Portland NORML 1998 News Index, December 3-9

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1998 News
About Cannabis and Drug Policy
December 3-9

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Thursday, December 3, 1998

Medical Marijuana Legal Today (The Oregonian notes the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and a similar voter initiative in Washington state go into effect today. Dr. Rick Bayer, principal sponsor of Measure 67, said patients who were considering using marijuana should first talk to their doctors. "It will be imperative that the patient educate the doctor. That education won't be coming from Eli Lilly or Merck." Patients or doctors who want more information can contact Oregonians for Medical Rights through its Web site, www.teleport.com/~omr, or its toll-free telephone number, 1-877-600-6767.)
Oregonians light up as medical marijuana law takes effect (An Associated Press article on the same subject interviews a patient who uses cannabis for arthritis, glaucoma and post-traumatic stress from her years as a nurse in Vietnam.)
Marijuana Law Takes Effect Now, Prosecutors On Lookout (According to an Associated Press article in the Everett, Washington, Herald, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterbert said yesterday that his office will be on the lookout for people trying to abuse the voter-approved law legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Satterberg said prosecutors anticipate the biggest problems will involve people who try to defend large growing operations on behalf of a friend or relative who is sick.)
Marijuana Law Takes Effect Now Prosecutors On Lookout (A lengthier version in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Pot for pain (An MSNBC story broadcast by KHQ-6 in Spokane, Washington, notes Sam Diana, who uses a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis, is awaiting sentencing in federal court for a marijuana conviction. Despite voters' approval of Initiative 692, Spokane police say they will arrest anyone who dares to smoke marijuana and will let judges decide who is legal and who is not.)
Estimated 500 Pounds Of Pot Were Stolen From Burn Pile (According to The Arizona Daily Star, Sergeant John Sanders of the Pima County Sheriff's Department said a tip from a confidential informant and an examination of the amount of ash left at an incinerator have led him to conclude that thieves made off with about 500 pounds of a seven-ton load of marijuana transported by US Customs Service agents from El Paso to Tucson for incineration.)
DrugSense Focus Alert No. 90 - Dallas Morning News on "Speed" (DrugSense asks you to write a letter to The Dallas Morning News about yesterday's misleading and sensational article on "Nazi" meth labs in northern Texas.)
Nazi Meth (A list subscriber says that, according to the Topeka Capital Journal, the "Nazi" method of manufacturing methamphetamine is named after a cook operating in south central Missouri who distributed his recipe on stationery adorned with white supremacist images.)
School Board To Ask The US Supreme Court To Reinstate Drug Testing (The Indianapolis Star says the school board in Anderson, Indiana, voted Tuesday night to appeal a US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to the Supreme Court, seeking to reinstate the school corporation's drug testing policy. Board member Irma Hampton Stewart, who is a lawyer, cast the only dissenting vote, which could entail legal fees close to $60,000.)
Eye At The Keyhole (A staff editorial in The Chicago Sun-Times says Tuesday's ruling by the US Supreme Court - that short-term visitors to a private home have no reasonable expectation of privacy - again has narrowly interpreted privacy rights. The decision further erodes the widely held expectation that one's home is one's castle and an inviolable bastion of privacy, and that those protections extend to one's invited guests.)
Medical marijuana group sues over ouster from polling place (The Associated Press notes Floridians for Medical Rights is suing Duval County's sheriff and top elections official after being ordered away from a polling place. Supervisor of Elections Tommie Bell said Wednesday that the group is correct in arguing it should have been allowed to remain at the polling place on Nov. 3. She also disputed the claim of a sheriff's spokesman that police had first checked with her office.)
Medical Marijuana Supporters Sue Officials (The UPI version)
Geronimo Guilty Of Drug Charge (The Washington Post says raunch-radio host Don Geronimo, half of the "Don and Mike" afternoon show, syndicated to 58 stations in 30 states, was found guilty yesterday of marijuana possession and pleaded guilty to reckless driving after a 90-minute trial in Fairfax County General District Court. The marijuana was found after Geronimo tried to bolt from the scene and an officer drew a gun on him. Prosecutors in Fairfax County, Virginia, asked that Geronimo be sentenced to jail because he already has a 1996 conviction for possession of cocaine.)
An Unholy Alliance (Washington Post columnist Steve Twomey discusses the ironies implicit in the Clinton Administration's support for the disenfranchisement of voters in the District of Columbia and the quashing of Initiative 59, the DC medical marijuana initiative, by conservative Republican US Representative Robert L. Barr Jr. Clinton came into office gushy for statehood as a way to end two centuries of congressional control of the city.)
Customs Service drug searches prompt horror tales, lawsuits (The Associated Press says the US Customs Service strip-searched hundreds of airline passengers last year and transported 675 to hospitals for X-ray inspections, usually in handcuffs, and some were detained for days without being allowed to call a lawyer or family members, but only about a fourth were caught with illegal drugs. Sixty percent of those pulled aside last year for body searches or X-rays were black or Hispanic.)
Customs Service Drug Searches Prompt Outrage, Lawsuits (A slightly different Associated Press version in The Orange County Register)
Tossounian Is A Hero (A letter to the editor of The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, in Ontario, says Jeannette Tossounian, a Kitchener dispenser of medical marijuana, is like Florence Nightingale, or those who helped Jews escape from Nazi death camps.)
Parents 'Grew Drugs For Kids' (The Courier-Mail, in Australia, says a Queensland couple accused of supplying marijuana to their children allegedly told police they did so to prevent them from buying drugs elsewhere. Police also will claim that homegrowing the drugs allowed the parents to know what type of drugs their sons were taking, as well as controlling their drug intake, stopping them from stealing and sneaking around the house.)
Hashish Therapy for AIDS? (A translation of an article from Suedkurier Konstanz, in Germany, says doctors attending an international medical marihuana convention in Frankfurt have asked that cannabis be made available via prescription, just as opiates are.)
Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 4, Number 40 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
Bytes: 78,200 Last updated: 1/1/99

Friday, December 4, 1998:
Officials still have to iron out the details of how legal marijuana users will be protected (A slightly different version of yesterday's Associated Press article about the implementation of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, in the Salem, Oregon, Statesman Journal)
Audit - Review $1 billion expansion of prison system (The Oregonian says auditors for the state of Oregon are urging a thorough review of the state's $1 billion prison expansion plan because of concerns that it could bring a surplus of prison beds at construction costs that are nearly 70 percent higher than in other states.)
