WASHINGTON - After a year of escalating Afghan heroin production, calls are mounting for a shift in U.S. policy aimed at turning Afghanistan's poppy into an economic asset by using it to produce medicinal painkillers. Backers of the proposal include several leading scientists and economists, as well as some in Congress. The Bush administration is skeptical. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, plans to use his recently acquired seat on the House International Relations Committee to bring up the matter when lawmakers convene next month. [continues 1089 words]
US Opens 25-Year-Old Files on State Secrets Some secrets, it turns out, are too old or too big to keep - even for the Bush administration, which has made a crusade of rooting out leaks and clamping down on information on the inner workings of government. In the new year, the CIA, FBI, state department and more than 80 other government agencies that handle state secrets will declassify hundreds of millions of pages of documents under a new policy that institutes an automatic release of material after 25 years. [continues 269 words]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the US ambassador in Caracas to retract his assertion that drug trafficking in the country is rising. Mr Chavez said the comments were absolutely false and that a retraction would demonstrate that Washington is serious about wanting good relations. William Brownfield said poor police collaboration was making Venezuela a preferred drug route to the Caribbean. The comments follow recent improvements in relations between the two countries. Mr Chavez said the US ambassador's claims were "a lack of respect for the truth" and said they were "absolutely false". [continues 301 words]
Marijuana is the most valuable cash crop in the United States, worth more to its growers than corn and wheat combined, according to a new report by a leading American drug reform lobbyist that cites the US government's own figures. Decades of government efforts to crack down on both the cultivation and consumption of pot have had a counter-productive effect, since even the most conservative government estimates suggest domestic marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past 25 years. It is the leading cash crop in 12 states, and one of the top five crops in 39 states. [continues 393 words]
MARIJUANA is the most valuable cash crop in the United States, worth more to its growers than corn and wheat combined, according to a new report that cites the US government's own figures. Author of the report Jon Gettman, a leading drug-reform lobbyist, says that marijuana is "larger than cotton in Alabama, larger than grapes, vegetables and hay in California, larger than peanuts in Georgia, and larger than tobacco in both South Carolina and North Carolina". Decades of government efforts to crack down on both the cultivation and consumption of pot have had, if anything, a counter-productive effect, since even the most conservative government estimates suggest that domestic marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past 25 years. [continues 306 words]
LOS ANGELES - Marijuana is the most valuable cash crop in the United States, worth more to its growers than corn and wheat combined, according to a new report by a leading American drug reform lobbyist that cites the US government's own figures. Decades of government efforts to crack down on both the cultivation and consumption of pot have had a counter-productive effect, since even the most conservative government estimates suggest domestic marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past 25 years. [continues 416 words]
For Decades, Richard Bradbury Nursed His Hostility for Former Ambassador Mel Sembler - WHO Finally Struck Back When It Got Too Personal. Now Their Grudge Match Has Spilled into a Public Courtroom ST PETERSBURG - It's hardly an even fight. In one corner, Mel Sembler: shopping center developer, former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, former ambassador to Italy and Australia. Friend of President Bush and his father. In the other corner, Richard Bradbury: molested by a fireman at age 11, unemployed, target of lawsuits for failure to make rent and credit card payments. Just turned 41, lives with his parents. [continues 2415 words]
For non-violent offenders with chronic substance abuse problems, drug courts are a cost-effective alternative to incarceration. If Red Deer does institute a drug court, I just hope it isn't misused for political purposes the way they are here in the U.S. Record numbers of U.S. citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by U.S. drug czar John Walters to make the claim that marijuana is "addictive." [continues 83 words]
'Cannabis Keeps Me Happy and Sane.. but Don't Do It Till You've Done What You Want to in Life' GEORGE Michael has disclosed that cannabis keeps him "sane and happy" - - while admitting it can be a "terrible, terrible drug". The 43-year-old singer launched into an extraordinary defence of his habit in a frank ITV1 interview in which he openly smoked a joint before the cameras. Inhaling deeply, he said: "This is the only drug I've ever thought worth taking but you have to wait. It never occurred to me to take even this until I was about 22 or 23. [continues 664 words]
Here's a brainteaser for your morning pleasure: What's the difference between a Pacific Gateway Strategy and an Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative? Answer: $1-million, and an election. Almost a year ago, the Liberal government committed $590-million for infrastructure improvements in Western Canada, mostly in British Columbia. The Liberals called their plan the Pacific Gateway Strategy. This week, the Conservative government committed $591-million for infrastructure improvements in Western Canada, mostly in British Columbia. The Conservatives called their plan the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative. [continues 649 words]
I continue to contemplate which candidate for governor I'm going to vote against. Ritter doesn't support a woman's right to an abortion. When Ritter was Denver's district attorney, his office approved a misguided search warrant against a bookstore (as I discussed previously). He has indicated that he'd try to further politicize medicine and restrict the right to bear arms. While Ritter has admitted to using marijuana, he favors keeping legal penalties for possession of under an ounce of the plant by adults over 21. [continues 819 words]
