It Stopped After Missionary Was Shot Down In Peru In April. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is "pretty close" to resuming a suspended program to shoot down suspected drug planes in the Amazon, White House drug czar John Walters says. Walters said U.S. officials may want to renew the program first in Colombia, then later in Peru, where a tragic accidental shoot-down over the Amazon River on April 20 killed a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter. That fatal mishap forced the suspension of the program and led to at least two official U.S. investigations and a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. [continues 220 words]
A number of analysts have suggested that the results of Colombia's parliamentary election this past weekend indicate a firm rejection of the two major parties and of U.S. involvement in that country's civil war. A closer look suggests dissatisfaction and disillusionment among voters, but not a clear policy signal one way or the other. Nevertheless, the United States should be alert to the changing sentiments of Colombians - and reconsider the ambitious Plan Colombia initiated by the Clinton administration and continued under President Bush. Plan Colombia calls for certain kinds of U.S. military support and other aid to the Colombian government with the aim of reducing illegal drug traffic. We have opposed the plan. [continues 352 words]
The death and capture of the two brothers came within roughly a month's time. MEXICO CITY -- The legend of the Arellano Felix drug gang is written in blood all over Mexico. They killed for business and pleasure, often taking lives at random. Their bullets killed the Roman Catholic cardinal in 1993. They killed eight infants and children to settle a score in 1998. But one death among many - the killing of Pepe Patino - may have been the beginning of the end for the gang, Mexico's most violent and powerful drug cartel. [continues 610 words]
The Report, Based On Satellite Imagery, Contradicts Colombian Estimates. WASHINGTON -- Contradicting Colombian estimates, the Bush administration said Thursday that coca production in that country increased by 25 percent last year. The increase came despite increased U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Colombia in recent years, including the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia package approved in 2000, providing helicopters and training for anti- narcotics brigades. Based on satellite imagery, the coca crop was reported to be 417,430 acres last year, 82,992 more than in 2000, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said in a statement. [continues 227 words]
OAKLAND -- To generations of marijuana enthusiasts, Ed Rosenthal is the answer man, brimming with information on how to grow the best buds. To the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, he is just a big drug dealer. Caught in a struggle between federal and state authorities who have been at odds since California and other states legalized medical marijuana, Rosenthal freely admits he was growing the 600 pot plants that agents seized from an Oakland warehouse on Feb. 12. On Monday, Rosenthal, 57, pleaded innocent to conspiring to grow 1,000 or more marijuana plants, charges that carry a minimum 10-year prison term. [continues 69 words]
Cooperation: High Marks Given By State Department For Helping The U.S. Cut Down Unwanted Imports. WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Thursday certified 20 countries, including Mexico and Colombia, as partners in the war against drug trafficking, while a chorus of legislators called for a temporary halt to the annual report card they say is more of an embarrassment for its allies than a tool for reducing the supply of illegal drugs. Calling Mexico's military cooperation and drug fighting efforts "extraordinary," the annual report issued by the State Department also said its new democratic transformation may lead to even closer ties and efforts in fighting off powerful drug lords. [continues 404 words]
Rebels Accuse President of Causing Peace Talks' Collapse, Bowing to U.S. Aims BOGOTA, Colombia -- Rebels blamed President Andres Pastrana on Friday for the collapse of peace talks and said the presence of U.S. troops during the president's visit to their former sanctuary showed he took orders from Washington. In a 10-point communique, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia refused responsibility for the failure of the country's 3-year-old peace process. The document did not explain why rebels hijacked an airliner and kidnapped a senator - acts which led Pastrana to end the talks on Feb. 20. [continues 264 words]
For the first time in months, it appears that Santa Ana medical marijuana activist and patient Marvin Chavez could be moving toward a satisfactory resolution of his legal problems. It can't come too soon. Localities like Orange County would do well to get their act together on the state law that authorizes patients to use marijuana, because it looks as if the federal government is beginning a heavy-handed crackdown. Mr. Chavez, you may recall, was charged with cultivation for distribution and sale of marijuana after the Santa Ana police raided his home and confiscated the marijuana plants he was growing. [continues 320 words]
Federal Agents Continue Crackdown On The Centers -- Against The Wishes Of Local Authorities SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal agents raided a medical-marijuana club and arrested four people Tuesday amid an ongoing tug of war between local and federal officials over the sale of pot for medicinal purposes. Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 630 pot plants from the Harm Reduction Center and arrested the group's executive director, Richard Watts, said David Witty, the marijuana club's chief of security. Kenneth Hayes of Petaluma was arrested in Canada, and Edward Rosenthal of Oakland was also arrested on charges of cultivating more than 100 pot plants and maintaining a place to grow the drug, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Each face up to 40 years in prison if convicted. [continues 342 words]
FARC Says U.S. Plan To Protect An Oil Pipeline Is Really About Military Intervention. BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Bush administration's plan to help Colombia protect an oil pipeline from guerrilla attacks proves that Washington wants to intervene militarily in this country's civil war, a rebel leader said Wednesday. "The mask has been taken off," rebel commander Simon Trinidad said in a telephone interview from a southern stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. Bush administration officials announced plans Tuesday to train and arm Colombian troops to protect a key oil pipeline that has been a frequent target of guerrilla attacks. [continues 462 words]
