February 11, 1999 #085 |
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A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org
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Please consider writing a letter to the editor using the email
addresses on any of the articles below. Send a copy of your LTE to
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- * Breaking News (11/21/24)
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- * Feature Article
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Scapegoating Teens Buttresses Drug War
Mike Males
- * Weekly News in Review
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Drug War Policy-
COMMENT: (1-4)
(1) Hitting A Wall of Opposition
(2) Welfare Drug Test Plan Gets Mixed Reaction
(3) Court Files: Truth or DARE
(4) The Erosion of Our Rights
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) Drug Arrests Continue
(6) Westbound I-40 Pours Drug Cash on Police
(7) Feds Pay Drug Case Witness $2 Million
(8) Is Plea Bargaining an Illegal Tactic?
(9) The Prison Craze and the Crime Rate
Medical Marijuana-
COMMENT: (10-13)
(10) Supporters Are Grim as Chavez Led Away to Jail
(11) Kubbys Prepared for Marijuana Arrests
(12) Not-so-Secret Farm Keeps Growing
(13) Hard Data Trickles In As Scientists Study Marijuana
International News-
COMMENT: (14-18)
(14) Mexico Turns to High-Tech Tools in War On Drugs
(15) Mcleish Set to Create a Task Force of Drug Busters
(16) Chirac Calls for EU to Harmonise Anti-Drug Laws
(17) Heroin Overdose Deaths Hit a Record 600
(18) Anti-Drug Aid Endangered
- * Hot Off The 'Net
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Pritchett Cartoons on drug policy
Legalize-USA Site Gets a "Face Lift"
- * Volunteer of the Month
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Mike Gogulski.
- * Quote of the Week
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Stanislaw Lec
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) |
Scapegoating Teens Buttresses Drug War
by Mike Males
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As drug-policy historian David Musto points out in Scientific American,
anti-drug crusades concoct "a linkage between the drug and a feared or
rejected group within society." Early-century wars against marijuana,
cocaine, and alcohol sought to tie these drugs to Hispanics, blacks,
and southern European immigrants, making wars on drugs part of wars
against unpopular groups.
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Similarly, as the modern War on Drugs escalated in the 1990s, its
nonstop denigration of today's out-group, young people, has
intensified. The new White House/Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad
campaign and incessant official statements depict teenagers as the
nation s primary, if not sole, drug menace.
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In truth, drug overdose, hospital emergency, and addiction treatment
statistics clearly show the only group in the United States with a
significant drug problem is aging baby boomers. Heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine, and alcohol abuse has exploded among 30- and 40-agers
over the last two decades. The biggest risk children and teens face
from drugs is not their own use, but violence from addicted grownups
and the drug supply trades the surging middle-aged demand fueled.
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But the baby-boomer crisis is ignored by War on Drugs officials for the
same reason medical-marijuana proposals are castigated: both manifest
drug use among respectable middle-agers and the elderly, disrupting the
campaign to equate drugs with fearsome adolescents. Without a disliked
and powerless group to attack, the drug war risks losing focus and
collapsing.
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Fabricating the image of a teenage crisis requires massive official
deception, since there is no evidence of a major teen drug problem. The
youth-heroin scare (invented by the Partnership in 1996 as a
fundraising ploy) is a complete hoax. Of 8,000 youths surveyed by
NIDA's 1997 National Household Survey, a whopping 25 had used heroin in
the previous year. The latest Drug Abuse Warning Network figures show
that only 22 of the 4,000 heroin-related deaths in 1996 and 1% of the
hospital emergency treatments for heroin abuse in 1997 were
adolescents. Adolescents comprised just 70 of the 13,000 cases in which
heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, or alcohol mixed with drugs were
implicated in deaths -- in fact, just 182 of the 22,300 cases in which
any kind of drug or drug- alcohol combination caused a fatality.