The Dire Consequences Of DARE (Boulder Weekly columnist Wayne Laugesen says Police Chief Mark Beckner and Boulder County Sheriff George Epp should be applauded for recently dumping DARE. Laugesen called psychologist William Hansen, whose research formed the basis for DARE. Hansen said the LAPD took an anti-drug model he had developed while it was in its infant stages and ran with it. "DARE was misguided as soon as they adopted our material, because we were off base," Hansen said. "It's outdated material that does not work." Dare to have no drug intervention program at all. The results will be astounding. Fewer children will use drugs, more classroom time will be spent on legitimate education, and police will be able to focus on crime.)
Drug Crusade Has Produced Everything But Success (An op-ed in the Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram comes out against the war on some drug users. Among other things, the war has led to a 20 percent increase in substance addiction.)
DARE Officer's Wife Arrested For Drugs Possession (The Chicago Sun-Times says the Chicago's cop's wife was charged with possession of crack cocaine and marijuana.)
Our Prisons Have Bigger Problems Than Escapees (Syndicated Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Molly Ivins discusses "The Prison-Industrial Complex," in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly, an article revealing the out-of-control and increasingly corrupt American political, judicial and correctional system.)
DuPage Prosecutors File Lawsuit To Stop So-Called 'Head Shops' (The Daily Herald, in Illinois, says DuPage County prosecutors filed suit Thursday, claiming two alleged "head shops," as prosecutors called them, in Downers Grove and Westmont are selling drug paraphernalia.)
Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Case About Drinking Pregnant Woman (The Associated Press covers oral arguments before the Wisconsin Supreme Court Thursday in the challenge to a new law passed by the legislature allowing a woman to be imprisoned if police determine that her alcohol or "drug" habit endangers her fetus.)
Angela Davis' new crusade (Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson says the tenured professor who was once placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List on false charges and jailed for 16 months before being acquitted, is calling for the abolition of prisons. For every black male eliminated from California universities in the 1990s, the state added 57 to its prisons. Prison has become less an institution for hardened criminals and more of an instrument of social control for low-income people.)
Government Ignores Teenage Alcohol Use (A letter to the editor of The Daily Star, in Oneonta, New York, notes the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the White House drug czar's office focus their advertising dollars on marijuana, which never killed anyone. Meanwhile, they ignore the harm to young people attributable to ignorance about alcohol. For example, Michigan State University student Bradley McCue recently died on his 21st birthday from acute alcohol poisoning, after drinking 24 shots of liquor in less than two hours.)
Jail Officials Indicted (UPI says a major drug ring operating within two Miami-Dade County jails in Florida has been busted with the indictments and arrests of 26 people, including nine corrections officers and a jail counselor. The FBI says that in addition to smuggling "drugs," inmates, officers and others were charged with illegally bringing in cigarettes, worth $175 a carton.)
43 people charged in drug network run from behind bars (The Associated Press version says those charged in connection with smuggling illegal drugs in Miami-Dade County jails included 13 corrections officers - and the smuggling ring was run by a jailed dealer.)
Probation For Former Mayor (UPI says Todd Deratany, the former mayor of Indialantic, Florida, and the son of former state legislator Tim Deratany, has been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading no contest to a charge of attempting to sell cocaine.)
Nonprofit Cleared for DC Needle Exchange (The Washington Post says that six weeks after Congress ordered the District of Columbia to stop paying for a needle exchange program to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among drug users, the city's top lawyer yesterday cleared the way for the exchange to be taken over by Prevention Works, an independent nonprofit group that was spun off by the Whitman-Walker Clinic so as not to endanger its substantial city and federal grants.)
DEA Reconsiders Hemp Regulations (A letter from Thomas Constantine, head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, to Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, says DEA is "determining the feasibility of establishing a production level of cannabis that is consistent with the public interest in controlling drugs of abuse and recognizes the commercial interest in the cultivation of Cannabis sativa L. for fiber." Unfortunately, Constatine sidesteps the issue of why DEA officials have been lobbying against industrial hemp agricultural research in Hawaii.)
Secondhand Smoke, Alcohol Recommended As Carcinogens (The Associated Press says a subcommittee of the National Toxicology Program's Board of Scientific Counselors voted unanimously on Wednesday to affirm the recommendations of two groups of government scientists that secondhand smoke should be labeled a carcinogen. The panel also concluded that alcohol can cause cancer. The subcommittee's vote seems to have been motivated by a July decision by a federal judge in North Carolina which found that the EPA's similar conclusion in 1993 was biased and unscientific.)
Citibank Role Criticized In Mexican Money Case (According to The Chicago Tribune, a report by the General Accounting Office says Citibank executives ignored some of the bank's safeguards against the laundering of illicit funds in order to do business with Raul Salinas de Gortari, a brother of the former President of Mexico.)
Citibank Cut Corners for Salinas (The Cox Interactive Media version in The Austin American-Statesman)
Mexico Cops Arrest Man For Massacre (The Associated Press says Tijuana police have arrested Hector Flores Esquivias, an alleged member of the gang blamed in the September massacre of 19 people in the city of Ensenada. Also arrested was Cruz Medina Perez, believed to be the wife of the gang's alleged leader, Arturo Martinez Gonzalez. Apparently the evidence linking Flores to the massacre hasn't been disclosed yet.)
Oaxacan Police Chief Resigns (The Associated Press says Jose Mendez Rico, the chief of police for Mexico's southern Oaxaca state, resigned after two days on the job and one day after news reports linked him to a powerful drug cartel.)
US, Caribbean Troops Prepare for Marijuana Mission (The Associated Press says six US Marine Corps helicopters will ferry more than 120 troops from the Caribbean Regional Security Service and local police next week to uproot and burn marijuana plants on the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent. The Marijuana Farmers movement, which claims to have 800 members, sent a letter to President Clinton on Thursday demanding compensation for lost marijuana plants.)
IOC Attempt To Resolve Doping Dilemma (Reuters says FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his International Olympic Committee counterpart Juan Antonio Samaranch will meet in Switzerland next month in an attempt to resolve their differences on proposed common rules regarding doping offenders.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 69 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original summary of drug policy news and calls to action includes - DRCNet projects and campaigns; Alert - show of support needed for New Jersey needle exchange; US Congress triples military aid To Colombia; Report - New York state now spending more on prisons than higher education; Drug war perjury highlighted in Congressional impeachment hearings; Thousands protest at US Army School of the Americas; Swiss legalization referendum fails, but provides hopeful signs for future; Coalition seeking DC election results grows; and an editorial, Criminalizing our children, by Adam J. Smith.)
