Portland NORML 1998 News Index, October 1-7

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1998 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
October 1-7

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Thursday, October 1, 1998

The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Pair of Lawsuits Challenge New Louisiana Drug Testing Requirements; Man Held In Oklahoma Jail For Possessing Legal Weed Still Faces Court Battle; Senate Mulls Whether To Prohibit Possession Of Large Amounts Of Cash By Travelers; New Roadside Test Can Detect Drug Impairment, Police Claim; Federal Officials Say No To Montana Hemp Beer Maker)
Scientists Closer To Knowing How Marijuana Kills Pain ('The Associated Press' Interviews A Cancer Patient In Baker City, Oregon, Who Confirms Recent Research Reported By Ian Meng And Associates At The University Of California At San Francisco, Demonstrating The Analgesic Qualities Of Cannabinoids)
Tougher Pot Penalty - No - Measure 57 Invites Selective Enforcement (A Staff Editorial In The Eugene, Oregon, 'Register-Guard' Opposes The Initiative That Would Recriminalize Less Than One Ounce Of Marijuana, Saying If Tough Laws And Tough Rhetoric Were The Answer To America's Drug Problem, The Problem Would Have Been Solved Long Ago)
Arrested Activist Asks For Computers ('The Statesman Journal' In Salem, Oregon, Notes Bill Conde Of Harrisburg And His Lawyer Are Trying To Get Back Computers That Police Took During A 50-Cop Raid Two Weeks Ago Which Allegedly Netted Just Over One Ounce Of Marijuana, A Raid Precipitated By Conde's Sponsorship Of The 'Cannabis Carnival' And Similar Events)
Medical Marijuana Rally October 5 In Seattle (A List Subscriber Publicizes The 'Marijuana Is Medicine' Rally 6 PM Monday At Harborview Hospital - Speakers Who Will Lobby For Initiative 692 Include Washington State Senator Jeanne Kohl And Tim Killian, Campaign Manager For The Medical Marijuana Ballot Measure)
Prescription Potheads ('Mademoiselle' Magazine Gives A Sympathetic Look At Medical Marijuana And The Plight Of Some Of The Patients At The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative In California)
Pot Shot ('The Richmond Times-Dispatch' Version Of Last Week's News About Ian Meng And Colleagues At The University Of California At San Francisco Demonstrating The Analgesic Efficacy Of Cannabis)
Judging Marijuana Policy (A Letter To The Editor Of 'The Orange County Register' Responds To Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust's Assertion That Medicine Should Be Based On Science, Not Ideology, Saying Science Should Also Be Based On Facts, Not Some Pharmaceutical Company's Bottom Line)
New Chavez Case Delay (A Staff Editorial In 'The Orange County Register' Says The Case Against Marvin Chavez Has Been Delayed Again, This Time Until October 19 - James Silva, The Latest Lawyer For The Founder Of The Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group, Said He Had Not Received Hundreds Of Pages Of Documents From The Previous Attorneys Until A Few Days Before - One Of The First Issues To Be Raised Will Be A Defense Request For Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel To Revisit His Ruling That Proposition 215 Could Not Be Used As Part Of The Defense)
150 Inmates Riot At Corcoran Prison's Substance Abuse Facility ('The Fresno Bee' Says About 300 To 400 Inmates Were In The Exercise Yard When Something Or Someone Triggered About Half The Crowd Into Fist Fights Wednesday Morning)
Prison Guards - The Union Throws Its Weight To The Democrat, Sending Lungren Scrambling (A 'San Jose Mercury News' Analysis Of Wednesday's News That The California Prison Guards' Union Has Decided To Endorse Gray Davis For Governor Rather Than Attorney General Dan Lungren, Nemesis Of Proposition 215)
Kubby Makes His Case (A staff editorial in The Orange County Register illuminates the political views of Steve Kubby, a medical marijuana patient/activist and the Libertarian Party candidate for governor of California.)
Pot Found In Dead Activist's Blood (The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, says preliminary drug tests show Earth First! activist David Chain had smoked marijuana sometime before he was killed by a falling tree while protesting logging operations by Pacific Lumber Company. Steven Schectman, an attorney representing Chain's family, said "It's just another attempt to smear environmental activists.")
TSU Officer Charged In Theft, Sale Of Drug ('The Houston Chronicle' Says Russell Lovell Simpson, A Texas Southern University Police Officer, Was Charged Friday With Stealing Two Kilos Of Cocaine From An Undercover Officer, Then Selling It To Another Undercover Officer)
Pouring Billions Into Bottomless Dungeons (An excellent op-ed in the Shepherd Express ponders the soaring cost of prisons in Wisconsin - and other states - in the face of declining crime rates. If citizens are so willing to pay any price for more prisons, why are politicians so reluctant to say right out loud how absurdly expensive the price will be?)
10-Year-Old Boy Accused Of Having Marijuana At Waukesha School ('The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' Notes Cannabis Prohibition Continues To Exacerbate The Problem It Was Supposed To Resolve - Officials Said The Boy Also Had More Than $100 And Is The First Student Caught With Drugs At A Waukesha Public Elementary School)
Reflections On The Prison Industrial Complex (An op-ed in Connecticut's Fairfield County Weekly by Angela Davis, a former political prisoner, longtime activist, educator and author, elaborates on a recent piece of hers in The San Jose Mercury News about the social costs of the war on some drug users. "Prisons do not make problems disappear, they make human beings disappear.")
Thou Shalt Not (The October issue of The Washingtonian features an intellectual portrait of Joe Califano, a former heavyweight Washington lawyer and adviser to two presidents, now reborn as the scourge of illegal drugs - and of anyone who dares to disagree with him. Califano's drug-research center, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, started five years ago at Columbia University, has become the loudest voice in drug policy debate.)
Addiction Is a Brain Disease - and It Matters (An article in The National Institute of Justice Journal by Alan Leshner, the director of NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, selectively emphasizes the fundamental elements of addiction to argue that there is no distinction between "soft" and "hard" drugs.)
Just Say Maybe (A letter to the editor of Discover expresses disappointment that a review of the biography, "Man of Numbers," felt it necessary to sugarcoat mathematician Paul Erdos's lifelong use of amphetamines, prescribed to him as an antidepressant.)
