1999 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
May 7-13

Friday, May 7, 1999:
• HJM 10 Update (A bulletin from supporters of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act says the resolution before the Oregon legislature calling on Congress to re-evalute its stance on medical marijuana failed 26-33 in the House of Representatives on Friday, but will be reconsidered Monday morning. Oregon residents are asked to contact a select list of legislators this weekend or first thing Monday morning, urging them to change their position. Plus contact information and links to previous news items on HJM 10.)
• Marijuana law is proving to be a pain (The Oregonian says more than 250 people have telephoned the Oregon Health Division's Medical Marijuana Program since it officially opened for business on Monday. People in Oregon with serious and debilitating illnesses who would like to take advantage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act are finding it difficult to obtain physicians' recommendations - or the herb itself. "Some are people who thought they'd never get involved with this - law enforcement and corrections officers and people who have been in the military," said Kelly Paige, who manages the program. Patients at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center face a special barrier. Because the federal government views marijuana as an illegal drug, doctors there can't approve its use.)
• Finally, county OKs purchase of land for jail (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved purchasing a 27-acre chunk of land along North Portland's Bybee Lake for the site of a new $55 million jail and alcohol/drug treatment center. The jail will include 225 beds and a 300-bed alcohol and drug treatment center. The facility will include 225 jail beds and a 300-bed alcohol and drug treatment center, each with a different staff and programs.)
• Put money in schools, not jails (A seventh-grader's letter to the editor of the Oregonian wonders why state lawmakers want to build more jails for those kids who drop out of school and become criminals, but they don't give enough money to schools so that teachers can do more things to keep kids in school.)
• Oregon spent $920 million on gambling in '98 (The Associated Press says a study conducted by Robert Whelan, a senior economist with ECONorthwest in Portland, shows gambling in Oregon has increased 24 percent from four years ago. Bill Eadington, professor of economics and director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada in Reno, says he puts Oregon second only to his home state for availability and accessibility to gambling. At $282 per capita, nearly as much was spent on gambling as was spent on fishing, boating, rafting, floating and windsurfing combined. For some unspecified reason, Whelan said the state's infatuation with gambling was leveling off.)
• Oregonians rank as high-rollers (The Oregonian version quotes Whelan saying the amount Oregon residents spend on gambling has leveled off in the past year, suggesting future increases will be limited.)
• House endorses drug treatment of sex offenders (The Associated Press says HB 2500, which would establish a so-called chemical castration program, passed on a 44-13 vote Thursday and now goes to the Oregon Senate.)
• Mother anguishes after daughter's leap from bridge (The Associated Press interviews the mother of 15-year-old Kimberly Christine Roca, who was driving her daughter to an unspecified drug treatment facility on Sunday, the day after she learned of Kimberly's LSD use, when Kimberly, "apparently high on LSD," jumped out of the car and threw herself off the top deck of the Marquam Bridge in downtown Portland. Characteristically, AP doesn't say how teen-agers in Oregon die every year after ingesting alcohol and "doing dangerous things.")
• 'What ifs' haunt mother after death of daughter, 15 (The Oregonian version)
• Michelle Holden Admits Sex With Minor, Is Spared Prison Term (The Los Angeles Times says three days after her husband stepped down as the mayor of Pasadena, Holden tearfully halted what would have been a sordid trial, pleading no contest to a felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor - the couple's 15-year-old male babysitter. Holden avoided a state prison term and having to register as a sex offender. Had the case gone to trial, it would have pitted two families, once close, against each other as Holden and her former babysitter told of their mutual marijuana use and several sexual encounters.)
• District Defends Suspending Student Who Turned Over Pot (The Los Angeles Times says officials from the William S. Hart Union High School District in Saugus, California, suspended Tyler Hagen, 13, for five days because he violated the district's "zero tolerance" policy by alerting his parents instead of school officials about marijuana on campus. The seventh-grader at Arroyo Seco Junior High School said he thought he was doing the right thing last Friday when, agreeing to help a scared friend dispose of some marijuana, he turned it over to his parents, who in turn gave it to sheriff's deputies.)
• California Police Cleared In Shooting Of Black Woman (According to the Baltimore Sun, Grover Trask, the district attorney, in Riverside, California, said yesterday that four police officers were justified when they fired 23 bullets at Tyisha Miller, 19, a young black woman they found sitting armed and unresponsive in a disabled car in December. Miller had pulled into a gas station parking lot with a flat tire. Relatives who arrived to help her said they called police after Miller appeared to be having a seizure and was foaming at the mouth. Toxicology tests showed Miller had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent - and cannabis metabolites.)
• No Charges for Police Shooters (The Associated Press version)
• Cigarette Smuggling: What Did We Expect To Happen? (A letter to the editor of the Orange County Register responds to news that cigarette smuggling from Mexican to California is "exploding." It is immoral to tax one minority group of citizens at a rate so much higher than the general populace. Cigarette manufacturers don't pay taxes; people do.)