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Nor does teenage drug and alcohol experimentation suggest a future
problem. Surprisingly, consistent evidence shows that both society and
the individual are much safer with a drug or drink in the hands of a 17
year-old than in the hands of a 40 year-old. The reason: teenagers tend
to use milder drugs (beer and marijuana, rather than heroin or whisky)
more moderately and in safer settings. A 30- or 40-ager is twice as
likely to kill or injure in a drunken driving crash, five times more
likely to die from "binge" drinking, and a dozen times more likely to
overdose on drugs than is a high-school youth. The above realities
belie both the official/media fear campaign, which relies on rare,
sensational anecdotes and slapdash surveys to paint a dire picture of
teenage peril, and drug-policy reformers who argue that alcohol and
marijuana are acceptable for adults to partake but too dangerous for
teens.
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The ability of modern teenagers to avoid the drug crises plaguing their
elders is phenomenal. In Los Angeles County, population 9.5 million,
there were ZERO teenage deaths from heroin, cocaine (including crack),
or meth in 1997. However, 300 L.A. adults died from these drugs.
Similar to statewide and national patterns, 90% were over age 30.
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The most fascinating trend occurred in San Francisco, a city which for
decades has harbored the nation's worst drug malaise. From 1990 through
1997, 1,500 San Franciscans died from drugs, a rate triple that of
other big cities. But only 17 were under age 20, and 10 of these were
not local residents. Only 1% of the city's drug-death and 2% of its
hospital drug- emergency toll are teenagers.
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Predictably, the occasional teenage or young-adult tragedy is wildly
hyped by the press and authorities seeking to discredit San Francisco's
liberal medical marijuana and marijuana possession policies as perils
to the young. In truth, the city's minimal teen drug abuse shows that
de facto legalization and harm-reduction strategies pose no danger to
youths.
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The best explanation for teenagers' very low rates of drug mishap,
particularly in drug-infested cities such as San Francisco, L.A., and
New York, seems to be reaction against the visible epidemic of drug
abuse among their parents' generation that has steered youths who might
otherwise be of high risk toward more careful practices. In a rational
drug debate, the destructive adolescent scapegoating that sustains the
War on Drugs would be replaced by inquiry as to how teens' surprisingly
healthy trends can be learned from and reinforced.
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Mike Males, author of Framing Youth: Ten Myths About the Next
Generation (Common Courage Press, 1996), is a social ecology doctoral
candidate at the University of California, Irvine.
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Mike Males
1105 Palo Verde Road
Irvine, CA 92612
Tel 949/856-0419
Fax 949/824-2056
Email
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School of Social Ecology, Doctoral Program
University of California, Irvine
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) |
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Domestic News- Policy
COMMENT: (1-4) (Top) |
Sadly, Americans seem more intent on keeping government snoops out of
their bank records than out of their children's school lockers. The
proposed banking changes reported just a week ago provoked so much
outrage they now appear DOA in Congress.
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In contrast, a requirement that Oklahoma welfare recipients undergo
screening and drug testing will probably pass, despite ACLU opposition.
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In response to his acknowledgement that he lied, D.A.R.E. shifted its
attack from Steven Glass, to Rolling Stone, the magazine that
published his bogus articles. This case promises to grow into a major
effort to discredit "legalizers."
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Finally, an op-ed in the Oakland Tribune is all the more frightening
because its conservative author treats as rational some police
procedures that would have been considered unthinkable just a few
years ago.
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(1) HITTING A WALL OF OPPOSITION (Top) |
A proposal that would force banks to keep closer track of customers'
transactions and report them to the government will be rewritten or
even scrapped because of public outcry, federal regulators said
Wednesday in Chicago.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thur, 4 Feb.. 1999 |
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Source: | Chicago Tribune (IL) |
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Copyright: | 1999 Chicago Tribune Company |
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(2) WELFARE DRUG TEST PLAN GETS MIXED REACTION (Top) |
The ACLU Says It's An Invasion Of Privacy.
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OKLAHOMA CITY -- The ACLU is questioning the Department of Human
Services' plans to start drug testing welfare recipients.
