1998 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
November 19-25

Thursday, November 19, 1998:
• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Government Health Officials Deny Marijuana and Pain Study, Again; House of Lords Backs Prescription Cannabis, But Parliament Balks; Drug Testing Negatively Impacts Employee Productivity, Study Concludes.)
• Groups want to snub out tobacco deal (The Oregonian says the three most influential anti-smoking organizations in Oregon are urging Attorney General Hardy Myers to reject a $206 billion multistate tobacco settlement - the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association.)
• Tobacco sales to minors increase despite pressures from authorities (According to the Associated Press, the Oregon Human Resources Department said Wednesday that the Oregon Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs reported minors were able to buy tobacco 29 percent of the times they tried this year, up from 23 percent in 1997. The state inspections involve youths 14-16, accompanied by police, who try to buy tobacco products.)
• The C(ocaine)I(mportation)A(gency) (Seattle Weekly reviews the book, "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press," by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, calling it more than just a history of the US government's role in international drug dealing. Whiteout is an encyclopedia of covert psychological and sociological research and experimentation performed on unknowing subjects since the early 1900s. And it's the kind of expose that people like Katherine Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post, don't think should be available in bookstores.)
• Marvin Chavez Trial Update - Jury's Still Out (A local correspondent says there has been a full day of deliberations in the trial of the founder of the Orange County Patient Doctor Nurse Support Group.. It seems jurors are having a hard time defining what a "sale" is.)
• Jury reaches verdict in trial of Marvin Chavez (A local correspondent says the medical marijuana patient and founder of the Orange County Patient Doctor Nurse Support Group has been convicted of eight out of 10 charges.)
• Marvin Chavez Verdict (Another version from a different local correspondent. Sentencing will be Jan. 8.)
• Judge Breyer Raises Interesting Questions . . . (Ellen Komp of The 215 Reporter says US District Court Judge Charles Breyer, the person officiating the federal government's dispute with the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and other Northern California medical marijuana dispensaries, asked a federal prosecutor Tuesday if the Clinton Administration would be "fashioning an appropriate response" to what he called the "handwriting on the wall" - the passing of medical marijuana initiatives in five states besides California.)
• The Poppy Paradox (The San Luis Obispo County NewTimes recounts the bust of local medical marijuana activists and cultivators Tom Dunbar and Jo-D Harrison - for growing poppies - amid a discussion about the peculiar laws that let people buy, sell and grow the ubiquitous Papaver somniferum, but only if they don't know it's the opium poppy.)
• San Francisco Cabbies, NORML Persuade Supervisors to Reconsider Drug Testing Proposal (A press release from California NORML follows up on two of its previous bulletins - the first, about a new report that shows drug testing workers reduces productivity nearly 20 percent, and the second, about California NORML testifying before a San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee about a proposal to require urine testing for Communication Workers of America and San Francisco taxi drivers.)
• Hemp Shampoo Maker Sues For Defamation (The Los Angeles Times says Alterna Inc., of Westwood, California, filed a civil suit against Glenn Levant of DARE America, Inc., the private organization that promotes the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, alleging Levant made false and malicious statements when he said that the company's Alterna Hemp Shampoo "is a subterfuge to promote marijuana" because its ads feature a cannabis leaf.)
• Cal Poly Survey Linked Alcohol, Violence (The San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune says a 1996 survey found that 80 percent of students who reported they were victims of unwanted sexual intercourse had consumed alcohol or other drugs. Quotes from several people suggest the real problem is alcohol, but the newspaper annoyingly refuses to break down the figures for "alcohol" and "other drugs.")
• Prescription drugs contributed to Sonny Bono's death (The Associated Press says the widow of Sonny Bono, Mary Bono, who replaced him as a US representative from California, told TV Guide that he was taking 15 to 20 pills a day for chronic back pain and neck problems, and the prescription drugs contributed to his death in a skiing accident last January.)
• Sonny Bono's widow blames drugs for his death (The Reuters version)
• Tobacco Agreement Criticized (The San Jose Mercury News says that with Friday's deadline to approve the $206 billion tobacco settlement fast approaching, California health professionals and anti-smoking advocates lambasted Attorney General Dan Lungren Wednesday, saying it does little to stop the industry from recruiting new smokers and will cover less than 50 percent of the state's smoking-related health costs.)
