Doctors Volunteer To Test Cannabis (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says the two doctors who have volunteered to run the country's first official patient trials involving cannabis are Dr Anita Holdcroft, from Hammersmith Hospital, London, who will investigate whether the drug or some of its components can relieve post-operative pain; and Dr John Zajicek, of Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, who will run a second trial investigating the effects of cannabis on multiple sclerosis sufferers.)
  Bytes: 176,000 Last updated: 6/4/99
  

  Monday, January 11, 1999:

• Sanctioning Owen unethical (A letter to the editor of the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, by Sandra Bennett, the notorious Portland, Oregon, anti-pot zealot, says it's unethical for the state of Washington to punish Lt. Gov. Brad Owen for allocating state funds to oppose a drug-policy-reform ballot initiative. The ethics violations should have been levied against out-of-state entities for encroaching on Washington's political process.)
• Re: "Snitch" on PBS Frontline Tuesday Night (Peter McWilliams, the best-selling author, AIDS and cancer patient and medical-marijuana defendant indicted by the federal government in California, says he will be watching the television documentary on federal informants with great interest Tuesday night, since his own indictment is based entirely on information and grand jury testimony provided by Scott Imler and two of his employees at the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club. McWilliams says Imler has been allowed to continue operating the club in return for his testimony against McWilliams, all the while manufacturing and selling more marijuana each year under federal protection than McWilliams and co-defendant Todd McCormick are accused of being involved with.)
• Drugs Smuggled Into Three Prisons With Alleged Help of Corrections Officers (The Associated Press rewrites a recent Scripps Howard News Service article about the recent arrests of several California prison guards and other correctional employees.)
• Blue Nitro Worries Poison Experts (The San Francisco Examiner tries to launch a nationwide drug menace over a legal "dietary supplement" and chemical analog to GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate - a colorless, odorless substance known as liquid ecstasy that allegedly became popular on the dance club scene and has been documented as one of several date-rape drugs.)
• Execution Of Farris Would Be Big Mistake (Ft. Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders urges Texans to ask Governor George W. Bush to stop the execution of Troy Dale Farris, convicted of the December 1983 slaying of a Tarrant County deputy sheriff. Because his case involved an obviously bungled investigation, destroyed and/or tampered evidence and, at the least, misstatements by a law enforcement official, Farris should be a free man today. One complication involves marijuana discovered on the slain deputy.)
• The Flip Side Of A Fair Trial (The second part of a five-part series on prosecutorial misconduct, in the Chicago Tribune, says a Tribune analysis of hundreds of all types of criminal cases since Dec. 31, 1977, found 326 state court convictions in Illinois - 207 of them in Cook County - have been reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. Eight defendants in Cook County who had been sentenced to death won new sentencing hearings due to prosecutorial misbehavior, with only two resulting in reimposition of a death sentence. A Tribune study of homicide cases across the country also revealed 381 reversals since 1963 for two of the most serious types of misconduct - using false evidence or concealing evidence suggesting innocence.)
• Mainers likely to vote on medical use of marijuana (Without explaining how or why, Foster's Daily Democrat, in Dover, New Hampshire, says the proposal by Mainers for Medical Rights will first go before state lawmakers. If the Legislature does not approve the measure, it will be sent to a referendum in November because it is a citizen initiative. The latter part of the article includes a medical marijuana patient's persuasive testimony about the herb's effectiveness.)
• Federal Drug Fighters To Open Office In City (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the DEA hopes to open a permanent office in New Bedford within six months to combat what agents describe as a pipeline for heroin traffickers from Providence and New York. Nationally, drug agents are seizing heroin with a purity level of around 40 percent, but purity levels in Massachusetts and the rest of New England hover at 60 percent and higher. Heroin seized in Massachusetts has tested as high as 90 percent pure. And the street price has dropped from as much as $20 for a small, postage-stamp-size bag a decade ago to as low as $5.)
• Rep. Barr Admits to Criminal Adultery (According to best-selling author Peter McWilliams, Larry Flynt released convincing evidence tonight that Rep. Bob Barr had an adulterous affair with the woman who is now his wife while he was still married to his previous wife. Adultery is illegal in Georgia, Rep. Barr's home state. Barr is the House Republican and impeachment activist who sponsored an amendment to the District of Columbia budget bill prohibiting the district from conducting a vote on any issue that would have lessened penalties against marijuana, thereby quashing Initiative 59, the medical marijuana ballot measure.)
• Snaring Criminals In The Web (The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, in Florida, describes the work of a member of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's gang unit, who trolls the Internet trying to monitor gang activity, and to turn that surveillance into drug arrests.)
• Police, for Now, Hold the Power In the Liberty City Drug Wars (The Washington Post says more than 200 city, state and federal law enforcement officials have been a powerful presence in one of Miami's most chronically troubled neighborhoods in recent days, questioning young black men on street corners, nosing their cruisers through the trash-strewn streets, and watching the rhythms of life from unmarked cars. "Operation Draw the Line" is intended somehow to pacify Liberty City's war on some drug users, which has caused a dozen deaths in recent months, five in December alone. Most major American cities have their versions of Liberty City.)
• Dear Abby: Ten Resolutions For Drug-Free Families (General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, writes a letter to the syndicated advice columnist suggesting how parents can supposedly discourage their kids from using alcohol and other drugs.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert - Ann Landers (DrugSense asks you to take a few minutes to write a letter to the syndicated advice columnist, responding to her recent column saying "the laws regarding marijuana are too harsh. Those who keep pot for their own use should not be treated as criminals.")
• Libertarians blast Congress for spending $23 million to develop anti-drug killer fungus (A press release from the Libertarian Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., says legislation passed by Congress late last year authorizing $23 million for research into genetically altering soil-borne fungi called "mycoherbicides," so they would attack and kill marijuana, poppies, and coca, is a dangerous plan that could cause an environmental catastrophe.)
• Drug Use Down, Drug Deaths Up (UPI says an article in the January-February issue of the journal Public Health Reports by Dr. Ernest Drucker, a professor of epidemiology at the Montefiore Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, shows the number of illegal-drug users in the United States has declined dramatically since 1979, but cocaine and heroin-related deaths and emergency room visits have climbed sharply in the same period. While rates of illicit drug use are similar among blacks, Hispanics and whites, blacks are 3.5 times as likely to die of drug-related overdoses as whites and have 7.5 times the rate of drug-related emergency room visits. These disparities, he told United Press International, are due to tighter enforcement for blacks. Drucker blames U.S. drug policy, and contends decriminalizing drug use could help.)
• U.S. Drug Policy Failing, Report Says (The Reuters version)
• Study Links Drug Use To Child Abuse (According to the Associated Press, a report issued Monday by CASA, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse run by Joseph Califano at Columbia University, says parental abuse of alcohol and other drugs is largely responsible for a surge in child abuse and neglect. Providing treatment for addicted parents would reduce the supposed need to remove children from their families. The study notes that the number of child welfare cases has more than doubled over 10 years, from 1.4 million in 1986 to more than 3 million in 1997.)
• Drugs, Alcohol Fuel Child Abuse (The version from UPI, which does not consider alcohol to be a drug)
• Adult Abuses Hurt U.S. Child Welfare - Report (The Reuters version)
• Grand Forks mayor pitches pot plan (The Calgary Herald follows up on yesterday's article about Brian Taylor, the mayor of Grand Forks, British Columbia, who wants to make his town Canada's chief supplier of medical marijuana. Taylor now says he would like Calgary multiple sclerosis patient Grant Krieger to consider his little city as a source of supplies for the nationwide medical marijuana club Krieger is organizing. "Right on," said Krieger.)
• Chasing Andy Sipowicz (An angry but well-written column in the Toronto Globe and Mail by Spider Robinson insightfully criticizes the mindset of prohibition agents in Abbotsford, British Columbia, who carried out a marijuana bust while a children's birthday party was going on - after first surveilling the residence for two hours. Andy Sipowicz on television's NYPD Blue has been perhaps the most eloquent exponent - at least since Clint Eastwood quit playing Dirty Harry - of the proposition that sometimes an officer just has to "tune up" a suspect - that is, beat a confession out of him, or kill him. Ah, "but only when you know you're right." That's who I want arbitrating the complex moral dichotomies of our time, someone sure to be infallible: an ill-educated overweight civil servant with a jaundiced world-view and a 9 millimetre.)
• Birthday party raid is the latest SWAT fiasco (Kenneth Whyte, editor-in-chief of the National Post, in Canada, pens a column about prohibition agents' ill-fated home invasion in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The frightening fact is that so-called SWAT teams mess up like this all the time.)
• Fighting Rising Drug Abuse Inside Mexico's Borders (The New York Times alleges an increase in drug abuse among Mexican youth, especially with regard to cocaine. A 1997 report by the Ministry of Health says that in the last six years cocaine use has quadrupled among Mexicans ages 12 to 19, although Mexico's drug problem remains small compared with that of the United States.)
• Experts Question Strength Of Colombian Rebel Group (The Dallas Morning News says there is a growing consensus that estimates of FARC's strength and links to drug trafficking are nowhere near what Colombian and U.S. officials are asserting. International human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused U.S. officials of exaggerating rebel links to drug traffickers in order to justify an expanded military involvement. U.S. officials say they do not accuse all or even most FARC members of involvement in the drug trade. Some government estimates suggest that only around 20 percent of FARC members provide protection for drug facilities and farmers.)
• MPs Captured By The Pro-Cannabis Lobby (A staff editorial in the Evening Post, in New Zealand, rejects the recent call to reconsider marijuana prohibition in New Zealand made by the parliamentary select committee on health.)
• High Hopes As UK Tests Cannabis For Medical Use (According to Reuters, the governing body for British pharmacists announced on Monday that two clinical research doctors will volunteer to run the first government-sanctioned trials on the therapeutic value of cannabis. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said two separate trials, examining the effects of both herbal cannabis and synthetic cannabinoids on spasms in multiple sclerosis patients and on post-operative pain sufferers, will follow new protocols to give the results scientific weight. British doctors were allowed to prescribe cannabis until 1973.)
• Cannabis can help relieve the symptoms of some illnesses (The BBC says new British guidelines for conducting trials into the medical use of cannabis are to be published Monday by the Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. For some unexplained reason, however, the BBC says the results of the trials must be accepted by the World Health Organisation before the UK government can legalise cannabis for medical use.)
• Lord Who Blew UKP7M On Heroin Dies Aged 44 (The Guardian, in Britain, says Lord Bristol, twice jailed for possessing heroin, an addiction on which he admitted blowing UKP7 million, died in his sleep yesterday morning. His agent, Simon Pott, said he believed the 7th Marqess had had a flu-type bug. The Old Harrovian's adult life was spent unashamedly in the fast lane.)
• Kenya Rivals Colombia In Drug Trafficking (All Africa News Agency says vast areas of Mount Kenya Forest and other parts of Kenya have been cleared and planted with bhang bushes. The plantations are protected by guards armed with bows and arrows while government officers are restricted from approaching. Where police are acquitted after shooting into a crowd of protesting students, "experts" say a complete generation has been destroyed by drugs and that traffickers have targeted schools where widespread bhang smoking is now a serious issue.)
  Bytes: 181,000 Last updated: 2/3/99
  

  Sunday, January 10, 1999:

