1998 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
October 15-21

Thursday, October 15, 1998:
• Measure 67 - Medical marijuana splinters doctors (The Oregonian says the lack of consensus among Oregon physicians about medical marijuana is so deep that the Oregon Medical Association's governing body voted in April to remain neutral on Measure 67. Dr. Rick Bayer, chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, suggests more doctors would voice support, but "Most are afraid to come out of the closet because of fears about the DEA." Dr. Charles Hofmann, president of the OMA, says the debate is a replay of the physician-assisted suicide campaign in 1994 - "The overwhelming arguments in both are compassion and respect for individual rights.")
• Re - Measure 67 - Medical Marijuana Splinters Doctors (A letter sent to the editor of The Oregonian from Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, the former director of marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health and editor of "Marijuana - Medical Papers 1839-1972," says physicians who claim not enough is known about marijuana to endorse its medical use are suffering from ignorance. Uncritical acceptance of cannabis-prohibition-cult dogmatism and failure to adequately research medical literature are the etiologies.)
• Schools Drop DARE Program (The Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon, says the Salem-Keizer School District, following a national trend, has abandoned the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for fifth graders in half of its schools, and the other half are evaluating the effectiveness of the police-taught program. According to a 1998 study by Salem-Keizer Together, a community drug-prevention network, the number of sixth graders who use drugs at a moderate to high rate rose to an all time high of 6.1 percent in 1998.)
• The Columbian newspaper has an online medical marijuana forum (A list subscriber invites activists to lobby for reform at the web site of the Vancouver, Washington, daily.)
• Yelm police number improperly listed in voter pamphlet (The Tacoma News Tribune, noting Washington state law bars the use of any public office or facility to support or oppose a ballot measure, says the Yelm Police Department's telephone number was improperly listed in 1.9 million copies of the state voters' guide as a source of information for opponents of Initiative 692, the ballot initiative to legalize medical use of marijuana.)
• Pot Club To Fight Court Ruling (The San Jose Mercury News says the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative vowed Wednesday to fight a federal court ruling that would prevent it from providing medical marijuana to patients in accordance with Proposition 215, pledging an appeal or the possibility of the group breaking up into smaller, independent cells. Another dispensary in Ukiah remains open and US District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana could also remain open until a jury trial.)
• Judge Orders Cannabis Club Closed (The Chicago Tribune version says federal judge Charles Breyer for some reason claimed that closing the Oakland co-op would not cause imminent harm or death to patients - patently false in many cases.)
• US Orders California Marijuana Club Closed (The Reuters version in The Washington Post)
• Closure of Cannabis Club Ordered (The Los Angeles Times version)
• Judge Grants Medical Pot Club Three-Day Reprieve (The Oakland Tribune notes that just hours before US Marshals were to come knocking Friday, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer granted a stay that allows the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to stay open until 5 pm Monday, giving attorneys time to appeal the case to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Several patients, in declarations to the court, have stated that cutting off their marijuana supply would be a "death sentence.")
• California voters guide enhanced (A bulletin from DrugSense points you to the California NORML web site highlighting candidates' positions on cannabis-related issues.)
• Drug court clerk under investigation in Nevada (The Las Vegas Sun says Janice Hampton, a clerk for a local drug court, was placed on administrative leave after $34,460 assessed against drug offenders turned up missing.)
• Community Activist Runs From Law Into Folk-Hero Status (The Los Angeles Times says virtually no one in Crested Butte, Colorado, the mountain hamlet where fugitive one-time cocaine trafficker Neil Murdoch spent the past 25 years, will help authorities track him down. Instead, they honor him with awards and parades.)
• Teacher Charged With Possession (The San Antonio Express-News says campus police arrested a 7th-grade English teacher a Heritage Middle School after they found a marijuana cigarette in his truck during a "routine" canine drug and weapons search. "He's doing an excellent job in the classroom," said Dan Lyttle's superintendent.)
• ICLU files suit to halt police roadblocks (The Associated Press says the Indiana Civil Liberties Union will try to bring a halt to the Indianapolis Police Department's practice of setting up random anti-drug roadblocks.)
• Marijuana seizure totals nearly $1.8 million (The Kalamazoo Gazette says sheriff's deputies in Van Buren County, Michigan, burned 1,780 marijuana plants discovered in a rural section of Bangor Township Wednesday, sending approximately $1.8 million of the leafy herb up in smoke. Anyone with information about suspicious or drug-related activity can call 616-657-3101 . . . .)
• 1998 NORML Crop Report (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for the first time in many years updates its estimated value of marijuana cultivated in the United States, and finds it remains the fourth largest cash crop despite approximately $10 billion wasted annually to enforce prohibition. Only corn, soybeans, and hay rank as more profitable cash crops to American farmers. Cultivators grew $15.1 billion worth of cannabis in 1997, worth $25.2 billion on the retail market - if you go by the estimated retail value or accept the DEA's estimated weight of one pound per plant, cannabis would be the No. 1 crop throughout America instead of just in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. More than 98 percent of all the marijuana eradicated by law enforcement is non-psychoactive ditchweed.)