• Dutch student sent home after drug bust (The San Antonio Express-News says a Dutch foreign exchange student was yanked out of a high school math class Thursday in Universal City, Texas, and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after his host parent called police Nov. 2, suspecting his mail from back home contained more than warm wishes. Something that wouldn't get a second look back home will get his visa terminated in America.)
• Former Sheriff's Deputy And Wife Are Indicted On Drug Charges (The Houston Chronicle says Lawrence Rhea Underwood, a former Harris County sheriff's deputy who was fired when cocaine was found in his system, and his wife, Lisa Jannell Underwood, were indicted Wednesday on charges of possessing methamphetamine and cocaine.)
• Smoke-Out Seen As Joke (A letter to the editor of The Houston Chronicle responds to yesterday's news of a 28 percent increase in cigarette smoking among college students over the last four years, saying the increase shows the utter hypocrisy of lawsuits demanding billions in damages from tobacco companies. It also ridicules the vast education efforts to stem the tide of smoking and, in effect, reduces the Great American Smoke-Out to a giant joke.)
• Number Of Pregnant Smokers Dropped 26 Percent In '90s (The Associated Press says a study released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 13.6 percent of pregnant women smoked in 1996, down from 18.4 percent in 1990.)
• A Slave Of Smoke In An Anti-Smoke Land (The New York Times examines extreme anti-smoking attitudes in America through the eyes of a widow whose husband died from smoking and lung cancer, leaving her with two daughters who hate her because she herself can't quit smoking. Medical experts say nicotine has a powerful effect on the chemistry of the brain, improving mood and in some cases masking depression.)
• There Are None So Blind As Ophthalmologists Who Don't Want to See (Richard Cowan of marijuananews.com debunks the recent "research" about cannabis and glaucoma, by Keith Green, PhD, of Georgia, with a devastating line-by-line rebuttal of the original Nov. 13 Augusta, Georgia, Chronicle story on which the AP story was based.)
• Cannabis Co-Op Man Arrested (The Guardian, in Britain, says Colin Davies, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, the founder of a co-operative intended to supply free cannabis to people with multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, has been arrested on cultivation-related charges.)
  Bytes: 109,000 Last updated: 12/13/98
  

  Friday, November 20, 1998:

• MAMA crusade urges clear-eyed look at crutches, cures (A Cox News Service article about Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse and its founder, Sandee Burbank of Mosier, Oregon, an anti-drug abuse crusader who also crusades for legal medical use of marijuana and a re-examination of the nation's get-tough drug laws.)
• Pot Trial Guilty Verdict (The Long Beach Press-Telegram says a jury in Orange County, California, found medical marijuana patient Marvin Chavez, the founder of a local medical marijuana dispensary, guilty Thursday of eight of 10 counts of drug-sales and drug transportation.)
• Cannabis Club Co-Founder Convicted (The Regional Review version)
• OC Cannabis Club Activist Found Guilty (The Los Angeles Times version)
• Pot-Club Founder Convicted (The Orange County Register version)
• Medical-Pot Activists Protest Conviction Of Co-Op Founder (The Orange County Register says advocates for patients who use marijuana as medicine condemned the conviction of Marvin Chavez Thursday and vowed not to let their fight fade away. Some particularly ineffective activists wore cannabis-leaf leis and lit up pipes outside Orange County Superior Court in Westminster, about 100 feet from the Police Department.)
• Deputy DA Goes Out With A Victory (The Orange County Register notes Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust capped his 26-year career Thursday by convicting Orange County Cannabis Co-op founder Marvin Chavez of selling marijuana.)
• Chavez Faces Prison (A staff editorial in The Orange County Register says it is not surprising that the jury in the Marvin Chavez case returned the verdicts it did, given its instructions, not to consider Proposition 215. Those instructions were unfortunate for two reasons - Mr. Chavez's personal fate, given that he now faces up to seven years in prison, and, more broadly, because they deprived the jury of the opportunity to offer some guidance to confused officials and patients as to just how the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 should be implemented.)
• Verdict In, Jury Still Out On Prop. 215 (Los Angeles Times columnist Dana Parsons says he doubts the jurors or police or judge or even the prosecutors who convicted medical marijuana patient Marvin Chavez really thought he was a threat to anyone. He suspects prosecutors are really trying to stamp out a social movement toward liberalizing marijuana usage, but they won't say that, because it butts heads with the public's will.)
• SJC Deals Blow To State Law Imposing Tax On Drug Dealers (The Boston Globe says the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 7-0 yesterday that the state's "controlled substances tax" constitutes double jeopardy when applied in concert with a criminal prosecution.)
