November 26, 1999 #125 |
|
|
- * Breaking News (12/22/24)
-
- * Feature Article
-
Regarding Judge Judy: Update and a Call for (Temporary) Restraint
- * Weekly News in Review
-
Drug War Policy-
COMMENT: (1-3)
(1) Carried Away By Drugs
(2) Americans Concerned About Drug Use Among Teens
(3) A War That Never Ends
COMMENT: (4-5)
(4) King County Heroin Deaths a 'Crisis'
(5) Wife Of Ex-U.S. Official in Colombia Is Indicted
COMMENT: (6)
(6) Professor Leads The Charge in Battle Against Drug War
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
COMMENT: (7-9)
(7) Editorial: Senate Votes to Make Crack Cocaine Law Even
(8) Women Imprisoned for Narcotics on Rise
(9) The Aborted Crime Wave?
Cannabis-
COMMENT: (10-12)
(10) Medical Marijuana Activists Plead Guilty
(11) Britain Abuzz Over Cannabis Medicine
(12) More Teens Smoking Pot
International News-
COMMENT: (13-14)
(13) Australia: Labor Passes First Heroin Injecting Room Law
(14) Scotland: CCTV to Fight Rise in Drug Abuse In Schools
COMMENT: (15)
(15) UK: Cowardice is Still the Drug of Choice
COMMENT: (16-18)
(16) US Calls for Cooperation in Drugs War
(17) Colombia Tries, Yet Cocaine Thrives
(18) Colombia Extradites Drug Suspect to US
- * Hot Off The 'Net
-
Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: Legal and Ethical Issues
Dogwood Center Comprehensive Injection-Related Aids report Now On-line
BBC's "Panorama" Program Entitled "Cops on Drugs" Transcript On-line
Drug War Facts Available in Many Languages
- * Quote of the Week
-
Bobby Sole From Euclid, Ohio
|
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) |
Update and a Call for (Temporary) Restraint Regarding Judge Judy
Sheindlin by Mark Greer
|
Following is an excerpt from Judge Judy's first book "Don't Pee on My
Leg and Tell Me It's Raining." It was forwarded to DrugSense by Judge
Judy's Media Relations department. It expands on her views on drug
policy and needle exchange in particular. It is now even more obvious
that she is badly in need of at least an attempt to educate her on the
facts surrounding needle exchange. Below the excerpt is a compilation
of her other recent quotes from Australian newspapers.
|
Despite all Scheindlin has said, DrugSense is encouraging restraint for
the present on behalf of the reform movement as well as a temporary
hiatus to letter writing and other forms of media activism regarding
Scheindlin. A number of reform leaders are negotiating with Judge
Scheindlin in an attempt to arrange a meeting with the objective of
informing her of the facts, hopefully or possibly creating an ally, or
if not perhaps generating additional fuel for the eventual media effort.
|
Patience is warranted. Scheindlin is on vacation in Australia for 2
weeks and the meeting could not happen until mid December but
regardless of the outcome of such a meeting we will be in a much better
position to act further after we have had time to form a game plan,
marshal resources, and, with luck present a unified front as to our
best course of action.
|
|
NOTE: Scanned document typos possible
|
"Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining." Chapter - Media
Morality: | Missing in Action? Page 228 by Judge Judy Scheindlin |
---|
|
"Sometimes the media creates a bizarre pantheon of heroes. I have never
read a story about a prison warden who runs an efficient jail getting a
humanitarian award nor have I heard of a tough no-nonsense judge being
honored by the community.
|
I have, however, seen a TV profile about a woman in the South Bronx who
has devoted her life to rescuing drug addicts from infection by giving
them free needles in exchange for their old ones. She believes that
America has become callous to the plight. She says she is discouraged
and ashamed of the citizens' inhumane response too afflicted addicts.
|
Well forgive me for not dabbing my eyes. In the TV show about her I
watched as addicts dumped a weekly supply of syringes on her table, 50
a more apiece. What they hell did they think they put in those needles
soda pop?
|
They were all the shooting heroin which is deadly and very expensive.
