July 15, 1998 #055 |
A DrugSense publication
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http://www.drugsense.org/
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- * Breaking News (11/22/24)
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- * Feature Article
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Drug wars: Menace to America
by Tod Mikuriya, M.D.
- * Weekly News In Review
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Policy-
U.S. Starts Paid Ad Campaign Against Drugs
Column - President to kids: Don't inhale either
Taking Stock On The War On Drugs
Who's winning this war?-
Millions More For Drug War
County Can't Build Its Way Out Of Jail-Crowding Problem
Drug War Requires Multiple Strategy, Report States
State Drug Agent Held; Suspected in Cocaine Case
Doublecross: U.S. Customs Embarrassed by Smuggling Informant
Can anybody tell us what victory means in this longest war?
Medical Marijuana-
Feds seek to close 3 pot clubs
Marijuana Measure Will Be On Ballot
Rurals Control Medical Marijuana Proposal
International News-
Scotland - Jail Suicide Toll Forces Sentencing Shake-Up
Australia - Heroin Users Are Younger
Canada - Losing The Drug War
High Cost of Bribes Forces Mexican Pot Growers Across Border
Sweden - Wire - Drug Czar Bashes Dutch Policy on Eve of Visit
- * Hot Off The 'Net
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"Breaking News Stories" now available On-Line
- * DrugSense Tip Of The Week
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"Drug War Facts" collection
- * Quote of the Week
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P.J. O'Rourke
- * Fact of the Week **NEW**
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Incarceration Rates
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) |
Drug wars: Menace to America
by Tod Mikuriya, M.D.
Part One of Three
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The escalating increasingly desperate authoritarian efforts to stem the
rising tide of lawlessness caused by drug prohibition are held in check
only by the limitations of budgets. These measures have failed by any
standards.
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Worse, the side effects harm the community through the overloading of
the enforcement/corrections, social, and health services resources.
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Individuals and society are victimized directly and indirectly by these
harmful social policies.
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At the core are ignorance and denial that afflict policy makers at all
levels of government and society.
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Denial takes many forms... from the economic- the usual free market
mercantilists who fail to include these commodities in their
spreadsheets and ignore these market forces. to the fundamentalist
religious who shut out the facts with moralistic homilies.
Authoritarian public officials facilitate these policies.
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In this tricentennial of the Salem witch trials we are in the grips of
another attack of the "American disease": Prohibition. The War on Drugs.
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This collective moralistic delusion is seemingly unique in western
civilization. Over a century ago America went through a painful fifty
year civil war on drugs that culminated in prohibition of alcohol from
1919 to 1933.
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The contemporary "War on Drugs" is even nastier and more intrusive than
Prohibition. Additional evils include:
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1. International piracy
2. International kidnapping
3. Mining of harbors
4. Poisoning of forests with herbicides
5. De stabilization of Columbia, Peru, Panama, and Nicaragua
6. Funding anti-government terrorism
7. Iran-Contra Scandal
8. BCCI Scandal
9. Punishment of the user
10. Drug testing- divination of status and freedom by urine tests for illegal metabolites
11. Confiscation of property- civil forfeiture criminal abuse of civil law
12. Default vigilantism of neighbors forced into using small claims court
13. Funding of police operations with proceeds from seized property
14. Entrapment with police offering to buy drugs
15. Entrapment with police offering to sell drugs
16. Entrapment with police manufacturing drugs.
17. Encouraging children to turn parents in to police for drug involvement
18. Taking babies away from mothers who test positive for drugs
19. No-knock entry and other civil rights attenuation
20. Driver's license suspension for unrelated drug crimes
21. Expulsion from public housing
22. Exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid
23. adverse drug reactions from depriving of safer medicinal cannabis
24. Dumbing down of medical research
25. Degradation of physician patient trust
26. Stigmatizing, marginalizing, and alienating users
27. Warrantless systematic searches on public transportation
28. Mandatory minimum sentences derived from irrational formulae
29. Class and racial inequality in application of laws
30. Overcrowding jails, prisons, and probation
31. Surveillance of chemical and laboratory apparatus transactions
32. Reporting of cash transactions over $9,999
33. Confiscation of growing lights
34. Seizure of mailing lists from growing supplies stores
35. Setting up growing supplies stores to solicit and entrap cannabis growers.
36. Obtaining public utility records to target potential cannabis growers.
37. Militarization at state and federal levels- "Posse Comitatus"
38. Downgrading evidence requirements to "good faith" from probable cause.
39. Depriving students of federal loans and grants.
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The corruption, violence, and divisive consequences appear to be lessons
that we have forgotten today as social policy mistakes are repeated..