• Federal court strikes down Louisiana drug test law (The Associated Press says a federal judge in New Orleans on Friday struck down a Louisiana law requiring random drug testing of elected officials, saying the state failed to show a special need to single them out.)
• How Drug Testing Has Changed The Job Market (The Christian Science Monitor says the rise of mandatory drug testing at businesses across the United States during the past decade has radically changed the size and makeup of many companies' applicant pools. After all, who wants to work for a company committed to reducing its productivity by nearly 20 percent?)
• Drug-Test the Chess Club? (USA Weekend says school districts around the United States are increasingly requiring high-school students to submit to urine tests in order to participate in extracurricular activities.)
• Saying 'No' To Drug Surveys (The Colony Leader, in Texas, says Lewisville Independent School District officials have refused to administer a Texas A&M University drug-use survey for students in grades seven through 12, saying the survey is unscientific and too easy to manipulate.)
• Champion Shop Pulls Out Of Cannabis Cup Contest (The Associated Press says the unspecified winner of last year's "Cannabis Cup" in Amsterdam, Holland, withdrew from this year's competition Friday, saying the annual marijuana-cultivation competition sponsored by "High Times" magazine had become a "commercial circus" in which only about 20 of Amsterdam's 356 coffeeshops could afford to participate.)
• First Question - What Are The Implications For Health? (A translation of excerpts from an article in Frankfurter Rundschau, in Germany, says the newly appointed federal 'drug czar,' Christa Nickels, will proceed on the principle that addiction is a sickness. The new 'Red-Green' federal government will have a more liberal drug policy than its predecessor, and will follow the example of the Swiss, emphasizing education and assistance, not punishment.)
• The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 68 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original summary of drug policy news and calls to action, including - Federal court to decide on legality of testimony for leniency deals; Amnesty International report - too many children incarcerated in America; Government health officials deny marijuana and pain study, again; Swiss to vote on drug legalization; Australian officials call for heroin maintenance; Methadone support and advocacy network request for proposals - RFP; Philadelphia Bar Association holding medical marijuana forum Dec. 1; And the winner is . . .; plus an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Thanksgiving in a time of drug war)
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  Saturday, November 21, 1998:

• Police check shows one trucker in 10 testing positive for drugs (According to The Associated Press, the results are in from last October's 48-hour check of 367 truck drivers along Oregon's southern border. Nearly one in 10 drivers tested positive for "drug" use, according to an Oregon State Police report )
• Oregon accepts tobacco settlement (The Oregonian says Attorney General Hardy Myers announced Friday that Oregon would join 45 other states in accepting an agreement with the tobacco industry to end court battles over the costs of medical treatment for smokers. Under the agreement, the state would receive an estimated $2.1 billion during the first 25 years, then about $81 million a year in perpetuity - assuming smokers continue choosing to pay exorbitant new taxes levied on them without their consent.)
• Bus shuttles passengers to visit loved ones in distant lock-ups (A Salem, Oregon, Statesman Journal article syndicated by The Associated Press notes the state of Oregon doesn't pay for families to visit inmates at the remote Snake River Correctional Facility near Ontario, so a private business began just over a month ago, offering a 24-hour, 830-mile round-trip bus trip allowing relatives from the Willamette Valley to spend a few hours visiting loved ones behind bars.)
• Voters And Drug Policy Collide (Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer writes in The San Francisco Examiner that what makes the war on drugs so nutty is that it's more about maintaining the coercive power of anti-drug bureaucrats than treating those who suffer from serious drug abuse. Voters have been vilified as naive, but that appellation belongs to a war-on-drugs crusade that has filled our jails while leaving illegal drugs more plentiful and cheaper. It drives the anti-drug bureaucracy mad that voters in six states have now decided to ever so slightly challenge its total grip on the awesome power of government, but it bodes well for our representative system of government.)
• DARE study (A list subscriber posts the URL for an Adobe Acrobat .pdf version of the report titled "Attitudes and Beliefs about DARE - A survey interview with full program graduates in Cedar City, Utah," by Joseph Donnermeyer of Ohio State University.)