Since none of these characters looked like they worked on Wall Street
or anywhere else I knew that the money to support their 300 dollar a
day habits came from victims: people who were killed maimed or, if they
were lucky, only emotionally, traumatized for life. Where was the
recognition of these victims in the television piece? Where was the
moral perspective about them?
|
I have no patience with social programs that keep junkies hooked and
fuel dangerous cycle of crime and addiction. Maybe the glowing media
profiles of the "heroin heroines" could focus instead on long-term
residential drug treatment programs that actually seem to work on
occasion. They are the only programs I'm willing to subsidize because
they give addicts a choice -- even if it is simply killing themselves
instead of an innocent stranger."
|
|
NOTE: The quotes below are Direct Quotes from a journalist who is
assumed to have been present.
|
The original articles and references can be viewed at:
|
|
Australia: | Television Judge Judy Sheindlin Visits Brisbane |
---|
|
The debate about needle supply to heroin addicts is an indulgence lead
by "liberal morons", according to America's most popular television
judge.
|
No point talking about how best to approach the problem since the
solution is simple, said "Judge Judy" Sheindlin during her lunch time
speech yesterday.
|
"Give 'em dirty needles and let 'em die," she said.
|
The audience at Brisbane's Carlton Crest breathed a collective "yes"
and a cheer went up around the room.
|
The fast talking Brooklyn-born dynamo is touring her forthright
opinions around the country to promote her book, 'Beauty Fades, Dumb is
Forever'.
|
"I don't understand why we think it's important to keep them alive,"
she said.
|
|
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) |
|
Domestic News- Policy
COMMENT: (1-3) (Top) |
Despite mounting press criticism of drug war arrogance and a general
awareness of its many failures, Congress and the Administration retain
great enthusiasm for increasing its intensity. The so-called "Kingpin
Designation Act," has been cobbled together almost in private.
Although the Times and IHT approve of targeting "kingpins," even they
are concerned by the haste and lack of hearings.
|
The principal excuse for drug war hysteria continues to be American
teens, despite solid evidence that they have recently cleaned up their
act (see item 9 for a possible explanation). True to form, McCzar was
quick to claim this poll as vindication.
|
Military involvement, one of the little-appreciated consequences of
drug war hysteria, was outlined in a piece in the DMN.
|
(1) CARRIED AWAY BY DRUGS (Top) |
The target of a new anti-drug initiative now speeding toward final
congressional approval is a worthy one: big international drug
traffickers. But, as too often happens when Congress collaborates with
the Clinton administration to toughen law enforcement policies, civil
liberties stand to suffer.
|
The measure, called the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act,
overwhelmingly passed the House two weeks ago. A House-Senate
conference committee incorporated the measure in the annual
intelligence authorization bill that needs only a final floor vote in
the Senate before going to the president's desk for his signature. All
of this occurred without any public hearings or extended debate to
explore the legislation's implications for due process and other
constitutional values.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Tue, 16 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | International Herald-Tribune |
---|
Copyright: | International Herald Tribune 1999 |
---|
|
|
(2) AMERICANS CONCERNED ABOUT DRUG USE AMONG TEENS (Top) |
Americans are worried about drug use, particularly among adolescents,
and would be willing to spend their tax money to fight the problem,
according to a poll commissioned by the White House.
|
The poll by the Gallup Organization found that illegal drug use rates
high among the concern of Americans. More than half of those surveyed,
53 percent, said their concern about drug use has increased over the
past five years.
|
[snip]
|
Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy chief, said the survey
"confirms the success of the priorities and agenda of the National Drug
Strategy education and prevention for youth, drug treatment to reduce
crime and improve public health, law enforcement, interdiction and
source country efforts."
