Table of Contents

* Breaking News (11/23/24)

* Feature Article

    In Memorium - Gil Puder - Only the Good Die Young
    by Ethan Nadelmann and Eugene Oscapella

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1-2)
(1) Congress is Bought And Paid for
(2) Editorial: Congressional Cracks
COMMENT: (3-4)
(3) Column: Fighting the War Against Drug Policy
(4) Drug Legalization is Goal of Touring Team
COMMENT: (5-6)
(5) King County Drug Deaths Set Record in '98
(6) U.S. Underestimated Cocaine Flow
COMMENT: (7)
(7) Judge Stops Drug Tests for Welfare

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (8-10)
(8) Editorial: Faith in LAPD in The Balance
(9) OPED: The Gulag Beat Goes on and on
(10) Editorial: 'Three Strikes' Strikes Out
COMMENT: (11)
(11) Sen. Rod Grams' Son Wasn't Charged After Drugs Found in Car

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (12-13)
(12) What Are They Smoking?
(13) Legalize It!

International News-

COMMENT: (14-16)
(14) Editorial: Vancouver's Les Miserables
(15) Drug Queenpin or Innocent Victim?
(16) Colombia: Car Bomb Leaves at Least 8 Dead In Bogota
COMMENT: (17-18)
(17) Australia: Big Guns Fire in Drugs Row
(18) Australia: Move to Reclaim Profits of Crime

* Hot Off The 'Net

    Renee Boje Defense Fund Link
    Barry McCaffrey Banned from Aussie Olympics
    Drug War Sound Bites Now online

* Quote of the Week

    Mark Twain

PUDER Gilbert William Harold.  July 11th, 1959- November 12th, 1999.

With heavy hearts we are saddened to announce our loss of Gil.

Gil had 17 years of distinguished service in the Vancouver Police Department.  He was also an instructor at the Justice Institute of BC/Police Academy, and at Langara College Criminal Justice Department.

Gil was a dedicated athlete.  He played and coached basketball for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds; he was a black belt in Canada Shotokan Karate participating in many local and international tournaments; and he actively participated in youth sports, coaching both basketball and soccer.

He was an accomplished writer who regularly contributed to professional publications related to policing issues of Control Tactics/Physical Training, Use of Force and most recently Gil was a well known advocate for Drug Law Reform.

He is survived by his wife Christine, sons Jason and Brendan; his mother Barbara, father Richard; brothers Randy and Jeremy (Freda), nephew Austen; Uncle Gary (Eileen), cousins Susan and Jay; grandparents Georgia and William Rickson; and many friends and colleagues.

Gil had diverse interests and talents; he touched many lives and will be remembered for his strong beliefs and commitment to action.  He always loved a healthy debate.

A memorial service will be held on Friday November 19 at 2:00pm at Ryerson United Church, 2195 W.  45th, Vancouver. Donations in Gil's honour may be made to the BC Cancer Agency or the Canadian Cancer Society BC/Yukon Division.

Pubdate:	16 Nov, 1999

Source:	Vancouver Sun (CN BC)

Copyright:	The Vancouver Sun 1999

Contact:

Website:	http://www.vancouversun.com/

In Memorium Gil Puder - Only the Good Die Young
by Ethan Nadelmann and Eugene Oscapella

Dear friends of drug policy reform

Gil Puder, the Vancouver police constable who almost two years ago bravely broke police ranks and publicly challenged the futility of the war on drugs, passed away November 12 after a brief but intense battle with cancer.

Those of you who knew Gil were aware of his courage in standing up to the entrenched prohibitionist policies of senior police ranks and government.  We have lost not only an intelligent and outspoken advocate of humane drug policy reform, but a gentleman whose strength of character would almost certainly have led him to public office, much to the benefit of all Canadians.

