A DrugSense publication

http://www.drugsense.org/

Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/30/24)

* Feature Article

A Review of the London Conference On Med MJ
by Dr.  Tom O'Connell

* Weekly News In Review

National News-

Marijuana: A New Phase
Medical Marijuana Battles Continue
Police-Growers Enter the Harvest Season
The Drug War Continues to Prove Itself Bad for Kids
National Guard Lobbying for Bigger Drug War Role

International and Border News-

Iran Proves Death Penalty for Drug Doesn't Work
Another Czar Proposed
CIA Working With Smugglers Seems Premeditated

* Hot Off The 'Net

Medical Marijuana Initiative Campaigns on the Web

* DrugSense Tip Of The Week

"Planet Know" Does Not Know

* Obituaries:

AIDS Movement Loses Two Leaders

* Quote of the Week

Jello Biafra

* Fact of the Week

Your Money at Work (NOT)

A Review of the London Medicinal Marijuana Conference
By Dr.  Tom O'Connell

On Sept.  5th, the first-ever international conference devoted entirely to policy issues surrounding medical use of cannabis was held here at Regent s College in London.  Like every other item on the drug policy reform agenda, formal efforts to provide sick patients with access to Cannabis despite a reigning global prohibition paradigm is complicated by the involvement of multiple disciplines and plagued by cultural and national differences.

Despite these difficulties, and the fact that what should have been a two or three day agenda was squeezed into one, this remarkable meeting sponsored jointly by London-based Release and New York's Lindesmith Center, was a solid success.

By just persuading activists from all over the world to take time from their busy schedules to share information on the experiences acquired in their current efforts on behalf of medical cannabis, the conference dramatized growing recognition of a reality that drug prohibitionists are increasingly hard-pressed to deny: cannabis safely provides unique therapeutic benefits to a large and diverse number of patients.  Beyond that, the conferees also discovered that many quite different approaches are currently proving successful.  One immediate conclusion that could be drawn is that local realities are more important than abstract policy statements in determining what strategies work best. Another is that the importance of purely medical use of cannabis becomes most important as a discrete issue in those countries like The US and Canada where rigorous enforcement practices create a substantial arrest hazard for patients.  In those countries where the likelihood of arrest is low, the need for protective legislation has not come up and the emphasis has been on moving toward the legalization of recreational use.

The issues of prohibition rhetoric, particularly as it relates to juvenile access and use, were all discussed, as were potential alternative models for Cannabis regulation.  As may be imagined, no firm recommendations in these areas were possible.  The conference was recorded and summaries will be published on both the Release and Lindesmith web sites.  It s clear to this attendee that the information will be very useful.

Tom O'Connell

Marijuana seems to be entering a new phase in the political life of western nations.  In England a conference was held on how to regulate cannabis in the 21st century -- a change from the more traditional question of "whether to" do so.  Candidates for attorney general in New York and Arizona admit past marijuana use and say it is not an issue. In New York, Republican Governor Pataki and his Lt.  Governor running mate also admitted past use.

TAXING TALK ON CANNABIS

First global conference to address problems of legalised drug

If cannabis was legal, who would sell it? How would it be taxed? What restrictions would there be on advertising it? And how would its use be regulated?

snip

Scientists, doctors and lawyers from Europe, Australia and North America are gathering in London for the Cannabis Congress next Saturday, which is being hosted by Release, the drugs advice agency and charity and the Lindesmith Centre, a New York-based drug policy research institute funded by the financier George Soros.

[snip]

Lindesmith Centre director, Ethan Nadelmann, said: "As support for cannabis reform grows, more policy makers throughout the world are being faced with the challenge of regulating both the use and the distribution of cannabis.  This conference will address the challenge of cannabis control and seek practical alternatives as cannabis prohibition continues."

[snip]

Source:	Guardian, The (UK)

Contact:

Author:	By Duncan Campbell

Pubdate:	Mon, 31 Aug 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n766.a03.html

Related Articles:

A CONTROVERSIAL DRUG WHICH CAN HEAL

Source:	Associated Press

Pubdate:	Sat, 5 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a09.html

CANNABIS CONGRESS EXPLORES HOW TO LEGALISE

Source:	Independent, The (UK)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.independent.co.uk/

Pubdate:	Sun, 06 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n771.a01.html

ATTORNEY GENERAL HOPEFULS ADMIT POT USE

3 out of 4 Democrats running for attorney general say they used marijuana in college

Eliot Spitzer smoked pot, and even inhaled.