• Big mystery - What causes addiction? Drunks beget drunkards, Plutarch noted, but is it destiny? (MSNBC examines what little science knows so far about why some of us are prone to addiction and others aren't. Generally, a predisposition to abuse one drug applies to almost all other drugs. But no addiction gene has ever been identified, and, even among men who carry a hereditary load, predisposing physical factors don't doom them to a sodden or chemically dependent lifestyle. There's no such thing as a pre-addictive personality, experts say. Some people, particularly those addicted to opiates, may have deficiencies in their brain reward systems. Other drug users gravitate toward their "drug of choice" to "self-medicate." Heroin, for instance, is remarkably effective at "normalizing" people who suffer from delusions and hallucinations - mostly schizophrenics. Cocaine can quickly lift a depression, or enable a person with attention-deficit disorder to become better organized and focused.)
• FCC to propose resolving digital wiretap debate (Reuters says the Federal Communications Commission next week will propose requiring telephone companies to make a series of changes to give law enforcement agencies additional wiretapping capabilities.)
• Government to get $690 million more to stop drug smugglers (The Associated Press says US government spending to stop the inflow of illegal drugs would jump by about $690 million under a compromise announced Thursday that will be included in the 1999 budget bill. Backed by the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, the legislation would mandate the use of foreign aid as leverage against other countries' drug polices; upgrade prohibition agents' technology and intelligence tools; provide high-tech aircraft and helicopters to Bolivia, Colombia and Peru; increase penalties for methamphetamine offenders; add money to prevention, education and treatment programs that include incentives for businesses to run anti-drug programs; and expresses opposition to proposals to legalize marijuana for medical use.)
• Rights Report Blames Paramilitary Forces in Colombia (The New York Times says a report by Human Rights Watch/Americas catalogs the massacre at Mapiripan, Colombia, in July 1997, and dozens of similar incidents, concluding the ravaging of Mapiripan was unique only in the size of the operation and the logistics involved. Right-wing paramilitary troops arrived on a charter flight at San Jose del Guaviare airport, which shares an airstrip with a US-financed anti-narcotics base. Colombian soldiers usually record the arrivals, but that day they waved the visitors through.)
• Heroin ship arrives in Sydney, Australia, under guard; Private prison in Shelby, Montana, has a name; three Mexican nationals arraigned in Helena, Montana, after methamphetamine bust (Three items from ninemsn.com lead with an article about a freighter carrying a record 400 kilograms of high-grade heroin docking in Sydney Harbour under heavy guard.)
• Drugs Detective Cleared (The Independent, in Britain, says Flying Squad detective constable Keith Green was cleared Wednesday of breaking into a flat and stealing cannabis resin, but two of his former colleagues are awaiting sentence after admitting they burgled the flat in Silvertown, east London, and stole 80 kilograms of cannabis resin last December.)
• Flying Squad Officers Admit Crime Career (The version in The Guardian says the two guilty former police officers admitted carrying out a series of crimes ranging from setting up robberies to perverting the course of justice. The pair are in safe houses helping the Metropolitan police's anti-corruption drive.)
• Anti-tumoural effect from cannabis (A translation of an article from ABC newspaper in Madrid, Spain, says researchers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid have proved for the first time that derivatives of cannabis have the ability to induce the death of tumur cells, without affecting healthy cells, as shown in two studies published in the magazines "FEBS Letters" and "Molecular Pharmacology.")
  Bytes: 109,000 Last updated: 11/8/98
  

  Friday, October 16, 1998:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Oakland Medical Marijuana Club Scheduled For Shut Down Monday; High Court Won't Revive Tax Stamp Law On Illegal Drugs)
• KINK FM 102 - No on 57 (A list subscriber says one of the most popular radio stations in Portland, Oregon, has broadcast a staff editorial urging voters to oppose Measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.)
• Letter to the editor of The Olympian published (An item from the Olympia, Washington daily newspaper by a retired physician says he's ashamed that the Washington State Medical Association voted not to endorse medical marijuana Initiative 692. Recounting the extensive research authorized by legislatures in six states from the late 1970s to mid-1980s, he asks, "How much needless suffering by countless thousands of patients is needed for 'anecdotal' evidence to be validated as real?")
• Reefer Foolishness (A staff editorial in The San Francisco Chronicle blasts foes of Proposition 215 who have ordered the shutdown of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative as "zealots" and says "this reefer foolishness among state and federal drug warriors has gone on long enough. Where are the state lawmakers with the creativity and guts to set up a plan for the distribution of medical pot the voters approved two years ago?")
