Tobacco users at one time faced the death penalty. The question is, should we punish, with all the force of the law, people with personal bad habits? Who decides what you get to eat, drink or smoke? Evidence is accumulating that pot smoking may slow the growth of cancer. Should we then make pot mandatory? M. Simon (OK -- that's it. No more letters from the organized pro-pot lobby unless there's an original point to make.) [end]
Washington-Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey is proposing $1 billion in emergency counter-drug aid that will focus on Andean countries, saying Friday that Colombia faces a "near-crisis" situation. Growing military clashes threaten Colombia's democracy and are "fueled in large part by the production of cocaine and heroin," McCaffrey said Friday. Republican leaders in Congress also are readying their own emergency aid package for counterdrug efforts in the region. The United States now spends about $250 million on anti-drug aid in Colombia and less in other Andean countries. [continues 64 words]
The First Oral Screening Test For Drugs Of Abuse CANTON, Mass., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Avitar, Inc., (Nasdaq: AVIT) announced today that the Company has commenced shipping of its OralScreen(TM) product, the first oral screening test for drugs of abuse. The company first introduced OralScreen in April at the American Occupational Health Conference and has been staffing its sales and marketing team to support national product roll-out. The "three-panel" OralScreen product detects cocaine, opiates and marijuana. "With the three-panel test, we plan to focus initial marketing efforts on corporations, law enforcement agencies and correctional institutions, where substance abuse testing programs are not only most in demand, but can result in significant legal challenges and losses in productivity," said Peter P. Phildius, chairman and chief executive officer of Avitar. "However, we anticipate a growing need for and interest in substance abuse screening in schools and in professional athletics," he added. [continues 149 words]
MAYBE THE politicians are required to adhere to the party line of prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians themselves et al can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution. Myron Von Hollingsworth (We support drug control.) [end]
After Studying Nonviolent Drug Offenders, A Criminologist Who Once Said "Let 'Em Rot" Now Says "Let 'Em Go." Denese Calixte, an illiterate Haitian immigrant, managed to support her seven children by picking fruit in Florida for about $60 a day. In 1994, she fell from a ladder and injured her neck. Unable to work, she was desperate for money when a neighborhood crack dealer offered her $200 to keep his supply in her house at night. Early one morning, the police broke into her house and found 69 grams of crack. Convicted of possession with intent to deliver, Calixte was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. [continues 5827 words]
The next big refugee crisis is already happening. If you missed it, you're not alone. Few people have taken notice of the devastating events occurring in Colombia over the last 10 years. Most people have at least heard something about Colombia recently: the guerrilla kidnappings, the increase in vicious paramilitary-led massacres, the resignation of several top Cabinet ministers, or the peace talks, now rescheduled for Tuesday, that are aimed at ending a long-running civil war. However, there is little awareness of Colombia's 1 million internal refugees, displaced people who have been forced to flee their homes and towns because of guerrilla or paramilitary-initiated violence, but cannot leave the country. In their precarious situation, these Colombians face harrowing conditions. Those who manage to escape their villages often live in fear of repeated attacks and remain physically or psychologically scarred by the terror they have witnessed. They tend to migrate to overcrowded urban areas, and live in shanty towns or unsanitary shelters. [continues 672 words]
