1999 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
March 19-25
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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
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)
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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
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
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.")
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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.)
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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
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