• Oakland Club Wins Three-Day Stay (California NORML notes federal judge Charles Breyer postponed the closure of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative scheduled for 5 pm Friday. A demonstration in support of the club - at 1755 Broadway - will begin 4 pm Monday. Take BART to the 19th and Broadway stop. Bring signs and all the friends you can muster.)
• Cannabis Club given time to appeal (The version broadcast by KTVU-TV Channel 2 in the Bay Area)
• Judge halts closure of medical marijuana club until Monday (The Associated Press version in The San Francisco Examiner)
• Re - San Diego Medical Marijuana Trial Commences Wednesday, Oct. 14 (A list subscriber says the trial of Steven McWilliams and Dion Markgraaff, charged in connection with growing and supplying medical marijuana to local patients, has been delayed two months.)
• Bumper Crop Of Pot Targeted (The Fresno Bee says members of the Fresno County Narcotics Enforcement Team and US Forest Service have spent the past several weeks chopping down a county-record 43,000 plants they valued at $90 million. Last year's eradication effort netted 6,400 plants. US Forest Service special agent Bob Hernandez estimated the haul represents only 20 percent of the actual crop, which would mean the total value of marijuana grown in the county would rank among its top three crops, alongside grapes and cotton. No word on how much taxpayers paid for the prohibition agents' failed eradication effort.)
• The State Ballot Questions (The Las Vegas Review-Journal urges a "yes" vote on Question 9, the constitutional amendment that would allow qualified patients to use medical marijuana.)
• No. 8 About Compassion, Not Permissiveness (An op-ed in The Anchorage Daily News from 10 physicians and three nurses employed in the medical industry in Anchorage, Alaska, urges voters to approve the state medical marijuana ballot measure.)
• Man recalls 28 years on the run (The Dallas Morning News recounts the secret life of Charles Edward Garrett, a Texas fugitive from a life sentence for heroin possession who was recently recaptured. Here's one way to quit heroin cold turkey.)
• At city officers' trial, drug dealer says they robbed, threatened him (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a man who admits to a history of drug dealing testified Thursday against David Arnett and Brian Nelson, two police officers in St. Louis, Missouri, on trial in St. Louis Circuit Court for drug trafficking and felony theft. Kevin Harrell said Arnett and Nelson approached him last year at a pay phone, robbed him of $462, and then threatened to plant drugs on him if he objected to the holdup.)
• Man going to adoption hearing busted on pot charges (An Associated Press article from PostNet says a man from Glen Carbon, Illinois, who was on his way to an adoption hearing was arrested on marijuana charges at the Madison County courthouse, putting in doubt his efforts to adopt two children.)
• Looking For A Few Good Dudes (Boulder Weekly runs an interesting feature article about the Green Panthers, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, who are waiting for the collapse of the prohibitionist regime and the consequent establishment of a "stoner homeland" stetching from 10 miles south of Portland to "due north" of San Francisco. Terry Mitchell, a founding member of the Panthers, says statistics show there has been a steady flow of bud smokers moving to the Pacific Northwest since the 1960s to escape draconian laws elsewhere. Mitchell believes the recent increase in arrests has exacerbated this trend. "According to our sources . . . the migration has sped up considerably over the past five years due to the Drug War. With property seizures being the way they are, they have fewer things to move anyway.")
• Rabbi Pleads Not Guilty To Smuggling Drugs To Inmates (An Associated Press article in The Dallas Morning News says Eli Gottesman, a diminutive 73-year-old "Rabbi of the Year," was released without bail Thursday on a charge that he tried to smuggle a bottle of shampoo filled with cocaine and marijuana into the Federal Correctional Institute at Ray Brook, New York, where he ministered to inmates. "I was tricked," Gottesman said, but he faces 20 years in prison.)
• Marion County Sheriff Ken Ergle arrested, resigns (The Associated Press says the sheriff in Florida who instituted a no-frills approach in the county jail, charging inmates $1 a day for meals and a $10 copayment if they wanted to see a doctor, was charged with stealing $170,000 from a department fund used for investigations.)
• Grant Krieger Update (A list subscriber notes the Canadian multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Monday, Oct. 19, for possession of 23 grams of cannabis with intent to distribute.)
• Pastrana Cools To Coca Policy (The Miami Herald says Colombian President Andres Pastrana distanced himself from US drug policy on Thursday, asserting that US-financed aerial eradication of coca "has not worked" and is simply pushing peasants deeper into the Amazon jungle.)
• Priest Calls For Legalised Cannabis And Ecstasy (The Scotsman says Father Bob Gardner, a Roman Catholic priest who runs a youth centre for children in Easterhouse, a slum in Glasgow, called for the personal use of ecstasy to be decriminalised yesterday and said that cannabis should no longer be illegal. Father Gardner was also featured yesterday as Channel 4 launched a series about the results of its Citizens' Commission on Drugs. The television company set up the panel after the government refused to appoint a Royal commission on drugs.)