• Rethink Drug Laws? Rockefeller Would (A letter to the editor of the New York Times from Laurance S. Rockefeller says 26 years ago, his late brother, Nelson, as New York's governor, did indeed advocate harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. However, Laurance believes that in light of current knowledge, his brother would today be open to a thoughtful review of drug policy issues, particularly New York's mandatory minimum sentencing laws.)
• Federal Judge Sparks Probe Of DEA Agents (The Miami Herald says U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch has sparked a criminal investigation into two Drug Enforcement Administration agents who defied his order barring them from using a convicted smuggler to import drugs from Mexico. DEA agents Aldo Rocco of New York City and Sam Trotman of Camden, N.J., may face criminal contempt charges for for continuing to use drug pilot Jimmie Norjay Ellard as an informant. Charges have been dismissed against Ellard, who was arrested in September after flying 187 pounds of marijuana into Fort Lauderdale at Rocco's request.)
• Study Brings Breath of Fresh Air to Pot Smokers (The Medical Tribune News Service discusses the report in the May issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology finding that long-term use of marijuana does not lead to a decline in mental function. Eighteen years ago, Jeffrey Schaeffer, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, published a study in the journal Science about the effects of marijuana among 10 heavy or prolonged users. Using a more sophisticated test that gauged the brain's frontal systems that deal with mental flexibility, attention and dual processing, Schaeffer also concluded that participants showed no evidence of impairment.)
• Hey, Like, News About Cannabis (The Detroit Free Press version)
• U.S. Military Opens New Antidrug Bases (The Miami Herald quotes Raul Duany, a spokesman for the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, saying Wednesday that the United States "started counterdrug air operations effective May 1" from new bases in Ecuador and the Dutch Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba. The new bases replace the American base in Panama being vacated under the 1977 Panama Canal treaties.)
• Sick can apply for medical use of marijuana (The Toronto Star says the Canadian government announced yesterday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Harry LaForme guidelines for sick and terminally ill people to apply for the right to use marijuana. However, Justice LaForme called the guidelines seriously flawed because those who sell pot to sick people can still be charged as illegal traffickers. "It's unfair. It's just patently unfair," he said. Justice LaForme had summoned federal officials to his court to explain what Ottawa is doing in response to a request by Toronto AIDS patient Jim Wakeford to be granted an exemption from prosecution for drug possession. Carole Bouchard, associate director of the federal drug surveillance bureau, testified yesterday she still can't say when the government will rule on Wakeford's application - or that of 19 other Canadians. As part of the application process, Ottawa has asked Wakeford to name his marijuana supplier.)
• A tortuous reply to a dying man's request - 8 bureaucrats, 2 months (The National Post version)
• Some See Benefits In Pot Plan (The Hamilton Spectator, in Ontario, says Ian Stewart, the executive director of the Halton Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Program, sees benefits in a proposal by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Stewart doesn't think kids will rush to use marijuana if it is decriminalized because "kids today chose to use marijuana and I don't think the thought races through their head that they shouldn't partake because it is a criminal offence." He expects his organization would become much busier if marijuana offenders were forced into coerced treatment rather than prison.)
• Re: Some see benefits in pot plan (A letter sent to the editor of the Hamilton Spectator says diverting cannabis users away from clogged courts and into our backlogged drug abuse treatment programs is like mandating weight loss programs for all chocolate consumers. It is something to consider only when those who voluntarily seek treatment for opiate addiction start getting treatment in a timely manner.)
• Ex-Governor Who Fled Mexico Linked To Top Drug Cartel (According to the Chicago Tribune, the Mexico City daily Reforma said Thursday that Mario Villanueva, the former governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo who has not been seen since shortly before his term ended April 5, was probably a high-ranking chief of the Juarez cartel, one of the country's most notorious groups of alleged traffickers.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 90 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original drug policy newsmagazine features these stories - DRCNet passes 10,000 subscriber mark, 90th issue of Week Online; Congressional Black Caucus chair calls for end of mandatory minimum sentencing, felony disenfranchisement; Medical marijuana petitioners file federal suit, allege threats, harassment at polling locations; Hyde, Conyers, Barr and Frank introduce asset forfeiture reform bill; Mounties back Canadian marijuana decriminalization effort; Special Report: Safe injection room opens in Sydney; Australian perspective; Los Angeles: Citizens' fact finding commission on US drug policy, 5/22-23; San Francisco: Medical marijuana researcher to speak at forum, 5/25; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith on the new DEA museum: A monument to failure.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 97 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - David Broder mistakenly thinks forced treatment will win the war on drugs, by Steve Young, MAP Focus Alert specialist. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy - US exports zero tolerance; US antidrug campaign to be closely monitored; New drug-war offensive showing encouraging results; Drug wars, part two; and, Study: Cheaper heroin encourages addicts. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - What happened when New York got businesslike about crime; Drug war unfairly targets black community; Activist jurors judge the law; Severity of drug laws troubles a jury foreman; and an editorial: New Jersey's trooper scandal. Medical Marijuana news includes - Therapeutic marijuana use supported while thorough proposed study done; Pot cultivation charges dropped; and, Amber waves of hemp? why not? International News includes - Canada: Weeding out Canadian criminals; Australia: Shot in the arm for drug debate; and, Moral muddle in the drugs debate. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net gives the URL for a great site compiling medicinal marijuana science findings. The Tip of the Week notes the DPF Conference will be available on RealAudio, so you can be there even if you can't be there. The Quote of the Week features three scary citations from Bill Clinton, "Lover of Liberty.")