Group Stops Needle Exchange After Leader Is Rearrested (The Bergen Record says the only AIDS organization openly distributing clean needles to drug users in New Jersey has decided to stop the practice after its director, Diana McCague, was arrested Tuesday for the second time.)
Hemp Out Of Fashion At Spring Valley High School (The State, a newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, says school administrators at Spring Valley High School have banned necklaces made out of hemp this fall, saying "sources" tie it to the marijuana drug culture.)
DARE And Programs Like It Don't Work - So Why Are They Still Around? (A Letter To The Editor Of 'Playboy' Recounts The Failures Of The Government's Favorite Drug-Education Boondoggle, And Why It Doesn't Work)
Drug-Free Schools - Federal Failures Prove Case For Oversight (A staff editorial in The Sacramento Bee discusses the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, which has cost $6 billion during the last decade. The US Department of Education only last July began requiring school districts to spend federal anti-drug money on programs backed by research. A task force of 18 national experts is now working to define for the Department of Education just what "research-based" and "effective" mean when it comes to anti-drug and anti-violence programs.)
US Probes Agents Named By Mexican Drug Suspect (According To 'Reuters,' The US Justice Department Said Thursday It Had Begun An Investigation Into Why The Names And Telephone Numbers Of Three Of Its Agents - From The FBI, The Drug Enforcement Administration, And The Customs Service - Plus A Number Of Mexican Federal Law Enforcement Officers, Including Members Of An Elite Anti-Drug Unit, Were Listed In The Notebook Of A Suspected Mexican Drug Trafficker)
Iran Says Drug Traffickers Face Death Sentence (Reuters says Iran, faced with widespread smuggling and abuse of drugs, reiterated on Wednesday it would execute traffickers under tough new laws that took effect recently. Iran has executed thousands of drug dealers and traffickers since the 1979 revolution, especially since 1989, yet the country of 60 million has an estimated 1.2 million addicts, according to official figures, and it said last year that about 58 percent of its 138,000 prisoners were convicted of drug charges.)
Bytes: 170,000 Last updated: 12/23/98

Friday, October 2, 1998:
Police Chiefs Propose Stricter Penalties For Marijuana Possession ('The Bulletin' In Bend, Oregon, Quotes Rob Elkins, Molalla Police Chief And Spokesman For Oregonians Against Dangerous Drugs, The Political Action Committee Supporting Measure 57, Saying The Initiative To Recriminalize Less Than One Ounce Of Marijuana Is Intended To Send A 'Message To Children That Marijuana Is Harmful' And To Create Ways To Get An Estimated 150,000 Oregonians 'The Prevention And Intervention They Need' - Supposedly For Only $300,000 A Year)
A Simple Interim Measure (A Letter To The Editor Of 'The Bulletin' In Bend, Oregon, Responds To The Newspaper's Opposition To Measure 67, The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act - In View Of The Federal Intransigence On The Issue, The 'Grow Your Own' Concept Is Not 'A Ludicrous Solution,' But A Direct And Simple Interim Measure Until The Federal Government Comes To Its Senses)
Correction - Roger Burt, a principal (The Oregonian prints a correction admitting the "psychologist" who spread "Reefer Madness" myths last Friday in an Associated Press article about the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act was no psychologist at all.)
Marijuana May Point Way To Pain Killer (A Brief Account In The Bend, Oregon, 'Bulletin' Of Recent News About Ian Meng And Associates At The University Of California At San Francisco Demonstrating The Analgesic Efficacy Of Cannabinoids)
Smith, Wyden Seek Funds To Fight Growing Drug Traffic In Oregon ('The Associated Press' Says Oregon's Two US Senators, Republican Gordon Smith And Democrat Ron Wyden, Have Asked The Clinton Administration To Designate Oregon As A 'High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,' A Special Category That Would Make The State Eligible For $3 Million To $5 Million In Federal Funds To Beef Up Enforcement - But No Mention Is Made That The Cost To Local Taxpayers Of Prosecuting And Incarcerating Such Offenders Would Likely Exceed The Federal Donation)
State Seeks Aid To Fight Drugs (The Version In 'The Register-Guard' In Eugene, Oregon)
Students Walk Out To Protest Jail Spending ('The Orange County Register' Says Thousands Of High School Students In The Bay Area Community Of San Leandro Left Their Classrooms And Took To The Streets Thursday, Responding To News That Under Governor Pete Wilson's Administration, California's Budget For Higher Education Has Shrunk By 3 Percent While Corrections Spending Has Jumped 60 Percent)
Leftists Set To Battle The Lock-'Em-Up Mentality (San Francisco Examiner columnist William Wong says the international conference on the growth of the prison industrial complex last weekend at the University of California at Berkeley was a throwback to the radical 1960s. But restoring some balance to the law-and-order discourse, as the critical resistance meeting tried to do, is a step whose time has come.)
Group Revives Anti-Pot Effort ('The Rocky Mountain News' Says Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan Will Lead The Opposition To The Medical Marijuana Initiative Sponsored By Coloradans For Medical Rights)
Five Indicted In Death At Arizona Youth Ranch ('The Los Angeles Times' Says An Arizona Grand Jury Thursday Indicted Five Former Employees Of Arizona Boys Ranch For Manslaughter And Child Abuse, Charging That The Four Camp Workers And A Staff Nurse Were Responsible For The March 2 Death Of Nicholaus Contreraz, A 16-Year-Old Offender From Sacramento, California, At The Paramilitary-Style Boot Camp)
Lavender, Rosemary, But No Time; Case Dismissed Against Vermont Man ('The Associated Press' Says A Judge In Vinita, Oklahoma, Ruled Friday That The State Had Failed To Prove George Singleton, A Vermont Herbalist, Was Driving Under The Influence Of Rosemary And Mullein And Tossed Out The Charge That Had Brought Cries Of Racism)
Case With Flawed Evidence Dismissed (The Los Angeles Times version)
Missing Drug Officer 'Went Bad,' Police Fear ('The Houston Chronicle' Says Houston Police Have Embarked On A Frantic Search For Rex Gates II, A Former Undercover Prohibition Agent Last Seen Buying Crack Cocaine)
Perry Gives Campaign Speech At City Anti-Drug Lunch - Organizers Say Event Was Not Meant To Be Political ('The Houston Chronicle' Says Republican Lieutenant Governor Nominee Rick Perry Delivered A Campaign Message At The Drug-Free Workplace Awards Luncheon In Houston Friday, Pledging Tough Sentences For Drug Dealers)
How About Just An Effective Drug Czar? ('Dallas Morning News' Columnist Richard Estrada Says General Barry McCaffrey's Latest Brainchild, The Creation Of A Border Drug Czar, Shows The Soldier's Soldier Is Well On His Way To Becoming A Bureaucrat's Bureaucrat)
Hemp Ordinance Passes At Pine Ridge (The Fall Bulletin From PLENTY, A Nongovernmental Relief And Development Organization, Describes Recent Developments In The Two-Year Campaign By The Oglala Sioux To Establish A Hemp Industry At The Pine Ridge Reservation In South Dakota)
Corrections Employee Charged With Drug Possession ('The Associated Press' Says Leon R. Martin, A 42-Year-Old Institutional Trade Instructor At The New Jersey State Prison, Is Charged With Possessing Cocaine He Allegedly Intended To Distribute Within The Prison's Walls)
Drug charge dismissed; judge rules search illegal (The Roanoke Times in Virginia says a Roanoke judge dismissed a cocaine charge against a man after the police officer in the case ingenuously admitted the man was stopped and searched because he was a "suspicious white male" walking in a mostly black neighborhood late at night.)