Bytes: 119,000 Last updated: 1/1/99

Saturday, December 5, 1998:
Pot Center Founder Fights Charges (An update in The San Francisco Chronicle on pretrial motions and hearings involving the prosecution of Peter Baez, the former operator of Santa Clara County's only medical marijuana dispensary. The next hearing is Dec. 23.)
Cop Questioned At Hearing (The San Jose Mercury News version notes defense attorney Gerald Uelmen did not complete his initial questioning of San Jose police Sergeant Scott Savage as Friday's hearing ended. Supporters of Peter Baez have said the criminal case against him stems from a vendetta by Savage.)
Smoking and the Self-Righteous (Los Angeles Times columnist Susan Self says you know the tide has turned in the war on tobacco when a nonsmoker like her starts to feel sympathy for cigarette companies. But someone has to take a stand for principle. There have been 34 studies of the effects of secondhand smoke noted by the Congressional Research Service and only seven found significant negative health effects. One actually found benefits. What these studies mean, in the words of the Economist magazine, "is that the effects are so small as to be hard to pin down with any certainty at all." Virtue no longer seems to be its own reward.)
Man convicted of drug dealing says voodoo made him do it (According to The Associated Press, Olakunle A. Osoba was convicted in Columbus, Ohio, of heroin trafficking, but said voodoo made him do it. The judge didn't buy it and sentenced him Friday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.)
Legal Office Didn't Seek Aid (The Baltimore Sun says state public defender Stephen E. Harris was accused yesterday of placing political concerns over constitutional rights. The Maryland Office of the Public Defender, which provides lawyers for the poor, requested $750,000 in October to hire eight additional lawyers in the current fiscal year, but the request came months after it sent letters to 350 defendants who were charged with drug offenses, telling them they were eligible for free attorneys but that the office could not provide them.)
2 DeKalb cops shot during raid of alleged drug house (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the two DeKalb County prohibition agents were recovering at home from minor gunshot wounds they suffered during a Thursday night raid on a suspected drug house in Belvedere. The suspected shooter, Dwight Brown, surrendered to police, who charged him with aggravated assault and marijuana possession.)
US Court Convicts Fugitive Haitian Of Drug Smuggling (Reuters says Joseph Michel Francois, a top police official and reputed death squad leader under Haiti's former military regime, was convicted in absentia by a federal court in Miami on Friday of cocaine smuggling and money laundering. Eight other people were convicted in the case in US District Court, four of whom are fugitives. One of those convicted was Joel Audain, a US immigration officer who allowed traffickers to pass through secure areas of Miami airport.)
A Newcomer in the Liberal Arts - Criminal Justice (The New York Times says students are flocking to criminal-justice courses, making criminal justice the fastest-growing major in the United States. From an obscure discipline scorned by most academics, with only two small doctoral programs as recently as 1970, criminal justice has exploded to 350,000 undergraduate majors at colleges and universities. In part, the appeal of criminal justice is a result of the huge growth in crime since the 1960s, the prison-building boom and the fascination with criminals.)
Pot-Growing Professor Hopes To Teach Again (The Victoria Times-Colonist, in British Columbia, says Professor Jean Veevers, just fined $15,000 and given a conditional 12-month sentence she can serve at home, hopes to greet her sociology class at the University of Victoria on Jan. 4 and resume her teaching career. British Columbian Supreme Court Justice Dean Wilson said Veevers, who suffers from chronic depression and fatigue syndrome, arthritis and fibromyalgia, does not pose a risk to the community.)
Antiepileptic Drug Blocks Rats' Taste For Nicotine (The Lancet, in Britain, says scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, have discovered that the antiepileptic drug vigabatrin blocks nicotine-induced brain dopamine release in rats and primates. Further, vigabatrin treatment disrupts rats' preference for an environment previously associated with nicotine; pretreatment with the drug blocks the development of such a preference. Vigabatrin also blocks the biochemical and behavioural effects of alcohol, morphine, amphetamine, and methamphetamine in animals.)
Ecstasy Use May Cause Brain Damage, Say Scientists (The Guardian, in Britain, says scientists last night warned that ecstasy, or MDMA, could trigger long-term damage to vital brain cells called serotonin neurons, although there is still no hard evidence. Rat brain cells seem to recover. But Professor Una McCann of the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, said that seven years after being treated to a four-day course of drugs, every monkey in a series of labs across the world had shown signs of irreversible damage. Now, she and colleagues told a conference in London yesterday, tests and brain scans on human volunteers show similar damage. The catch is that scientists can only work with volunteers who have already become worried about the drug's effects. The researchers are faced with other variables - they cannot be sure about the amount, the frequency or the quality of the MDMA taken, or the role of other drugs that might have been used.)
Bytes: 54,400 Last updated: 12/16/98

Sunday, December 6, 1998:
S.F. cops arrest 3 in drug inquiry (The San Francisco Examiner says San Francisco undercover police officers slipped into a popular South of Market night club, the Sound Factory at 525 Harrison St., and arrested three disc jockeys for allegedly selling the stimulant ecstasy, part of a continuing probe of illegal drug sales in area dance venues.)
Second Thoughts On 'Three Strikes' Law (The Orange County Register says support is growing in California for a requirement that third-time felons must commit a violent crime before a sentence of 25-years-to-life can be handed down. Families to Amend California's Three Strikes, or FACTS, is lobbying legislators to support a bill to study the successes and failures of California's three-strikes law, believing that such a study will illuminate the law's failures and injustices and bolster support for reform. As of March 31, 4,076 felons had been sent to prison under the law, mostly for nonviolent offenses, including 18.8 percent for drug crimes.)
State Leads Nation In Housing Inmates At Out-Of-State Sites (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin ranked third among states a year ago when it came to shipping criminals to prisons beyond its borders. But today, with nearly 2,600 convicts in exile, it has no rival for the dubious title. James Austin of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, in Washington, DC, said that instead of saving money, states such as Wisconsin spend more on transportation, monitoring and costly litigation when something eventually goes wrong at a prison thousands of miles away.)
Shipping Inmates No Solution (A staff editorial in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Wisconsin legislature is responsible for prison overcrowding and making the housing of inmates out of state a permanent feature of state corrections policy. Crime is not rising. Lawmakers dramatically lengthened sentences without adequately dealing with the predictable jump in prison population.)
'Gang loitering' law headed for Supreme Court (An Associated Press article carried by Nando Media says Chicago's anti-loitering ordinance designed to combat drug trafficking by street gangs, used to make 45,000 arrests to date, goes before the US Supreme Court this week for arguments on whether it endangers individual rights.)
