Table of Contents

* Breaking News (11/23/24)

* Feature Article

    White Paper: General McCaffrey's History of Misinformation
    by Kevin Zeese - Common Sense for Drug Policy

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1)
(1) A Sane Drug Policy
COMMENT: (2-3)
(2) In The War on Drugs, Lawmakers Have Widened the Military's
        Power to Police American Citizens
(3) Dole Vows More Border Agents for Drug Fight
COMMENT: (4-5)
(4) Drug Testing for Self-Sufficiency
(5) Student Drug Testing

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (6)
(6) Through the Looking Glass With the El Monte Police
COMMENT: (7)
(7) Seizing the Moment on Unfair Seizure Law
COMMENT: (8-9)
(8) New Tactic Goes Citywide After it Ends Drug Bazaars
(9) Chief Judge Appoints Panel to Review Handling of Drug

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (10-11)
(10) Birdseed Latest Victim In Unending War Against Drugs
(11) Hemp Downer: DEA Seizure of Sterile Hemp Seeds Illegal
COMMENT: (12-13)
(12) Reefer Referendum
(13) Doctor Worm

International News-

COMMENT: (14-15)
(14) Now, State of Siege, Colombian Style
(15) What Next in The Colombia Drug War
COMMENT: (16-17)
(16) Canada: Rock OKs Pot Smoking for 14 Seriously Ill
(17) UK: Fresh Claims of Prison Brutality

* Hot Off The 'Net

    New DrugNews Archive Search Capabilities
    Governor Gary Johnson (R-NM) News Archive
    Governor Johnson for President in 2000?

* Quotes of the Week

    Institute of Medicine Principle Investigator John Benson, M.D
    Barry McCaffrey, Albuquerque Journal, 10/8/99

White Paper: General McCaffrey's History of Misinformation by Kevin Zeese - Common Sense for Drug Policy

The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Barry McCaffrey, has been known to play 'fast and loose' with the facts, especially when it comes to the success of his National Drug Control Strategy.  This year General McCaffrey was publicly taken to task for inaccurately portraying the impact of Netherland's drug policies, needle exchange and medical marijuana by public health leaders, civil rights advocates and reform advocates.

While this White Paper details factually inaccurate statements, the drug czar has been correct in calling for increased drug treatment and methadone maintenance.  Common Sense applauds him for dealing with these issues based on the facts and is willing to work with ONDCP in developing more effective drug control strategies.  However, to have meaningful dialogue, it is imperative that our public officials have an accurate, fact-based discussion.

Common Sense provides a free online factbook on the drug war, available at: http://www.csdp.org/factbook/ and is available for comment at 703-354-5684.

McCaffrey

"Each year drug use exacts $110 billion in social costs, contributes to 52,000 drug-related deaths .  . . ." Letter from Barry McCaffrey to Governor Gary Johnson, September 16, 1999.

"Each year, approximately 50,000 Americans die from drug-related causes." Testimony of Barry R.  McCaffrey Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy, "Building a More Effective Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program" Before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families, August 3, 1999

The Facts

The study Director McCaffrey used to estimate a $110 billion social cost states that sixty percent (60%) of those costs are due to drug-related law enforcement, incarceration and crime.  These are the costs created by our National Drug Control Strategy and our policy of strict prohibition and incarceration.  Only 3% of drug costs were from victims of drug-related crime, and less than 40% of the $110 billion social costs actually are due to the health impact of drugs.

General McCaffrey's failure to fully disclose the elements of this figure are just one example of how the ONDCP director seeks to distort the public's perception of drug policy.Source: The Economic Costs of Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the United States 1992.According to SAMHSA, the federal government's premiere substance abuse agency, about 20,000 people die each year from drug-related causes.

"Drug-related" includes much more than deaths from drug overdoses: it includes both illegal and illicit use of legal drugs, suicide, homicide, motor vehicle injury, HIV, pneumonia, hepatitis, endocarditis, infant deaths, and overdoses.  Many of these deaths are due to the illegality of the drugs involved.  The 52,000 figure McCaffrey refers to comes from "CSR Inc., unpublished research prepared for ONDCP, 1999" which ONDCP has thus far refused to release for public scrutiny.  Considering that the SAMHSA figure of 20,000 already includes deaths which are already only tenuously related to drug use, it is difficult to accept that this number could be revised upward so greatly.  More importantly, if this data is not suitable for public review, how can it be suitable for presentation as fact to Congress, Governor Johnson, or journalists?

