| December 3, 1997 #023 | ||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||
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Am I A Criminal?
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Watching the pain and deterioration of someone you love, who suffers from a serious illness is one of the most saddening, painful experiences to endure - besides actually being the person who is ill. Seeing the beneficial effects medical marijuana can have on ill people is a great relief. To see someone stop throwing up and actually eat while losing the pain and nausea caused from serious illness (even if only temporary) is a great joy. | ||||||||||
I have experienced these feelings and can say that helping provide this beneficial medicine for people who truly need it makes me feel very good about myself and for the sick people I help, certainly not like a criminal. | ||||||||||
On November 5th, 1996, the voters of California passed Proposition 215, the
Compassionate Use Act of 1996, by a yes vote of 55.7% (64.5% in Mendocino
County). This enables seriously ill people, with a doctors recommendation,
to cultivate and use medicinal marijuana. | ||||||||||
Marijuana has been shown to help alleviate pain and discomfort, while increasing appetite in people suffering from a variety of illnesses, including AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, etc., when other medications have not been effective. There is a need to ensure that patients have access to a safe and affordable supply of medical grade marijuana/cannabis products. This is where I entered the picture. | ||||||||||
On September 26, 1997, I was arrested by the Lake County, Calif. Sheriff's Dept. for growing medical marijuana as a caregiver, for the Ukiah Cannabis Buyers Club (UCBC) of Mendocino County. Does it matter which county? I didn't think so and told the police "I thought I was still in California" and had the right to do this. "It's for sick people, some of whom can't even get out of bed, much less tend a garden to grow it for themselves". | ||||||||||
It's my goal in life to care for sick people. I am presently a pre-med
student applying to enter medical school next year. I also have a bachelor's
degree in Biology from Sonoma State University. | ||||||||||
The cannabis club has patients who legitimately need medical marijuana and
have doctors recommendations. UCBC also has a registered pharmacist with a
Doctor of Pharmacy degree who serves as a pharmacy consultant and is
available for counseling patients on the safe use of cannabis for their
medical condition. | ||||||||||
The confiscated cannabis was grown organically, pesticide free and cared for
to meet specific medical requirements. This was grown ONLY for those
patients. The police now have their medicine. Even if it were returned, the
condition/quality of the medicine would be questionable at best and probably
not usable. | ||||||||||
What happened to "access to safe and affordable medicinal marijuana?" Does
the law that was voted in not apply in Lake County? I realize they were
"just doing their job" investigating me, but when they saw UCBC cultivation
contracts everywhere they became aware that this was not theirs, or mine. It
belonged to the patients it was being grown for. Patients who, under prop.
215, had every legal right to it. | ||||||||||
The definition of compassion is: sorrow or pity excited by the distress or
misfortune of another, sympathy. To be compassionate is to be sympathetic,
tender, responsive. Nothing close to this was displayed by the police who
arrested me. These were the "enforcers of the law." But isn't the
"Compassionate Use Act of 1996" the law? If so, why were they ignoring it
rather than enforcing it?
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The police weren't abusive or cruel, but neither were they showing any
compassion. They thought it quite cute to tell me to "smile and say
marijuana" for the camera. I don't think it was anything to joke about. How
would the police feel if they or someone dear to them was sick and someone
stole their medicine?
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Am I a criminal? I won't dignify such a ridiculous question with an answer.
If it comes down to it, I will put my faith in a jury of my peers. The
people of the State of California who said with their votes that they want
the sick to have access to that which will help, regardless of political
considerations. They are best suited to decide if I am a criminal or someone
who is only trying to help those who most need it. | ||||||||||
As one fine doctor wrote in a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, "just what vital public interest are the Lake County police protecting by arresting me? We're listening and we're watching." | ||||||||||
Thanks so much to everyone for all your help and support. I appreciate it
more than you'll ever know. | ||||||||||
Yvette Rubio UCBC Broker/Caregiver
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||
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Domestic News
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Adolescents
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Overdoses of heroin have killed 11 young people in prosperous Plano, Texas,
since 1996, with 3 to 5 cases turning up each week. Reasons for the drug's
popularity are elusive. | ||||||||||
PLANO, Texas - This is a great place to raise kids. Except when they die.