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[snip]
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Earlier this week, DHS Director Howard Hendrick said his agency in
mid-March will require welfare recipients and those seeking aid to
take a written exam to determine their propensity to abuse drugs
and alcohol. The results will be used to determine which clients
will be required to give a urine sample for analysis.
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Welfare recipients who don't cooperate will be denied benefits.
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[snip]
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Copyright: | 1999, World Publishing Co. |
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Author: | Barbara Hoberock, World Capitol Bureau |
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(3) COURT FILES: TRUTH OR DARE (Top) |
The drug education group DARE is suing Rolling Stone magazine for $50
million, alleging that a critical article written by disgraced whiz kid
journalist Stephen Glass was more fiction than fact, not to mention
libelous.
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[snip]
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Source: | Los Angeles Times (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 Los Angeles Times. |
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(4) THE EROSION OF OUR RIGHTS (Top) |
TO what lengths may police go -- reasonably -- to crack down on
criminals? That is the thorny question raised by several recent,
controversial actions taken (or contemplated) by keepers of the peace
in several municipalities throughout the country.
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In Buena Park, for instance, the local constabulary set up a
checkpoint to identify individuals driving with invalid licenses.
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[snip]
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Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU's Los Angeles office,
says that Buena Park cops were violating motorists' rights because
officers "have to have a reason for stopping someone like that."
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Buena Park police disagree. "If we were stopping every car, then we
might run into problems," said Sgt. Joe Englehardt. "We are operating
under the same laws that you run into with drunk-driving checkpoints."
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[snip]
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For similar reasons, the civil libertarian in me also has qualms about
a proposal by New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir that the
Big Apple's finest take a DNA sample from every person arrested in the
five boroughs.
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Pubdate: | Thu, 04 Feb. 1999 |
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Source: | Oakland Tribune (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers |
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Address: | 66 Jack London Sq., Oakland, CA 94607 |
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Author: | Joseph Perkins,Columnist, San Diego Union Tribune |
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Law Enforcement & Prisons
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COMMENT: (5-9) (Top) |
Where police empowerment is leading can be seen in two articles from
rural Arkansas; they provide an overview of how federally sponsored
combined "task forces" pull low level drug retailers and their
customers into the maw of the criminal justice system, relieving them
of automobiles and spare cash along the way.
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Once ensnared as prisoners, they face daunting ordeals in court,
especially if poor and/or black; conviction is the name of the game
and the prosecution holds most of the cards.
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Wachtel's challenge to plea-bargaining is still alive, but don't bet
on the Supreme Court to uphold it. No single tactic is more essential
to obtaining drug convictions and keeping our state and federal
prisons in a growth mode.
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The final article effectively restates a theme being sounded over and
over by our best op-ed writers: aggressive pursuit of the drug war is
turning the nation's prison system into an insupportable abomination.
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(5) DRUG ARRESTS CONTINUE (Top) |
Drug arrests continued Thursday in the wake of the warrant roundup
Wednesday of alleged drug dealers targeted after a three-month,
under cover 21st Judicial District Drug Task Force investigation.
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By late Thursday morning, the two-officer warrant teams composed of
Van Buren police officers and state troopers had served 20 warrants
and made two additional felony drug .
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[snip]
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Arrests released by the Van Buren Police Department as of Thursday
included Robert Lewis, 18, for delivery of marijuana; Patrick
Dillard, 19, for delivery of methamphetamine; Bradley Bennett, 18,
for delivery of cocaine; Danny Reed, 43, for delivery of
methamphetamine; Jcena Green, 19, delivery of marijuana; Barbara
Pickern, 38, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana
and possession of drug paraphernalia; .
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[snip]
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Source: | Southwest Times Record (AR) |
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Author: | Mary L. Crider - Times Record |
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(6) WESTBOUND I-40 POURS DRUG CASH ON POLICE (Top) |
WEST MEMPHIS -- Routine traffic stops in Crittenden County are
yielding sizable hauls of confiscated cash, indicating that drug
trafficking along the corridors of Interstates 40 and 55 is on the
rise, police say.