Teen Meth Use Outpaces Treatment (According to The Des Moines Register, officials in Iowa say methamphetamine has replaced unspecified "other hard drugs" as the preferred high among adolescents in Iowa. While fewer than 25 youths sought help for meth addiction five years ago, 113 did so during the state's last fiscal year, said Dr. Ron Eckoff, the medical director for the Substance Abuse and Health Promotion Division of the state Department of Public Health. The article contradicts itself, saying marijuana and alcohol remain the drugs abused most often by Iowa teens, which would seem to omit tobacco, but in any case the comparative number of teens who sought help for alcohol addiction is omitted.)
Snitches Come With A Price (The Times Union, in New York, says that as the war on some drug users has escalated in recent years, so has the use of informants. But this dependence is making the criminal justice system vulnerable to challenge from defense attorneys.)
Inside Information Was Grist For Warrants (The Times Union, in Albany, New York, describes how informants sent a small-time seller of cocaine and marijuana to prison for 11 to 22 years - without the informants having to testify at trial.)
As Setups Go, This Informant Knows His Role (The Times Union, in New York, interviews an unnamed snitch who sets up the people who sell him illegal drugs.)
When Safeguards Fail - Win At All Costs series (The seventh part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. The American justice system has made it simple for federal prosecutors to use a grand jury to win an indictment against almost anyone. But it has made it nearly impossible to punish them when they abuse that right.)
Businessman Goes To Prison When Agent's False Testimony Isn't Corrected - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series showing that federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. It wasn't until after he was incarcerated that Eugene Kent learned that a grand jury had erred in bringing indictments against him. A federal agent had testified falsely before the secret panel, but since defendants and their lawyers aren't allowed to be present at grand jury sessions, the false information was never corrected.)
Promoter Says Attractive Property Made Him A Target - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series showing that federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. Federal prosecutors tried to forfeit a $7 million property owned by professional wrestler Vince McMahon, and persuaded a federal grand jury to indict McMahon for buying muscle-building steroids in 1989 that were not banned until 1991.)
Georgia's Other Nasty Congressman (Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker says Newt Gingrich isn't the only Georgia Republican with a persona guaranteed to chill voters, frighten small children and upset family pets. There's also US Representative Bob Barr, who attached an amendment to a District of Columbia appropriations bill that prohibited the Board of Elections from spending any money to count the votes on Initiative 59, the DC medical marijuana initiative. Supporters of the referendum figure the cost would be about $1.64.)
Unindicted Inmates Add To Crowding (The Ledger-Enquirer, in Georgia, says more than 80 Muscogee County Jail inmates have been held without indictment for more than three months, with some unindicted more than nine months after being jailed.)
Drug War Does More Harm Than Good (A letter to the editor of The Palm Beach Post applauds Molly Ivins' recent syndicated column coming out against the drug war.)
A Basic Disrespect for Democracy (An op-ed in The Washington Post by a law professor and law student protests the amendment added to the omnibus appropriations bill in October, introduced by Representative Robert L. Barr Jr., which prohibited the District of Columbia from spending any money to count the votes for Initiative 59, the local medical marijuana measure.)
Suing For Drugs (A staff editorial in The Washington Times applauds the Clinton Administration for asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit which would force the District to reveal the vote count on Initiative 59, the District of Columbia medical-marijuana initiative.)
Medical Officer Removed After Opposing Drug's Approval (According to The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times said Sunday that Dr. John L. Gueriguian, a veteran medical officer who opposed approval of the popular diabetes drug, Rezulin, was removed as its chief reviewer by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug, manufactured by Warner-Lambert Co., has been linked to at least 26 deaths worldwide.)
Drug Documentary Aired On CBS Said To Be Fake (The Washington Post says an independent panel ruled Friday that "The Connection," a documentary about Colombian drug-runners that was broadcast on "60 Minutes," was a fake. Produced by Carlton Communications, a prominent British television and film company, and sold to CBS in 1997, the production was broadcast around the world and has won eight journalism awards, including three in the United States.)
'Hypocrisy kills no-drug message' (The Launceston Examiner, in Australia, interviews Westhury nursing sister Heather Donaldson, a mother of four and author of a small book of aphorisms titled, "Drugs: High Hopes And Sudden Silences." "Zero tolerance doesn't work because of the hypocrisy of parents saying not to take drugs when coffee, alcohol, tobacco and chocolate all contain drugs." When a message contains hypocrisy, youngsters tend to dismiss the whole message. She said that concentration on hard drugs defied the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse statistics, which showed that 97 per cent of the 25,500 drug deaths a year were due to alcohol and tobacco and just 2 per cent to opiates and 1 per cent to other illicit drugs.)
Heart Charity Invests In Tobacco Industry (The Independent on Sunday says the British Heart Foundation, one of Britain's leading health charities that researches links between smoking and heart attacks, has invested £6 million of its employees' pension contributions in a fund that buys and sells shares in companies such as British American Tobacco, Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco.)
Ex-Mountie's low profile hid life on the run (The Toronto Star says Jorge Leite moved to Calhandriz, Portugal, in 1991 after being corrupted by the Cali cartel while a member of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police drug squad in Montreal. Portugal refused to extradite him back to Canada, since Leite has dual citizenship, but it is willing to jail him without bail and put him on trial early next year with secret Canadian evidence in a Portuguese court, where the burden of proof is on the accused.)
US Trains Colombian Military To Resist Rebels (A Cox syndicate article in The Austin American-Statesman says that officially, Washington classifies military instructor training missions in Colombia as counternarcotics aid, but in practice, the Green Berets from the 7th Special Forces group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are teaching skills the Colombian military needs to fight its civil war.)
Bytes: 151,000 Last updated: 12/18/98

Monday, December 7, 1998:
Investigation finds liquor agency badly understaffed (According to The Associated Press, The Statesman-Journal newspaper in Salem says the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is crippled by inadequate staffing and soft penalties, and unable to monitor thousands of bars and restaurants. The agency is asking the legislature for $1.5 million to hire 14 new inspectors.)
Trend To Be Discerned From The 1998 Elections (Orange County Register columnist Alan W. Bock says the mainstream media have missed most significant political trends until they have already become well-established. Bock suspects the media have also missed the most significant trend to be discerned from the 1998 elections - every single ballot measure that promised some kind of drug policy reform passed by a comfortable margin. He recommends two ballot measures for the next election - one mandating the introduction of federal legislation to reschedule marijuana, and another mandating a challenge to the constitutionality of federal drug laws.)