The golden buckle of the Sun Belt, its brick-walled subdivisions and
smoked-glass business parks swelling with white-collar migrants, Plano is by
almost every measure the apex of educated suburbia - clean streets, big
houses, 113 lighted ball fields. | ||||||||||
With just two or three murders annually, this Dallas-area boomtown of nearly 200,000 is Texas' safest city - and one of America's top 10. The Children's Environmental Index calls it the nation's fourth most kid-friendly community, based on such socioeconomic data as dropout rates and household incomes. One of its high schools boasts an Academic Decathlon championship, a prize that earned the team a White House visit with President Clinton. | ||||||||||
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Worried about increased drug use among schoolchildren, New Jersey's school board leaders gave a loud vote of support Saturday for local districts to do random drug tests not only on their athletes but all students. | ||||||||||
In a largely symbolic act, delegates to the New Jersey School Boards
Association overwhelmingly backed a policy resolution that supports random
drug testing in schools where substance abuse is determined to be a
significant problem. | ||||||||||
More than a half-dozen districts - including Ridgefield Park and North
Bergen - have sought to test their athletes at random. | ||||||||||
The original resolution referred only to the testing of athletes, but a majority of the nearly 200 school board members gathered at their semiannual assembly in Princeton chose not to stop with just the sports teams. | ||||||||||
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Heroin
New York Post (Wed.11/26). Letters to the editor can be emailed to . | ||||||||||
Poisonous Message on Heroin
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A federal "science court" ruled last week that heroin addiction isn't a vice but a disease no different in kind from diabetes. | ||||||||||
That's right - addicts don't shoot up because they won't control their cravings, but because they are sick. And since heroin addiction is adisease, the panel convened by the National Institutes of Healthreasoned, it should be treated with - more drugs! | ||||||||||
This could be a symptom of a new disease itself, one that's almost
epidemic within the public-health establishment: a disease we'd
like to call treatmentitis. | ||||||||||
The chief symptoms of "treatmentitis" are: a pathological tendency
to excuse away bad behavior by dubbing it "illness," an addiction
to government-funded programs, and a fondness for free condom
distribution. | ||||||||||
The NIH's "consensus panels" are supposed to resolve
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It is true that methadone is the most successful form of
heroin-addiction treatment there is. But the panel's report says
nothing about the success rate of methadone treatment - a glaring
omission in a document that reads like a nationwide Rx for the
drug. | ||||||||||
It is silent on this point because the numbers aren't very
encouraging: Only 10 to 20 percent of people treated with
methadone end up drug-free. | ||||||||||
If the panel's proposals are picked up, federal spending on methadone will only grow - though it's unlikely that the success rate of the programs will increase. Indeed, the opposite would probably hold true: The message that heroin addiction cannot be overcome, and that the only solution is an addiction to a less debilitating drug, is a patronizing one - and debilitating in itself. | ||||||||||
There is no question that methadone works better than other treatments for heroin addiction. The question is whether "treatment" is the best way for addicts to find help at all. | ||||||||||
Alcoholics Anonymous has allowed countless millions of people
to rid their lives of alcohol by helping them acknowledge their
powerlessness over booze and the very real costs of alcohol
addiction on themselves, their families and the people around
them. There's no "treatment" per se; there is only love, and faith,
and trust that the human spirit can overcome human
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The only really effective way to fight a heroin habit is to keep
people from shooting up in the first place. Sadly, the panel's
proposed policies would do exactly
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After two years' worth of stories about heroin's newly fashionable
standing among the trendiest of the trendy - rock stars, models and
the like - this is not a good time for Washington to succumb to a
self-inflicted dose of treatmentitis. | ||||||||||
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
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New York, NY10036
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Mandatory Minimums
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Study Casts Doubt on Harsh Drug Sentences
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BOSTON -- Among drug offenders sentenced to long, mandatory
terms in Massachusetts state prisons, nearly half have no record of
violent crime, according to a study of the state's prison population
released Monday. | ||||||||||
``Mandatory sentencing laws are wasting prison resources on
nonviolent, low-level offenders and reducing resources available
to lock up violent offenders,'' said William Brownsberger, the
study's principal investigator and an assistant attorney general, who
conducted the study at Harvard Medical School while he was on
leave. | ||||||||||
Drug-policy experts say the study will add valuable facts to the
growing debate around the United States over the efficacy of tough
minimum sentences for drug crimes. | ||||||||||
``We have to respond to drug dealing forcibly, and incarceration is
often an appropriate response,'' said Brownsberger, ``but today we
are going too far.''
