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DrugSense Weekly
April 1, 1998 #040

A DrugSense publication

http://www.drugsense.org/


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/21/24)


* Feature Article


Changed Forever : American Families Respond to the War on Drugs
By Paul Lewin

* Weekly News In Review


Domestic News-

The War on Drugs

    OPED - Why Send Drug Addicts to Prison?

    Editorial - Drug Laws That Don't Work

    Editorial - Kicking The Quick Fix - War On Drugs

    From the Moyers Family to Yours

    Plano Chief Defends Drug Stings

    Editorial - Kids Shouldn't Be Informants

    Customs Blitzes Border In Drug Hunt

Medical Marijuana

     Pot Club's Co-Founder 'Shaken-Up'

     San Jose Police Scan Pot Files

     Federal Judge Delays Ruling on Pot Clubs

     Column - Ninety-Three Years for Pot

Needle Exchange

Pelosi Blasts Fed Policy Against Needle Exchange

Needle-Exchange Issue Shows Clinton's Lost His Edge

International News -

Wire - Cannabis Campaign On The Move

UK - Cannabis Campaign: Pot Power

U.S.  - May Boost Military Aid to Colombia's Anti-Drug Effort

* Hot Off The 'Net


New War On Drugs Clock - Don't miss this

* Quote Of The Week


     Peace In My Neighborhood

* DrugSense Tip Of The Week


     Volunteer Help needed


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Changed Forever : American Families Respond to the War on Drugs

After attending a rally for Kemba Smith on Capitol Hill, which opened his eyes to the anguish experienced by the Smiths, Paul felt it was important to examine the subject scientifically.  With the help of a professor at The George Washington Univeristy who guided the development of the project, Paul conducted a pilot study on the experience of parents whose children received long, mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes.  This article describes the results of that study.

I was nervous as I walked up the steps to her house.  Although she had volunteered to be interviewed, I realized that I didn't know what to expect.  After all, I had never known anyone who had gone to prison - I had never met anyone who had lost their child to the penitentiaries of America.  Until this moment, prison had always been something that was fairly abstract to me, but Mrs.  Black, and others like her over the coming weeks, was about to make the realities of our legal system brutally clear to me.

Mrs.  Black's teenaged son received a sentence of 40 years for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.  "They had them making millions of dollars! I don't know how he made millions of dollars." she said. Looking around the well-kept, but modest home, I wondered the same thing.  But surely he done something else- beaten someone, robbed a bank, something to get such an enormous sentence at the age of 19? No, she assured me, he just refused to turn in his friends to the police, and so they estimated how much drugs were ever sold by his 'crew' and charged him with the full amount.  A tear began to fall as Mrs. Black began to talk about her grandchild who was born while her son was behind bars, about having to retire early to deal with the emotional strain of the trial, how her family was terrorized when the police broke down her door in the middle of the night, guns drawn and ransacking the house looking for "evidence."

My conversation with Mrs.  Black was the first of many evenings, sitting with parents who described for me, with shocking similarities, the violence, abuse and destruction that rained down upon their families when the police decided to take their children in the name of the War on Drugs.  All of the parents acknowledged that their kids must have been involved in some fashion or another, but they also knew that their kids were decent people.  People who would return a wallet if they found it on the street, people who would stand up for what was right, people with promise and a future that was now permanently changed.

What became chillingly clear to me, is that it is not just the young man or woman who is put in jail that pays a price.  It is the whole family who suffers.  And these parents, who mostly didn't think about the War on Drugs and believed in the basic legitimacy of this country's legal system, undergo a permanent change which bodes ill for the future of our society.

The first thing I realized, was that these parents all saw the government as an agent of harm.  By that I mean, they realized that the government wasn't trying to help society, or protect the innocent.  They were, as Mr.  Green put it, "being goddamn punitive, against people that they shouldn't - against everybody but real criminals." Or, as Mr. Gray said, "The longer we got into the situation, the more I began to truly understand that this was not about my son, and it was not about fairness, and it was not about justice.  It was about prosecutors trying to demonstrate that they were arresting people and dealing with the drug situation." Mrs.  Brown, who grew up believing in police and America said, "I see police, and I remember being thrown to the floor. I remember the way I was treated." After reading the search warrant for her house, Mrs.  Brown said, "I realized that they had cut corners, I realized that they fudge and lie to meet their objectives."

