Weekly Action Report on Drug Policies, Year 4, No. 44 (A summary of European and international drug policy news, from CORA in Italy)
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Wednesday, December 30, 1998:
Housemate of officer's killer receives 4-year term (The Oregonian says Multnomah County Circuit Judge Linda Bergman sentenced Jeffery Harlan Moore, the man whose housemate, Steven Dons, shot and killed a Portland police officer during a warrantless raid by the Marijuana Task Force, to four years in prison Tuesday on cultivation and child-neglect charges. The judge doubled the usual 18-month sentence for drug manufacturing to three years and added a fourth year on the child-neglect charges, ignoring the role of the warrantless search and blaming Moore for the officer's death, even though he was at work when the break-in and shooting occurred.)
Roommate of cop killer gets four years for growing marijuana (The Associated Press version)
The Right To Defend Against Illegal Police Action (An Oregon patriot and militia member says the paralyzed Steven Dons was murdered in his jail bed by police because he had every legal right to shoot at members of Portland's Marijuana Task Force as they broke into his home without a warrant last January. The list subscriber cites several court rulings and a few aspects of the case the mass media have ignored.)
Number of drug-related deaths continues upward trend (The Oregonian says that as of early December, "drugs" were involved in 226 fatalities in Oregon - ignoring the toll from such legal drugs as alcohol and tobacco, which together killed about 7,000 Oregonians. The newspaper doesn't say so, but once again, no deaths were recorded from marijuana, the substance most targeted in the war on some drug users.)
Number of drug-related deaths continues upward trend (The Associated Press version)
NewsBuzz: Zoning In (Willamette Week says the Portland City Council will consider in the next few months whether to add a large chunk of residential North and Northeast Portland to the city's ever-expanding "drug-free zone." The proposed zone encompasses four square miles, nearly four times the next-largest zone. The weekly shopper also says the proposal will be discussed "next Monday morning" but doesn't give the actual time or place, since the public obviously isn't welcome - unless maybe they want to get shotgunned with beanbags again.)
The Olympian raps Brad Owen (A staff editorial in the Olympia, Washington, daily is critical of Lt. Gov. Brad Owen's claim that his allocation of state funds to oppose a drug-policy-reform ballot initiative was proper. To say it's OK to spend tax dollars until initiative signatures are validated seems like splitting hairs.)
S.F. DA Drops Charges Against Medical Marijuana Backer (A Scripps Howard News Service article in the San Francisco Examiner says the San Francisco district attorney's office has dropped drug and pornography charges against Richard Evans, who angrily accused police of deliberately targeting his residence for a raid and slandering him. Police completely trashed his apartment, he said, and left a four-inch knife lodged in a door in what he feels was a thinly veiled threat. Evans also said police seized two professional art books by renowned San Francisco photographer Jock Sturges.)
Medical pot advocate has charges dropped (A slightly different San Francisco Examiner version)
San Francisco New Year's Eve party (A list subscriber suggests the place for Bay Area hempsters to be Thursday night is the Maritime Hall.)
Misguided Drug Policy - Treatment In U.S. Better Than Helicopters In Mexico (A staff editorial in the Sacramento Bee says an ambitious U.S. program to train and equip the Mexican army to intercept drug traffickers has failed, and the Clinton administration has come to realize that using U.S. military hardware and trainers to thwart the drug trade in Mexico has too often been a waste of money and effort. If the aim is to reduce illegal drug consumption in the United States, a 1994 study by the Rand Corp. concluded that dollar for dollar, providing treatment for cocaine abuse is far more effective than interdiction. The study calculated that an additional $34 million spent in drug treatment would reduce cocaine consumption in this country by 1 percent. In stark contrast, it would require $366 million to produce the same 1 percent reduction with local law enforcement and a whopping $738 million to produce the same results with border interdiction.)
Totally NORML (A NORML activist's letter to the editor of the Village Voice, in New York, says marijuana-law reformers aren't left-wingers. Ending marijuana prohibition is the "right" thing to do.)
Making Criminals of Us All (An op-ed in the New York Times says the blame for a popular president's unpopular impeachment and impending Senate trial can be laid to a surfeit of intrusive laws that would make criminals of almost anyone the Government decided to investigate.)
Cargo Shipowners Must Test 50 Percent Of Crew For Drugs (According to the Journal of Commerce, the US Coast Guard says cargo shipowners will be required to administer random drug tests to at least 50 percent of their crews in 1999, even though the percentage who tested positive decreased from 1.87 percent in 1996 to 1.59 percent in 1997 - it's not clear if that includes the false positives. If the rate falls below 1 percent for two years, only 25 percent of crewmembers will have their constitutional rights violated.)
PBS presents "Snitch" on Frontline Tuesday, Jan. 12 (A lengthy preview, apparently from the Public Broadcasting Service, publicizes what will likely be one of the most important and disturbing television documentaries of the year. In the last five years, nearly a third of defendants in federal drug trafficking cases have had their sentences reduced because they informed on other people. Since the passing of strict anti-drug legislation in the 1980s, snitches have become key players in the war on drugs and are used by the FBI, DEA, Customs, and other law enforcement agencies in almost every drug bust, seizure, and arrest. But the laws designed in part to help catch drug kingpins are in most cases landing small-time offenders in prison for as long as ten years to life without the chance for parole. Ofra Bikel is the documentary's producer.)
Marijuana 'Medicine' (According to the Province, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Cheryl Eburne and her doctor say she benefits from the medical marijuana she purchases at a Commercial Drive pot club to help her cope with severe arthritis and fibromyalgia. But the dispensary is giving the folks at city hall a big headache. After seven months, the club still doesn't have an occupancy permit from the city. City hall is perplexed by the fact that the club has been given society status by the provincial government. With that registered-charity status, the club can solicit donations legitimately. It pays income tax for the 10 people on staff, who work for minimum wage.)
Pot crusader urged to educate physicians (The Calgary Herald says Hilary Brown of Vancouver's Compassion Club suggested Tuesday that Grant Krieger, the Calgary multiple sclerosis patient who is organizing a non-profit club to help seriously ill people obtain marijuana for medicinal purposes, should work at educating physicians about the drug's benefits.)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 79 (The original summary of drug policy news from DrugSense starts with a feature article - What the war on drugs is doing to America, by Bob Ramsey of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas. The Weekly News in Review includes several articles about Drug War Policy, including - Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies; Teenage use of stimulants levels off in 1998; Lake Worth school districts turning to drug testing; Right this wrong; DC and medical marijuana. Articles about Law Enforcement & Prisons include - New surveillance proposed for bank accounts; Officers' actions attacked in San Jose marijuana trial; Confiscated drugs stolen from under nose of Customs; FBI picks up a prison probe some say was stifled by union; Activist denounces prison system; UN official seeks reforms in US prisons; The mandatory-sentencing mistake. Articles about Drug Use Issues include - The possible link between genes & attention deficit; Prince ponders medicinal value of cannabis. International News articles include - Shan rebels blame Myanmar military for opium boom; Colombia police make record 66-pound heroin bust; Gambians arrested for drug crimes; U.S. aid said used in air raid on Colombia. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net gives the URL for Professor Charles Whitebread's speech on RealAudio. The DrugSense Tip Of The Week details the FEAR On-line Chat group. The Quote of the Week features Charles Dickens. The Fact of the Week cites a reference proving the U.S. government spent only 7% of its drug-control budget on treatment in 1992.)
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Tuesday, December 29, 1998:
Cannabis Proves Itself Medically (A letter to the editor of the Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, responds to a letter from drug warrior Sandra Bennett, citing a few credible scientific studies in which researchers found non-THC cannabinoids had beneficial affects, such as a reduction in painful muscle spasticity.)
Lockyer to back medical marijuana (The San Francisco Examiner says California Attorney General-elect Bill Lockyer has unrolled a list of 12 priorities that bear little resemblance to those of his Republican predecessor, Dan Lungren. As his 10th priority, Lockyer promises to try to implement Prop. 215, the 1996 initiative that was intended to allow seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.)
Environment And Crime - Major Issues (The San Diego Union Tribune says outgoing Governor Pete Wilson is crediting his support for California's uniquely harsh "three strikes" mandatory minimum law for the state's lowest crime rate in 30 years. Wilson also credits the three strikes law for a drop in gun sales, and for more parolees leaving the state for other regions. But critics note the three strikes law is enforced differently in every county, while crime dropped everywhere, including the 49 other states that generally don't sentence pot smokers and pizza thieves to 25 years to life.)
Fire in Shed Doused, Pot in House Seized (A cautionary tale in the San Francisco Chronicle says a faulty natural gas generator ignited in a San Francisco backyard shed early yesterday, leading prohibition agents to seize 200 marijuana plants they valued at $20,000, or just $100 each.)
VA Legislators Pass Resolution To Grow Hemp (The Associated Press says a Virginia House of Delegates committee voted 9-2 Monday to approve a measure calling for a study of industrial hemp. The resolution, sponsored by Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Albemarle, asks federal officials to let the state's universities experiment with cultivating hemp for commercial use. The General Assembly will consider the measure during the session that begins Jan. 13.)
Narcolepsy Drug Offers Wide Appeal (The San Jose Mercury News says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved modafinil, a new drug manufactured by Cephalon that has few of the side effects associated with caffeine, amphetamines and other commonly used stimulants. Narcolepsy affects one of every 1,000 to 2,000 people - including untold numbers of people who contract it as a sometimes-permanent side effect from prescription antidepressants. The drug is expected to become available in February at a cost of "less than $10 a pill," compared to, for example, less than $1 for Ritalin.)
Review Board Sought For Drugs Gone Awry (A New York Times piece in the San Jose Mercury News says a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine contrasted the government's approach to airplane safety with its approach to drug safety. Noting adverse reactions to medicine kill 100,000 Americans a year - far more than die in plane crashes - the authors suggested that the United States needs an independent drug-safety agency, analogous to the transportation board, to investigate drug "crashes," and a mandatory reporting system to catch adverse drug effects as early as possible. Unfortunately, FDA officials seem to have taken personal offense and don't seem interested in improving the process.)
DrugSense Focus Alert - Hypocrisy in Action (DrugSense asks you to write a quick letter to the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, to comment on a recent letter by Ken Singer, a liquor distributor who runs Champions For a Drug Free Kentucky, a state-funded organization. In case you need help, DrugSense includes some interesting quotes on alcohol, incarceration, violence, and marijuana.)
Crusader vows to start pot 'club' for patients (According to The Calgary Herald, Calgary multiple sclerosis patient Grant Krieger said Monday he plans to have his non-profit medical marijuana dispensary - the Compassion club - up and running in two months. Paul Laventure, head of the Calgary police drug unit, said Krieger would be "liable to imprisonment for life.")
Body's 'cannabis' could hold blood pressure key (The British Broadcasting Corporation says medical researchers in Nottingham have received a £120,000 grant from the British Heart Foundation to study endocannabinoids, natural substances produced by the body that are chemically similar to cannabis. Endocannabinoids are known to make blood vessels relax, which can reduce blood pressure.)