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Four routine traffic checks in the past month have allowed officers
to collect more than $1,130,084 in cash. And law enforcement
authorities say the money may be small change in the drug trade.
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[snip]
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Source: | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR) |
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Copyright: | 1999, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. |
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Author: | Kenneth Heard - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
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(7) FEDS PAY DRUG CASE WITNESS $2 MILLI0N
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Worked Undercover For Two Years
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The key undercover witness in the nation's
biggest drug money laundering case was paid more than $2 million to
help prosecutors, according to testimony.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Mon, 1 Feb. 1999 |
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Copyright: | 1999 Associated Press |
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(8) IS PLEA BARGAINING AN ILLEGAL TACTIC? (Top) |
LAWYER SAYS THE AGE-OLD PRACTICE GIVES PROSECUTORS AN UNFAIR
ADVANTAGE.
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Wichita, Kan., lawyer John V. Wachtel didn't know he would be
starting a legal trend when he challenged the long-standing practice
of prosecutors offering deals in exchange for testimony.
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He just believed he was right and hoped he could convince three
judges on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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[snip]
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An appeal before the 12 judges of the 10th Circuit in Denver
followed. This month, in a 9-3 decision, the judges handed
prosecutors a victory by finding that the statute prohibiting
someone from offering anything of value for testimony doesn't apply
to them.
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But the issue Wachtel raised in the case of a woman convicted of
money laundering and conspiring to distribute cocaine isn't buried.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 31 Jan 1999 |
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Source: | Morning Call (PA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 The Morning Call Inc. |
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Author: | DEBBIE GARLICKI, The Morning Call |
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(9) THE PRISON CRAZE AND THE CRIME RATE (Top) |
WASHINGTON -- The violent crime rate in America continues to
plummet. It's off 21 percent since 1993, 7 percent in 1997 alone.
Murders in the country's 10 largest cities declined 12 percent in
1998. Our streets are certifiably the safest they've been in a
quarter century.
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But there's grim news, too, summarized by writer Eric Schlosser in
a disturbing report -- "The Prison-Industrial Complex" -- in The
Atlantic Monthly.
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Some 1.8 million Americans are behind bars, in federal and state
prisons and local jails. We are imprisoning more people than any
other nation on earth, even Communist China. We've achieved the
highest incarceration rate in human history for non-political
offenses.
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[snip]
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So could we reduce crime without our obscene prison-building binge?
Certainly. Prisons have become a revolving door for poor, highly
dysfunctional, often illiterate drug abusers. Our governments are
generally too chintzy to offer them drug treatment, behind bars or
on the street.
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[snip]
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Another gnawing issue is race. Black men are five times as likely
to be arrested for drug offenses as whites (even though whites and
blacks have similar abuse levels).
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 10 Jan 1999 |
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Source: | Houston Chronicle (TX) |
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Copyright: | 1999 Houston Chronicle |
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Author: | Neal R. Peirce, Washington Post Writers Group |
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Medical Marijuana
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COMMENT: (10-13) (Top) |
In California the status of medical marijuana remains at issue more
than two years after Proposition 215 was passed.
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In Orange County, friends of Marvin Chavez are still angry at the six
year prison sentence he received for operating a buyers' club. What
especially rankles is that despite a police sting using phony
"patients," he was denied use of 215 in his defense.
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Steve and Michele Kubby's high profile arrest for growing their own
has taken some interesting turns. They knew they were under
investigation, but had no idea of its size, scope, or intensity (which
betray an undeniable animus). It all may turn into an argument over
how many plants should be "enough."
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Finally, Dennis Peron, founder of the San Francisco Buyers' Club has
become a gentleman farmer, raising medicine for friends in rural Lake
County. He was interviewed twice in as many days and seems to be
daring the local sheriff to bust him.