• Smelling Salts, Please (A letter sent to the editor of the Gazette Times, in Corvallis, Oregon, complains that a DARE officer in nearby Philomath who was charged with domestic violence will be allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges and then resign from the police force - meaning he can re-apply for the vacant position and everything will be just fine.)
• Web Site Review - 'Campaign For The Restoration And Regulation Of Hemp' (The Seattle Times' technology writer thinks the web site for the Cannabis Tax Act campaign is spiffy. D. Paul Stanford, of Portland, hopes to place the comprehensive marijuana-law reform initiative on the ballot in Washington, Oregon, California, and perhaps other states by 2000.)
• Party rancor, new faces backdrop to session opener (An Associated Press article contains nothing ostensibly relevant to drug policy, but provides a glimpse of the Oregon legislature as it begins a new session.)
• U.S. Sen. John Kitzhaber? Don't rule it out (Another Associated Press article with nothing obviously relevant to drug policy provides a fawning portrait of Oregon Governor John "Prisons" Kitzhaber - who has presided over the planning, expansion or construction of more prisons than all of his predecessors combined - who seems to be positioning himself to run against Republican Senator Gordon Smith.)
• Re: Views from a Medical Technologist (A list subscriber in Washington state forwards a physician's email contrasting cannabis with tricyclic antidepressants, which can easily destroy the liver. Plus some gratuitous commentary from Portland NORML's webmaster, Phil Smith, about his experience.)
• Rumor from the Farm: MJ to be Schedule III (A list subscriber says that, according to Dennis Peron, founder of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club, Peron has been told by one of the authors of the Institute of Medicine's review of the literature on medical marijuana - the $1 million project commissioned by the White House drug czar two years ago - that the review will recommend moving marijuana to Schedule III, where physicians would have little trouble prescribing it. Plus commentary from Dave Fratello, Jon Gettman and other list subscribers.)
• Evidence legal in cannabis center case (The Contra Costa Times version of yesterday's news about a Santa Clara Superior Court judge allowing prosecutors to use confidential patient medical records in the trial of Peter Baez, the founder of a now-defunct San Jose-based medical marijuana dispensary.)
• Drug Tests a Waste (A letter to the editor of the Oklahoman says drug testing in schools is not a panacea that will halt illicit drug use. In some ways, drug testing may actually encourage "drug" use.)
• Oregon not only victim in Houston's failed drug war (An attorney's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle says the city of Houston is now a victim of America's War on Drugs as it defends itself against a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by the family of Pedro Oregon, the innocent Houston man who was shot to death by six prohibition agents who broke into his home without a warrant. To fight a drug war effectively, citizens must accept the reality that the battles are local and not national. All that is required is imagination and the courage to confront leaders in your community about their failure.)
• Senseless Sentencing: A Federal Judge Speaks Out (An op-ed in the Des Moines Register by Robert W. Pratt, a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Iowa, describes the iniquitous and expensive failures of federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug offenders. For each million dollars spent on long prison terms, a 1997 RAND study found that 13 kilograms of cocaine were removed from the street. The study found that shorter sentences for more dealers removed 27 kilograms per million dollars spent. Spending the same million dollars on treatment could result in a reduction of over 100 kilograms. This information should allay the fear that any reduction in penalties for drug offenses will be seen as an endorsement of drug use. We must reject the idea that coming to grips with reality is being "soft on crime.")
• Federalizing Crime, Ironically, Conservatives Are Expanding Federal Power (A staff editorial in the Des Moines Register agrees with the op-ed by Judge Pratt. Federal courts were never meant to duplicate state courts, but in recent years, as the result of an annual test of manhood in Congress, their steady growth in criminal cases, mostly for illegal drugs, is threatening to overwhelm their resources.)
• Report: Suppression of evidence has led to wrongful convictions (According to the Associated Press, a Chicago Tribune analysis of thousands of court records in homicide cases shows that prosecutors throughout the country have hid evidence, leading to wrongful convictions, retrials and appeals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The records show prosecutors have won convictions against black men, hiding evidence the real killers were white. They also have prosecuted a wife, hiding evidence her husband committed suicide. And they have prosecuted parents, hiding evidence their daughter was killed by wild dogs. Since a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling designed to curb misconduct by prosecutors, at least 381 defendants nationally have had a homicide conviction thrown out because prosecutors concealed evidence. Next week, three former DuPage County prosecutors will face trial on charges of conspiring to frame Rolando Cruz, who served about 10 years on death row before being acquitted of murder at his third trial. If the former prosecutors are convicted, it would be a first in the United States.)
• Teen Crime Wave Called Myth (A Cox News Service article in the San Francisco Chronicle says a study funded by the MacArthur Foundation and released yesterday by Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, shows that fear rather than fact is fueling unnecessarily harsh juvenile justice policies throughout the United States. The two-year study of juvenile crime statistics charges that laws aimed at youthful lawbreakers are based on "deeply flawed analyses of juvenile violence statistics." Youth behavior has not been changing, police behavior has. Police have been reducing the threshold of what constitutes assault and aggravated assault, the study charges, resulting in the apparent increase in crime.)
• Where It All Begins With 'Narco' (Washington Post columnist Molly Moore says it's almost impossible to pick up a Mexican newspaper without narco-headlines detailing the exploits of narco-kidnappers, narco-cops or narco-politicians. Or, for that matter, to hold a conversation without at least one reference to a narco-something-or-other. In the last decade, use of the "narco" prefix has exploded in Mexico, indicating just how deeply and rapidly the drug trade has permeated the country's social, cultural, economic and political institutions. Large, ostentatious edifices built with loads of money and little taste are dubbed "neo-narco" or "early narco." Narco-traffickers not only pray to narco-saints, but shower their local narco-churches and favorite narco-priests with narco-alms.)
• Mayor wants Grand Forks to . . . Go To Pot (The Calgary Herald says Brian Taylor, a former hippie who traded his long hair for a "mayor's cut" when he was elected mayor of Grand Forks, wants to turn the town just north of the U.S. border into Canada's chief supplier of medical marijuana.)
• The hemp grower, conspiracy theories and Nicaragua (The Toronto Star says Paul Wylie, a Canadian employee of Hemp Agro International who was busted in Nicaragua on charges that the company's hemp farm was really marijuana, says he has a BA in horticultural genetics from the University of Guelph. His business partners and financiers claim he has a PhD. But his sister-in-law doesn't believe he attended a post-secondary school, and the University of Guelph has no record of the mysterious Canadian. And contrary to previous reports, Nicaragua, like the United States, makes no distinction in law between industrial-grade hemp and marijuana.)
• Nicaragua hemp farm will live on, says Hamilton-area entrepreneur (A Canadian Press article in the Calgary Herald says Grant Sanders, the owner of a hemp farm in Nicaragua, says he isn¹t about to pull the plug on the operation - even though it landed his partner in jail. Nicaraguan officials have destroyed the crop. Earlier this week, Nicaraguan Judge Orieta Benavides ordered Sanders and six other partners in Hemp Agro International to stand trial on suspicion of growing marijuana on a 100-hectare plantation outside Managua.)
• Straw Gives Go-Ahead To Convict Criminals On Hearsay Evidence (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, has proposed that written evidence from frightened or intimidated witnesses, or those who have died or are too ill to attend court, "or any other hearsay evidence from absent witnesses," should be automatically admitted in court "in the interests of justice," without cross-examination. Straw says the changes are needed to convict more drug dealers.)
• ACM-Bulletin of 10 January 1999 (An English-language news bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, focuses on Britain's first legal harvest of marijuana for medical use, and other research in England on the properties of endocannabinoids to reduce blood pressure.)
  Bytes: 124,000 Last updated: 2/3/99
  

  Saturday, January 9, 1999:

• Man says he will sue over medical pot (The Oregonian engages in a little agitprop designed to spread ill will about the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act by publicizing an empty threat by an ill-mannered medical marijuana patient in Newport to sue Abby's Pizza for not letting him smoke cannabis - something the voter-approved initiative clearly does not allow.)
• Confusion begins to surface over medical marijuana law (The Associated Press version)
• Judge orders immediate arrest of 5 racketeering defendants (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County judge ordered the arrests after one of the convicted racketeers who was released pending sentencing was shot in a gang-related dispute Sunday. As usual, the newspaper doesn't say what enterprise the racketeers were engaged in.)
• Cheap, available fertilizer being used to make illegal drug (An Associated Press with a Salem, Oregon, dateline says anhydrous ammonia, a cheap, readily available fertilizer, is increasingly being used in the manufacture of illegal methamphetamine in the Northwest. Sgt. David Dewey of the Pierce County, Wash., Sheriff's Department, said about 85 percent of the approximately 165 meth labs uncovered in Washington in 1998 used anhydrous ammonia.)
• Inmate found hanging in cell (The Associated Press says Oregon prison officials withheld identification of the inmate pending notification of his family. The unknown casualty was the fifth inmate in an Oregon state prison to commit suicide since August.)
• Medical Marijuana Files Are Admissible - Decision a setback for San Jose cannabis club (The San Francisco Chronicle says Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Diane Northway ruled yesterday in a hearing regarding the upcoming trial of Peter Baez that prosecutors can use financial records and 265 patients' confidential medical files seized by police in a search of the now-defunct Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center.)
• Baez Loses Key Evidence Ruling (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• David Herrick update (An Orange County list subscriber forwards news from the medical marijuana patient and former sheriff's deputy in San Bernardino County, California, sentenced to four years in prison for distributing a quarter ounce of medicine to authorized patients. Includes a letter from California NORML to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, asking him to review the case, and instruct his office to file a brief which reflects his stated intention to follow the will of the voters in implementing Prop. 215.)
• Court Reverses Ban on Leniency For Witnesses (The Washington Post version of yesterday's news about the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing one of its own three-member panel's Singleton decision, which found that prosecutors were engaged in bribery of a witness when they offered leniency to one defendant in exchange for testimony against another)
• Plea-Bargain Ruling Reversed (The Associated Press version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Court Approves Policy Of Leniency For Testimony (A different Associated Press version in the Miami Herald)
• Plea-Bargain Ban Reversed By Full Court (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
• Re: Singleton reversal (A list subscriber posts a URL leading to the full text of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. Plus list subscriber commentary.)
• Suspect in drug bust that left 2 men dead held for questioning (A Houston Chronicle follow-up on the case of the two criminal justice students killed in the course of a cocaine bust in a Pasadena parking lot.)
• It's Time To Honestly Review Drug Policy (A letter to the editor of the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, from a Barnstable town councilor, says it has become obvious that, like alcohol prohibition before it, the policy of criminalizing drug use, and particularly marijuana use, has created far more harm to the user and society than the use of such substances ever could.)
• School crossing guard charged with selling cocaine while on duty (The Associated Press says a 39-year-old woman in Magnolia, New Jersey, was arrested Thursday afternoon after she sold cocaine to undercover prohibition agents for the third time in a month.)
• Guard Charged In Drug Sales (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
• Tonight! Prohibition on the History Channel (A list subscriber forwards information about "Prohibition: Thirteen Years that Changed America," on cable television. Plus a URL where you can view the documentary later on the web.)
• Hastert Seeks to Make Education a Hill Priority (The Washington Post says the new speaker of the US House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, in his first public appearance since taking over Wednesday from Newt Gingrich, announced a $2.5 million grant to expand public school drug and safety programs.)
• Pressured FDA Seeks More Funds (According to an Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it's 500 employees short and $165 million in the hole because of six years of budgets that didn't keep up with inflation. The Clinton administration is seeking an extra $30 million to hire 60 more inspectors.)
• 2 Dead Mexican Police Found Near Brownsville (The Houston Chronicle says the bodies of a retired commander of the Federal Judicial Police in Mexico City, and an active member of the agency, were found Friday morning on the banks of the Rio Grande, in Texas. The two Mexicans had been the subject of a search since they were reportedly abducted in Mexico on Dec. 27.)
• Hemp Grower's Qualifications Questioned (The Toronto Star follows up on the case of Hemp Agro International being charged with marijuana cultivation in Nicaragua. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturalist with the industrial hemp company who's been jailed in Nicaragua for 18 days, supposedly obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph, but the school says it's never heard of him.)
• Alone and accused in a Nicaraguan prison - Guelph man in hemp case talks of jail ordeal (The Toronto Star publishes a jailhouse interview with Paul Thomas Wylie, the Canadian horticulturalist employed by Hemp Agro International who has been charged in Nicaragua with growing marijuana, not hemp. It has already been admitted, by the American embassy in Managua, that members of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency were involved in inspecting the property and the crop.)
• Mexican Drug Officials Found Dead (UPI notes the fate of two more prohibition agents from a country where the historical association between the illegal-drug culture and peace movement never existed.)
  Bytes: 96,000 Last updated: 1/21/99
  

