Jury justice The jury nullification movement is helping slow the Three Strikes justice system. By R. Christian Mittelstaedt http://www.sfbg.com/news/31/52/features/jury.html Feedback: letters@sfbayguardian.com IN THE 1957 FILM 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda stood up to 11 cantankerous jurors and convinced them to examine their prejudices and consider the consequences of their deliberations in the trial of an 18yearold Latino. Forty years later, a Colorado juror followed Fonda's example and paid the price but set a precedent for justice in California and across the country. [continues 1053 words]
Accused man's wife objects to it during divorce proceeding DALLAS (AP) Over protests from the traumatized wife of accused rapist Steven A. Sera, a judge on Monday allowed the viewing of a videotape that allegedly shows Sera raping three drugged women. The viewing took place during a hearing in the divorce case between Sera and his wife, Nancy. Steven Sera, 39, is accused of raping a 19yearold woman in Springfield, Mo., last September; a 26yearold woman in Warren, Ark., last November; and a 32yearold woman in Colleyville, Texas, a Dallas suburb, last December. [continues 296 words]
The nation's 15year fight against drunken driving has borne fruit. Having been made aware of the peril, punishment and stigma associated with drunken driving, social drinkers have virtually removed themselves from the DWI statistics, reducing the drunken driving problem to alcohol abusers who flout the law. Government studies show that in 1996, the average blood alcohol concentration connected to fatalities was an outrageous .18 percent, the same level of the driver involved in the accident that killed Princess Diana. Even the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving believes the drunken driving problem "is down to a hard core of alcoholics who do not respond to public appeals." [continues 116 words]
COLLISS PARRETT is again advertising the advantages of Naltrexone as a cure for heroin addiction over other treatments (Letters October 3). The experts I have spoken to would all like to add Naltrexone to their armoury of possible treatments, but all acknowledge that none of the available treatments is suitable for all dependent users. For instance Naltrexone can be dangerous for users who mix heroin with some other drugs, as many do. Naltrexone does not work well for users who are not already motivated to stop using heroin. Heroin is addictive and drives dependent users to continue its use with a very effective carrot and stick. Heroin offers pleasure at the moment of use and extreme pain during the process of withdrawal. [continues 234 words]
COLLISS PARRETT'S letter contains statements bizarre enough to rival the gobbledegook of the most rigid intolerant. Mr Parrett would have us limit treatments of heroin addiction to "one or two methods". Do we then abandon those that could not maintain total abstinence after Naltrexone fails or another method such as Methadone treatment is unsuccessful? Is total abstinence of opiate addiction so momentous that we would prefer death of our children than to live with their infirmities? His analogy of treating a drug addicition and comparing it to a broken leg is irresponsible for someone that has held a position in the Commonwealth Drugs of Dependence area. [continues 93 words]
The "fat lady has not sung" where the projected ACT heroin trial was concerned, a leading Australian drug policy spokesman said yesterday. Alex Wodak, director of drug and alcohol services at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, strongly criticised Prime Minister John Howard for intervening to quash the trial earlier this year, but said not all hope had been lost. "The arguments for a heroin trial are as compelling now as they were before the prime ministerial intervention," Dr Wodak wrote in an editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia. [continues 416 words]
New Winds Blowing for American Drug Policies On July 8, 1997, a starstudded group of American physicians (the selfnamed "Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy") met at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City. Organized by David C. Lewis, MD, chaired by June E. Osborn, MD, facilitated by Kenneth I. Shine, MD, and funded by grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Open Society Institute, this group of physicians (listed at the end of this Editorial) met to discuss our largely failing US national policy on illicit drugs and to ponder new approaches. [continues 1287 words]
