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DrugSense Weekly
April 2,1999, #92

A DrugSense publication                      http://www.drugsense.org/


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/22/24)


* Feature Article


Marijuana and Medicine -Assessing the Science Base
Report of the Institute of Medicine
by Tod H.  Mikuriya, M.D.

* Weekly News in Review


Drug War Policy-

COMMENT: (1-6)
(1) It's a 1980s Policy on 1990s Drug Crime
(2) Slow The Drug-Test Frenzy
(3) Heroin Use is Unabated, Report Says
(4) Heroin Use Booming in Spokane
(5) Condemning Dissident Authors to Death
(6) Net Becomes Battleground in Drug War

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (7-10)
(7) Taking a Hard Look at State'S Jammed Jails
(8) More Than 1M Nonviolent Prisoners
(9) High Court Asked to Hear Challenge to Prosecution Deals
(10) You're Under Arrest, and on TV

Cannabis-

COMMENT: (11-15)
(11) The Grass Roots of Teen Drug Abuse
(12) Bill Toughens Marijuana Laws
(13) Calaveras Man Convicted Of Cultivating Marijuana
(14) Lockyer: U.S. Will End Push for Nuke Dump at Desert Site
(15) Why Is Marijuana For The Suffering Still Illegal?

International News-

COMMENT: (16-19)
(16) U.N. to Create Own Satellite Program to Find Illegal Drug
(17) Scotland: National Unit to Wage War on Drugs
(18) UK: 10-Year-Olds Being Offered Drugs
(19) German Health Minister Supports Medical Marihuana

* Hot Off The 'Net


Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on MMJ now On-line (Fully Scanned)
DrugNews Archive Tops 20,000 Searchable News Articles
Conservatives for Reform Web Site

* Tip of the Week


Four Letters to the Editor in the Wall Street Journal = $18,000 for
Reform

* Quote of the Week


Dr.  W.H. Stokes


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Marijuana and Medicine
Assessing the Science Base
Report of the Institute of Medicine
http://www.drugsense.org/iom_report/

An Exercise in Operational Definition Abuse-
A Compromised Report

Tod H.  Mikuriya, M.D.

With selective and politically motivated denial by institutional operational definition, arbitrarily fragmented universes are explored, sampled, and publish to fit.  The exclusion of social and political science as part of the study design is a fatal flaw.  The narrow definition of the "science base" that has been degraded and contaminated from over sixty years of deprivation from clinical experience by academic science and medicine is painfully evident.

The information managed by the IOM conspicuously chooses to exclude or minimize therapeutic efficacy for a variety of chronic illnesses.  Lack of actual clinical information from the researchers who conveniently "distanced" and discounted the numerous subjective accounts from patients.  The chronic skepticism rationalized as objectivity yet politically driven, is grotesque and unethical.

Unwillingness to believe or trust numerous cannabis users and exclude their experiences from consideration is, perhaps, the worst aspect of the report.  Left out was the reason for using cannabis, in the first place; it works; and with minimal toxicity for chronic conditions. Failure to look at the comparative freedom from adverse effects compared with "conventional" medicines is to perpetuate these problems. The conscious decision to avoid discussing the stressors and harm from inappropriate use of the criminal justice system and widespread medical ignorance is negligence.

The recommendation of short term treatment of six months fails to address the lion's share of patients who suffer from serious chronic illnesses.

Another error of omission is the use of cannabis as a treatment for problems of mood disorders, alcoholism, and other chemical dependence. Substituting cannabis as a harm reducer has been known since 1843 and widely cited in medical and pharmaceutical literature until removal from prescriptive availability in 1938.

This exercise in bureaucratic consensual unreality does little to increase trust in science or medicine.  Of greatest irony was the initial motivation for the whole medical marijuana movement: the breakdown of the health care delivery systems and research in 1991 when the FDA closed down the compassionate IND program by Undersecretary of Health, James O.  Mason, M.D. Sustained by Phillip Lee, M.D. This cruel and unethical act caused a populist revolt.