  Friday, January 8, 1999:

• City police continue drive to expand force (The Oregonian notes the police state just got a little bigger in Portland, though Chief Moose had to comb through the reject pile.)
• What's Not To Like? (LA Weekly says Dr. Kathleen Boyle of the UCLA Drug Abuse Research Center has a problem. The social psychologist began a two-year study last July into the use of medical marijuana by people with AIDS. The university-funded project seeks to document both the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of medical-marijuana patients and their issues and concerns. The hitch is that Dr. Boyle can't find anyone who's used it and says it doesn't work for them.)
• Cop Plays Rebellious Student To Set Up School Drug Busts (The San Jose Mercury News says a 19-year-old prohibition agent on her first assignment spent four months undercover at San Benito High School setting up 25 students in what apparently is the largest drug sting in the school's history. Police netted one-third of a pound of methamphetamine, 2,500 hits of LSD, and 20 vials of what's believed to be Ecstasy. Hinton played her role to the hilt, with a new Mustang, baggy clothes, slang, and her willingness to spend money. She got into trouble with school officials so often she spent hours on trash patrol. She was suspended once and expelled once and was issued numerous detentions for not completing assignments, playing hooky or cussing out teachers or the vice principal.)
• 'Student' Leads Drug Bust (A slightly different version, apparently from a different edition)
• 24 Students Arrested In Hollister Drug Sting (The San Francisco Chronicle version)
• California Officers Charged In Prison Drug Trade (A Scripps Howard News Service article says the Corrections Department's new Office of Internal Affairs - created last summer as a result of legislative hearings into alleged officer abuses at Corcoran State Prison - concluded its biggest employee drug smuggling case this week at Ironwood State Prison, where agents found unspecified quantities of unidentified drugs they connected to Officer Richard Melendez, who was arrested Dec. 30. Corrections officials do not have any statistics about institutional drug-smuggling cases involving officers and other prison employees, but two separate investigations at San Quentin put an officer, two cooks and a parolee with a violent past in custody, and several other recent cases are described.)
• Be-In About Drugpeace (A press release from the Drug Policy Foundation publicizes the 11th Annual Digital Be-In tomorrow in San Francisco, co-sponsored by DPF and developed in conjunction with the Macworld Expo. The program includes the launching of the Drug Peace Campaign, an "internet-based political action committee whose mission is to seek a peaceful end to the 'War on Drugs' by encouraging more intelligent approaches to drug-related legislation and drug education.")
• 16th Street Shooting Gallery (Another San Francisco Examiner follow-up on the heroin-related death of Boz Scaggs' son features a somewhat sensationalized portrait of the Mission District neighborhood where Oscar Scaggs died. The addicts in the neighborhood have found that heroin is far more readily available than treatment programs. According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, there are about 13,000 heroin "addicts" in The City - but the number of casual users isn't mentioned. In any case, only 4,000 were getting treatment last year.)
• Young, Rich And Strung Out (The San Francisco Chronicle uses the occasion of Oscar Scaggs' heroin-related death to assert that heroin use is increasing, and ludicrously but sensationally asserts it is emerging as the "drug of choice" for the Bay Area's well-off kids. Anyone wondering how non-lethal street doses of heroin can be so toxic should note in San Francisco, it's sometimes cut with shoe polish.)
• Colo. Court Upholds Plea Bargains (The Associated Press says the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reversed the Singleton decision issued last summer by a three-judge panel from the same court. An unspecified majority affirmed that it is legal to offer something of value in exchange for testimony, as long as it's a prosecutor offering leniency to one defendant for testimony against another defendant. The judges affirmed the conviction in Kansas of Sonya Singleton on charges of cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The ruling said if Congress had intended to overturn the accepted practice, "it would have done so in clear, unmistakable and unarguable language.")
• US Court Upholds Plea Bargaining (A different Associated Press version)
• U.S. v. Singleton - 01/08/1999 (A list subscriber posts a URL leading to a copy of today's ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.)
• 545 Pounds Of Marijuana Found, 3 Arrested In Stash-House Raid (The Arizona Daily Star says the investigation started with a tip. Tucson residents who suspect there may be a stash house in their neighborhood should call 88-CRIME or MANTIS at 547-8800. Pima County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Leonardi, who is assigned to the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Trafficking and Interdiction Squad, said he wasn't surprised about finding an apparent stash house in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood. "We've been in the Foothills - east, west, north. . . . It's all over town.")
• 46 Police Shells Found At Drug Bust Scene (According to the Houston Chronicle, police in Pasadena, Texas, say the two men they killed were trying to buy cocaine. But one of the two men killed, Keithen Briscoe, was a criminal justice major at Prairie View A&M University and the other, Empra TaDar Moore, was a December criminal justice graduate. Robert Moore, 19, a passenger in his brother's car who was shot in the shoulder, said "They killed my brother for no reason," adding that his brother was not involved in drugs.)
• A Jury's Duty (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the Lone Star Fully Informed Jury Association plans to take four proposals to the state legislature this year. One proposal would prohibit asking potential jurors their views on religion, politics or the law being prosecuted. Another proposal would prevent prosecutors from excusing potential jurors because they disagreed with the law relevant to a case. What has sparked the most dissent is the group's assertion that jurors should vote with their conscience instead of the law and the evidence. "Americans at the end of World War II told German citizens that they should have followed their conscience instead of their government," says Tom Glass. "Today's courtroom system tells jurors the exact opposite. You have to do whatever the law tells you to do.")
• State Rep. Jim Lendall Introduces Medical Bill (An article from the Arkansas NORML bimonthly newsletter says the newly elected legislator from Southwest Little Rock has introduced HB 1043, permitting the medical use of marijuana. After perusing ballot initiatives passed by six western states, Lendall modeled his bill mainly after the Washington state initiative. Plus commentary on the medical potential of industrial hemp by Portland NORML's webmaster.)
• Gore Spreads Farm Aid On Visit To Iowa (Reuters says Vice President Al Gore made his first campaign swing through Iowa Friday, dispensing federal aid to hog farmers and describing "drug" use as a crisis in rural America. Gore also attended a town meeting in Des Moines to discuss methamphetamine, the use of which has skyrocketed in rural areas.)
• Landlord Admits Plotting To Have Tenants Killed (The Miami Herald says Alvin Weiss of New York, whom prosecutors have characterized as "the ultimate slumlord," has pleaded guilty to paying a hit man to give fatal doses of heroin to two of his tenants in rent-controlled apartments. The murder plots went awry when the would-be killer was nailed by police with the heroin.)
• Drug Policy Foundation Action Alert - Gaines and PBS (The Drug Policy Foundation, in New York, asks you to write a letter to the U.S. Pardon Attorney and your congressional representatives asking for the release of Dorothy Gaines, a single mother of three, whose case is to be featured in a 90-minute "Frontline" broadcast Jan. 12 titled "Snitch." Gaines is a first-time offender sentenced to almost 20 years in prison solely on the testimony of other defendants who were facing mandatory minimums but who ended up receiving less time than Gaines because of their statements.)
• Police Chief Orders Probe Into Drug Raid At Birthday (The Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, says the police chief in Abbotsford has ordered an internal investigation into a drug raid at a house where 13 children were attending a birthday party. As the children watched, a prohibition agent shot and killed a dog.)
• Axworthy Launches Dialogue On Drugs (According to UPI, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said in Jamaica today that the problem of "narcotic drug abuse" in the Americas "will only be solved by moving beyond legal approaches and viewing them from a broad human perspective." Axworthy said Canada is launching a dialogue among the hemisphere's foreign ministers to address the impact of illicit drugs on the region's societies.)
• Nicaragua Holds Canadian On Marijuana Charges (The Reuters version of Wednesday's news about Nicaragua jailing a Canadian horticulturalist on charges that he his commercial hemp farm was a front for an illegal marijuana farm)
• Colombian Rebels Say They Might Switch, Fight Coca (According to a Knight Ridder news service article in the Seattle Times, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, says it might be willing to switch sides in the drug war and actually work to eradicate coca crops if President Andres Pastrana gives it direct control of one of Colombia's 1,072 townships - an area equivalent to a large U.S. county. However, in a speech yesterday opening the highly touted peace talks, FARC rebel commander Joaquin Gomez decried increasing U.S. anti-drug assistance as a smoke screen for counterinsurgency efforts. "U.S. leaders spend huge sums of money through the Colombian security forces to harm civilians with bombings, strafings and indiscriminate fumigation, wiping out fields and barnyard animals and leaving a good part of the land sterile," he said.)
• Hong Kong, Japan Police Seize $53 Mln In "Ice" (Reuters confuses methamphetamine with "ice," a related drug, in describing the bust of 14 people with 100 kilograms aboard an ocean-going vessel in Japan.)
• Heroin Deaths Soar (According to the Herald Sun, in Australia, the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine released statistics yesterday showing about 250 people had died from so-called heroin overdoses last year, a jump of 64 from the previous year.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 73 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - Murder charges against four in Baltimore dismissed for lack of court space; Rehnquist to Congress: stop federalizing crime; Special report: Canadian citizens, investors busted for hemp to help Nicaraguan hurricane victims; Ann Landers speaks out on the drug war, marijuana laws; Syringe exchange protest in New Jersey; Medicinal marijuana in Hawai'i: A review of events; Dutch marijuana use half that of America, study reveals; Media alert: PBS Frontline to air "Snitch"; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith: New Hope in California.)
  Bytes: 159,000 Last updated: 1/21/99
  

  Thursday, January 7, 1999:

• NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Dutch Marijuana Use Half That Of America, Study Reveals; One In Seven Drug Prisoners Serving Time For Marijuana Offenses; Pot Use No Higher Among California Kids After Passage Of Prop. 215, State Study Finds; Washington Lieutenant Governor Busted For Illegally Opposing Drug Reform Initiative)
• Tokin' Enforcement (A San Diego Union Tribune article about the local impact of Proposition 215 notes Steve McWilliams, who runs Shelter From the Storm, a fledgling cannabis club providing the herb to about a half-dozen sick San Diego residents, will test the legal limits of the medical-marijuana law when he goes on trial in San Diego Superior Court with Dion Markgraaff Feb. 10 on felony charges of cultivating and selling marijuana. It will be the first such case to go before a jury locally since California voters approved the law in November 1996.)
• Public Hearings on the Environmental Impact of Federal Paramilitary Marijuana Eradication Raids in Humboldt County - Mateel Community Center, Redway, Jan. 18-19, 1999 (A bulletin from California NORML says retired Appellate Court Judge William Newsom will preside over unprecedented hearings where the public will be allowed to comment on the draft of a handbook - URL included - prepared by the US Bureau of Land Management for its law enforcement officers, detailing appropriate conduct in the pursuit of marijuana in Northern California.)
• Sixties Drug Is In Again (According to the Orange County Register, police say 'magic mushrooms' have made a comeback, and they are claiming - without any scientific evidence whatsoever - that psilocybin mushrooms are addictive and deadly. In what is believed to be the department's largest mushroom bust in at least 12 years, Orange County sheriff's narcotics investigators in December seized 20 pounds with a street value of $80,000 to $100,000.)
• Attacking The Drug/Crime Link (A patronizing and intellectually dishonest article in the Los Angeles Times claims that new studies show that "half of all substance abusers have been arrested at some point for crimes ranging from burglary and auto theft to assault and murder," but doesn't cite any reference, doesn't define "substance abusers," and doesn't explain how the purported drug/crime link could exist when even the government admits at least 70 million Americans have tried marijuana.)
• Mexican Cardinal's Killers Sentenced (UPI says three gang members from San Diego, California, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for the murder of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Posadas-Ocampo in a hail of gunfire outside the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport in 1993.)
• The Straight Dope - Don't Expect Your Physician To Say 'Smoke Two Joints, And Call Me In The Morning' (The Arizona Republic interviews a cancer patient whose life was undoubtedly saved by medical marijuana, and an addiction specialist who says people don't need medical marijuana and won't suffer without it - plus a science update on medical marijuana research.)
• Blues club owner Antone pleads guilty to drug dealing (The Associated Press says Clifford Jamal Antone pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and one count of money laundering. Mr. Antone owns a nightclub in Austin, Texas, bearing his name that is one of the nation's top venues for blues musicians. An El Paso lawyer and associate of Mr. Antone, Richard Esper, also pleaded guilty to laundering drug money on Monday.)
• Appeals Court Throws Out Part Of Drug Case Conviction (The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, in Texas, says the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has vacated Rudy Van Williams' conviction on one drug possession count, though he still has a long sentence to serve on another conviction. Williams' attorney, Timmie White, said, "Rudy Williams didn't win. The criminal justice system won." Lawyers often criticize U.S. District Judge John McBryde - known for moving quickly through his "rocket docket" - for limiting the length and scope of questioning in trials. During Williams' trial, McBryde prevented defense attorneys from cross-examining a government witness about inconsistent statements.)
• Official Data Reveal Most New York Drug Offenders Are Nonviolent (A news release from Human Rights Watch says official data prepared by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Department of Correctional Services in response to a request from Human Rights Watch reveal that few convicted drug offenders are dangerous criminals and confirm the need for reform of New York's drug laws. Nearly 80 percent of the drug offenders who received prison sentences in 1997 had never been convicted of a violent felony, and almost half had never even been arrested for a violent crime. One in four drug offenders in prison was convicted of simple possession, primarily of minute quantities. "Not only do they waste public resources, but they also violate basic notions of justice by putting minor nonviolent offenders behind bars.")
• Human Rights Watch Slams NY Drug Laws (The UPI version)
• Baltimore's Push on Crime Creates Backlog of Cases (The New York Times says aggressive efforts by prohibition agents in Baltimore, Maryland, have created such a backlog of cases that a circuit judge has dismissed first-degree murder charges against four men who had been awaiting trial for almost three years. Michael N. Gambrill, the District Public Defender for Baltimore, said - and Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan, chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore, agreed - that much of the backlog had evolved from aggressive efforts by the police to reduce the level of illegal drug activities, particularly when the police make sweeps, arresting dozens of people at one time and charging all of them with felony-level crimes, when the offenses by some might only be less serious misdemeanors. Unlike in some other jurisdictions where prosecutors determine the charges, in Baltimore the police do.)
• Ex-Agent Disappears (According to UPI, Rhode Island law enforcement officials say they think Cesar A. Mareno, a former informant for the now disbanded Attorney General's Narcotics Strike Force, has fled the country rather than face prosecution for causing the arrest of several innocent people on trumped up drug charges.)
• Study: Hemp Food Products Safe (The Lexington Herald-Leader, in Kentucky, says the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association released the results of a test that showed that meat from animals fed with hemp products and sold at Rick's White Light Diner in Frankfort will not cause consumers to test positive for cannabis metabolites. The hemp growers sponsored a Hemp Banquet in December where six people chowed down on a typical meal of meats, vegetables and beer that was either made or cooked with hemp seed, hemp meal or hemp oil. However, "Just before the meal and after the meal, the participants gave urine samples for a drug test," meaning the food wasn't even digested yet. C'mon you guys. This is even easier to see through than the junk science behind urine testing.)
• Jury Nullification (A list subscriber says President Clinton is about to be saved in his U.S. Senate impeachment trial by a classic case of jury nullification.)
• Hemp crop in high demand (The Halifax Daily News interviews local farmer Mike Lewis, one of two Nova Scotians licensed to grow hemp. Lewis grew 11 million hemp plants last summer, enough to circle the world. Hemp's remarkable legacy, astonishing versatility, and ability to grow fast and pesticide-free has many farmers and businesspeople working for its legalization. Hemp makes sense, Lewis says, not just for its qualities, but because we can grow, process, and market it right here.)
• Canadians dispute 'pot farm' bust (The Toronto Star follows up on yesterday's news about a Canadian horticulturalist growing hemp in Nicaragua being set up by a DEA agent for a bust on marijuana charges. Nicaragua is now in the process of applying for the extradition of the six other Canadians and a Nicaraguan American, Oscar Danilo Blandón, who were also involved in the project.)
• Ottawa Asked To Help Cdn. Scientist Jailed In Nicaragua (According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a spokesman for Hemp Agro International said he would meet with Canadian External Affairs officials in Ottawa today to see if they can assist Dr. Paul Wylie, Hemp Agro's research director.)
• Nicaragua Holds Canadian On Marijuana Charges (The Reuters version)
• Castro Accused Of Role In Drug Trafficking (The Guardian, in Britain, elaborates on yesterday's news about the lawsuit filed in France accusing Fidel Castro of international drug trafficking and crimes against humanity.)
• Castro Calls for Crackdown on Crime (The Associated Press notes Fidel Castro, like other heads of state who may secretly owe their position to the illegal-drug trade, is pressing the domestic fight in Cuba against such drugs.)
• French Govt Urged To Re-Think Drugs Policy (Reuters says an inter-ministerial committee has issued a report to the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin - excerpted in Le Monde Thursday - urging the adoption of a drug policy "which takes into account all types of addictive behaviour, regardless of the legal status of the product." The paper said around 60,000 deaths were caused each year in France by smoking while around 20,000 people died from diseases linked to alcohol. By comparison, 228 people died from heroin in 1997.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 1 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
  Bytes: 106,000 Last updated: 1/18/99
  

  Wednesday, January 6, 1999:

• Scoreboard: This week's winner and losers (Willamette Week, in Portland, says this week's losers include Jeffery Harlan Moore, who seemed to suffer from guilt by association when the roommate of alleged cop-killer Steven Dons was sentenced to 36 months in prison for growing marijuana, far longer than most first-time pot offenders are.)
• Troopers arrest smoking travelers (A cautionary tale from the Associated Press says three people from Redding, California, were arrested Tuesday on illegal-drug charges after Oregon state police responded to a complaint of people smoking marijuana while driving north on Interstate 5 near Grants Pass.)
• Trial date set in massive case on drug sales, money laundering (The Oregonian says 16 co-defendants and their attorneys spilled into the jury box Tuesday as they pleaded not guilty in Portland to crack-cocaine-related charges. U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty tentatively scheduled a six-week trial to begin in mid-September. Originally, 23 people were indicted in the case. Five have pleaded guilty.)
• Our House is Everyone's House (A letter to the editor of Willamette Week from a physician who is the medical director of Our House, in Portland, protests the free weekly newspaper's customary bias and misrepresentations. Care of the poor, those with drug addictions, and the mentally ill is challenging, but workers at Our House are committed to doing it. The problem with funding care at Our House is not just the fault of the gay community, which the author believes the article implied. It's the fault of our society's failure to deal with the problems of poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction. It's the result of decades of cutbacks in federal funding of programs, of the willingness of the public to put their health care into the hands of for-profit insurance companies instead of seeing the wisdom of a national health plan for all, and the growing inequity of wealth.)
• Police identify suspect in Old Town shooting (The Oregonian says Portland police obtained a warrant Tuesday for the arrest of Joel "Jojo" McCool, 24, who is accused of a weekend shooting that left a rival gang member and a young mother hospitalized. According to police, witnesses identified McCool, a Bloods gang associate with a lengthy arrest record, as the first person to fire gunshots during a hip-hop party early Sunday on the second floor of the Great China Seafood Restaurant in Old Town. A second gunman who fired at McCool has not been identified.)
• Ibogaine video now on web (D. Paul Stanford of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, in Portland, says "The Ibogaine Story" and several news clips regarding the anti-addiction plant remedy can now be viewed online at CRRH's web site for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.)
• Changing The Guard (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register says a new era in law enforcement is beginning in Orange County with the inaugurations of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona. Carona, who headed the county marshals before replacing Brad Gates as sheriff, wants to treat addiction as a medical problem rather than a criminal problem. The newspaper recommends that both men meet with Marvin Chavez and members of the Orange County Patient Doctor Nurse Support Group early on to discuss ways to implement Proposition 215. It is a scandal that local authorities sought to ensnare and prosecute Mr. Chavez rather than trying to work with him to distribute medical marijuana in a legal and above-board fashion. That mistake should be corrected. Both men should also undertake or sponsor independent studies of the results of the "three strikes" and drug possession laws.)
• Crazy Idea Saves Babies Of Addicts (Orlando Sentinel columnist Kathleen Parker gives an update on Barbara Harris, the California woman who founded CRACK, which has paid $200 to 37 women crack addicts who got either a tubal ligation or Norplant, an epidermal patch that prevents pregnancy for up to five years. Harris has appeared on several TV and radio talk shows, attracting individual donations and corporate sponsors. Recent research has shown that babies exposed to crack can overcome their difficult beginnings if placed quickly in a loving, stable environment. Unfortunately, the vast majority of substance-exposed infants end up in foster care, and therein lies the tragedy.)
• When Busts Go To Pot (The Oklahoma Gazette says Kendall Eastridge of Skiatook has filed a claim against the state Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, which wrongfully targeted him and used "paramilitary tactics" when prohibition agents surrounded his 10-acre property on Aug. 12 because they mistakenly believed he was growing cannabis.)
• Drug Convict Says Judge Erred In Airing His Record (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Terry Weston of Beloit, Wisconsin, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for possessing six bags of marijuana weighing a total of 22 grams, is seeking to be resentenced because Circuit Judge James Welker allegedly discussed details of the case outside the courtroom.)
• N.Y. Locked Up 70,000 In '98 (The Daily Gazette, in Schenectady, says the number of inmates in New York's state prisons reached a record high last year despite plunging crime rates, costing taxpayers $1.7 billion. According to the Associated Press, Governor George Pataki, a former marijuana consumer, will propose extending "Jenna's Law," which requires violent felons to serve at least six-sevenths of their sentence, to cover non-violent felons as well.)
• Pataki Will Unveil A Plan To Sharply Curtail Paroles (The Bergen Record, in New Jersey, says New York Governor George Pataki, looking to burnish his tough-on-crime credentials, will ask the state legislature to stop allowng inmates in New York state to be paroled.)
• Jury Foreman On Trial For Bribery (The Associated Press says opening statements were scheduled for today in the trial of Miguel Moya, a jury foreman in Florida who allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to vote for acquittal in a high-profile cocaine-smuggling case. However, the news service omits the fact that the jury voted unanimously for acquittal.)
• Defense: Juror Didn't Take Bribe (According to another Associated Press account filed later in the day, defense attorney Curt Obront said in his opening statement that Moya's money really came from Ramon "Ray" Perez, a former Miami police officer who asked Moya's father to hide proceeds from a drug operation in the late 1980s.)
• Offenders' Drug Use Increases But Treatment Declines, Study Finds (An unusually critical New York Times account of the study released Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Department says the report found that the proportion of inmates who were "drug" users at the time of their arrest increased this decade, while drug treatment in state and federal prisons fell sharply. "This is an unintended consequence of prison expansion," said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. "Each time we spend a dollar on building a new prison or expanding an existing one, it is one less dollar for drug treatment." The study also found that more violent crimes were committed by people who had been drinking alcohol than by those under the influence of "drugs.")
• Another Budgetary Sound Bite (The Washington Post version focuses on the politics behind President Clinton's related announcement yesterday that he wants to spend another $215 million on the drug war.)
• Organizations Supporting Access to Therapeutic Cannabis (A bulletin from Patients Out of Time lists more than 50 supporters in the United States and around the globe.)
• Rat Pack (An excerpt from the "Press Clips" media-criticism column in the Village Voice previews "Snitch," a documentary on federal drug informants to be broadcast on PBS' "Frontline" on Jan. 12. "Everyone in Congress who swears by their constitutional duties should be forced to watch 'Snitch' and then do something about this spectacle of cruel and unusual punishment." Plus a list subscriber provides a URL where the show can be seen after its broadcast.)
• MDMA and memory impairment studies online (A list subscriber posts a URL leading to articles from the December issue of the journal Neurology and the October MDMA study by Ricaurte suggesting neurotoxicity.)
• Regarding the bust in Nicaragua (Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery, who has just returned from Nicaragua, recounts an outrageous travesty of justice going on there. A group of Canadians who were developing an industrial hemp industry in Nicaragua had their hemp farm busted at the behest of a DEA agent who led local officials to believe the crop was marijuana. Dr. Paul Wylie, the Canadian horticulturist who was hired to supervise the project by Hemp Agro International, which has a web site and offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Managua, is languishing in a Nicaraguan prison, presumed guilty and denied counsel. All of the Canadian investors in the project are now charged with major drug crimes. Many of them have never set foot in Nicaragua, but they are all subject to arrest in Canada and extradition to Nicaragua under the reciprocal provisions of treaties intended to bring narcotrafficantes north for trial in the U.S. or Canada.)
• Canadians grew pot on hemp farm: Nicaragua - Burlington man held, 6 others being sought (The Toronto Star version notes Hemp Agro International had explicit permission from the Nicaraguan government to grow hemp on a 100-hectare plantation. The defendants face up to 20 years in a Nicaraguan prison.)
• Saskatchewan - Probation for pot use / British Columbia - Hunt on for marijuana (The first item in a brief Toronto Star summary of other marijuana news notes multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana activist Grant Krieger was given an 18-month suspended sentence yesterday for drug trafficking.)
• Krieger stays defiant (The Regina Leader-Post version provides more details.)
• School suspends 14 pot-smoking pupils (The London Free Press, in Ontario, says the students, ages 12-14, were suspended from Homedale senior elementary school in St. Thomas yesterday and criminal "charges are pending" because they shared three joints during a lunch break and then returned to classes presumably stoned.)
• Mexican Army Destroys 340 Marijuana Plantations (According to Reuters, Mexican military authorities said on Wednesday that in less than two weeks they had destroyed 340 marijuana plantations covering an area about the size of 100 soccer fields in the southern state of Chiapas.)
• Complaint Filed Against Castro (The Associated Press says a lawsuit was filed in Paris on behalf of Ileana de la Guardia, the exiled daughter of Cuban Col. Antonio de la Guardia, who was executed along with three other officers in Cuba in 1989 for smuggling drugs into the United States. The lawsuit accuses Cuba's leader of international drug-trafficking and alleges de la Guardia and the others were executed to deflect accusations from Castro.)
• Colombian President Will Meet With Rebels (A New York Times article in the Orange County Register notes the United States has strengthened the position of Andres Pastrana by offering him increased military and police power. The meeting with leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, is scheduled for Thursday in the remote jungle town of San Vicente del Caguan. The government evacuated security forces from an area as big as Switzerland, but said progress depended on rebels' willingness to help stamp out drug trafficking in areas under their control - something the Pastrana government and military haven't quite managed themselves.)
• Drug War For Peace But There Is No Peace (The original New York Times version)
• Cocaine Farming Down In Peru (According to the Associated Press, the White House drug policy coordinator, General Barry McCaffrey, said Wednesday that coca farming is down dramatically in Peru and Bolivia, the two South American countries that traditionally supply most of the drug crop, but the decline has been offset by increases in Colombia.)
• Drugs Czar Brain-Washing Our Children (A letter to the editor of the Evening News, in Norwich, England, says Keith Hellawell's announcement that teachers will be told to stop describing drugs as "soft" or "recreational" distorts the truth about the relative dangers of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco which kill the most, and cannabis which kills none, and teaches children that all drugs are the same.)
• Dutch Have Fewer Drug Users than Thought (Reuters says a new survey, the first to document drug use in the Netherlands at large, financed by the health ministry and conducted by Amsterdam University and the Central Bureau of Statistics, found 15.6 percent of Dutch respondents aged 12 and older had used or tried cannabis at some time, versus a U.S. figure of 32.9 percent. In terms of current usage, 2.5 percent of Dutch residents age 12 and older had used cannabis within the last month, compared to 5.1 percent in America. The findings run counter to remarks made by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, who last summer sparked a diplomatic spat when he said Dutch leniency on soft drugs had led to an explosion in the number of users, while the United States' hard line on drugs had supposedly cut abuse rates in America by 50 percent.)
• URL for Dutch Study (A list subscriber posts the web address for the new survey on drug use in the Netherlands)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 80 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with a feature article by Jeff Goodman - What a drug sentence really means. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Making criminals of us all; NewsBuzz: Zoning in; New methadone clinic seizes rich opportunity; Medical pot use doesn't stop arrests; Lockyer hopes to enforce state medical pot law; and Sharp drop in violent crime traced to decline in crack market. Several articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - Rehnquist: Too many offenses are becoming federal crimes; Tougher on criminals than prosecutors were - 3-strikes law proved it; Critics launch ad campaign opposing Rockefeller drug laws; and The last worst place. Articles about Drug Issues include - Days on methadone, bound by its lifeline; and Top-secret cannabis ready for medicinal harvest. International News includes - Drug traffickers terrorize upscale zone in Rio; Drug-related crimes on the rise in Russia: Stepashin; Pakistan busts heroin smuggling ring; Jail, cane for not providing urine sample; China's Shenzhen executes 11 for drug trafficking; and EU nations will resist calls for more tolerance. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net notes the "60 Minutes" newscast about Switzerland's heroin-maintenance experiment is now at the Legalize-USA site. The Quote of the Week cites Thomas Sowell. Plus accolades to DrugSense's newshawk of the month, Ken Russell of Australia.)
  Bytes: 163,000 Last updated: 1/18/99
  

  Tuesday, January 5, 1999:

• North/Northeast drug-free zone could grow (The Oregonian catches up with a recent article in Willamette Week, dishing up a typically one-sided account of plans by Portland police and prosecutors to drastically expand a so-called "drug-free zone" to cover 4.26 square miles in North and Northeast Portland. Under the city's drug-free ordinance, people charged with possession or distribution of drugs in a particular area can be excluded from the zone for 90 days, which may increase to a year if convicted. If they return to the zone during the exclusion period, they can be arrested for trespassing - which helps keep the public from realizing how much the war on some drug users is costing.)
• Shootings gang-related, police say (The Oregonian says Portland police Monday sought a warrant for the arrest of a 24-year-old man whom investigators suspect was one of two gunmen in a gang-related shooting at a Chinese restaurant early Sunday in Old Town that left three people wounded. But the newspaper forgets to name the 24-year-old member of the Bloods gang who is being sought.)
• This Is Your Dad's Brain On Drugs (San Francisco Chronicle columnist Adair Lara shares some lessons she learned after her father's supposed senile dementia turned out to be a psychosis induced by a pharmaceutical drug.)
• Boz Scaggs' Son Dead; Heroin Blamed (The Associated Press version of yesterday's news from San Francisco about Oscar Scaggs)
• Toll Of Heroin (An ignorant piece of nonsense in the San Francisco Examiner discusses the heroin that killed singer Boz Scaggs' son on New Year's Eve. The newspaper claims that in the past, street-grade heroin was only 3 percent to 5 percent pure, but during the past decade, purity has shot up to as much as 50 or 60 percent. But it ignores the evidence that even previously unexposed subjects can tolerate much higher doses than are sold on the street, and that heroin-related deaths are never caused by "overdoses," but are more likely caused by concurrent use of alcohol, or impurities attributable to prohibition. San Francisco ranks third after Baltimore and Newark, N.J., in per capita heroin-related hospital admissions, and the drug is believed to be The City's second-most popular illicit drug, after marijuana. Still, while the number of heroin addicts in San Francisco is now at about 13,000, an all-time high, the trend seems to be steady, said John Newmeyer, epidemiologist with the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic.)
• Last Lost Night At A Residence Hotel (Another annoying San Francisco Examiner article on the heroin-related death of Boz Scaggs' son looks for pathos in the usual places - how well Oscar had been doing with his rehab, and his privileged background and ironic demise in a Mission District hotel for down-and-outs.)
• Collecting Data On Police Treatment Of Minority Motorists (The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram says the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California launched an effort last fall to record the complaints of minority motorists who had been stopped without reason. The ACLU is hoping to use the data to introduce measures in the California legislature and Congress that would require law enforcement agencies to collect racial information about the motorists they stop but do not arrest. Though the problem is not new, many community activists and experts assert that the targeting of people of color has escalated with the war on drugs.)
• Please write to Will Foster (A supporter of the Oklahoma medical marijuana patient originally sentenced to 93 years in prison for growing his own medicine suggests Foster could use some kind words - his wife has apparently called it quits.)
• Webb County Prosecutor's Trial To Feature Odd Cast Of Characters (An article from what appears to be the morning edition of the San Antonio Express-News says today marks the beginning of the court trial of assistant district attorney Ramon Villafranca, a former elementary school principal, who is charged with conspiracy and three counts of bribery. The witnesses against him include a bounty hunter, a disgraced former judge and a heroin addict. The latest episode in a 5-year-old crackdown on public officials around South Texas, the case is seen as a showdown between federal and local authorities.)
• Webb Prosecutor's Bribery Trial Under Way (The San Antonio Express-News says a federal prosecutor told jurors in Laredo Monday that Ramon Villafranca, an assistant Webb County district attorney, took more than $20,000 in bribes from 15 people arrested on drug charges during a three-year undercover investigation in which an FBI informant posed as a bounty hunter. Ruben Garcia, a former state district judge, has already pleaded guilty to extortion in connection with the case.)
• Laredo Prosecutor's Corruption Trial Begins (The Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram version)
• Oregon Police Got 'Raw Deal' (According to the Houston Chronicle, a Houston police union leader said Monday that testimony in the upcoming criminal trespass trial of a Houston prohibition agent who was fired after breaking into Pedro Oregon Navarro's home without a warrant with five other agents, before they shot Oregon 12 times, will show that the officers involved got "a raw deal" because while Oregon had no arrest history, "there was some gang activity in his past.")
• U.S. Drug Laws Harmful, Need Thorough Reform (USA Today reprints an eloquent op-ed by a member of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas that previously appeared in "DrugSense Weekly.")
• In Minnesota, Pomp and Pep Rally (The Washington Post says yesterday's inauguration of Governor Jesse Ventura of the Reform Party marks a new "tri-partisan" era in state politics. Ventura is a man of contrasts: He portrays himself as a tough-talking law-and-order politician but impressed many voters with his proposal to treat drug addiction as a public health problem rather than a criminal problem.)
• International Meeting for A Mass Marijuana Movement (A list subscriber forwards information about the conference Jan. 8-10 in New York City, including the potarazzi who have already confirmed their attendance.)
• Ann Landers: Marijuana Laws Are Too Harsh (The advice columnist syndicated in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune tells "A sad mother in Virginia," whose son is facing 30 years in prison for pot possession, "I have long believed that the laws regarding marijuana are too harsh. Those who keep pot for their own personal use should not be treated as criminals.")
• More Than Three-Quarters Of Prisoners Had Abused Drugs In The Past (PR Newswire publicizes the URL for a new report from the US Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997," written by BJS Policy Analyst Christopher J. Mumola. Fifty-seven percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners surveyed in 1997 said they had used drugs in the month before their offense - up from 50 percent and 32 percent reported in a 1991 survey - though it's not clear whether the use of illegal substances was any greater among crimianls than among prospective law enforcement officials or anyone else. Not counting municipal and county jails, more than 277,000 offenders were in prison for a drug law violation in 1997 - 21 percent of state prisoners and "over 60 percent" of federal prisoners.)
• Most Federal Inmates Have Used Drugs (The Associated Press version)
• $215M Eyed for Jail Drug Treatments (A different Associated Press account uncritically parrots the Clinton administration's duplicitous announcement, which in fact suggests a large part of the $215 million will be spent on enforcement measures such as "drug courts" and urine testing. During a White House ceremony with his drug czar and Attorney General Janet Reno, however, Clinton noted Chicago Mayor Richard Daley once said it is easier to get drugs in the Illinois penitientiary than on his city's streets. "That's a statement that could be made in more than half the states in this country," Clinton said, without explaining how prohibition could be enforced in a free society when it can't even be enforced in prisons. Despite the widely acknowledged fact that more than 70 million Americans have used an illegal drug - including Clinton himself - the administration will continue to base policy on its assumption that such use causes real crime and that therefore the way to reduce real crime is to lock up countless millions of illegal-drug users. But maybe the most inane comment came from White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, who said it costs taxpayers about $43,000 a year to incarcerate an untreated addict, while providing prison-based treatment for that addict costs about $2,700 a year, as if it doesn't cost anything to lock up inmates receiving treatment.)
• Clinton Announces Anti-drug Effort (The UPI version)
• Moderate drinking reduces stroke risk, study confirms (The Associated Press says researchers also reported in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association that the type of alcohol consumed - beer, wine or liquor - was unimportant. However, heavier drinking greatly increased the risk of stroke, and the authors cautioned that "No study has shown benefit in recommending alcohol consumption to those who do not drink.")
• Marad Calls For Added Private Anti-Drug Efforts (According to the Journal of Commerce, a new report released by the U.S. Maritime Administration says ocean carriers and shippers must do more in the war on drugs, primarily by sharing information with authorities about heretofore private, competitive data, such as the practices of the carriers' customers.)
• Study: Women Using 'Date Rape Drug' (The Associated Press says a study by researchers at the University of Texas published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics found that nearly 6 percent of a group of sexually active girls and young women reported taking the drug Rohypnol deliberately, despite warnings that it can make them vulnerable to rape. The researchers and "other experts" said they suspect women try the drug because it is cheap, produces a drunken-like high and heightens the effects of other narcotics.)
• Antidepressant for dogs receives FDA approval (The Associated Press says the Food and Drug Administration has approved the sale of Clomicalm, known chemically as clomipramine, which, when used with "canine therapy," promises to relieve separation anxiety, one of the most common reasons dogs are euthanized. The FDA doesn't just regulate foods and medicines that affect human health - one of its lesser known roles is ensuring the safety and effectiveness of drugs given to animals.)
• Feed a pill, see Spot smile (The CNN version)
• U.S. Approves First Behavioral Drugs For Dogs (The Reuters version notes the FDA also approved Anipryl, which treats a syndrome that affects the cognitive skills of older dogs. The side-effects from Clomicalm include vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and appetite fluctuations.)
• Pot-police go home-invasion crazy (Cannabis Culture magazine, in British Columbia, asks you to write a letter to the media about Canadian prohibition agents carrying out three separate drug busts over the weekend that caused extreme harm to innocent people.)
• Police apologize for shots fired during birthday party (The Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, says Abbotsford police have apologized for raiding an alleged drug house during a child's birthday party Sunday and shooting the family dog. "We went in there not knowing there were 13 children," said Constable Dale Cresswell. Jason Rowsom, who was attending the party with his four children, said "They knew that there were children at the party. I mean, you could see the big 'Happy Birthday' banner from the street on the window. You could see the kids running around. There's no way they can get out of this.")
• Drug police burst in on children's party (The version in the Toronto Globe and Mail)
• Save the busts for the balloons (A staff editorial in the Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, wonders why Abbotsford prohibition agents didn't notice 13 impressionable youngsters with sticky fingers before they blew the family dog to bits. Let the independent review begin.)
• Tobacco laws protecting youth take effect (The Associated Press says changes in British Columbia's Tobacco Sales Act intended to deter tobacco retailers from selling to anyone younger than 19 mean convicted retailers or bar owners allowing patrons to smoke in Victoria now face increased suspensions and a fivefold increase in fines, to $2,500 for a first offense.)
• Chocolate - Health Food For The New Millennium (A chocolate lover's op-ed in the Toronto Star celebrates recent research finding health benefits in the candy, including a report in the British Medical Journal about a Harvard University study that found regular consumers of chocolate and other candies lived at least a year longer than abstainers. An Ottawa Citizen article about an exhibit on the Science of Chocolate at the Canadian Museum of Nature noted the substance is "Packed with 300 mind-altering chemicals, able to kill our pain." It helps fight depression, stimulates your central nervous system, triggers the body's release of the same natural painkillers that exercise produces, and contains anandamide, "which bears a connection to the effects of plant-derived cannabinoids, such as marijuana.")
• Cannabis grown for medical tests (The BBC version of recent news about GW Pharmaceuticals harvesting Britain's first legal crop of medicinal marijuana for use in clinical trials into the herb's efficacy. Dr Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said the first aim of his research would be to establish a safe dose to give to patients that would produce benefits without a "high." Once that had been established the drug would be tested for its ability to relieve the pain associated with nerve damage in conditions such as multiple sclerosis, spina bifida and spinal cord injuries. Dr Guy also intends to test the impact of cannabis on minimising the brain injuries suffered by stroke victims, and its ability to improve sight and hearing in the blind and deaf.)
• Secret Farm Harvests Legal Cannabis For Medical Trials (The version in Britain's Guardian)
• Harvest Time For Legally Grown Cannabis (The Scotsman version)
• Drugs Tsar Accuses Stars Of Arrogance (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says Keith Hellawell criticised showbusiness and professional figures yesterday for talking about their use of "drugs" and said they were wrong to think they were not damaging society because they did not have to steal in order to finance their use. Hellawell told the Today programme on Radio 4: "If they are dealing with my pension fund on the dealing floors they could be causing me damage. It isn't a joke, it's deadly serious.")
• Anti-drugs chief attacks 'arrogance' of substance abuse by professional classes (The Scotsman version notes random drug testing in the financial sector and the City has found that roughly 15 per cent of those tested had taken "drugs," usually cannabis or cocaine. The level was three times the average of other industries.)
  Bytes: 165,000 Last updated: 1/18/99
  

  Monday, January 4, 1999:

• Gunman wounds 3 in restaurant in Old Town (The Oregonian covers a shooting in Portland that later will be connected to local gangs apparently involved in the illegal-drug trade.)
• Killer fence for Walla Walla in Locke's budget (A staff editorial in the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, comments on a request for $1.5 million in the budget submitted by Gov. Gary Locke to this year's Legislature as it convenes next Monday. The money would pay for a lethally electrified fence at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. The punitive compulsion of state legislators faces greater difficulty in stretching the available cash.)
• Munro: State shouldn't hire smokers (The Associated Press says Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro wants to persuade lawmakers to let state agencies reject job applicants who use tobacco.)
• Lockyer Hopes to Enforce State Medical Pot Law (The San Francisco Chronicle says when Bill Lockyer becomes California's new attorney general later this week, overseeing 924 lawyers and a budget of nearly half a billion dollars, one of his top priorities - and biggest challenges - will be enforcing Proposition 215, the voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. Lockyer wants to negotiate with the federal government to allow professionally run medical marijuana dispenaries to open - "We need to operate clinics, not cults," he said.)
• Lockyer And Prop 215 (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register endorses the medical marijuana reforms promised by Bill Lockyer, California's new attorney general.)
• Boz Scaggs' Son Dies Of Overdose (The San Francisco Examiner says the so-called "overdose" death of 21-year-old Oscar Scaggs, the son of the blues musician, tragically mirrored that of his lifelong friend Nicholas Traina, the son of romance novelist Danielle Steel, who also died in a heroin-related incident 15 months ago at age 19. )
• Four Californians among 33 people granted presidential pardons (The Associated Press says President Clinton has issued Christmas pardons for a San Diego County man convicted in 1975 of marijuana possession, and a former California resident sentenced a decade ago in Sacramento County for conspiracy to cultivate pot. Nationwide, President Clinton also pardoned a car thief, a Korean War veteran who went AWOL and a variety of people nabbed for drug crimes.)
• Jesse Ready For The Main Event - Ex-Wrestler Ventura Takes Office Today (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says the new governor of Minnesota, former professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura, recently told a group of farmers that he wanted to "deregulate some stuff," which he later said referred to lifting restrictions such as the prohibition on industrial hemp. A Minneapolis Star-Tribune poll in December found that more people would vote for Ventura today than did in November.)
• Sykes Communications To Develop ONDCP Media Campaign (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, briefly notes a local public relations firm has won a spot at the White House drug czar's $2 billion feeding trough.)
• Mississippi Cocaine Sales Update (A resident of Gulfport, Mississippi, forwards a 15-page document - formatted as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file here - in which he alleges that local police are running the area's open-air crack-cocaine market.)
• Mississippi Cocaine Sales Update No. II (Another .pdf file from the same Mississippi patriot lists some of the things that should be done to clean up the corruption of Gulfport law enforcement officials.)
• Natural Childbirth Is Out, Drugs In (The Omaha World-Herald, in Nebraska, describes a new meta-analysis in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association comparing epidurals - which numb women in delivery below the waist - to narcotic injections. Studies have shown that inadequate pain relief can do lasting harm by increasing the incidence of post traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression. The use of drugs to relieve labor pain has been growing, obstetricians say. One study found that from 1981 to 1992, epidural use increased from 16 percent to 29 percent of deliveries, while narcotic use increased from 49 percent to 55 percent. The number of women forgoing painkillers dropped from 32 percent to 22 percent.)
• DrugSense Focus Alert No. 92 - "60 Minutes" feature on Swiss heroin successes (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to CBS praising Sunday's excellent newscast about Switzerland's heroin-maintenance program for otherwise untreatable addicts - sample letter included.)
• Police Gunfire Terrifies Kids (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, says after two hours of surveillance, a team of six prohibition agents burst into a birthday party for 13 children yesterday in Abbotsford, shooting a dog three times in front of the kids just as they were about to dig into their cake, splattering blood on the face of a two-week-old baby. Four people were arrested but only one, an occupant of the house, was detained, at MSA Hospital, where he was spitting up blood. Witnesses said he and several others were beaten by police.)
• Another failed police pot raid in Vancouver (A transcript of a newscast on the BCTV News Hour, in British Columbia, notes the Vancouver Police Emergency Response Team used a battering ram to carry out an armed assault on a "cute bungalow" 10:15 am Sunday as the occupant was in the bathroom getting ready for church. The police had obtained a warrant based on their claim that they smelled marijuana growing.)
• Relaxation In The Air (A staff editorial in the New Zealand Herald says that when Parliament's select committee on health calls for a rethink of official attitudes to cannabis, there is a sense the ground is shifting. In August, the police told the select committee they were open to the idea of decriminalising the drug, meaning a fine for those found in possession, but no taint of a conviction. The Minister of Police holds similar views. When the Police administration, the minister and a conservative-led select committee venture down the path to more liberal cannabis laws, reform is definitely in the air. But let us tread very warily. Decriminalisation is one thing and it may be inevitable, but making the drug legal and allowing it to be grown for personal use is quite another.)
• Drug Ban As Experts Probe Sudden Deaths Alert For Scottish Schizophrenics After Report Of Cardiac Arrest Link (Britain's Daily Mail says Sertindole, a controversial drug to treat schizophrenia, has been dramatically withdrawn from the market after reports of sudden death among users. The Danish manufacturer, Lundbeck Ltd, has suspended the drug following fears of heart complications. Nine British users and 36 throughout Europe have died since the drug appeared on the market in 1996. Heart problems had been developed by some patients involved in clinical trials in the United States. The withdrawal comes days after Health Secretary Frank Dobson announced plans to return mental patients to hospital if they refused to take medication, fundamentally acknowledging the failure of care in the community.)
• Experience the Adventure of a Lifetime - Explore the Amazon and Machu Picchu with Peter Gorman (The tour guide and former High Times editor is leading "shamanic journeys" into the Peruvian jungle Feb. 6-19 and March 6-19, ayahuasca included.)
• Fear Makes Drug Abusers Avoid Clinics, Doctors Say (The Irish Times says an article in the Irish Medical Journal by doctors at the National Drug Treatment Centre reports that some pregnant "drug abusers" avoid ante-natal clinics because they are are afraid their babies will be taken from them. The authors, Dr John O'Connor and Dr D. Sloan, advocate methadone treatment for pregnant heroin abusers. An attempt to detoxify and become completely drug-free during pregnancy "is regarded as even more dangerous than continued drug use, being more stressful for the foetus than the mother.")
• Five Die In Mafia Massacre In Sicily (According to the Scotsman, investigators said yesterday that the worst "Mafia-style" massacre in Italy in eight years was probably related to a clash for control of drug trafficking in Sicily - though that doesn't explain why two local soccer players were among the dead.)
  Bytes: 86,800 Last updated: 1/20/99
  