Teen Parties Today - "Cigarettes, Beer, Weed" (The San Francisco Examiner asks, what gives with Pleasanton teens and strippers? Are the adolescents all turning into drunken sailors, conventioneers and bachelor-party wannabes? And what goes on at a teen party these days anyway? Teenagers surveyed at Berkeley High and Stone Ridge Mall in Pleasanton said strippers are hardly the usual form of party entertainment. Teenage parties today seem to be just like they were when kids' parents were growing up. Loud music. Beer. Some hard liquor. Some sex. Cigarette smoking. And pot.)
Wiretap Operation Sheds Light On LAPD Tactics (According to The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles prohibition agents were convinced that John Lopez and his small storefront telephone company, Atel Cellular and Paging, were in cahoots with drug dealers, so they wiretapped the customers' and Atel's phones. Starting with just his business lines and a handful of customers, the operation spread like kudzu, eventually covering hundreds of phones and thousands of conversations, becoming the largest wiretap operation in the history of Los Angeles County. When the three-year probe ended in March, police had arrested dozens of Atel's customers, but not Lopez or any of his employees. The Atel taps are at the center of the nine-month controversy over whether prosecutors have been improperly concealing their wiretapping operations and the information derived from it. Also at issue are charges by defense lawyers that the allegations against Atel Cellular are a sham created to win court orders permitting an electronic fishing expedition against their clients.)
Belpre Community Upset By Fatal Raid (A United Press International article in The Columbus Dispatch says a controversy has erupted in southeast Ohio concerning a marijuana raid in which law enforcement officers shot a man eight times. Delbert Bonar's family contends the dead man was unarmed. Sheriff's deputies say the family is lying. They found a small amount of the illegal weed, enough for personal consumption.)
3 Detroit Police Officers Wounded In Ambush (The Chicago Tribune says three cops were wounded early Sunday, two of them critically, while the officers were investigating the kidnapping of a woman and her child, an abduction that appeared to be connected to "drugs.")
Teen Marijuana Use On Rise In DuPage (The Daily Herald, in Illinois, cites various drug-warrior myths about marijuana while publicizing a two-day anti-marijuana conference this week in DuPage County, sponsored by a Hazelden drug-treatment business that "serves" young adults.)
Calculated Abuses - Win At All Costs series (The eighth part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. Federal prosecutors frequently rely on promises of leniency when they use criminals to snare other criminals, but the government's word isn't necessarily its bond. Deceived into thinking her brother was dying, Mary Ann Rounsavall testified against him, resulting in James Rounsavall being sentenced to life in prison. In return, Mary Ann Rounsavall had been promised about eight years. But the prosecutors in her case reneged on their pledge. They made no request that her sentence be reduced based on her cooperation, and the judge had no choice under federal mandatory sentencing guidelines but to give her a 20-year sentence based on her own confession.)
German Criminal Finds A Lucrative Life As Federal Informant (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors routinely break the law. When Helmut Groebe, a German citizen, offered his services as an informant to the US government in 1989, he was wanted in four countries for crimes ranging from fraud to drug smuggling to arranging a South American jail break. The DEA signed him up. Despite a criminal history that would bar his legal immigration, the DEA offered him permanent residency in the United States, turned him loose with little supervision, promised to pay him more than $600,000, then ensured that charges against the people he entrapped would stick by unlawfully withholding from defense attorneys information about Groebe's criminal background and government payoffs.)
Under Consent Decree, FBI Still Violates Order - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors routinely break the law. A group of Chicago residents who supported an organization called the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, which opposed US policy in that country, discovered that between 1983 and 1985 the FBI had spied on them and listed them as suspected terrorists because of their affiliation - even though a 1981 court decree had ordered the agency to stop.)
Government Goes Back On A Deal - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors routinely break the law. It took federal prosecutors more than seven years to live up to their promise to free Alberto San Pedro from prison after he went undercover and helped snag the mayor and a commissioner in Hialeah, Florida, who were involved in an influence-peddling scam.)
Agents Dug Up More Problems For Archaeologist - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors routinely break the law. Peter Larson was sentenced to two years in prison based on charges that were filed in retaliation for Larsen's outspoken reaction to the federal government's tactics in a separate civil case.)
Heroin Said To Be Making Inroads Among US Teens (Reuters says an analysis of more than 80 existing studies and other resources on substance abuse, published Monday in the December issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, turned up one study which found that heroin use by high school seniors rose from .9 percent in 1990 to 1.8 percent in 1996 and 2.1 percent in 1997. Out of 80 studies, one other report found the drug being used at an earlier age.)
Why it Takes a Village to Afford a Prescription (An op-ed in The San Jose Mercury News by a physician and former FDA official says prescription drugs now cost much more than they used to because of excessive government regulation. The example cited is the FDA's recent announcement that drug companies will be required to test in children the medicines they sell for adults, and to put the pediatric dosages on the label. That might sound benign, or even desirable, but these new requirements ignore the realities of drug testing. They may actually be detrimental to kids and could actually delay the availability of new drugs, if FDA withholds approval for adult uses while data from pediatric studies are being collected.)
The Lindesmith Center Web Site Additions (A news release from the New York drug-policy-reform group - part of the Drug Reform Coordination Network - publicizes lots of new and interesting research papers on a variety of issues.)
Hemp BC Hearing at City Hall, December 8 (A news release from Cannabis Culture magazine asks supporters of the hemp store in Vancouver, British Columbia, to show support Tuesday at a city council hearing where police officers and city officials are expected to ask that Hemp BC not be granted a business license, and that it be forced to close permanently. Meanwhile, Hemp BC lawyers have appeared before a judge to testify that Vancouver Police Officer Mark Bragagnola possessed cannabis on April 30, 1998, contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. A similar statement was made against US Navy operative Stacy Sherman, who allegedly trafficked in cannabis on April 25, 1998. Both of these charges relate to the Vancouver Police and US Navy "joint investigation" of Hemp BC, when Vancouver Police and US Navy officers tried to buy pot at Hemp BC and failed. So instead they bought some pot on the street and smoked it in Hemp BC themselves.)
Medicinal marijuana club in Bradford, Ontario (A list subscriber forwards a coming-out announcement and URL for the Marsh Marijuana Club.)
Lords Back Cannabis For Pain Relief (Chemistry & Industry Magazine, in Britain, notes the recent report by the science and technology select committee of the House of Lords, calling for doctors to be legally allowed to prescribe marijuana for multiple sclerosis and chronic pain.)
Iran No Longer A Drug-Problem Country (The San Jose Mercury News says President Clinton today removed Iran from the official list of drug problem countries, concluding the Islamic republic has carried out a successful program to eradicate opium poppies - and hanged hundreds of traffickers under a law that mandates the death penalty for anyone possessing more than a small quantity of narcotics. Clinton also deleted Malaysia from the list. The number of drug problem countries is now 28.)