Drug-Related Crimes On The Rise In Russia (According to Itar-Tass, Colonel-General Sergei Stepashin, the Russian interior minister, said Tuesday that a sweep by police that ended this week has resulted in the dentention of 62 thousand criminals and 13 thousand other fugitives from police investigations, including many sought for drug-related crimes.)
Pakistan Busts Heroin Smuggling Ring (Reuters says seven mail office employees in Karachi have been arrested this month in connection with a group that sent as much as $1.5 billion worth of heroin out of the country over the last 13 years. The alleged smugglers took wrongly addressed parcels and letters sent to Pakistan, put heroin inside them, changed the return addresses and mailed them back out of the country. Mukhtar Ahmed, regional director of Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force, said he wanted drug cases to be tried in special military courts.)
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Monday, December 28, 1998:
Suicide law still draws emotional responses (The Oregonian interviews four doctors who work with dying patients about the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, the state's unique physician-assisted suicide law that took effect in 1997.)
Drugs: A Silent Alarm Prompts The Search Of Robert Evans' San Francisco Apartment (An Associated Press version of yesterday's news about the bust of Rich Evans, a medical-marijuana patient and activist.)
The Last Worst Place (The San Francisco Chronicle visits Florence, Colorado's $60 million ADX prison - governmentese for "administrative maximum." Unparalled in America, it is the only prison specifically designed to keep each of its 400 occupants in near-total solitary confinement.)
VA To Take A Look At How To Treat Pain (The Grand Rapids Press, in Michigan, says beginning in January, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will do what few health-care providers have done. It will assess a patient's level of pain along with other vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure and pulse. Veterans facilities ranging from hospitals to nursing homes to clinics will use the assessments to develop long term strategies for treating both chronic and acute pain. The VA serves more than 25 million veterans, and one third of American medical residents and about half of American medical students are trained in VA facilities.)
First conviction lands man 25 years to life under Rockefeller laws (The Associated Press says Albert Brunner was convicted about 10 years ago of selling nearly two pounds of cocaine. Under New York state's mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug-law violators, the first-time, non-violent offender was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His younger sister, Margaret Liberatore, a school teacher on maternity leave, is circulating petitions calling for reform, and hopes to gather 3,000 signatures by mid-January to send to Gov. George Pataki.)
Sharp Drop in Violent Crime Traced to Decline in Crack Market (The New York Times discusses the many theories about why new statistics released Sunday by the Justice Department show violent crime has dropped seven straight years after an upsurge in the 1980s. The annual survey, carried out for the Justice Department by the Census Bureau, asks 80,000 people ages 12 and older whether they have been victims of a crime in the past year. The newspaper favors the theories that the decline is due primarily to a withering away of the crack market and police efforts to seize handguns from criminals and juveniles.)
Drug Traffickers Terrorize Upscale Zone In Rio (Reuters says shops and restaurants near the governor's palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, reopened on Monday after drug traffickers forced them to close over the weekend to honour a drug lord killed by police. Residents and business owners in the middle-class neighbourhoods of Laranjeiras and Cosme Velho said shootouts between rival gangs in the nearby shantytowns were common, but the forced closings showed a new level of brashness.)
Medical trials of cannabis to start in Britain (The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, notes yesterday's news about the British government planning a series of trials into the medical efficacy of cannabis.)
Top-secret Cannabis Ready For Medicinal Harvest (The Times, in London, says Britain's first crop of government-licensed cannabis is to be harvested secretly this week, in preparation for trials on up to 2,000 people that will begin once medicine has been distilled from the plants.)
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Sunday, December 27, 1998:
Medical marijuana advocate arrested (California NORML corrects and forwards a San Francisco Examiner article about the bust of Richard Evans in San Francisco. Evans, who described himself as director of Americans for Compassionate Use and who was busted previously for operating a medical marijuana club near Cincinnati, was arrested after police found 17 pounds of packaged marijuana, 40 plants being cultivated - and alleged child pornography.)
Re: Rich Evans arrested (A Bay Area list subscriber says he spoke with the accused and the alleged "child pornography" consisted of two art books, not pornography.)
Re: Rich Evans (Another list subscriber provides more information, and identifies the alleged "child pornography" as a book purchased at the Ansel Adams gallery which included nudity of children and others.)
Rich Evans Charges Dropped (That was quick.)
Marijuana Battlegrounds (A staff editorial in the Orange County Register says medical marijuana made significant advances in 1998, but in California the law passed by voters in 1996 remains well short of implementation. Much more effort - and suffering - will be necessary before government at all levels abandons its war on sick people.)
Drug programs imposed by law making a mark (The Arizona Daily Star says Arizonans still can't legally use marijuana for medical purposes, but backers of Proposition 200 confirm the drug treatment programs mandated by the law are having positive results.)
Columbia authorities cracking down on marijuana offenders (An Associated Press article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch says police in Columbia, Missouri, who catch people with even a small amount of marijuana are handcuffing them and taking them to jail as part of a new police policy to get tough on drug offenders. One of the first acts of Police Chief Norm Botsford when he took over the department last year was to create a special narcotics enforcement unit to concentrate solely on drug interdiction.)
Groups mobilize to push for lenient drug policies (A feature article in the Fort Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram, looks at the Drug Policy Forum of Texas and the reform movement nationwide. DPFT recently received a $25,000 donation from billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Other supporters of reform around the nation include Stanley Marcus, the 93-year-old former chairman of Neiman Marcus, and former New York Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy. Plus commentary from list subscribers about Mark Kleiman, a drug warrior and White House policy adviser quoted in the article.)
Re: Groups Mobilize To Push For Lenient Drug Policies (A letter sent to the editor of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram says that if indeed "these groups want the government to drastically change the way it punishes drug users," they have missed the question, as have the newspaper's writers. The larger and far more important issue is why society believes it must "punish" some drug users in the first place.)
Truth About Marijuana (An excellent letter to the editor of the Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois, critiques the reasoning of an anti-marijuana zealot who spoke at the College of DuPage, as well as the newspaper's evident bias in printing just one side of the story.)
Rockefeller Drug Law Radio Ads (A bulletin from the Lindesmith Center, in New York, follows up on yesterday's news with the text of advertisements from the new radio campaign urging reform of New York state's mandatory-minimum sentencing laws for drug offenders.)
Clinton Seeks Curbs On Drunken Driving (According to an Associated Press article in the San Jose Mercury News, President Clinton Saturday asked Congress to impose a lower, uniform blood-alcohol standard for drunken driving across the nation, saying the Justice and Transportation departments would use the "leverage" of federal grants to persuade states to adopt low-tolerance standards "on their own . . . . One impaired driver is one too many.")
'Demon Alcohol' - Hatchet-Wielding Do-Gooders Launch Health Crusade (The Washington Times says nearly a century after Carry Nation waged her one-woman saloon-wrecking campaign, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and dozens of other groups are carrying out a multipronged offensive to limit advertising, boost taxes, and get the federal government to label alcohol a carcinogen.)
U.S. 'Cautiously' Boosting Aid To Colombia (Who says the cold war is over? A Washington Post article in the Los Angeles Times says that despite human rights abuses by Colombia's military, and its rampant corruption associated with the illegal-drug trade, the United States is stepping up its involvement with the Colombian armed forces because it fears they are losing a war to Marxist rebels who derive much of their income from drug trafficking.)
U.S. Boosts Aid To Colombian Military (A slightly different version in the San Jose Mercury News)
Colombia To Receive Aid For Drug Squad (The UPI version)
Guard probed for drugs (The Halifax Daily News says a guard at the Halifax Correctional Centre - who can't be identified until he is formally charged - was arrested Christmas Eve after being investigated for smuggling "drugs" to inmates.)
MS patient hails testing of pot (The Calgary Herald says Grant Krieger, a multiple sclerosis patient and Calgary medical-marijuana activist, has given guarded applause to an announcement in Great Britain that more than 1,000 patients will participate in scientific research into the therapeutic uses of cannabis. Last week the British government announced the Medical Research Council and Royal Pharmaceutical Society would set guidelines for the trials Jan. 11 at a closed meeting to be attended by Health Department officials.)
Ministers Approve NHS Cannabis Tests (The Sunday Telegraph, in Britain, says it has learnt that the government is about to sanction a series of trials into the therapeutic uses of cannabis involving more than 1,000 patients. The Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will set out the guidelines for the trials on January 11 at a closed scientific meeting to be attended by Department of Health officials. The first trial will be for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients.)
Medical Cannabis Tests Get Go-Ahead (The version in Britain's Mail on Sunday)
Britons Sip Liqueur Of Poets (The Montreal Gazette says absinthe, once the poison of choice in bohemian Paris, was banned by France and most other Western nations early in this century. The liqueur's controversial reappearance in Britain has sent an illicit sort of thrill through the upscale drinking public, due to the ingenuity of four young rock 'n' roll entrepreneurs who discovered that Britain had somehow never got around to banning absinthe. Were French absinthe addicts suffering delirium and hallucinations because they had simply drunk too much alcohol, or was it because of a chemical in wormwood - thujone - related chemically to cannabis?)
A Storied Drink, Britons Take To The Allure Of Absinthe (The original Philadelphia Inquirer version)
ACM-Bulletin of 27 December 1998 (An English-language news bulletin from the Association for Cannabis as Medicine, in Cologne, Germany, features more details about the recent scientific report that a cannabinoid receptor system may play a role in the regulation of sperm function; and an account of the recent New Zealand parliament report saying the negative effects of marijuana have been overstated.)
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Saturday, December 26, 1998:
Critics launch ad campaign opposing Rockefeller drug laws (The Associated Press says a bipartisan coalition opposing New York state's mandatory-minimum drug laws is launching radio advertisements calling for an overhaul of the rigid 25-year-old sentencing guidelines. Among those on the coalition are one of the original sponsors, former state Sen. H. Douglas Barclay, and Warren Anderson, who was state Senate Majority Leader when the laws were enacted in 1973.)
Grandparents enlisted in war on drugs (The Associated Press says the White House drug czar's Office of National Drug Control Policy has launched an ad campaign to coax grandparents into "talking to their grandchildren about the dangers of drugs" - since at least one of every nine school-age children has at least one parent incarcerated on a drug-related offense, apparently the government feels parents are no longer supporting the war on some drug users.)
Sea urchins and human sexuality (The Toronto Star's ombudsman apologizes for the newspaper running a piece of junk science propaganda from the United States alleging marijuana use reduces male fertility. The story should have said the study involved sea urchins, not humans; that it was funded by the U.S. ministry of propaganda known as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and that there have been no epidemiological studies showing increased infertility in marijuana-using humans.)
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Friday, December 25, 1998:
Medical marijuana law poses questions (The Oregonian suggests the difference between state and federal marijuana laws has created a mess for employers who subscribe to the government-sponsored myth that marijuana use causes impairment.)
Employers face difficult questions under new law (The Associated Press version)
CRRH will wait to circulate OCTA (A bulletin from Paul Stanford of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act campaign says the Oregon secretary of state's office has not yet certified the ballot initiative, so signature-gathering will not begin until spring. Also, OCTA's sponsor, the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, is preparing to file similar Cannabis Tax Act initiative petitions in Washington and other states.)