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(10) SUPPORTERS ARE GRIM AS CHAVEZ LED AWAY TO JAIL (Top) |
Marvin Chavez grimaced as his arms were pulled behind him.
Handcuffs clicked closed around his wrists.
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And as bailiffs led him away to jail Friday, the last thing his army
of ardent supporters saw were Chavez's hands, hanging beneath the
awkward outline of his back brace.
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Sobbing, Andrea Nagy crumpled into the arms of a friend. "There is
no justice! No good deed goes unpunished!" yelled David Zink.
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"Totally wrong," said Jack Shachter, grimly shaking his head.
"Totally wrong."
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Chavez, founder of Orange County's medical marijuana co-op, was
sentenced to six years in state prison for selling pot to undercover
officers posing as medical patients, and for mailing pot to a cancer
patient. Chavez's past had come back to haunt him, and numerous
tearful appeals did not convince Judge Thomas Borris to grant Chavez
probation, or to allow Chavez the shield he insists he has under
Proposition 215, a ballot initiative that legalized marijuana for
medical use.
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[snip]
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Confusion about how to implement Prop. 215 is still rampant in
California. Many cannabis clubs have been shut down in Northern
California, and many local authorities do not agree on
interpretation.
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A local police officer who stole drugs recently received just a
one-year sentence, said Julie Ireland, a former Los Angeles police
officer. Chavez helped Ireland's husband and son, both terminal
cancer patients. "This case should have never gone to trial," she
said.
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Pubdate: | Sat, 30 Jan 1999 |
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Source: | Orange County Register (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 The Orange County Register |
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Author: | Teri Sporza and John McDonald |
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(11) KUBBYS PREPARED FOR MARIJUANA ARRESTS
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OLYMPIC VALLEY -- For six months drug investigators and Steve and
Michele Kubby engaged in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. As
investigators of the North Tahoe Task Force pored over details of
the couple's lives for evidence of marijuana violations, the Kubbys
-- tipped off about the investigation -- tidied up the loose ends
of their growing operation. Launched by an anonymous letter
claiming the former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate was
financing his campaign by selling marijuana, the investigation
climaxed Jan. 19 with the arrest of Steve and Michele Kubby on
various marijuana charges.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Wed, 3 Feb. 1999 |
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Source: | Auburn Journal (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 Auburn Journal |
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Author: | Patrick McCartney, Auburn Journal City Editor |
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Mail: | 1030 High St., Auburn, CA 95603 |
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(12) NOT-SO-SECRET FARM KEEPS GROWING
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MIDDLETON - If the Lake County Cannabis Cultivation Project is
difficult to find, it's not because anybody is trying to keep it a
secret.
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A giant red canvas banner proclaiming "Medical Marijuana" beckons
motorists, and a World Wide Web site and steady stream of faxed
news releases keep everyone - including law enforcement agencies -
updated on the 20-acre farm's doings. After all, those growing and
providing marijuana to visitors and Bay Area residents believe
their operation is completely legal.
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[snip]
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Source: | San Mateo County Times (CA) |
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Copyright: | Feb. 6 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers |
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(13) HARD DATA TRICKLES IN AS SCIENTISTS STUDY MARIJUANA
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Paul Mocko really doesn't like to smoke.
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But for 25 days, beginning in October, Mocko voluntarily puffed and
coughed his way through three marijuana cigarettes every 24 hours
as researchers watched for interactions between the cannabis and
all the medications the 54-year-old takes to fight AIDS.
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[snip]
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But three studies in particular - the University of California
study Mocko joined, a completed National Institutes of Health
workshop, and a review by the Institute of Medicine expected to be
released next month - are anxiously awaited by both sides of the
smoldering debate over marijuana's medicinal value. It's a debate
long marked by complaints there isn't enough data to prove either
side's assertions.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sat, 6 Feb. 1999 |
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Source: | San Mateo County Times (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers |
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Author: | Matthew B. Stannard, Staff Writer |
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International News
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COMMENT: (14-18) (Top) |
It's certification time again, and the intent seems to be to pass
Mexico, come what may. The emphasis on technology suggests a strong
McCaffrey influence; despite recent lip service to treatment, the czar
is enamored of high-tech gadgetry and the concept of sealing borders.
