1999 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
May 28-June 3

Friday, May 28, 1999:
• Victory (An e-mail from Mike Assenberg of Waldport, Oregon, says the Mormon Church has changed its mind about excommunicating him for his legal use of medical marijuana.)
• Federal Court Issues Injunction Against Four Oregon Laws on Gathering Signatures for Initiatives, Referenda (A press release from Portland lawyer Daniel Meek says the U.S. District Court in Portland issued an injunction this afternoon against enforcement of four Oregon statutes. Signature gatherers no longer have to be registered Oregon voters, and no longer have to display a notice stating that the person obtaining the signatures is being paid. Chief petitioners and political committees are also no longer required to disclose the names of paid circulatorc and the amount paid to each.)
• New petitioning rules in Oregon (A list subscriber forwards an excerpt from a press release issued by the Coalition for Initiative Rights, which explains the ramifications of today's ruling by the U.S. District Court in Portland blocking enforcement of four Oregon statutes regulating the gathering of signatures for initiatives and referenda. Now anyone can gather signatures!)
• Crime victim measures get final House OK (The Associated Press says the Oregon House of Representatives has given final approval to an eight-measure ballot package aimed at replacing Measure 40, approved by voters in November 1996 but overturned by the state supreme court last summer. The eight measures would supposedly ease the burden of crime victims, but some just make prosecutors' lives easier and impose new burdens on defendants and convicts. The package would, among other things, expand police search and seizure powers and admissibility of evidence; require that jurors in criminal trials be registered voters and not have committed a felony in 15 years; prohibit the retroactive release of a prisoner if a new law reduces the sentence for the crime committed; and sets a tougher standard for granting bail before trial.)
• DA says keep school expulsion records private (The Associated Press says Mark Huddleston, the district attorney in Ashland, Oregon, has denied a parent's request to examine Ashland High School records of students expelled over drugs and weapons, even if such students' names are blacked out. The petitioner, Paul Copeland of Ashland, said he wanted to see the records so he could judge whether the school district is handling expulsions fairly since it enacted a zero tolerance policy on drugs last year.)
• Million Marijuana March (A letter to the editor of the Seattle Times shames the newspaper for not deeming it newsworthy that 4,000-5,000 marijuana-law reformers marched May 1 from Volunteer Park to Westlake Center.)
• Straight Edger Charged In Assault At West Valley Party (The Salt Lake Tribune, in Utah, suggests a group of Straight Edge members who believe that nobody should be allowed to smoke, drink or use "drugs" burst uninvited into a party, asked if anyone was drinking alcohol, and proceeded to punch six people and spray them in the face with mace.)
• Marijuana Laws Inching Leftward (The Aspen Daily News covers NORML's 1999 legal seminar, continuing through Saturday in the Colorado resort town. R. Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told an audience made up mostly of lawyers that "For the first time in 20 years, the political tide is moving ever so slowly in our direction. People say they are worried about crime, but they mean violent crime, not somebody smoking a joint in their home.")
• Officer Is Cleared In Death Of A Suspected Drug Dealer (The New York Times says a Manhattan grand jury has declined to indict a police officer in the death of Kenneth Banks, a suspected crack cocaine dealer. Banks' skull was fractured after he was hit on the head by a police radio thrown by officer Craig Yokemick during a chase in Harlem last Oct. 29.)
• Hemp: It's Rope, Not Dope - Farmers, Activists Seek To Legalize Crop (The San Francisco Chronicle says a small corps of techno-savvy activists based in Lexington, Kentucky, is playing a big role in the national campaign to legalize industrial hemp. Using e-mail, faxes and cell phones, and in friendly, easy-going Southern style, the Bluegrass group, whose members include actor and part-time Kentuckian Woody Harrelson, have been doggedly educating state lawmakers and activists across the country who are pressuring the government to lift the hemp ban.)
• AIDS sufferers could smoke marijuana under Stefanini bill (The MetroWest Daily News, in Framingham, Massachusetts, says a bill championed by state Rep. John Stefanini, D-Framingham, would add AIDS to a list of illnesses that the state would theoretically allow to be treated experimentally with marijuana. There's only one small hitch: Massachusetts has no legal source of marijuana. In part because there is no marijuana supply, no one is enrolled in any experimental program.)