Officers' actions attacked in San Jose marijuana trial (A San Jose Mercury News article in The Contra Costa Times says attorneys for medical-marijuana patient Peter Baez asked San Jose prohibition agents pointed questions Wednesday in an attempt to have the charges against the former head of a San Jose-based medical cannabis dispensary dismissed. San Jose police officer Tim Kuchac stated in an affidavit that he was part of the team that served the first warrant and noticed a computer that could have contained business records and other key evidence. In fact, he testified Wednesday, that was not true. He had never been to the center before signing the affidavit. "I was blown away," said defense attorney Gerald Uelmen. "I have very few instances in my life as a lawyer where I had a police officer admit on the stand to perjury.")
Treating The Cause (A staff editorial in the Cincinnati Post claims Hamilton County's drug court has saved taxpayers money, but doesn't explain why more is now needed. Seventeen other Ohio counties now run drug courts; all are modeled after the one pioneered in Cincinnati three years ago. The judge who runs the drug court and other county officials are lobbying the state for a second drug court judge, but the newspaper says the county should reassign one of its 15 other judges.)
Pataki Refuses To Grant Holiday Clemency (The Bergen Record, in New Jersey, says hundreds of prisoners applied for a show of Christmas mercy from New York Governor George Pataki, a former marijuana consumer. In the past three years the Republican governor has commuted the sentences of 13 prisoners, all but two of them sentenced under the state's mandatory-minimum drug laws passed during the Rockefeller era.)
More about House Speaker-in-waiting J. Dennis Hastert (A list subscriber follows up on yesterday's news about the drug-warrior credentials of the new Speaker of the US House of Representatives, noting the Republican leader spoke at a 1997 "International Symposium Against Drugs," in Zofingen, Switzerland, organized by the Swiss psycho cult, Verein Fuer Psychologische Menschenkenntnis, or the Organisation for the Psychological Knowledge of Human Nature.)
Quotes from the Prozac Survivor's web site (A list subscriber forwards citations from Business Week and Time magazine with some disturbing information about the pharmaceutical antidepressant most widely prescribed by American physicians. Plus a first-person account from a former Prozac user able to remember some of the side effects.)
Ann Landers (The annual Christmas message from the syndicated advice columnist says the "war on drugs" has turned out to be a colossal failure.)
Ann Landers Censored (The Tampa Tribune version omits the sentence saying the "war on drugs" has turned out to be a colossal failure.)
A Muslim Celebrates Christmas (A not-so off-topic list subscriber says, according to cable television's History Channel, the most prominent features of Christmas, ever since it began as a pagan holiday in ancient Rome, have been drunkenness and riotous conduct, which caused it to be prohibited at several points throughout history. Like other prohibitions, of course, they were astounding failures.)
No Safe Haven: Children of Substance Abusing Parents (A list subscriber forwards a notice from CASA, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, saying it will release a report at a press conference Jan. 14 at which CASA will propose expanding the war on some drug-using parents.)
Prince Charles Asks Victim Of MS If She Has Tried Pot (An Associated Press version of yesterday's news, in the Everett, Washington, Herald)
Prince in Flap Over Pot Rx (The New York Daily News version)
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Thursday, December 24, 1998:
Poor Police Work Alleged In Pot Case (The San Jose Mercury News says attorneys for medical-marijuana patient Peter Baez asked San Jose prohibition agents pointed questions Wednesday in an attempt to have the charges against the former head of a San Jose-based medical cannabis dispensary dismissed. San Jose police officer Tim Kuchac stated in an affidavit that he was part of the team that served the first warrant and noticed a computer that could have contained business records and other key evidence. In fact, he testified Wednesday, that was not true. He had never been to the center before signing the affidavit. "I was blown away," said defense attorney Gerald Uelmen. "I have very few instances in my life as a lawyer where I had a police officer admit on the stand to perjury.")
Fatal Error: The Pentagon's War On Drugs Takes A Toll On The Innocent (A lengthy account in The Austin Chronicle details the killing of an 18-year-old Texas goatherder, Esequiel Hernandez Jr., by camouflaged US Marines on a drug interdiction mission along the US-Mexico border. The Posse Comitatus Act, passed by Congress in 1878, made it a felony to deputize the armed services for domestic law-enforcement duty. Congress began chipping away at Posse Comitatus in 1982 - the same year then-Vice President Bush was put in charge of the War on Drugs - with a defense bill allowing the military to loan equipment and facilities to civilian law enforcement agencies. A 1989 bill went further, allowing military personnel to work in the field. And a 1991 act authorized the services to conduct armed anti-drug reconnaissance missions. The definition of these missions has been expanded in every defense bill since. The Pentagon spends about $1 billion a year fighting drugs. The United States has pursued violent regeneration through a series of "savage wars," of which the war on some drug users is but the latest.)
"Right This Wrong" (A sidebar to the Austin Chronicle's article about drug warriors killing an 18-year-old Texas goatherder says a scathing 249-page report on the 1997 shooting, prepared by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, concluded that the U.S. Border Patrol helped aim the gun that killed Esequiel Hernandez Jr., and that both the Defense and Justice Departments obstructed Smith's investigation into Hernandez's death.)
Pot's Hazards (A letter to the editor of The Chicago Tribune from Peter B. Bensinger, the former head of the DEA, blasts the newspaper for its staff editorial saying there is "growing recognition that marijuana may have therapeutic value as medicine." The voters are inacapable of understanding science, and government agencies such as the "Federal Drug Administration" should be left alone to make such decisions because they are the only ones capable of understanding the science, are unbiased, and have only the best interests of everyone in mind. Sheesh.)
A Bad Season For Amateurs (According to The San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that a new NIAAA survey of 14,000 American workers found inexperienced drinkers caused more problems than veteran drunks. The findings challenge popular wisdom blaming heavy boozers for an estimated $27 billion a year in lost productivity.)
Medical Marijuana - The Six-State Sweep (William Greider in Rolling Stone magazine says the American people want marijuana legalized for medical use. So why isn't Washington listening? Bill Zimmerman of Americans for Medical Rights says, "More than one-fifth of the American electorate has now voted in the majority to give patients the right to use marijuana. If the federal government doesn't respect that vote and change its attitude, we're fully prepared to go to the rest of America with this issue.")
Charles: Why Don't You Try Cannabis? (The Sun, in Britain, says Prince Charles put further pressure on the Government to legalise marijuana for medical use when he asked a multiple sclerosis patient, "Have you tried taking cannabis? I have heard it's the best thing for it." The patient said later, "He is a lovely man. He is really caring." Last night charity chiefs and medics backed the Prince. Rosemary Leonard, the Sun's doctor said: "This shows how well-informed he is." But Charles is not the first Royal to back the use of cannabis for pain relief. Queen Victoria used it to ease period pains.)
Ever Tried Cannabis? Prince Asks MS Sufferer (The version in Britain's Guardian)
Prince Ponders Medicinal Value Of Cannabis (The version in The Times)
Charles: Ever Tried Smoking Cannabis? (The version in The Mirror)
Charles Joins Cannabis Debate (The Scotsman version)
Prince Charles drawn into medicinal marijuana debate (The Associated Press version)
China's Shenzhen Executes 11 For Drug Trafficking (Reuters says China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen executed 11 drug dealers, including a teenaged girl, in the city's second major legally sanctioned bloodbath this year.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 72 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original compilation of news and calls to action regarding drug policy, including - A message to our readers; Livingston out as speaker, drug warrior Hastert set to take gavel; Court hears case to decide fate of D.C. medical marijuana initiative; Monitoring The Future survey released; Appalachia: under the gun; and an editorial, Impeach This, by Adam J. Smith.)
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Wednesday, December 23, 1998:
Wounded laborer seeks city settlement (The Oregonian says Ron Barton of Portland is suing the city and three Portland police officers for nearly $3.5 million, contending police illegally entered his apartment while he was asleep and shot him, crippling his left arm. Barton also alleges in the lawsuit that he was falsely prosecuted because the two officers involved in the shooting conspired with Officer Wayne Svilar, who investigated the incident.)
Federal charges against Marin Alliance dropped (A list subscriber forwards news from attorneys for the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana.)
Baltimore Police in Spotlight - Almost everyone agrees that drugs represent the city's biggest hurdle (The Associated Press says the apparent inability of Baltimore, Maryland, to bring its homicide count down below 300 per year, even as other types of violent crime have declined, has thrust a national spotlight on the city's dark side. Baltimore, the nation's 14th-largest city with 650,000 residents, has about 46 homicides per 100,000 people - more than four times the rate such larger cities as New York.)
Ouch! (A list subscriber forwards a urine-testing joke.)
RJR Subsidiary Pleads Guilty To Smuggling (The New York Times says a unit of RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. pleaded guilty on Tuesday and agreed to pay $15 million in penalties to settle federal criminal charges stemming from a scheme to smuggle cigarettes into Canada through an Indian reservation in upstate New York. Authorities said the guilty plea, filed in Federal District Court in Binghamton, N.Y., marked the first time that a tobacco company has been convicted of complicity in the shadowy and growing world of international cigarette smuggling.)
U.S., Mexico Admit Drug War Is Failing (According to a New York Times News Service article in The Chicago Tribune, officials from both the United States and Mexico say an ambitious U.S. effort to help train and equip Mexico's armed forces to pursue drug smugglers is a shambles, as are relations with an ally that Washington has worked intensely to court.)
U.S. Plan to Help Mexican Military Fight Drugs Is Faltering (A lengthier version)
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Tuesday, December 22, 1998:
NORML Foundation Weekly News Release (Will Foster To Spend Another Christmas Behind Bars, Medical Marijuana Patient Remains Incarcerated Despite Parole Board's Plea For Early Release)
Fight Brews Over State's Inmate Work Program (The Oregonian notes Oregon Governor John "Prisons" Kitzhaber wants to cut the state's 1999-2001 prison-inmate forced-labor budget from $14.4 million to $9 million, saying it has become too expensive - apparently it threatens to limit the number of pot growers and other illegal drug offenders the state can lock up. "What is the price for full compliance, and are we willing to pay it?" Kitzhaber said, referring not to the war on some drug users but to Ballot Measure 17, the 1994 ballot initiative that obliges inmates to work a 40-hour week.)
Seattle's war on drugs has priorities mixed up (Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin says instead of arresting drug dealers in public parks and streets, city attorney Mark Sidran and the Seattle Police Department have focused their energies on taking away private property from people like the McCoys, owners of Oscar's II, using a 1988 drug-nuisance abatement law. Of approximately 100 total cases brought by Sidran since 1990, roughly two-thirds were secret because of open-records rules or "administrative" reasons. Most of the 28 drug-abatement cases Malkin was able to review were filed against people who were never charged, accused, suspected of, or arrested for any criminal activity. Only one was filed against a white person. Twenty-three were filed against blacks, and four were filed against Asians or Hispanics.)
Lt. Gov. settles ethics charges for $7,000 (The Associated Press says Washington state Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a longtime drug-war hawk, will pay $7,000 to settle state ethics charges arising from his allocation of state funds to oppose a 1997 initiative to legalize the medical use of marijuana and other controlled substances.)
Alan Carter McLemore (A list subscriber says the former Texas lawyer, disbarred and incarcerated for growing his own medical marijuana, is being transferred to a halfway house, and might be paroled in June.)