• Judge Rules Swiss Trade In Aromatic Hemp Illegal (Reuters says Switzerland's budding domestic marijuana trade took a direct hit Friday when a Zurich district judge ruled that selling cannabis in aromatic sachets was against the law.)
• Latest From Switzerland (A list subscriber says the ruling by a Swiss judge that cannabis is illegal no matter how it is packaged is an empty victory for prohibitionists, except for its propaganda value in the United States, thanks to the American media's inability to convey the whole story.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 63 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original summary of drug policy news and calls for action, including - The Reformer's Calendar is back; Why DRCNet?; Federal judge orders Oakland cannabis buyers' club shut down - city to consider providing marijuana to patients; Oregon poll - reform positions hold lead; Pain went up sharply among Oregon's dying in late 1997; Swiss okay controlled heroin distribution; Oklahoma police chief threatens harassment of man who opposes the drug war; Marijuana ranks fourth largest cash crop in America despite prohibition; Social concern a sign of teen drug use? Ask Orrin Hatch; Car seizure law upheld in Oakland; "Driving while black" lawsuit grows; Web news - URL for University of North Dakota hemp study; and an editorial, Put people before ideology)
  Bytes: 116,000 Last updated: 6/4/99
  

  Saturday, October 17, 1998:

• Medical marijuana merely a path to legalization (An op-ed in The Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, by Deschutes County District Attorney Mike T. Dugan, says Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, would let people use marijuana if they stub their toes or their wives get the flu.)
• Re - Medical marijuana merely a path to legalization (A letter sent to the editor of the Bend Bulletin says that, rather than compare proposals for medicinal cannabis regulation to some utopian ideal, presumably a cannabis-free Oregon, we need to compare Ballot Measure 67 to what we have now - teens can obtain cannabis easier than alcohol, but people with incapacitating illnesses can't, or get criminalized if they do.)
• Conservative Voice Needed, Lim Says (A Salem list subscriber excerpts a Statesman Journal article in which the Republican contender for Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's seat, John Lim, says he supports Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, and opposes Measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.)
• Oakland Pot Club Gets OK to Stay Open Till Monday (The San Francisco Examiner notes the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative received a temporary reprieve Friday when a federal judge granted a stay to keep the dispensary open through Monday.)
• Judge Grants Stay For Cannabis Club (The Orange County Register version)
• Judge Gives Oakland Pot Club A Three-Day Break on Closing (The San Francisco Chronicle version)
• Oakland Marijuana Club Is Given Weekend Reprieve (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Marijuana Club Gets A Reprieve (The Reuters version in The Houston Chronicle)
• Marvin Chavez in Court Monday, October 19 (A local correspondent says James Silva, the attorney for the founder of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group, is going to ask Judge Frank Fasel to reconsider not allowing a Proposition 215 defense during a hearing at the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana.)
• State won't count marijuana vote - Petitions for drug's use as legal medicine short of signatures (The Rocky Mountain News says Colorado Secretary of State Vikki Buckley ruled Friday that there weren't enough valid signatures for a medical marijuana initiative to be on the ballot, even though it is. Buckley accepted 51,904 signatures and rejected 36,911, saying the campaign fell 2,338 signatures short. "We will be checking every bit of work that she did to make sure there aren't massive errors like we found before," said Luther Symons, a spokesman for Coloradans for Medical Rights.)
• Pot-Initiative Signatures Ruled Insufficient (The Denver Post version)
• Pot Called State's 4th Largest Cash Crop (The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, summarizes the new crop report released Thursday by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.)
• Drug Sting Called Illegal (According to The Des Moines Register, a law professor says an Iowa State Patrol sting operation in eastern Iowa that caught 100 people on drug and weapons charges might have been unconstitutional. Four signs reading "Narcotics Enforcement Ahead" were erected along Interstate 80 near Wilton earlier this week. Plainclothes officers then watched as drivers stopped to dispose of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine in waste cans at a rest area.)
• Foster Parent Prospect Has Hard Time Explaining Marijuana Pipe (The Evansville Courier version of yesterday's cautionary tale about the man from Glen Carbon, Illinois, who was arrested on his way to an adoption hearing at the Madison County courthouse. Wesley Earl Lowry made it through a rigorous process to win approval as an adoptive father, but now he suddenly needs drug rehab to keep the kids.)
• Former IBM Exec Jailed For Pot Operation (The Associated Press says Anthony Santropietro of Long Hill, New Jersey, was convicted of growing 247 marijuana plants in the basement of his home, as well as possession of mushrooms with intent to sell, and was sentenced to four years in prison.)
• DC To Decide On Marijuana Legalization (The Washington Post finally acknowledges Initiative 59, which would legalize the possession, use, cultivation or distribution of marijuana if recommended by a physician for illnesses such as AIDS, cancer or glaucoma. It also would require the city to provide for the "safe and affordable" distribution of marijuana to Medicaid patients and other poor people whose doctors recommend it. Both of the city's mayoral candidates favor the measure, as do a majority of DC Council members, but US Representative Robert L. Barr Jr., a Republican from Georgia, attached an amendment to the fiscal 1999 DC budget forbidding the city to use any funds to conduct a vote.)