McCaffrey

"We're making progress in reducing illegal drug use and its consequences." Letter from Barry McCaffrey to Governor Gary Johnson, September 16, 1999.

The Facts

The only evidence of "success" comes from voluntary surveys conducted by the federal government.  Indeed, 20% of those selected for the National Household Survey do not participate.  Furthermore, the Survey excludes all 1.8 million persons who are currently behind bars, many of whom are imprisoned for drugs, but now do not show up on national statistics.

It is hard to tell how accurate the results are or what impact increased drug war advertising has on survey responses.  Second, throughout most of the 1990s, these surveys have shown adolescent drug use increasing (until last year when they showed a leveling off of youth use).

Third, the health and social consequences associated with drugs; overdose deaths, mentions of drugs in hospital emergency rooms and spread of disease, particularly AIDS, have worsened since 1978.  Saying that the nation has made progress on the consequences of drug use is simply untrue.

Similarly, the problems associated with the drug market; international drug cartels, street gangs, police corruption and the purity of drugs available have all worsened.  For instance, the price of heroin has fallen from $1,200 per pure gram to $317 per pure gram, while average purity of street-level heroin has increased from less than 5% to 25% since 1981.  The price of cocaine is half of what it was in 1981 and the average purity has risen from 40% to more than 70%.

Declining prices and increasing purity are hard evidence of a substantially increased supply of these drugs ­ this is not evidence of a successful drug strategy.Sources: National Drug Control Strategy, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse; Monitoring the Future Survey; Annual Medical Examiner Data; Drug Abuse Warning Network.

McCaffrey

"In the view of the nation's scientific and medical community, marijuana has a high potential for abuse and no generally accepted therapeutic value." Barry McCaffrey, July 22, 1997.

The Facts

"Federal authorities should rescind their prohibition of the medicinal use of marijuana for seriously ill patients and allow physicians to decide which patients to treat." Editorial, New England Journal of Medicine, January 30, 1997.

McCaffrey

"Marijuana is also a gateway drug." Barry McCaffrey, July 22, 1997.

The Facts

For every 112 marijuana users, there is only one regular user of cocaine and less than one heroin addict.  Source: U.S. Government, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1996.

"There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."

Source:	Janet E.  Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A Benson, Jr.

(1999).  Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

McCaffrey

"The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States.  That's drugs." Barry McCaffrey, July 23, 1998.

The Facts

The Dutch homicide rate in 1995 was one-fourth that of the United States (1.8 vs.  8.0). Source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports and Dutch Bureau of Statistics

McCaffrey

"The Dutch approach to drugs hasn't worked." Barry McCaffrey, July 23, 1998

The Facts

All categories of drug use in Holland are lower than in the US.  While 32.9% of people in the US have used marijuana, only 15.5% of people in
Holland have done so; 5.1% in the US have used marijuana in the last month; only 2.5% in Holland have done so.  For cocaine, 10.5% in the US have tried it, compared to 2.1% in Holland, while .7% have used cocaine in the last month in the US and .2% have done so in Holland.Sources: National Household Survey 1997 SAMHSA, Office of applied studies Washington DC.; M.  Abraham, P. Cohen, M. De Winter: Licit and Illicit drug use in the Netherlands, Center for Drug Research, University of Amsterdam.

McCaffrey

"The jury is still out on Needle exchange." Barry McCaffrey, August 16, 1996 "These programs are magnets for all social ills, pulling in crime, violence, addicts, prostitution, dealers, and gangs and driving out hope and opportunity." Barry McCaffrey, April 24, 1998.

The Facts

"A meticulous scientific review has now proven that needle exchange programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save lives without losing ground in the battle against illegal drugs." Donna Shalala, Secretary of HHS April 20, 1998

Prepared by Common Sense for Drug Policy.
Contact Kevin B.  Zeese, 703-354-5694
http://www.csdp.org/

A look at drug war trends as reflected by a selection of items sent to the MAP archive during the previous Tuesday to Tuesday interval.

Domestic News- Policy

A well written editorial in the Progressive took a very accurate measure of the drug war as (irresponsible) public policy:

'The drug war is doing more harm than good.  We are spending billions of dollars on a policy that is not working.'

-- Kenneth Sharpe, co-author of 'Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial'

George W.  Bush's little problem with putting to rest allegations of past cocaine use does not concern us much.  But what does concern us a great deal is the destructiveness of U.S.  drug policy.

[snip]

The war on drugs is a war on minorities.  While illegal drug use does not vary much by race, incarceration for illegal drug use sure does. This crackdown on minority drug users explains much of the growth in the prison population.  ...

