| September 2,1998 #062 | ||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
EDITORS Note: We thought a little something on the lighter side might
be a timely change of pace. Let us know what you think. | ||||||||||||||
A Modest Proposal - Humor | ||||||||||||||
I have the solution to both the collapsing economy in Russia and our nations out of control "drug problems." It's a simple thing really. Our nation wastes about $100 billion a year in completely useless federal, state and local enforcement, incarceration, and interdiction efforts on our "drug war" with the end result that any child with a few dollars and some curiosity can buy any drug they wish. So what's the point? | ||||||||||||||
Let's completely eliminate the waste of dollars, legalize drugs in the
U.S. and buy Russia! Let's see if the Russian government will sell us
the whole country including their nuclear arsenal to us for the same
$100 billion a year for say the next 20 years. We'll put our own puppet
government in place (which couldn't possibly do a worse job than the
Russian government is doing already). We then retire all the old
commies with a great pension plan and start paying the military and
workers who are now nearly starving to death using the same $100
billion we used to waste on the drug war. | ||||||||||||||
Then in a real stroke of genius we can outlaw drugs in Russia make a
fortune having American contractors build prisons, incarcerate half the
population for selling drugs, and hire the other half as prison
guards. Maybe we can even use the prisoners as slave labor make micro
chips, designer jeans, or tennis shoes. To manage all this we send all
the black clad goon squads that are currently kicking down the doors of
our citizens over to Russia so they can kick down their doors. (the
Russians are used to repression and suffering anyway) | ||||||||||||||
In this way we can completely destroy Russia which is on its way into
oblivion anyway instead of destroying ourselves with an insane drug
policy and the U.S. can go back to being a free country. We can quit
being the largest prison building nation on the planet and our
government can again begin using Russia instead of U.S. drug users as
the enemy of choice. They seem to need to vilify someone so why not
Russia like in the good old days? | ||||||||||||||
As a great bonus we will return to the complete lack of drug problems
we enjoyed in this country before we made them illegal. | ||||||||||||||
Imagine the U.S. as a free country again, no drug war, and no threat
from Russian nukes. What a concept! | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
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Policy; Sporting Division COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Given earlier sports furors over recreational (Winter Olympics) and
performance-enhancing (Tour de France and '96 Olympics) drug use it's
hardly surprising that Mark McGwire's admission to using anabolic
steroids while chasing the major league home run record would rekindle
still-smoldering debates. | ||||||||||||||
The detailed Chicago Tribune article points out that it's an over the
counter agent; technically legal for baseball, not, strictly speaking,
a "drug" and of dubious benefit anyway. | ||||||||||||||
While NYT columnist Bob Herbert sermonized on the "role model" issue
plaguing all professional athletes, Canadian sports writer Dave
Perkins was inclined toward a more realistic view of McGwire's drug
use. | ||||||||||||||
The most Draconian response was from the head of the Australian
Olympic Committee; it might have earned praise from Anslinger himself,
but it won't please IOC Chairman Samaranche who is already on record
for more tolerance of performance-enhancing (but not recreational)
drugs. Anyone claiming to be unconfused by all this can't expect to be
taken seriously. | ||||||||||||||
MCGWIRE'S SPIKED SWING RAISES HEALTH QUESTIONS | ||||||||||||||
Eleven weeks ago, or 24 home runs ago in Mark McGwire time, General
Nutrition Centers sent an internal memo to the managers of its 3,700
stores nationwide. | ||||||||||||||
The message was brief and direct: Don't sell androstenedione, an
over-the-counter nutritional supplement. Even though no definitive
studies had shown any dangerous side effects from androstenedione, GNC
was increasingly concerned about a product that was purported to raise
testosterone levels and thus enhance physical performance. Its own
review of scientific literature had raised questions. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Already in its short life in the United States, androstenedione has had
a troubled existence. Critics say it's a drug. The federal government
says androstenedione is closer to a food and therefore doesn't need to
be regulated. The International Olympic Committee, the NFL and the NCAA
have banned it. Major League Baseball has not. The question is, what
exactly is it? | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Androstenedione is legal in the United States, and Mark McGwire, a remarkably muscular man who hits home runs for a living, has a right to use it. Whether it's a good idea to use it is another matter. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
...Mark McGwire is operating safely within the boundaries of the law | ||||||||||||||
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RUTH AND McGWIRE: DIFFERENT TIMES, DRUGS | ||||||||||||||
SO THE BIG slugger hit all those home runs while partaking of a
potentially dangerous substance that is banned in some places, but not
others? | ||||||||||||||
Imagine that. | ||||||||||||||
Why, what would Babe Ruth have done if alcohol hadn't been illegal in
the United States for most of his career? | ||||||||||||||
Now, 60 or 70 years later, many people would laugh at the idea that
Ruth used, even abused, a technically illegal product (booze, and often
in vast quantities) while setting dozens of home run records. Pitchers
probably wished he drank more. | ||||||||||||||
It is impossible to know what people will be saying about androstenedione in several decades. Who knows? They might be sprinkling it on kids' breakfast cereals in the middle of the next century. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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OLYMPIC BOSS CALLS FOR WAR ON DRUG CHEATS | ||||||||||||||