• Government medical marijuana patients (A San Francisco Bay area activist does a little research and finds the names of seven of the eight American patients who receive medical marijuana from the US government's Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, discontinued in 1992 by the Bush Administration as a horde of starving AIDS patients swamped the bureaucracy with applications.)
• Drug Cartel Hitmen Admit Killing Cardinal In Mexico (The Examiner, in Ireland, says Adolfo Marin Cuevas and Carlos Garcia Martinez told a United States district court in San Diego, California, yesterday, that they had been recruited in San Diego as hitmen for the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel. As part of a guilty plea to conspiring to distribute cocaine and marijuana, the two allegedly admitted they were taking part in a hit on a rival drug dealer when Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six other people were shot to death outside a Guadalajara airport in 1993 - whether by accident or design isn't clear.)
  Bytes: 59,100 Last updated: 10/31/98
  

  Sunday, October 18, 1998:

• Yes on Initiative 692, medical marijuana (A staff editorial in The Seattle Times says the ballot measure puts an intensely private medical decision in the hands of those who know what's best for their health - doctors and patients.)
• Medical marijuana editorial response (The mother of a man incapacitated by multiple sclerosis sends a letter to the editor of The News Tribune, in Tacoma, Washington, disagreeing with the newspaper's editorial opposing Initiative 692, the medical marijuana ballot measure. She has found that cannabis improves her son's condition remarkably, but says the newspaper's assumption that people who need marijuana will find ways to obtain it is erroneous. "I'm 65 and out of the loop in the drug world and we have simply not found a way to get it.")
• Oakland Rally - Monday 3-6 PM (A bulletin from California NORML invites supporters of medical-marijuana patients' rights to protest against the US government for shutting down the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.)
• Only California Uses Deadly Force in Inmate Fights (A lengthy examination in The Los Angeles Times of a unique phenomenon in California - prisoners being killed in order to break up inmate fights. Since 1994, state prison guards breaking up brawls have killed 12 inmates and seriously injured 32. In the rest of the nation, only six inmates were fatally shot, all while trying to escape.)
• Seeing Through The Haze Of Medical Marijuana (An op-ed in The Las Vegas Review-Journal by General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, opposes Question 9, the Nevada medical marijuana initiative, calling it a sham that provides cover for widespread trafficking in illegal drugs.)
• Marijuana Seizures Multiply With Fall Harvest (The Arizona Daily Star says the fall marijuana harvest is under way, loads of weed are coming across Arizona's southern border with Mexico, and the Border Patrol has snagged more than a ton of it since Wednesday.)
• 61-year-old grandmother found guilty for role in drug conspiracy (An Associated Press article in The Orlando Sentinel says Daphne "Ma" Creary, a former security guard at Port Everglades, Florida, faces a minimum 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine, allegedly in concert with more than a dozen other dockworkers. "My life and my grandkids' lives are at stake," said Creary, who is raising three grandchildren. "They need me.")
• Judges Should Get Drug Tests For Presuming All Are Guilty (Baltimore Sun columnist Gregory Kane pans the US Supreme Court's decision two weeks ago not to review a case out of Indiana, where overzealous school officials imposed mandatory drug testing as a condition for participating in extracurricular activities. The four students and their parents who protested and filed suit must have had the curious idea that a thing called presumption of innocence still exists in America.)
• Rebagliati's payoff eludes gold medallist (The Calgary Herald suggests admitted pot smoker Ross Rebagliati is cashing in on endorsements after winning the Olympic gold medal in snowboarding, while another gold medal winner, Catriona LeMay Doan, seems to be losing out due to the speed skater's abstemious image.)
• Reefer Gladness (According to The Edmonton Sun, one of the top pain doctors in Edmonton, Alberta, says she has new evidence marijuana use may boost physical strength in people with a rare muscle disease. Dr. Helen Hays and a rehab medicine specialist, Dr. Rubin Feldman, started running tests last January on a 31-year-old Edmonton-area man suffering from a rare neurological disease that causes severe stiffness and cramping in the muscles. "The results were remarkable," said Dr. Hays. "We recorded a dramatic improvement in his physical strength when he was using" marijuana. Dr. Hays said she and Dr. Feldman are preparing a paper for publication.)
• Weeding Out Pain (The Edmonton Sun recounts several cases of local patients receiving miraculous benefits from cannabis, including a breast cancer victim so impoverished by years of supporting the black market that she can no longer afford it and is dying in a community shelter. "Marijuana is just a weed," she says. "People don't kill people on it, they don't rob banks. I met a lot of people on marijuana who wouldn't have been worth two cents without it. But the government's got to blackmail you. You use their drugs or you don't use any drugs at all.")