  Sunday, January 3, 1999:

• Hemp "eats" Chernobyl waste, offers hope for Hanford (An article in the Central Oregon Green Pages, in Bend, says that Consolidated Growers and Processors, Phytotech, and the Bast Institute in the Ukraine began to plant industrial hemp near Chernobyl in 1998 in order to remove contaminants from the soil. The Bast Institute has a genetic bank including 400 varieties of hemp. "Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants we have been able to find," said Slavik Dushenkov, a research scienst with Phytotech. Test results have been promising and full scale trials are planned in the Chernobyl region in the spring of 1999.)
• It's Madness Not to Investigate Pot's Medical Use (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer looks forward to the inauguration of California's new attorney general, Bill Lockyer, who wants to fulfill Proposition 215's mandate. The limited use of medically prescribed marijuana is a rare opportunity to gain reliable evidence on the social and medical effects of pot, instead of the reefer-madness hysteria that has always marked the many wars on drugs going back to six decades ago - when marijuana was legal without any disastrous social consequence.)
• Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana public meeting Jan. 11 at the Sebastopol Public Library (A list subscriber forwards a notice saying the meeting will feature a lesson on marijuana cultivation, an update on recent court hearings in Sonoma County, California, and the presentation of a resolution on medical marijuana for the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.)
• Cultural Tide Gathers For A Puritan Revival (An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by Kevin Phillips, the publisher of American Political Report and the author of a new book, "The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-america," ponders whether the end of the millennium could bring about a religious revival and a related neo-Puritanism in America. Without really explaining how one could tell the difference, Phillips notes the three principal civil wars in Britain and the United States have coincided with cultural conflict and a reawakened and remobilizing religion. Few questions are more important in America's millennial countdown than whether the current peacetime imitation of civil war is heading in a similar direction.)
• Police Agencies Cop A New Attitude On Hiring (The Sacramento Bee suggests police sound a different tune about the perils of illegal drugs when it comes to their own. Smoking marijuana or using hard drugs is no longer a reason for rejection by city police, sheriff's deputies, Highway Patrol officers or the FBI - as long as the applicant is honest about it and was not a "habitual drug user." Chief Deputy John Benbow of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said, "It's not a quality issue, it's a recruitment issue." So many young adults have experimented with narcotics, he said, police administrators have been forced to soften their stance.)
• Drugs Brought Velvets Together (According to World Entertainment News Network, Jon Cale says his and Lou Reed's fondness for heroin at first benefitted the Velvet Underground, the seminal 1960s New York rock group.)
• 'Win at all Costs': The Justice Department responds (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette prints a rebuttal from the US Justice Department regarding the newspaper's recent series documenting how federal prosecutors routinely violate the law.)
• How Wealth Divides the World (The Washington Post notes several statistics from the United Nations' Human Development Report of 1998, including the world budget of $400 billion for "narcotic" drugs.)
• Cops just don't get it, says medical-pot user (The Vancouver Province, in British Columbia, says Cheryl Eburne has a message for the senior RCMP officer who thinks marijuana shouldn't be available to people with debilitating illnesses. "I just feel these people should walk a mile in my boots before they comment," said Eburne, 50, a housewife who says cannabis helps her deal with severe arthritis and fibromyalgia.)
• In U.S., public's leaning toward therapeutic use (A sidebar in the Vancouver Province notes voters in Washington state, Nevada and Alaska passed medical-marijuana laws in the Nov. 3 elections.)
• Police Still Struggle To Combat Cannabis Inflow (The Sunday Observer, in Sri Lanka, says local prohibition agents' efforts to stem the flow of ganja from the country's southern jungles are still proving unsuccessful. Sources say November to March is the season ganja is grown, but a careful examination of police actions and other preventive measures adopted so far points out police raids should be continuous without a break. A kilo of the dried leaves fetch around Rs.20,000 in Colombo.)
• 30,000 Addicted To Off-the-Shelf Drugs (Britain's Independent on Sunday admits there are no official statistics but uncritically passes along the estimate of David Grieve, the former cough-linctus addict who runs Over-Count, a self-help organisation for over-the-counter drug addicts. Two-thirds of Over-Count's 6,000 clients are women between the ages of 25 and 45. Mr Grieve believes they are prone to OTC drug addiction because they had to endure monthly period pains for which they sought out accessible remedies.)
  Bytes: 70,500 Last updated: 1/10/99
  

  Saturday, January 2, 1999:

• Medical Pot Use Doesn't Stop Arrests (The Tacoma News Tribune version of yesterday's news about the bust of a blind AIDS patient in Tacoma for three plants, despite Washington state's new voter-approved medical-marijuana law.)
• Arrests Test Issue Of Medicinal Pot (An Associated Press version in the Everett, Washington, Herald)
• Police Officer Held In Fatal DUI Collision (The Seattle Times says the name of the cop in Bellevue, Washington, was withheld pending the filing of charges. He was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide after his car crossed the median and collided with an oncoming vehicle at 3:15 a.m. New Year's Day. At midnight, tough new state laws went into effect that lowered the legal blood-alcohol limit to 0.08 percent and increased penalties for drunken drivers.)
• Drinker Ban Delights Liquor Merchants, Irks ACLU (CNN says a handful of communities in Northern California are prohibiting people labeled as habitual drunks from buying alcohol in liquor stores. Some of the affected drinkers and the American Civil Liberties Union are questioning the legality of the anti-drinking measures, which include public circulation of photos of "serial drinkers." The term "habitual drunkard" was ruled unconstitutional in 1960.)
• Police Keep Cash Intended For Education series (The first part of a five-part article in the Kansas City Star says police in Missouri routinely conspire with federal agents to circumvent if not violate state law by diverting millions of dollars of forfeited cash and other assets away from state schoolchildren. Under Missouri law, forfeited assets are supposed to go to public school districts, but some police departments keep the money for their own use by turning it over to a federal agency, which is not subject to state laws. The agency keeps a cut and returns the rest of the money to state or local police.)
• The Case File - Police Keep Cash Intended For Education series (The second part of the five-part article in the Kansas City Star about police in Missouri circumventing state law by diverting forfeited cash and other assets away from state schools. Although law enforcement agencies refused to provide records showing how much money they were diverting from Missouri schools, the Kansas City Star hints at the value of the plunder by summarizing a few of the 14 recent cases it found in western Missouri.)
• Schools Can Lose, Even If The Law Is Followed - Police Keep Cash Intended For Education series (The third part of the five-part article in the Kansas City Star about police in Missouri circumventing state law by diverting forfeited cash and other assets away from state schools. Missouri law requires police departments to send drug money they seize through state courts. But even when they do, police have used the court system to get the money back. In seven cases the Kansas City Star found in Jackson and Pettis counties, police turned a total of $263,000 in drug money over to county prosecutors. In each case, the prosecutor apparently violated state law by asking a judge to send the money to a federal agency, which then sent most of it back to the local police.)
• Federal Agencies, Police Keep Public Records Out Of Reach - Police Keep Cash Intended For Education series (The fourth part of a five-part series in the Kansas City Star about police in Missouri circumventing state law by diverting forfeited assets away from state schools. Law enforcement officials in Missouri have constructed a neat Catch-22 to keep people from finding out how much forfeited drug money they are keeping.)
• Lawmakers Again Hope To Tighten Up Law On Forfeitures - Police Keep Cash Intended For Education series (The final part of the five-part series in the Kansas City Star about police in Missouri circumventing state law by diverting forfeited assets away from state schools. Missouri lawmakers are about to take another crack at making police send money they seize in drug crimes to schools. So far, they've had little success. One proposed law would split forfeited drug money 50-50 between local police and schools. However, if local law enforcement can get 80 percent of the money by sending it through a federal agency, would they settle for 50 percent? No, said Capt. Tom Neer of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department.)
• On Permanent Parole: A Special Report - Days on Methadone, Bound by Its Lifeline (A lengthy New York Times article examines the controversy in New York City over methadone maintenance for heroin addicts while recounting the disparate experiences of three methadone patients.)
• US Drug Project Abandons Needle Exchange (The Lancet, in Britain, notes Diana McCague, who founded the Chai Project in New Brunswick, New Jersey, says her "resolve has been broken" by law enforcement officials and she and the Chai Project will abandon clean-syringe distribution. In her court statement, published on the Drug Reform Coordination Network website, McCague says, "I am convinced that what we have been forced to discontinue is a public health service that has saved lives." According to statistics from a 1998 report, AIDS is the leading cause of death in US African-Americans age 25 to 44. More than half these deaths are thought to be associated with injecting drugs.)
• Not-So-Tricky Fix? (A relatively lengthy review in the Capital Times, in Wisconsin, of the book "The Fix," by Michael Massing, says Massing concludes that the Nixon administration's dramatic expansion of drug-treatment programs in the early 1970s resulted in less crime, fewer overdose deaths and fewer drug-related visits to hospital emergency rooms. Not only would the Nixon plan work today, Massing believes, but it also would cost less.)
• Drug War Key May Lie In Past (A shorter version in the Everett, Washington, Herald, indicates the review is originally from the Baltimore Sun.)
• "60 Minutes" - Where Have All The Addicts Gone? (A list subscriber publicizes a CBS newscast tomorrow night about the success of Switzerland's heroin-maintenance experiment, which followed on the heels of its failed policy in "Needle Park." Plus a URL where the video will be available online after the broadcast.)
• Christians And The Drug War - A Plan Of Action (A list subscriber forwards an anonymous drug policy reform activist's recommendations on how to enlist the religious community in helping to end America's longest war.)
• 3 charged in home invasion by fake police (The Vancouver Sun, in British Columbia, says a couple on Saltspring Island were awakened and forced to open their front door at around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 23 by intruders who took eight marijuana plants and sexually assaulted the woman. Corporal Rob Stutt of Surrey RCMP's major crimes unit said home invasions where assailants dress up as police are fairly common. He's handled three or four himself, he said. "It's a lot more common than you would think," Stutt said.)
• Residents angry after drug raid (The Edmonton Sun says two senior citizens claim they were victimized by police who smashed their way into the couple's inner-city rooming house yesterday to arrest two other tenants. Ron Davies, 65, says his landlord threatened to evict him if he doesn't come up with the money to fix the front window and the door, which police smashed to get inside.)
• US, Colombian Rebels Secretly Meet (According to the Associated Press, U.S. and Colombian officials Sunday confirmed a Colombian newspaper's assertion that U.S. State Department officials had met in Costa Rica with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. FARC plans to begin negotiations with the Colombian government Thursday, and American officials supposedly see the talks as an opportunity to curb cocaine production, allegedly their top priority in Colombia. FARC has indicated it would help attack drug trafficking as part of a peace settlement.)
• Ending The War On Drugs (The Economist, in Britain, insightfully recounts the history and pitfalls of modern drug prohibition in a review of several recent books about drugs and drug policy, including "Drug Crazy," by Mike Gray; "Opium: A History," by Martin Booth; "The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances," by Richard Rudgley; "Buzzed," by Cynthia Kuhn and others; "Ending the War on Drugs," by Dirk Chase Eldredge, and "The Fix," by Michael Massing.)
• Stop Talking To Children About 'Soft' Drugs, Teachers To Be Told (According to the Times, in London, Keith Hellawell, the British drugs czar, said yesterday that teachers will be told to stop describing drugs as "soft" or "recreational" because it encourages children to experiment with cannabis and Ecstasy. Mr Hellawell is so concerned that the terms are misunderstood by children that he intends to launch a national advertising campaign to urge the public to stop using them.)
• EU Nations Will Resist Calls For More Tolerance (The Times, in Britain, summarizes the varying official attitudes and policies toward cannabis and harder drugs evolving in the major countries making up the European Union.)
  Bytes: 159,000 Last updated: 2/21/99
  