To The Editor: The current conflict between the city police and local potheads strikes me as a struggle between the hard of thinking and the hard of hearing. The cops evidently haven't heard that the laws of Canada do not rigidly apply to The Republic of Kootenay. We pay the Crown her taxes and in return we expect to be left alone, to dream our own dreams instead of passively sucking in the American Nightmare via CNN and CBC. Of course this dulls our intellectual capacity so that we find it harder and harder to tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat, a George Bush and a Steven Harper, an authoritarian cop and a little fascist. [continues 74 words]
Bravo to Philip Dawdy, giving a voice to the Seattle Weekly with an excellent article regarding the medical use of marijuana ["Club Pot Med," Aug. 16]. "The Pacific Yew Act" was signed in 1992 by George Bush Sr. to ensure that federal lands would be available for harvest and long-term conservation of the Pacific yew tree. The bark is a reliable source of Taxol, which has saved countless lives. It is used primarily in cancer patients, commonly for breast cancer. The Pacific yew tree is native to the Pacific Northwest. [continues 136 words]
If Passed, a Fall Ballot Initiative With Some Unlikely Supporters Could Turn Reno and Vegas into American Amsterdams. Voters have been losing their taste for the war on drugs lately; in the past few years, states from Arizona and Alaska to California and Hawaii have moved toward making marijuana, in particular, a low priority for law enforcement, with first-offense possession cases often dismissed with small-time fines and medical-marijuana measures on the books in several states. But the initiative voters in Nevada will be considering this fall goes much further: The "tax and regulate" measure, whose supporters got it on the ballot by collecting 86,000 signatures, would allow anyone over 21 to possess up to one ounce for personal use, would set up a system of pot shops (at a specified distance from schools), and would tax marijuana in a manner comparable to alcohol. [continues 859 words]
The drawn-out controversy in the U.S over the alleged distortion of scientific evidence by neo-conservatives and the religious right is thundering down on the International AIDS Conference here next month. More than a hundred U.S. activists will come to Toronto for the six-day meeting, organized into a "strike force" to counter presentations where ideology, prejudice or opinion are warping the scientific evidence about prevention, a leading AIDS campaigner told the Star this week. "We're prepared to combat situations at the conference where more ideological positions are taken," said Judy Auerbach, an official with the Foundation for AIDS Research in Washington. [continues 1434 words]
District Attorney Says Raids Were A Warning In the past two years, the number of medical-marijuana dispensaries in San Diego County has grown from zero to roughly two-dozen, most of them located within San Diego city limits, with another dozen medical-cannabis delivery services focused solely on bringing pot to a person's home. Only the L.A. area has experienced a similar increase in medical-cannabis-related businesses in such a short period of time. The issue's reached a tipping point in San Diego two weeks ago, federal and local law-enforcement agents raided 13 dispensaries and arrested 15 owners and employees. Five people have been charged with the federal crimes of conspiracy to distribute and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana; the remaining were arraigned in state court last week on drug sales and possession charges. [continues 1484 words]
Although a lot of moms will get whisked off to the spa or out for brunch on Sunday (May 14), Mother's Day isn't so festive for many others--like illicit-drug users. Even without kids, women addicted to substances like heroin and crack face multiple obstacles to treatment. As a recent harm-reduction conference in Vancouver made clear, women have specific needs when it comes to getting off drugs, needs that still aren't being met. And things could get even worse in Canada, speakers at the international gathering said, if Prime Minister Stephen Harper ends up following the U.S. conservative agenda too closely. [continues 893 words]
As His Rock Magazine Hits 1,000 Issues, Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner Is Still High on the Concept Hunter S. Thompson is dead and the Capri Lounge is defunct, but Rolling Stone keeps rolling along. The magazine publishes its 1,000th issue tomorrow, complete with a neo-psychedelic, pseudo-Sgt. Pepper, holographic, 3-D cover. At the entrance to Rolling Stone's offices in midtown Manhattan sits a guitar smashed by the Who's Pete Townshend. The shards of this artifact are embedded in a thick block of plastic, like some priceless relic of a prehistoric civilization. [continues 2745 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- Actor and comedian Tommy Chong entertained more than 500 National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws conference-goers Friday. "If more people were stoned there would be less violence in the world," Chong said. Chong was introduced by NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. "It was Tom Chong the man that was wrongly sentenced to nine months in jail when everyone else paid a fine," St. Pierre said. "I'm so proud and happy that Tommy is joining us today." [continues 605 words]
George Bush is the King Canute of the immigration debate, and I mean that in a nice way. Canute has an image problem today because so many people think of him as that batty old English king who thought he could command the tide to recede. But that's the wrong spin on his legend. In the original tale, he was a sensible ruler who was tired of hearing flattery from his courtiers about his great powers. When they told him that even the tides would obey his command, he went down to the sea to teach them a lesson in limits. [continues 681 words]