• Colleges Report Increases In Arrests For Drug And Alcohol (The Chronicle of Higher Education says its annual campus crime survey shows arrests for illegal drugs and alcohol at the nation's colleges and universities increased 7.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, from 1996 to 1997. The increases mark the sixth consecutive year such arrests have increased. As in past years, many campus police officers and safety experts attribute the increases not to increased alcohol or drug use by students, but to more aggressive enforcement efforts and toughened policies restricting drinking on campus.)
• Canada Close To OKing Medicinal Marijuana (The Orange County Register, in California, notes a measure calling for the "legalization" of medical marijuana passed May 25 in the Canadian House of Commons.)
• Rock Stirs The Pot With Comments (The Calgary Sun says Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock all but admitted yesterday he's smoked pot. But the lawyer in him made sure his admission wouldn't hold water in court. "As former attorney general of Canada, I am keenly aware of the right against self incrimination in this country. I fully intend to invoke that right," he said yesterday. Rock strongly signalled he intends to give home-grown pot a whole new meaning, saying he wants to produce a 'made in Canada' brand. However, his department is still trying to figure out where the marijuana will be grown, who will grow it and under what conditions.)
• Commons A-Buzz Over Grown-In-Canada Pot (According to the Toronto Star version, the Canadian health minister, Allan Rock, said yesterday he would announce next month details about clinical trials for pain patients. Rock said the benefits of having medical marijuana grown in Canada under the watchful eye of the government are that "you'd have a consistent percentage of THC, consistent quality, [and] a level of cleanliness which is consistent." But he didn't explain why one size must fit all, or why private enterprise can't produce to specs what is shaping up to be the Canadian government's own cannabis cup winner.)
• Through Pot Haze, Rock Stands Solid (The National Post version)
• Ottawa Looking For Steady Supply Of Dope (The Toronto Globe and Mail version)
• Canada Grows More Pot Than Parsley (According to the Calgary Herald, the first-ever RCMP report on Canada's $18-billion illicit street-drug trade estimates at least 800 tonnes of marijuana was grown domestically last year. By comparison, Canadians last year sprouted 727 tonnes of parsley, which, of course, by weight is mostly water. "This estimate appears overwhelming," the report states, and, in fact, investigators believe it's "quite conservative.")
• 'Mindboggling' Marijuana Crop Tops 800 Tonnes (The Ottawa Citizen version inclues the URL to the RCMP report.)
• Money Laundering Targeted (The Toronto Star says legislation that is expected to be introduced by an unspecified power in Canada's House of Commons as early as today would require banks to report "suspicious transactions of $10,000 or more." The bill would also require anyone entering or leaving Canada to declare anything above $10,000 or risk having the undeclared money forfeited to Canada Customs. The new measures are intended to dramatically slash the $17 billion supposedly laundered every year by organized crime in Canada.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 92 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original drug policy newsmagazine features these stories - Thanks, and another special offer through June 30; Medical marijuana activist convicted in federal court: jury not allowed to hear evidence of medicinal use; Four guards charged in beating death of Nassau County inmate; Senate juvenile justice bill passes in wake of Colorado school shooting, would dramatically increase surveillance and drug testing; New York assembly speaker says no to Rockefeller drug law reform . . . or does he?; Policy change may allow for non-government funded medical marijuana research.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 99 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense opens with the weekly Feature Article - "How To Legalize Drugs," a new book by Jefferson M. Fish, Ph.D. The Weekly News in Review features several articles about Drug War Policy, including - The Zogby New York poll; Pot politics; Texas heroin massacre; 'Don't do drugs'; College drug arrests up for sixth year; and, DEA chief announces his resignation. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - When they get out; The Rockefeller drug laws; The racial issue looming in the rear-view mirror; Snitch culture; and, Of merchant ships and crack-sellers' cars. News about Cannabis & Hemp includes - U.S. eases curb on medical marijuana research; Hemp campaign gains momentum; and, Guilty verdict in high-profile pot case. International News includes - UK: Thousands will lose the right to trial by jury; Eton claims success in drugs crackdown; and, Australia: Battle lines drawn as summit deepens. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net column provides URLs for a new site to aid those charged with drug crimes; and a G.W. Bush drug war parody site. The Fact of the Week documents the total value of federal forfeitures in 1994. The Quote of the Week cites a recent comment by Allan Rock, the Canadian minister of health.)
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  Saturday, May 29, 1999:

• A unique opportunity to help Voter Power (Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for the voter-approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, sends a fundraising plea for the political action committee that supported Measure 67 and is now working to make sure patients are able to get medication, and education about what they can and cannot do under the new law. "A lot of the patients I meet around our state are over 55 years old. Many like me, missed the entire drug scene and don't know anything about marijuana, except for them it works. . . . One man was washing his medical marijuana in 'Dawn' dish soap. He thought that was how to 'clean' it. He was asking 'Does this stuff always give you a headache?' He was poisoning himself!")
• Official OCTA2k Petition Signature Count (A bulletin from the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, the sponsors of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act voter initiative, says 4,605 signatures were on-hand as of yesterday. To get on the November 2000 ballot, the comprehensive reform bill will need 66,748 signatures by July of next year.)
• PBS on June 1 (A list subscriber says "Point of View," the Public Broadcasting Service's showcase for independent, non-fiction films, will air "The Legacy: Murder & Media, Politics & Prisons" on Tuesday night. "The Legacy" looks at how California's "three strikes" law was enacted, and how broadcast media and political campaigns influence the public debate about criminal-justice issues.)
• Medical Research On Marijuana Right (A staff editorial in the San Antonio Express-News says the Clinton administration's easing of restrictions on obtaining marijuana for medical research is a sound decision.)
• Police Find Marijuana 'Farm' At Nursing Home (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in Missouri, doesn't say what led police to raid a St. Louis nursing home Friday. Officers found 200 marijuana plants and arrested an unnamed 34-year-old employee who had allegedly set up an elaborate growing operation behind a false wall.)
• Man Wins Pot-Smoking Case In Levy County (The Gainesville Sun says Michael Stauff of Bronson, Florida, was acquitted by a jury Thursday of possessing half a joint after presenting a 1997 letter from one of his former physicians. Stauff told the jury smoking marijuana relieves the back pain he suffers since having a disk removed, and also improves his appetite, which has been lagging since he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. During jury selection, assistant state attorney John Wentzlaff asked a pool of potential jurors how many believed more work should be done to determine the effectiveness of marijuana as medicine. "When all 12 of them raised their hands to that question, I knew we were going into the trial with a jury predisposed to believe the defendant's argument," Wentzlaff said. It took the jury just minutes to make a decision. Unfortunately, Stauff is still in jail after allegedly selling 20 Percocets for $100 to an undercover agent with the sheriff's department the night before the trial.)
• Acquittal In Marijuana Case (The UPI version)
• Informant Who Succumbed To Drugs Sentenced (The Tampa Tribune, in Florida, says Charles D. Combs, who robbed eight banks to pay for his crack-cocaine habit while working as a confidential informant for St. Petersburg prohibition agents, was sentenced Friday to more than 10 years in federal prison.)
• Warriors' Cry (A letter to the editor of the Washington Post points out how its syndicated columnist, David Broder, is confused about the difference between drug abuse and drug use. The IOM report suggests marijuana users are not drug abusers and therefore should not be coerced into rehab programs.)
• Vote Today for Industrial Hemp! (A list subscriber alerts others to an online poll at the Michael Reagan Radio Show website. So far, legalizers are winning with 64 percent support.)
• Are People With Schizophrenia Drawn To Smoking Pot? (Britain's New Scientist recounts recent research published in NeuroReport by Daniele Piomelli and colleagues at the University of California at Irvine. High levels of anandamide, a natural THC-like substance, are apparently produced in response to the excess dopamine associated with schizophrenia. This might explain why schizophrenics often smoke marijuana.)
• Where There's Smoke . . . (According to New Scientist, two new reports in the latest issue of Tobacco Control, a crusading journal published by the British Medical Association, allege the tobacco industry exacerbates deforestation and causes fatal house fires. The first report, by Helmut Geist, a forestry scientist formerly at the University of Dusseldorf, blames tobacco growers for clearcutting and building wooden barns in South Korea, China, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Uruguay. The second paper, by Andrew McGuire of the Trauma Foundation, based at San Francisco General Hospital, blames Philip Morris for the 1,000 people in the U.S. who die each year in fires started by cigarettes, because it can't develop a self-extinguishing cigarette that smokers will buy.)
• How To Make Money Out Of Quitting (According to New Scientist, a report just out from the World Bank says nations can limit smoking and improve their economies by raising taxes on cigarettes, banning advertising, and investing in how-to-quit programmes.)
• Quick Text Tracks Down Drug Users (New Scientist says police, sports regulators and employers will soon have a new drug testing technology. A hand-held unit called the Cozart RapiScan tests saliva for cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, opiates and benzodiazepines.)
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  Sunday, May 30, 1999:

• 'Zero Tolerance' Comes Up Short (An op-ed in the Orange County Register by Mark T. Greenberg and Brian K. Baumbarger of Penn State University says there is little scientific research to show that zero tolerance or other "get tough" measures are effective in reducing school violence or increasing safety. On the contrary, there is a growing body of research showing a clear association between disciplinary exclusion and further poor outcomes such as delinquency, substance abuse and school dropout. Disciplinary exclusion should be reserved for students who present a clear and present danger to others.)
• Hartman In-Law Sues Pfizer (The Houston Chronicle says the brother of the wife of actor Phil Hartman is suing Pfizer Inc., contending that his sister was under the influence of the anti-depressant drug Zoloft when she killed her husband and herself a year ago. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday by Gregory Omdahl, alleges Pfizer has done "all that it can to downplay the possibility that Zoloft causes violence or suicide in some people." Omdahl also sued Dr. Arthur Sorosky, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who gave Hartman's wife a sample of the drug provided to him by a Pfizer salesman.)
• Shed Some Light On 'Racial Profiling' (A staff editorial in the Tulsa World says Army Sgt. Rossano Gerald has sued the Oklahoma Highway Patrol because he was stopped twice within 30 minutes after crossing the state line last August; because he and his 12-year-old son were detained for two hours inside a patrol car in 90-degree heat with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning turned off; because the troopers looking for drugs searched his car without his permission, causing a reported $1,089 in damages; and because he was arrested for DWB - Driving While Black, or Driving While Brown. The case has propelled Oklahoma into the middle of a national debate over racial profiling. Collection of national figures on traffic stops is an idea well worth pursuing.)
• Trying To Count All The Cops Is Hard (Houston Chronicle columnist Thom Marshall observes that Houston and Harris County seem to be proliferating countless police officers toting guns and badges and representing myriad city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Marshall invites readers to participate in a project launched by Bryant Reed of La Porte, aimed simply at listing all the police groups in the area, such as the HPD, Sheriff's Department, Metro PD, constables, U.S. Marshals, the Houston ISD PD, highway patrol, the Texas Rangers, the FBI, INS, DEA, ATF, CIA - even the Harris County Hospital District.)
• Revelers' Tents Sprout Like Weed In Sauk County Farm Field During Marijuana Festival (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin, says almost twice as many people showed up this year for the annual Weedstock Festival in Sauk County as last year, perhaps showing that good weather can influence people more than marijuana. Weedstock organizer Ben Masel had some complaints about the size and intensity of the law-enforcement force. Masel said some officers were making up traffic violations as an excuse to pull people over. "We even had people pulled over because their tires were bald, which the officer noticed at night, as they are driving at 35 miles an hour - not likely," Masel said.)
• Opposition To Plan To Test Welfare Applicants For Drugs (The New York Times says that starting in October, Michigan welfare applicants under 65 in three locations yet to be chosen will be required to take drug tests or forfeit their benefits. "The state is starting from the assumption that the poor are criminals," said Kary L. Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan. "The state is saying that if you want money for food and shelter you have to give up the Fourth Amendment rights that others have.")
• Hair Tests Raise Doubts (The Baltimore Sun says the use of hair samples to detect traces of illegal drugs is drawing criticism for its alleged inaccuracy and bias against dark-haired people, particularly African-Americans. General Motors, Anheuser-Busch, BMW, Rubbermaid and several big-city police departments are among the more than 1,000 employers using the hair test. More workers are being hair tested all the time, but the scientific consensus from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists is that hair tests are not sufficiently reliable for widespread use. No hair-testing laboratories have been approved by the FDA. Sixteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter May 14 to the Secretary of the Army requesting a review of Army policy on hair testing, and expressing concern about the case of Duane Adens, who received a bad-conduct discharge in July solely on the basis of a false positive. As a result of his federal conviction, said Adens, "I will never be able to get a good job. I lose my voting rights. Something I worked hard at for 14 years is going to be taken away from me - for no reason at all.")
• Legalizing Pot Sends Wrong Message, Say Calgary MP's (The Calgary Herald says the newspaper's survey of regional members of Parliament shows varying opinions about decriminalizing marijuana. Some Reformers are strongly against "legalization," while others agree with a recent call for clinical trials to determine the medical benefits of the weed.)
• Cocaine Is Being Passed Around Like After-Dinner Mints (An op-ed in the Observer, in Britain, by Adam Edwards, the son of a judge, a former editor of a London magazine, and a cocaine user since the early 1970s, reveals how widespread cocaine use is today, in the wake of revelations involving Lawrence Dallaglio and Tom Parker Bowles and as the Government launches a new anti-drugs crusade. "Cocaine is the drug of choice for the professional classes under 40. In the past year, I have seen it taken by a Conservative politician, several lobbyists, a Guards officer, two QCs, a solicitor, a senior stockbroker, a merchant banker and a score of media men and women, including PRs, publishers, writers, Fleet Street executives and television and film producers. . . . Britain's professionsl classes are awash with the drug. I have not been to an event where it has not been readily available. Cocaine is to the current generation, rightly or wrongly, what marijuana was to the previous generation: an apparently innocent recreational amusement.")
• ACM-Bulletin of 30 May 1999 (An English-language bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features news about the Canadian House of Commons supporting the legalization of pot for medical reasons; and the U.S. government making marijuana easier to get for research.)
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  Monday, May 31, 1999:

• Rush To Vengeance - Vivid Documentary Skillfully Weaves In Bigger Questions Of The Three Strikes Law (Chicago Tribune television critic Steve Johnson says Michael J. Moore's 75-minute documentary about California's "three strikes" law, "The Legacy: Murder & Media, Politics & Prison," opening the season for "P.O.V." Tuesday night, is a vivid portrait of how populist politics, the press's and public's disregard for details and an emotion-stirring crime can turn a seemingly simple idea into monumentally short-sighted policy.)
• Opinion On Campus (Excerpts from an article in the National Review's "Special Education Supplement" document the opinions of the Class of '98 about whether marijuana and other currently illegal substances should be "legalized." Seniors at seven of the 12 colleges surveyed came much closer to approving legal marijuana than they did as freshmen, ranging from 42 percent to 48 percent. But prohibitionists always outnumbered those favoring reform, though at some schools, prohibition mustered only a plurality of support. At all twelve schools, majorities ranging from 72 percent to 94 percent opposed "legalizing" all drugs, a response indistinguishable from 1995.)
• Putting Alcohol in Ads on Drugs Is Resisted (The New York Times recaps how the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, is battling a bill introduced in Congress at his own suggestion by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., that would allow the inclusion of anti-drinking messages in the government's $1 billion anti-drug campaign. "To say that MADD is a little upset over Gen. McCaffrey and the direction he has chosen to take would probably be an understatement," said Karolyn Nunnallee, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and other medical, church and community groups also support the bill. Opposition in the House is forming around Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky., who says, ". . . drugs are unique and we shouldn't confuse the messages and diminish them. . . . The message about drugs is don't ever do it, not at any age and type. That is not the message about alcohol, just like it's not the message of sex.")
• Ill will (U.S. News & World Report says the U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee wants to slash four of the seven jobs in the drug czar's legislative affairs office because it is often slow to respond to Congress - an unforgivable political sin. Bob Weiner, the drug czar's spokesman, says "It's a pissing match between staffs . . . it ain't going to go anywhere.")
• Chelmsford Man Praises The Healing Herb (The Sudbury Star, in Ontario, says medical-marijuana patient Barry Burkholder is in constant pain and suffers from chronic arthritis, clinical depression and hepatitis C. Both he and some medical experts say marijuana relieves the symptoms of his various physical and emotional afflictions. For example, Dr. Beverly Potter's book, "The Healing Magic of Cannabis," makes grandiose claims for the healing herb. Potter says pot has a soothing, even a restorative effect on arthritis, back pain, asthma, depression, epilepsy, glaucoma, insomnia, menstrual cramps, migraine headaches and multiple sclerosis. Even so, Burkholder was arrested last September and charged with possessing cannabis oil for the purpose of trafficking.)
• Drug Trials Win AMA Approval (The Age says delegates to the Australian Medical Association's national conference in Canberra yesterday passed a motion put forward by Victorian doctors endorsing the use of heroin-maitenance trials to manage, and ultimately treat, addiction to the drug. The AMA's stance increases pressure on the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to end his opposition to alternative therapies for heroin addicts.)
• Prescribed Heroin Will Save Lives, Say Doctors (The version in the Australian)
• Britain In Grip Of Drugs Culture (The Toronto Star says Britain is in a drugs frenzy, with an epidemic of tabloid stories about high-flying celebrities and low-life "addicts" laying bare the extent of the craze. The Office for National Statistics estimates Britons spends up to $16 billion a year on illegal drugs, with some 300 million drug deals believed to take place in London alone. "What we are finding is the normalization of drug-taking," said drugs tsar Keith Hellawell. Last week the government unveiled tough new targets to crack down on drug abuse.)
• Swiss Hemp Grower Sent To Jail (The Associated Press notes briefly a court in Martigny, Switzerland, on Monday sentenced Bernard Rappaz to 16 months in prison for producing 8.5 tons of dried cannabis and selling it stuffed in cushions, which were advertised as having therapeutic qualities. The guilty verdict derived from a federal "narcotics" law. A list subscriber forwards more details from a Swiss hempster, including confirmation that appeals are available, and even likely to prevail.)
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  Tuesday, June 1, 1999:

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

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

  Thursday, June 3, 1999:

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

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