Rise in Cigarette Smoking Doesn't Bother Burma Government (The International Herald-Tribune says free handouts and slick advertising tactics never before seen in Burma have enticed young people across the country to take up cigarettes. Smoking is also on the increase in other countries in Southeast Asia where cash-strapped goveraments have a financial stake in tobacco sales. The Burmese govemment likes dealing with multinational cigarette companies because it can more readily collect revenue from large factories or importers than it can from small-time producers of hand-rolled smokes. "The cinema is censored, and there are no nightclubs or live shows. Beyond smoking there is no entertainment," says one young man.)
Bytes: 136,000 Last updated: 12/17/98

Tuesday, December 8, 1998:
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act petition (Paul Stanford, a chief petitioner for the proposed ballot measure, which would regulate the sale of cannabis through state liquor stores, abolish laws against private cultivation, and allow farmers to grow industrial hemp, forwards three Adobe Acrobat .pdf files featuring the text of the initiative, a ballot title with instructions for signature gatherers, and a blank signature sheet. Download them here, collect signatures of everyone you know, and mail them in to the OCTA office.)
Toxic Markers Called 'Poor Man's Drug' (The Orange County Register tries to launch a nationwide drug menace, saying Magnum 44 marker pens are being used as inhalants by kids.)
Dare To Do Better (A staff editorial in The Denver Post comments on the dwindling local support for DARE. Last year, Delbert Elliott and other researchers at the University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence reviewed 400 programs aimed at reducing youth violence and "drug" use. They cited 10 such programs - not including DARE - as worthy of emulation. The newspaper believes "drug education" should be part of the curriculum at all levels, not just elementary schools, and that preventing "drug abuse" through "education" is "far more effective" than belatedly treating or incarcerating those who miss or ignore that message - though the newspaper doesn't say on what evidence that opinion is based.)
Dumping DARE A Good Start (Denver Post columnist Diane Carman says that like most aspects of the war on drugs, DARE has been a colossal waste of money. Since 1971, the US has spent an estimated $1 trillion on the war against some drug users. In that time, illegal drug use has mushroomed and black-market prices have soared. More than 400,000 Americans are in prison on drug charges. One in nine American schoolchildren has at least one parent in prison. If we really cared about protecting our children, we'd demand that the government abandon the war on drugs and employ some of the cheaper and vastly more effective programs under way in other countries.)
'High' Road Is Full Of Pot Holes (Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini revisits cancer patient and medical-marijuana user Josh Berner. Now that Arizona voters have again voted to endorse medical marijuana, Berner is unable to find two physicians willing to recommend cannabis to him - most doctors are afraid they'll be busted by federal authorities for prescribing an illegal drug. And no pharmacy stocks it. "Without an implementation plan to go along with the proposition, the situation of people like me hasn't changed a bit since we passed the first proposition back in '96," Josh said. "So, that's my job now. To get it implemented.")
Officer in theft case surrenders - He feared drug dealers' retaliation, source says (The Dallas Morning News says Daniel E. Maples Jr., a Dallas police officer accused of stealing thousands of dollars from drug dealers, turned himself in Sunday night because he apparently feared some dealers were about to retaliate by killing his girlfriend. Maples was not charged and was not in custody late Monday, having been placed on paid administrative leave.)
McCaffrey blasts medicinal marijuana (United Press International says the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, told those attending the Council of State Governments' annual convention in San Antonio, Texas, today that victory in the war on some drug users is being jeopardized by the medical marijuana "movement" - and by an increase in "drug" use among teenagers. Misrepresenting both doctors and patients who have experience with medical marijuana, McCaffrey said "pain management is not best done with a joint and two vodkas.")
Drug czar targets meth crisis (The San Antonio, Texas, Express-News says General Barry McCaffrey told the annual gathering of the Council of State Governments Tuesday that America is winning the war against cocaine, but losing the war against chemically produced methamphetamine. All of the speakers agreed government should focus on rehabilitation and curbing drug use among children, but the White House drug czar admitted that current policies had only tripled the number of eighth-graders taking "drugs" in the past six years.)
Turning good kids to bad? (A letter to the editor of The Houston Chronicle says the newspaper's recent article about inmates going to school to warn students about drinking and "drugs" ignored the most obvious fact. As kids, the inmates had problems before they started using alcohol and other drugs. The article seems to say, "We were all good kids until we used alcohol and other drugs. Now look what these substances have done to us." But it is impossible for an inanimate object to "make" us do anything.)
Methadone ruled as cause in N. Richland Hills death (The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram says Christopher W. Bryant, 18, had started taking methadone to kick his heroin habit days before his uncle found him dead. On the day after Bryant's death, his mother said she had heard that he had exaggerated the amount of his daily heroin usage when he went to a treatment clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, for his first of four methadone doses.)
Long-Ago Fugitive To Be Extradited (The Associated Press says a judge in Detroit, Michigan, ruled Monday that Alfred Martin, a businessman who has led "an exemplary life" since being convicted of selling $10 worth of marijuana 25 years ago, should be extradited to Virginia, where he once walked off a prison farm.)
New Bills Would Decriminalize Marijuana, Reduce Size of N.H. House (The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire, notes the 400 members of the state house of representatives still have another week to raise issues for consideration in January. Among the bills being drafted is one that would permit the medical use of marijuana, and another that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis, both sponsored by Timothy N. Robertson. In the past, Robertson has sponsored legislation to legalize hemp production in New Hampshire. Another effort will be spearheaded this year by other representatives. Robertson said it was a strategic decision to separate the hemp bill from marijuana-related proposals because hemp cannot be used as a drug and the issues are not related, yet many lawmakers and citizens confused the two issues.)
Rolling Back Stiff Drug Sentences (The Christian Science Monitor says 25 years after New York ushered in the nation's first mandatory-minimum drug-sentencing laws, it and several other states are considering modifying such laws - a trend with far-reaching ramifications for the American criminal-justice system. At the same time, however, states are enacting even stricter sentencing laws and abolishing parole for dangerous felons, particularly violent sex offenders.)
Wrath Of Vengeance - Win At All Costs series (The ninth part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's 10-part series about its two-year investigation showing that federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. When Congress enacted a series of get-tough-on-crime laws in the 1980s, no one realized defense attorneys would become such easy targets. The case of Patrick Hallinan is illustrative. Hallinan is a prominent defense lawyer and an accomplished archeologist in San Francisco. His father was considered to be one of the finest lawyers to emerge from the city. His brother was head of the city's law department, and is now District Attorney. After Hallinan reduced the sentence faced by one client to 10 years, instead of life, federal prosecutors met with the client privately and offered to let him walk if he could implicate Hallinan. In early 1996, Hallinan was acquitted when his lawyers were able to prove that the government had coached his client's testimony and that he was lying about Hallinan's direct knowledge of his drug activities and money laundering.)