Why this racial discrepancy? "Law enforcement pays more attention to blacks than whites," says Vincent Schiraldi, director of the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.  "Blacks can't get cabs but they get police cars.  Our juvenile jails are a sea of black and Latino faces.  Minorities are being put behind bars for things that would be unthinkable if they were white, middle class kids.

[snip]

Pubdate:	October 1999

Source:	Progressive (WI)

Copyright:	1999 Progressive Inc.

Contact:

Fax:	608-257-3373

Website:	http://www.progressive.org

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1097/a06.html

One of many abominations of the drug war is its breach of traditional (and Constitutional) exclusion of the military from civilian policing.  A thoughtful article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviews relevant history.

Militarization of the drug war clearly didn't trouble Elizabeth Dole when she delivered an anti-drug polemic during a stop along the Mexican border.

The military's role in the siege of the Branch Davidians was no aberration -- it was government policy.

In a series of decisions over the past two decades, presidents and Congress have consciously expanded the role of the military in the "war on drugs."

[snip]

The involvement of the military in the drug war began in 1981 when Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act that allowed the military to assist police in enforcing drug laws. In 1986, Reagan issued a directive designating drugs as a threat to national security and encouraging a tight-knit relationship between the military and the police.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 10 Oct 1999

Source:	St.  Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

Copyright:	1999 Post Dispatch

Contact:

Website:	http://www.stlnet.com/

Forum:	http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/index.nsf/forums

Author:	William H .  Freivogel, Post-Dispatch

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1105/a02.html

BORDERFIELD STATE PARK, Calif.  -- With the U.S.-Mexico border as her backdrop, Elizabeth Dole vowed Thursday to more than double the number of border patrol agents if elected president, not as a way to fight illegal immigration but to block the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States.

Mrs.  Dole, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, promised a renewed commitment to the war on drugs, bringing into the fight two agencies, the U.S.  Border Patrol and the National Guard, whose primary mission has not traditionally focused on fighting drug trafficking.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 08 Oct 1999

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	1999 The New York Times Company

Contact:

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

Forum:	http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/

Author:	Diana Jean Schemo

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1099/a06.html

The Tampa Tribune praised a Michigan Program for drug testing applicants for public housing with coerced "treatment" of positives. In a rationalization worthy of Tony Blair, they saw the practice as affirming the civil rights of the poor.

In Wisconsin, school officials didn't seem to realize that testing effectively for pot and ineffectively for alcohol will result in more drinking- already the leading problem according to their students.  Go figure.

Despite a lawsuit seeking to stop it, a pilot program mandating drug tests for welfare recipients began in Michigan on Oct.  1.

The program, overseen by the state Family Independence Agency, is designed to help those on the dole get ready for the rules of the workplace, as well as to make sure the state isn't subsidizing drug use.  Those who test positive will be offered treatment and will be denied benefits only if they refuse to be tested or treated.

[snip]

The Michigan program and others that are sure to follow may possibly be ruled unconstitutional.  So far the U.S. Supreme Court has been reluctant to sanction drug-testing programs where public safety is not at stake, but that shouldn't stop states from going through with policies they can clearly see are for the public good.

The Michigan drug-testing program is progressive, not punitive.  It is designed to help people turn their lives around.  It will help them break the bonds of dependency - chemical and otherwise - to eventually lead independent lives.  And that is the most fundamental right a civilized society can offer.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tues, 10/12 1999

Source:	Tampa Tribune (FL)

Copyright:	1999, The Tribune Co.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.tampatrib.com/

Forum:	http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm

Section:	Editorial

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1113/a02.html

Stoughton Considers A Touchy Subject

Supporters of required random testing see it as a deterrent, but some students think it would be unfair.

STOUGHTON -- The hallways of Stoughton High School look like most any high school.  Students on the verge of adulthood lope from classroom to classroom, talking about their next test, their after-school job or their prospects for a weekend date.

Then there is the occasional hangover to worry about.

"There are kids who do other (drugs), ...  (but) "Drinking is the huge problem."

[snip]

The test, if implemented, would likely test for drugs such as marijuana, according to school officials.  It could also test for substances such as alcohol and nicotine.

[snip]

"The drug of choice is alcohol ...  he said. "I'm skeptical that a random drug-testing program would have a big impact on student alcohol use.  ... You're not going to screen on Monday for something that happened on Saturday."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 07 Oct 1999

Source:	Wisconsin State Journal (WI)

Copyright:	1999 Madison Newspapers, Inc.