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 20 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Boston Globe (MA) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. |
---|
Address: | P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 |
---|
|
|
(3) A WAR THAT NEVER ENDS (Top) |
Unit Formed In Fight Against Drugs Marks 10 Years At Fort Bliss
|
FORT BLISS, Texas - In time of war, multi military units generally are
set up on a temporary basis with a defined mission to be completed
within a specified time frame.
|
But when Joint Task Force Six was established 10 years ago, it joined
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in a battle against
illegal drugs that continues unabated.
|
[snip]
|
JTF-6 is a multi service command of 170 soldiers, sailors, Marines,
airmen and civilian employees. It was initially established to support
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies along the 2,000-mile
southwest border. The area of responsibility now extends across the
nation.
|
Since its inception, JTF-6 has completed more than 4,300 missions in
support of more than 300 law enforcement agencies. In addition to
engineering work, the force also provides training and intelligence
analysis.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Fri, 19 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Dallas Morning News (TX) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 The Dallas Morning News |
---|
Address: | P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 |
---|
Author: | Nancy San Martin, The Dallas Morning News |
---|
|
|
COMMENT: (4-5) (Top) |
As usual, news of drug war failure was not hard to come by.
|
(4) KING COUNTY HEROIN DEATHS A 'CRISIS' (Top) |
Heroin continues to kill King County residents in record numbers this
year. At least 98 overdose deaths were recorded through October,
keeping pace with 1998's unprecedented year, according to new data from
the Medical Examiner's Office.
|
Seattle now ranks among the top metropolitan areas in the nation for
heroin use and death rates.
|
"It's not encouraging. . . . It's a really full-blown public-health
crisis," said Alonzo Plough, director of Public Health-Seattle & King
County. Last year, 144 deaths were reported, more than double the 1990
number.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 18 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Seattle Times (WA) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 The Seattle Times Company |
---|
Author: | Warren King, Seattle Times Medical Reporter |
---|
|
|
(5) WIFE OF EX-U.S. OFFICIAL IN COLOMBIA IS INDICTED (Top) |
NEW YORK - A federal grand jury has indicted the wife of the former
commander of the U.S. anti drug operation in Colombia on
drug-trafficking charges.
|
[snip]
|
Laurie Hiett, 36, surrendered to federal authorities in August after
they intercepted two packages - each with 2.4 pounds of heroin - that
she allegedly shipped to the United States from the U.S. Embassy in
Bogota. She is accused of making four other similar shipments.
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 18 Nov 1999 |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. |
---|
|
|
COMMENT: (6) (Top) |
Along with more critical coverage of the drug war, articles covering
the reform movement itself are also becoming more common, witness the
latest, courtesy of the DPFT
|
(6) PROFESSOR LEADS THE CHARGE IN BATTLE AGAINST DRUG WAR (Top) |
For all he knew, G. Alan Robison was deep in enemy territory. Arrayed
before him were the Texas City elite, Rotarians momentarily preoccupied
with a lunch of barbecued baked potatoes. Soon, the tweedy Houston
professor and drug law activist knew, he would have to drop the bomb.
|
Robison advanced to the podium.
|
Drugs are bad, but the nation's war on drugs is worse, he told them.
It's an abomination; an expensive, racist, corrupting farce, and,
worse, it's being lost. End the drug prohibition, he urged.
Decriminalize marijuana. Rethink the handling of those addicted to
heroin or cocaine. That's the only way to end drug violence, to return
the nation to sanity.
|
[snip]
|
Under Robison's stewardship, membership in the group has grown from 15
to about 450. Branch chapters have formed in Austin and Dallas.
|
[snip]
|
In the emotionally charged atmosphere of the national debate over drug
policy, even that mission might prove controversial. But, as the
group's chief spokesman, Robison pushes much further.