  Friday, January 1, 1999:

• Man, mother arrested after police find marijuana plants at home (The Associated Press says that despite Washington state's new medical-marijuana law, Tacoma prohibition agents busted a 61-year-old woman and her blind son who has AIDS after finding three marijuana plants in their home. Police contend they acted properly because Kelly Grubbs, 35, and Tracie Morgan had no medical documents showing they were exempt from the law. Dr. Rob Killian, Grubbs' physician, acknowledged Thursday that he never gave the Tacoma man any document, but Killian said it should have been obvious to police that Grubbs' use of the controlled substance was covered by the initiative.)
• Prisons: Trying to catch up (The News Tribune, in Tacoma, Washington, says Governor Gary Locke is proposing a major prison construction program that will burden the state with eight prisons by 2003. "We're building a new 1,000-bed prison every 26 months," Locke said after revealing his budget plan last month.)
• Man Of The Year: Marvin Chavez (OC Weekly says the medical marijuana patient's "crime" was providing marijuana to other terminally ill and disabled Orange County residents. And unlike the police and prosecutors whose efforts led to his conviction last month on three marijuana-related felony charges, Chavez is anything but sophisticated. A straight-forward man by nature, the 42-year-old Santa Ana resident's chief crime was that he believed in the goodwill of the law-enforcement community and seriously misunderstood the legal complexities of Proposition 215, California's 1996 "Compassionate Use" initiative. It's too bad Chavez didn't wait for elected leaders to catch up to voters. Had he waited, he might have been celebrated as a hero. But to the hundreds of people in Orange County whose lives have been made more endurable because of the sympathy and bravery of Marvin Chavez, there's no waiting. He's already a hero.)
• Marijuana charges dismissed against pot advocate (A brief Sacramento Bee version of Richard Evans' recent home invasion by San Francisco police.)
• Will Foster's parole recommendation on governor's desk! (A list subscriber says the Oklahoma medical marijuana prisoner's wife has left him, but Governor Frank Keating received his parole papers on Dec. 21 and has 30 days to sign them. Please write a polite letter suggesting the patient who was sentenced to 93 years for growing his own medicine has suffered enough.)
• War On Drugs Needs A Complete Rethinking (An op-ed in the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by Robert Whitcomb of Health Care Horizon and the Providence Journal, says there is no indication that the emphasis in the United States on "prevention and enforcement" has paid off. The heart of the problem is that the focus has been on trying to decrease use, rather than on decreasing the harm caused by the small group of users whose actions cause the most trouble.)
• New Methadone Clinic Seizes Rich Opportunity (A staff editorial in the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Standard-Times comments unfavorably on city officials who think New Bedford doesn't need any more methadone clinics because they tend to attract addicts - that is what they are designed to do. New Bedford has enough of a problem that not one but two clinics can operate quite profitably. But the newspaper is concerned that not enough opiate addicts wean themselves off methadone, and insists the city needs to fund drug treatment programs promoting abstinence.)
• Clinton To Request Funding For Prison Anti-Drug Program (According to the Orange County Register, the overweight smoker said Tuesday he would propose $100 million in his fiscal year 2000 budget for treatment and testing of offenders in prison, on probation or parole, plus $50 million for creating more local drug courts and $65 million for drug treatment in state prisons. Clinton also proposed adding $183 million more in similar programs for the 1999 budget.)
• Rehnquist slams U.S. crime laws (The Associated Press says Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary, criticized Congress yesterday for making federal crimes out of offenses already covered by state law. Rehnquist said the number of federal criminal cases rose by 15 percent in 1998, to 57,691, the first double-digit increase since 1972.)
• Chief Justice Blames Congress For Workload (According to the San Francisco Chronicle version, Rehnquist said the increased federal docket was due mostly to drug and immigration cases.)
• Chief Justice Identifies Congress As Source Of Overworked Judiciary (The Los Angeles Times version in the Baltimore Sun)
• Rehnquist Scolds Congress (A slightly different version in the Raleigh, North Carolina, News & Observer)
• 'Trend To Federalize Crimes' Decried (The Washington Post version in the San Jose Mercury News)
• Rehnquist: Too Many Offenses Are Becoming Federal Crimes (The complete Washington Post version)
• Drug Prohibition And Public Health (An article in the January-February issue of Public Health Reports, the journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, by Ernest Drucker, Ph.D., a professor of epidemiology and social medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says the relationship of prohibition to usage rates and health consequences of drug use has never been fully evaluated. An examination of national data for 1972-1997 shows that over this 25-year period, despite drastic increases in enforcement costs and an overall decline in the prevalence of casual drug use, there have been dramatic increases in drug-related emergency room visits and drug-related deaths. Further, while black, Hispanic, and white Americans use illegal drugs at comparable rates, there are dramatic differences in the application of criminal penalties, drug-related emergency department visits, overdose deaths, and new HIV infections related to injecting drugs. These outcomes may be understood as public health consequences of policies that criminalize and marginalize drug users and increase drug-related risks to life and health.)
• The New Politics Of Pot (The January issue of Governing magazine, a periodical for politicians published by the Congressional Quarterly, predictably tells the pols what they want to hear. Ignoring the schism between the public and politicians regarding medical marijuana, revealed again in November's elections, the magazine focuses instead on a purported schism between the successful mainstream approach of Americans for Medical Rights and the grassroots activism traditionally fostered by NORML - implicitly implying that all NORML has to do to achieve comprehensive reform nationwide is to get everyone to put on suits, quit listening to "reefer music" and otherwise adopt mainstream tactics.)
• Toke Like an Egyptian (The January issue of Fortean Times follows up on the mysterious discovery of cocaine and nicotine in Egyptian mummies.)
• Marijuana protects your brain (The January-February issue of Cannabis Culture magazine, in Vancouver, British Columbia, says the US National Institutes of Health and other researchers have discovered that chemicals in cannabis can reduce the extent of damage caused by strokes, heart attacks and nerve gas.)
• How To Make A Difference (An editorial by Dana Larsen in Cannabis Culture magazine, in British Columbia, spells out things you can do to help liberate cannabis that don't cost much money.)
• When Taxpayers Subsidise Junkies (One might think it would be hard to misrepresent the success of Switzerland's heroin-maintenance experiment for addicts who don't respond to other programs, but the January issue of the Australian Reader's Digest pulls out all the stops.)
• Jail, Cane For Not Providing Urine Sample (The Straits Times, in Singapore, says a man who defied prohibition agents by peeing in his trousers rather than provide a urine sample has been sentenced to six years' jail and three strokes of the cane. In Singapore, a first-time offender who fails to give a urine sample can be jailed for up to 10 years or fined $20,000 or both.)
  Bytes: 170,000 Last updated: 2/3/99
  

Portland NORML's 1999 Daily News archive will attempt to compile significant local, national and international news about cannabis and drug policy throughout the year. A new edition will be posted for each day. Additional stories will be added to previously posted daily editions, and the long and short directories updated, as copy becomes available and time allows. Full texts and sources are included whenever available.

Each day's stories are organized geographically. (Subheads would waste a lot of bytes and add a lot of clutter.) In deference to this site's provenance, Portland and Oregon stories lead, followed by news from California, Washington, and/or other Western states. The organization of domestic stories then moves eastward, ending with national news and federal government developments originating in Washington, DC. International news follows, beginning with Mexico and Canada, the United States' closest neighbors, and moving outward from there, usually from South America to Europe and then Asia.

Portland NORML hopes you will find this the most accessible library of its type on the Web. You have a choice of two indexes listing every news article for each day - this very long but complete index and the shorter, weekly indexes. Both indexes allow you to access an entire day's news, or to go right to a particular news article.

Deck headlines in parentheses have been added by Portland NORML for the sake of clarity (allowing people to figure out more easily what really interests them) and to facilitate key-word searches. Use your Web browser's Edit/Find options (Control + "F" in Windows) to research a particular subject quickly and easily.

The articles included in each daily news file are intended to be archived at their particular URL permanently (another unique reason this archive exists). Webmasters for other sites can link to any particular news article without asking permission first or worrying about link-rot.

If you are aware of an important story omitted here, please send the editor a text copy, URL, or inquire how to fax or snail-mail something for scanning, or scan it yourself and e-mail it as an attachment.

As a source of current news, one weakness of the Portland NORML 1988 news archive is that it tends to post articles a day or two (at least) after they are available (temporarily) elsewhere. If you'd like to read the latest stories that have just broken in the last day or two, your best bet is probably the Media Awareness Project's MAP Drug News page, accessible from Portland NORML's Links page listing all the other known news archives and news media focusing exclusively on cannabis and drug policy.

Another disadvantage to Portland NORML's news archive (depending on your point of view) may be the relatively large size of the files contained here, often 100,000 bytes to 150,000 bytes. And then there's this long index, growing at the rate of 200,000 bytes a month. If such large files are a concern, several strategies might help. For one thing, consider a faster modem. Perhaps it's time to consider an Internet service provider with a better, faster connection. Turning off your browser's graphics may help, too. Usually, files download faster during off-hours, for example, in the evening. In addition, be sure to clear your browser's memory caches just before you access this site. Try to let pages download completely if you might be coming back to them. And verify the size of a file before printing it out or saving it to your hard drive. Anyone who can cut and paste can avoid wasting printer paper on unneeded text or filling up their disk with unneeded information. In its defense, Portland NORML notes that many casual readers as well as researchers find it easier to deal with larger files - that's why computers, hypertext and the World Wide Web were invented.

If you like the 1999 Daily News archive, bookmark it and tell your friends about it. It's hoped that the time you save keeping up on the news here may give you more time later to write letters and make telephone calls in favor of reform to elected officials and mass media.

The articles Portland NORML has posted 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 other information included here are not for sale or resale.

to Portland NORML News archive directory

This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/ii/news99.html