AUSTRALIA'S Olympic chief yesterday demanded drug-cheating athletes be jailed and their dealers in anabolic steroids face life sentences. | ||||||||||||||
John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee, said
suppliers of hard sports drugs should be subject to the same penalties
as narcotics traffickers. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug Policy; Prison Division | ||||||||||||||
It's still far too early to know how the worsening economic climate
will affect America's runaway incarceration industry, but since it's
basically a publicly funded entitlement program which produces nothing
of tangible value, it's a good bet that hard times will work against
it. | ||||||||||||||
Prison inmates spend a variable length of time in local jails before
sentencing; some jail residents never make it all the way to prison.
At any one time nearly 1/3 of those incarcerated in the US are in
jails of various sorts. | ||||||||||||||
The Tulsa story is typical and underscores how demand for these facilities is becoming a financial burden on their communities. | ||||||||||||||
Another measure of the political weight of the prison system is seen
in California. | ||||||||||||||
In 1992, the correctional officers' union (whose membership is now
greater than the entire 1970's PRISONER population) contributed a
still-record $425,000 to Pete Wilson's campaign. Their reward came
last week when, at his behest, they received a generous pay raise
while other state employees were being stiffed. | ||||||||||||||
INMATE NUMBERS WORRY OFFICIALS | ||||||||||||||
The Tulsa Jail's inmate population could exceed federally imposed
limits, officials warn. | ||||||||||||||
The Tulsa Jail had its highest ever monthly average number of inmates last month, provoking concern among jail authority members Friday. | ||||||||||||||
If the trend for July continues through the rest of the year, Tulsa County sheriff's officials warned, the inmate population could break records and exceed federally imposed limits at the lockup. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
So, without triggering this ACA pressure valve, there are effectively
1,476 beds available at the new jail. | ||||||||||||||
But officials don't want to come anywhere near that total until after the turn of the century. That's why the budget for Corrections Corporation of America to run the new jail is only for 1,100 inmates. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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CA: PRISON OFFICERS GET RAISE; OTHER WORKERS STYMIED | ||||||||||||||
SAN LUIS OBISPO - State workers are smarting after negotiators for
California's correctional officers agreed to a one-year, 12 percent
raise, an increase that comes as other employee unions remain at
loggerheads with Gov. Pete Wilson. | ||||||||||||||
What hurts isn't the pay hike package that still needs ratification by
the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, according to
union officials, but that the agreement came one day after Wilson
vetoed increases for other state workers. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug Policy; Marijuana division | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Warriors like to claim that pot use and intellect are incompatible;
that view was rejected emphatically by college students themselves in
a survey reported by the Oregonian. | ||||||||||||||
While too early to be called a trend, the largest pot farms found recently have been in the Bay Area, not in the Emerald Triangle. | ||||||||||||||
Initiatives are one way to effect change; another is by class-action lawsuit. One aimed squarely at medical marijuana was filed weeks ago and was finally discussed in some detail in a Philadelphia Inquirer article which should be read in its entirety by all with a serious interest in the subject. The complaint itself has been posted on the web at: http://www.legalize-usa.org/class%5Faction/suit.htm. | ||||||||||||||
STUDENT SURVEY NAMES REED TOP U.S.SCHOOL IN ACADEMICS | ||||||||||||||
No thanks to divine intervention, Reed College was named the country's
top academic school for undergraduates this year by The Princeton
Review. | ||||||||||||||
The private liberal arts college in Southeast Portland got top marks for academics and professor quality - and for least religious students - in a national survey of 56,000 students conducted by the company. | ||||||||||||||
Reed, known as an intellectually intense school that produces many
future Ph.Ds, also placed third in the survey's "reefer madness"
category for marijuana use - a testament, perhaps, to its famously
laissez-faire lifestyle. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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COPS HARVEST MASSIVE BAY AREA POT FARM | ||||||||||||||
19 million potential joints cut down | ||||||||||||||
Authorities seized more than 21,000 marijuana plants with a street
value of $84 million this week in Santa Clara County in one of the
largest finds of its kind in state history. | ||||||||||||||
"It's the largest (outdoor) seizure that the Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting program has ever been involved in," said Gil Van Attenhoven,
operations commander for CAMP, which was created in 1983 and involves
state, local and federal authorities. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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LAWYER SUES U.S. TO OVERTURN BAN ON MARIJUANA | ||||||||||||||
Cited in the suit, which seeks to allow medicinal use, are personal stories like the one of a Philadelphia AIDS patient and activist. | ||||||||||||||
It's been said that nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has
come, and lawyer Lawrence Elliott Hirsch may be right: That now is the
hour to sue to legalize the medical use of marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Smelling the winds of change, Hirsch said he decided that the time was
right to use the weapon of a federal class-action lawsuit to end the
government's 61-year-old ban on the herb aficionados prefer to call by its
Latin name, cannabis. | ||||||||||||||
"This has to be the hottest issue since communism," said Hirsch, 59, in
a recent interview. Hirsch's lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District
Court, lives up to his description as being a "grass-roots effort."