|
"We are advocating the end of drug prohibition," he said.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 21 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Houston Chronicle (TX) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 Houston Chronicle |
---|
Note: | G. Alan Robison is Executive Director of the Drug Policy Forum of |
---|
Texas Houston, Texas, http://www.mapinc.org/dpft/
|
|
Law Enforcement & Prisons
|
COMMENT: (7-9) (Top) |
True to form, the Senate's grotesque "solution" for the glaring
discrepancy in harsh and racially disparate mandatory minimums for
cocaine will increase both the total number of prisoners and the
racial disparity.
|
Violent crime has been in steep decline for seven years, yet the
numbers of inmates keeps climbing; look no further than the drug war
for the reason.
|
Declining crime rates (and improved teen behavior) is best explained
by evidence that has yet to be discovered by the press; look for a
brouhaha when they finally do tumble.
|
(7) EDITORIAL: SENATE VOTES TO MAKE CRACK COCAINE LAW EVEN MORE UNFAIR (Top) |
THE U.S. Senate has responded to one of the grand inequities in the
nation's drug laws. Its solution: compound the problem.
|
[snip]
|
The answer, said the White House and the U.S. Sentencing Commission,
was to raise the minimum amount of crack bringing on the 5-year
sentence. Instead, the Senate, on a 50-49 vote, did the opposite. It
reduced the amount of power cocaine for the 5-year sentence from 500
grams to 50 grams.
|
The Bureau of Prisons estimates the new law would add 9,163 federal
inmates over the next decade. A disproportionate number of these, too,
would be minorities.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 15 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | San Jose Mercury News (CA) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 San Jose Mercury News |
---|
Address: | 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190 |
---|
|
|
(8) WOMEN IMPRISONED FOR NARCOTICS ON RISE (Top) |
Women are going to prison for drug crimes at a rate that far outpaces
men. The number of women imprisoned for narcotics convictions increased
nearly tenfold, from 2,400 in 1986 to 23,700 in 1996, according to a
study released Wednesday by the Sentencing Project, a Washington
D.C.-based research and advocacy group that promotes alternatives to
incarceration.
|
During the same time, the number of men in prison for drug convictions
showed a six-fold increase, from 34,400 to 213,900. Of the 46,000
inmates in Michigan prisons for a variety of crimes, 1,880 are women.
|
"Ironically, this comes at a time when crime rates are coming down,"
said Marc Mauer, assistant director of the project.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 18 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Detroit News (MI) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999, The Detroit News |
---|
Author: | Erika Stutzman, Gannett News Service |
---|
|
|
(9) THE ABORTED CRIME WAVE? (Top) |
A controversial article links the recent drop in crime to the
legalization of abortion two decades ago
|
Since the early 1990s crime has fallen annually in the U.S., last year
by about 7 percent.
|
Many explanations have been put forward for this drop: more police walk
the beat, more people are in prison, the economy has improved, crack
use has fallen, alarms and guards are now widespread. The emphasis
given to any one of these rationales varies, of course, according to
philosophical bent or political expediency. In New York City, for
instance, plummeting crime has been attributed to improved policing.
|
[snip]
|
Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago and John J. Donohue III,
currently at Yale University, have proffered an alternative reason: the
legalization of abortion in 1973 reduced the number of unwanted
children--that is, children more likely to become criminals.
|
[snip]
|
Source: | Scientific American (US) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 Scientific American, Inc |
---|
Author: | Marguerite Holloway |
---|
|
|
Cannabis
|
COMMENT: (10-12) (Top) |
When Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams were forced to accept plea
bargains by the judge's decision to bar medical evidence, the feds
avoided some bad publicity- at least temporarily. The accused avoided
the threat of immediate imprisonment following a certain "guilty"
verdict.
|
As California awaits a definitive 215 case, Geoffrey Guy moves ever
closer to a commercially viable demonstration that cannabinoids are
indeed medicine.
|
On the recreational front, Canadian youth is moving in the same
direction as their American counterparts.
|
(10) MEDICAL MARIJUANA ACTIVISTS PLEAD GUILTY (Top) |
Two medical marijuana activists pleaded guilty Friday to federal drug
charges for cultivating a marijuana farm inside a Bel-Air mansion.
