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http://www.drugsense.org

Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/21/24)

* Feature Article

What History Teaches Us About Drug Prohibition
By Jerry Epstein

* Weekly News In Review

Heroin -

Cops Seize 11 Pounds of Heroin

Marijuana -

Court Clears Way For Closure Of Marijuana Clubs

San Francisco Judge Orders Co-Op to Stop Selling Pot

California Marijuana Club Stands Firm Against Court Rulings

U.S.  National Drug Control Strategy -

Gingrich - Ban Drug-Using Athletes

Crime, Punishment and Treatment

Prison Guards Indicted

Inquiry Into Goatherd's Slaying Ends

Tobacco War-

Time to Grow Up About Tobacco

International News -

Mexican Soldiers Given U.S.  Army Training as Narcotics-Busters

Certification -

Despite Objections, Clinton Administration Certifies Mexico as Drug-Fighting Partner

Certifiably Wrong on Mexico

Colombia Sees Victory in U.S.  Backing for Anti-Drug Effort

Canada - Hemp to Become Legal Crop

* Hot Off The 'Net

New York Times Comment Opportunity

* Tip of the Week

How YOU can Help DrugSense End the "War On Drugs"

* DrugSense Quote Of The Week

In 1936, August Vollmer, highly respected Berkeley, California police chief addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police: "Drug addiction ...  is not a police problem; it never has been and never can be solved by policemen.  It is first and last a medical problem."

Vollmer's own experience was different from ours- he'd lived during a period when drugs which are now illegal were popular tonics and important medicines, freely available from drug and grocery store shelves.  Cocaine was in Coca-Cola and some 40 other soft drinks as well.  Morphine and heroin were two of the three most popular medicines; more widely used than today.  When addiction occurred, it was dealt with as a medical problem.

The addiction level had stabilized at about 1.5% of the population (the same as 1979 and 1997)- despite recurrent media alarms over "epidemic" drug use.  The impact of non-alcohol addiction on society before Prohibition was so small that few historians bother to mention it.  As Edward Brecher noted in 1972, addicts weren't treated as much of a problem because in fact they
weren't much of a problem.  However, no historian fails to note the devastation wrought by Prohibition.  starting in 1920.

Prohibition was our first utopian quest for a "drug free" America, and the arch villain was alcohol.  Then as now, alcoholics outnumbered heroin and cocaine addicts combined, by more than 5 to 1.  Voters were told that one drink led to certain addiction and that alcohol was responsible for nearly all of the
crime and most of the insanity in America.  Doctors even suggested to alcoholics that they become addicted to morphine or heroin to stop their crazed and violent behavior.

After passage of the 18th Amendment, reformers promised: "we will soon live in a world that knows not alcohol." America became swept up in Prohibition fervor- some people also wanted to prohibit the dreaded and ever dangerous hesitation waltz.  Two 5 to 4 Supreme Court decisions in 1919 reinterpreted a 1914 tax act so that, in effect, heroin,[AND] cocaine were also prohibited.

Prohibition allowed Vollmer and many others to see that the unintended consequences of a prohibition law were far worse than those of the prohibited substance.  Repeal of the 18th Amendment followed when concerned mothers - initially led by Republican women in 1928- realized that children had easier access to alcohol and were using it at a shocking rate even as adult use was decreasing.  Respect for the had law plummeted; the criminal justice system became swamped; violent crime and corruption exploded; petty thugs received a bonanza which spawned today's powerful criminal organizations.  Prohibition was repealed, but heroin and cocaine prohibition remained as a criminal enterprise which also provided employment for the bureaucracy set up to enforce Prohibition.  Over time, and with a hiatus for the Second World War, the son of Prohibition grew larger than the father - history has been allowed to repeat itself with a vengeance.

This brief history suggests there are many lessons to be learned from careful analysis of the past.A commonly expressed fear is that change in drug policy will produce a "nation of zombies." History tells us that there is a real
difference between drug use and addiction, and that a natural human abhorrence of addiction insulates most of us from that danger.  There is also strong evidence that those who, for whatever reasons, are prone to addiction are not deterred by force any more than a potential suicide might

It's clear that our current division of drugs into legal and illegal is arbitrary and no more contributes to solving drug problems than making all Fords illegal would solve traffic problems (in that analogy, marijuana might be a tricycle).  Through the insight of observers like Vollmer along with the experience of Prohibition, and models ranging from heroin maintenance in Shreveport in the 1920s to modern experience in Switzerland and Holland, we have
strong indications that much less damage might be done to a society willing to reach an accommodation with marijuana and to allow "hard" drug addicts to get their drugs from doctors instead of criminals.