Most of the lawsuit's 128 pages are taken up with the life stories of
164 plaintiffs who contend they have found significant health benefits
to smoking marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Hirsch could be right. But it's the judicial answer that scares a lot
of others in the marijuana legalization movement. "Of course I'm
concerned about making bad law," said Keith Stroup, a lawyer and
executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Washington-based group that has campaigned
to legalize cannabis since 1970. | ||||||||||||||
Stroup said he and NORML lawyers were to obtain a copy of Hirsch's lawsuit and would consider whether to support it, either as a "friend of the court" or by providing expert witnesses if the case gets to trial. "We're not in disagreement with [ Hirsch's ] goals," Stroup said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug Policy; Simple Fairness Division | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
A diabolical aspect of federal drug policy has been the extreme lengths to which it goes to inflict collateral penalties on hapless individual citizens for drug violations. One of the worst is a rule allowing expulsion of the innocent from public housing for drug violations by a family member or even a guest. The report of successful resistance to this policy is a genuine bright spot in the news. Yes, it's the same federal judge who has shown a modicum of sympathy for, but not much courage on, the issue of medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
OAKLAND TENANTS FIGHT FEDS' POLICY | ||||||||||||||
OAKLAND - Herman Walker is in the eye of the storm swirling around public
housing. | ||||||||||||||
A former minister, he is 75, partially paralyzed in his left arm, and
suffers from severe arthritis. He lives alone in public | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
That's why the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has
appealed the judge's preliminary order barring evictions of Walker and
others until their cases are resolved. | ||||||||||||||
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer has indicated in preliminary rulings
that he thinks it may be unconstitutional to evict people from public
housing for crimes they knew nothing about. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
"Cognitive dissonance" is a near perfect description of the dialogue between drug hawks DeWine and McCollum on the one hand, and Mexican spokesman Suarez, on the other, as reported in an AP wire story. | ||||||||||||||
Mexico is also the focus of a well written, detailed consideration of
the impact of NAFTA, globalization and the drug war on the US-Mexican
border. This piece, from the San Jose MN, deserves to be read in its
entirety. | ||||||||||||||
The woes described in the SJMN article are sure to be added to by
implementation of McCzar's new plan. Although details haven't yet been
archived in DrugNews, they should be in the next edition. Expect
his"defend our borders at all costs" bunker mentality to prevail over
common sense. | ||||||||||||||
On a lighter note, the comment of Ms. Roddick on the logic of Gallic
law enforcement is too good not to repeat. | ||||||||||||||
The London Times article on increasing prescription of antidepressants
for young people speaks for the desperation of our modern era nearly
as eloquently as the story by John Otis speaks for the mess our drug
policy has helped create in Colombia. | ||||||||||||||
MEXICO REJECTS CONDITIONS ON U.S. ANTI-DRUG | ||||||||||||||
MEXICO CITY -- Concerned by U.S. attempts to guide Mexican anti-drug
efforts, officials here are again rejecting calls to let American agents
carry arms in Mexico. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
"The government of Mexico has repeatedly and emphatically indicated
that it will not grant such permission," said secretariat spokesman
Oscar Ramirez Suarez in a news release. | ||||||||||||||
The statement came in response to a proposal by two Republican
lawmakers, Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida,
which would offer new helicopters for Mexico if the country allows U.S.