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The study of 1,175 inmates in the Massachusetts prison system
also found that 82.9 percent of the drug offenders were black or
Hispanic, though they make up just over 9 percent of the state's
population. | ||||||||||
The data are likely to be used by some who contend that the sentences put away dangerous criminals who belong in jail. | ||||||||||
But when researchers looked closely at the criminal records of a
sample of 151 inmates, Brownsberger said, they found that nearly
half had never been charged with a violent crime in Massachusetts,
only one-third had ever been convicted of a violent crime and only
one in 12 had been convicted of a serious violent crime like assault
with intent to kill. | ||||||||||
The study ``is quite important because it's state-specific, and it's quantitative, and in particular, it's grounded in data,'' said Jonathan Caulkins, a drug-policy researcher at Carnegie-Mellon University. | ||||||||||
Caulkins was the principal researcher on a Rand Corp. study
released in May that also harshly criticized mandatory minimum
sentences for drug offenses, which became popular during the
crack-related crime scares of the 1980s. | ||||||||||
The study argued that incarceration is so expensive -- about
$20,000 to $30,000 a year for each inmate -- that it would be far
more cost-efficient to shift the emphasis to old-fashioned
enforcement techniques and traditional prison sentences, or to
spend more money on drug abuse and prevention. | ||||||||||
Researchers say mandatory drug sentences are seen as a major
cause of prison overcrowding, budget overruns and, in some cases,
simple injustice - -- as when a nonviolent drug offender ends up
serving more time than someone convicted of manslaughter or
armed robbery. | ||||||||||
The Massachusetts Sentencing Commission, a panel of judges,
prosecutors and other criminal-justice experts, has recommended
that judges be allowed to depart from mandatory sentences when a
defendant does not have a serious criminal record. The state
Legislature is expected to take up its plan next year and it is
expected to be hotly debated. | ||||||||||
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Study Queries Mandatory Sentences
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A study of Massachusetts prisoners that links poverty, race, and
crime may recharge the ongoing debate over whether drug dealers
and users with no history of violence should receive mandatory
sentences at a time when prisons are overcrowded. | ||||||||||
Rather than prison terms, the study recommends alternative
sanctions such as intensive probation and treatment-oriented drug
courts for nonviolent offenders. | ||||||||||
The 100-page study, released yesterday, was written by William N.
Brownsberger, a state assistant attorney general specializing in
narcotics who is also a research fellow in drug policy at Harvard
Medical School. | ||||||||||
Prison beds occupied by petty dealers and users serving long
prison terms as a result of drug laws enacted during a more violent
era should be reserved for violent criminals, who pose a more
immediate danger to society, the study suggests. | ||||||||||
The study recommends that policy makers reconsider whether
public-safety concerns outweigh the high costs and
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The study cites statistics showing that two-thirds of all men
sentenced to state prison from July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1996 under
mandatory drug sentencing laws had never been convicted of a
violent crime. | ||||||||||
The report, ''Profile of Anti-Drug Law Enforcement in Urban
Poverty Areas in Massachusetts,'' also says that half of all prisoners
sentenced for drug offenses had never been charged with a violent
crime. | ||||||||||
Blacks and Latinos account for 85 percent of those drug-related
commitments, with Latinos making up nearly 55 percent. | ||||||||||
Although Brownsberger said he did not set out to demonstrate racism in the criminal justice system, he did find that minority offenders were sent to prison more often than white offenders. | ||||||||||
However, Brad Bailey, executive director of the Governor's
Alliance Against Drugs, disagreed with the study's conclusions,
saying that, in his view, the very act of dealing drugs is violence
against the community and should be punished like other violent
crimes. | ||||||||||
''If you're of the perspective that people who sell drugs are
committing crimes of violence and contributing to the level of
violence in their communities, then you have to disagree with the
recommendations of the study,'' Bailey said. | ||||||||||
A supporter of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses,
Bailey said drug courts and alternative sentences are not
appropriate for major drug dealers. Their turf wars escalated the
war on drugs and prompted states and the federal government to
set mandatory minimum sentences. | ||||||||||
Janet Y. Johnson, site coordinator for the Dimock Community
Health Center who works at Dorchester Drug Court, countered
Bailey's view, saying mandatory minimums don't capture suppliers,
or kingpins, but too often crack down on mere pawns in drug
distribution. | ||||||||||
The strong links the study finds between race, money, and crime
place the report in line with studies by the US Sentencing
Commission, Federal Judicial Center, and Sentencing Project on
the legacy of mandatory drug sentencing. | ||||||||||
Among the study's most stark revelations is that Latinos are sent to
state prison for drug offenses at a rate 81 times that of whites also
convicted of drug crimes, and blacks at a rate 39 times that of
whites. | ||||||||||