Eugene Oscapella
Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy
http://www.cfdp.ca/

Gil Puder was a remarkable fellow -- a brilliant speaker and a courageous advocate who was among the very few law enforcement professionals in North America to speak out publicly against the war on drugs and in favor of substantive alternatives.  He understood not just the limits and negative consequences of treating drugs primarily as a criminal justice issue but also the basic principles and practices of harm reduction.  He made people think, and he had the courage of his convictions.  He was an inspiration!

Gil was only forty, with two young children, when he died suddenly of cancer.

What a tragedy..

Ethan Nadelmann

----

NOTE:	A number of articles and opeds that demonstrate Gil's background

and his excellent contribution to reform can be reviewed in the DrugNews archive.  Perhaps the best among them include:

CN BC: Gilbert William Harold Puder, RIP
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1238/a07.html

US: OPED: There's More To Drugs Than 'Just Say No'
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1241/a02.html

Note from CRRH: We have a one hour and 20 minute video of Constable Puder speaking in favor of drug policy reform this past March, courtesy of Chuck Beyer and BC MAGIC on CRRH's web site:

Gil Puder, Constable with the Vancouver City Police

Constable Puder speaks for cannabis regulation and against the drug war (March 13, 1999)

http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/misc_bcm.html

Domestic News- Policy

Molly Ivins chided a Senate which has failed to act on a House bill softening the impact of forfeiture on individuals but yet seemed eager to protect big business from a similar fate.

As drug war failures and excesses generate criticism, Congressional proponents respond in the only way they know: by increasing its severity.  A typical example: Sen. Abraham's plan to balance disparities in cocaine sentencing (narrowly passed), received rough treatment in the San Francisco Examiner.

MOLLY IVINS, Creators /syndicate, Inc.

SHEESH, what a performance by the Congress of the United States.

[snip]

Take this little gem: ``Efforts to soften a bill that would expand sanctions against drug traffickers and the businesses that work with them have touched off a furious dispute on Capitol Hill'' (New York Times).  Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama says he is merely trying to fix flawed legislation that ``might allow overzealous government officials to seize the assets of legitimate companies tied to drug trafficking by scant evidence.''

Thank you very much, Sen.  Shelby. For your information, overzealous government officials have been seizing the assets of legitimate individuals in this country for years.

[snip]

Source:	San Francisco Chronicle

Contact:

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

Pubdate:	Monday, November 15, 1999

Copyright:	( 1999 San Francisco Chronicle

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1235/a09.html

Far From Reforming Matters, A Move To Revise Drug Sentences Would Actually Make A Bad System Worse - And More Costly

THE ROAD to hell is surely paved with legislators' good intentions. Instead, maybe it should just be paved with legislators.

Congress is considering a proposal that must have been written by someone on a drug-induced hallucination.

[snip]

If Abraham and his GOP colleagues really want to send a message, they should start a thorough re-examination and restructuring of federal drug laws.  Listen to the judges who hear these cases daily. And while we're at it, let's throw out mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.  That straitjacket clogs the courts and jails, too.

The present system is insane.  And locking up more people in pursuit of racial "justice" would just make it nuttier.

Pubdate:	Wed, 10 Nov 1999

Source:	San Francisco Examiner (CA)

Copyright:	1999 San Francisco Examiner

Page:	A 18 - Editorial

Contact:

Website:	http://www.examiner.com/

Forum:	http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1231/a01.html

The grass-roots efforts of two state reform organizations received sympathetic attention from two Eastern newspapers.

[snip]

It would take a team of psychiatrists to explain Cliff Thornton's odyssey from that day more than 30 years ago to today.  Thornton calls it ``destiny.''

Eight years ago, the 54-year-old Thornton founded Efficacy, a nonprofit think tank and advocacy group that favors the legalization of drugs: marijuana, cocaine, the heroin that killed his mother.

With a dribble of funds from friendly charitable foundations, he lectures, he does the radio talk-show circuit, he publishes a newsletter and a series of booklets, he makes connections with other groups that favor legalization or decriminalization - or at least harbor the notion that the war on drugs has been a miserable, expensive flop.