7 Officers Cleared In Shooting (The Houston Chronicle says a Fort Bend County grand jury refused to indict seven Houston police officers Monday for the death of Derek Jason Kaeseman, an unarmed man shot 14 times while trying to flee police. The chase started when two officers saw what appeared to be a drug deal between two men. A passenger bailed out before the chase, but the medical examiner's report said the passenger was a male prostitute.)
Subtle As A Frying Pan (Syndicated columnist Jacob Sullum, in The Pioneer Press, in St. Paul, Minnesota, says public discussion of the drug issue is rife with messages that subvert themselves.)
Details of cop's alleged drug deals revealed (The Chicago Sun Times says an FBI agent testified in federal court Monday that Chicago police officer Joseph Miedzianowski, a 22-year veteran of the force, sold up to 330 pounds of crack cocaine to one drug dealer during an 18-month period.)
Ex-Park District Cop Acquitted In Shakedown (The Chicago Tribune says a federal jury on Monday exonerated Andre Williams, formerly with the Maywood Park District Police Department, of charges he shared in a $2,000 payoff from a purported drug dealer in 1996. The acquittal came despite audio tape and videotape of the payoff, the cooperation of Williams' partner, and the fact that the purported drug dealer was an undercover agent.)
The Mandatory-Sentencing Mistake (Washington Post columnist William Raspberry says he was unmoved by the argument of Vincent Schiraldi, director of the Justice Policy Institute, who discovered that during the last 10 years, New York State has increased spending on prisons by very close to the amount by which it has decreased spending on higher education. What persuaded Raspberry that the drug laws constitute poorly thought-out policy, misguided toughness and bad law was Schiraldi's story about Tom Eddy, a classmate of Schiraldi's at the State University of New York in Binghamton who was arrested in 1979 and served 13 years of a 15-to-life sentence for selling two ounces of cocaine.)
NJ Supreme Court Prohibits "Electronic Roadblocks," Curbs Police Power, Upholds Privacy (The ACLU News says a landmark New Jersey Supreme Court ruling earlier this month prohibits police from indiscriminately searching for personal information about innocent motorists by entering their license-plate numbers into mobile data terminals in police cars. "This is the first time that a court has recognized that a government official's search of a government database might violate statutory or constitutional privacy protections," said Eric Neisser of Rutgers Law School.)
Millions At Stake; Drug Tax Refunds Igniting Debates (The Wilmington Morning Star, in North Carolina, says the state has collected $40 million since 1990 from people accused of dealing illegal drugs. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the state's "drug tax" was unconstitutional, but the state attorney general's office has so far prevented any of the victims from getting any money back.)
Board OKs Plan To Test Athletes For Drugs (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, says the Gaston County School Board gave the first round of approval Monday night to testing high school athletes for drugs, alcohol and, possibly, steroids. Board member Kemp Michael said, "The ultimate purpose of this is to use athletics as a way to keep them in the fold." The cost will be $135 per student, or $4,000 to randomly test 10 percent of the county's high school athletes and cheerleaders.)
Judge Rules Scott Chief Planted Fake Drugs To Justify Cash Found (The Advocate, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, says Scott Police Chief Jerry Carpenter planted fake cocaine in a car to justify seizing $55,000 found during an interstate traffic stop.)
Biology Of Behavior - The Possible Link Between Genes, Attention Deficit (Newsday discusses some of the research presented to a panel of scientists convened by the federal government earlier this month to discuss the state of medical research about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.)
Biker slain in restaurant (The Montreal Gazette says Lawrence Bellas, 38, a Hell's Angels associate, was shot and killed yesterday by a hit man in a busy east-end restaurant, where two innocent diners were also wounded. Police said there was little doubt Bellas was another victim in the continuing war between the Hell's Angels and the Rock Machine for control of the illicit-drug trade.)
Colombia Police Make Record 66-Pound Heroin Bust (Reuters says that with Tuesday's haul, Colombian authorities have seized 836 pounds of heroin this year, a 75 percent increase from 1997. Colombia began to produce and export heroin from about 1991, and officials now estimate Colombia has some 12,000 acres of illegal opium poppy plantations.)
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Monday, December 21, 1998:
Million Marijuana March (A list subscriber seeks volunteers to help organize a rally in Los Angeles scheduled for May 1, 1999.)
Lake Worth School Districts Turning To Drug Testing (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the Lake Worth School District in northwest Tarrant County this year joined the small but growing number of school systems across the nation that are drug-testing students who participate in extracurricular activities. School officials strongly believe that the programs help, but finding statistics to confirm their beliefs is problematic.)
U.S. Prosecutors Say Bright Columbia Graduate Had Led Secret Life For Years (With uncharacteristic irony, The New York Times says Zolton Williams isn't likely to pay back his $60,000 in student loans for some time. He sits in a Brooklyn jail awaiting a federal sentence of up to 12 years for smuggling "tens of thousands" of dollars' worth of cocaine from Jamaica to the United States while he was a student at one of the nation's leading law schools.)
His Bail Seized, Coke Defendant Is Still In Jail (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Gerardo Hernandez's friends and family scraped together $100,000 to bail him out of the Milwaukee County Jail. But before the checks could be credited to Hernandez's bail account, a Wisconsin prohibition agent familiar with the case overheard the transaction as he passed by, intervened and scooped up the checks under the theory that the money was derived from drug dealing. Under current forfeiture laws, his theory counts for more than factual statements from 25 people who put up the $100,000, and Hernandez remains in jail.)
2 ex-officers convicted in drug case (The Associated Press says a jury in Monroe, Louisiana, on Friday convicted Warren Jones and Roderic Oliver, two former police officers in Tallulah, Louisiana, of federal charges in connection with a conspiracy to sell protection to illegal drug dealers.)
U.S. Aid Said Used In Air Raid On Colombia Village (According to Reuters, Human Rights Watch, based in Washington, D.C., charged Monday that Colombia's military used warplanes and rockets bought with U.S. anti-drug aid during a recent raid on a village in rebel-held territory that killed up to 27 civilians, including five children. Under guidelines imposed by Congress, the United States is barred from providing military aid to Colombia for use in counterinsurgency operations.)
Bolivia Eradicates Coca Leaf Fields (The Associated Press says the president of Bolivia, Hugo Banzer, announced Monday that the country had eradicated a record 28,660 acres of coca, or nearly a quarter of the crop. The government had to kill only 13 farmers in the process.)
Most People Say No To Cannabis Law Change (The New Zealand Herald says that, despite the recommendation of a Parliamentary select committee, a New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey of 663 people showed 61.8 per cent did not want people to be able to legally grow or buy the drug for their own use. Chris Fowlie of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, noting the poll also asked about respondents' personal use, said that might have affected the result. Other polls that had asked whether the use of cannabis should be decriminalised showed clear support. Interestingly, in terms of the "slippery slope" theory, only 3.3 per cent said they had never used cannabis but would if it were legal.)
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Sunday, December 20, 1998:
Anderson Faces Prison for Drugs (According to The Associated Press, an interview with Greg Anderson of the Houston Hawks, in Sunday's Houston Chronicle, says the professional basketball player blames himself for being entrapped by the FBI into participating in a cocaine deal, leading to his imminent prison sentence. Anderson, a 10-year veteran of the NBA who was a first-round draft pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 1987, faces up to 40 years.)
Drug Tests Proposed For Gaston Athletes (The Charlotte Observer, in North Carolina, says the Gaston County School Board will consider a countywide drug-testing program Monday night under which high school athletes could lose their right to play if they test positive for the kind of drugs that make them high - but they won't be tested for substances that make muscles grow big and strong.)
Drug Screening Tests Makers Improve Product Tamper-Resistance (The Akron Beacon-Journal, in Ohio, says there is a thriving industry in "drug testing aids" - products designed to beat urine tests. The hundreds of available products and companies that sell them are involved in an elaborate and ever escalating cat and mouse game, with the "cheaters" constantly raising the bar and the drug-testing companies constantly jumping higher, in tandem with the prices of their tests.)
Breaking Addiction's Hold (A Cox news service article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the answer to America's drug problem may be ibogaine, which comes from an obscure plant that grows wild in African rain forests. With a single capsule - or perhaps several over a period of weeks - heroin addicts, alcoholics, cocaine users, even smokers might erase or at least interrupt their cravings. Efforts to understand the plant have foundered on a tangle of lawsuits and conflicting scientific results.)
Gang leader gunned down in Vancouver (A Canadian Press article in The Edmonton Journal says Bindy Johal, 27, was gunned down early Sunday at a crowded night club by a gunman who blended into the crowd and escaped undetected. Johal, a self-admitted drug dealer, was one of the men tried for the 1994 murders of brothers Ron and Jimmy Dosanjh. He and five others were acquitted.)
Caught In The Unforgiving Grip Of Thai Justice (A book review in The Miami Herald about "4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison," by Warren Fellows, calls it an "unrelievedly horrible tale." The author, a native of Australia, was sentenced in 1978 to life in prison for smuggling heroin. After a dreadful interrogation, torture and preliminary confinement in unspeakable conditions, he was shipped off to Bang Kwang, the most feared prison in the world. Fellows writes, "While doing my business in Bangkok, I had been aware of the possibility that, if caught, I might be sent to Big Tiger. But somehow it had seemed a distant chance - I did not belong in Bang Kwang. It was a place for the lowest, most hopeless forms of humanity. Nobody thinks of themselves in that way. Not even criminals." Without self-pity, he makes a compelling case that his punishment was wildly out of proportion to his crime.)
Shan Rebels Blame Myanmar Military For Opium Boom (According to Reuters, Colonel Yod Suk of the Shan State Army says frequent attacks by the Myanmar military against the SSA and its followers as they fought for their own homeland and autonomy has caused local production of opium and heroin to expand. Local residents need permanent plots of land to grow rice and other crops, so they have turned to growing poppy because it takes a short time to harvest and they can shift the location of plots easier.)
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Saturday, December 19, 1998:
Legal defense fund for Lina and Gina Savage in detention since 11-20-98 (A Bay Area list subscriber forwards what could be the most disturbing news of the year. Despite Proposition 215, authorities in Contra Costa County, California, have decided that no medical marijuana patient will be allowed to raise children. Please help stand up for the rights of Gina, age 1, and Lina, age 4, taken from their biological parent to a foster home!)
Sacramento Police: Arrest, Kill & Destroy (A list subscriber forwards a witness's account of yesterday's court hearing in the case of Sacramento-area medical marijuana defendant Robert Ames. Two years after passage of Proposition 215, the Sacramento Police Department admitted in open court, in the county's first medical-marijuana cultivation case, that the department's policy is to automatically arrest all medical cannabis patients, kill all immature medical cannabis, and destroy all medical cannabis gardens, regardless of any paperwork documenting a cultivator's medical status. Ames was ordered to stand trial next year on two felony charges - cultivation, and posesssion with intent to distribute.)
Pair Gets Chance To Defend Pot Use (The Press Democrat, in Santa Rosa, California, says that even though Lori Converse, of Guerneville, had two letters from doctors authorizing her marijuana use, she was arrested for growing marijuana and taken to jail, along with her caregiver, William McConnell. For some reason left unexplained by the newspaper, District Attorney Mike Mullins has decided to violate the letter and spirit of Proposition 215 by disregarding the letters from Converse's physicians and making her try to prove her claims of medical use to a physician review board. It's also not clear why Converse's attorney applauded the prosecutor's extralegal demand.)