Drugs have had a profound effect on the criminal justice system;
about 20 percent of state prisoners are serving terms for drug
dealing. | ||||||||||
Those figures are consistent with a national American Bar
Association report, ''The State of Criminal Justice,'' which shows
that whites constitute 75 percent of drug users but 62 percent of
drug arrests. That report said blacks make up 15 percent of drug users and a
third of arrests. | ||||||||||
Furthermore, a person who lives in a neighborhood designated by the federal government as an ''extreme poverty'' area, or having some 40 percent of its population below the poverty line, is 19 times more likely to be incarcerated for a drug offense than someone who lives in a non-poverty area, said the study. | ||||||||||
Boston, Springfield, and Lawrence hold the largest clusters of
poverty, the report said. But Holyoke, 47 percent of whose
population of 18,000 people is poor, had an incarceration rate of
608 males over 16 years old for each 100,000 residents, the highest
of the 11 cities with the largest poverty clusters. | ||||||||||
Chief Justice Robert Mulligan, who chairs the Massachusetts
Sentencing Commission, said the study makes a strong case for
adoption of flexible sentencing guidelines, which the commission
released last spring and which may be implemented early next
year. | ||||||||||
''I was shocked at how this study documents the impact these laws
are having on minority communities,'' Mulligan said, adding that
he regrets that he has imposed heavy sentences on minor players in
the drug trade, such as accomplices and lookouts for dealers or
buyers. ''The impact there has been devastating.''
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Marijuana
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NOTE FROM DRUGSENSE EDITOR: You may wish to extend our ally Robert Melamede support by writing an LTE to the Burlington Free Press at | ||||||||||
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Robert Melamede Delivers a Dangerous Message at a Pivotal Time. | ||||||||||
Robert Melamede is a modern-day pied piper, his pro-marijuana message leading anyone unfortunate enough to follow down a dangerous path. | ||||||||||
Melamede ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate on a legalization platform; touts his pro-pot vision on cable television and the Web; admitted to daily marijuana use on the witness stand in a friend=92s drug trial. | ||||||||||
He=92s entitled to his view. But the best way to expose the foolishness of=
his
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Melamede=92s twisted praise of marijuana comes at a time when most=
Vermonters
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Consider the new statistics released late last week: Marijuana use is on the rebound among Vermont teenagers as young as eighth-graders. Serious marijuana use puts these youth at risk of respiratory damage, short-term memory loss, paranoia, decreased motivation and in extreme cases, psychosis. | ||||||||||
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KEENE, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire farmers who want to grow hemp as a cash
crop have little more than fields of dreams, but a Keene lawmaker wants to
change those dreams into a reality. | ||||||||||
State Rep. Timothy Robertson is sponsoring one bill to allow residents to
grow and sell hemp as a cash crop, and another legalizing marijuana use for
medicinal purposes. | ||||||||||
This is the first time the legalization of either hemp or medicinal
marijuana has been proposed in New Hampshire. A more controversial bill
Robertson sponsored last year that would have made marijuana possession a
misdemeanor failed. | ||||||||||
``It's a subject we ought to be discussing in this country,'' Robertson
said. | ||||||||||
Mark Lathrop of Chesterfield said growing hemp would bring him as much as $1,500 an acre per year. Lathrop grew 10 acres of hay this year that he didn't even bother to cut because it wasn't good enough for horses to eat. | ||||||||||
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Marijuana seizures have tripled in the Houston area and are up 37 percent statewide over last fiscal year, while heroin and cocaine confiscations rose here but dropped overall in Texas, the U.S. Customs Service said Tuesday. | ||||||||||
"Marijuana is up just about everywhere," customs spokeswoman Judy Turner
said, and Houston remains a major drug hub. The figures are only for drugs
seized by the Customs Service. | ||||||||||
In the East Texas region, which encompasses Houston, Dallas, the Gulf Coast
and Oklahoma, customs agents netted 10,154 pounds of pot this fiscal year
compared to only 3,370 last year. Statewide, they seized 265,605 pounds this
year compared to 194,129 pounds last year. | ||||||||||
The majority came in through the West Texas and New Mexico region, but
nearly 40 percent was taken in South Texas, which is San Antonio south to
Brownsville and west to Del Rio. San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Leonard
Lindheim said bulky marijuana shipments are much easier to smuggle over
land. | ||||||||||
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Medical Marijuana
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The Lake County district attorney has still not filed charges against a pot
grower arrested for growing plants she says were designated for Ukiah's
medical marijuana club. | ||||||||||
Yvette Rubio was scheduled to appear in court in Lakeport Monday morning but
the court date was canceled last week. Lake County District Attorney Steve
Hedstrom said there is no future court date set at this point. "I've
requested some further investigation" he said, "which includes some
materials from the defense."