After letting out some of their anger, the parents began to tell me what it is like to witness the government abduct their children under the guise of law.  Mr. Gray told me, "I left the jail in tears. For the first time in my life having encountered a situation, other than death, where there was absolutely nothing you could do about it." Mrs.  Brown told me how she cried for almost a year and couldn't eat.  Mr. White told me about waking up in the middle of the night, under the strain of spending his small pension on jail-visits that are two states away, and buying a few thing for his granddaughter that was left behind.  "Can I keep this up?" he asks, "Why am I being punished like this? My life is as dreadful as any one man's can be!"

Underneath the pain, the cynicism and the anger, the parents exhibited a quiet strength, that perhaps only a parent knows.  They all said that they would not give up, that they would do their best to keep their kids from growing bitter, and that they would do whatever they could to help stop this insanity from happening to others.  Mr. Gray said, "It makes me more determined to get out and work with young people...  so that if I have anything to do with it, this will never happen to another kid in this country."

Over the course of the study, it became clear that these parents and family members are the best allies that truth and freedom have.  They speak from the heart, and they are telling others what its like to think that it only happens to someone else.  Because it doesn't. Millions of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers are victims of this endless conflict called the War on Drugs. When they speak out, their words are undeniable, and their message irrefutable.  The madness must end, families must be reunited, and healing must begin.

To those who must bear the worst oppression, it must seem that this will never end.  But it will. History shows us that seemingly permanent abominations like slavery and Nazism could not last - they buckle under the weight of their own hypocrisy and the collective efforts of those who will not tolerate injustice.  When things seem their bleakest, it often means that change is coming- after all, midnight is where the day begins.

Paul Lewin is a graduate student at The George Washington University completing a masters degree in International Development.  As the External Relations Associate, he is the newest staff member of Common Sense for Drug Policy.  He firmly believes that when the people lead, the leaders will follow.


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News


The War on Drugs

    OPED: Why Send Drug Addicts to Prison?

    Editorial: Drug Laws That Don't Work

COMMENT:    (Top)

There is growing endorsement of the idea that drug addiction is a disease and the war on drugs should be medicalized.  How much "progress" this represents is debatable, since the need for prohibition seems to remain unquestioned, at least to those making the endorsement.

EDITORIAL:   WHY SEND DRUG ADDICTS TO PRISON?

A new conflict between politics and science has emerged from a recent recommendation that the nation treat drug addicts as sick people rather than jail them as criminals.

More emphasis on medical treatment rather than jail for addicts was endorsed by a group of doctors, including top officials from the administrations of Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

But there was an immediate negative reaction from Capitol Hill, where a lock-them-up-and throw-away-the-key attitude to drug addicts dominates. Rep.  Bill McCollum, R-Fla., chairman of the subcommittee on crime, says the country needs to spend more money, not less, on catching drug pushers.

[snip]

Source:   San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.uniontrib.com/
Pubdate:   Mon, 23 Mar 1998
Author:   Laurence M.  O'Rourke of the Sacramento Bee
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n210.a02.html

EDITORIAL:   DRUG LAWS THAT DON'T WORK

New York state's chief judge adds her voice to a growing chorus seeking reform of Rockefeller statutes

By adding her prestige and wisdom to the drug law debate, Chief Judge Judith Kaye has given state legislators added reason to make reform a top priority this session.  She deserves praise not only for that contribution to drug law sanity, but also for her leadership in urging that rehabilitation be as much a part of the war on drugs as incarceration.