Contact:

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

Author:	Phil McDade, Suburban reporter

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1094/a04.html

Law Enforcement & Prisons
---------

Patt Morrison's piece maintained the heat on the El Monte Police Department- although it probably went right over their head.

Imagine the man on the witness stand is accused of killing another man, and has pleaded not guilty, contending that he acted in fear of his own life.  The prosecutor asks: "Sir, you told several versions of what happened that night."

[snip]

Which one, which ones, would you have the jury believe?" Stop imagining.

Now we are in the court of public opinion, hearing similar accounts about the El Monte police SWAT team.  The dead man is Mario Paz, the 65-year-old man killed in his underwear when SWAT shot off the locks and burst in an hour before midnight on Aug.  9, looking for drug evidence that wasn't there.  And you, the public, are the jury. Which version would you be inclined to accept? Or would you side with Lewis Carroll's Looking-Glass Queen, who has sometimes "believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast"?

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 8 Oct 1999

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Copyright:	1999 Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Address:	Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053

Fax:	(213) 237-4712

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

Forum:	http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/

Author:	Patt Morrison,

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1099/a07.html

The OCR is usually good for one or more penetrating analyses of drug policy; this week they updated Henry Hyde's asset forfeiture reform and urged no changes by the Senate; they also weighed in on Colombia (see International).

One of America's most essential liberties is the right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, which is enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.  Unfortunately, a 1984 federal law allowed almost unlimited seizures of people's property without compensation and even without a finding of guilt in a court of law.

[snip]

California Sen.  Dianne Feinstein's office told us that she is supporting a bill to be introduced next week by Republican Jeff Sessions of Georgia, her fellow member of the Judiciary Committee, because it doesn't go as far as the Hyde bill and has the support of law enforcement organizations.

[snip]

We fail to see what in the Hyde proposal could aid real criminals. Sen.  Feinstein needs to check with state Sen. Burton on what the feelings on this bill are in her party...

HR 1658 should be passed unaltered by the Senate.  Americans once again deserve to have restored their Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Pubdate:	Mon, 04 Oct 1999

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Copyright:	1999 The Orange County Register

Contact:

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

Section:	Local News,page 6

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1094/a02.html

The NYPD, clearly untroubled by past drug corruption scandals confidently predicted that a new strategy will permanently reduce drug trade in the city.  A more certain prediction is increase in the city's police budget.

Meanwhile, the NY Supreme Court Chief Justice appointed a panel to look at reducing drug prison terms; it's clear that any reductions will entail more coerced "treatment" backed by criminal sanctions.

A two-year-old effort to rid the Lower East Side of its street-corner drug bazaars has worked so well that senior police officials say they want to expand it to every precinct in the city.

The two-pronged strategy would involve establishing a permanent anti-drug unit in each precinct and retraining officers to go after not only street-level dealers but also the organizations that supply them.

[snip]

Police officials said the number of narcotics officers was being increased to 3,000, and Chief Kammerdener said that by the end of the year, their retraining at the Police Academy would be complete and they would be stationed in every precinct.

[snip]

Pubdate:	03 Oct, 1999

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	1999 The New York Times Company

Contact:

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

Forum:	http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/

Author:	Jayson Blair

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1088/a07.html

In outlining the state court system's priorities at the start of the new millennium, Chief Judge Judith S.  Kaye announced yesterday the appointment of a commission to examine how to better handle drug cases.

[snip]

The new commission, headed by a former U.S.  Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Robert B.  Fiske Jr., will have an explicit mandate to explore ways of adding new Drug Treatment Courts to the staple of 15 such courts in operation.  Sentencing in these courts is held in abeyance as long as a defendant successfully attends a treatment program.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thur, 07 Oct 1999

Source:	New York Law Journal (NY)

Copyright:	1999 NLP IP Company

Contact:

Address:	345 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010

Fax:	(212) 696-4287

Feedback:	http://www.nylj.com/contact.html

Website:	http://www.nylj.com/

Author:	Daniel Wise

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1107/a01.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

The power play of the month is the DEA's illegal attempt to wreck a burgeoning North American hemp industry; for years DEA lobbyists told state legislatures hemp has no economic future; now they're attempting to make those predictions come true.  What remains to be seen is whether they get away with it.

Don't look for any help from Canada.

An amplification from Denver explains the applicability of "illegal;" not that such niceties have ever deterred the DEA.

The U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration has opened a new front in its ever-expanding war against drugs, and the news is not good for your pet parakeet.