Catherine Abate experimented with marijuana as a college student.

Evan Davis smoked some weed at a few parties.

At least three of the Democrats who want to be attorney general, the highest law officer in the state, admit to having broken the law -- the same admission that a decade ago forced Supreme Court nominee Douglas H.  Ginsburg to withdraw from consideration for the high court.

Oliver Koppell simply won't discuss the subject.

Today, however, past pot use is apparently a political irrelevancy: Gov.  George Pataki recently revealed that he used to mix his marijuana in baked beans, and his running mate, Judge Mary Donohue, admits she smoked in college.

[snip]

Source:	Times Union (NY)

Contact:

Fax:	518-454-5628

Website:	http://www.timesunion.com/

Pubdate:	Sat, 05 Sep 1998

Author:	JOHN CAHER, State editor

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n767.a06.html

KAITES CALLS PRIMARY FOE A CRIMINAL, ADMITS SMOKING POT

PHOENIX - Attorney general hopeful John Kaites insists his opponent's arrest 15 years ago makes him a criminal - even though prosecutors dropped the charges.

[snip]

But McGovern, while lashing out at Kaites for slinging mud, then signed an affidavit saying he has never smoked marijuana.  Attorney General Grant Woods, who backs McGovern, also signed the affidavit - even as he said the issue of someone smoking marijuana is irrelevant to the question of who should be his successor.

[snip]

.  . . His press aide, Kim Harris, later admitted Kaites, while in high
school in Pennsylvania, tried marijuana ``once,'' adding that ``he didn't like it.''

[snip]

McGovern was charged with possession of a weapon after police, investigating a bar fight in which McGovern was not involved, found a pellet gun in his trunk.  The drug charge stems from marijuana residue found in the ashtray of the vehicle he was driving, a car McGovern said belonged to his brother.

[snip]

Source:	Arizona Daily Star (AZ)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.azstarnet.com/

Pubdate:	Thu, 3 Sep 1998

Author:	Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a03.html

Medical Marijuana Battles Continue

The DC initiative won a court battle and has a chance to be on the ballot this November.  You will recall that in Nevada the reformers also won in court recently.  Now, Colorado is getting sued for the way it handled signatures gathered by reformers.  The federal lawsuit against selected California buyer's clubs continued this week as a stalemate.  The court refused to grant the clubs motion to dismiss the case and told the feds they should expect a jury trial if they want to hold the clubs in contempt.  The agency relationship between the Oakland club and the city did not pass muster with the court.  Too bad because it was a great opportunity for the availability of controlled medical cannabis.  The proprietor of the Oakland Club, Jeff Jones, continued to get great press.  In Canada the debate continued with the Pharmacy Journal weighing in while an AIDS patient got busted.  In England a medical marijuana farm got off the ground.

POT PETITIONERS SUE BUCKLEY

Supporters of a measure that would legalize the medicinal use of marijuana sued Secretary of State Vikki Buckley on Friday, claiming Buckley has improperly kept the issue off November's ballot.

The lawsuit claims that an embattled Buckley, whose office has seen a spate of resignations and firings in the past few years, conducted an error-plagued review of the 88,815 signatures submitted to her by Coloradans for Medical Rights.  Using a random sampling technique, Buckley ruled that only 47,960 of the 88,815 signatures were valid and did not meet the 54,242 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot.

[snip]

Source:	Denver Post (CO)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.denverpost.com

Pubdate:	Sat, 05 Sep 1998

Author:	: Howard Pankratz, Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a10.html

JUDGE REJECTS OAKLAND'S POT CLUB BUT DENIES IMMEDIATE SHUTDOWN

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday rejected Oakland's attempt to shield its medical marijuana club from federal drug laws by making it part of city government, but refused to order the immediate shutdown of clubs in Oakland and two other cities.

Instead, U.S.  District Judge Charles Breyer said he may allow a jury to decide whether patients at the clubs need marijuana to relieve pain and survive treatment for cancer, AIDS and other illnesses.

Breyer rejected both a request by the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to dismiss the federal government's suit and a motion by the government to declare the clubs in contempt of court and close them without a trial.