[snip]

Source:   Times Union (Albany, NY)
Pubdate:   Mon, 30 Mar 1998
Contact:  
Fax:   518-454-5628
Website:   http://www.timesunion.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n229.a04.html


Editorial:   Kicking The Quick Fix - War On Drugs

From the Moyers Family to Yours

COMMENT:    (Top)

Medicalization of the drug war received two other important boosts; an editorial in the Post-Dispatch and a Washington Post review of Moyers on Addiction which suggests it will be a major pitch for "prevention and treatment" as the focus of American Policy. The important question is "What about criminal prohibition?" As these comments are written, Moyers' fifth (policy) episode has yet to be aired.

KICKING THE QUICK FIX - WAR ON DRUGS

When it comes to the so-called war on drugs, Americans are hooked on quick fixes.  We require the immediate gratification of harsher sentences, stiffer fines and slick slogans - even if that means forfeiting real progress.

[snip]

Despite the facts, we continue to spend just 20 percent of our drug-fighting dollars on treatment.  The rest is thrown at politically popular, but fundamentally flawed, get-tough policies.

[snip]

Source:   Saint Louis Post-Dispatch
Pubdate:   24 Mar 1998
Website:   http://www.stlnet.com/
Section:   Editorial
Contact:  

FROM THE MOYERS FAMILY TO YOURS

Sharing What They Learned About Addiction

Bill Moyers and Judith Davidson Moyers sat in the lobby of a fashionable Washington hotel, talking about their PBS series on addiction, aptly titled "Close to Home," and recalled how much they had learned about the subject since the day in 1989 when they discovered -- to their astonishment -- that their eldest son was hooked on drugs.

[snip]

The fifth installment, "The Politics of Addiction," looks at government programs, including Arizona's Proposition 200.  It mandates treatment for non-violent drug offenders, including moving people out of incarceration and into treatment.

"That represented a sophistication about drugs that had not been manifested before in an election," said Bill Moyers.

Among those with whom he talks are drug offenders in Maricopa County's tent-city jail outside Phoenix; and, in Washington, retired Gen.  Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

[snip]

Source:   Washington Post
Author:   Patricia Brennan, Washington Post Staff Writer
Contact:   http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Pubdate:   Sun, 29 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n222.a05.html


Plano Chief Defends Drug Stings

Editorial:   Kids Shouldn't Be Informants

COMMENT:    (Top)

There seem to be no end to the latitude police expect in enforcing drug laws.  So far, whether the issue has been forfeiture or vehicle searches, the courts seem inclined to go along.  The issue here is about drafting teens to serve on the front lines.

PLANO CHIEF DEFENDS DRUG STINGS

But suspect questions tactics of investigation

Plano Police Chief Bruce Glasscock defended his department's undercover stings in Plano high schools Monday against allegations of entrapment and child endangerment by a student and his parents.

"We .  . . are confident this investigation was handled in a professional manner," the chief said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

[snip]

But an attorney for Jonathan Kollman, 17, questioned the Police Department's tactics.

[snip

Specifically, attorney Phillip Wainscott said the undercover detective knew that Mr.  Kollman, who was 16 at the time, was battling a two-year addiction with drugs when she lured him into using heroin again.  She gave him the cash to buy it, drove him in a little red sports car to the pushers who sold it and then, Mr.  Wainscott said, she allowed him to use it.

[snip]

Source:   Dallas Morning News
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.dallasnews.com
Pubdate:   Tue, 24 Mar 1998
Author:   Linda Stewart Ball / The Dallas Morning News
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n210.a08.html

KIDS SHOULDN'T BE INFORMANTS

Police use of teenage informants in drug cases is bad policy and should be abandoned.  The murder this month of Chad MacDonald Jr. of Yorba Linda proves the point.

MacDonald, 17, was arrested in January for possessing and transporting a small amount of methamphetamine.  His mother gave permission for her son to work for Brea police but says she later changed her mind.  Her lawyer said MacDonald gave police information that led to two or three arrests.

However, Brea police said they were not using the youth as an informant when he went with his girl friend to a Norwalk house known as a center for drug sales.

His body was found days later in South Los Angeles; the girl, who had been raped and shot, was found alive in Angeles National Forest.

Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact:  
Fax:   213-237-4712
Website:   http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate:   Wed, 25 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n213.a10.html


Customs Blitzes Border In Drug Hunt

COMMENT:    (Top)

This is just one more illustration that drug prohibition laws have their most important impact in the area of economics.  Ironically, economists seem not at all interested.

U.S.  CUSTOMS BLITZES BORDER IN DRUG HUNT

BLAINE, Whatcom County - There was little reason to notice an elderly Canadian couple crossing the border into Lynden last month.

But when their car was pulled over by U.S.  Customs workers as part of a drug-enforcement "block blitz," 20 pounds of high-grade Canadian-grown marijuana was found in their trunk.

[snip]

DeFries said a pound of the marijuana can be purchased in Canada for as little as $1,500 in U.S.  funds, but can sell for $3,500 in Seattle and $6,000 by the time it gets to Southern California.

"The money goes north, the marijuana goes south," DeFries said.  "It used to be a half-pound was a lot of marijuana.  Now 50 to 100 pounds is not unusual."

[snip]

Source:   Seattle Times (WA)
Pubdate:   Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.seattletimes.com/
Author:   Susan Gilmore Seattle Times staff reporter
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n217.a05.html


Medical Marijuana

Pot Club's Co-Founder 'Shaken-Up'

San Jose Police Scan Pot Files

COMMENT:    (Top)

Last year, a long NYT Magazine article, cited Peter Baez and the San Jose Police as models of compliance and cooperation in implementing 215.  The following two stories suggest that in the case of the police, cooperation has been replaced by a chilling policy of harassment.  Can leopards ever change their spots?

POT CLUB'S CO-FOUNDER 'SHAKEN UP'

A day after his arrest, Peter Baez, co-founder of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center, said he doesn't understand why he's accused of selling marijuana without a doctor's approval.  He also criticized his treatment during his 13-hour jail stay, and wondered if the sympathetic relationship he said he once had with San Jose police had changed.

He and the center's other founder, Jesse Garcia, said they have a good track record, working under the guidance of city and county officials since they began operating a year ago.

[snip]

Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate:   Wed, 25 Mar 1998
Author:   Raoul V.  Mowatt - Mercury News Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n215.a04.html

SAN JOSE POLICE SCAN POT FILES

Patients, Doctors Protest Probe Of Cannabis Center

San Jose police are going through patients' files seized this week from the county's only medical marijuana clinic and calling doctors to determine whether the drug was indeed recommended for their patients.

The seizure of the confidential records from the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center and the telephone calls to doctors listed in the files have raised concerns among AIDS patients who fear being identified.  Physicians also say they worry about losing their federal licenses to prescribe drugs.

[snip]

Source:   San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Section:   FRONT PAGE
Author:   Maria Alicia Gaura, Chronicle Staff Writer
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate:   Sat, 28 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n218.a10.html


Federal Judge Delays Ruling on Pot Clubs

COMMENT:    (Top)

When 215 was passed, pundits said that the government would avoid a Constitutional battle over the issue, however recent events now seem to be moving in just that direction.

FEDERAL JUDGE DELAYS RULING ON POT CLUBS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A judge heard four hours of oral arguments Tuesday in the federal government's case against six medical marijuana clubs, but postponed his decision on whether to shut them down until after April

U.S.  District Judge Charles Breyer said he had hoped to find a middle ground between Proposition 215, California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative, and the U.S.  Justice Department's desire to enforce the 1970 U.S.  Controlled Substances Act, which makes it a crime to distribute pot for any purpose.

Breyer concluded, however, that he would have to choose sides because "the federal government is not going to change its position."

[snip]

Source:   Sacramento Bee (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sacbee.com/
Pubdate:   Wed, 25 Mar 1998
Author:   Claire Cooper - Bee Legal Affairs Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n213.a05.html


Column:   Ninety-Three Years for Pot

COMMENT:    (Top)

Even when one already knows the details of this case, just reading about it conjures up anger at the mindlessness of American policy.

NINETY-THREE YEARS FOR POT

Is this man a threat to society? Judge for yourself

MANSFIELD, Texas -- The hands may tell the story in the case against Will Foster, who just completed the first of an assigned 93 years in prison.