|
Todd McCormick and Peter McWilliams pleaded guilty Friday evening to
one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, said
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. A judge
earlier this month ruled that McCormick, 29, and McWilliams, 50, could
not use ''medical necessity'' as a defense.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Fri, 19 Nov 1999 |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 Associated Press |
---|
http://McWilliams.com/ http://growmedicine.com/
|
|
(11) BRITAIN ABUZZ OVER CANNABIS MEDICINE (Top) |
LONDON - A British drug company hopes to have cannabis-based medicine
ready to be prescribed by doctors within three to four years.
|
Sufferers from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which attacks the
central nervous system, have been calling for a pain-relieving
cannabis medicine for years and many have broken the law by buying the
drug from street dealers.
|
GW Pharmaceuticals said yesterday it was making progress in clinical
studies with cannabis-based medicines.
|
Pubdate: | Wed, 17 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Toronto Star (CN ON) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999, The Toronto Star |
---|
Author: | Giles Elgood, Reuters News Agency |
---|
|
|
(12) MORE TEENS SMOKING POT (Top) |
Rise Here Mirrors Ontario
|
Marijuana use among adolescents has mushroomed dramatically in Alberta,
says an official with the Alberta Alcohol an Drug Abuse Commission.
|
The results of an Ontario study showing the use of marijuana among
teens has skyrocketed in that province to late-1970s levels mirrors
Alberta, said ADAAC's Nancy Snowball.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 20 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Calgary Sun (CA AB) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership |
---|
Address: | 2615 12 Street N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 7W9 |
---|
|
|
International News
|
COMMENT: (13-14) (Top) |
In Australia, cheap heroin and record overdoses have fueled a bitter
debate between "just say no" advocates and harm reductionists. Despite
Judy Scheindlin's advice to the contrary, an injecting room was
authorized for New South Wales last week.
|
Meanwhile, similar problems in Scotland provoked a more traditional
(US style) response from authorities.
|
(13) AUSTRALIA: LABOR PASSES FIRST HEROIN INJECTING ROOM LAW (Top) |
AUSTRALIA would have its first legal heroin shooting gallery as early
as March next year, the NSW Labor Government announced after historic
legislation to create the operating licence passed through parliament
yesterday.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Fri, 19 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Australian, The (Australia) |
---|
Copyright: | News Limited 1999 |
---|
Author: | Christopher Niesche |
---|
|
|
(14) SCOTLAND: CCTV TO FIGHT RISE IN DRUG ABUSE IN SCHOOLS (Top) |
Closed-circuit television is expected to be installed in school
playgrounds after new research showed that one in three 12-year-olds
has been offered drugs.
|
The measure, which could be piloted in Scotland, is being considered
by ministers north of the border who want to protect pupils being
targeted by pushers. It follows growing evidence of drugs in an
environment where parents traditionally believed their children to be
safe.
|
In one recent case heroin worth more than pounds 500 was found in the
school bag of an 11-year-old boy in a Govan primary school.
|
[snip]
|
Copyright: | 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd |
---|
Author: | By Jason Allardyce, Scottish Political Reporter |
---|
|
|
COMMENT: (15) (Top) |
A trenchant analysis of the futility and hypocrisy of the Blair
government's disappointing hard line on drugs appeared in the London
Times.
|
(15) UK: COWARDICE IS STILL THE DRUG OF CHOICE (Top) |
Politicians Take A Hard Line But Remain Soft In The Head Says, Mary Ann
Sieghart
|
We were milling around outside the studio, the three MPs and I, before
a recording of BBC's Question Time. The conversation turned to drugs,
and both the Labour and the Liberal Democrat politicians joined me in
arguing for legalisation, against the lone opposition of the then Tory
minister. Just ten minutes later, when the question came up on air,
the three-to-one ratio was instantly reversed. With all three
politicians mumbling platitudes about "setting the young a bad
example", I found myself alone defending our previous position. It was
the televisual equivalent of an offside trap.
|
[snip]
|
Instead we have mandatory drug testing proposed in the Queen's Speech.