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1. The bribing of police, prosecutors, attorneys, and judges
2. Capitalization of crime by a black marketplace: drugs for guns.
3. Subversion of International Law
4. Funding firearms for the young
5. Murder and mayhem facilitated
6. Materialism and alienation
7. Destruction of families
8. Abuse of children- robbed of childhood and trust
9. Building prisons instead of schools
10. Diversion of managerial energy and decrease in morale
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At the local level there is little more that can be done that can be paid
for by the public. Vigilante activities while commendable in their
initiative have great potential for abuse. All pretext to due process and
civil liberties are then hopelessly abandoned to the mob.
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Structural emblematic efforts like school uniforms, anti drug rallies, and
exhortations by public figures are feelgood exercises- Like inveighing
against Satan. All the while we do battle with the enemy- us.
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The exercises in group think are not unlike the two minutes of hate rallies
depicted in Orwell's 1984. Unlike the centrally controlled hermetic
authoritarian state such efforts are ineffectual. In the torrent of
advertisements to self medicate anti-drug appeals are ineffectual or
ironically humorous.
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The ignoring of the reasons and etiologies of the reasons for the
involvement in illicit drugs will delay the solving the problems attached
to a situation is bad and getting worse.
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Advertising of drugs rather than censored by government should be from
self-discipline by the industry. Removal of the exemption from product
liability laws for alcohol and tobacco would insure self discipline in
advertising. Kindergarten though 12th grade curriculum addition of
critical thinking and psychophysical education would diminish
vulnerability to manipulation.
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Institutionalized or socialized use behavior will minimize abusive use.
The concept of the "designated driver" is exemplary of the kind of
custom that facilitates alcohol risk management.
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To avoid disruption of jobs and bureaucratic hegemony redeploy the DEA
to control chemical and biological warfare.to protect the health and
safety of society. Adding agents under their control that are truly a
threat to society, they would transfer responsibility to the Surgeon
general for psychoactive drugs used medically or socially.
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Editors Note
Parts 2 and 3 of Dr will follow in subsequent issues of the DrugSense
Weekly
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) |
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Domestic News- Policy
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COMMENT: (Top) |
For two months in a row, a drug warrior initiative has given us an
opportunity to highlight the existence of organized opposition to
official policy Nearly every news account of the administration's ad
campaign included a demurrer on its effectiveness from a reform
spokesperson.
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Beyond our skeptical comments in print media, the reform message aired
when the ad campaign was discussed on TV in confrontational programs
featuring "Drug Crazy" author Mike Gray vs McCaffrey (CNN-Talkback
Live) and Ethan Nadelmann of Lindesmith Center vs Robert Novak &
Senator John Ashcroft on Crossfire.
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U.S. STARTS PAID AD CAMPAIGN AGAINST DRUGS
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The White House's drug policy agency will introduce its first paid
national advertising Thursday as part of its fight against drug use
among adolescents.
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President Clinton will join Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in Atlanta to introduce
the campaign, the largest government-financed social marketing
effort to date. It will have an initial budget of $195 million,
appropriated by Congress, and will involve television, radio,
print, billboards and interactive media.
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[snip]
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Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center in New York, a
drug policy research organization that is part of the Open Society
Institute sponsored by financier George Soros, said: "For the past
years, our nation's kids have been bombarded with anti-drug
messages, and it is these same kids who are experimenting with more
drugs.
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[snip]
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PRESIDENT TO KIDS: DON'T INHALE EITHER
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PRESIDENT CLINTON launched his $2 billion anti-drug campaign on
Thursday and, like most things he does, it was all media hype. He even
said so.
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That's what Clinton calls the five-year program -- the "Anti-Drug Media
Campaign," as if all problems can be solved with the right spin in the
right ads. It's the thoroughly modern non-answer to a problem by the
thoroughly modern politician.
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[snip]
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"We can see evidence that ads can sell things," said Kendra E. Wright,
head of a Beltway drug policy outfit called Family Watch, "But we have
no evidence that they can unsell things."
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Yes, but ads can be so good at selling voters on the idea that you're
doing something positive for America's children.