Draconian Bill Sneaks Past The House (An Op-Ed In 'The Chicago Tribune' Says That Without Debate, While The Nation Was Distracted By The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair, House Republicans Last Week Smuggled Through The Most Controversial And Punitive Juvenile-Crime Bill Of The Last 25 Years, A Bill Which Could Have Grave Consequences)
Congress Delays Border Law Vote (An 'Associated Press' Article In 'The Houston Chronicle' Says Congress Voted Thursday To Delay A Law That Legislators From States Bordering Canada Feared Could Create A Traffic Nightmare By Requiring New, Stricter Checks At Border Crossings)
Second-Hand Smoke May Harm Fetus ('The Toronto Star' Says A Study Reported In The October Issue Of The Journal 'Nature Medicine' By Dr. Barry Finette, Dr. Richard Albertini And Colleagues At The University Of Vermont In Burlington, Suggests Babies Born To Mothers Exposed To Second-Hand Tobacco Smoke Showed Higher Rates Of The Same Kind Of Genetic Mutation Often Found In Children Afflicted With Leukemia Or Lymphoma)
Prohibition Particulars, 1920-1933 (The Santa Maria Times in California lists a few interesting statistics documenting America's ignoble experiment.)
Hemp BC Raided September 30 (A News Bulletin From 'Cannabis Culture' Magazine About The Third Assault By Cops In Nine Months Gives A Vivid Account Of Police Brutality And Political Oppression In Vancouver, British Columbia)
Ruling Saves Cartel From US Trials ('The San Francisco Chronicle' Says Colombia's Highest Court Ruled Yesterday That A Law Reinstating Extradition Cannot Be Applied Retroactively, Saving The Cali Drug Cartel's Jailed Leaders From Trials In The United States)
Drugs Laws To Copy US And Ireland (The Times, in Britain, says the British drugs trade is estimated at £9.9 billion annually, but only £5 million were seized under the Drug Trafficking Offences Act last year, so Jack Straw is somehow implementing asset forfeiture laws that will place the burden of proof on alleged sellers of illegal drugs.)
The Week Online With DRCNet, Issue Number 61 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's Original Summary Of Drug Policy News And Calls For Action, Including - DRCNet Passes 7,000 Mark, Eyegive Revenues Soaring; New Jersey Needle Exchange Busted Again; DRCNet Hits The Airwaves With Syndicated Weekly Program; McCaffrey Seeks Expansion Of Methadone Treatment; Senate Mulls Whether To Prohibit Possession Of Large Amounts Of Cash By Travelers; Police Corruption In UK At 'Third World Levels'; Hemp BC And Cannabis Cafe Raided Again, City Council Hearing Postponed; California Supreme Court Rules On Parolee Searches; Imprisonment For Legal Cooking Herbs In Oklahoma; Report From Oregon; And An Editorial By Adam J. Smith, General McCaffrey Stands Up For Methadone Maintenance - What Does He Want, A Medal?)
Bytes: 127,000 Last updated: 10/19/98

Saturday, October 3, 1998:
Voters To Decide Question Of Medical Marijuana Use (An Article In The Bend, Oregon, 'Bulletin' About Measure 67, The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, Says A Few Local Doctors Who Have Treated Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Or HIV Or Those Undergoing Chemotherapy Say The Patients Who Used Marijuana Experienced Some Benefits)
Four Dogs Shot In Drug Raid ('The Associated Press' Says Portland Police Shot And Killed Four Rottweilers Friday During A Methamphetamine Raid That Revived Memories Of A 1979 Drug Bust In The Same Location, Then The Clubhouse Of The Outsiders Motorcycle Club, In Which Officer David Crowther Was Fatally Shot - Arrests In That Raid Later Were Dismissed After An Investigation Found Officers Lied To Obtain Their Search Warrant)
Portland Drug Raid Brings One Arrest (The Oregonian version)
Report Suggests Tax On Liquor, Fast Food ('The Associated Press' Says A 36-Page Report, 'Searching For Fairness,' Presented Friday To The Oregon Health Council, The Group That Makes Recommendations Regarding The Oregon Health Plan, Which Insures 350,000 Low-Income Residents, Says Most Oregonians Believe Health Care Should Be Available To All, But An Unspecified Percentage Believes Those Who Smoke, Drink, Or Eat Fast Food Should Pay More)
Medical association rejects marijuana initiative (The Associated Press says the Washington State Medical Association took a voice vote at its annual conference Saturday, resulting in a resounding "no" for Initiative 692, which would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for people who are dying or suffering a debilitating illness. How the doctors might have voted privately is anyone's guess.)
Doctors And Marijuana (Three Letters To The Editor of 'The Los Angeles Times' Discuss The Medical Marijuana Issue - The First Letter Cites A Survey From 1971, When Marijuana Use Was Still A Felony And Before Many People Knew About Its Medical Uses, Suggesting 72 Percent Of Students At A Southern California Medical School Had Tried Marijuana At Least Once, 18 Percent Had Smoked It At Least Once Weekly, And More Than 40 Percent Used It At Least Once Monthly)
Bay Area Students Cut Class, Protest Spending On Prisons (The San Jose Mercury News notes about 2,000 students from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area cut classes Thursday to protest the $60,000 per year California spends to incarcerate each prisoner versus the $8,000 it spends on each student, and the 19 prisons built by California in the past decade, versus only one university.)