• Newspaper - federal prosecutors break law to pursue convictions (The Associated Press says a two-year investigation has culminated in a 10-part series beginning Sunday in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that shows federal agents and prosecutors around the country have repeatedly broken the law over the past decade in pursuit of convictions. The newspaper said it found examples of prosecutors lying, hiding evidence, distorting the facts, engaging in cover-ups, paying for perjury and setting up innocent people to win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions. Federal officials rarely were punished for their misconduct. Some victims went to prison because prosecutors withheld favorable evidence or allowed fabricated testimony, while some criminals walked free as a reward for conspiring with the government.)
• Update on Jean Marlowe's case - please don't call the prosecutor (A news release from NORML says Jean Marlowe, a medical marijuana patient in Mill Spring, North Carolina, will be sentenced Tuesday for receiving a package of cannabis from Switzerland.)
• Califano implicates pot in alcohol deaths (Joseph Califano of CASA is quoted on television's "Politically Incorrect" saying the antiemetic qualities of cannabis prevent drunks from throwing up, killing them.)
• Loerrach Applies To Join The New Drug Project (According to a translation excerpted from Stuttgarter Zeitung, in Germany, the district of Lorraech has made formal application to the German Ministry of Health for permission to establish safe injecting-rooms for addicts. The Catholic Workers Party recently asked for 50,000 marks to plan such clinics.)
• 55% Of Smuggled Cocaine World Wide Being Transported By Express Services (According to an article translated from Die Welt, in Germany, German Customs authorities say private transport services such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL are being used "to a considerable extent" for the international transport of illegal drugs. Of the total European air-freight traffic in 1997, around 40 percent was done by couriers, 27 percent by air-freight and 33 percent by parcel post. 55 percent of smuggled cocaine discovered was being transported by express services; 11 percent by air freight, and 34 percent by parcel-post. The figures for marihuana were: 40 percent for express services; 38 percent via air freight, and 12 percent via parcel post. 88 percent of the hashish was being transported by air-freight.)
  Bytes: 44,200 Last updated: 12/9/98
  

  Sunday, November 22, 1998:

• Nearly 10% Of Truckers Fail Oregon Drug Test (The Los Angeles Times version of yesterday's news about Oregon State Police randomly detaining and urine-testing professional truck drivers in Southern Oregon fails to explain why such unconstitutional infringements wouldn't be tolerated in California.)
• Drag Net - Cigarette Buyers May Go Online To Avoid New Taxes (The San Jose Mercury News says that when the 50-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase mandated by Proposition 10 kicks in on January 1, authorities in California fear many tobacco aficionados will find ways of avoiding the tax - even if it means breaking the law. The state already loses up to $50 million a year in unpaid cigarette taxes. Armed with an editor's credit card, a reporter bought three cartons of Marlboro, Kools and Lucky Strike cigarettes for $18.50 per carton from Riverbend Discount Cigarettes, located on the Allegany Indian Reservation in Salamanca, New York. "We haven't made an estimate yet as to what the impact is going to be" under Proposition 10, said Monte Williams of the California Board of Equalization.)
• Pro Bono (A staff editorial in The San Francisco Examiner says Mary Bono's revelation that her husband Sonny died because of his dependence on prescription drugs underscores the insanity of this country's "war on drugs.")
• Police Officers Are Wearing Badges Of Dishonor (The Los Angeles Times focuses on the rise and fall of Ralph Riley, a Georgia policeman convicted of drug-war corruption, to examine the growing nationwide problem of cops being convicted of serious crimes, most of them involving drugs. The number of federal, state and local officials serving time in federal prisons, mostly for drug-related offenses, has multiplied five times in four years to nearly 550 this year, according to government data.)
• Dealer Goes Undercover on Underworld Odyssey (The Los Angeles Times says that when Roberto Rodriguez went on the lam in 1989 after being sentenced to 12 years in prison, he embarked on an odyssey through the drug underworld of the Americas that ultimately led to revelations of official corruption in several US cities.)
• Two Years Later, CIA-drug Controversy Continues (The San Jose Mercury News notes two years have passed since the newspaper ignited a firestorm of controversy with its "Dark Alliance" series, primarily written by Gary Webb, which exposed the CIA-Contra-cocaine scandal. The US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee is expected to hold hearings next year.)
• Marijuana Isn't A Harmless Drug (An op-ed in The Boston Globe by Alan Leshner, the director of the US National Institutes of Health, makes a claim that New Scientist previously said "cannot be taken seriously," and asserts other long-discredited research supports his contention that "marijuana is not a benign drug, and its use should not be encouraged," as if that justified busting almost a million Americans a year.)