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  Saturday, May 8, 1999:

• It's legal, so confiscation improper (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian objects to a provision in HB 3052, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Mannix, which would prevent law enforcement officials from returning seized plants to medical-marijuana patients with valid state registry cards.)
• Ask patients to help heal themselves (An editorial in the Oregonian by Robert Landauer says new-generation psychiatric drugs put heavy pressure on the Oregon Health Plan budget. Let 'em eat St Johns Wort or wear pyramids on their heads. Landauer's call for mental patients to treat themselves apparently wouldn't extend to letting them use medical marijuana, however.)
• Cities should have freedom on tobacco use (An op-ed in the Oregonian by King City Mayor Jan Drangsholt urges Oregon legislators to reject HB 2806, which would preclude local governments - except in Corvallis - from passing their own laws governing tobacco use. It's not appropriate for state legislators to decide for any Oregon community how to handle an issue that needs to reflect community values. Unfortunately, it's not clear how Drangsholt would feel about letting local residents vote on other aspects of drug policy.)
• Referendum Madness (A staff editorial in the Bangor Daily News says the Maine legislature had a lot of good reasons to reject the citizen-initiated bill legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The one given - that voters should decide this by referendum - isn't among them. "This is about safe, effective medicine and good science. That's a matter for the laboratory, not the voting booth.")
• Drug War Makes More Trouble Than Drugs (A letter to the editor of the Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says the surest way to alleviate the problems concerning New Bedford's illegal drug traffic is legalization, which simply means replacing intensive criminalization with sensible civil regulation.)
• Police Shoot, Kill Henrico Man (The Richmond Times-Dispatch, in Virginia, says William Keith Green, a 29-year-old marijuana offender, was shot and killed by police early yesterday after several officers stormed his Lakeside house in search of "drugs." Police said Green told officers several times during the confrontation that "he was not going to be arrested, he was not going back to jail and that they would have to shoot him." So, first trying pepper spray, three prohibition agents shot Green five times after he was repeatedly told to drop his machete. A subsequent search, aside from yielding a bunch of personal effects the newspaper wouldn't mention except to excite prejudices, yielded "several ounces" of marijuana and a vial of a "white crystal substance.")
• Marijuana Is Medicine (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Robert D. Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project responds to a letter by former NIDA chief Robert DuPont about the March 17 Institute of Medicine report on medical marijuana. DuPont lists IOM's recommendations for short-term use but neglects to mention that IOM also urged the government to create compassionate-use programs for patients with long-term needs. "IOM does not want patients to be arrested," claims Kampia.)
• Hemp Is Marijuana (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post from Jeanette McDougal, co-chair of the drug warrior group, Drug Watch/Minnesota, criticizes Washington lawyer and former CIA director James Woolsey for representing the North American Industrial Hemp Council as a lobbyist. She just knows NAIHC members wear dirty underwear.)
• Health Department opposes marijuana as medicine (The National Post notes an internal Canadian Health Department memo prepared for minister Allan Rock is filled with discredited arguments against therapeutic use of cannabis, revealing bureaucrats' bias. An edited version of the memo, originally stamped secret, was obtained under the Access to Information Act.)
• 10% Of Those In EU Traffic Accidents On Drugs (The Irish Times says a report conducted for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction concludes that alcohol is "the biggest problem" in road accidents. However, there has been a four-fold increase since 1987 in the number of drivers killed who have traces of illegal drugs in their bodies. Alcohol was found to be involved in 19 per cent of injurious accidents and 22 per cent of fatal accidents in the EU. The author, Ms Rosalyn Moran of the Health Research Board, said there are no laws in the EU defining illegal blood limits of illicit drugs or medicines and said there is "insufficient" evidence to define safe levels.)
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  Sunday, May 9, 1999:

• Medical-marijuana rules insulting (A letter to the editor of the Oregonian from a man with incurable brain cancer says "no thank you" to such aspects of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act as the need to apply for a registry card, the $150 registration fee, and the likes of Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, and his merry band of morality police.)