Starting with Dennis Peron in the San Francisco gay community with other AIDS activists starting cannabis buyers clubs on a "speak easy" model.  Medical marijuana users found shelter from predation on the streets.  Fellowship with other patients provided respite and a safe haven for victims of chronic illness.  The California cannabis centers proliferated.  As alternative health centers, voluntary organizations came together reminiscent of communes in the 60's.

The rebellion against the breakdown of health care delivery including corruption through prohibitionist motivation, spread statewide.  In November 6, 1996 the California Compassionate Use Act passed despite federal opposition from the White House, and the California Attorney General's office.  The inappropriate and harmful health policy blurred by ignorance and misuse of the criminal justice system was another category excluded.  Why is a retired general and the Attorney General in charge of health policy?

The unfortunate narrow and molecular definitions of efficacy exclude these psycho social data from consideration and seriously attenuate the report's utility.

The refusal to include proactive efforts to decrease harm through the use of vaporization techniques is harmful in itself through perpetuation of institutional territoriality.  While description and testimony about these existing devices was shared, withholding of this information raises ethical issues.

Neither human physiology nor cannabis has changed since 1937- only the clinical knowledge.

The mental effects of cannabis were inaccurately portrayed in that the effects are those experienced by recent and not chronic users.


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (1-6)    (Top)

There was no major drug policy news last week (be thankful the IOM report was released between Monica and Kosovo); there were, however continuing indications that the drug war is increasingly portrayed in the media as wrong-headed, a failure, and unjust.

As if to fill the news void, ONDCP announced a new Internet program. It remains to be seen if the net, with its aversion to propaganda, can ever become an effective instrument for a policy which relies so heavily on disinformation.


(1) IT'S A 1980S POLICY ON 1990S DRUG CRIME    (Top)

TO HEAR Gen.  Barry McCaffrey talk, you'd think he was leading his troops in the right direction.  The nation's drug czar was in New York City this week, pushing a new set of drug statistics and describing his strategy for attacking the nation's drug problem.  "You hook drug treatment to the criminal justice system.  This is not a war on drugs. It's a cancer," said McCaffrey, who's made a big deal out of pushing treatment, prevention and research about the effect of drugs.

But, while the Clinton administration claims to have a new approach to the drug problem, it's waging the same war on drugs that George Bush started a decade ago.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source:   Newsday (NY)
Copyright:   1999, Newsday Inc.
Page:   A56
Contact:  
Fax:   (516)843-2986
Website:   http://www.newsday.com/
Author:   Sheryl McCarthy
Related:   Marijuana Policy Project, http://www.mpp.org/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n353.a01.html


(2) SLOW THE DRUG-TEST FRENZY    (Top)

THE FOURTH AMENDMENT is designed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches.

Such as random drug testing.

In recent years, that constitutional protection has been chipped away in the name of the ``war on drugs.'' Opponents of various drug testing schemes were castigated as having something to hide, or possessing too little regard for public safety.

Fortunately, that trend appears to be slowing.

[snip]

Pubdate:   24 Mar 1999
Source:   San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright:   1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum:   http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Page:   A12
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n341.a09.html


(3) HEROIN USE IS UNABATED, REPORT SAYS    (Top)

NEW YORK -- Heroin use in New York City remains high, with more young people trying heroin and more users now snorting the drug than injecting it, often under the misconception that snorting will not lead to addiction, according to a new report on drug trends released Tuesday.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 24 Mar 1999
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   1999 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum:   http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author:   CHRISTOPHER S.  WREN
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n339.a10.html


(4) HEROIN USE BOOMING IN SPOKANE    (Top)

The number of Spokane County residents admitted for heroin treatment nearly quintupled between 1992 and 1998, jumping from 78 to 367, according to a state Department of Social and Health Services report released last week.