• New FBI Report Reveals More Marijuana Arrests in 1997 Than Any Other Year in US History (The Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, DC, says there were 695,201 marijuana arrests last year, 87 percent of which were for possession.)
• The 'Win At All Costs' series list (An index hyperlinked to all the stories making up The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series published Nov. 22 through Dec. 13, about the prevalence of perjury and other malfeasance federal prosecutors routinely engage in.)
• Out Of Control - Win At All Costs series (The first part of a 10-part series by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says a two-year investigation by the newspaper has found that during the past 10 years, federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. They lied, hid evidence, distorted facts, engaged in cover-ups, paid for perjury and set up innocent people in a relentless effort to win indictments, guilty pleas and convictions. New laws and court rulings that encourage federal law enforcement officers to press the boundaries of their power provide few safeguards against abuse. Victims of this misconduct sometimes lost their jobs, assets and even families. Some remain in prison because prosecutors withheld favorable evidence or allowed fabricated testimony. Some criminals walk free as a reward for conspiring with the government in its effort to deny others their rights.)
• From Beginning Of Cases To End, Rule Changes Led To Misconduct - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. New laws and court rulings over the past two decades have made it easier for federal law enforcement officials to arrest, convict and imprison the guilty.)
• Poll on Drug Testing of Students (List subscribers alert you to USA Weekend online and call-in polls continuing through Nov. 26. Is it unreasonable to require urine tests of high school students in order for them to join clubs or athletic teams?)
• Hemp seed - perfect for the munchies (The Toronto Star says hemp seed has long been a food source in Europe and Asia, and has undergone a resurgence in North America in the last five years. Outlawed in Canada in 1938 because of its association with marijuana, hemp has made a comeback thanks in part to Health Canada allowing its commercial cultivation. Hemp seed is good for you - it contains essential fatty acids, is of much higher quality than flax seed, and is 22 percent protein.)
• Uphill Struggle On Trail Of Record Heroin Bust (The Sun Herald, in Australia, says that despite an international hunt, police have yet to identify the criminal masterminds behind last month's record heroin seizure in Australia.)
  Bytes: 131,000 Last updated: 3/4/99
  

  Monday, November 23, 1998:

• Tell The Whole Story (A letter to the editor of The Bulletin, in Bend, Oregon, protests the newspaper's recent biased editorial about Keith Green and his anti-marijuana article in the Archives of Ophthalmology.)
• Feds Sought Bigger Drug Deal To Ensure A Stiffer Prison Sentence (Part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. The government entrapped Michael Staufer into a bigger LSD deal than he could really handle, just so they could double his prison term.)
• Federal Sting Often Put More Drugs On The Streets - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. Not only did Rodney Matthews have the government's permission to fly 700 kilograms of cocaine into a remote Houston airstrip on New Year's Eve in 1989. He had their permission to sell it, too.)
• Informant Lured Him Into A Costly Deal - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. Bobby Thomas, who had no prior criminal record, was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison after being entrapped into drug trafficking by a professional government informant.)
• Drug Charge Beaten, But At High Price - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. John Gardner, a 33-year-old Pittsburgh postal employee, was arrested on drug charges in 1989 after a government informant with an expensive drug habit talked him into buying drugs to help feed the informant's drug habit.)
• Fighting To Prove Innocence Led 3 To Stiffer Sentences (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. Three men, all about 60 years old - Loren Pogue, George Pararas-Carayannis, and Beryl L. Johnston, who were entrapped by government sting operations were successful in their careers and active in their communities. After refusing plea bargains and fighting to prove their innocence, their lives are ruined, their assets gone. Two are serving long prison terms. The third expects to begin serving his sentence soon.)
• Trapped Into Trying To Settle Vendetta - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. Qubilah Shabazz, daughter of assassinated black leader Malcolm X, was arrested in June 1995 and charged with plotting to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the man she thought murdered her father 30 years before. The story behind the headlines was even more bizarre.)
• A Sting Gone Awry - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times. Seven small companies employing more than 100 people went bust after "Operation Lightning Strike," an expensive government sting operation that at first yielded no results. So the government set out to entrap the little guys to save face.)
• Assistant principal gets 30 years for dealing drugs near his school (An Associated Press article found at Tampa Bay Online says Willie James Young Jr., 52, an assistant principal at North Miami Community Middle School, was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for trying to buy 66 pounds of cocaine from undercover drug agents two blocks from his middle school.)