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[snip]
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Source: | San Francisco Examiner |
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Author: | Rob Morse, Examiner Columnist |
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TAKING STOCK ON THE WAR ON DRUGS
(excerpt from Part 3)
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BATTISTA: | (Bonnie Battista, moderator) |
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All right, Darryl, thanks very much. General, I'm just curious as to
whether we're spitting in the wind to some degree. Is it possible for
us to have a drug-free America?
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MCCAFFREY (Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey); No. But on the other hand, in
1979, 14 percent of the country were using drugs. Today, it's 6
percent. We're sure we can cut it by half. We do have something at
stake. You know, your caller is quite correct. Most of us don't use
drugs. Fourteen million Americans do and they're causing 16,000 dead a
year and what we say is $110 billion in damages, so he and I and you,
we've all got something at stake and someone else's child who's dead
from a drug overdose.
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BATTISTA; Mike Gray, do you agree with that, that it's not possible to
have a drug-free America?
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GRAY (Mike Gray, author of "Drug Crazy); "We've been at it now
for 80 years, and we've made the problem steadily worse year by year.
And while General McCaffrey says that since 1980 we've cut casual
marijuana and cocaine use by half. That's true, but look what we
gave up in return. Prior to 1980 we had never even heard of crack
cocaine. We had not heard of - the chief of police of Omaha tells
us that in 1985 the Crips came out from Los Angeles and discovered
this fertile market there in Omaha. A few months latter the Bloods
discovered it and all of the sudden they have gang warfare and
crack in Omaha. I don't consider that a success.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 09 Jul 1998 |
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Contact 1: Contact 2:
Note: | Talkback Live - Aired July 9, 1998 - 3: 00 p.m. ET |
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Who's winning this war anyway?
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COMMENT: (Top) |
Recently, both Clinton and McCaffrey made the astounding claim that
the drug is being won. As evidence, they cited (without specific
reference) that "drug use" was cut in half between 1979 and 1992. Last
week the claim was again made publicly, by McCaffrey in Atlanta (CNN
excerpt, above), and the President in his Saturday AM radio broadcast.
His claim is followed by a series of items from last week's news which
suggest that, to put it delicately, he and the czar are both full of
beans.
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MILLIONS MORE FOR DRUG WAR: Clinton Wants Expansion Of Special
Court System
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WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, urging Americans not to become
complacent over dramatic declines in drug use over the last decade,
continued to build his anti-drug message Saturday, announcing $32
million in federal grants to expand drug courts and curb a disturbing
uptick in methamphetamine use.
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[snip]
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"Today there are 50 percent fewer Americans using drugs than just 15
years ago," Clinton said in his weekly radio address. But he added,
"There is no greater threat to our families and communities than the
abuse of illegal drugs."
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 12 Jul 1998 |
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Author: | David Westphal and Michael Doyle Bee Washington Bureau |
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COUNTY CAN'T BUILD ITS WAY OUT OF JAIL-CROWDING PROBLEM
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The proposed steep increase in the Milwaukee County House of Correction
budget for next year ought to be no surprise. After all, when you
expand jail space, you expand jail costs. The addition of 1,000 beds to
the house requires an addition to the number of guards and other
staffers. Hence, the institution's request for an extra $9 million in
property tax funds.
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[snip]
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Source: | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
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DRUG WAR REQUIRES MULTIPLE STRATEGY, REPORT STATES
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WASHINGTON -- The use of methamphetamines is rising dramatically in the
Western United States, the Justice Department reported Saturday in an
extensive new study that also shows America's crack-cocaine epidemic
appears to have peaked.
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[snip]
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Source: | Contra Costa Times ( CA) |
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Pubdate: | Sat, 11 Jul 1998 |
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Author: | Edwin Chen, Los Angeles Times |
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STATE DRUG AGENT HELD; SUSPECTED IN COCAINE CASE
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Court: | Official worked in Riverside office where 415 kilos of the |
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Drug vanished. He is charged with possession and conspiracy to
distribute.
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What began as a routine drug bust by the FBI last week has led to
the arrest of a veteran agent of the state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement, himself accused of cocaine trafficking.
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[snip]
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Source: | Los Angeles Times |
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DOUBLECROSS: | U.S. CUSTOMS EMBARRASSED BY SMUGGLING INFORMANT |
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SAM DONALDSON, ABC NEWS - Last month, President Clinton called for
cooperation among nations in the fight against drugs. But what if the
people who are supposed to be keeping drugs out of the United States
instead are putting the government smack in the middle of dealing
drugs? Tonight, a six-month PrimeTime investigation reveals how agents
of the US Customs Service turned a pot smuggler into a big-time cocaine
kingpin and then turned a blind eye while he poured billions of dollars
of cocaine on to the streets of America. Tonight, Forrest Sawyer talks
to Rodney Matthews, a smuggler turned top informant who became one of
the biggest embarrassments in US Customs history.