Spokane County is the state's per capita leader in treating heroin addicts.  Rates exceed those in Seattle during the mid-1990s' heroin boom.

Spokane's county-run methadone clinic, the only one in Eastern Washington, is so packed that, for the first time, it's having to turn people away.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 29 Mar 1999
Source:   Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright:   1999 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.seattletimes.com/
Author:   AP
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n357.a08.html


(5) CONDEMNING DISSIDENT AUTHORS TO DEATH    (Top)

A well-meaning soul recently asked me, "Vin, why do you have to focus on the loss a few minor rights? This is still the freest nation on earth.  Look at your own writings. In what other country would you be allowed to write these things with no fear of repercussions?"

I imagine Peter McWilliams may have briefly shared that thought in 1993 when Prelude Press brought out his 800-page opus, "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society." Ditto Steve Kubby when Loompanics of Port Townsend, Washington published his "The Politics of Consciousness" in 1995.

[snip]

Last week, the court ruled that if McWilliams dies before his trial due to the fact he is forbidden marijuana in the meantime, that's just too bad.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 28 Mar 1999
Source:   Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright:   Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1999
Contact:  
Address:   P.O.  Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125
Fax:   (702)383-4676
Website:   http://www.lvrj.com/
Forum:   http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/feedback/
Author:   Vin Suprynowicz
Note:   Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of
the Review-Journal.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n351.a07.html


(6) NET BECOMES BATTLEGROUND IN DRUG WAR    (Top)

New Sites Rebut Pro-Pot Messages

Children searching the Internet for information about drugs will find about 1 million "hits," many of which tell them how to buy, sell and grow marijuana.

Yahoo and Altavista search engines feature Web sites ranging from how to smoke banana peels to passing a drug test with drugs in your system to properly tending a marijuana garden.

But the White House and members of Congress hope to combat this message and drug use among youth with the introduction of two innovative Web sites where parents and children can find information on fighting drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 29 Mar 1999
Source:   Washington Times (DC)
Copyright:   1999 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.washtimes.com/
Related:   ABC/Disney's http://www.Freevibe.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n357.a09.html


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

COMMENT: (7-10)    (Top)

Media interest in our bloated prison population continued, with several critical opinion pieces appearing- interestingly, the most important drug war desertion over this issue to date was only mentioned in passing towards the end of a wires service story: Charles Rangel is now soft on crack.

Meanwhile, the major prosecution tool for keeping prisons full faces a challenge: the question of whether testimony purchased by a promise of immunity or leniency is tantamount to a bribe will be presented to the Supreme Court, as will the issue of whether "ride along" TV cameras violate an ordinary citizen's basic right to privacy.

Finally- the hue and cry over the unexplained slaying of an innocent and unarmed black man by four elite NYC plainclothes cops has generated four indictments for murder; an amazing development which would have once been unthinkable.


(7) TAKING A HARD LOOK AT STATE'S JAMMED JAILS    (Top)

One might have imagined that with a Democratic majority in both houses and a Democratic governor, and with prisons filled to the bursting point with some people who have little or no business being there, that the state Legislature would be full of bills seeking to reform the prison and criminal justice system in a relatively liberal direction. Instead it's a mixed bag - and some of the legislation that in the past might have been viewed as "liberal" is being carried by conservative Republicans.

For example, Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh of Huntington Beach has introduced a bill (AB 1247) to carry out a cost-benefit study of California's "three strikes" law that is similar to bill (SB 873) introduced by liberal Democratic state Sen.  John Vasconcellos of San Jose.

[snip]

Pubdate:   March 29 1999
Source:   Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright:   1999 The Orange County Register
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.ocregister.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n354.a09.html


(8) MORE THAN 1M NONVIOLENT PRISONERS    (Top)

WASHINGTON -- Get-tough crime-fighting policies such as mandatory minimum sentences and ``three strikes, you're out'' laws helped drive the number of nonviolent inmates in American jails and prisons above 1 million last year, a group that opposes minimum sentences says.