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Scotland, beset by increasing heroin overdoses and a burgeoning prison
system, seems intent on following the American, rather than the Dutch
model. The punitive approach also appeals to Chirac, whose remarks
suggest that disagreement over enforcement will probably intensify as
the European Union is strengthened..
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Australia is also focused on heroin overdoses, with bitter wrangling
between the harm reduction and law enforcement camps over the best
solution.
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American policy in Colombia remains true to form; don't we always arm
right wing killers as a matter of policy?
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(14) MEXICO TURNS TO HIGH-TECH TOOLS IN WAR ON DRUGS (Top) |
Program could cost up to $500 million over next 3 years
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The Mexican government revealed a high-tech strategy yesterday to
wage ``a total war against drug trafficking,'' including new
satellite surveillance, X-ray detection systems and high-speed navy
patrol boats.
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[snip]
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Source: | San Francisco Chronicle (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 San Francisco Chronicle |
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Author: | James F. Smith, Los Angeles Times |
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(15) MCLEISH SET TO CREATE A TASK FORCE OF DRUG BUSTERS (Top) |
A ministerial task force will be created to oversee a new multi-million
pound campaign against drugs, it was announced yesterday.
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Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, has pledged that he
and his fellow ministers will work in a more targeted way to punish
drug dealers and bolster communities.
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[snip]
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Copyright: | The Scotsman Publications Ltd |
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Author: | Jenny Booth, Home Affairs Correspondent |
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(16) CHIRAC CALLS FOR EU TO HARMONISE ANTI-DRUG LAWS (Top) |
LISBON, Feb. 4 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac, warning
that illegal drug use in Europe was reaching dramatic levels, urged
European Union members on Thursday to agree common laws to help
fight the problem.
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"It is not acceptable that European laws in this area are not
harmonised," he said during a visit to the European Monitoring
Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon.
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Pubdate: | Thu, 04 Feb. 1999 |
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Copyright: | 1999 Reuters Limited. |
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(17) HEROIN OVERDOSE DEATHS HIT A RECORD 600 (Top) |
The number of people dying from heroin overdoses has risen to its
highest level in Australia, leaping 10 per cent in just a year to 600
deaths.
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[snip]
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The deaths also reflected a world awash with drugs, as comparatively
new opiate production in the former Soviet Union, Colombia and Mexico
joined the more traditional sources of supply in Asia.
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Pubdate: | Tue, 9 Feb. 1999 |
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Source: | Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) |
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http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n143.a12.html
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(18) ANTI-DRUG AID ENDANGERED (Top) |
Colombian Killings Raise Doubts About Help For Military
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SAN PABLO, Colombia - A spate of massacres by right-wing
paramilitary groups in Colombia has posed a new challenge to the
Clinton administration's policy of combating the country's rampant
drug trade by increasing aid to the Colombian police and military,
officials say.
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Pubdate: | Sun, Jan 31, 1999 |
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Source: | San Jose Mercury News (CA) |
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Copyright: | 1999 Mercury Center |
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top)
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Legalize-USA gets a "face lift" - now US Perspectives, The second issue
of Perspectives, is now available in print and on-line at
http://www.usperspectives.org/perspectives/
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Rolf Ernst has made some very significant changes to what was once the
Legalize-USA site. It is now called US Perspectives has had a wonderful
"face lift" and in our opinion is much more suitable to a mainstream
viewer. All the great multimedia archives are still in place and this
is likely the best site in existence for RealVideo/Audio clips of
important drug war footage.