  Bytes: 73,300 Last updated: 10/27/98
  

  Monday, October 19, 1998:

• Medical marijuana - Despite Doubts, Yes (A staff editorial in The Albany Democrat-Herald, in Oregon, again endorses Ballot Measure 67.)
• 'Medicinal' marijuana confronts voters (The Dalles Chronicle, in The Dalles, Oregon, prints pro and con articles about Measure 67. The "pro" piece focuses on a local quadriplegic suffering from severe spasms, and the "con" features a remarkably ignorant local physician spouting baseless drug warrior propaganda. "Zachery," the quadriplegic, estimates 75 percent of the paraplegics and quadriplegics he knows already use pot to control their spasms.)
• Medical marijuana - Yes (The Tri-City Herald in eastern Washington state endorses Initiative 692)
• California Pot Club Closed by Feds (The Associated Press says the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative closed voluntarily today after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, without comment, denied its request to remain open while it appealed a federal judge's ruling finding it in contempt for continuing to distribute medical marijuana in violation of federal law.)
• Oakland marijuana club closed by feds (A lengthier Associated Press account from sfgate.com)
• OCBC Vows to Fight On (The California NORML version says the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club is asking to be allowed to re-open to serve its members in ways other than providing medicine. Director Jeff Jones announced that the OCBC is also planning to form a political action committee, the Patients Action Network, to fight for federal rescheduling of marijuana, noting about 80 former members of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative have died since that club was forced to close last May.)
• California Marijuana Club Shuts Under Court Order (The Reuters version)
• Real Audio at sfgate/KRON (A list subscriber quotes the Bay Area station saying the American Academy of Pediatrics, meeting in San Francisco, supports the concept of a trial for medical marijuana.)
• Marvin Chavez update (A local correspondent says Judge Frank Fasel postponed until December 7 - oops, make that November 2 - the hearing scheduled for today for the medical marijuana patient and founder of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group. The delay will allow Chavez's attorneys time to review donation slips and other papers withheld by the prosecution.)
• McCormick tests positive for pot (MSNBC in Los Angeles says Todd McCormick, the Bel Air, California, cancer patient and medical marijuana defendant facing federal cultivation charges, faces a bail revocation hearing 2 p.m. Wednesday. McCormick says the government is trying to extort the $500,000 cash bail that actor Woody Harrelson posted for him.)
• Pot Vote - A 'Yes' Means No (The Arizona Republic explains the confusing background behind propositions 300 and 301, which would repeal the Arizona legislature's nullification of Proposition 200, passed by two-thirds of voters in 1996. A "no" vote on 300 would reject the legislative changes and reaffirm the original medical marijuana law. A "no" vote on 301 would reinstate the diversion program for drug offenders.)
• Chief Opposes Medical Marijuana Initiative (The Washington Post says Washington, DC, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey opposes Initiative 59, the medical marijuana ballot measure.)
• Chiefs Oppose Drug Legalization (The Associated Press version says Ramsey was joined by a majority of members of the Major City Chiefs Association, made up of police chiefs from the 52 largest metropolitan forces in the United States and Canada. The vote was announced Monday at the convention in Salt Lake City of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, whose sentiments aren't recorded.)
• Grant Krieger sentencing (A list subscriber says the Canadian medical marijuana defendant has scored a legal victory by being fined $500.)
  Bytes: 49,600 Last updated: 10/30/98
  

  Tuesday, October 20, 1998:

• Letter from Senator Gordon H. Smith (An Oregon constituent of the right-wing know-nothing shares a letter from the Republican shill for corporate interests rationalizing why he thinks sick and dying medical marijuana patients should be sent to prison. Plus commentary from a Britisher working in Holland.)
• Conde Won't Get Files Back (The Register-Guard, in Eugene, Oregon, says Linn County Circuit Judge Rick McCormick has ruled that computers belonging to marijuana-law reform activist Bill Conde will stay in police hands for now. At the request of sheriff's authorities, the computers are being examined by state police experts in computer forensics. "They're not going to find anything, but they might learn something," Conde said, noting that his files contain articles and e-mail from around the world that take aim at the war on drugs.)
• Marvin Chavez's court hearing (A list subscriber says a trial date of Nov. 2 has been set for the medical marijuana patient and founder of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group.)
• The Chavez Case (A staff editorial in The Orange County Register recounts yesterday's news about the postponement until Nov. 2 of the trial of Marvin Chavez, the medical marijuana patient and founder of the Orange County Patient, Doctor, Nurse Support Group, in order to allow Chavez's attorneys time to review donation slips and other papers withheld by the prosecution.)
• Somayah's Hearing (A local correspondent says Sister Somayah, the Los Angeles sickle cell patient and medical marijuana prisoner, has a court hearing 8:30 am tomorrow morning.)