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Hedstrom said he requested the additional materials so we have all the
possible available evidence before we make a decision whether to file
charges. Asked if he could estimate when he might be filing charges, if any,
Hedstrom said no. | ||||||||||
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Editors note: You may wish to see the article on the website, which contains a survey and additional information: http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/120685.asp | ||||||||||
SAN FRANCISCO =97 Since Proposition 215 legalized marijuana as medicine in
California, as many as 1,200 people have flocked daily to just one of the
seven buyers=92 clubs in the Bay Area. There, they can purchase pot to=
=93treat=94
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Given that one in three adults has smoked pot at some point, that marijuana is this state=92s biggest cash crop, and that hundreds of thousands of Californians are smoking it to relieve a variety of ills, one would expect plenty of data to be available on marijuana as medicine. | ||||||||||
Yet while anecdotal testimonials suggest pot should take its rightful,
though perhaps limited, place in the American pharmacopia, the rigorous
long-term studies that modern science demands before a drug can be declared
safe and effective have yet to be done. | ||||||||||
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Time Magazine
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Too High In California?
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A six-foot cannabis leaf painted on the front door proudly advertises the
wares of the San Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club. Inside the five-story
glass-and-concrete emporium on busy Market Street, origami cranes and
LEGALIZE POT posters provide the decor, while live flamenco dancers on a
third-floor stage supply the entertainment. At either of two bars,
customers--all of whom are at least nominally required to show they have
come on doctor's orders--can choose from among 10 grades of marijuana leaf,
along with capsules, tinctures and half a dozen varieties of pot-laced baked
goods. A lavender haze of smoke fills the air.
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"Want to get high?" a smiling volunteer staff member asked a recent visitor.= | ||||||||||
This turned-on scene may not be what Californians envisioned when they voted last November to enact Proposition 215, legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The beneficiaries were supposed to be AIDS sufferers, people in chronic pain, cancer patients going through chemotherapy and others in medical need. But the law does not specify the medical conditions for which pot is permissible, and it requires only a doctor's oral or written permission, not a formal prescription, to get the drug. | ||||||||||
Many of the 20 or so pot clubs that have sprung up around the state in
response to the law--places where people in need can get a steady supply of
the drug--are strictly monitoring their customers. The Santa Clara County
Medical Cannabis Center dispenses a pound of marijuana a week from its
discreet, white-walled suite in a business complex. When one would-be
customer proffered a doctor's recommendation that he had allegedly forged,
co-founder Peter Baez called the police and later went to court to help
press charges. | ||||||||||
But other clubs seem closer to head shops than hospitals. Dennis Peron, a
pro-pot proselytizer who helped draft Prop 215 and runs the San Francisco
Cannabis Cultivators Club, admits he sells pot for everything from
premenstrual syndrome to the blues. "All use of marijuana is medical," says
Peron. "It makes you smarter. It touches the right brain and allows you to
slow down, to smell the flowers. We're living in a very stressful world. It
can and should be used for anxiety and depression."