• Marijuana activist convicted of cultivation, possession (Our Times, in Santa Monica, California, says Joe "Hemp" Kidwell, a motorcycle mechanic turned marijuana activist, faces a maximum of three years in prison after a jury convicted him of growing and possessing 14 pot plants on the roof of his office building in Venice last summer, despite his status as a medical-marijuana patient under Proposition 215.)
• Hemp's Backers Try For A Comeback (The San Francisco Examiner says Sam H. Clauder II, a strait-laced Southern Baptist political consultant from Orange County, is heading a campaign to get industrial hemp legalized in California. The quiet political campaign is gaining support, an Examiner/KTVU Channel 2 report found, but big obstacles remain. Clauder hopes to find a legislator willing to carry a bill or attract enough public enthusiasm for a ballot measure.)
• Drug Problem In Central Utah Called 'Epidemic' (According to an Associated Press article in the Salt Lake Tribune, prohibition agents say the illegal drug trade has reached "epidemic" proportions in south-central Utah. Cordell Pearson, commander of the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, said more people are involved with drugs on a per capita basis in the rural area than in some large cities.)
• Actress Plato Dies of Overdose (The Associated Press says Dana Plato, a former actress on television's "Diff'rent Strokes," died from an accidental overdose of Valium and Loritab, a painkiller, Saturday night in Moore, Oklahoma, while en route from Florida to Los Angeles.)
• Drug Abuse Fight Could Use Cash Fix (Houston Chronicle columnist Thom Marshall observes that both drug traffickers and the police, including DARE officers, make a good living off prohibition. Money, however, is in short supply at Houston's Palmer Drug Abuse Program, or PDAP, which offers free, outpatient substance-abuse recovery services for youth, using methods based on Alcoholics Anonymous.)
• Committee Considers Compromise On Hemp Legalization (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune says a proposal before a Minnesota legislative conference committee would allow Governor Jesse Ventura to apply for federal permits that would allow state farmers to grow experimental and demonstration plots of industrial hemp. An earlier bill to legalize industrial hemp passed the Senate but was stopped in a House committee.)
• Inmates' Suits Target Wide Range Of Officials (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Missouri state Attorney General Jay Nixon is defending state employees against 711 prisoners who have filed 33 lawsuits over alleged abuse they suffered at the hands of Texas jailers. Prisoners blame not only the Texans who ran the jail, they blame leaders of the Missouri Department of Corrections for ignoring their complaints until the scandal got too big to cover up when a videotape surfaced in 1996 that showed Missouri prisoners being stomped on, bitten by attack dogs and zapped with a stun gun. "We're having to deal with about 2 million pages of documents . . . .," Nixon said. "It is the largest paper case we've had . . . ." Nixon has 26 lawyers on his staff working on the case. He also hired three private lawyers at $100 an hour or less, and rented space in an office park to use as a depository where 97 boxes and nine filing cabinets fill two rooms.)
• The Drug Odyssey Of A Senator's Son (The Standard-Times, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, recounts the 25-year heroin addiction and eventual healing of Doug MacLean, the son of William Q. "Biff" MacLean, a once influential state Senate majority leader. All three of MacLean's children became drug addicts, and all three recovered. The first-hand experience has given him new insight into the city's drug problems. "What I've learned from my kids is that you can spend a lot of money, but nothing will work until an individual makes up his or her mind that they want help and are ready to help themselves out." He's learned something else, as well. "Don't criticize people because it could happen to you.")
• Time To Prick A Drugs Myth (An op-ed in Britain's Sunday Times by Ian Oliver, the former chief constable of Grampian Police, says needle-exchange programs increase heroin use without reducing the transmision of disease.)
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  Monday, May 10, 1999:

• Baldwin Trial Update (Bob Ames, a medical-marijuana patient awaiting trial in Sacramento, e-mails a helpful account of court proceedings in the jury trial of his fellow medical-marijuana patients, Dr. Michael Baldwin and his wife, Georgia, on cultivation-related charges, in Auburn, California. Numerous patients attended, most awaiting their own trials. Placer County Detective Grant admitted on the stand last week that a majorify of his present cases involve medical marijuana patients. Judge Garbolino dropped cultivation charges, citing Proposition 215, but allowed the jury to weigh a charge of sales. The jury is still out after just over a full day of deliberations.)
• Letter from Prison - Marvin Chavez (A letter written from Wasco Prison in California describes the injustices encountered by the medical-marijuana patient/activist and founder/director of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse, Support Group. Chavez is serving a six-year sentence after being denied a Proposition 215 defense to charges related to his helping other patients obtain free marijuana.)