New Somoma board may get pot case (The San Francisco Examiner version says several physicians from outside Sonoma County had acknowledged Lori Ellen Converse's medicinal marijuana use but never recommended it, as required by Proposition 215.)
Confiscated Drugs Stolen From Under Nose Of Customs (According to an Associated Press article in The San Jose Mercury News, The Union Tribune in San Diego said Saturday that U.S. Customs agents are under investigation for delivering 7 tons of confiscated drugs to an incinerator and then allegedly leaving the drugs unattended and susceptible to theft - a procedure they may have followed on as many as five other occasions.)
Injured Girl Awarded Millions In Bus Wreck (The Anchorage Daily News says a Superior Court jury in Anchorage, Alaska, this week hit Laidlaw Transit Inc. with a $3.5 million verdict in a lawsuit over a school bus accident in which the driver tested positive for marijuana. A drug test on the driver taken some five hours after the accident indicated she had used marijuana, but not how recently, and an attorney for Laidlaw told jurors the company was sure that marijuana use did not cause the accident. The driver showed no signs of impairment and was not feeling impaired when she hit a patch of black ice that morning. The 12-year-old plaintiff's injuries were minor and she quickly recovered, and has since participated in track and field sports events and is a regular runner.)
War On Drugs Is Self-Serving Politcal Policy (A letter to the editor of The Anchorage Daily News cites several little-known aspects of the dubious war on some drugs.)
Judge Hears Pleas, Says Little on Pot Vote (The Washington Post says U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts asked plenty of questions yesterday but gave no signals about how he might rule in the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of backers of Initiative 59, the District of Columbia measure that would permit seriously ill people to use marijuana for medical reasons.)
Judge keeps D.C. marijuana vote under wraps (The Baltimore Sun version)
Needle Exchange Returns to D.C. (The Washington Post says a private firm now carries out the program, funded previously by the District of Columbia. In October, Congress forced the city to stop trying to prevent intravenous drug users from spreading AIDS.)
Teen Drug Use Down Slightly, Study Says (A Knight Ridder news service article in The Orange County Register summarizes the latest results from the annual Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Used to track teen-age drug use since 1975, the survey conducted by Professor Lloyd Johnston this year found that 10th-graders' use of marijuana dropped from 34.8 percent to 31.1 percent. Thirty-five percent of 10th-graders said they had used some kind of drug, including tobacco, in the past school year, down from 38.5 percent the year earlier. However, Professor Johnston and the federal government apparently do not consider alcohol to be a drug, or illegal for kids - about seven in 10 sophomores said they had consumed alcohol, and one-third of seniors reported being drunk in the past month. Overall "drug" use among eighth-graders dropped from 23.6 percent to 21 percent. But marijuana use held steady at 9.7 percent for that grade and remained at 22.8 percent among 12th-graders. Some 22.4 percent of high school seniors smoked cigarettes daily in the latest survey, compared with 1992's all-time low of 17.2 percent. Black teenagers continue to have the lowest smoking rates, with just less than 15 percent of black seniors saying they smoked in the past month.)
Teens' drug use dips slightly but remains high, survey finds (The Miami Herald version notes, according to the survey, 41.4 percent of high school seniors reported using "drugs" in the last year, down from 42.4 percent.)
Study Finds Decline In Teen Substance Use (The Washington Post version)
Teen Drug Use Stabilizes But Overall Rate Still High, Study Finds (The Sacramento Bee version)
Report: Drug Use Stabilizing Among Teens (A slightly different version in The Omaha World-Herald)
Drug Use Among Teen-Agers Leveling Out, Report Says (The Los Angeles Daily News version)
Drug Use Slows As Teens Heed Dangers (A lengthier version in The Peoria Journal Star)
Teen Drug Use Has Stabilized, Even Dipped, Study Says (The Arizona Republic version)
Dip In Teen Drug Use Called Inadequate (The Philadelphia Inquirer version)
Drug Use Slows As Teens See, Hear More About Dangers (The version in The Commercial Appeal, in Tennessee)
1998 Monitoring The Future Study: Tide Of Youth Drug Use Turns (A press release from the office of the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, says this year's survey of teen drug use demonstrates that "our balanced approach - focusing on preventing children from turning to drugs, treating drug addicts, and breaking trafficking organizations - works.")
Colombia Seizes 30 Percent More Cocaine, Heroin In 1998 (According to Cable News Network, today's release of an annual crime report by the Colombian National Police shows Colombian prohibition agents seized a record 59 tons of cocaine and 770 pounds of heroin this year, worth about $1 billion wholesale in the United States. However, the area of land covered with illegal drug crops has increased over the past two years. The DEA estimates Colombia supplies 80 percent of the world's cocaine and about 60 percent of the high-grade heroin bought in the United States. The DEA also estimates Colombian cocaine sells for about $17,500 per kilogram in the United States, and heroin for $85,000 to $195,000 per kilogram.)
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Friday, December 18, 1998:
Implementation of Measure 67 (Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis patient and chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act of 1998, provides some potentially helpful advice to other Oregon patients about how to comply with the voter-approved law.)
Task Force: New office needed to improve pain management (The Associated Press says a state task force has recommended that Oregon should set up a new office to improve pain management and ease doctors' fears about treating pain with narcotics. The recommendations will be given to Governor John Kitzhaber and the legislature next month in hopes that lawmakers will act on them.)
Raid yields guns, ammunition, drug paraphernalia (An Oregonian account of North Portland residents being awakened at 5:30 a.m. Thursday by a police raid characteristically fails to say what the "paraphernalia" consisted of or whether the weapons were illegal, or on what evidence Portland police charged Leroy Sylvester Long with conspiracy to commit first-degree distribution of a controlled substance, or how one person could engage in a conspiracy and/or why nobody else was apparently charged.)
County considers taking cars of drunken drivers (The Oregonian says the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously endorsed a resolution Thursday to consider forfeiting vehicles operated by drivers who have suspended or revoked licenses as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol or "drugs." The resolution, introduced by Commissioner Lisa Naito, allows Sheriff Dan Noelle to appoint a committee to consider the ramifications and potentially recommend a county ordinance.)
Medical Pot Not A Problem (A letter to the editor of The Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, responds to an op-ed against medical marijuana by Sandra Bennett, the notorious local drug warrior.)
Illegal Plant Grown For Medicine, Man Claims (An Associated Press article in The Houston Chronicle notes Musa Ahmed Gelan of Prunedale, California, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in San Jose to charges related to growing more than 1,000 khat plants. Gelan's lawyer said the native of Yemen used khat to help control his diabetes. Prohibition agents said Gelan's garden was the first such outdoor "plantation" discovered in the United States.)
Not Guilty Plea In Exotic Drug Case (A lengthier San Jose Mercury News version)
Texas reporter was murdered in Mexico, authorities say (The Dallas Morning News says an autopsy shows Philip True, the Mexico City correspondent for the San Antonio Express News, was strangled and may have been sexually assaulted before his death. The newspaper says American law enforcement sources "privately" suspect drug smugglers.)
US Journalist In Mexico Sexually Assaulted, Slain (The Chicago Tribune version in The Orange County Register says True was indeed sexually brutalized, but that he may also have stumbled upon an illegal logging operation.)
American Journalist Is Killed In Mexico (The original Chicago Tribune version - slightly different)
Express-News news release relating to Philip True (The San Antonio Express-News says news reports that the newspaper's slain Mexico City correspondent was investigating drug trafficking or cultivation are false. There is no evidence to suggest he was the victim of foul play by drug traffickers or cultivators. Also contrary to published reports, True's wallet and other effects were missing, suggesting robbery may have been a motive.)
Texas Lawyer Battles Highway Department, Anti-drug Police (A Dallas Morning News article in The San Jose Mercury News says Pat Barber of Colorado City, Texas, erected a big billboard on his ranch at the edge of town next to Interstate 20 saying, "Just Say NO to Searches! 915-728-5505." Law enforcement officials were not amused and the Texas Department of Transportation said the billboard violated the Highway Beautification Act and threatened to fine Barber $1,000 a day if he didn't remove it. "Nobody wants to see us turn into a Third World police state," says Barber. "Police may want it, but people don't want it.")
Drake nurse allegedly stole patient's morphine (The Cincinnati Enquirer says the woman had a history of substance abuse when a temp agency placed her at the Drake Center, raising questions about the effectiveness of an Ohio law requiring background checks for health care workers. "We arrest a health professional every six days," said Sgt. John J. Burke, commander of Cincinnati's pharmaceutical diversion squad. About 70 percent of the health workers the squad arrests are nurses. The rest are pharmacists, doctors and other health care workers.)
Taylor Turns Himself In On Drug Rap (UPI says former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, a virtual lock to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month, faces crack cocaine charges in Teaneck, New Jersey.)
Dealer's house is officer's - Drug conduit's forfeited Hilltown Twp. home is sold to Philadelphia policeman (The Morning Call, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, gives a quick history of Bucks County District Attorney Alan M. Rubenstein's campaign since 1986 to forfeit people's homes for illegal-drug-related offenses. It's still not clear though how Ralph Mirarchi is able to afford a $315,000 house on a policeman's salary.)
Joe Hart - Key West Buyers Club (A list subscriber says the case against one of the founders of a medical marijuana club in Key West, Florida, was thrown out today by a judge who ruled that the "no-knock" raid on his apartment was illegal.)
Judge Hears Medical Marijuana Case (The Associated Press says U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts will hear oral arguments today by lawyers for the District of Columbia and the American Civil Liberties Union, who want to overturn the move by Congress to censor the results of medical-marijuana Initiative 59 in November's election.)
Anti Climax (A list subscriber notes U.S. District Court Judge Roberts didn't issue a decision today regarding Initiative 59, but provides the URL for "almost all" the written arguments presented by the various parties.)
Study finds smoking marijuana and cocaine can cause cancer (CNN apparently failed to ask for an objective interpretation of the science while conveying the latest US government anti-marijuana propaganda released Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Supposedly the study was the first of its kind, and found that smokers of marijuana and crack cocaine show the same kinds of precancerous conditions caused by smoking tobacco. Unfortunately, neither CNN nor the phony scientists explained why the government has never able to point to a single person who has contracted lung cancer by smoking cannabis.)
Teenage use of stimulants levels off in 1998 (An Associated Press article in The Seattle Times says the annual Monitoring the Future survey of teen drug use conducted by the University of Michigan was released today. According to the summary, it paints an optimistic picture of American teenagers, with a few exceptions. Use of marijuana, by far the most popular "drug," dropped among 10th-graders. But there was an increase in the number of 8th-graders who had tried crack or cocaine.)
Teen Drug Use Steady In 1998 (The CNN/Associated Press version)
Teen Use Of Pot, Booze, Cigarettes Down Slightly (The San Francisco Chronicle version)
Highlights Of Teen Drug Use Survey (The Associated Press cites some selected statistics from the annual Monitoring the Future survey of teen drug use. Among high school seniors, 54 percent had used an "illegal drug" at least once. Apparently that didn't include alcohol or tobacco, though both are illegal for kids.)