[snip]

The club had hoped to win immunity from federal prosecution as a result of Oakland's apparently unprecedented action Aug.  13, previously authorized by the City Council, declaring club officials to be city agents who were distributing marijuana to patients on the city's behalf.

In court, the club invoked a federal drug law that protects state and local officers from legal liability while legally enforcing drug-related laws.  That law was intended to shield police from prosecution for undercover drug transactions, but its wording also covers city agents who distribute medical marijuana, argued Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor representing the club.

[snip]

Breyer called the argument "creative" but "not persuasive." He said club employees are not legally enforcing a drug-related law when their "purpose is to violate federal law."

Uelmen said the club would appeal the ruling, though he did not know whether an immediate appeal was possible.

But Breyer rejected government lawyers' arguments that there was conclusive evidence the clubs were violating his injunction and should be shut down immediately.

[snip]

Source:	Sacramento Bee

Contact:

Website:	http://www.sacbee.com/

Pubdate:	Tues,1 Sep 1998

Author:	BOB EGELKO, Associated Press Writer

JUDGE REJECTS OAKLAND TRY TO SHIELD MEDICAL-POT CLUB

Source:	Sacramento Bee (CA)

Contact:	http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html

Website:	http://www.sacbee.com/

Pubdate:	1 Sep 1998

Author:	Claire Cooper

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n754.a08.html

OAKLAND LOSES BID TO SHIELD MEDICAL POT CLUB FROM U.S.

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.ocregister.com/

Pubdate:	Tue, 1 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n756.a03.html

OAKLAND'S EFFORT TO SHIELD POT CLUB REJECTED

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

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

Pubdate:	Tue, 1 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n757.a01.html

THE QUIET CRUSADER

Jeff Jones has good reason for taking the heat in the medicinal marijuana battle

As the cancer stole his father away bit by bit, 14-year-old Jeff Jones would sit by his bedside in their South Dakota home and talk about fishing and camping and other ordinary things a boy might discuss with his father, as though time wasn't running out.

[snip]

Soft-spoken and shy, Jones, the co-founder and executive director of Oakland's Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, seems an unlikely person to be at the center of one of the biggest political battles in California.

[snip]

.  . . Jones' cooperative has been labeled a model program and Oakland
has willingly put itself at legal risk for the club by declaring it a city agency in an attempt to shield it from federal attempts to shut it down.

[snip]

.  . . Breyer rejected the Oakland club's novel legal argument that it
should be immune from prosecution because its staff had been designated as ``officers of the city'' by Oakland last month -- a status, attorneys for the club argued, that gave it protection under a provision of the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

Oakland officials say that despite Breyer's ruling, the club will remain a city-sanctioned agency.

[snip]

Then he thinks of his father.  And he is grounded.

[snip]

``I know what I'm doing now is right.''

Source:	San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

Contact:

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

Pubdate:	Friday, September 4, 1998

Author:	Thaai Walker, Chronicle Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n769.a03.html

POT AND POLICY

[snip]

..  . if the polls are correct, a strong majority (83%) of Canadians
support legalizing marijuana for medical use, while 51 per cent want it legalized outright.  There is some backing in the courts as well, an Ontario judge ruling in December that it is unconstitutional to deprive Terry Parker, a 42-year-old epileptic man, of marijuana for his illness.

The decision sends a strong message, and only the most stubborn critics can slight the ruling or the claims of AIDS patients, and those with multiple sclerosis or cancer, who say that smoking pot eases their suffering.

[snip]

Source:	Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal

(Official journal of the Canadian Pharmacists Association)

Pubdate:	February 1998 (Volume 131 Number 1)

Section:	Editorial, page 3

Author:	Andrew Reinboldt

Contact:

Note:	The cover story 'The Case for Medical Marijuana,' discussed in

this editorial is at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n768.a07.html

POLICE BUST AIDS PATIENT WHOSE DOCTORS ADVISED POT USE

A Vanier man with AIDS who smokes marijuana on the advice of his doctors was marched out of his house with his wife and 12-year-old son - -- hands on their heads -- and arrested shortly before midnight Monday.

[snip]

"When they came for me, I said 'Oh no, not again,' " Mr.  Pariseau said from his home yesterday.  "I don't know why they bother me again. I only use it myself and I need it to live."

Mr.  Pariseau's case received national attention after his first arrest. In November 1997, a group of doctors and lawyers filed a ground-breaking application to the federal government asking that he be allowed to use marijuana because it was prolonging his life.