• Assembly bill eases marijuana penalties (An Associated Press article in the Las Vegas Sun says Nevada law makes the first-time offense for possessing any amount of marijuana a felony punishable by between one and four years of jail and a $5,000 fine. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, thinks the time has come for change. Her AB 577, pending in the Ways and Means Committee, would decriminalize the first-time possession of less than an ounce. The penalty of up to $500 would go to anti-drug programs. "Notice the absence of opposition here," Giunchigliani said. "It's risky for anyone in law enforcement to be at the forefront of this, but I've received calls from judges and DAs who say they support it. And there has been positive reaction from the public. Statewide, there really has been no major opposition.")
• The Drug War's Collateral Damage (Chicago Tribune columnist Salim Muwakkil reflects on Joshua Wolf Shenk's article, "America's Altered States" in the May edition of Harper's magazine. While we're fed scare stories and outright lies about the "controlled substances" our government has demonized, more dangerous drugs are being pushed legally through a pharmaceutical industry that is reaping huge profits by offering the same kind of chemical relief. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the group responsible for demonizing ads, receives most of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry. It's clear we would rather indulge our addiction to war metaphors and racial biases than seriously address the problem of drug dependency. Because of those unfortunate fixations the American people have become the drug war's ultimate casualty.)
• Why Some Get Busted and Some Go Free (An unusually perceptive staff editorial in the New York Times discusses how racial profiling and racist perceptions among police and in society at large exacerbate the racially disparate harms caused by the war on some drug users. For example, white intravenous drug users outnumber black users by at least five to one. But drug sweeps tend to concentrate on inner cities. Federal data show five arrests for every 100 white addicts, but 20 arrests for every 100 black addicts. As a result, white addicts tend to be less worried about random searches, and so tend to carry clean needles. But black addicts know they are much more vulnerable to random searches and so are less likely to carry clean needles. Instead, they share the needles of strangers. As a consequence, the rate of HIV infection for black drug users is many times that of whites.)
• Albany County Says No To Proposed Forfeiture Law (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, says a proposal to allow police to forfeit the cash and cars of suspects arrested on minor drug charges failed 25-12 Monday as county legislators called the law illegal and potentially unfair.)
• Needle Exchanges Do Work (A letter to the editor of the New York Times from the president of Prevention Works, the organization that runs the District of Columbia's only needle-exchange program, corrects false assertions by a previous writer opposed to such programs. Studies from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the GAO, NIH and the Office of Technology Assessment unanimously concluded that needle exchanges reduce HIV transmission. None found that the programs increase drug use. Recently, University of British Columbia epidemiologist Martin Schecter explained that Canadian needle users have a higher rate of HIV infection because in Canada it is legal to purchase syringes in pharmacies. Those who can afford to buy syringes do not have to share needles. Those who participate in needle exchanges, though, cannot afford to buy clean syringes and are forced to share, significantly increasing their risk of HIV infection.)
• Medical Marijuana: Will IOM Report Encourage Clinical Trials? (The Scientist says the March 17 report from the Institute of Medicine should define the medical-marijuana issue more tightly. Do the report's conclusions encourage researchers who have long sought approval of clinical trials of marijuana? "I hope so," says one of the report's two principal investigators, John A. Benson Jr. Unfortunately, the magazine omits any discussion of who might have the money or desire to fund any of the six recommendations made by the report, all of which ignore the needs of patients trying to survive in the here and now.)
• Action Alert: Support the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, H.R. 1658 (A news release from the Drug Policy Foundation, in Washington, D.C., explains how to lobby your U.S. representative in Congress to support the bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and John Conyers, D-Mich. The bill would, among other reforms, force the government to prove that forfeited property is related to a crime, as opposed to the current practice of owners having to prove that their property is innocent.)
• FDA Moves to Reduce Accidental Drug Deaths (The Los Angeles Times says more than 100,000 Americans are inadvertently killed every year by prescription drugs - one of the leading causes of death in the country. In a 150-page document expected to be released today, the FDA plans to unveil several initiatives to prevent fatalities blamed on misuse of prescriptions.)
• 'Head shop' museum traces drug use, abuse (The Toronto Star says that in a country where there's a hall of fame for everything from bourbon to birth control, it had to happen: The United States opens its first drug museum today, in Arlington, Virginia. First official museum anyway - it's run by the DEA, the 10,000-member Drug Enforcement Administration that pursues drug offenders in 72 countries, including Canada. A poster at the museum entrance states that 4 million Americans admitted to using drugs in 1960; in 1999 the number is 74 million. It doesn't add the dollar signs announced this month by White House anti-drug czar General Barry McCaffrey: Illegal drugs are a $57 billion industry in America. Compare that with the $6 billion video game industry and the $4 billion gun industry.)
• Drug users can be good moms, book says (According to a Canadian Press article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "Using drugs does not equal poor parenting," says Susan Boyd, a Simon Fraser University professor whose new book, "Mothers and Illicit Drugs: Transcending the Myths," sums up almost 10 years of research. Ms. Boyd argued that her survey of literature suggests legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco are of greater concern than illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin. And a spokesman for a province-wide addiction agency in Ontario agreed.)