UN Official Seeks Reforms In US Prisons (Reuters says Radhika Coomaraswamy, a top United Nations official concerned with violence against women, on Friday called for stronger monitoring of women's prisons in the United States to control widespread sexual misconduct.)
Wiseman Noble cancels all Hemp and Non-Wood Fibre projects (A company press release from Wiseman Noble, the research-based events and publications company in Vancouver, British Columbia, whose aim is to facilitate change through consensus, cites financial losses. Wiseman Noble produced seven events across Canada related to hemp and non-wood fibres since 1997, and published eight issues of Commercial Hemp magazine.)
Illegal Drug Trade Is Tool Of Power Elite (An op-ed in The Victoria Times-Colonist, in British Columbia, by Jim Hackler, a professor of sociology at the University of Victoria and the author of "Crime and Canadian Public Policy," says it is difficult for Canada to have a sensible drug policy when its neighbor, the United States, the most powerful country in the world, supports the drug trade and then lies about it. Clearly, enough powerful people are benefiting from the current drug policy that it will be hard to develop intelligent alternatives.)
Torture Scandal Stirs Dominicans (The Associated Press says a videotape of a drug suspect being beaten in the presence of the Dominican Republic's top anti-drug official, General Humeau Hidalgo, is drawing public outrage.)
Cannabis Ifs And Butts (The New Zealand Herald says that after eight months of deliberation, the New Zealand parliament's health select committee released its report on the mental health effects of cannabis yesterday. "Based on the evidence we have heard in the course of this inquiry," the committee concluded, "the negative mental health impact of cannabis appears to have been overstated . . . . Cannabis should be viewed as a lesser threat to cognitive functioning than alcohol." The committee said the evidence also suggested that cannabis did not cause behavioural difficulties, rather that cannabis was frequently used by youths who misbehaved. Neither was it a cause of suicide.)
Cannabis Laws Should Be Reviewed (The version in The Press, in New Zealand.)
Britain Is Drugs Capital Of Europe (Britain's Independent says the 1998 Annual Report on the State of the Drugs Problem in the European Union, carried out by the European Commission, shows that the war against drugs is being lost, and that proportionately more people in the United Kingdom use cannabis, ecstasy, amphetamines and solvents than in any other country in Europe.)
Gambians Arrested For Drug Crimes (A translation of an article from Dagens Nyheter, in Sweden, says the illegal heroin and khat trade in Stockholm is growing at an immense rate - despite the most repressive anti-drug laws in Europe - with police alleging that 400 of the county's 900 Gambians are involved.)
The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 71 (The Drug Reform Coordination Network's original summary of drug policy news and calls to action, including - Diana McCague sentenced for syringe exchange - including McCague's statement to the court and links to prior coverage of the Chai Project; Action opportunity: protest on steps of New Jersey Statehouse; Bills seeking to decriminalize marijuana, legalize medical marijuana and legalize hemp cultivation to be introduced in New Hampshire legislature in 1999; Patient who was denied liver transplant for using medical marijuana dies; Media spotlight: drug smuggling by U.S. Marines a growing problem; and an editorial by Adam J. Smith, Unrighteous indignation.)
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Thursday, December 17, 1998:
The NORML Foundation Weekly Press Release (Increasing Marijuana Reform Legislation Anticipated In 1999 State Legislatures)
Medical Marijuana Act: Don't Act Yet (Stat, the newsletter of the Oregon Medical Assocation, says that despite the passage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, Oregon physicians should not "take action" until "all the issues" are resolved - like maybe a thousand years from now - even though the new law requires only that a physician express the opinion on a patient's chart that marijuana may help the patient's condition.)
Re: Medical Marijuana Act: Don't Act Yet (Dr. Rick Bayer, a chief petitioner for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, comments on the advisory from Paul Frisch, the Oregon Medical Association's director of medical legal affairs. When the federal threat no longer looms large, the OMA will mellow. By spring, things will work out if reformers keep up their educational efforts.)
Trooper thankful to escape close call (The Oregonian interviews an Oregon state trooper who is trying to recover from a devastating wreck caused by a drunken driver. The drunk got 60 days for maiming a state trooper - a lot less time than most convicted marijuana growers.)
Advocates seek assurance of adequate pain treatment (The Oregonian says the Portland-based Compassion in Dying Federation is leading other advocacy groups in pushing the federal government to assure that patients entering hospitals clearly understand their right to request adequate pain treatment.)
Acquittal shows difficulty of prosecuting gang murder suspects (The Associated Press says it took a jury just 30 minutes Wednesday to find a Portland man not guilty of murder in a 1995 gang shooting after two key witnesses refused to cooperate with prosecutors during the trial.)
Please Send Dave Herrick a Card or Letter in Jail (A list subscriber notes this is the second Christmas behind bars for the California medical marijuana martyr and former San Bernardino County deputy sheriff.)
Ex-Tucson cop indicted on charges stemming from corruption probe (The Arizona Daily Star says Jose Ernesto "Ernie" Medina was indicted yesterday on charges stemming from a federal investigation into corruption in the Tucson police department.)
Court upholds cash forfeiture of $9 million (The Houston Chronicle says the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the forfeiture of more than $9 million in cash deposited in a Houston bank by Mario Ruiz Massieu, a former Mexican official who was in charge of investigating drug cartels.)
Police Find $1 Million During Traffic Stop (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in Missouri, says two police made the largest seizure of suspected drug money in St. Louis County's history after stopping a man on Interstate 44 for two moving traffic violations and because one of his headlights wasn't working.)
Suburban Drug Force Disbanding (The Chicago Tribune says the Cook County Metropolitan Enforcement Group, an alliance of state, county and local police that for years was some suburban cities' only weapon against small-time drug dealers, will disband at the end of the month after 21 years. Reasons for the group's slow death over the last two years include the proliferation of law-enforcement task forces at the county, state and federal levels - some of whose duties overlap those of MEG. As these task forces have formed, some of the local departments that assigned officers to MEG pulled them out and redeployed them to the other groups. The reason is economics: By having officers take part in task forces that seize more assets, local departments typically get more money.)
County Drug Unit Loses Officers, May Shut Down (The version in The Daily Herald, in Arlington Heights, Illinois)
Policeman Accused Of Running Drug Ring (The Orange County Register version of yesterday's news about Joseph Miedzianowski, the veteran Chicago police officer who was charged Wednesday with running a drug ring that allegedly distributed millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin between Chicago and Miami.)
Cop Charged In Drug Ring (The Chicago Tribune version)
$750,000 Awarded In False Arrest Case (The Miami Herald notes the war on some drug users just got more expensive locally Wednesday as a federal jury in Broward awarded the judgment to a man in Hollywood, Florida, after a judge ruled his civil rights were violated by two police officers in a 1996 drug arrest. In a rare decision, U.S. District Judge Wilkie Ferguson Jr. held Sgt. Jeff Marano and former Officer Tony Fernandez responsible for violating Dwight Edman's rights before the jury could even deliberate the matter. The judge based his verdict Tuesday on Marano's admission that police had no probable cause to arrest Edman.)
Human Body Makes Own Version of Chemicals Found in Marijuana (A scientifically illiterate but nonetheless interesting article from Knight Ridder News Service in The Salt Lake Tribune grapples with the belated realization that our brains and bodies are flooded with a natural form of cannabis. Called cannabinoids, after the euphoria-inducing plant Cannabis sativa, this family of compounds blocks pain, erases memories and triggers hunger. Newer studies show they also may regulate the immune system, enhance reproduction and protect the brain from stroke and trauma damage.)
Natural Form Of Marijuana In Humans A Medical Mystery (A lengthier version in The Chicago Tribune)
Just Say 'Wait a Minute' (The New York Review of Books discusses "The Fix," by Michael Massing, and "Drug Crazy - How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out," by Mike Gray. Malcolm Gladwell writes, "Drugs" really aren't that much fun - at least not in the way that straitlaced adolescents and anxious parents think that they are. This is a critical point, but so often overlooked that it is worth examining in more detail.)
Marijuana Can Affect Fertility, Damaging Sperm, U.S. Study Says (A Reuters article in The Toronto Star uncritically passes along Tuesday's news about the latest drug-warrior junk science from the United States suggesting cannabis may have medical utility as a birth-control adjunct - plus commentary from list subscribers, including a letter to The Toronto Star faulting the newspaper for publishing propaganda from US ideologues.)
MPP's view of the Monitoring the Future survey data (A press release from the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, DC, critiques the federally funded survey to be released tomorrow, and says the MPP's newly released online report, "Marijuana Prohibition Has Not Curtailed Marijuana Use by Adolescents," examines the government's data and concludes that criminal penalties have had no effect on adolescent marijuana use rates. "When teen marijuana use is down, the drug warriors say, 'Our policies are working, so let's stay the course.' When use is up, they say, 'We blame the legalizers! We must stay the course.' They can't have it both ways. It's time for the drug warriors to take full responsibility and admit that prohibition is a useless, wasteful, cruel strategy.")
Stripped in search, teens sue police (The Toronto Sun says two Toronto high school students are alleging they were strip-searched, assaulted, threatened and falsely imprisoned while being investigated for possessing marijuana.)
Woman Drops Pants In Airport After Customs' Smuggling Claim (According to The Edmonton Sun, workers at Pearson Airport in Toronto say a Toronto woman, 20, who arrived on a flight from Jamaica was accused by a Customs officer of smuggling drugs in her body cavities. The irate woman suddenly removed her pants and underwear in front of about 30 stunned people and bent down in front of the officer to show she had no drugs, workers said.)
Huge Pot Bust York's Largest (The Toronto Sun says prohibition agents raided two homes in Markham yesterday and shut down what police estimate was the largest-ever pot-growing operation in York Region, with 6,000 plants.)
Today in the history of the drug war (A list subscriber notes in 1973, the Canadian deputy minister of health confirmed that Health Department officials had been ordered to make no comment on the the LeDain Report.)
New Zealand Select Committee Report Recommends Law Review (A press release from New Zealand NORML says New Zealand's parliamentary inquiry into the mental health effects of cannabis has resulted in a recommendation that "the Government review the appropriateness of existing policy on cannabis and its use and reconsider the legal status of cannabis.")
Alcohol And Drug Problems Rife In Jails (The Advertiser, in Australia, says a national study conducted by the Australian Medical Association has found that up to 83 per cent of the nation's prisoners continue to suffer from alcohol and other drug problems while in jail, and as many as one in four inmates continues to use heroin when in jail, while half of all prisoners suffer from hepatitis C and hepatitis B.)
Parole Officers Back Heroin Trial (An op-ed in The Daily Telegraph, in Australia, by Greg Oates, the president of the Probation and Parole Officers' Association of New South Wales, says "We are filling our jails in NSW faster than they can be built. There is no hope of stemming the flow of illicit drugs into the country. People are not safe on the streets and parents mourn their children, dead or imprisoned. It is a disaster. We believe all political parties have a moral obligation to stop politicking on this subject and to introduce an on-going inquiry into how to combat the use of illicit drugs with emphasis on early intervention, treatment and harm minimisation. We support a heroin trial.")