[snip]

Source:	Ottawa Citizen (Canada)

Contact:

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

Pubdate:	02 Sept 1998

Author:	Jeremy Mercer, The Ottawa Citizen

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a04.html

[continues: 86 lines]

PHARMACOLOGY:	HERB REMEDY

Exploring ways to administer marijuana as a medicine

The exact location is a secret.  But somewhere between London and Brighton a compound ringed by high fences and razor wire will house the world's only pot farm primarily devoted to commercial drug development. In June the British Home Office gave a startup pharmaceutical company a license to grow 20,000 marijuana plants of varied strains.

[snip]

Source:	Scientific American (US)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.sciam.com/

Pubdate:	Sat, 5 Sep 1998

http://www.sciam.com/1998/0998issue/0998scicit1.html

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a11.html

Police-Growers Enter the Harvest Season

The annual ritual begins again.  The outdoor marijuana harvest is hitting North America.  Police in Canada and the US are beginning their annual futile effort to eradicate a weed that can grow anywhere.  In the end, the police will get enough to make them feel like they did their job, but the marijuana market will have another bountiful crop. The only difference this year is that the police may begin to experiment with herbicide spraying in the continental US.

MARIJUANA HARVEST BRINGS OUT THE AUTHORITIES

Helicopters are a sure sign of a fall harvest in Ohio, which ranks among the top 10 states in marijuana growth.

Law enforcement officers take to the air to search cornfields for the tall, green plants that stand out and above the yellow ears of corn and tassels.

[snip]

Source:	Cleveland Live News Flash (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.cleveland.com/

Pubdate:	Thu, 3 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n765.a05.html

POlICE GET BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF POT FIELDS

"You look down into a cornfield and you can see the pot plants in small patches .  . . like holes punched out in the middle of the field."

[snip]

The target: a 5-foot leafy green marijuana plant nestled amid row after row of corn.  An officer armed with a machete hacked it down and dragged it away, along with about a half-dozen others.

Surrounded by rows of 8-foot cornstalks, the marijuana was all but invisible to anyone on the ground, but not to Wolf, who was looking down at the field from about 500 feet in the air.

[snip]

Source:	Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.dailygazette.com

Pubdate:	Fri, 04 Sep 1998

Author:	Brian Nearing - Gazette Reporter

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n767.a05.html

ILLEGAL CROPS SMOKED OUT

Regional drug squad officers gave local marijuana growers a harvest downer yesterday after a pair of raids.

In two separate strikes against the booming Ottawa Valley reefer business, police seized plants worth more than $1.7 million -- the bounty of a three-month probe.

[snip]

In recent years, marijuana cultivation has exploded in the Ottawa Valley.

"It's more prevalent for a number of reasons," Davidson said.  "The main things are that the overhead is low and there's a very high rate of return."

He said police occasionally do flyovers looking for marijuana crops.

Pubdate:	Sat, 05 Sep 1998

Source:	Ottawa Sun (Canada)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSun

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n772.a03.html

The Drug War Continues to Prove Itself Bad for Kids

Mounting evidence that the DARE program doesn't work joined by new evidence that the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act is being misused.  The evidence shows that money we could be using to invest in our kids is
being wasted on the drug war.  Further, kids are being used in undercover stings and getting killed and in Australia parents are spending tens of thousands to hire spies to monitor their kids.

DARE PROGRAM TO BE REVIEWED FOR CHANGES

Houston's $3.7 million DARE program, called "only marginally successful" in a recent report, will not be instituted at area schools again in it present form, Houston Police Chief C.O.  Bradford said Wednesday.

[snip]

Source:	Houston Chronicle (TX)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.chron.com/

Pubdate:	Thu, 3 Sep 1998

Author:	S.K.  BARDWELL

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n762.a03.html

Related story:

DARE TO END INEFFECTIVE ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM IN HOUSTON

Pubdate:	Sun, 30 Aug 1998

Source:	Houston Chronicle (TX)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.chron.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n748.a01.html

SUNDAY REPORT

FAILING GRADE FOR SAFE SCHOOLS PLAN

U.S.  has given $6 billion to combat drugs, violence. With little oversight, money has gone for marginally successful programs, investigation finds.

WASHINGTON--Over the last dozen years, the U.S.  Department of Education has poured nearly $6 billion into an ambitious yet flawed program that has fallen far short of its mission to control violence and narcotics abuse in the nation's public schools.