[snip]

Rep.  Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., cited the study as he pushed for legislation eliminating mandatory five-year penalties for crack cocaine crimes and an end to the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source:   Associated Press
Copyright:   1999 Associated Press
Author:   ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n348.a03.html


(9) HIGH COURT ASKED TO HEAR CHALLENGE TO PROSECUTION DEALS;    (Top)

U.S.  Law Barring Rewards For Testimony Applies To Government, Says Inmate

WASHINGTON -- A Kansas woman, whose routine drug case has deeply shaken the Justice Department and federal prosecutors across the nation, is taking her legal cause to the Supreme Court.

In appeal papers that will reach the court by mail this week, Sonya Evette Singleton of Wichita is asking the justices to rule that federal prosecutors may not offer an individual involved in a crime lenient treatment in exchange for testifying against a defendant -- a practice followed by generations of prosecutors.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 24 Mar 1999
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   1999 by The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sunspot.net/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n343.a04.html


(10) YOU'RE UNDER ARREST, AND ON TV    (Top)

JERKY camera movements, shouts, cops rushing through a darkened doorway, guns drawn.  It all makes great television. "Reality-based" programming has mushroomed in America and it is easy to see why.  Almost everyone comes out a winner.  The police look like heroes. Journalists get a great story.  TV firms get an endless stream of cheap programmes. And audiences love such in-your-face entertainment.  Perhaps the only loser is the person being searched or arrested in the full glare of publicity.  What if the target turns out to be innocent?

On March 24th the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases which ask whether media "ride-alongs" with policemen executing search or arrest warrants is a breach of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of "unreasonable searches and seizures."

[snip]

Pubdate:   27 March 1999
Source:   Economist, The (UK)
Copyright:   1999.  The Economist Newspaper Limited.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.economist.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n344.a08.html


Medical Marijuana


COMMENT: (11-15)    (Top)

Joe Califano has been making a career of the "gateway" theory; his entirely predictable howls over the IOM report were (predictably) aired in the Wall Street Journal.  His distress reflected the severe damage done by the report to his meal ticket.

With a timing that emphasizes the yawning gulf between politicians and public, Iowa's legislature upped the ante for simple possession; similar intensity was reflected by the felony conviction of a patient/grower of medical cannabis in rural California.

Bill Lockyer's trip to Washington, sustained two rebuffs; only one of which mattered to the headline writer, who didn't mention McCzar's threat to arrest the AG for daring help implement Prop 215.

An obvious rhetorical question was asked by an excellent op-ed; why indeed, is it so important to deny patients easily obtainable relief of severe symptoms?


(11) THE GRASS ROOTS OF TEEN DRUG ABUSE    (Top)

"FEDS GO TO POT" screamed the New York Post headline last week, after the Institute of Medicine released its report "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base." The Associated Press reported that the IOM had found "there was no conclusive evidence that marijuana use leads to harder drugs."

A look at the actual report shows that these press accounts are misleading.  Consider these words from the report: "Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 26 Mar 1999
Source:   Wall Street Journal (NY)
Copyright:   1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.wsj.com/
Author:   JOSEPH A.  CALIFANO JR.
Related:   IOM Report: http://www.drugsense.org/iom_report/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n347.a07.html


(12) BILL TOUGHENS MARIJUANA LAWS    (Top)

With no discussion and little dissent, the Iowa House on Thursday approved a significant change in the state's marijuana laws.

Under current law, giving another person an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor.  The proposed law would make anything more than a half-ounce a felony.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 26 Mar 1999
Source:   Des Moines Register (IA)
Copyright:   1999, The Des Moines Register.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.dmregister.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n350.a04.html


(13) CALAVERAS MAN CONVICTED OF CULTIVATING MARIJUANA    (Top)

SAN ANDREAS -- A Calaveras County man who claimed he grew marijuana for medicinal purposes was convicted Thursday of cultivating pot, but jurors deadlocked on a charge of possession of marijuana for sale.