• At War Over Drugs (The Sydney Morning Herald says with regard to Australia's youngest heroin users, asking who speaks for their parents is a raw and divisive issue. Most have lost children to drugs, but that does not give them common cause. The delegates selected for the New South Wales drug summit starting next Monday, as well as the parents who last week established a safe injecting room, are exposing a rift in parental lobby groups as deep as that running through the political and legal establishment. Many parents and a large number of frontline drug workers endorse harm minimisation strategies, believing that if you can support drug-dependent people through the worst of their addiction, they eventually will come out the other side. Even the ones who can't be reclaimed "don't deserve to be condemned to death." But most of the parent representatives who will be at Bob Carr's summit are lining up behind the prohibitionist view.)
• Heroin found on dead prison officer (The Scotsman says police in Tayside last night were investigating the discovery of thousands of pounds worth of heroin found on the body of Bruce Flight, a guard at Scotland's Perth prison who died in hospital after a drinking binge ten days ago.)
• Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 5, No. 18 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA, in Italy)
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  Tuesday, May 11, 1999:

• S.F. Mayor Wants Cops to Seize Drug Buyers' Cars - Goal is to curb out-of-town customers (The San Francisco Chronicle says Willie Brown will try to follow the lead of Oakland, across the Bay, by seeking the forfeiture of cars driven by people accused - but not convicted - of drug and prostitution offenses. The proposed seizure ordinance will probably be challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has unsuccessfully tried to block Oakland's 1997 program. "We have a problem with the notion of forfeiture," said Alan Schlosser of the Northern California ACLU. "If someone is arrested for sale of marijuana, which normally means a $100 fine, they can lose a $20,000 or $30,000 automobile. Some courts have ruled that excessive." Plus a list of San Francisco officials who can be lobbied to stop an escalation of the drug war.)
• Ex-Assistant DA Sentenced (The Houston Chronicle says Ramon Villafranca, 59, a former assistant district attorney in Laredo, Texas, was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison for taking bribes from drug defendants.)
• Legalizing Drugs Can Help Us Get Control (Dallas Morning News columnist Stanley Marcus says drug dealers following the basic rules of capitalism have turned the narcotics trade into the dominant economic force in many nations. It is obvious that the best way to reduce the drug trade is to take the profit out of it. Eliminate the profit by legalizing all drug products. If the public wants alternative methods of regulation to those brought forth by the groups that advocate the legalization of drugs, let those ideas be discussed and debated. The president should establish a panel of distinguished citizens to make a study of all the ideas presented and issue a recommendation to the nation.)
• Akron policeman accused of helping alleged drug dealer (The Associated Press says Timothy Callahan, a police lieutenant accused of running license plate numbers for an alleged drug dealer, is only the latest police officer to get in trouble in Akron, Ohio.)
• Deaths Linked To Drugs, Alcohol (A Cox Interactive Media article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes the deaths last week of two sports celebrities from substance abuse - while suggesting that alcohol is not a drug. Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Steve Chiasson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27 percent when he overturned his truck in North Carolina, and former Dallas Cowboys star Mark Tuinei injected heroin in Texas while using ecstasy.)
• Drugs May Have Been Major Factor In Death For Former Cowboys Star (The Charlotte Observer version)
• Dying man wins right to use marijuana (The National Post says Ontario Superior Court Justice Harry LaForme yesterday granted Jim Wakeford, a Toronto AIDS patient, a constitutional exemption from Canada's drug laws, allowing him to cultivate and smoke marijuana. The ruling is temporary, until Allan Rock, the Health Minister, decides whether to grant Mr. Wakeford a special exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but it implies that the judge expects Mr. Rock to eventually grant a permanent exemption. This is the second time a Canadian court has allowed the medicinal use of marijuana, but the first time a higher court has done so. Mr. Wakeford, whose illness prevents him from growing marijuana on his own, said he fears the decision may be only a partial victory because the judge did not say whether the friends who take care of him can legally help him grow cannabis.)
• Judge allows medical use of marijuana (The Toronto Star verson)
• Toronto AIDS Patient May Use Marijuana (The UPI version)
• Chikarovski Admits She Smoked Marijuana (The Associated Press says New South Wales Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski has admitted smoking marijuana while at university. But Chikarovski said the drug should not be legalised in Australia because it was much stronger now than in her youth. Her candour is certain to cause a stir less than a week before a drug summit begins in the NSW parliament.)
• Chikarovski admits inhaling (The ABC Radio version)
• MP Who Was Stoned In Parly Says Several MPs Smoke Grass (According to the Associated Press, Richard Jones, an upper house member of parliament, said today he used marijuana every couple of weeks to relieve stress and had once been "stoned" in parliament. Jones also said at least six New South Wales MPs currently smoke marijuana, and at least half the 135 MPs would have used marijuana, based on a survey of federal parliamentarians. Jones also disagreed with Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski's claim that the herb is 30 times stronger now than it was in her youth. "That's simply not true because in those days we used to have Buddha sticks and Lebanese wedding hash and Durban poison," he said.)