On Aug.  9, the U.S. Customs Service seized nearly 20 tons of birdseed at the U.S.-Canadian border and continues to hold the contraband in a Detroit warehouse.  The reason? The shipment by Kenex Ltd., a Canadian company, consisted entirely of sterilized seeds gleaned from its harvest of industrial hemp.

[snip]

Perhaps the real reason for the DEA's action is the current resurgence of interest in industrial hemp, which is occurring on a global scale at the same time AIDS and cancer activists have fought for the right to use higher-THC varieties as medication.

[snip]

Just as it has fought the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the DEA must consider industrial hemp a threat to its hard-line stance against marijuana.  That may explain why it urged Nicaraguan officials to burn the first commercial seed and fiber crop of another Canadian company, Agro Hemp, which had spent five years in Nicaragua developing a tropical strain of industrial hemp.

Although a Nicaraguan court failed to find Agro Hemp guilty of wrongdoing, its botanist has languished in a Managua jail for nearly a year.

It's enough to make a canary sing the blues.

Pubdate:	Sun, 10 Oct 1999

Source:	Auburn Journal

Copyright:	1999 Auburn Journal

Contact:

Address:	1030 High St., Auburn, CA 95603

Website:	http://www.auburnjournal.com/

Author:	Patrick McCartney, Journal City Editor

Note:	Our NewsHawk writes: Pat McCartney is a City Editor, in a

zero-tolerance county.  McCartney shows great skill and patience in educating his audience without offending their local values.  He can be reached at .

Please:	see our ALERT "DEA Tries To Kill North American Hemp Industry":

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0130.html

Also:	http://www.hempembargo.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1104/a09.html

The seizure of 39,000 pounds of sterilized Canadian hemp seed at the Detroit International Airport eight weeks ago has several severely bummed-out Colorado companies jonesing for an explanation.

The sterilized seed, which was produced by Kenex, Inc.  of Ontario, Canada, was seized in Detroit on Aug.  9 by U.S. Customs agents acting on orders from the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Agency. According to the DEA, the seed was found to contain minute amounts of THC, which is classified as an illegal drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

[snip]

"What the DEA did with the Canadian seed is completely illegal," said Kathleen Chippi, co-owner of the Boulder Hemp Company.  "We weren't using any of the Kenex seed, so we haven't been subpoenaed or had anything confiscated yet, but our concern is that the DEA is accountable to no one."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 09 Oct 1999

Source:	Colorado Daily (CO)

Copyright:	1999 Colorado Daily

Contact:

Website:	http://www.codaily.com/

Author:	Brian Hansen

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1103/a02.html

The focus for medical cannabis supporters shifts to Maine which will consider an initiative on Nov.  2. Judging from these reports, there is considerable support tempered by a large element of fear.

Is Marijuana Good Medicine? And Is The Ballot Box The Best Place To Decide That Question?

It was 1990.  A house on Sherman Street in Portland's Parkside neighborhood.  A drug deal was about to go down. "Betty" (the real names of those involved have been changed at their request) waited in the car while her husband, "Rick," went inside...

"Everybody involved knew it was illegal.  But it's like a starving person stealing an apple.  We loved [Virginia] and we wanted to give her a shot."

[snip]

Before she smoked marijuana, Virginia had "no interest in food," Betty said.  "After smoking, she was interested enough to eat whatever she wanted." The nausea vanished, her appetite returned and the weight loss stopped.  Today, Virginia is alive and healthy. She doesn't smoke pot or use other illegal drugs.  But she doesn't dare to speak out about the medical benefits she believes she received from marijuana because some family members hold jobs that could be jeopardized if it became known she had once smoked dope.

[snip]

Although it's not hard to find folks who've used pot
to treat the side effects of chemo, wasting syndrome from AIDS and other illnesses, the campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Maine is sadly lacking in spokespeople with firsthand knowledge of the issue.  With one exception, those who say they've been helped by the drug refuse to allow their names or photos to be used for fear of the backlash.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 07 Oct 1999

Source:	Casco Bay Weekly (ME)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.cascobayweekly.com

Author:	Al Diamon

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1096/a08.html

There are doctors in Maine who believe legalizing marijuana for medical purposes is good medicine.  But try to find one with the courage to say that publicly.  Asking pro-pot physicians to openly endorse the referendum question on the Nov.  2 ballot seems to cause cases of the shakes reminiscent of the camera work in "The Blair Witch Project." It's enough to give the average doctor motion sickness.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 07 Oct 1999

Source:	Casco Bay Weekly (ME)

Contact:

Website:	http://www.cascobayweekly.com

Author:	Al Diamon

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1097/a01.html

International News

With both major parties clearly committed to further pursuit of folly in Colombia, the dimensions of the necessary emergency aid package became the major issue.  Typically, the Orange County Register was one of the few to comment on the wishful thinking involved.