[snip]

Pubdate:	7 Nov 1999

Source:	Hartford Courant (CT)

Copyright:	1999 The Hartford Courant

Contact:

Website:	http://www.courant.com/

Forum:	http://chat.courant.com/scripts/webx.exe

Author:	LAURENCE D.  COHEN

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1211/a02.html

A retired officer is among the speakers who say the war on drugs is too costly.  He favors regulation.

Peter Christ says he never believed in the drug laws he was paid to enforce as a police officer in upstate New York.

"I went on the job believing prohibition was a bad idea," Christ said. "I spent 20 years enforcing these laws thinking this was a dumb way to do it, but that's what we did."

Christ and Clifford Thornton have been speaking throughout South Jersey, advocating change in the nation's drug policies to allow legalization and regulation.  Christ, 53, made the last stop of his tour Friday, speaking to a group of Cherry Hill Rotarians.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 15 Nov 1999

Source:	Inquirer (PA)

Copyright:	1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.phillynews.com/

Forum:	http://interactive.phillynews.com/talk-show/

Author:	Adam L.  Cataldo, Inquirer Suburban Staff

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1234/a06.html

Two other articles underscored the most obvious truth about the drug war; despite our national preoccupation with the arrest and incarceration of users and dealers, the illegal market is thriving.

Last year was a record-setting one for deaths from drugs in King County.

Drug-caused deaths increased 27 percent in 1998 when compared with the previous year, according to the King County medical examiner's annual report on death trends.  Of the 229 drug-caused deaths, 145 were from opiates such as heroin, and 62 were from cocaine, usually mixed with other drugs or alcohol.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 11 Nov 1999

Source:	Seattle Times (WA)

Copyright:	1999 The Seattle Times Company

Contact:

Website:	http://www.seattletimes.com/

Author:	Mark Rahner, Times Staff Reporter

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1225/a01.html

WASHINGTON - The new numbers may make reducing the flow of drugs into the United States much tougher.

Authorities believe they have badly underestimated the flow of cocaine out of Colombia and other drug-producing nations, casting doubt on years of basic assumptions behind the war on drugs.

Drug-intelligence officials are particularly alarmed over their discovery of a new high-yield variety of coca grown and processed in Colombia, the No.  1 supplier of cocaine to the United States.

[snip]

But outside observers such as Mark A.R.  Kleiman, director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, say that the estimates are little more than guesswork used by the administration to hit up Congress for more money.  ---

Pubdate:	Mon, 15 November 1999

Source:	Tampa Tribune (FL)

Copyright:	1999, The Tribune Co.

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Eric Lichblau and Esther Schrader of the Los Angeles Times

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1236/a03.html

Finally, welcome news that at least one federal judge doesn't share the contempt legislators have for the civil rights of people on welfare.

She Says State Policy Likely Unconstitutional

The state stopped requiring drug tests for new welfare applicants in west Detroit and two other parts of Michigan on Wednesday, on orders from a federal judge.

U.S.  District Court Judge Victoria Roberts said the state's drug-testing policy, which started last month, is "likely unconstitutional" and granted a restraining order that temporarily prohibits the state from continuing to use it.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 11 Nov 1999

Source:	Detroit Free Press (MI)

Copyright:	1999 Detroit Free Press

Contact:

Website:	http://www.freep.com/

Forum:	http://www.freep.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX

Author:	Wendy Wendland

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1225/a04.html

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

California was the major focus of last week's law enforcement and corrections news: the LA Times printed a predictable "few rotten apples" sermon about its latest police scandal without ever referring to drug policy.

A far more realistic tack was taken by Times columnist Alexander Cockburn in writing about the political clout that prison guards have acquired.

The OCR noted that although there is much evidence that it is counterproductive, California's Draconian "Three Strikes" law will be hard to undo.