• Oakland Pot Club Closes - Leader to Fight On (The San Francisco Chronicle version of yesterday's news about the federal government forcing the closure of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative)
• Oakland Pot Club Closes Its Doors (The San Francisco Examiner version)
• Court shuts Oakland pot club (An Associated Press version in The Seattle Times)
• State's Largest Medical-Pot Club Closed By US (The Orange County Register version)
• Patrons Say Goodbye To Oakland Pot Club (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Pot Initiative Up In Smoke (A staff editorial in The Denver Post says "We're relieved" that Colorado Secretary of State Victoria Buckley disqualified a medical marijuana ballot measure.)
• Wealthy Benefactors Stoke Campaigns for Medical Marijuana (Washington Post syndicated columnist David S. Broder erroneously says the District of Columbia medical marijuana ballot measure is being funded by George Soros and other millionaires. Focusing on the campaign by Arizona residents to re-institute Proposition 200 reforms nullified by the legislature, Broder says the campaign there has become a fight over the initiative process - that is, open democracy - without noting that's what Soros has been promoting in eastern Europe for decades.)
• Proposition 300 Prompts Anti-Drug Rally (The Arizona Republic says Republican leaders rallied in front of 150 children at the Thomas J. Pappas school for the homeless Monday, urging a "yes" vote on Proposition 300, to gut Arizona's medical-marijuana law. Proclaiming that drugs are bad and cheerleading the children, Reps. Matt Salmon, John Shadegg and J.D. Hayworth and Sen. Jon Kyl joined Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan in the media event. Apparently the tyrants couldn't find a non-captive audience of adults who wouldn't lynch them.)
• Goals Similar For Props 104, 105 (The Arizona Republic explains two state ballot measures prompted by the legislature's nullification of Proposition 200. Both would make it harder for the legislature to change or repeal citizen initiatives. Opponents of medical marijuana in the legislature put Proposition 104 on the ballot. Supporters of medical marijuana gathered petition signatures to qualify Proposition 105. If both proposals pass, the measure with more votes will take effect.)
• Yes On Proposition 104 (A seemingly coincidental staff editorial in The Arizona Daily Star encourages a "yes" vote for what it calls "the more thoughtful" of two ballot measures that would prevent the state legislature from nullifying voter-approved initiatives such as Proposition 200.)
• Panel clears six from Houston Police Department of homicide - one cop indicted on trespass (The Houston Chronicle suggests there will be no justice for the killers of Pedro Oregon Navarro, an innocent man shot 12 times from behind by Houston prohibition agents who broke into his apartment without a warrant.)
• Protesters Vow To Press Fight Over Oregon (A sidebar in The Houston Chronicle says members of the Hispanic community vowed to fight for further action against the killers. Claudia Navarro, the mother of the victim, Pedro Oregon Navarro, said "I'm very sad about what has happened. Maybe if I could speak English, they would have listened to me." Houston City Councilman John Castillo said, "It offends anyone who has any sense of justice.")
• Denton DA candidate pleads guilty to marijuana delivery - Democrat remains eligible for office if elected (The Dallas Morning News says Stephen Hale, the Democratic candidate for Denton County district attorney, was given two years' probation Monday, receiving "deferred adjudication." "If elected, I am eligible to serve," he said Monday evening, "and I'm thinking about it . . . . I believe that people who would support me don't care about my giving a little bit of marijuana to a former girlfriend, and those who hate me will hate me anyway.")
• Policy Items In Federal Budget Plan (The Las Vegas Sun says the $520 billion federal budget bill includes an item banning funds to count votes on Initiative 59, the District of Columbia referendum on medical marijuana, and also bans local or federal funding of needle exchange programs in DC.)
• Ex-agents accuse US of ignoring Mexico corruption - Administration officials deny overlooking Salinas' actions (The Dallas Morning News quotes Hector Berrellez, 52, a retired DEA agent who says "I once had information that Raul Salinas had allegedly brokered deals with Pablo Escobar," the late Colombian drug lord. "Washington ordered me not to write it up." Berrellez and other former DEA agents say US officials turn a blind eye to drug corruption in Mexico because they don't want to jeopardize commercial and diplomatic ties.)
• Man vows to continue pot crusade after fine (According to The Calgary Herald, Saskatchewan multiple sclerosis patient Grant Krieger said he would continue to lobby for the rights of medical marijuana users after a Calgary judge fined him $550 Monday for possession for the purpose of trafficking.)
• Dope Backer Fined (The Calgary Sun version)
• Australia Finds No Peril In Potsmoking Drivers (High Times News says transportation authorities who administered blood tests to 2,500 drivers involved in car wrecks in South Australia discovered that marijuana was not a significant factor in causing such accidents. In fact, Transport South Australia researchers determined that drivers who smoked cannabis were statistically less likely to cause traffic accidents than drivers who used no intoxicants at all.)