Heroin

While McCaffrey's claim of drug war "success" is based on questionable polls showing reduced numbers of users, the market grows bigger.  Remember when 5 Kilos of heroin would have made the front page? This story also ran in the in the SF Chronicle where it was buried on page 25.  Purity wasn't mentioned, but chances are it was 3 or 4 times that of an average mid Seventies seizure.

COPS SEIZE 11 POUNDS OF HEROIN

A San Jose man was arrested Thursday after officers found more than 11 pounds of heroin, worth an estimated $2 million on the street, hidden in his car, Monterey County authorities said.

The discovery was made after Alejandro Torres Lara, 19, was stopped by the California Highway Patrol at Airport Boulevard and Highway 101 in Salinas for an alleged traffic violation.  Lara gave officers permission to search his car, and packages were found hidden in the driver's door, authorities said.

[snip]

Source:	San Jose Mercury News

Pubdate:	Fri, 27 Feb 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a05.html

Website:	http://www.sjmercury.com/

Marijuana

San Francisco Judge Orders Co-Op to Stop Selling Pot

California Marijuana Club Stands Firm Against Court Rulings

Late last year, Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial front-runner Dan Lungren, with the complicity of the appellate court, contrived to shut down buyers' clubs without actually overturning 215.  On February 26, the California Supreme Court, exhibiting a passivity which has come to characterize their approach in recent years, declined to hear the case.

As the week progressed, it quickly became apparent that the battle would focus on the intensely rancorous confrontation between Dan Lungren and Dennis Peron, founder and operator of the San Francisco CBC.  The New York Times piece of March 1 provides an accurate update.

COURT CLEARS WAY FOR CLOSURE OF MARIJUANA CLUBS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The state Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for possible closure of all medical marijuana clubs in California, leaving intact a lower-court ruling that the clubs can't sell the drug despite a 1996 voter initiative.

[snip]

The appellate ruling is now binding on trial courts statewide.

Associated Press

Pubdate:	Thu, 26 Feb 1998

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n133.a04.html

SAN FRANCISCO JUDGE ORDERS CO-OP TO STOP SELLING POT

Attorney general says medical marijuana club should be shut down.  Founder vows to keep operating.

SAN FRANCISCO--A Superior Court judge late Thursday ordered the Cannabis Cultivator's Co-op to stop selling, storing or giving away medical marijuana, but the defiant founder of the organization said he intends to stay in business.

The brief decision by San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia set up another showdown between Dennis Peron, the club's founder, and state Atty.  Gen. Dan Lungren.

[snip]

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

Website:	http://www.latimes.com/

Pubdate:	February 27, 1998

Author:	Maria L.  La Ganga, Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a03.html

CALIFORNIA MARIJUANA CLUB STANDS FIRM AGAINST COURT RULINGS
By JAMES BROOKE

SAN FRANCISCO -- The advertised price was $30 for an eighth of an ounce of "Five Star Mexican Gold," and dollar bills were exchanged at a brisk clip Friday for plastic bags of marijuana.  But, in deference to a new court ruling barring the sale of the drug by clubs, a hastily erected sign over the marijuana bar read: "Remuneration Station."

"We are not selling marijuana anymore," Cannabis Cultivators Club founder Dennis Peron said Friday,...

[snip]

Not so, retorts California Attorney General Dan Lungren, a Republican candidate for governor....

[snip]

The animus between the two men reflects how little was solved by the referendum in November 1996, when 56 percent of voters approved the medical use of marijuana.

[snip]

Source:	New York Times

Pubdate:	Sun, 1 Mar 1998

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nytimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n143.a06.html

Time To Grow Up About Tobacco

One of the things I love about the tobacco debate is that it provokes drug prohibitionists into saying revealing things that can be turned on their doctrine with a vengeance.  Does any one have a formula for shocking them into realizing that these statements apply equally to "drugs?"

