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