[snip]

.  . . the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act provided an
average of $500 million annually to local school districts with virtually no strings attached.  The result: Much of the money has been spent on initiatives that either are ineffective or appear to have little to do with reducing youth violence and substance abuse, records and interviews show.

.  . . taxpayer dollars paid for motivational speakers, puppet shows,
tickets to Disneyland, resort weekends and a $6,500 toy police car. Federal funds also are routinely spent on dunking booths, lifeguards and entertainers, including magicians, clowns and a Southern beauty queen, who serenades students with pop hits.

[snip]

The Los Angeles Unified School District used some of its $8-million grant last year to purchase a new car, four guns, ammunition and an ultrasonic firearms cleaner at the request of a detective who rarely steps foot on school grounds.

[snip]

In Richmond, Va .  . . state education officials spent $16,000 to publish a drug-free party guide that recommends staging activities such as Jell-O wrestling and pageants "where guys dress up in women's wear."

[snip]

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

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

Pubdate:	Sun, 06 Sep 1998

Author:	RALPH FRAMMOLINO, Times Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n771.a07.html

TEEN WAS STRIPPED FOR WIRE, GIRL SAYS

Testimony:	She says the three suspects accused Chad MacDonald of

working for the police, then robbed, beat and killed him.

The killers of teen-age police informant Chad MacDonald strip-searched him while hunting for a hidden wire and accused him of working for the police, his girlfriend testified Thursday.

The 17-year-old girl's testimony was the first indication - outside of accusations by MacDonald's family - that the boy's work for Brea police could have played a role in his death March 3.

[snip]

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.ocregister.com/

Pubdate:	4 Sep 98

Author:	Stuart Pfeifer-OCR

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n766.a07.html

PARENTS HIRE DRUG SPIES

BRISBANE parents are paying private detectives up to $20,000 to spy on their children and find out whether they are using drugs.

The detectives are also using private school teenagers to infiltrate peer groups and track other students' drug habits.

[snip]

Source:	Herald Sun (Australia

Contact:

Pubdate:	Thur, 3 Sep 1998

Author:	Ali Lawlor

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n760.a08.html

National Guard Lobbying for Bigger Drug War Role

The National Guard could search your car in seconds -- if you gave them more tax dollars; they could give your police a helicopter, with fuel, maintenance and manpower -- for more money; and they can build your grass roots drug war lobby -- for more money.  What looked like cuts in National Guard drug war funding is turning into increases as the Guard becomes an aggressive election year lobbyist, supported by drug war parents groups.  You may not want it, but the National Guard will soon be in your backyard.

NATIONAL GUARD DRUG WAR HITS SNAG

ANNVILLE, Pa.  (AP) -- With high-tech bomb-detection gear, Pennsylvania National Guard experts can help police narcotics units tell in seconds whether a car door or even a dollar bill contains traces of illegal drugs.

[snip]

But counter drug programs run by the National Guard in Pennsylvania and other states are reaching a crossroads.  The outcome of a budget struggle in Washington could shape governors' future role in the drug war through troops under their command.  President Clinton asked Congress to fund National Guard counter drug programs at $148 million in the fiscal year starting Oct.  1, down $13 million from this year. That would represent an 18 percent cut since 1997, when the programs got $180 million.  States already have had to pull back Guard personnel assigned to counter drug missions, and officials say they cannot absorb additional cuts without permanently losing skilled soldiers.

[snip]

Once publicity-shy Guard officers, used to playing a support role in the drug war while leaving the headlines to other agencies, have stepped up their lobbying.

Officers from several states brought their anti-drug gear to the Capitol in March, and some have invited lawmakers and their staffs to tour the facilities at home.

There are signs the campaign is working.

Before beginning its August recess, the Senate passed a defense budget that adds $20 million to the president's request.  The House added about $10 million in related National Guard support.

[snip]

McCaffrey said the Guard has a role, through a demand-reduction component that reaches 8,000 communities, but most prevention and treatment programs are run through other federal agencies.

Nationwide, up to 4,000 Guard personnel support thousands of drug-control missions each year, helping to train law enforcement personnel, translate conversations from other languages, lend night-vision photographic equipment and trail suspects by helicopter.