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 27 1998

Time to Grow Up About Tobacco

Business World

By Holman W.  Jenkins Jr.

It has come to be accepted across the land that tobacco executives are evil and kept us in the dark about cigarettes.

[snip]

We've been here before.  Our basic dilemma has been an unwillingness to decide between banning tobacco or saying that smokers smoke at their own risk.  If Congress intends to do more than just raise taxes on smokers, it will have to wrestle with this dilemma.  In legislating for the industry, it would also be legislating for the 45 million people who use its products.

[snip]

It is time for Congress to get serious.

It is not going to outlaw tobacco.  That would be a boon to organized crime.

[snip]

Source:	Wall Street Journal

Pubdate:	Wednesday, 25 Feb 1998Author: Holman W.  Jenkins Jr.

Section:	Business World

Contact:

Website:	http://www.wsj.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a10.html

U.S.  National Drug Control Strategy

Gingrich:	Ban Drug-Using Athletes

Crime, Punishment and Treatment

Prison Guards Indicted

This melange has a common thread: all the articles are deviously linked.  An increased emphasis on drug testing is tied to prisons, then a seque is made from prisons into a consideration of what my become a significant Dan Lungren vulnerability- a subject of interest to all concerned with medical marijuana or worried about who might soon inhabit the governor's mansion in California.

The first is more of Newt's shoot from the lip.  Of all possible venues, professional sports is the least likely arena where routine testing will take place, although the public is well aware that recreational drug use is fairly common among athletes.  Forcing them to rat out their connection is typically Newtonian.

Califano's Op-ed is a follow-up to strategy foreshadowed by the recent CASA "study." The intent seems to be to modernize traditional moralistic prohibition doctrine with a social responsibility/public health twist.The underlying premise; coerced treatment of prisoners is "efficient," is a perversion of Caulkins' original Rand analysis on which it relies.  The goal in that study was to analyze treatment as an alternative to traditional law enforcement and mandatory minimums, not the coerced treatment of prohibition's expensive failures.

Lungren's vulnerability is summed up in the Chronicle editorial: his office "investigated" (whitewashed) the shocking allegations at Corcoran.  He seems to have antagonized the Chronicle as well.  Bad move, Dan.

GINGRICH:	BAN DRUG-USING ATHLETES

WASHINGTON--All sports leagues and associations should give a one-year suspension to any athlete testing positive for drugs and ban any athlete who does not disclose the source of his drugs, House Speaker Newt Gingrich is recommending.

"It seems to me you have to bear a certain responsibility as a star," the Georgia Republican said at a news conference.  He said he was asking for players to turn in drug dealers because "we have to make life very frightening for dealers."

[snip]

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Pubdate:	Fri, 27 Feb 1998

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

Website:	http://www.latimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a04.html

CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND TREATMENT

JOSEPH A.  CALIFANO

IT'S time to open-in the nation's prisons-a second front in the war on crime.  For two decades we have been filling prisons with drug and alcohol abusers and addicts and, without treatment or training, returning them to society to resume the criminal activity spawned by their substance abuse. This is public policy crafted in the theater of the absurd.

[snip]

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University estimates that for an additional $6,500 a year, an inmate could be given intensive treatment, education and job training.  Upon release, each one who worked at the average wage of a high school graduate for a year would provide a return on investment of $68,800 in reduced criminal activity,

[snip]

After three years studying the relationship between prison inmates and substance abuse, l am convinced that the present system of prison and punishment only is insane public policy.

[snip]

Source:	San Mateo County Times (CA)

Pubdate:	Sat, 28 Feb 1998

Contact:

Website:	http://www.smctimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a09.html

FEDERAL INDICTMENTS against eight Corcoran State Prison guards for staging gladiator fights among inmates should be just the beginning of a thorough investigation of the California Department of Corrections.

The guards were indicted on Thursday ``despite intentional efforts on the part of correctional and other officials to stymie, delay and obstruct our inquiry,'' said the FBI, raising serious questions about official misconduct that must be answered.

[snip]

Clearly, other correctional officers knew of or were involved in the staged gladiator fights and killings besides the eight indicted guards.  And who are the officials who tried to obstruct the investigation?

Attorney General Dan Lungren, a law- and-order candidate for governor, conducted a 10-month investigation of violence at Corcoran and filed no criminal charges.....