• The Dirty Money Found in Everyone's Pocket (The Scotsman says 90 percent of Scottish £20 banknotes are contaminated with ecstasy, or MDMA.)
  Bytes: 105,000 Last updated: 10/30/98
  

  Wednesday, October 21, 1998:

• DUII for positive THC urine test - Trial 10-22-98 (A Portland reform activist invites you to attend the trial beginning tomorrow of Tim Herman, charged with driving intoxicated after Portland police gave him a breathalyzer test for alcohol that came up negative. Herman was then taken into custody and given a urine test that came up positive for THC, the sole basis for the DUII charge. Herman's lawyer responds with news that today the Multnomah County deputy district attorney prosecuting the case has decided to dismiss charges.)
• Reject Medical Marijuana (A staff editorial in The Oregonian opposes Ballot Measure 67, saying voters ought to refrain from practicing ballot-box medicine - which rather ignores the fact that cannabis was a medicine in good standing before Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 for political, nonmedical reasons, over the objections of the AMA.)
• Round 2 for Pot Initiative (The Olympian, in Olympia, Washington, tries to summarize objectively the arguments of proponents and opponents regarding Initiative 692, the medical marijuana ballot measure.)
• Smoking eases MS symptoms / Son's death motivates crusade (The Olympian, in Olympia, Washington, publishes pro and con articles about Initiative 692, the medical marijuana ballot measure. The first features multiple sclerosis patient and medical marijuana user Jim Binias of Thurston County. The second features Portland-area anti-marijuana zealot Sandra Bennett, who admits her crusade is inspired by the 1986 cocaine-related death of her son in the basement of a Eugene fraternity.)
• Oakland Declares War On Washington! (According to a list subscriber, KTVU-TV Channel 2 in Oakland/San Francisco said Tuesday night that the Oakland City Council, in a 5 to 4 vote, declared a medical emergency existed due to the closure of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.)
• Pot Club Close Worries Oakland (The Associated Press version)
• Pot Club Closure Causes City Council To Declare State of Emergency (A different Associated Press version in The Sacramento Bee)
• Oakland Council Declares Marijuana Health Crisis (The San Francisco Chronicle version)
• With Pot Club Shut, Oakland Declares An Emergency (The San Francisco Examiner version)
• Oakland Declares Emergency Over Pot-Club Closing (The San Jose Mercury News version)
• Bob Ames' arraignment (A Bay area medical marijuana activist recounts yesterday's appearance in a Sacramento court of the patient recently busted for growing more than the two plants recommended by California Attorney General Dan Lungren.)
• Somayah case dismissed "in the interest of justice" (A Los Angeles correspondent says Sister Somayah, the sickle cell patient and medical marijuana activist, will be freed tonight, apparently after intimidating the prosecution by preparing a defense based on Proposition 215.)
• Pot Helped Linda McCartney Ease Pain Of Chemotherapy (The San Jose Mercury News says Paul McCartney gave an interview to Chrissie Hynde, the unabashed marijuana consumer, former music journalist and star of The Pretenders. The interview, scheduled to appear in USA Weekend on Oct. 30, quotes the former Beatle saying the doctors told his wife, "'If you've got any of that stuff left over from the '60s, you might smoke a bit.'")
• Losing the War on Drug Abuse (Bob Jones, a columnist for MidWeek, in Hawaii, reverses his support for the war on some drug users, observing, "Our anti-drug policy on all levels is not winning and not even building up a good hand. The time has come to look for another approach.")
• Plymouth drug raid hits wrong apartment (The Boston Globe says an 80-year-old woman received an unwelcome surprise just before 11 pm Friday night when police burst into her apartment during a drug raid, only to realize they had the wrong address.)
• Cannabis Crash Risk Less - Study (The Age, in Australia, says the largest study ever done linking road accidents with alcohol and other drugs has found that drivers with cannabis in their blood were no more at risk than those who were drug-free. In fact, the findings by a pharmacology team from the University of Adelaide and Transport SA showed drivers who had smoked marijuana were marginally less likely to have an accident than those who were drug-free.)
• Study Goes to Pot (The version in The Canberra Times)
• Study Finds Cannabis Not Cause Of Automobile Accidents (A summary of news that appeared in both The Age and The Canberra Times, in Australia.)
• Swiss Decline To Charge Salinas (A Chicago Tribune story in The Orange County Register says that after years of threats, authorities in Switzerland have decided not to press money-laundering charges against Raul Salinas, the elder brother of Mexico's former president, due to his indictment on murder charges. However, the Swiss said Tuesday they had frozen Salinas' bank accounts totaling about $115 million and would keep the funds "for the benefit of the state" because they were linked to narcotics trafficking.)
• $114m ordered seized from Mexican - Swiss say Raul Salinas was paid for drug role (The Boston Globe version)
  Bytes: 66,500 Last updated: 11/7/98
  

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