Now begins the reckoning from a Los Angeles Police Department investigation of corrupt officers.  We will see the true measure of how even a few bad cops can sully the reputation of a county's criminal justice system and distract law enforcement from its main goal of ensuring peace and safety on the streets.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has overturned four convictions and dismissed the charges in a fifth case, all because of the taint of the Rampart Division scandal.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 11 Nov 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/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1223/a02.html

Criminal justice: Right now, the troubling prison guards' union seems nearly invincible.

Last Monday, after a poorly prepared prosecution and some curious decisions by Superior Court Judge Louis Bissig, a Kings County jury found four Corcoran State Prison guards innocent of charges that they had engineered the rape of a prisoner, Eddie Dillard, by another inmate notorious for his sexual predations.

[snip]

The guards' union--the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.--has come a long way since it won its representation election in 1980, amid the first surge of the prison building boom.  Back then it had 1,600 guards; today, it has 28,000 guards, a $17-million budget, 17 staff attorneys and huge political clout.

[snip]

So here we have the gulag paradigm.  The "war on drugs" plus savage sentencing laws engender an ever-bloating prison population, hence more prison guards, whose increasingly powerful union presses for even stiffer sentences and yet more prisons to provide yet more jobs--all this at a time when the "lock 'em all up forever" hysteria is finally beginning to subside.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 11 Nov 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:	Alexander Cockburn

Note:	The author writes for the Nation and Other Publications

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1222/a13.html

(10) EDITORIAL: THREE STRIKES' STRIKES OUT

The evidence that California's "three strikes"law is due for a second look and some revision keeps growing.  As the Legislative Analyst's Office reported last week, the number of people serving longer prison sentences at taxpayers' expense because of the law is at almost 50,000 and increasing.  There's no reliable evidence that this extra expense has reduced crime or crime rates, and some people are in prison who really shouldn't be there.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wednesday,November 10,1999

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Copyright:	1999 The Orange County Register

Contact:

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

Section:	Local News,page 10

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1224/a09.html

Local police granted the son of a Member of Congress the usual waiver for a drug infraction; the only unusual features of the case were his amazing cluelessness and the extent of local publicity.

MINNEAPOLIS - Anoka County authorities deny they showed any favoritism by not charging or even interrogating a U.S.  senator's son who allegedly was driving with 10 bags of marijuana in his car, the Star Tribune reported.

Morgan Grams, the 21-year-old son of Sen.  Rod Grams, R-Minn., was stopped in July by Anoka County sheriff' deputies, the newspaper said in a in a copyright story Sunday, citing police reports on file.

The senator's son was driving without a license and was on probation, but was driven home in the front seat of Chief Deputy Peter Beberg's car, the paper said.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 15 Nov 1999

Source:	Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)

Section:	Police Reports

Copyright:	1999 Star Tribune

Feedback:	http://www.startribune.com/stonline/html/userguide/letform.html

Website:	http://www.startribune.com/

Forum:	http://talk.startribune.com/cgi-bin/WebX.cgi

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1235/a05.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

Two must-read articles- one on medical marijuana, the other on hemp- were published in magazines last week: Alan Bock of the OCR published an accurate analysis of the politics of Medical marijuana on Liberty, and Ted Williams (not the ballplayer) wrote a similar analysis- along with a lot of history- on the subject of hemp for Audubon.

Medical marijuana advocates have the truth, the voters, and even a few brave politicians.  So why are they getting nowhere?

[snip]

Why did this happen?

Most elected officials have the impression that there will be no political price to pay for demonstrating utter (and utterly cruel) and downright irrational intransigence on the subject of medical marijuana.  Even those few who are in sympathy with the goals of reformers perceive that it is more important to preserve some degree of comity with their legislative colleagues.  Chuck Thomas thinks some Democrats placed party solidarity ahead of forcing a recorded vote. This must have happened on the Republican side as well.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Nov 1999

Source:	Liberty Magazine (US)

Copyright:	1999 Liberty Foundation

Contact:

Address:	Box 1118, Port Townsend, WA 98368

Website:	http://www.libertysoft.com/liberty/index.html

Author:	Alan Bock

Note:	Mr.  Bock is a contributing editor for Liberty and the Orange County

Register's senior editorial writer.