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Just for Laughs
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There are a few poignant and humorous drug policy cartoons by John
Pritchett at: http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/mj.htm
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VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH (Top)
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MIKE GOGULSKI
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Our DrugSense Volunteer of the Month for February, 1999 is Mike
Gogulski. Besides newshawking (often under a pen name) a significant
share of our news items, Mike is one of the editors on the Media
Awareness Project's news posting team, and has created both
documentation and flowcharts for the effort. We asked Mike a few
questions:
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DS: How did you get into being a MAP volunteer?
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Mike: | I've been an observer and sometimes debater of drug policy for |
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about ten years. When I discovered the MAP service (through a reference
on DRCNet), I immediately saw that here was a way for me to become
involved directly. This was April, 1998.
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I began newshawking in earnest, and over the course of a week I had
ramped up to mailing in about 15 articles per day to .
Now, at that time it was only Richard, Joel, and Olafur on the MAP
editing team, and Richard screamed at me in an email "we love this
but... TOO MUCH!". My recruitment as a MapNews Editor came shortly
after.
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In getting trained to be an editor, I quickly recognized that MAP had a
real need to get more editors on board and trained to handle the
increasing volume of news. I stumbled a little myself in learning the
editing ropes, and decided to produce some documentation. Today, new
MAP editors have the benefit of a "production process diagram"
flowchart, and a informational webpage telling them how to handle the
news flow and produce well-formatted articles for MapNews.
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I'm now working to get the word out about MAP in every way that I can,
through other DPR groups I work with and through a flyering campaign
targeted at raves and nightclubs, where we should have a very
interested audience.
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DS: What do you consider the most significant story of the past months?
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Mike: | Without question the medical marijuana initiatives, the campaigns |
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and the fallouts. MedMJ is an absolutely pivotal issue for us right
now, because it betrays the lie that marijuana is a dangerous and
worthless drug. Marijuana prohibition is the keystone of the Drug War:
weaken it, and the entire mess comes crashing down.
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DS: What is your favorite website, besides the MAP/DrugSense sites?
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Mike: | Really tough for me to say. Probably 90% of my web traffic is to |
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http://www.mapinc.org/. http://www.legalize.org/ and
http://www.druglibrary.org/ are also excellent.
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DS: Anything else you would like to tell the readers of the weekly?
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Mike: | Yes! Write more letters! Even if you don't have the time to sit |
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and craft a dazzlingly eloquent piece of prosaic elocution, bang out a
quick note of protest to the editors. If you have ANY opinion at all on
ANY piece we run, just click on the "Contact" link and speak your mind
about it. Even if your letter doesn't get printed, adding to the
volume of letters that the press receives about drug policy reform will
help to push the issue farther and farther into the forefront of
editorial consciousness. SPEAK OUT LOUDLY!!!
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Note also that none of what we do would be possible without the
dedication and patience of 10 other editors, and over a hundred
NewsHawks who bring the information in and work it into our service.
Considering that many of us have never even met one another, we are a
fantastically effective and cohesive team.
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DS: Thanks so much, Mike, for all that you do!
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Mike: | You are so welcome. Thank you for the chance to participate |
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directly in what I believe is the absolute cutting edge of reform.
Working with MAP to lay the foundation for these changes is nothing
short of elevating. We will win!
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top)
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"One has to multiply thoughts to the point where there aren't enough
policemen to control them" - Stanislaw Lec
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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.
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TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:
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Please utilize the following URLs
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http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
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http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
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News/COMMENTS-Editor: | Tom O'Connell () |
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Senior-Editor: | Mark Greer () |
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We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, Newshawks and letter
writing activists.
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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.
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Please help us help reform. Send any news articles you find on any drug
related issue to
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NOW YOU CAN DONATE TO DRUGSENSE ONLINE AND IT'S TAX DEDUCTIBLE
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DrugSense provides many services to at no charge BUT THEY ARE NOT FREE
TO PRODUCE.
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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
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-OR-
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Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to MAP Inc. send your
contribution to:
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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/
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