[snip]

Source:	San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

Pubdate:	Sat, 28 Feb 1998

Contact:

Website:	http://www.sfgate.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n141.a01.html

Inquiry Into Goatherd's Slaying Ends

This was is the predictable "finding" in this tragedy.  The only benefit seems to be that public outcry, generated by the killing itself, has, at least temporarily, cooled enthusiasm for an expanded domestic role in the drug war for US armed forces.  Use of the military in this role hasn't been repudiated, nor has enthusiasm for their hemispheric use, or the training of foreign soldiers as drug warriors

INQUIRY INTO GOATHERD'S SLAYING ENDS

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has closed its civil rights investigation into the death of a Redford, Texas, teenager shot by a Marine during a Southwest border drug patrol, a congressman said Thursday.

But Rep.  Lamar S. Smith (R-Texas), who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, said he will open an inquiry of his own into the May 1997 death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr.

Hernandez's family is pursuing a civil claim against the government.  Smith said Justice Department officials told him earlier this week that they had wrapped up their civil rights investigation against Marine Cpl.  Clemente Banuelos and would take no further action.

[snip]

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.latimes.com/

Pubdate:	Friday, February 27, 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n140.a08.html

International News

Mexican Soldiers Given U.S.  Army Training as Narcotics-Busters

In counterpoint to the death of an American citizen at the hands of a US Marine "drug patrol," this news is hardly surprising.  Beyond that, the need to use the military in an anti-drug role because civilian police have become too corrupt is farcical.  Sadly, it's not at all funny, particularly in light of an intensifying civil war in Chiapas.

MEXICAN SOLDIERS GIVEN U.S.  ARMY TRAINING AS NARCOTIC BUSTERS
By Douglas Farah and Dana Priest Washington Post
Fort Bragg, N.C.

The U.S.  Army is providing training to Mexican soldiers for the first time, creating an elite counter-narcotics unit that U.S.  officials say has become the leading force in Mexico's fight against international drug trafficking.

The program, started 18 months ago, includes training 1,067 Mexican officers a year at more than a dozen bases across the United States, according to U.S.  officials. In addition, the CIA is giving extensive intelligence courses to a group of about 90 Mexican officers who will become part of the new counter-drug force,...

[snip]

Source:	San Francisco Chronicle

PubDate:	2/27/98

Contact:

Certification -

Despite Objections, Clinton Administration Certifies Mexico as Drug-Fighting Partner

NYT Editorial:Certifiably Wrong on Mexico

Colombia Sees Victory in U.S.  Backing for Anti-Drug Effort

It's difficult to understand how any one familiar with this story can keep a straight face when reading the latest official pronouncement.  The New York Times had an interesting take on Mexico; they said, in essence, everyone knows it's a farce, but at least tell the truth.  They also took a deserved swipe at McC for his relentless gushing praise of the Mexicans.

The case for Colombia is no better than the one for Mexico, nevertheless their rating was upgraded to the point where they can now receive US aid- after all, what else counts?

DESPITE OBJECTIONS, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION CERTIFIES MEXICO..

By Douglas Farah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 27, 1998; Page A33

The Clinton administration decided yesterday to certify Mexico as a partner in combating international drug trafficking, over the objections of the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies that argued that narcotics trafficking from Mexico is increasing and official corruption remains rampant.

The decision came after a debate within the administration that peaked yesterday when officials advocating certification succeeded in removing strong criticism of Mexico from planned testimony before a Senate subcommittee by Thomas A.  Constantine, director of the DEA, who opposed commending Mexico's anti-drug efforts.

Opponents of certification within the administration cited a secret law enforcement intelligence memorandum on the situation in Mexico, prepared last month and obtained by The Washington Post, that paints a relentlessly pessimistic assessment of the country's counter-narcotics effort and dismisses many reported gains as superficial steps.

[snip]

Source:	Washington Post

Pubdate:	Fri, 27 Feb 1998

Author:	Douglas Farah, Washington Post Foreign Service

Website:	http://www.washingtonpost.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n142.a07.html

CERTIFIABLY WRONG ON MEXICO

The Clinton Administration does no favor to Mexico or its own credibility by certifying that Mexico is "fully cooperating" in the fight against drug trafficking.