Thousands Turn Out For Annual Marijuana Rally; More Than 40 Arrested (An 'Associated Press' Account Of The The Ninth Annual Freedom Rally On Boston Common Saturday - The Rally Supporting Legalization Of The Herb Saw Attendance Increase From 10,000 To 40,000 And Arrests Drop From 150 Last Year, Despite Police Vows Of A Crackdown)
Marijuana Supporters Sue Orlando To Use Park ('The Orlando Sentinel' Says The Cannabis Action Network In Gainesville, Florida, Has Sued The City Of Orlando In Federal Court, Contending Its Right To Free Speech Is Being Denied Because The City Wants To Charge The Group About $1,500 To Stage A Rally With Live Music At The Lake Eola Park Amphitheater October 11)
Pentagon To Spend $50 Million To Supply Troops - With Viagra (The Chicago Tribune says if Pfizer's new impotence drug were given to everyone who wanted it, the cost could top $100 million, but the military is dispensing it only to men diagnosed with erectile dysfunction by a physician, and no one is allowed more than six pills a month.)
Destroying Propaganda - Anslingerisms (A list subscriber learns that a Texas newspaper editor, and presumably a lot of other people, are unaware of the origins of marijuana prohibition. So he compiles a brief history and numerous quotes from Harry Anslinger, the rabidly ignorant liar and chief of the Federal Narcotics Bureau who was most responsible for the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and the Single Convention Treaty of 1961.)
BC Stinkweed Smoking Sparks Health Warning (The Calgary Herald tries to launch a nationwide drug menace with an article about one teenage boy taken to a British Columbian hospital after ingesting jimson weed.)
Alleged Trafficker Dies Of Wounds In Ensenada Attack (The Orange County Register says Fermin Castro Ramirez died as a result of complications from bullet wounds he received during the massacre last month of 18 members of his extended family.)
More Face Random Drug Tests At Work (The Guardian suggests urine testing of workers is about to become as common in Britain as it is in the United States. Unfortunately, the newspaper avoids discussing the junk science behind such claims that workers' use of cannabis or other illegal drugs harms productivity in Britain to the tune of £3 billion, endangers others, or that urine testing even achieves its goal of reducing illegal drug use.)
Eton Expels Boy Who Took Cannabis (The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, says the unnamed youth, in the same lower sixth year as Prince William, was caught by a housemaster at Common Lane House. John Lewis, the headmaster from New Zealand, has maintained a strict approach towards illegal drugs since he took over in 1994.)
Bytes: 67,500 Last updated: 10/11/98

Sunday, October 4, 1998:
Medical Use Of Marijuana Ignites Debate (The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, says Dr. Rick Bayer is campaigning for Ballot Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, because he has seen how marijuana can benefit chemotherapy patients, chronic pain victims, and people suffering from muscle spasms and other afflictions. But Mike Cahill, president of Oregon Police Chiefs for Safer Communities, says "You can pretty much bet that it will basically eliminate the ability to enforce laws against the illegal use, delivery and cultivation of marijuana," ignoring the experience in California. A critique by Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk similarly claims "These exceptions cancel out the rules and limits, thereby making enforcement of any marijuana laws not only impractical but virtually impossible.")
Initiative Would Raise Marijuana Penalties (The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, presents the pros and cons of Measure 57, the initiative that would recriminalize less than one ounce of marijuana. The newspaper claims the Republican-controlled legislature's 1997 attempt to repeal the 1972 decriminalization law without a popular vote was inspired by increased marijuana use by kids, even though the latest survey shows a decrease in kids' use, and current rates are half those of 1979.)
How Does Marijuana Kill Pain? (The Associated Press talks to a cancer patient in Oregon who does understand, and several government marijuana scientists who don't understand the significance of recent news about Ian Meng and associates at the University of California at San Francisco showing how cannabinoids work to kill pain.)
Medical Marijuana Will Lead To Doped Up Docs (The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon, reprints an opinion piece from The Los Angeles Times - ably rebutted in yesterday's Times - that claims physicians who like to smoke recreational marijuana themselves are the ones supporting marijuana use by patients.)
Supporters of pot initiative will stop citing Governor Kitzhaber (The Oregonian notes a brochure that has previously been distributed by Oregonians for Medical Rights, proponents of Ballot Measure 67, lists Kitzhaber as one of the "supporters of the medical use of marijuana," which is true - he just doesn't support Measure 67. Geoff Sugerman, spokesman for OMR, said information for the pamphlet was compiled before Kitzhaber took a public stand against the ballot measure. "We are not distributing the brochure any more," Sugerman said. Considering how Kitzhaber has flip-flopped on Measure 57, is anyone really paying attention?)
Depression takes its toll among the young, too (An Oregonian article about the estimated 3 million to 6 million American children and teen-agers stricken by clinical depression centers on the case of one 12-year-old patient whose illness was precipitated by her father's death when he "overdosed on drugs." Now she's better, thanks to a pharmaceutical antidepressant, though the newspaper doesn't mention such drugs may eventually poison her and leave her a drooling, brain-damaged idiot with impaired liver function.)
Doctors won't back marijuana as medicine (The Seattle Times version of yesterday's news about the Washington State Medical Association's voice vote Saturday opposing Initiative 692.)
California Cooperative Gives, Sells Marijuana To Suffering (A feature article in The Las Vegas Review-Journal looks at the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, the largest of four remaining medical marijuana dispensaries in California, while discussing the Nevada ballot initiative that would allow some use of cannabis by authorized patients.)
Cocaine Theft From Police Raises Security Concerns (The Orange County Register says in July 1997, someone broke into the Riverside office of the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and stole $3.2 million worth of cocaine. It was believed to be the largest heist of illegal drugs in police custody in state history. One gathers the theft was carried out by an insider, particularly someone on the force, who knew where the cocaine was and how to get around lax security measures.)
Trouble Seizes State Drug Bureau (The Orange County Register says after seven years of California Attorney General Dan Lungren, the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement has been hit by costly sexual harassment lawsuits, reduced its hiring standards, and faced accusations of mismanagement, contributing to low moral and unfilled positions at the agency. Lungren attributes the problems to "some bad apples.")