• An After-Hours Lifestyle Can Mess Up Your Style At Work (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch surveys lifestyle protection laws around the nation. In states with no such legal protections, your company can use what you do on your own time to determine how well you perform your job. Only three states - New York, North Dakota and Colorado - have statutes protecting employees from job discrimination based on any legal activity they choose to engage in after work. In half the states, the only protected after-hours activity an employee can engage in is smoking. In his just-published book, "Job Discrimination II," Jeffrey Bernbach, an attorney in New York City who specializes in workplace law, writes that an employer might terminate workers for such offenses as "drinking six martinis before dinner or riding your Harley-Davidson or taking herbal medications for your arthritis, which may label you as a 'health nut,' or even seeking counseling to get through a bad relationship, divorce, or the death of a loved one.")
• On the Hill, Barring Democracy (Washington Post columnist Dick Evans contrasts the noble words about democracy posted at the web site of US Representative Robert L. Barr Jr. with the Georgia Republican's ignoble quashing of Initiative 59, the District of Columbia medical marijuana initiative.)
• Five states approve medical marijuana (The American Medical News says the success of all five medical marijuana initiatives in the Nov. 3 elections means doctors must now decide whether they want to recommend the drug to patients. Under the new laws, physicians need only write their recommendation in patients' medical records. Patients can then request a copy to protect against prosecution.)
• The Online Drug War - A virtual breeze comes to Washington (USA Today columnist Sam Vincent Meddis heaps praise on the Drug Reform Coordination Network online library and the web sites and organizations that belong to it, including Common Sense for Drug Policy, the Lindesmith Center, NORML and DrugSense. "The Internet is starting to level the playing field between drug warrior and reformer.")
• DEA Agent From Texas Slain In Colombia Bar Fight (The Dallas Morning News says Frank Arnold Moreno, 37, was shot once in the chest about 1 am outside the El Divino bar in downtown Bogota after what one US Embassy official called "a bar brawl.")
• NT Drugs Shock - They're Rife Among Pupils (According to The NT News, in Australia's Northern Territory, a national survey taken in 1996 suggests that students' cannabis use in the territory was as prevalent as tobacco use, though no more prevalent than in other states or the Australian Capital Territory. The survey found 75 per cent of 17-year-old males had used cannabis at some time in their lives, and half had used cannabis in the seven days before the study.)
• DrugSense Weekly, No. 75 (The weekly summary of drug policy news leads with a feature article by Keith Stroup, director of NORML - So, no one goes to jail for marijuana offenses and they don't arrest medicinal users, about the case of Jean Marlowe. The Weekly News In Review features such articles about Medical Marijuana as - Chavez found guilty in pot club bust; Democracy takes a blow for medical marijuana; Research on medical marijuana still politicized; In England the Lords say yes to medical marijuana, the government no and police arrest patient. Articles about Drug War Policy include - Reform of drug policy - an idea whose time has come; MAMA says education not law enforcement; Family of Mexican slain by Texas police files suit; Arrests soar in crackdown on marijuana; Poppy seeds - everything you wanted to know about growing poppies in your backyard; Bribery of informants questioned in court; Supreme Court looks at need for warrants in auto searches; Drug testing loses a round in Louisiana; No one shows up for national drug testing conference; Home drug test marketers still pushing home testing; Nearly 10 percent of truckers fail Oregon drug test; Random drug testing comes home. Several International News articles include - Germany appoints a czarina who wants to treat drug use as a health matter; Germany moves to open drug injection rooms; Germany moves to begin heroin prescription trials; Australia federal and local elected officials call for heroin trials; England debates whether to expel students involved with drugs or not; Colombia - a new start or the same old problems. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net points to - Prosecutorial abuse examined in ten part series; Marijuana Policy Project analyzes arrests and incarceration of marijuana offenders. The Quote of the Week cites Abraham Lincoln. The Tip Of The Week points to - USA Today conducting on-line poll on drug testing now! The Fact Of The Week notes a Yahoo! online poll supports marijuana law reform by a whopping 84 percent to 15 percent margin.)
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  Tuesday, November 24, 1998:

• The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Marijuana Arrests For 1997 Most Ever - FBI Data Confirm Clinton's Marijuana War To Be Toughest In Nation's History; Medical Marijuana Patient Linda Jean Marlowe Freed From Jail.)