Bytes: 146,000 Last updated: 12/31/98
Wednesday, December 16, 1998:
Urban Pulse - Flesh and Blood (Willamette Week, in Portland, says local doctors estimate that as many as 70 percent of Portland's injecting drug users are carriers of Hepatitis C, and during the last six months, 11 heroin users in the city have been afflicted with necrotizing fasciitis - better known by its tabloid nickname, "flesh-eating bacteria.")
Re: Urban Pulse - Flesh and Blood (A letter sent to the editor of Willamette Week says the shopper's suggestion that diseases associated with heroin use are "drug-related" is to miss, or deny, the central problem, which is the unregulated market.)
kxlporwamcar1 (An Associated Press article with a garbled headline at the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard web site says Harrison Bletson, the Portland crack addict who murdered his mother when she refused to give him money, has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.)
Bread Control - It's No Longer Just About Guns (A sarcastic letter to the editor of Willamette Week uses the logic of prohibitionism to call for a ban on bread, urging readers to "Think idiotically, act globally!")
Marijuana arrests soar for students on Gig Harbor peninsula (According to The Associated Press, sheriff's officials say at least 16 students in the area of Gig Harbor, Washington, have been caught with marijuana at school over the last 10 days. "Marijuana is back to the time when it was in its heyday" on the Gig Harbor Peninsula, said Pierce County sheriff's Sergeant Ross Herberholz.)
Wash. sting describes bargain-hunting smokers as smugglers (The Spokesman-Review, in Spokane, Washington, notes smokers in eastern Washington are upset over a half-day sting Monday near Stateline, Idaho, where agents of the Washington Liquor Control Board confiscated cigarettes and wrote $250 citations for bargain-hunters who preferred Idaho's tax of 28 cents per pack over Washington's tax of 82.5 cents per pack.)
Cross-border holiday shoppers may be breaking law (An Associated Press story on the same topic, in the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard)
Couple arrested for Web site classified ads for cocaine, sex (An Associated Press article in The Register-Guard, in Eugene, Oregon, says a couple in Bothell, Washington, was arrested after police investigated classified advertisements on a popular Web site that offered and solicited sex and cocaine.)
Cocaine, Sex Listed Among Web Site's Classified Ads (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer version)
WSU frat suspended after alcohol-related incident (An Associated Press article in The Register-Guard, in Eugene, Oregon, says Kappa Sigma, a Washington State University fraternity in Pullman, Washington, that is already on probation for its role in last spring's riot, is being suspended and faces closure because of members' party habits.)
Medical marijuana court hearings . . . (A bulletin from the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana asks concerned Californians to show their support for Proposition 215 by attending hearings Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 regarding two separate medical-marijuana cases in Sonoma County. The first case involves Lori Converse and William McConnell, and the second involves Ed Learn and Will Larson.)
FBI Picks Up A Prison Probe Some Say Was Stifled By Union (The San Mateo County Times says the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken up an investigation into brutality by guards at Pelican State Prison in California. State officials had pledged to reform the supermaximum penitentiary in 1995, but just a few months after investigators started working, the warden cut short their probe and the investigators then found themselves the subject of repeated investigations by the Corrections Department.)
DARE Still Finds Support With Pueblo-Area Principals (The Boulder Daily Camera says that while some cities and districts are dropping Drug Awareness Resistance Education, principals in at least one corner of Colorado say they plan to stick with the program.)
Drug Survey (A staff editorial in The Ft. Worth, Texas, Star-Telegram notes a full 10 percent of the members of the Class of 1998 at Keller and Fossil Ridge high schools said in a survey taken last spring that they had used heroin. In response, school district officials are working with Keller Police Chief Bill Griffith on a comprehensive plan to replace the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program that is taught to most of the district's fifth graders.)
Prosecutors: Chicago police officer ran cocaine, heroin ring (The Associated Press says Joseph Miedzianowski, a 22-year police veteran and member of the gang crimes unit, brokered drug deals, served as a go-between with feuding drug lords, and eventually took over daily control of a drug ring that allegedly distributed millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin between Chicago and Miami.)
Veteran Chicago Police Officer Charged In Drug Ring (The Chicago Tribune version)
An Experiment Gone Awry Half Of State's 400 Breweries (The Wisconsin State Journal presents a brief but interesting history of alcohol Prohibition in the state, where 400 breweries flourished in 1920, but fewer than 200 re-opened in 1933. Some breweries managed to stay in business by manufacturing their own malt and selling to home brewers, who worked around Prohibition by fermenting in their basements or cellars. Pabst, in particular, created a healthy demand for its malted barley by openly marketing to home brewers. Prohibition did little to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed by Wisconsinites.)
Ex-coach pleads guilty to sex, drug charges (The Cincinnati Enquirer says Thomas Oswald, a former Little League coach in Hamilton accused of giving a 16-year-old girl "drugs" and money to induce her to have sex with him and to pose naked for photos, pleaded guilty Tuesday to 15 criminal charges.)
Facing charge, he stops playing Santa (The Philadelphia Enquirer says for the last eight years, Michael Maltman has brought joy to the hearts of Westville youths by dressing as Santa Claus and parading up and down Broadway in the days leading up to Christmas. This year, he is facing five years in prison on charges of possessing crack cocaine. However, in the spirit of the holidays, many of the borough's 5,000 residents have come out in support of Maltman, and 50 of them rallied behind him Monday at a special council meeting on the issue.)
Liquor/Beer Regulations (A letter to the editor of the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal, from the president of Expressway Liquors, who is also president of Champions For a Drug Free Kentucky, responds to news about local college students who died in an alcohol-related incident by pointing out the hypocritical double standards and regulations allowing beer to be purchased more easily than hard alcohol.)
Cops Sued Over Drug Arrest Await Verdict (The Miami Herald says a federal jury in Broward is deliberating today whether two police officers in Hollywood, Florida, violated the civil rights of a man who claims he was wrongly arrested on drug charges in 1996.)
U.S. study shows marijuana can affect fertility (Reuters uncritically passes along yesterday's news about the latest drug-warrior junk science from the United States suggesting cannabis may have medical utility as a birth-control adjunct.)
Army Role In Mexico Rights Abuse Alleged (According to The Irish Times, Mrs Rosario Ibarra, 71, a leading campaigner for "disappeared" persons who is currently visiting Ireland, said disappearances are increasing in Mexico as a result of intensified military efforts against drug trafficking. Mrs Ibarra, who was the first woman candidate for the Mexican presidency, and a senator for the Democratic Revolutionary Party between 1994 and 1997, also criticised the UN Human Rights Commission for being reluctant to challenge Mexico over documented abuses. A commission investigation into disappearances announced last August had yet to begin, she said.)
Mitch Damage Seen Upping Drug Traffic In Caribbean (Reuters quotes Derek Haines, Chief Superintendent of the Caymans Drugs Task Force, saying Tuesday that the destruction of roads and bridges in Central America by Hurricane Mitch may force South American traffickers to move more illegal drugs through the Caribbean rather than over land, through Mexico.)
Italian Researchers Say The Sweet Doesn't Mimic Marijuana (According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, scientists in Italy said today that, contrary to earlier reports, certain substances in chocolate do not appear to mimic the effects of marijuana on the brain. "Furthermore, they said, most of the substances - known as endocannabinoids - are broken down in the digestive system before they reach the brain.")
Chocolate "Addiction" a Fiction? (Reuters says research by Italian scientists, reported in the journal, Nature, suggests the much-touted marijuana-like properties of chocolate may not contribute to chocolate cravings after all. The researchers found milk and cocoa do contain substances that mimic marijuana's effects, but not enough to have psychoactive effects. However, the research team apparently wasn't very sure, and recommended studies to determine if low doses of such substances could affect behavior.)
DrugSense Weekly, No. 78 (The weekly summary of drug policy news from DrugSense leads with the feature article - The U.S. Supreme Court and your rights, by Mark Greer. The Weekly News In Review includes several articles on Effective Activism - Drug war; The main thing; Drug crusade has produced everything but success. Articles about Policy include - McCaffrey blasts medicinal marijuana; New FDA chief vows to put science first; Column: Dumping DARE a good start; Texas tobacco-suit lawyers reportedly get $3.3 billion. Articles about Law Enforcement include - Editorial: Three-strikes' economics; Corruption in the system; Drug probes find smugglers in the military. Drug Use Issues are discussed in - Teen meth use outpaces treatment; Rise in cigarette smoking doesn't bother Burma government; Toxic markers called 'poor man's drug.' International news includes - UK: Drugs and weapons seized as police arrest 70 in dawn raids; UK: Drugs-related deaths double in Glasgow; UK: Drug smugglers' European Union; Mexico: Brazen drug dealers frustrate Mexico, US; Heroin use going up among US teen-agers. The weekly Hot Off The 'Net section has yet another full page ad in The New Republic. The DrugSense Tip Of The Week features a hot tip on searching the DrugNews Archive. The Quote of the Week cites Tom Armstrong. The Fact of the Week shows treatment beats interdiction.)
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Tuesday, December 15, 1998:
Patient Who Was Denied Liver Transplant For Using Medical Marijuana Dies (A press release from California NORML notes medical malfeasance has caused the death of Ed Plotner, who was removed from a liver transplant list for using medical marijuana. Plotner suffered from multiple hepatitis infections, and had used marijuana to combat severe appetite and weight loss. Unlike alcohol and other drugs such as cocaine and heroin, marijuana is not a risk factor for hepatitis, nor does it cause liver damage.)
We Kill Them With Kindness (An op-ed in The San Francisco Chronicle says "compassionate" programs such as welfare are only making life worse for street people, who just spend their checks on alcohol and other drugs. The author says in the last decade, San Francisco has spent well more than $1 billion trying to "solve" the homeless problem, yet it is worse today, despite the healthy economy.)
Heroin Big Killer In San Francisco (The Associated Press says a health department study released Tuesday says that out of 86 drug-related deaths among the homeless last year, 40 were connected to heroin. Neither AP nor, apparently, the health department, mentions the number of homeless who died from hunger, exposure, lack of medical care, or prohibition, since apparently those are not considered public health issues.)
Underage drinking cases clogging Vermont courts (The Associated Press says Vermont's crackdown on underage drinking is clogging the state's courts and forcing court officials to stop offering diversion programs to some offenders.)
Committee Endorses Call for Hemp Study (The Associated Press says a Virginia House of Delegates committee endorsed a measure Monday calling for a study of industrial hemp. The resolution, sponsored by Mitchell Van Yahres, a Democrat from Albemarle, asks federal officials to let the state's universities experiment with cultivation of industrial hemp for commercial use. The General Assembly will consider the measure during the session that begins Jan. 13.)
Must State Become A Criminal to Fight Drugs? (A letter to the editor of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, in Virginia, responds to the recent article about Customs Service agents violating airline passengers while engaging in drug-seeking behavior.)
Pot-Like Agents May Affect Fertility (UPI says investigators from the University at Buffalo in New York told the annual meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology in San Francisco that they had discovered that sperm contain receptors for cannabinoids such as THC, the most prevalent of the dozens of psychoactive substances found only in cannabis. Unfortunately, the researchers then ignored the epidemiological evidence and engaged in speculation that led them to revive the drug-warrior myth that heavy pot use may reduce fertility.)