WASHINGTON -- A Latin American country slides toward chaos.  Leftist guerrillas attack the government, right-wing death squads attack guerrilla sympathizers, peace talks falter.  The economy spirals downward, scattering thousands of refugees, and fears of instability sweep through the region.  The United States hurries to the rescue with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

With the Colombian Government facing its most serious crisis in years, Clinton Administration officials confirmed last week that they are putting together a package of military and economic assistance that could reach dimensions not seen in the hemisphere since the cold war. They are also trying to reassure anyone who will listen that Colombia today really looks nothing like El Salvador once did.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 10 Oct 1999

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	1999 The New York Times Company

Contact:

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

Forum:	http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/

Author:	Tim Golden

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1111/a05.html

The most disturbing aspect of the current crisis in Colombia is the extent to which the U.S.  war on drugs has strengthened the most violent and ruthless elements in Colombia and given them every reason to continue their war-like ways.  Unless some way is found to ameliorate, or even eliminate, the disruptive effects of the way the war on drugs has been carried out in Colombia, sending more money and more aid is likely only to increase the killing and the suffering.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tuesday,October 12,1999

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Copyright:	1999 The Orange County Register

Contact:

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1113/a07.html

Elsewhere, Canada continued its impossible straddle of the medical cannabis issue while prison conditions in the UK moved in a more recognizably American direction- one consistent with the Labour Government's "tough on drugs" posturing.

Ottawa -- Another 14 Canadians are free to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes today even as the government takes an epileptic to court for suppressing his seizures with therapeutic pot.

Pubdate:	Wednesday, October 6, 1999

Source:	Calgary Herald (Canada)

Copyright:	1999 Calgary Herald

Contact:

Address:	P.O.  Box 2400, Stn. M, Calgary, Alberta T2P 0W8

Fax:	(403) 235-7379

Website:	http://www.calgaryherald.com/

Forum:	http://forums.canada.com/~calgary

Author:	Bruce Cheadle; Canadian Press

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1092/a09.html

Last Monday Paul Boateng swept into Brixton Prison on an urgent visit. The prisons minister was not there for a photo-opportunity but to heed a desperate plea for help.  This had come from the governor of the high security jail, in South London, after an alarming spate of suicide attempts.

Once Mr Boateng had left, one prisoner sat down in his cell and wrote an impassioned letter to a close friend.

[snip]

His account confirms that drug use is endemic and that prisoners spend much of their time locked inside their cells.  And he confirms the rumours that 30 prisoners have tried to kill or mutilate themselves.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 10 Oct 1999

Source:	Independent on Sunday (UK)

Copyright:	Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.

Contact:

Address:	1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1106/a07.html

New DrugNews Archive Search Capabilities

Matt Elrod has once again worked his magic on the news archive.  The entire archive has been put into a relational database.  You can now search by author, title, source, area, and date range and sort your results three ways from Sunday.  You can view your results in three different levels of detail including excerpts.  From each article you can see more from the same author, source and area.

You now have the ability to filter out LTEs, hone in on opinion pieces or news articles, include or exclude specific areas.

We will be providing a bit of explanatory documentation and links for those unfamiliar with database capabilities but Matt has, as usual, made an incredibly complex search capability quite intuitive and simple for even beginning users.

Matt welcomes comments on the new archive at: He has already made many refinements based on user feedback and has more improvements on his "to do" list.

Governor Gary Johnson (R-NM) News Archive

An archive of news articles documenting the exceptional media coverage garnered by Governor Johnson has been created utilizing the newly enhanced DrugNews archive.  The URL below will provide any interested party with all articles covering Governor Johnson.

http://www.mapinc.org/johnson.htm

Governor Johnson for President in 2000?

There has been a committee established to draft Gov.  Johnson to run for the office of President.

The address is http://www.garyjohnson2000.org/

"We concluded that there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses."

-- Institute of Medicine Principle Investigator John Benson, M.D., at IOM's 3/17/99 news conference

"Smoked dope is not medicine .  . . I think it's a crock."

-- Barry McCaffrey, Albuquerque Journal, 10/8/99

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