Compounding the damage, the White House Drug Policy Director, Barry McCaffrey, fatuously claims that Mexican cooperation is "absolutely superlative."

[snip]

Source:	New York Times

Pubdate:	Sat, 28 Feb 1998

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nytimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n144.a03.html

COLOMBIA SEES VICTORY IN U.S.  BACKING FOR ANTI-DRUG EFFORT

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian officials on Thursday greeted Washington's conditional certification of their efforts to combat the flow of drugs into the United States as a victory for their beleaguered president, Ernesto Samper.

Samper, blamed by many Colombians who saw decertification over the last two years as a personal rebuke to their president, used the waiver of drug sanctions on national security grounds to vindicate his longstanding criticism of the U.S.  ratings, which are highly unpopular throughout Latin America.

[snip]

Source:	New York Times

Pubdate:	Friday, 27 Feb 1998

Author:	Diana Jean Schemo

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nytimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n139.a03.html

CANADA:	HEMP TO BECOME LEGAL CROP

A significant development for the American hemp industry.  Canada's relaxation of industrial hemp laws and its potential for a hemispheric hemp monopoly will put a lot of pressure on her American trading partners to follow suit.  In the meantime, Canada will get a head start and will, once again, profit from American prohibition.

'I'm not on marijuana -- I'm just excited,' MP says

Canadian farmers can plan to grow hemp this spring, thanks to a decision that comes a year earlier than expected -- but, as some see it, 60 years late.

Federal Health Minister Allan Rock told the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture that, for the first time since the Second World War, cultivation of industrial hemp will be legal nationwide early next month.

[snip]

According to the Health Canada regulations still to be formally approved by Mr.  Rock, industrial hemp must have less than 0.3 per cent THC, which means smoking a field of the stuff would give the users more of a headache than a high.

"There will be minor adjustments (to the regulations) and those minor adjustments will be reflected in the final regulations," said Derek Kent, spokesman for the minister.

[snip]

"I am delighted that the matter is going ahead," said Senator Lorna Milne, the Liberal member who pushed the federal government to move more quickly with the regulations.

"This is an opportunity for Canadian farmers, unmatched in this century.  It is also proof of the effectiveness and worth of the Senate of Canada."

The value of a Canadian hemp industry is difficult to quantify, but every year the United States imports $100 million (U.S.) of the crop annually. It's not legal to grow hemp in the U.S.  but there also is pressure there for legalization.

"There's been a lot of interest from Americans who right now are purchasing their hemp products from abroad -- mostly China -- and they'd love to be able to drive it down from Canada," said Ron Schnider, of West Hemp Enterprises Inc., a Vancouver-based firm that is helping B.C.  and Alberta farmers get licences and obtain seeds.

[snip]

Source:	Ottawa Citizen (Canada)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

Pubdate:	Fri, 27 February 1998

Author:	Dawn Walton, The Ottawa Citizen

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n138.a11.html

New York Times Comment Opportunity

The New York Times, with over a million circulation, is now featuring its third forum on drug policy.  They write:

"Here we go again.  Surprisingly, the last two forums devoted to this topic leaned heavily towards legalization.  But this attitude isn't reflected in the media or in public policy.  Washington is beating the drums to step up the war on drugs.  Our borders are militarized. Constitutional guarantees are eroding in favor of prosecutorial shortcuts.  Violent crime, while decreasing in most large cities, is on the upswing in medium-sized cities as a result of warring drug gangs.  Should we endeavor to imprison more of the population, or is there an alternative?"

You can join the debate! If you have not registered with the NYT first go to: http://www.nytimes.com/subscribe/help/reghelp.html
and register.  It is free.

Once you are registered you may join the forum by selecting Drug Policy under National Issues on this page:
http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Even if the task is big, don't let that stop you from beginning it -- just a part of it.  Rosa Parks did a very simple thing by refusing to give up her seat on the bus.  The task of ending discrimination and freeing the hearts and minds of the oppressed and oppressor was and is a daunting one, but courage and simple honesty are what it takes to begin.  If the larger task does intimidate you, focus on it long enough only to prioritize the smaller pieces.  Then take the job at the top of the list and begin it." -- Jim Downs, "The Book of Positive Qualities"

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