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FORREST SAWYER, ABC NEWS (voiceover) New Year's Eve, 1988. When Rodney
Matthews touched down at his private airstrip in Damon, Texas, hauling
a ton of pure cocaine, he wasn't working alone.
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RODNEY MATTHEWS Yes. By all means, I'm a drug smuggler. The government
authorized me to smuggle. And the government paid me to smuggle.
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[snip]
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Source: | ABC News - Primetime |
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Transcript: | Produced by Federal Document Clearing House |
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Note: | This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript. |
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CAN ANYBODY TELL US WHAT VICTORY MEANS IN THIS LONGEST WAR?
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July 12 - One should be suspicious, I suppose, whenever there is
agreement between Newton Leroy Gingrich, Republican speaker of the
House of Representatives, and William Jefferson Clinton, Democratic
president of the United States of America.
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They joined for a trip to Atlanta last week to announce yet another
phase of the War on Drugs, this time a propaganda campaign.
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Meanwhile, various military campaigns are in full operation, including
chemical warfare - herbicide bombs for farms in South America - and
more traditional means, such as the deployment of infantry along the
southern border to kill sheep herders.
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[snip]
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If this sounds unlikely, consider that many currently controlled
substances were once staples of legitimate commerce: The Founding
Fathers grew hemp; heroin was developed and marketed by the same Bayer
company that produced aspirin; cocaine was sold over the counter at
dispensaries operated by mining companies in Colorado a century ago;
amphetamines were dispensed by our own military to keep soldiers alert.
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We citizens who get requisitioned to support this War on Drugs ought
to ask "What constitutes victory?'' before even more billions are spent.
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[snip]
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Source: | Denver Post ( CO) |
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Pubdate: | Sun, 12 July 1998 |
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Medical Marijuana
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COMMENT: (Top) |
Some rare good news from California: the Oakland City Council voted a
generous patients' allowance; the bad news is the feds are trying to
shut down the Oakland distribution center along with two others.
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Good news from Oregon: their initiative qualified easily. A cliff
hanger in Nevada, because sparsely populated rural counties have
disproportionate representation. Stay tuned.
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FEDS SEEK TO CLOSE 3 POT CLUBS
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Oakland adopts lenient marijuana policy
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OAKLAND -- The same day local officials approved the state's most
lenient policy on medical marijuana, the Clinton administration
stepped up efforts to close the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative
and two other clubs.
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Federal officials filed a motion Tuesday with U.S. District Court
Judge Charles Breyer asking that the U.S. Marshal be authorized to
immediately shut down medicinal cannabis clubs in Oakland and in
Marin and Mendocino counties.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 09 Jul 1998 |
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Author: | Kathleen Kirkwood, Staff Writer |
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MARIJUANA MEASURE WILL BE ON BALLOT
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SALEM - A proposal to allow medicinal use of marijuana in Oregon
has made it onto the Nov. 3 ballot, but one that would have asked
voters to restrict abortions failed to qualify, state elections
officials said Friday.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sat, 11 Jul 1998 |
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Source: | Register-Guard, The (OR) |
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RURALS CONTROL MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPOSAL
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CARSON CITY ( AP) - A medical marijuana proposal is struggling because
of a state law that gives more political power to rural Nevadans than
Las Vegas-or Reno-area residents.
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The law dating to the 1950s has resulted in a requirement this year for
46,764 signatures on any proposal to qualify for the November ballot -
and the medical marijuana plan's advocates collected 74,466 names.
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However, the law mandates that the signatures must come from at least
13 of the state's 17 counties, and at least 10 percent of the voters in
each of those counties must sign.
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[snip]
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Source: | Las Vegas Sun ( NV) |
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Pubdate: | Fri, 10 Jul 1998 |
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International News
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COMMENT: (Top) |
A survey of overseas drug news reveals a monotonous repetition of the
same policy failures reported in domestic media. As this is written
McC has just started a European junket with his foot planted firmly in
his mouth. I'm looking forward to next week's newsletter already.