And we have Tony Blair telling Middle England how "petrified" he is of
his children taking drugs, as if he were not aware that most of his
successful colleagues and friends probably spent their Saturday nights
as students giggling stupidly and passing the joint round.
|
[snip]
|
Copyright: | 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd |
---|
Author: | Mary Ann Sieghart |
---|
Note: | Ms. Sieghart may be contacted at |
---|
|
|
COMMENT: (16-18) (Top) |
As for this Hemisphere: a Guardian (UK) assessment of the recently
concluded OAS drug summit hosted in Washington reveals that,
ominously, the drug trade is seen by others as both destabilizing and
larger a nation's police can handle.
|
Colombia is perhaps the best example of how far things can
deteriorate; a close reading the entire NYT account gives no
substantive reason for optimism and suggests that resumption of
extradition after a nine year hiatus promises may prove eventful.
|
(16) US CALLS FOR COOPERATION IN DRUGS WAR (Top) |
The Organisation of American States (OAS), which met in Washington on
November 4 and 5, tried to give the impression that the fight against
drugs has got off to a fresh start - at a time when the worsening
situation in Colombia gives little cause for optimism.
|
The man behind this meeting of officials combating drug traffickers was
President Clinton's "drugs tsar", General Barry McCaffrey. A week earlier
he had been spreading the good American word during a tour of Europe. Now
he wanted to show the new face of the United States.
|
[snip]
|
According to Canada's deputy state prosecutor, Jean Fournier, who was
behind the evaluation initiative, there was no getting away from the
fact that repression did not work, and that drug trafficking was too
big a problem to be left to police.
|
The Brazilian drugs tsar, Walter Maierovitch, said that Brazil had
become a country of transit, and that drug use had increased. "Drugs
capitalists" were threatening the foundation of the state. "It's no
longer a question of policing, but of preserving democracy," he added.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 18 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Guardian Weekly, The (UK) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 The Guardian Weekly |
---|
Address: | 75 Farringdon Road London U.K EC1M 3HQ |
---|
Author: | Patrice de Beer in Washington |
---|
|
|
(17) COLOMBIA TRIES, YET COCAINE THRIVES (Top) |
Colombia -- Under American pressure, for most of this decade the
Colombian government has been sending planes to spray herbicides on the
fields of coca that flourish in areas like this. With a new, more
cooperative government in power in Bogota, last year was a banner year
for that joint effort, with a record 135,000 acres fumigated.
|
But 1998 also turned out to be a record year for cocaine production in
Colombia. By official estimate, acreage devoted to the cultivation of
coca, the plant that provides the raw material for cocaine, surged more
than 25 percent and is now three times larger than in 1994.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 20 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | New York Times (NY) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 The New York Times Company |
---|
Author: | Larry Rohter Aguare |
---|
|
|
(18) COLOMBIA EXTRADITES DRUG SUSPECT TO U.S. (Top) |
For the first time in nine years, Colombia has extradited an alleged
narcotics kingpin charged in the United States, marking what officials
said was an important development in the international war on drugs.
|
Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa was loaded on a Drug Enforcement Administration
airplane under heavy guard at dawn yesterday after Colombian President
Andres Pastrana rejected last-minute legal motions filed by the alleged
trafficker's lawyers.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 22 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Washington Post (DC) |
---|
Copyright: | 1999 The Washington Post Company |
---|
Address: | 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071 |
---|
Author: | Lorraine Adams, Washington Post Staff Writer |
---|
|
|
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top)
|
Canada: | Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: Legal and Ethical Issues |
---|
|
A report released Wednesday said Ottawa isn't doing enough to prevent
the spread of HIV among injection drug users. In fact, Canada's drug
laws and policies contribute to the problem which has reached crisis
proportion, says Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: Legal and Ethical
Issues.