In the column, "Terror and the war on drugs" [Commentary, Feb. 3], Alan Bock advocates ending the War on Drugs. Since I myself am undecided on this issue, I was disappointed that Bock didn't address the really tough questions. The phrase "ending the War on Drugs" is a euphemism for legalizing drugs. So I want to know: Will we find ourselves with even bigger drug problems if we do this? Advocates of legalizing drugs are fond of pointing out the fundamental laws of economics that enable drug traffickers to reap enormous profits. [continues 102 words]
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 Secretary of State Powell seconded President Bush by promising that the United States would attack terrorism on every front, saying "we have to make sure that we go after terrorism and get it by its branch and root." This has meant not only stern warnings and threats to countries that harbor or finance terrorists, but getting at those who support terrorism financially. If U.S. officials are even remotely serious about cutting off a significant portion of the money that finances terrorist activities - and political violence in general that might or might not fit a narrower definition of terrorism - one of the options on the table should be ending the War on Drugs. There is little doubt - although experts vary about specific percentages as is understandable when dealing with covert and clandestine activities - that the policy of drug prohibition is an enormously important factor that makes it probably the single biggest financier of terrorist activities around the world. [continues 1206 words]
Social Standing Is Key In Determining Who's Susceptible To Drug Use, Study Concludes. WASHINGTON -- Social standing - being dominant or subordinate - plays a vital role in susceptibility to drug use, scientists said Tuesday in a study of monkeys that may shed light on human addiction. Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., found that macaque monkeys deemed to be subordinate in small groups were much more likely to give themselves doses of cocaine in a laboratory setting than dominant monkeys. [continues 448 words]
As a devoted reader of your editorials, please forgive me for being confused about your views after reading the very strange commentary that ran in your paper last week ["Attorney general is breaking state law," Opinion, Dec. 28]. Your editorial first criticizes me for not prosecuting a handful of local agencies who you blithely accuse, without any supporting evidence, of violating the state's anti-affirmative action law, Proposition 209. That law makes no mention of the attorney general, but it does specifically authorize any group or individual with evidence that a government agency is breaking the law to bring suit to stop it. The Pacific Legal Foundation and other interested groups have done this and the system seems to be working just fine. [continues 141 words]
Sonya Barna Aims To Eradicate Marijuana Grown For Profit, Yet Be Sympathetic To Its Medical Users. SACRAMENTO -- She has been dubbed the "Patton of pot," California's street-smart commander of the state's war on marijuana. Sonya Barna works on the front line in the long-running battle, hovering in helicopters, hiking through forests and hunkering down in a sparse Sacramento office. Barna heads California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, the state's 18-year effort to shut down the multibillion-dollar industry. With the pot season over, the state announced last week a near-record year: CAMP pulled up nearly 314,000 plants worth about $1.25 billion. [continues 610 words]
Drug Smuggling Is Back After A Post-Sept. 11 Lull. Hunt For Terrorists Continues. SAN YSIDRO -- Here and all along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, law-enforcement officers are using the skills they've honed catching illegal immigrants and drug smugglers to try to nab any terrorist attempting to escape notice among the tens of thousands of people who cross daily. Computerized law-enforcement databases are used to check the names of all pedestrians, while automatic cameras record license-plate information for each motorist leaving or entering the United States. Authorities cite these and other security measures to say the border is as impenetrable as it can be. [continues 1576 words]
Proposition 209 is the law. Why isn't California Attorney General Bill Lockyer enforcing it? Prop. 209 was passed by voters in 1996 and explicitly banned all racial, gender and other quotas or preferences in state or local government contracting, employment and education. Californians clearly said they wanted an end to discrimination. But according to a new report card, Mr. Lockyer received an "F" grade for his enforcement of this crucial law. The report card was prepared by Ward Connerly, the Sacramento businessman and Prop. 209 co-sponsor, and the Pacific Legal Foundation. [continues 339 words]
Police Refuse To Obey Decision Of State Voters On Medical Marijuana, Prop. 215 Marvin Chavez goes to court again today in the courthouse in Santa Ana (8:30 a.m., Third Floor, Dept. C55) in another test of the validity of the voters' decision to permit patients with a recommendation from a licensed physician to cultivate, possess and use cannabis (marijuana). You might remember that after years of being told, "If you don't like the law, change it," medical marijuana activists and California voters did so, passing Proposition 215, which is now Section 11362.5 of the California Health and Safety Code. Chavez, who has a degenerative spinal disease called ALS, campaigned for that law, uses marijuana with a physician's recommendation and formed the Orange County Patient Doctor Nurse Support Group. [continues 485 words]
Bolstered security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks yields more arrests. Heightened security after the Sept. 11 attacks has had a major side effect: Seizures of illegal drugs along the nation's borders and at its ports of entry increased substantially in October and November over the corresponding period a year ago, law enforcement authorities say. The greatest increase, 326 percent, was in seizures from commercial traffic along the Canadian border. But the overall figure was also large: The amount of drugs seized from commercial traffic - that is, from trucks, ships and planes - at all borders and ports was up 66 percent, the Customs Service says. [continues 799 words]
Larry Gilbert says "Judge [James P.] Gray has it all wrong" [Letters, Dec. 3]. As a matter of fact, the judge has been urging research to replace the failed anti-drug program for years, not just since Sept. 11. I agree with him when he defies anyone to dream up a worse way to solve the problem. Years and billions of dollars have accomplished nothing. If you listen carefully, the judge does not "promote legalization" of drugs. He asks that the medical profession and the government find a sensible, workable solution that costs less and shows some promise of success. We are tired of a failed drug program that enriches the drug cartels and goes nowhere. Paul Kroesen Irvine [end]