Or maybe the tale is told by a bloated left pinky.  You couldn't call it a little finger.  It's huge. It has the swerve of a highway off-ramp.

The detour that has become of this man's life centers around a crime he admits to committing.

He says he smoked marijuana because of arthritis pain in a bum ankle and his left hand.  For this offense, the 39-year-old is paying an incomprehensible price.

[snip]

Prosecutors asserted that he had between 50 and 70 plants and that he meant to distribute.  A Tulsa jury sentenced him to a little over a year per plant, 70 years for cultivation.  It tacked on 20 years for possession in the presence of minors, his children.  Foster asserts they never knew.

[snip]

The sentence "certainly falls within the realm of punishment within Oklahoma law and I think it's a fair verdict," said Tulsa County assistant District Attorney Brian Crain.

[snip]

Source:   Waco Tribune-Herald
Contact:  
Fax:   254-757-0302
Pubdate:   Sun, 29 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n225.a11.html


Needle Exchange


Pelosi Blasts Fed Policy Against Needle Exchange

Needle-Exchange Issue Shows Clinton's Lost His Edge

COMMENT:    (Top)

The Clinton Administration continues to receive bad press for its stonewalling on the issue of needle exchange.  The perceptive political analysis by Tom Teepen suggests that Shalala's hands are tied.

PELOSI BLASTS FED POLICY AGAINST NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Cites S.F.  program in anti-AIDS appeal for HHS funds

WASHINGTON - A coalition of House Democrats and health experts urged the Clinton administration Friday to lift a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs when a moratorium ends next week.

Last year's Health and Human Services appropriation bill gave HHS Secretary Donna Shalala authority to lift the moratorium on March 31, if the department determines the exchange programs are effective in reducing the spread of HIV and do not encourage the use of illegal drugs.

"The administration now has the science, the support and the authority to move ahead with this life-saving intervention," said Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.

[snip]

Source:   San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.examiner.com/
Pubdate:   Fri, 27 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n219.a05.html

NEEDLE-EXCHANGE ISSUE SHOWS CLINTON'S LOST HIS EDGE

ATLANTA -- With his presidency trembling in the hot wind of alleged scandal and hanging by the thread of an amazingly indulgent electorate, this is not the time to expect Bill Clinton to take policy risks.  For the record, though, his own AIDS advisory council was right to read him the riot act.

[snip]

The idea doesn't lack for pedigreed endorsement.  It is supported, the president's council points out, by the American Medical Association and the Public Health Association.

But Congress has forbidden funding for exchanges unless the secretary of Health and Human Services certifies no increase in drug use would follow, and Donna Shalala continues to balk, repeating her skepticism even in the wake of the AIDS council's zinger.

Shalala's hesitance is loyal service to a president whose boat already is rocking enough.

[snip]

Source:   Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Wed, 25 Mar 1998
Website:   http://www.startribune.com/
Author:   Tom Teepen / Cox News Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n219.a09.html


International News


Wire:   Cannabis Campaign On The Move

UK: Cannabis Campaign: Pot Power

COMMENT:    (Top)

The march sponsored by the Independent on Sunday was at least a moderate success and a good beginning.  It also demonstrates conclusively that resistance to recreational pot is far greater in the US than elsewhere.

CANNABIS CAMPAIGN ON THE MOVE

About 11,000 people have joined a march through the streets of central London in support of decriminalising cannabis.

The rally was described as the biggest of its kind in Britain for decades.  Supporters from all over Europe joined the pro-cannabis demonstration.

People were openly smoking cannabis at the march as they congregated behind a huge "legalise it" banner, despite police warnings that they risked being arrested.

Police said they did not make any arrests or cautions despite the dozens who were smoking.

[snip]

Source:   BBC News Service
Pubdate:   Saturday, 28 March 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n221.a03.html

POT POWER

Thirty years after the first cannabis rally, veterans and new campaigners gathered to fight a law that has left two generations alienated and criminalised.