• Scoreboard - This week's winner and losers - Medical marijuana users lose (Willamette Week, in Portland, notes the National Institutes of Health last week refused once again to sponsor human medical trials on cannabis.)
• Complaint forms now in other languages (The Oregonian says that after months of prodding by city officials and citizen advisers, the Portland police bureau has translated its citizen complaint form into Cambodian, Chinese, Spanish, Laotian, Vietnamese and Russian. According to the newspaper, any group or person interested in obtaining the form can call the internal affairs division at 503-823-0236.)
• Marijuana Arrests (A letter to the editor of The Los Angeles Times from Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, DC, notes 695,201 people were arrested for marijuana in the United States in 1997 - 87 percent of arrests were for simple possession.)
• Justices Expand On Pot Decision (The Denver Post says a divided Colorado Supreme Court explained Monday why it refused to allow a marijuana initiative on the November ballot. The two dissenting justices suggested the decision could erode the initiative process.)
• Hiding The Facts - Win At All Costs series (Part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors have pursued justice by breaking the law hundreds of times.)
• Few Of Case's Twists, Shady Deals Revealed In Court - Win At All Costs series (Another installment in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about federal agents and prosecutors routinely breaking the law.)
• Federal Misconduct Creates An Incident In Costa Rica (Another installment in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about federal agents and prosecutors routinely breaking the law.)
• Feds Buy Into Deal With Known Drug Trafficker - Win At All Costs series (Another installment in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about federal agents and prosecutors routinely breaking the law.)
• Smuggler Sells Out His Lawyer To Strike A Deal - Win At All Costs series (Another installment in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about federal agents and prosecutors routinely breaking the law.)
• Medical Marijuana Patient Jean Marlowe Released from Jail! (A bulletin from NORML says federal district judge Lacey Thornburg released Jean Marlowe - detained since Nov. 9 - from jail during a sentencing hearing today in Asheville, North Carolina, and sentenced her to six months of home confinement for receiving a package of marijuana from Switzerland, which she had obtained for her personal medical use.)
• Mexico Seizes Three Hotels From Drug Cartel (According to Reuters, Reforma newspaper said Tuesday that Mexican police, with the help of US agents, have seized about $200 million in assets from the so-called Juarez cartel, including three luxury hotels, two of them in the Caribbean resort of Cancun.)
• Dutch To Extend Free Heroin Hand-Outs To Addicts (According to Reuters, the Netherlands' health ministry said on Tuesday it would extend an experiment to distribute free heroin to hard-core addicts after a three-month pilot scheme proved a success.)
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  Wednesday, November 25, 1998:

• US Drug Policy is Sound, Despite What Molly Ivins Might Think (A factually challenged and intellectually tortured op-ed in The Oregonian by a shill from the White House drug czar's office responds to the syndicated columnist's recent apostasy on the drug war.)
• Cigarette Price Hikes May Ignite Inflation Surge (According to The San Jose Mercury News, an economist at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday's 45-cent-per-pack increase in the price of cigarettes probably will push up consumer inflation about 0.2 percentage points in December.)
• Viagra Gets Expanded Health Warnings (The San Jose Mercury News says the Food and Drug Administration is adding new labels warning that men with heart problems and very high or very low blood pressure should be carefully examined before getting a prescription for Pfizer's new anti-impotence drug. Since it was approved in April, 130 deaths have been linked to Viagra out of 3 million men who have used it. The FDA said Tuesday it still considers Viagra "safe" - the problem is the sexual activity it facilitates.)
• Court Awards Smuggler $50,000 (The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal says a New Brunswick court has awarded a convicted cocaine smuggler nearly $50,000 because of injuries he suffered when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser carrying him to court smashed into another police car four years ago.)
• Blitz Fails To Halt Drug Flow (According to The Herald Sun, Mick Palmer, the Australian federal police commissioner, admitted yesterday that the country's biggest-ever heroin haul last month had not dented local supply of the drug, or increased its price.)
• Melbourne Mayors Call For ACT Heroin Trial (The Canberra Times says mayors from 10 inner Melbourne communities called yesterday for the Australian Capital Territory's proposed heroin maintenance trial to proceed as part of a plan to minimise the harm caused by illegal drugs. The plan signed by the mayors also sought the "gradual spread" of the caution system, under which small-time cannabis users receive warnings rather than criminal charges.)
  Bytes: 23,700 Last updated: 12/23/98
  

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1998 Daily News complete index (long)

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This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/news98_index_1119.html