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1221/a01.html

Cannabis sativa is a low-maintenance crop that can be used in paper, clothing, rope - even cars.  So why, when it's grown in 32 other countries, is hemp still illegal in the United States?

[snip]

Why such paranoia? There's no smoking bong, but hemp may be the victim of a conspiracy by special interests that stood to lose billions in the 1930s, when hemp-fiber-stripping machines came on line.  Among the suspects: DuPont, which had just patented a process for making plastics from oil and a more efficient process for making paper; Hearst newspapers, which owned vast timberlands; and Andrew Mellon, an oil and timber baron as well as partner and president of the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh, DuPont's chief financial backer.

In 1930, nine years after President Warren Harding made him treasury secretary, Mellon created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the DEA's precursor) and ensconced Harry Anslinger, the future husband of his niece, as its commissioner.  Anslinger charged out after hemp, which he and the Hearst papers defined as a drug, using it interchangeably with the more sinister and less familiar term marihuana (later spelled "marijuana").  Anslinger and Hearst whipped each other, the public, and Congress to prohibitionist frenzy.

[snip]

While hemp could make things lots easier for this tired old planet and the farmers who till its soil, no one in North Dakota will be growing it anytime soon, because anyone in that state or elsewhere who plants the seeds will get busted by the DEA.  Monson doesn't think that's fair, especially when hemp farmers 20 miles away in Manitoba are legally making $250 an acre.  But until the Feds recognize hemp for what it is (a versatile crop) instead of what it isn't (an illegal drug), McCaffrey will have it right when he warns that it's not economical to grow.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Nov.-Dec.  1999

Source:	Audubon Magazine

Contact:

Copyright:	1999 National Audubon Society

Website:	http://www.audubon.com

Author:	Ted Williams

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1233/a01.html

International News

Extradition to the US was the theme of the week; Renee Boje, who faces ten years in a federal prison if extradited, became Glamour Magazine's second story about a woman trapped by the drug war.

The expulsion of an American who has lived Canada since 1971 is being considered on grounds that he misrepresented his status when he fled the US to avoid prison.  An editorial in the Globe and Mail offered a sensible and fair solution; it probably won't be followed.

Finally, Colombians have a violent reaction to the idea of extradition to the US; as we rediscovered last week.

NOTE: A Focus Alert on the Glamour article was distributed 11/17. Those wishing to take action on Renee's behalf please see the alert at http://www.mapinc.org/

Allen Richardson seems to be Jean Valjean reincarnated as a '70s hippie.  In 1971, Mr. Richardson, or Christopher Perlstein as he was then known, was convicted of selling $20 (U.S.) worth of LSD to a U.S. undercover police officer, LSD being the hippie era's equivalent of Jean Valjean's stolen loaf of bread.

Mr.  Perlstein's sentence for this heinous act: four years in jail.

[snip]

...Mr.  Perlstein walked away from his minimum security
work camp.

Eventually, he arrived in Vancouver, changed his name to Allen Richardson, and began to live what most who know him view as an exemplary life.  He has worked as an engineering technician at the TRIUMF particle accelerator.  He became a director of the West Vancouver Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

After 28 years, someone informed on him, and a U.S.  judge has ruled that he must go back to prison and serve out his term.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 12 Nov 1999

Source:	Globe and Mail (Canada)

Copyright:	1999, The Globe and Mail Company

Contact:

Website:	http://www.globeandmail.ca/

Forum:	http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1227/a06.html

When Illustrator Renee Boje Naively Agreed To Help A Friend Prepare A Book About Medical Marijuana, She Never Dreamed She'd Become A Fugitive.  Glamour Caught Up With Her In Canada To Find Out Why She's Facing And Fighting A 10-Year-To Life Sentence.