Court Rules Against Car-Search Law (The Associated Press says the US Supreme Court, in a rare win for privacy rights, unanimously struck down an Iowa law Tuesday that allowed police to search people and their cars after merely ticketing them for routine traffic violations. The decision overturned the conviction of Patrick Knowles, who was pulled over for speeding in 1996. An officer gave him a ticket and then searched Knowles and his car. He was charged with possessing marijuana, convicted, and sentenced to 90 days in jail.)
US Supreme Court Bans Searches In Traffic Cases (The Reuters version)
Knowles v. Iowa (A list subscriber forwards the summary and posts a URL with the full text of the US Supreme Court's ruling that police cannot search people and their cars merely on the basis of a ticket for a routine traffic violation.)
Search Warrant Should Not Be A Press Pass (An op-ed by Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times in The Arizona Daily Star notes the US Supreme Court will decide this term whether a being served with a search warrant means suspects have to let true-crime television cameramen or other media who tag along with police enter their homes to record and then publicly broadcast or print photographs of their bust for private profit. In a ruling that defies common sense, the 4th US Court of Appeals, by a 6-5 vote, said inviting the press into a private home to photograph an innocent couple in their nightclothes did not violate their constitutional rights.)
Hearings Requested on Marinol Rescheduling (A news release from Jon Gettman, former director of NORML, says he and High Times magazine have asked the Drug Enforcement Administration to delay reclassifying Marinol to Schedule III, subject to public hearings on the drug's relationship with marijuana and industrial hemp. High Times and Gettman are co-petitioners in another action to reschedule marijuana, THC, and Marinol. A hearing has been requested to determine if DEA's proposal rescheduling Marinol satisfies legal requirements for such a move, and whether it is prejudicial to the Gettman/High Times petition.)
Full Text of Marinol Hearing Request Available (The full text of the request by High Times and Jon Gettman that the DEA conduct hearings on the rescheduling of Marinol is online at the magazine's web site, http://www.hightimes.com/ht/new/petition/index.html.)
Re: Marinol Rescheduling (Jon Gettman and other list subscribers discuss the request by High Times and Jon Gettman that the DEA conduct hearings on the rescheduling of Marinol.)
Our National Epidemic (In These Times magazine says the United States, the world leader in imprisoning its own people, is in the midst of an incarceration epidemic. Nearly 1.9 million people are behind bars. According to the Sentencing Project, the rate is now 645 inmates per 100,000 people - six to 10 times the rate of most European countries. The rate in Britain, for example, is 100 per 100,000. In Norway and Greece it's 55 per 100,000. In Japan it's 37. Although China has about 10 times the US population, we imprison nearly half a million more people. Because crime rates have been falling, the incarceration explosion seems wildly incongruous. It can be explained in three words: war on drugs.)
Scientists urge expanded use of methadone (An Associated Press article in The Houston Chronicle notes today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association includes a report by a panel of scientists who call heroin addiction a "treatable disease," and who urge the government to expand the availability of methadone treatment and allow more doctors to dispense the synthetic narcotic.)
Heroin Use Going Up Among US Teen-Agers (The Orange County Register publishes a much more sensational account than Reuters summarizing a new report in Pediatrics.)
Human safety in medical studies inadequate, experts say (According to The Associated Press, a report published in Wednesday's edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association says people used as subjects in medical studies are inadequately protected from risks, with hazards often poorly explained and scientists often snared in conflicts of interest.)
A radical idea - Why can't people sue politicians for their deadly programs? (A news release from Libertarian Party headquarters in Washington, DC, says that if attorneys general in 41 states can sue tobacco and gun companies for alleged damages to the public, why can't members of the public sue politicians for specific damage caused by bad laws?)
Students protest strip-search (A Canadian Press article in The Edmonton Sun says about 200 high school students in Kingsville, Ontario, staged a walkout yesterday to protest the strip-search of about 20 teenage boys.)
Charges Dropped In Drug Sting (The Toronto Sun says a Crown attorney abruptly stayed hashish smuggling charges against a Toronto woman yesterday following testimony from Constable Lorelei McIvor, which showed the undercover cop to be lying.)
Ganja-Ho Operation Faces Spliff Resistance (The Scotsman recounts recent news about the United States using its military to eradicate cannabis plants that make up a major portion of the economy of the Caribbean island-nation of St. Vincent, and the Marijuana Farmers' Movement that opposes the invasion.)
Drugs And Weapons Seized As Police Arrest 70 In Dawn Raids (The Scotsman says prohibition agents in Lothian and Borders claimed a big victory in the fight against heroin dealers yesterday. An operation aimed at stopping a huge rise in the use of the drug snared 70 people, more than £300,000 in illegal substances and assets, and an arsenal of weapons.)
O'Donoghue Rules Out Decriminalising Drugs (The Irish Independent says the comments by the Irish justice minister, John O'Donoghue, came in response to a statement by the National Crime Forum that it would be happy to see the issue discussed in a calm and dispassionate manner.)
Think About It (A staff editorial in The Irish Independent says that when a body with the status of the National Crime Forum comes out in favour of discussing the de-criminalisation of so-called soft drugs we should take heed. Drugs are a huge issue for society, yet one which is rarely if ever debated in a non-hysterical or unemotional way. The Forum is correct, if science has a case it should be heard.)
Bytes: 157,000 Last updated: 12/17/98

Wednesday, December 9, 1998:
Recommendations for the Implementation of Ballot Measure 67, Medical Use of Marijuana (The text of the guidelines proposed for state law enforcement officials' compliance with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, released today by the Oregon Attorney General's Work Group on Medical Marijuana - plus a favorable introduction by Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the ballot measure.)
Statewide Activists Meeting in Eugene 12/12/98 (The Cannabis Liberation Society in Eugene sponsors a meeting for Oregon marijuana-law and drug-policy-reform activists, 1-4 pm Saturday at Grower's Market.)
Heroic Stand in Court (A list subscriber forwards a successful motion for dismissal of a marijuana case, filed by an Oregonian who was charged in Humboldt County, California.)
Corruption In The System (The San Mateo County Times rewrites the recent favorable review of "The Prison-Industrial Complex" in The Atlantic Monthly, by syndicated columnist Molly Ivins.)