[snip]

Source:	(AP)

Pubdate:	Sat, 05 Sep 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n770.a08.html

International News

Iran Proves Death Penalty for Drugs Doesn't Work

Iran has been a country that uses the death penalty to enforce its drug laws.  With the addict population growing, it is one more piece of evidence that even the most brutal drug laws don't work.

IRAN HAS 1.2 MLN DRUG ADDICTS - OFFICIAL

TEHRAN (Reuters) - There are some 1.2 million drug addicts among Iran's 60 million people, a senior official said in remarks published Wednesday.  The daily Iran newspaper quoted Mohammad Fallah, the country's top official in charge of fighting drugs, as saying educating the youth would be far more efficient in fighting drugs than using force.

Iran is a major transit route for opium and heroin headed to Europe from Afghanistan and Pakistan - the so-called "Golden Crescent." Iranian police killed seven armed drug smugglers in two separate clashes near the Afghan border in the last week, newspapers reported.

Pubdate:	Wed, 2 Sep 199

Source:	Reuters

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n764.a03.html

Another Drug Czar Proposed

How many drug czars does it take to win the drug war? Barry McCaffery, the national czar, is calling for another czar to handle the Southwest border.  As if the problem is a lack of czars. McCaffery knows better. He was in charge of interdiction in the Americas when he was a four star general.  He saw first hand that it did not work. Now he is proposing to beef up the failed interdiction policy with more bureaucracy. McCaffery has proven himself good at one thing -- building the drug war apparatus.  A czar for the border will mean another lobbyist for interdiction money and the beginning of other areas calling for czars -- the west coast, east coast, Florida, Canadian border, mountain areas and deserts are all czarless but not for long.

DRUG AGENCIES URGED TO TEAM UP

WASHINGTON -- Barry McCaffrey, the nation's director of drug policy, recalled his astonishment during his first tour of U.S.-Mexico border crossings two years ago.

"You've got 800 people working at these border crossings," he said, pausing for a moment as he leaned forward in his chair and whispered with wide eyes, "And nobody's in charge."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 31 Aug 1998

Source:	San Antonio Express News

Contact:

Website:	http://www.expressnews.com

Author:	Mark Helm

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n749.a02.html

BORDER IDEA IS TOUTED HERE

A multi state drug chief, overseeing more law enforcers using better technology, would curtail drug trafficking, corruption and illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border, Barry R.  McCaffrey said Monday.

McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's director of drug policy, was in San Antonio to stump for what he called a new, long-term initiative to "change the nature of law and order on the border."

[snip]

Source:	San Antonio News-Express

Contact:

Website:	http://www.expressnews.com/

Pubdate:	31 Aug 1998

Author:	Susana Hayward and Nathalie Trepanier Express-News Staff Writers

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n753.a05.html

CIA Working With Smugglers Seems Premeditated

COMMENT:

The explosive issue of whether the CIA knew it was allowing drugs to be smuggled into the United States continues to simmer.  A recent letter from the Casey-era CIA shows they wanted to avoid liability for drug crimes.  The iF Magazine website contains a series of articles on the issue.

CONTRA-COCAINE:	EVIDENCE OF PREMEDITATION

New evidence, now in the public record, strongly suggests that the Reagan administration's tolerance of drug trafficking by the Nicaraguan contras and other clients in the 1980s was premeditated.

With almost no notice in the national press, a 1982 letter was introduced into the Congressional Record revealing how CIA Director William J.  Casey secretly engineered an exemption sparing the CIA from a legal requirement to report on drug smuggling by agency assets.

The exemption was granted by Attorney General William French Smith on Feb.  11, 1982, only two months after President Reagan authorized covert CIA support for the Nicaraguan contra army and some eight months before the first known documentary evidence revealing that the contras had started collaborating with drug traffickers.

The exemption suggests that the CIA's tolerance of illicit drug smuggling by its clients during the 1980s was official policy anticipated from the outset, not just an unintended consequence followed by an ad hoc cover-up.

[snip]

.  . . the newly released letter, placed into the Congressional Record
by Rep.  Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on May 7, establishes that Casey foresaw the legal dilemma which the CIA would encounter should federal law require it to report on illicit narcotics smuggling by its agents.