• Conscience Vote At Drug Summit (The Daily Telegraph, in Australia, says Labor MPs are likely to be given a conscience vote on all issues at next week's drug summit. Premier Bob Carr said delegates would vote on a wide range of issues May 17-21 at New South Wales Parliament.)
• NSW Drug Summit Website (A list subscriber forwards the URL where daily updates on the New South Wales drug-policy conference May 17-21 will be posted. The site will also feature updates on daily proceedings and a discussion forum.)
• Desperate Parents Doling Out Heroin (The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia, says a network of Sydney parents, terrified that their addicted children will die alone in a laneway, are allowing heroin use at home - and in some cases financing and doling out the drug in a bid to stabilise their children's habit. The families, who have counterparts and supporters in Brisbane, have effectively created an underground drug resistance movement in a bid to stop their children resorting to crime and prostitution to finance their habits. They argue that stabilising drug dependency and guaranteeing safety during use allows parents and families to buy time, while a "zero tolerance" approach is tantamount to "standing by and allowing them to die.")
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  Wednesday, May 12, 1999:

• Suspect In Slaying Of Political Activist Turns Himself In (The Associated Press says Russell Wayne Dean turned himself in Wednesday in Baker County, Oregon, after eluding a weeklong manhunt in a mountainous area near Florence. Dean is suspected in the April 27 shooting death of James Rix Anderson, 55, a well-known activist who once tried to recall the sheriff and accused county officials of involvement in a drug ring.)
• Printers sue company, saying smokers should go outside (The Associated Press says two employees have sued Sterling Business Forms in Medford, Oregon, claiming they've been subjected to secondhand smoke because the company won't give smokers breaks to go outside and light up.)
• Baldwins Get Hung Jury, DA Vows New Trial (A news release from medical-marijuana patient/activist/defendant Steve Kubby says a Placer County jury in Auburn, California, failed to convict patient/defendants Dr. Michael Baldwin and his wife, Georgia, on marijuana trafficking charges related to their cultivation bust. Another patient/defendant, Bob Ames, sends a different account of the Baldwins' acquittal.)
• Good News: No New Trial For Baldwins (A correction from Steve Kubby says the Placer County District Attorney has not indicated any intention to re-try the Baldwins, nor is there any reason to expect him to do so.)
• Dalton Hearing In San Francisco (The Anderson Valley Advertiser, in Boonville, California, says Redwood Valley resident John Dalton will receive an evidentiary hearing Monday in federal court. Judge Susan Illston has ordered the unprecedented hearng to explore the conduct of the Drug Enforcement Administration agents who busted Dalton two years ago on charges related to marijuana production. In his zeal to bust Dalton, DEA Special Agent Mark Nelson allegedly seduced Dalton's mentally ill wife, a longtime cop wannabe, and told her she had become a special agent for the DEA, even assigning Dalton's wife a "special agent number" that the DEA refers to in more than 30 internal reports.)
• Distinguished Citizens Commission to Examine U.S. War on Drugs (A news release from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based think tank, says the Los Angeles Citizens' Fact Finding Commission on U.S. Drug Policy will hold public hearings May 22-23 at the University of Southern California. Sponsored by the IPS and a coalition of Los Angeles organizations, and conceived in the wake of the CIA-Contra-Cocaine scandal, the hearings will feature expert witnesses on drug policy presenting testimony to a panel of six distinguished "citizen commissioners," including conservatives. Based on the testimony, the Commission will issue a report analyzing the social impact of U.S. drug policy and recommending policy alternatives. The news release concludes with a letter of invitation from Harry Belafonte, the commission's honorary chairperson.)
• Charges May Face Teen Who Turned In Pot (According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday it would file possession charges in Juvenile Court against an Arroyo Seco Junior High School student who turned over marijuana to his parents. Tyler Hagen, 13, of Saugus was forced to serve a five-day suspension beginning Monday for not going to school officials immediately to report a violation of the district's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal drugs.)
• Drug Use By Bus Driver Suspected (According to UPI, the New Orleans Times-Picayune said today that bus driver Frank Bedell was drug tested soon after the crash on Sunday in New Orleans that killed 22 people, and the results indicated he had used marijuana in the past month. In addition, Bedell is a diabetes patient with kidney failure who undergoes regular dialysis treatments, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, which should have resulted in automatic disqualification for a commercial driver's license. A doctor at Charity Hospital stressed that evidence of drug use in Bedell's system does not automatically show he was under the influence of "drugs" when he was behind the wheel of the doomed bus.)