Jail Stays Grow With The Backlog (The San Jose Mercury News says the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice is almost empty on Fridays as judges run errands or play golf, while the courts are burdened with one of the biggest backlogs of felony cases awaiting trial in the county's history. A recent audit found Santa Clara County to have the least efficient criminal trial system of the 17 largest counties in California. Inmates are languishing longer than ever waiting for trial in the overcrowded county jail, at taxpayers' expense.)
Take Back the Constitution - the Fourth Amendment (Some unsolicited but welcome spam advertises a bumper sticker that reads, "I do not consent to a search of my vehicle, my person or my residence. So, don't ask. This individual is protected by the 4th Amendment.")
Marijuana Issue In Air (The Las Vegas Review-Journal says a new poll on the Nevada medical marijuana ballot measure, commissioned for the Review-Journal and KTNV-TV, found 47 percent of the respondents supported Question 9, while 44 percent opposed the proposition.)
House Resolution Defies Evidence On Marijuana (A letter to the editor of The State Journal Register in Illinois says that members of the US House of Representatives who voted for House Joint Resolution 117, opposing medical marijuana, ignored the government's own evidence that cannabis is a valuable medicine. The resolution was a lie that is causing needless suffering and even death, and politicians who voted for it should be held accountable.)
Marijuana Rally Draws 45,000 For Legalization (A Boston Globe account of the the ninth annual Freedom Rally, or Hempday, at Boston Common, organized by MassCann, notes those attending included John Sinclair, a longtime political activist sentenced in 1969 to 10 years in prison for two marijuana cigarettes. Later he founded the first organization dedicated to ending punitive marijuana policies.)
Pot Rally Had Hardly A Whiff Of The '60s (The Boston Herald version focuses on the participation of Elvy Musikka, one of eight medical marijuana patients who still receive medical marijuana from the US government under the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program discontinued by the Bush Administration in 1992.)
Despite Warnings, Some Still Inhaled (A different Boston Herald account portrays Saturday's rally at Boston Common in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, sponsored by MassCann.)
Clear thinking on the drug warrior front (Today's chuckle from a list subscriber)
Amnesty puts US in the dock over human rights record (The Daily Telegraph in London says Amnesty International will release a 153-page report Tuesday that for the first time will make the United States the focus of its worldwide campaign, accusing it of double standards and creating a climate "in which human rights violations thrive." Federal and state authorities, police, immigration and prison officers are all criticised in the wide-ranging report that paints a picture of generalised gratuitous violence, sexual abuse and cruelty.)
Hemp Gaining Respectability (The Toronto Star says Canada's first industrial crop of cannabis sativa in 60 years has farmers abuzz. Focusing on Hempology, a new company dedicated to marketing hemp products, the article says hemp has the potential to become as important in the next century as plastics have been in this one.)
Do These Three Simple Letters Go Too Far? (A lengthy account in The Toronto Star about CTO, or community treatment orders, a set of laws proposed in Ontario - and already established in Saskatchewan - that would require people diagnosed with "serious" mental disorders to take psychiatric medications, no matter how toxic to them.)
The Drug War Corrupts Absolutely (An op-ed in The Los Angeles Times by Eva Bertram and Kenneth Sharpe, coauthors of "Drug War Politics - the Price of Denial," says the deeply corrupting influence of the war on some drugs on Mexico's political institutions and, ultimately, on US-Mexican interests, is glossed over, if mentioned at all in official statements.)
Three more detectives are suspended (The Daily Telegraph in Britain says three more Merseyside detectives were suspended this week after early morning raids on their homes by special anti-corruption squads. The latest suspensions follow the recent arrests of two other officers and last week's Telegraph revelations that corruption within Merseyside police is so deep-rooted that in 1995, phone records showed drug dealers and criminals ringing numbers inside the drugs and fraud squads.)
Bytes: 181,000 Last updated: 11/12/98

Monday, October 5, 1998:
Governor Kitzhaber's position on medical use of marijuana (A letter sent to the editor of The Oregonian notes Oregon's governor, a physician, thinks that patients should be arrested for using marijuana as medicine on their doctors' advice. Shame on him.)
Re - Medical Marijuana Will Lead to Doped-Up Docs (A physician rebuts a letter to the editor that appeared in the Bend, Oregon, Bulletin, and The Los Angeles Times, in which a medical student mischaracterized physicians' motives for recommending marijuana to patients.)
County Jails Getting Crowded (The Wisconsin State Journal says state statistics show county jails are housing nearly 11,500 inmates, compared to about 2,000 in 1978 and 6,000 in 1988.)
51 arrested during drug sweep (Life imitates art in a Tampa Bay Online article about police in Pompano Beach, Florida, carrying out a drug sweep prompted by the discovery of young children pretending to be drug dealers.)
Battling Demon Rum (An interesting review in The Wall Street Journal of the new book by Ivan R. Dee suggests the history of alcohol prohibition in America provides some contemporary lessons.)
US High Court Opens New Term, Allows Drug Tests (Reuters says The US Supreme Court opened its new term Monday with a decision allowing a public high school in Rushville, Indiana, to require drug tests for all students involved in extracurricular activities.)
Court Upholds Random Drug Tests (The Associated Press version says the Supreme Court left intact a federal appeals court ruling and therefore sets no national precedent. But it left in place a ruling that remains binding law in three states - Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Unlike a 1995 case, Acton v. Vernonia School District, allowing an Oregon high school to test student athletes, the rural Indiana school provided little evidence of drug use among its students.)
Action Alert - House, Senate Voting on "Drug War" Legislation (The Drug Policy Foundation in New York urges you to contact your Congressional representatives about proposed laws that would expand the federal government's search and seizure powers. Please ask House members to vote against H.R. 4005, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject S. 2024 and S. 2011.)
Amnesty Finds 'Widespread Pattern' Of US Rights Violations (The New York Times version of yesterday's news about Amnesty International for the first time making the United States' criminal injustice system the focus of its human rights campaign.)