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Law-enforcement agencies are in a quandary over what to do about clubs like
Peron's. A few cities, such as Concord and Palo Alto, have instituted
moratoriums on pot clubs. California attorney general Dan Lungren, a
law-and-order Republican, is pursuing civil and criminal litigation against
Peron's club; he says undercover cops have bought marijuana there without a
doctor's recommendation and that videotapes have shown minors on the
premises. | ||||||||||
Federal officials are in an especially delicate position. Marijuana use,
even for medical purposes, is still outlawed by the U.S. government, and
Attorney General Janet Reno has vowed to continue enforcing that law. But
federal officials have been reluctant to crack down on the pot clubs that
were created in response to the will of California voters. In April agents
of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a Bay Area cannabis club
called Flower Therapy and seized 331 marijuana plants and growing equipment,
charging that the club was distributing pot in quantities larger than what
was needed by its ill customers. | ||||||||||
But the raid was denounced by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and other
city officials, and U.S. Attorney Mike Yamaguchi declined to file criminal
charges. | ||||||||||
"It's maddening," seethes a federal agent, who works just four blocks away from Peron's Cannabis Cultivators Club. "You can see hundreds of people an hour coming out of that place. We think some of these clubs are distributing marijuana to basically anybody who walks through the door." | ||||||||||
Now, however, the Clinton Administration, seeking to counter Republican
charges of lack of leadership on the drug issue, is looking for a way to
move against the clubs. Federal sources tell TIME that the Administration
may try to shut down some high-volume cannabis clubs under the
seldom-invoked civil provisions of the federal Controlled Substances Act,
which allows the Justice Department to ask a federal judge to halt a
drug-distribution operation. | ||||||||||
The advantages of this approach are that the case is decided by a judge, not
a jury, and the government need not prove the club's proprietors acted with
criminal intent. A club operator who persists in peddling pot could then
face a fine or imprisonment for contempt of court. | ||||||||||
Anti-drug activists fear that pot clubs, if allowed to thrive, could open
the way to further relaxation of drug policy. Steve Dnistrian of the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America claims that heart-rending medical
stories are a being used as a smoke screen "by people whose agenda is to
radically change drug policy in America." On that point, at least, Peron
seems in agreement. "This is not about marijuana as medicine," he says.
"This is a cultural war."
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Militarization Of
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WASHINGTON---When Barry McCaffrey took charge of the White House drug
control office last year, he set out to lift its sagging bureaucratic
standing. He enlarged the staff, asserted his authority as the
administration's primary spokesman on drugs and developed a plan to slash
illicit drug use in half over the next 10 years. | ||||||||||
Now, in perhaps the clearest test of Mr. McCaffrey's power, the retired
fourstar army general is challenging not an enemy drug cartel but an allied
federal department: his former employer, the Pentagon. | ||||||||||
Mr. McCaffrey has refused to certify a draft of the Pentagon's fiscal l999
budget, calling the $809 million earmarked for counterdrug work inadequate.
His decision earlier this month marked the first time since the creation of
the anti-drug office nine years ago that a governmental department was
denied certification. The move effectively leaves the dispute to President
Bill Clinton and his White House advisers to resolve, placing the president
in an awkward position: Does he side with Mr. McCaffrey, affirming his
authority to influence drug spending levels throughout the government? Or
does he side with Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who has branded Mr.
McCaffrey's insistence that the Pentagon spend an additional $141 million
excessive?
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International News
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Editors note: The IoS Cannabis Campaign has web pages at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sindypot/index.htm
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The Government's new drug tsar, Chief Constable Keith Hellawell, does not
smoke, rarely takes a drink and has never been offered any illegal
substance. | ||||||||||
But Britain's anti-drugs co- ordinator insists that he is not the narrow-minded puritan his critics have made him out to be. "I like to think of myself as a liberal and fair-minded individual," said Mr Hellawell, who takes up his post as the top drugs-policy adviser in the New Year. | ||||||||||
And last week, to demonstrate the open-handed approach he intends to bring
to his new job, Mr Hellawell went as far as praising his deputy, Mike Trace,
for admitting he once smoked cannabis. "I think it was noble of him, when
asked a question in an interview, he gave an honest answer, and I was not at
all embarrassed by his reply. I have talked about it with him and he
explained he experimented with cannabis as a student. He did not like it and
does not endorse any form of drug-taking now. | ||||||||||
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The growing availability of cannabis is saving lives, a seminar on Drugs and
Young People in Dublin has been told. | ||||||||||
Its possession for personal use should be decriminalised and politicians should stop being obsessed with adolescent drug 'triers'. | ||||||||||