|
"Canada's response to this public health crisis has been far from being
concertive and effective," said Ralf Jurgens, executive director of the
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network which wrote the report with support
from Health Canada.
|
Eventually, Canada must change its drug laws, concludes the report
given to the federal and provincial health ministers.
|
Following up on two 1997 reports, the report Wednesday emphasized that
the criminal approach to drug use causes more harm than good because,
among other things, it makes users afraid to go to health or social
services for help.
|
"It is ethically wrong to continue criminalizing approaches to the
control of drug use when these strategies fail to achieve the goals for
which they were designed," said Dr. David Roy, the author of the ethics
section in the report and director of the Centre for Bioethics of the
Clinical Research Institute of Montreal.
|
[snip]
|
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 25 Nov 1999 |
---|
Source: | Vancouver Sun (CN BC) |
---|
Copyright: | The Vancouver Sun 1999 |
---|
Author: | Leanne Yohemas-Hayes |
---|
|
|
BBC's "Panorama" Program Entitled "Cops on Drugs" Transcript On-line
|
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/events/panorama/newsid_517000/517773.stm
|
This is from a bloody good episode from the BBC's "Panorama" program
entitled "Cops on Drugs". You can get the full text of the show at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/panorama/transcripts/
transcript_15_11_99.txt
|
-- Sanho Tree
|
|
Dogwood Center Comprehensive Injection-Related Aids report Now On-line
|
Dawn Day Informs Us:
|
The Dogwood Center has just released a study ranking states and large
metro areas by injection-related AIDS. As part of the press activity, I
would like to make special efforts to contact media people for the
areas where the rankings increased (ie got worse). So if you happen to
have a media contact in any of those areas who you think might be
interested in a story on this topic, please let me know. The areas
where things got worse include:
|
a. states: Delaware, Connecticut, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Florida,
|
b. metro areas of over 500,000: Baltimore, MD, Baton Rouge, LA, West
Palm Beach, FL, Wash, DC, New Orleans, LA, Houston, TX, and Atlanta, GA.
|
The complete report and press release are available at:
|
http://www.dogwoodcenter.org/report.html
|
Thanks much for any help you can give me on this.
|
|
Drug War Facts Available in Many Languages
|
Each chapter of "Drug War Facts" now contains a link to the "Alta Vista
Babel Fish" translation service.
|
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/
|
Visitors may now read the Fact Book in French, Spanish and many other
common languages.
|
http://www.csdp.org/factbook/
|
|
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top)
|
"What is the difference between a gun-toting crack dealer sticking a
gun in your face and stealing your car and a gun toting deputy with a
badge "confiscating" your car?
|
Answer: Nothing. In either case your car is gone and you don't get the
benefit of a trial. America, what a country."
|
-- Bobby Sole,
Euclid, Ohio
|
|
DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense offers
our members. Watch this feature to learn more about what DrugSense can
do for you.
|
TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:
|
Please utilize the following URLs
|
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
|
http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
|
News/COMMENTS-Editor: | Tom O'Connell () |
---|
Senior-Editor: | Mark Greer () |
---|
|
We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, Newshawks and letter
writing activists.
|
|
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.
|
|
Please help us help reform. Send any news articles you find on any drug
related issue to
|
|
NOW YOU CAN DONATE TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE AND IT'S TAX DEDUCTIBLE
|
DrugSense provides many services to at no charge BUT THEY ARE NOT FREE
TO PRODUCE.
|
We incur many costs in creating our many and varied services. If you
are able to help by contributing to the DrugSense effort visit our
convenient donation web site at
http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
|
-OR-
|
Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to MAP Inc. send your
contribution to:
|
The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
d/b/a DrugSense
PO Box 651
Porterville,
CA 93258
(800) 266 5759
http://www.mapinc.org/
http://www.drugsense.org/
|