agents to carry weapons here. | ||||||||||||||
The proposal is part of their "Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act of
1998," which also urges that all U.S. law enforcement officials working
across the border be granted diplomatic immunity. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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BORDERLANDS | ||||||||||||||
Pressure from U.S., Mexican leaders to grapple with globalization, drugs and immigration is transforming forever a 150-year-old way of life | ||||||||||||||
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Once a dusty no-man's land caught in the past,
today's U.S.-Mexico border is undergoing its biggest transformation,
leaping into the global economy and leaving behind a centuries-old
``anything goes'' way of life. | ||||||||||||||
From the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, the powerful forces of
economic globalization, the explosion of lawlessness spawned by brutal
drug lords and the constant meddling by Washington and Mexico City are
tearing at the fabric of the 2,000-mile border. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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BORDER DRUG PLAN SET TO BE UNVEILED | ||||||||||||||
Mccaffrey to make call for regional czar to supervise efforts at ports and
crossings | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON - Drug czar Barry McCaffrey will propose changes in the
nation's strategy to stem narcotics trafficking, including naming a
federal official to coordinate efforts at all 24 ports-of-entry on the
U.S.-Mexico border. | ||||||||||||||
McCaffrey is set to unveil the plan today in El Paso, where he begins a
two-day tour of local facilities and meets with federal, state and
local authorities involved in the drug war. | ||||||||||||||
Earlier this month, McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general, called for a presidential nominee to become a Southwest border czar to coordinate law enforcement activities from Texas to California. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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POLICE SEIZE BODY SHOP HEMP PRODUCTS | ||||||||||||||
FRENCH police seized lip conditioner, hand oil and elbow grease
containing hemp seed oil from a Body Shop store - because they claim
the products encourage drug use. | ||||||||||||||
Body Shop founder Anita Roddick yesterday said she was "amazed" by the action of gendarmes who entered her shop in Aix-en-Provence and took products from the Hemp range, as well as promotional material. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
"I know the French perfected the art of irony in the past, but right now
I'd like to see them get a better grip on the future." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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GPS GIVE PROZAC TO TEENAGERS FOR EXAM NERVES | ||||||||||||||
FAMILY doctors are increasingly prescribing antidepressants such as Prozac to teenagers to help them to cope with anxiety during school examinations, according to psychiatrists and mental health groups. | ||||||||||||||
Helen Kay of the Mental Health Foundation said: "There is a great
increase in anxiety among young people generally, and exam time is a
particularly stressful period. We are aware that doctors are now
prescribing antidepressants like Prozac to teenagers to help them to
cope. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MAYOR IN COLOMBIA MORE LIKE A FUGITIVE | ||||||||||||||
He fears for his life from left and right | ||||||||||||||
PUERTO ASIS, Colombia - Just hours after Nestor Hernandez was sworn in
as mayor of this jungle town in southern Colombia, he was abducted by
leftist guerrillas, dragged across the border to Ecuador and tied to a
tree. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
In the past three years, 29 mayors have been assassinated, mainly by
rebels. Hundreds of town council members have also been killed,
kidnapped or threatened, and many have been forced to resign. In the
run-up to nationwide municipal elections last October, nearly 40
candidates were shot dead. | ||||||||||||||
"To be a mayor here, you have to really love your community," said
Gilberto Toro, executive director of the Colombian Federation of
Municipalities. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
"The Medical Marijuana Archives" | ||||||||||||||
Alpine World Magazine has just restored its popular, but politically
controversial "Medical Marijuana Archives." | ||||||||||||||
The new version has been edited to provide a more objective perspective. There are tons of photos, news reports, editorials and every cartoon we could find--including all the Doonesbury cartoons. | ||||||||||||||
Also included: | ||||||||||||||
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The new Medical Marijuana Archives are available now at:
http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/ | ||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||
HELP US GROW! | ||||||||||||||
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We are constantly trying to improve our news gathering and response
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So tell your friends and don't forget to forward drug policy news
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from
falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the
Government from falling into error." - U.S. Supreme Court, American
Communications v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382,442 | ||||||||||||||
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FACT OF THE WEEEK | ||||||||||||||
"To date, nearly 40% of the 652,000 cases of AIDS reported in the
United States have been linked to injection drug use. And more than
75% of babies diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were infected as a direct or
indirect result of injection drug use by a parent." | ||||||||||||||
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