S. Texas sheriff arrested for theft - He's accused of taking drug money (An Associated Press article in The Dallas Morning News says Frio County Sheriff Carl Henry Burris was arrested Tuesday on charges that he stole nearly $12,000 in drug money and tried to replace it by selling marijuana.)
FBI Arrests South Texas Sheriff (The UPI version)
Heroin bust largest in state history (The Associated Press says a 23-year-old New Jersey woman was arrested Wednesday with about $250,000 worth of heroin in the largest such bust in New Hampshire's history. Evelyn Abreu faces life in prison.)
The Drug War's Political Climate (An op-ed in The Hartford Courant by a co-founder of the NORML chapter at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury says the most damaging aspect of the drug war political climate, and the one most in need of change, is not the ignoring of evidence, but the demonization of those who express dissent. The United States is one of the worst offenders in this category.)
Two officers suspended in separate incidents (The Associated Press says two New York City police officers were suspended without pay Wednesday - one for allegedly shooting his wife and the other for charges stemming from a drunk driving accident that killed his girlfriend. Both officers were off-duty at the time and are suspended for a maximum of 30 days.)
Press Clips - Joint Effort (The Village Voice, in New York, paints an ugly portrait of media hacks who crashed an election-night party in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project, and pestered guests for marijuana.)
Get the Guest? The Supreme Court Protects Some Visitors From Searches (A staff editorial in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comments on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches don't always cover short-term visitors to a private residence. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who contributed a fifth vote to the ruling, wrote that the majority opinion is "consistent with my view that almost all social guests have protection against unreasonable searches, in their host's home." The "almost all" qualification invites police to test the limits.)
D.C. Fires 19 School Bus Drivers (An Associated Press article in The Las Vegas Sun says District of Columbia school officials discovered some of the school-bus drivers had drunken-driving convictions or had tested positive for "drug" use. Three administrative clerks were also dismissed for tampering with bus driver records.)
New FDA Chief Vows To Put Science First (The Orange County Register says Dr. Jane Henney of the US Food and Drug Administration was responding Tuesday to criticism that the agency was too easily influenced by pressure from the pharmaceutical industry.)
Effective Medical Treatment Of Opiate Addiction (The Journal of the American Medical Association describes how a panel of medical experts was created to reach consensus on how best to provide effective medical treatment for opiate addiction. The objective was to provide clinicians, patients, and the general public with a responsible assessment of the effective approaches to treat opiate dependence. The panel concluded that opiate dependence is a brain-related medical disorder that can be effectively treated, with significant benefits for the patient and society. The panel also concluded society must make a commitment to offer effective treatment - including methadone - for all who need it - and the law should be changed so doctors can prescribe methadone more widely.)
Sparks Fly at Hemp Shop Hearing (The Vancouver Sun describes the city council hearing yesterday in Vancouver, British Columbia, where municipal officials and lawyers tried to deny a business license for Hemp BC.)
City Hearing about Cannabis Cafe turns into Kangaroo Court (Vancouver Sun columnist Ian Mulgrew says the city council hearing Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, regarding Hemp BC's business license turned into a farcical kangaroo court.)
Parents want strip-search teachers gone (A Canadian Press article in The Halifax Daily News, in Nova Scotia, says the board of education in Kingsville, Ontario, has asked the vice-principal and teacher who led the humiliating strip search of 19 Grade 9 students to leave Kingsville district high school and work at home until the board decides what else to do. Parents say they don't want the pair back - ever.)
School Strip Search Outrages Premier (UPI says Mike Harris, Ontario's provincial premier, says he finds it abhorrent that a group of Grade 9 students were strip searched in a school in the Windsor area.)
'A flight from common sense' (Toronto Sun columnist Heather Bird comments on the strip-search of 19 students in Kingsville, Ontario. What may be at the root of school officials' bizarre behaviour is a recent high court ruling that condoned searches of students and their lockers for weapons or drugs.)
Kingsville incident 'abuse of power' (According to The Toronto Star, educational law experts and school administrators agree the strip-search of 20 teenage boys at a Windsor-area school was an abuse of the broad powers granted to school officials. The newspaper implies the search would have been legal and proper if the object of the search had been guns or "drugs." Last month, the Supreme Court asserted there was an increasing problem with weapons and drugs in schools and declared that Canadian school authorities had the right to carry out warrantless searches.)
Board bans strip-searches (The Toronto Star says strip-searches have been banned by the Greater Essex school board as trustees try to determine the fate of a vice-principal and a gym teacher accused of strip-searching 20 teenaged students.)
Education minister orders new guidelines (The National Post, in Canada, says Dave Johnson, Ontario's education minister, has ordered the creation of new guidelines to ensure that teenagers are never again strip searched at school. Outrage over the strip search cut through all political lines with the general consensus being that the students' rights were violated by overzealous teachers and all urged the government to establish strict guidelines.)
School visits turn up drugs (The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal says random searches at six schools have turned up small amounts of marijuana recently. Police say students and parents should be aware that any school could be searched at random by drug-sniffing dogs at any time.)
Bloods take a DARE (The Lethbridge Herald, in Alberta, says Blood Tribe Police Constable Dale Murphy believes he's the first aboriginal police officer in Canada to instruct the 17-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education course on his own reservation.)
Panama Pull-Out May Hurt DoD's Anti-Drug Mission (Jane's Defence Weekly says US military counter-narcotics operations in Latin America are expected to suffer, at least temporarily, when the Department of Defense pulls its forces out of Panama next year.)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 77 (The weekly summary of drug policy news from DrugSense leads with a feature article - Protecting your privacy during a drug-war strip search. The Weekly News in Review includes such articles about Prisons as - The prison-industrial complex; Our prisons have bigger problems; Jail guards smuggled contraband, paper says; and Shipping inmates no solution. An article about Law Enforcement - Selling lies - win at all costs series. Articles about Drug Policy include - Eye at the keyhole; School board to ask the US Supreme Court to reinstate drug testing; Customs Service drug searches prompt outrage, lawsuits; Book Review of "Whiteout" - The C(ocaine)I(mportation)A(gency). Articles about Medical Marijuana include - Groups seek results of marijuana vote; Pot center founder fights charges; Cannabis buyers' co-op to reopen, but not sell pot; and Rx - marijuana. International News includes - Cocaine flood raises fears of HIV upsurge; Congress steps up aid for Colombians to combat drugs; Hitman's victim had links to drug gang. Hot Off The 'Net focuses on the group Family Watch, as well as the topic of breaking news stories. The Quote of the Week cites William Lloyd Garrison. The Fact of the Week - Prohibition Pollutes.)
Bytes: 136,000 Last updated: 12/17/98

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