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JAIL SUICIDE TOLL FORCES SENTENCING SHAKE-UP
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UKP1.1m initiative announced after deaths of five inmates in ten days
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THE Government yesterday launched a UKP1.1 million initiative to tackle
Scotland's spiraling jail suicide rate following the worst spate of
deaths in the prison service's history.
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New measures to identify and help prisoners at risk of killing
themselves were announced yesterday by the Scottish home affairs
minister, Henry McLeish, after the deaths of five inmates in ten days.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Fri, 10 Jul 1998 |
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HEROIN USERS ARE YOUNGER: SURVEY
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Heroin use is increasing in Melbourne, with a new study showing an
alarming trend for users to be younger and female.
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The Victorian Drug Trends 1997 report, the most comprehensive
assessment of illicit drug use in the state, reveals that heroin may no
longer be regarded as a ``hard drug'' by the drug community.
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[snip]
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Source: | Age, The ( Australia) |
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LOSING THE DRUG WAR
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CRIMINALIZED USERS ARE DEHUMANIZED WHILE WEALTHY DEALERS TAKE SMARMY
REFUGE
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Gil Puder has waged the war on drugs and seen its failure and attendant
propaganda for what it is.
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For Puder, it's impossible to ignore - he's a Vancouver police
constable on the un-winnable conflict's frontline.
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The trophies showcased by narcotics officers - their drug seizures
- are astutely identified by Puder as flags of failure.
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[snip]
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Source: | Age, The ( Australia) |
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HIGH COST OF BRIBES FORCES MEXICAN POT GROWERS ACROSS BORDER
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BOISE - In Mexico, the price of growing marijuana is known as ``el
mordido'' - ``the bite.'' The term refers to bribes that growers
must pay local police to stay in business.
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In prosecuting the largest marijuana case in Idaho's history,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist said escalating bribe fees
in Mexico inspired growers to cross the border and set up growing
areas in Idaho. The growers, nearly all undocumented immigrants
from Florencia, Mexico, confessed that they moved their operations
into Idaho to avoid paying the $1,000 per 100 plants Mexican
authorities demand, Lindquist said.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 09 Jul 1998 |
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Source: | The Salt Lake Tribune |
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Author: | Steve Steubner Special To The Tribune |
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U.S. DRUG CZAR BASHES DUTCH POLICY ON EVE OF VISIT
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STOCKHOLM, July 13 ( Reuters) - A top U.S. policy official
attacked tolerant Dutch drugs laws on Monday, blaming them for much
higher rates of murder and other crime than in the United States.
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``The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States.
The per capita crime rates are much higher than the United
States,'' General Barry McCaffrey, the White House drugs policy
chief, told a press briefing in Stockholm.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Mon, 13 Jul 1998 |
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top)
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Both the DrugSense and MAP web pages have been updated and now include
a "Breaking Stories" feature which will provide you with the hottest
important news items related to drug topics. Check it out. Stay aware
and informed and write a letter while the "ink is still wet." See:
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http://www.drugsense.org/
-OR-
http://www.mapinc.org/
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TIP OF THE WEEK
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"Drug War Facts" On-Line
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Some of the oldest and most inaccurate myths of the drug war have been
dispelled in the new publication "Drug War Facts" compiled by Kendra
E. Wright and Paul M. Lewin of Common Sense for Drug Policy for the
Drug Policy Information Service.
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"Drug War Facts" is now available on the DrugSense web page. There is
both a link to the entire collection and a different handy fact is
displayed on the home page each time you visit. This extensively
researched collection, replete with numerous citations and references,
is designed to help make us all more authoritative and knowledgeable.
Please become familiar with the topics covered and use this valuable
tool often. It will be updated regularly. We were so impressed with
this work that we have added a new feature to the DrugSense Weekly
which will highlight one important fact complete with citations each
week from now on. See:
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http://www.drugsense.org/
-OR-
http://www.drugsense.org/factbook.htm
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top)
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`Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car
keys to teenage boys' - P.J. O'Rourke -
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FACT OF THE WEEK
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From Drug War Facts, http://www.drugsense.org/factbook.htm
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European incarceration rates are below 100 per 100,000. In the United
States, the incarceration rate for African-Americans is 4,000 per 100,000.
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Source: | Currie, E. Crime and punishment in America. (1998). New York, NY: |
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Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
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IMPORTANT NOTES:
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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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News/COMMENTS-Editor: | Tom O'Connell () |
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Senior-Editor: | Mark Greer () |
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We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks.
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