Nearly two years have passed since Renee Boje kissed her kitten, Yoda-the-Zen-Master, good-bye and told her friends and family a lie - that she was walking away from her life as a Los Angeles - based freelance illustrator to embark on a mystical journey to find herself. "I didn't want to let them know that I was going to leave the country," says the 30-year-old redhead, a shy beauty who wears a dusting of glitter around her spirited eyes.  "I didn't want to endanger anyone."

[snip]

Behind Washington's tough stance is the White House's top drug-policy official, Gen.  Barry R. McCaffrey, who has called the referendum movement "a Cheech and Chong show." In his first in-depth interview since the IOM report was released, he tells Glamour that he'll never approve the use of smoked marijuana.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Dec 1999

Source:	Glamour Magazine (US)

Copyright:	1999 Conde' Nast Publications, Inc.

Contact:

Address:	350 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017

Fax:	(212) 880-6922

Author:	David France

Cited:	Renee's website: http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/

MAP's:	shortcut to articles about Renee is:

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1226/a03.html

Many Suspect Drug Traffickers Behind Attack

BOGOTA, Colombia - Raising the specter of a bloody era when drug lords sowed terror to avoid extradition to the United States, a car bomb ripped through a Bogota commercial district Thursday, killing at least eight people and injuring 45.

[snip]

It was the Colombian capital's worst blast since the wave of terror by the Medellin cocaine cartel in the late 1980s and early 1990s aimed at stopping the extradition of its members to the United States.  The campaign only ended with the cartel's 1993 demise.

The new attack came a day after the Supreme Court approved the second handover in a week of a major alleged drug trafficker to the United States -- and Colombians feared it was a blunt warning to the government not to go ahead with more than three dozen planned extraditions.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 12 Nov 1999

Source:	Houston Chronicle (TX)

Copyright:	1999 Houston Chronicle

Contact:

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

Forum:	http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html

Author:	Jared Kotler, Associated Press

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1226/a09.html

Australia, none too happy with McCzar's criticism of their Olympic Committee's drug program, gave him a cool reception, even as their legislators were looking greedily at a variant of US forfeiture to cut themselves in directly on the profits from illegal drugs.

A TERSE letter from the White House to Australian ambassador Andrew Peacock forced John Howard to intervene to cool tensions over an attempt to ban the most powerful US anti-drugs official from Sydney Olympic venues.

The US reacted angrily to a move by AOC president John Coates to prevent General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, from holding a media conference at Sydney Olympic Park.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 15 Nov 1999

Source:	Australian, The (Australia)

Copyright:	News Limited 1999

Contact:

Website:	http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Author:	John Lehmann and Cameron Forbes

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1232/a10.html

Organised crime figures could be sued for their ill-gotten assets, even where they are not pursued for a crime, under a new plan.

It is part of an assault on the profits of crime revealed in the Queensland Crime Commission's 1998-99 annual report delivered Friday.

Commissioner Tim Carmody said the size of the heroin market in Queensland was $400-$518million, and an estimated $3.5billion worth of the proceeds were laundered in Australia.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 15 Nov 1999

Source:	Courier-Mail, The (Australia)

Copyright:	News Limited 1999

Contact:

Website:	http://www.thecouriermail.com.au/

Author:	Chris Griffith

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1234/a04.html

Renee Boje Defense Fund Link

Below is the link to the donation site for the Renee Boje defense fund. BCmagic ( http://www.bcmagic.com ) is handling the collection of donations over a secure server.

Barry McCaffrey Banned from Aussie Olympics

The interesting article below reflects the ever diminishing influence of American drug policy abroad
http://www.news.com.au/news_content/national_content/43891tp.htm

Drug War Sound Bites Now online

For those who may have missed it, the full list of 34 Drug War Sound bites is now up at the www.pdfa.net web site.  These are useful in radio talk shows, interviews, debates and public speaking.  Using them can help enhance your abilities to demonstrate the foolishness of current drug policy.  See

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