Pubdate:	July/August 1998

Source:	iF Magazine

Contact:

Website:	http://www.consortiumnews.com/

Author:	Robert Parry

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n759.a07.html

HOT OFF THE NET

The medical marijuana initiative states are getting on the web.  You can view the various campaigns at:

Alaska campaign web site:
http://www.alaskalife.net/AKMR/

Colorado campaign web site:
http://www.medicalmarijuana.com/

DC campaign web site:
http://www.actupdc.org/

Oregon campaign web site:
http://www.teleport.com/~omr/

Washington campaign web site:
http://www.eventure.com/i692/

TIP OF THE WEEK

Planet Know - Does Not Know

Forwarded from NewsHawk David Isenberg

EDUCATION?

Planet-Know

http://www.planet-know.net/

Planet-Know is a federal government supported site designed to educate and encourage youth about the dangers of drug use.

From:	"Tom Hawkins"

Date:	Sat, 5 Sep 1998 23:26:59 -0700

Here's the e-mail addresses for feedback to Planet Know, the teen anti-drug site, as gleaned from their feedback form.  Let 'em have it.

Keep fighting peacefully,

Tom Hawkins

OBITUARIES

AIDS Movement Loses Two Leaders

This week the AIDS movement lost two leaders.

First, Renee Edginton, the founder of the first needle exchange program in Los Angeles died after an automobile accident in South Africa.  She was returning from the wedding of a friend.

Second, Jonathan Mann and his wife, Mary-Lou Clements Mann, an AIDS researcher died in the Swissair crash.  Mann understood how human rights and health were connected.  (He made sure Harvard Medical School students were given the Universal Declaration of Human Rights along with the Hippocratic oath upon graduation.) At a Drug Policy Foundation conference several years ago when discussing how drug policy effected human rights he made the point that the current drug war not only violated human rights -- it also undermined health.  His approach to drugs recognized that people who use drugs should be treated with dignity and respect, and provided with basic health care (i.e.  have their basic human rights recognized.) An Associated Press story on Jonathan Mann is reprinted below.

September 3, 1998
AIDS Researcher Among Jet Victims
By The Associated Press

Dr.  Jonathan Mann, who became known as the outspoken head of the World Health Organization's AIDS program when the disease exploded in the 1980s, was among the 229 people killed in the crash of Swissair Flight 111.

Mann, 51, was dean of Allegheny University of the Health Sciences' School of Public Health in Philadelphia, formerly known as Hahnemann University Hospital.

Mann resigned in December from Harvard University's School of Public Health, where he was a professor of international health and epidemiology.  He was also director of Harvard's Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center of Health and Human Rights.

The Boston native headed the WHO's AIDS program from 1986 until 1990, when he resigned amid a bitter clash with Hiroshi Nakajima, then WHO's director-general.  Nakajima's attitude ``completely paralyzed our efforts,'' Mann said then.

``It's a terrific loss for the whole AIDS community because his name and voice are very familiar to anybody who works on this issue,'' Larry Kessler, executive director of the AIDS Action Committee of Boston, said of Mann's death.

``I think his only regret was that he could never find enough money worldwide that would make a big enough dent in this epidemic,'' he said.

Mary-Lou Clements-Mann, who was with her husband on the plane, also was a noted AIDS researcher who taught at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.  She was working on developing AIDS vaccines.

Mann had intended as a medical student to become an eye doctor, but fast became interested in public health when he went to New Mexico after graduation to work for the Centers for Disease Control.  Two years later, in 1977, he moved to the state's public health department and held various positions, including state epidemiologist.  He stayed in New Mexico for 10 years and was credited with helping control bubonic plague there.

After that, Mann said he needed a change and took an offer to spend a year in Zaire setting up an AIDS research facility under the auspices of the WHO.

A memorial observance was scheduled for today, Leclair said.

`Don't hate the media.  Become the media' - Jello Biafra

From 1985 to 1995, the federal drug control budget has increased almost five-fold, from about $2.7 billion to about $13.25 billion.  Yet, in that same period the percentage of 12th grade students that reported marijuana as "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain increased from 85.5% in 1985 to 89.6% in 1995.

Sources:	Office of National Drug Control Policy, The National Drug Control

Strategy, 1997, Budget Summary, Washington D.C.: U.S.  Government Printing Office (1997, February), p.  22; Johnston, L., Bachman, J. &; O'Malley, P., National Survey Results from the Monitoring the Future Study, Washington

D.C.:	U.S.  Government Printing Office (1996), Vol. 1, p. 270, Table 30.

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