• Firefighter Argues Girlfriend Spiked His Food (The Associated Press says Carl Chestnut, a firefighter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who lost his job after failing a drug test, wants his job back, claiming his ex-girlfriend laced his food with marijuana without his knowledge because of a dispute over custody of their two children.)
• Survey: Teen Drug Use Has Dropped (The MetroWest Daily News says preliminary results of a survey commissioned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association show that use of alcohol and other drugs among Bay State high school students is down across the board since 1996. The biggest drop came in the use of pain medications, which fell 11 percent among high-schoolers since 1996, from 28 percent to 17 percent. Those who smoke cigarettes decreased from 64 percent to 58 percent. Use of alcohol at least one day a week dropped from 67 percent to 60 percent. Use of marijuana fell from 41 percent to 32 percent.)
• Investigation Of DEA Shooting Full Of Surprises (The Daily Press, in Pennsylvania, describes the aftermath of an incident Jan. 14 in which Joseph Armento, a drunken DEA agent, shot Jason Temple in Temple's car. On Tuesday Hampton General District Judge Pat Patrick ruled invalid a subsequent search of Temple's car that yielded marijuana and cocaine. However, Temple's preliminary hearing raised more troubling questions about the Hampton Police Department's handling of a very sensitive and controversial crime. Armento was mad because he had been thrown out of Rooney's with two other agents for acting drunk and disorderly. Then, he was angry that Temple and two friends had dared to look at him and his fellow G-men as they fumed in the parking lot. The confrontation was never about drugs, and Tuesday's hearing only added to the mystery of how it got to be.)
• Press Clips: Raving Lunatics (The Village Voice's media-criticism column notes a newscast last Wednesday by WTTG-5, the Fox News affiliate in Washington, D.C., sensationalized local raves as rife with "pulsating music, illegal drugs, even sex." WTTG-5 emphasized the supposed dangers of MDMA and luridly demonstrated the lax attitudes about it shown by off-duty D.C. police who provide security at raves. But it turns out that in the District of Columbia, ecstasy isn't illegal. Due to a nearly 10-year-old typo in D.C. law, cops have no legal authority or obligation to arrest X users.)
• Medical Marijuana (UPI says the Canadian government has indicated that it doesn't intend to appeal Monday's Ontario Superior Court ruling that permits Jim Wakeford, a Toronto AIDS patient, to grow and use marijuana as medicine. However, federal Health Minister Allan Rock says the decision doesn't mean that smoking marijuana has been legalized.)
• Pot ruling to stand - Rock won't appeal (The Canadian Press version)
• Rock won't challenge pot ruling (The Toronto Star version)
• Pot Bust (The Parksville/Qualicum Beach Morning Sun, in British Columbia, says that on the heels of a major marijuana cultivation bust last week, the Parksville RCMP have announced the formation of an "intensive enforcement initiative to combat illegal marijuana production and distribution within the area." Supposedly, police say the unit was formed in response to "several violent incidents" involving individuals associated with the local drug trade, but no details are provided.)
• Hemp Activist Arrested For Hash (The Canadian Press says Jerzy Przytyk, the president of the Industrial Hemp Council of Canada, was arrested in Montreal after police seized 1,200 kilograms of hashish worth an estimated $18 million.)
• The Real Criminals (An op-ed in Colombia's Revista Semana by Antonio Caballero says that for years, he has received letters from Colombians imprisoned for drugs in the United States. They all tell him terrifying variations of the same story about the American criminal justice system. The vast majority of the prisoners who write are poor couriers or low ranking money launderers who are condemned to rot for two-and-a-half life sentences. If they denounce the DEA agents who provided the drugs, or the Customs Agents who allowed the drugs in, or the lawyers who convinced them to declare themselves guilty, or the director of prisons who prohibits any visits, or the prison priests who insist they convert to Presbyterianism - they'll be even worse off. Americans invented drug abuse. Unable to make their own citizens obey the law, they decided to export their laws. It's a fat business. U.S. banks keep 95 percent of the drug profits. DEA agents, or other undercover police, charge a commission on the confiscated drugs they help to import, and a commission on the money they help launder. The criminals are those that write the laws in the U.S. Congress.)
• Call For Look At Use Of Cannabis (The Sydney Morning Herald says the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre is urging the Premier's Drug Summit May 17-21 in New South Wales not to focus solely on heroin issues. According to a DARC spokesman, Mr Paul Dillon, a national survey last year showed that 39 per cent of the population said they had used cannabis, compared with 31 per cent in 1995.)
• Chika Admits Dope Just Hazy Memory (The Australian recounts yesterday's news about New South Wales Opposition Leader Kerry Chikarovski spreading misinformation about cannabis potency. Chikarovski admitted using marijuana as a university student, but said she was opposed to any reform now.)
• How I Took Pot Luck And Inhaled (The version in Australia's Daily Telegraph)
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  Thursday, May 13, 1999:

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