Portland NORML 1999 News Index, January 1-7

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1999 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
January 1-7

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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

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

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

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

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.)
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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.)
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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

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