Teens, Depression & Drugs (According to Washington Post columnist Abigail Trafford, Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, divides teenage "drug abusers" into two categories: the Sensation Seekers, who are the majority, and the depressive Self-Medicators, supposedly a minority, even though an estimated 8 million to 10 million children have an untreated mental illness. Traditional drug-prevention strategies aren't designed for depressives and aren't effective with them - but Trafford and Leshner still want to lock them all up. Both fail to acknowledge, or just flat-out lie about the fact that society isn't about to provide universal psychiatric care on demand; that pharmaceutical antidepressants don't work for some people, and can cause severe, permanent, debilitating side effects, unlike cannabis; that a large body of historical and medical research documents the utility for many people of treating mood disorders with cannabis; that cannabis is not a drug of abuse, and to the extent it may raise dopamine levels like drugs of abuse, it does so in the same manner as some pharmaceutical antidepressants; and that it is cruel as well as counterproductive to treat depressive teens who self-medicate with cannabis as "drug abusers," when self-medication with cannabis may allow them to function more productively, happily, and normally than otherwise.)
Errors, Sensationalism Hurt Papers' Credibility (According to The Associated Press, a nationwide survey released today by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that about 80 percent of adults said newspapers sensationalize the news. Those who had firsthand experience with reporters and editors are some of their biggest critics. And the public thinks reporters are out of touch with their readers. Thirty-one percent said they had been the subject of a news story or had been interviewed by a reporter. Of that group, 24 percent said they were misquoted and 31 percent found errors in the story.)
It's A Question Of Trust (A staff editorial in The Victoria Times-Colonist, in British Columbia, says the president of the University of Victoria is right to seek the dismissal of Jean Veevers, the sociology professor convicted of commercial cultivation marijuana charges.)
Re: It's a question of trust (A letter sent to the editor of The Victoria Times-Colonist says that if politicians, police, teachers, and priests should be held to a higher level of accountability, then politicians should represent their constituents. A majority of Canadians believe that cannabis should be decriminalized, so why is cannabis still prohibited?)
Colombian may be extradited to U.S. (An Associated Press article in The Dallas Morning News says Jaime "Jimmy" Orlando Lara, an alleged drug boss accused of shipping heroin to U.S. cities, could be the first person extradited to the United States under a December 1997 Colombian law that restored extradition of citizens for trial abroad.)
Judge Acclaims Ability of Cannabis Grower (The Irish Times says a horticulturist who grew four-foot cannabis plants in his home was commended for his technical ability by Judge Kieran O'Connor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court - who gave Wayne O'Connor a three-year suspended sentence and fined him £100 for possession of the herb.)
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Monday, December 14, 1998:
Brownie Mary Could Use a Pick-Me-Up (San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler notes "Brownie" Mary Rathbun, the 69-year-old grandmother who baked pot brownies for AIDS patients she knew from volunteering at San Francisco General Hospital, has been hospitalized herself after a recent fall. She'll be at Ralph K. Davies Medical Center a long time, but hardly anyone stops by. "It's sad," says a friend. "No one has brought Mary her favorite medicine.")
Inmates On Hold Burden Jails (The San Jose Mercury News says that even as crime in California falls to its lowest levels in decades, a ballooning population of prisoners awaiting trial is filling the state's county jails to record levels. Unsentenced inmates - men and women whom judges have refused to release until their cases go to trial and who cannot come up with bail - were once a minority in the state's jails. But in the past 10 years, their ranks have swollen by 50 percent, surpassing those jailed for minor crimes, according to statistics from the California Board of Corrections.)
Texas Ranger Says Military Acted To Obstruct Border Death Inquiry (According to an Associated Press article in The Houston Chronicle, Sergeant David Duncan, who investigated the killing of 18-year-old goatherder Esequiel Hernandez Jr. along the Mexican border by camouflaged Marines on a drug-interdiction mission, told the San Antonio Express-News that the military obstructed an inquiry into the death and says he wants a grand jury to consider the case a third time.)
DC & Medical Marijuana on All Things Considered (A transcript of a National Public Radio newscast about Congress quashing Initiative 59, the District of Columbia medical-marijuana initiative.)
Have You Been Drinking or Using Drugs? Police Officers Will Soon be Able to Answer Both Parts of This Question in Just Minutes (A former prohibition agent's press release on Business Wire says LifePoint Inc., a Rancho Cucamonga, California-based company will soon be marketing a saliva test that will allow police to check drivers for the ingestion of illegal drugs. The former Los Angeles cop also asserts that alcohol is not a drug, and cites two articles from The Journal of Forensic Sciences, in 1993, and The New England Journal of Medicine, in 1991, which he claims show about 50 percent of drivers under the influence are actually under the influence of drugs other than alcohol, disregarding evidence from around the world showing that cannabis users are safer than drivers who use no substances at all.)
New Surveillance Proposed for Bank Accounts (Reuters and Wired say a proposed government plan that has drawn fire as an Orwellian intrusion into Americans' privacy would require US banks to monitor their customers and alert federal officials to "suspicious" behavior.)
Marijuana Advocates Continue Push For Legal Use (Reuters summarizes the recent annual conference in Washington, DC, sponsored by the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. Activists do not agree on the best way to legalize marijuana, but all agree that the success of multiple medical marijuana initiatives Nov. 3 marks a watershed for their movement. Some believe medical marijuana should be the first goal and the acceptance of marijuana at a grass-roots level will lead ultimately to wider progress for personal freedoms.)
Rx: Marijuana (Dan Baum, author of "Smoke and Mirrors," writes in The Nation that he once thought the main problem for medical marijuana patients was marijuana's classification under Schedule I of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Control Act of 1970, which describes it as having a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Moving it to Schedule II would make clinical research possible and eventually permit prescriptions. In the present political climate, however, this course seems unlikely.)
Herbal Medicine (A letter to the editor of Time wonders why the magazine's special issue on herbal medicine never mentioned marijuana, the one herb thousands of Americans take for anxiety, fatigue, chronic depression, nausea, pain and other ailments.)
Loud music as addictive as drugs, study says (The Ottawa Citizen says a study published last week in Ear and Hearing, by researchers at Northeastern University, supposedly found that people who "need" high-decibel music experience the same withdrawal symptoms as substance abusers. The group adapted a 32-question survey used to diagnose alcoholism and recruited 90 self-professed loud-music lovers, eight of whom showed signs of addiction. However, according to Will Hunter, a substance-abuse specialist and one of the researchers, "There really is no need to be worried. It needs to be clinically significant distress or impairment - which means pretty serious.")
Bytes: 61,300 Last updated: 4/13/99
Sunday, December 13, 1998:
Drug Probes Find Smugglers In The Military (The Los Angeles Times says the American military has encountered an unexpected enemy in its war on drugs: U.S. servicemen smuggling marijuana and cocaine into California for Mexican drug rings. At least 50 Marines and sailors have been investigated "in recent years" for drug running, according to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Eight military probes involving 20 Marine and Navy suspects were launched in the past year alone. And here's an interesting statistic: Out of an active duty force of 1.4 million, 4,888 servicemen and women were discharged in fiscal 1998 for drug-related misconduct - mostly marijuana and cocaine use.)
Marines Reportedly Smuggled Drugs (The Associated Press version)
State Corrections Program Is Failing Us (Two letters to the editor of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel call for a blue-ribbon commission to be appointed to reconsider Wisconsin's rapidly expanding correctional system.)
Failing To Police Their Own - Win At All Costs series (The tenth and final part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. The Office of Professional Responsibility is the arm of the US Justice Department that is supposed to enforce the law and ethics among federal prosecutors. That's why Roger Pilon, a former Justice Department official, was surprised to learn that the men who leaked erroneous information about him to newspapers - leaks that violated federal privacy laws - included top attorneys at the OPR. No one was ever punished.)
Hyde Amendment Makes Violations Costly - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. Last year, Congress provided a measure of recourse for some victims of overzealous federal prosecutions. Legislation introduced by U.S. Representative Henry Hyde now allows defendants to recover reasonable defense costs if they can show a federal case was "vexatious, frivolous or in bad faith." The claims are starting to add up to serious money.)
Congress Steps In To Protect Whistleblower - Win At All Costs series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette continues its series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. Dr. Frederick Whitehurst, an FBI chemist, began reporting his concerns to OPR in 1986 that FBI Crime Laboratory managers lacked proper training, routinely ignored or tried to cover-up problems in handling evidence, that lab employees sometimes lied as witnesses to bolster government cases, and that some lab officials had rewritten reports he and others had produced. In response, the Justice Department suspended and publicly humiliated him.)
Aggressive Attorney At OPR Targets Prosecutor, Loses On All Counts - Win At All Costs series (Part of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series about the newspaper's two-year investigation that found federal agents and prosecutors break the law routinely. The US Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, in one of its largest investigations ever, spent two years looking into charges against William R. Hogan, a prosecutor in the Chicago U.S. Attorney's office. Based on OPR findings, he was fired in 1996, but vindicated last August by a judge who determined that the exhaustive OPR investigation showed he was guilty of no wrongdoing.)
Win At All Costs series - sidebars end the series (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concludes its series on corruption in the Justice Department with an invitation to write to two key congressmen asking for stronger oversight.)
'Strong-Willed' Prosecutor Unmoved By Spotlight (The Roanoke Times, in Virginia, portrays Joan Ziglar, the tough local prosecutor who extradited Alfred Martin, a businessman and father of three, from Michigan because he walked away from his 10-year jail sentence in 1974 after being sentenced for selling $10 of marijuana.)
Marijuana's Relief, Etc. (Four letters to the editor of The News & Observer, in North Carolina, find fault with the reasoning of Linda Bayer, the hack from the White House drug czar's office who criticized syndicated columnist Molly Ivins' recent apostasy on the drug war.)
Border Agency Protects Its Own Despite Misdeeds (The Miami Herald says its investigation of the U.S. Customs Service's employment practices in Florida found that the agency has promoted officers caught dating drug smugglers, wrecking an agency car after drinking, tampering with evidence, and helping a key witness leave the country. The newspaper's investigation, prompted by disclosures that the Customs Service's head agent in South Florida got the job after 2 1/2 years of failed management elsewhere, reveals a culture that often protects favored employees from their own mistakes yet hammers those who go public with criticism.)
FBI: Serious Crime Rates Dropping (The Associated Press says the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported Sunday that serious crimes dropped another 5 percent in the first half of 1998, extending a six-year trend. The half-year report comes weeks after the FBI's final 1997 figures, which showed the national murder rate reaching its lowest point in 30 years.)
Justices Limit Searches By Police In Traffic Stops (The Philadelphia Inquirer notes the US Supreme Court has ruled that a routine traffic violation doesn't automatically give police the right to search an automobile.)
A Selective Drug War (A letter to the editor of The Washington Times says Viagra enthusiast Bob Dole is a recreational drug user.)
University President Wants Pot-Growing Professor Fired (The Miami Herald notes the president of the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, wants to fire Jean Veevers, a sociology professor convicted of growing and selling marijuana who was fined $15,000 and given a conditional 12-month sentence to be served in the community.)
Veevers is a threat (The first of two letters to the edi