They came.  They saw. They sang from Bob Marley's "Legalise It". Some smoked.  Some even inhaled. It was the big day for the Cannabis Campaign and the people came in thousands from around the country, from Europe and some from even further afield.

[snip]

Source:   Independent on Sunday
Pubdate:   Sun, 29 Mar 1998
Author:   Ros Wynne-Jones
Contact:   Email:
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n221.a10.html


May Boost Military Aid to Colombia's Anti-Drug Effort

COMMENT:    (Top)

Given the depth of federal commitment to the drug war, look for us to move to shore up Columbia's outclassed military, despite the real danger that the civil war there could turn into a Viet Nam style quagmire.

U.S.  MAY BOOST MILITARY AID TO COLOMBIA'S ANTI-DRUG EFFORT

Alarmed by recent setbacks to the Colombian military in its decades-old war against rebel armies, Clinton administration officials are considering increasing U.S.  military assistance to the government within the framework of cooperation between the two countries to fight drug trafficking.

[snip]

The efforts to help the Colombian armed forces reflect changing U.S. attitudes about the gravity of the threat to the government posed by drug-financed rebels.  U.S. aid to Colombia's military has been virtually nonexistent since the late 1980s because the Colombian army, as well as the right-wing paramilitary groups that operate with its support, has been implicated in scores of civilian massacres, disappearances and cases of torture.

Source:   Washington Post
Author:   Dana Priest, Washington Post Staff Writer
Contact:   http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Pubdate:   Sat, 28 Mar 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n222.a04.html


*HOT OFF THE 'NET*    (Top)

Check out the new "War on Drugs Clock" at

http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

It is a counter, updated as you watch, of the number of dollars spent, the number of drug arrests this year up to the minute, and the number of new prisoners based on government stats.  Linking to this on your web page sends a strong message to the uninitiated and uninformed.

A reminder that past issues of the DrugSense Weekly Newsletter are available online at: http://www.drugsense.org/nl/


*QUOTE OF THE WEEK*    (Top)

"I live in a terrible neighborhood.  This is not what I want. What I see every morning, afternoon and night is trash on the streets, young teen-age men selling drugs and graffiti on the walls everywhere I look.  I want peace on earth everywhere, but especially in my neighborhood." -- Michele (5th grade student)


TIP OF THE WEEK


VOLUNTEER HELP NEEDED

Just as we have appealed to you in the past for funds, we are appealing for a few to step forward and volunteer their online help.

The news service, an effort of about 100 volunteer Newshawks, now posts almost 900 items per month, a significant increase over even only a few months ago.  This growth is likely to continue.

All these items, which are sent to by our Newshawks for posting, are processed by a team of volunteers - Olafur Brentmar, Joel W.  Johnson and Richard Lake. Sharing the workload, at about 10 minutes of work per item, they ensure that the format is proper, the contact info is present, and create the necessary leads and titling information in our normal format.

We need a few volunteers to reduce this every day workload and allow for the workload to be more easily shifted so that folks may take a break or vacation.

We would like to just say, 'If not YOU, Who?' But the volunteer work involves being able to use an email program with filters - understanding how Internet email functions - and an understand for and appreciation of the standards we try to maintain.  Additionally it results in about 100 email messages per day, all of which are handled with ease if you are willing to learn to use your email program well. The commitment is not insubstantial and should not be made lightly.

If you wish to help, one of the best teams on the 'net is ready to welcome you.  Just drop a note to our Senior Editor, Richard, at He will gladly send you more details to include background discussions used in training.  Plus, when you are ready, he can add you to the private mailing list just for the team.

Please consider helping.  We want to continue to provide and expand the our service.  All of our volunteers are our most valued resource. You are making a difference!

Mark Greer Executive Director
Richard Lake Senior Editor


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.

COMMENTS Editor: Tom O'Connell ()
Senior-Editor:   Mark Greer ()

We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks.

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DrugSense provides this service at no charge BUT IT IS NOT FREE TO PRODUCE.

We incur many costs in creating our many and varied services.  If you are able to help by contributing to the DrugSense effort please Make checks payable to MAP Inc.  send your contribution to:

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