US Abuses Human Rights, Amnesty International Says (The Seattle Times version)
Belize's Quiet Despair (The San Francisco Chronicle says the tiny coastal nation is plagued by crack cocaine addicts known as "sprungheads" because of their notoriously volatile personalities. Many Belizeans say a well-intentioned US drug eradication program is partially to blame for the explosion of local cocaine use. In the late 1980s, the US Drug Enforcement Agency brought in aircraft to spray herbicide on the Belize marijuana crop. The program was so effective that the local ganja supply dried up almost overnight. "After the spraying, people were looking for another drug," said Francis Vaizar, head of the government's National Drug Abuse Control Council. "They switched to cocaine.")
Drug tackles shyness (An Agence France-Presse article in The South China Morning Post says Seroxat, an anti-depressant marketed by SmithKline Beecham that increases the level of serotonin in the brain, will go on the British market this week.)
Bar Warns Straw That His Reforms Could Break Law (The Times says the British Bar set itself on a collision course with the Home Secretary over the weekend with a warning that Jack Straw's criminal justice plans, such as confiscation of property without a criminal trial, could run foul of the Government's own human rights law.)
Bytes: 72,200 Last updated: 11/12/98

Tuesday, October 6, 1998:
Measure 67 Has Merit (A letter to the editor of The Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, responds to the newspaper's staff editorial opposing the state medical marijuana initiative.)
Pilot program enlists police to help probation officers (The Associated Press says Marion County is taking part in a pilot project spearheaded by the Oregon corrections department that encourages other county agencies to get involved in keeping an eye on offenders - Police in Keizer and Salem will stop by the homes of offenders who live in the 97303 area code, which encompasses all of Keizer and parts of north Salem. High-risk offenders on probation for charges ranging from drug use to manslaughter will be asked to sign up for the program, but sex offenders won't be allowed to participate. Like, who's going to volunteer for something like that?)
Man arrested in raid says authorities are harassing him (The Oregonian says Larry Anderson, the owner of an infamous north Portland house and motorcycle shop, was out on bail Monday after being busted last week for possession of methamphetamine and explosives, and claimed officials were trying to take his eight-room boarding home in order to build a health clinic on it.)
Oakland, Fairfax Cannabis Groups Face US Attorneys (According to The San Francisco Examiner, US District Judge Charles Breyer said Monday in San Francisco that he would take under advisement the question of whether to authorize federal marshals to close the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, or allow a jury trial to determine if the clubs operated lawfully because their members' medical needs supersede federal drug restrictions.)
Re - Judge Breyer ruling Monday on Oakland CBC (A list subscriber notes Judge Breyer said Monday he would issue a written ruling within seven to 10 days regarding the California medical marijuana dispensaries.)
City Ponders Medical Marijuana Zones - Panel To Consider Where Patients Can Smoke Pot (The Sacramento Bee says A Sacramento City Council committee will debate today a proposal for a new municipal law that would ban medicinal marijuana smokers from puffing within 100 feet of any person or building, such as a restaurant or office.)
SF Settles With Family Of Man Killed By Police (The San Francisco Examiner says the city has agreed to pay $110,000 to settle a $10 million lawsuit filed by the family of William Hankston, an unarmed man shot in the back of the head in September 1995 by Jessie Washington, an undercover prohibition agent.)
The Drug Crisis (A letter to the editor of The Los Angeles Times seems to suggest the American mass media don't name major illegal drug traffickers - unlike the Mexican media - because they've been bought off.)
Ballot Funding Outlined - Proposition 2 Foes Lead The Fund-Raising (The Anchorage Daily News says Alaskans for Medical Rights, the group supporting Proposition 8, the Alaskan medical marijuana initiative, received $126,000 of its $134,000 war chest from George Soros. The campaign against Proposition 8, organized just last week, reported only one $750 in-kind contribution from Worksafe Inc., the drug-testing lab. The Soros money is dwarfed by the $500,000 spent by the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City on behalf of Proposition 2, a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.)
Blow Dealt To Pot Initiative (The Denver Post says the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that the medical marijuana intiative sponsored by Coloradans for Medical Rights should not have been placed on the Nov. 3 ballot, reversing last month's ruling by Denver District Judge Herbert Stern. The matter will be decided by Oct. 15, the date the high court has set for Secretary of State Vikki Buckley to have the ballot signatures recounted.)
Accounting Of Pot Petitions Ordered (The Rocky Mountain News version)
DEA's Largest Field Office Is In Business (The San Antonio Express-News says The Drug Enforcement Administration showed off its newest field office Tuesday in El Paso, Texas. Robert Castillo will be in charge of a division of more than 150 agents and detectives.)
Methadone Is Just Another Drug (Four letters to the editor of The New York Times take opposing sides in the fight about methadone maintenance programs going on between the White House Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.)
Two Amish men plead guilty in conspiracy to sell cocaine (The Associated Press Says two Amish men have pleaded guilty to buying cocaine from a Philadelphia-area motorcycle gang called the Pagans, then selling the drug to Amish youth. Abner King Stoltzfus, 23, and Abner Stoltzfus, 24 - unrelated - face five to 40 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines.)
Amish Men Face Jail For Plotting To Sell Cocaine (The Daily Telegraph version)
North Carolina Drug Tax Held Invalid (The Raleigh News and Observer says The US Supreme Court Monday let stand a federal appeals court ruling that nullified North Carolina's tax on illegal drugs, casting doubt on the constitutionality of similar laws in other states. However, a bill that would reinstate the tax has passed the North Carolina senate and is pending in the house finance committee.)
High Court Studies Privacy Rights In Drug Case (The San Francisco Examiner says the US Supreme Court heard arguments today in a Minnesota drug case involving the Fourth Amendment rights of people who temporarily visit someone else's home. The high court ruled in 1990 that an overnight guest in a private home has the same privacy rights as the homeowner, but the justices have not given such protection to someone who visits but does not stay overnight.)
Court Lets Indiana Schools' Drug Tests Stand (The Washington Post version of yesterday's news about the US Supreme Court leaving intact a federal appeals court ruling allowing a public high school in Rushville, Indiana, to require urine tests for all students involved in extracurricular activities.)