Instead they should try to tackle the problems of drug users with drug 'careers' moving into adulthood, said Professor Howard Parker. | ||||||||||
Unless they do, society will continue to "flounder around throwing tens of
millions of pounds at ineffective drugs education, criminalising and
stigmatising large numbers of otherwise law-abiding people and widening the
gulf between under and over thirties". | ||||||||||
Prof Parker, an academic social worker and director of social policy for the
management of social problems at the University of Manchester, was
addressing a weekend seminar in Trinity College. | ||||||||||
Advocating the de-criminalisation of cannabis he said that by being readily
available to "risk-taking" adolescents, cannabis had reduced the highly
dangerous use of solvents and gases and related deaths had dropped radically
from about 180 a year to about 50. | ||||||||||
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For the past twenty years people have been able to eat, drink or smoke
cannabis in 'coffee shops' in the Netherlands. But, as Jason Bennetto
discovered, a system designed to keep hard and soft drug users apart is
under threat from an ecstasy epidemic. The solution may be to decriminalise
possession of ecstasy. | ||||||||||
The selection on offer was impressive. Dozens of tiny plastic bags
containing such mind-blowing substances as Jamaica Gold, Zero Zero and
Purple Haze were hung in neat rows like a supermarket spice rack. Below in
plastic strawberry containers, for your convenience, were ready-rolled
joints of cannabis and powerful "skunk weed". The label on the wooden drugs
cabinet boasted "official junk dealer". | ||||||||||
The audience was equally impressive. Among the customers bathed in the sweet
smell of dope was a senior police officer, a government prosecutor, and
council official wearing dark suits and fixed smiles. | ||||||||||
The visit to Gerard Smit's friendly coffee shop, Creamers in The Hague, which might more accurately be called a drugs bar, was the Dutch government's attempt at clarifying their much-maligned drugs policy. | ||||||||||
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One of the world's leading addiction warriors thinks Vancouver's epidemic
HIV and injection drug use represents the "silver lining" of the AIDS
crisis. | ||||||||||
Ethan Nadelmann, director of Manhattan-based Lindesmith Center for drug
policy research, said the social decay, disease and rampant crime have a
positive side effect: they are forcing municipal, police and public health
officials to work together. | ||||||||||
"AIDS and HIV is this horrible black cloud over our societies with just
devastating consequences, but there is a silver lining," he maintained in an
interview Thursday. | ||||||||||
"The silver lining is it requires government and others to prioritize
something over stopping people from using drugs. Stopping the spread of HIV
is more important than stopping drug abuse."
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||
Human Rights 95 Web Site Announced | ||||||||||
We are happy to announce that the Human Rights Web Site is up and running, and you can view it at http://www.hr95.org Please check it out. | ||||||||||
It is a work in progress, and there may be a few glitches still, but the basic site is good enough for viewing. We will be adding much to it, so come back to it periodically or use it for a reference. All links are welcome. Please let us know if you would like us to link to yours, too. | ||||||||||
Thanks to our webmaster, Jim Rosenfield, who is helping us with the=
technical
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Mikki Norris,
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British Medical Association Calls For Cannabis Compassion | ||||||||||
Last week the British Medical Association called for "compassion and
understanding" to be shown towards people who take cannabis to relieve the
symptoms of illness. They also called for a change in the law so that proper
research can be carried out on the drug. | ||||||||||
You can find their statement at
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UK Cannabis Internet Activists Med MJ Site
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The UK Cannabis Internet Activists have a page devoted to medical cannabis use at http://www.foobar.co.uk/users/ukcia/medical/index.html | ||||||||||
They claim it can alleviate a host of symptoms ranging from those caused by
chemotherapy for cancer and epilepsy to migraine and multiple sclerosis.
Each condition has its own page, complete with patients' testimonies as to
the efficacy of the treatment and references to any relevant scientific
papers. | ||||||||||
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Med MJ Clubs Update
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Whatever the legal position, some people have taken matters into their own
hands and set up cannabis buyers' clubs for people who cannot relieve their
symptoms with other treatments. | ||||||||||
Some of them have Web sites, such as Oakland http://www.rxcbc.org/ and Vancouver Island http://www.islandnet.com/~acidhead/cbc.html | ||||||||||
The most famous club of all, however, is San Francisco. It doesn't have its own page, but you can get an idea of the controversy it created from the article at http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/Prop_215/buyersclub.html | ||||||||||
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DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense
offers our members. Watch this feature to learn more about what DrugSense
can do for you. | ||||||||||
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We wish to thank each and every one of our contributors. | ||||||||||
Mark Greer
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