Court inaction may spur drug tests in public schools (The Miami Herald version)
Supreme Court upholds drug tests for students (The Associated Press version)
Court Backs Drug Testing Of Students (A slightly different Associated Press version in the Daily Herald in Illinois)
Supreme Court Lets Stand Wider Student Drug Tests (The Chicago Tribune version)
Top Court Allows Wider Testing for Drugs in Schools (The Los Angeles Times version in The San Jose Mercury News)
Say Good-Bye To The Fourth Amendment, Kids (A letter to the editor of The Standard-Times in New Bedford, Massachusetts, says concern over dogs sniffing through kids' school lockers is a dead issue. The Supreme Court previously nullified the Fourth Amendment for students when it allowed random drug testing of high school athletes.)
Amnesty International targets US penal system (The Reuters version of Sunday's news about the international human rights organization making the United States the focus of its next one-year campaign. Among other things, Amnesty International's 153-page report, "Rights for All," says prison overcrowding is largely the result of long sentences for drug offenders, and has brought a shift in emphasis from rehabilitation to punishment and incapacitation.)
Amnesty's report on US abuses spurs probe (An Associated Press and Chicago Tribune version in The Seattle Times)
Amnesty Report Alleges Widespread US Rights Abuses (The Associated Press version in the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Standard-Times.)
US In Dock For Prison Cruelty (The version in Britain's Guardian)
Lungren and Amnesty International (A list subscriber says California Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren, nemesis of Proposition 215, is directly responsible for Amnesty International's attack on US human rights abuses due to his failure to lift a finger to correct the prison abuses at Corcoran and other California prisons - and urges you to write letters to mass media around the state to bring it to voters' attention.)
Amnesty International Bites The Hand That Feeds It (Calgary Herald columnist Catherine Ford says the human rights group's targeting the United States jeopardizes US support against the true brutes of the world.)
New reports of children and women abused in correctional institutions - Findings from Amnesty International research trip (A news release issued by Amnesty International says a two-week research trip by Amnesty International in the United States shows that the abuse of women prisoners in particular, as highlighted in the report released today, is still continuing in many states. Specific details are provided on human rights abuses in Michigan, Illinois, California and Maine.)
Saving The Children (According to a Reuters article in The Winnipeg Free Press, an unspecified private children's rights group in Honduras said yesterday it is sending experts to Canada to help about 200 Honduran children allegedly being used to sell cocaine for drug gangs.)
Transcript - NewsHour Interview with Colombian President Andres Pastrana (Charles Krause of PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer interviews the former television journalist and mayor of Bogota who was a teenager when his father was president of Colombia.)
Bytes: 152,000 Last updated: 11/12/98

Wednesday, October 7, 1998:
Conflicting measures could change the way Oregonians look at marijuana (An Associated Press article in The Argus Observer, in rural eastern Oregon, examines the two very different marijuana-related initiatives on the Nov. 3 ballot, Measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of less than one ounce of cannabis, and Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.)
Voter Power Dinner for No on 57 and Yes on 67 (Make your reservations now for the $50-per-plate benefit 5-9 p.m. Sunday night, Oct. 11, at the DoubleTree Hotel at Lloyd Center in Portland.)
Study finds pain went up sharply among dying in late '97 (The Associated Press says a survey by researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University of relatives of patients dying in hospitals around Oregon showed a sharp increase in the level of pain suffered by their loved ones during the last two months of 1997. Some medical leaders speculate the increase is related to the threat of federal sanctions against doctors who help terminally ill patients die under the state's physician-assisted suicide law.)
Assisted suicide bill falters on Capitol Hill (The Associated Press says that with Congress trying to adjourn by the weekend, time may be running out on a bill to block Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.)
Measure to block assisted suicide appears sidelined (The Oregonian version)
Voters should OK medical use of marijuana (A staff editorial in The Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, endorses Initiative 692, the medical marijuana ballot measure.)
Marijuana Product May Aid In Traumas (The Boston Globe says a study being released today at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons conference in Seattle shows a synthetic cannabinoid called dexanabinol - already in use in Israel - could offer hope to hundreds of thousands of victims of severe head trauma, reducing the death rate and letting 50 percent more patients resume a normal life. The findings are drawing substantial interest, in part because head injuries are the leading cause of death among young people in the United States, and there are few if any treatments. If early results are substantiated, the new drug would be the most medically useful treatment derived from the cannabis plant.)
Pharmos Announces Successful Phase II Head Trauma Study; Marijuana Analog Benefits Brain Injured Patients (A Pharmos Corporation press release on PRNewswire says highlights of the trial use of dexanabinol, manufactured by Pharmos, resulted in a 26 percent reduction in mortality. No drug is currently approved to treat severe head trauma.)
Peter McWilliams Sues Dan Lungren (The AIDS and cancer patient, medical marijuana activist and best-selling author says he has filed a lawsuit today, requesting that a Superior Court order California Attorney General Lungren to uphold his oath of office and fulfill his duties under the California Constitution concerning Proposition 215 by defending McWilliams against the federal government.)
SLO Hemp Rally (California NORML invites you to attend the 11th annual hemp festival on Sunday, Oct. 18, on the courthouse lawn in the city of San Luis Obispo.)
Spitfire Tour at UC Berkeley (Get your tickets now! Medical marijuana patient/activist/defendant Todd McCormick and hemp activist Woody Harrelson are scheduled to speak on Sunday, Oct. 18, together with Exene Cervanka of the band, X, veejay Kennedy of MTV, and Michael Frante.)
Sacramento - Medical Pot Curb Backed (The Sacramento Bee says the Sacramento, California, city council's law and legislation committee Tuesday tentatively supported a ban on smoking pot within 100 feet of another person or public access building, and within 1,000 feet of a school, park or other open or recreational space.)
Saturday Night With The Camo Buddies (The Anderson Valley Advertiser, in Boonville, California, describes a Mendocino County controversy over a judge ordering the release of a prisoner on her own recognizance. What's interesting is the account of how the Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team busted and terrorized Helen Ochoa, an ailing 68-year-old Leggett woman.)
The Rules Of The Justice Game (An inspired but unknown author in The Anderson Valley Advertiser succinctly explains what everyone knows about the criminal injustice system as it has evolved through decades of the uncivil war on some drug users.)
Choctaw Women File Suit After Mistaken Drug Raid On Their Home (The Oklahoma Gazette says two traumatized women whose home was raided during "Operation Red Rain," spearheaded by the state Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, have filed a lawsuit. The raid was prompted when a prohibition agent in a helicopter spying on their back yard thought he saw marijuana growing. It turned out to be be a plant called vitex, which one of the victims bought nearly a decade ago from the state Forestry Commission.)
Two Accused In City Hall Drug Ring (The Associated Press says the FBI taped three telephone conversations that led to the arrest of the chief computer programmer and a payroll clerk for the city of Gary, Indiana, who ran a $1,000-a-day cocaine business.)
400 Applicants Caught Attempting to Cheat Drug Test, SmithKline Beecham Drug Testing Index Reveals (A press release from SmithKline Beecham on PRNewswire provides some comprehensive statistics on the results of urine tests in the United States workforce from 1988 through the first six months of 1998. Surprise - not a single false positive is recorded, nor anyone using alcohol. Workplace drug testing procedures now include the option of an analysis for the use of adulterants as well as "substances of abuse." If surveys that suggest illegal drug use is increasing are correct, such users must be getting smarter - among the more than 2.7 million tests performed in the first six months of 1998, the overall positivity rate was 4.9 percent, compared to 5 percent for all of 1997.)
Guilt By Aspiration (The Washington Post notes a 66-page pamphlet called "How Parents Can Help Children Live Marijuana Free" says the "Social Signs of Regular Users" include "Excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, environmental issues, etc.")
Monica Backs Perot on Clinton Drug Charge (NewsMax.com says Monica Lewinsky and Ross Perot think President Clinton's using illegal drugs in the White House. What's really in those allergy shots?)
Dateline NBC Oct. 12 on drug war (A forwarded message says Monday night's newscast will focus on the case of Chad MacDonald, a 17-year-old recruited as a drug informant by police in Brea, California, only to be tortured and killed when he was found out.)
Canadian hemp isn't going to pot (An update on Canada's new industrial hemp industry in USA Today says the DEA and the White House have found themselves increasingly isolated in their refusal to grant licenses for low-THC hemp. Farm bureaus in 17 states now support hemp, and since July, agricultural experts at three universities - North Dakota State University, Oregon State University and the University of Kentucky - have completed studies that concluded hemp can be a valuable niche crop.)
Pioneer harvests hemp idea into business (USA Today notes a new edition of Jack Herer's book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," was released Thursday. The publication of the first edition in 1985, after 11 years of research, argued that cannabis sativa is a wonder crop which could save the world, and sparked a movement that led to the rebirth of hemp.)
Amnesty report slams US prisons (The Toronto Star version of Sunday's news about Amnesty International focusing on human rights abuses in the United States during the next year.)
US Human Rights Abuse 'Widespead' (The version in The Independent, in Britain)
DrugSense Focus Alert No. 84 - Amnesty International Focuses on US Abuses (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to The New York Times or any of the dozen papers who covered the story. Amnesty International taken a bold step in at long last recognizing the human rights abuses in the United Sates by various enforcement agencies carrying out the war on some drug users.)
Task force tackles dealers (The Province, in Vancouver, British Columbia, says Immigration Canada is working with a police task force to fight an organized Honduran crime wave. Most of the young Hondurans follow the same routine, entering Canada illegally and applying for refugee status in Vancouver.)
Tory Party Conference - Fowler Attacks Blair On Drugs (The Independent, in Britain, says Sir Norman Fowler, the shadow Home Secretary, accused the ruling Labour Party yesterday of wasting money on illegal asylum seekers while cutting down on police officers. Sir Norman also called for "zero tolerance" on illegal drugs and took a swipe at Tony Blair for receiving Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis, who said last year that taking drugs might be as normal as getting up and having a cup of tea in the morning.)
Officer Stole Cannabis In 'Drugs Sting' (The Independent says Detective Constable Terence McGuinness of Scotland Yard and two fellow officers were filmed breaking into an east London flat and stealing 80 kilograms of cannabis in December 1996 in a trap set by anti-corruption police.)
Random Drug Tests At 100 Independent Schools (According to The Daily Telegraph, in Britain, the Headmasters' Conference said yesterday that random drug testing - of pupils - had been introduced by more than 100 leading independent schools. Heads now assumed that, in line with national statistics, at least 25 per cent of their pupils had experimented with illegal drugs and about 10 per cent took them regularly. However, the number of schools that automatically expel children for a first offence is declining.)
Taleban offer poppy ban for UN nod (A Reuters article in The Toronto Star says Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the Islamic Emirate, said on Voice of Shariat radio yesterday that if the Islamic militia - known as the Taleban in the West - were accorded recognition without condition by the United Nations, the government would "seriously ban unconditionally cultivation of poppy" throughout Afghanistan. Afghanistan was identified by the United Nations last year as the world's leading producer of opium, but only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognize the Taleban as its government.)
DrugSense Weekly, Number 67 (An original summary of drug policy news, including the feature article, Massing Around, by Dr. Tom O'Connell; the Weekly News In Review includes Drug War Policy & Politics articles - Amnesty Finds "Widespread Pattern" of US Rights Violations; Expanded Methadone Program Planned to Counter Heroin; Congress Delays Border Law Vote; Group Stops Needle Exchange After Leader Is Rearrested; The Drug Crisis Isn't Just in Mexico; Prison Guards - The Union Throws Its Weight to the Democrat; news about Prisons includes Bay Area Students Cut Class, Protest Spending on Prisons; Prison Growth May Deplete Surplus; Prison Mental Health Workers on Alert After Third Inmate Hanging In A Month; news about Medical Marijuana includes Medical Effectiveness Outside Law's Purview; Allow Medical Marijuana: Measure 67; Marijuana Vote Brings Out Big Societal Issues; California Cooperative Gives, Sells Marijuana to Suffering; Science Notebook - Taking a Leaf From Marijuana's Effect; international news includes Eton Expels Boy Who Took Cannabis; More Face Random Drug Tests At Work; Drugs Laws to Copy US and Ireland; Iran Says Drug Traffickers Face Death Sentence; Mexico - The Drug War Corrupts Absolutely; plus Hot Off The 'Net - MAP Published Letters Hit One Million Dollar Milestone; CCUA Medical Marijuana update site; Poll - 89 Percent of Atlantic Monthly Readers Favor Reform of Draconian Drug Laws; The New Republic Ad - A Winner; DrugSense Volunteer of the Month - Frank S. World Recognized for Outstanding NewsHawk Efforts; Quote of the Week - Clarence Darrow)
Bytes: 166,000 Last updated: 11/10/98

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