Authorities arrested Robert Galambos in July 1997, after finding 382 young marijuana plants and about 6 pounds of bagged marijuana at his home in Paloma, western Calaveras County.

Galambos claimed his marijuana cultivation was for medical reasons -- to treat lingering pain from a car accident a decade ago that fractured his skull, as well as to supply an Oakland cannabis club under the auspices of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Initiative.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 26 Mar 1999
Source:   Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright:   1999 The Modesto Bee.
Feedback:   http://www.modbee.com/man/help/contact.html
Website:   http://www.modbee.com/
Author:   Jim Miller and Ron DeLacy Bee staff writers
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n350.a12.html


(14) LOCKYER: U.S. WILL END PUSH FOR NUKE DUMP AT DESERT SITE    (Top)

Decision on Ward Valley plan no surprise

[snip]

Lockyer also met in Washington with U.S.  Attorney General Janet Reno and White House drug czar Barry R.  McCaffrey, to discuss California's Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medical uses.

"Both were very clear that medical marijuana use violates federal law," Lockyer said, and McCaffrey added that a massive research effort is needed to determine if marijuana has any medical value.

Lockyer said he told McCaffrey that state law authorizes him to conduct certain marijuana-related research.  But McCaffrey told Lockyer he'd be violating federal law and risking arrest if he did so.

[snip]

Pubdate:   27 Mar 1999
Source:   Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright:   1999 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  
Address:   P.O.Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852
Feedback:   http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html
Website:   http://www.sacbee.com/
Forum:   http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.html
Author:   Stephen Green, Bee Capitol Bureau
Note:   The meat is in the last four paragraphs
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n351.a12.html


(15) WHY IS MARIJUANA FOR THE SUFFERING STILL ILLEGAL?    (Top)

WE ARE A GREAT NATION, dedicated to freedom, roaming the planet to bring justice to the oppressed, comfort to the suffering, democracy to all.  And yet, we remain unspeakably cruel to our fellow citizens.

No other word exists to describe the federal government's steadfast refusal to allow the medical use of marijuana.  It is cruel _ heartless, sadistic, mean-spirited.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Mar 1999
Source:   Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright:   1999 Bergen Record Corp.
Feedback:   http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/feedback
Website:   http://www.bergen.com/
Author:   Mike Celzic
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n346.a07.html


International News


COMMENT: (16-19)    (Top)

It seems that Pino Arlaachi shares McCaffrey's infatuation with the idea that a high-tech "killer ap" will emerge to rehabilitate interdiction as a viable strategy.

Meanwhile, the tendency toward "tough on drugs" continued in the UK, with little discernible benefit.  If they repeat the American experience, quadrupling the number of drug crimes will quadruple the number of inmates without diminishing drug sales.

To end on a pleasant note, the German drug czarina doesn't smile on recreational pot, but approves of therapeutic Cannabis.  Schrechlich!


(16) U.N. TO CREATE OWN SATELLITE PROGRAM TO FIND ILLEGAL DRUG CROPS    (Top)

The United Nations program charged with reducing illicit drugs is creating its own satellite monitoring system to identify the cultivation of narcotics in the major source countries.

The U.N.  International Drug Control Program received the go-ahead last week at the annual meeting in Vienna of the world body's Commission on Narcotic Drugs, getting unanimous approval from the 53 member countries, including the United States.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 28 Mar 1999
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   1999 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum:   http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author:   Christopher S.  Wren
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n353.a09.html


(17) SCOTLAND: NATIONAL UNIT TO WAGE WAR ON DRUGS    (Top)

A SCOTTISH drug enforcement agency will be in place by the end of the year to "wage war" on the relentless rise in drugs crime, Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, announced yesterday.

The Government promised to invest A36 million in training and equipping 200 extra detectives to catch drug dealers and importers, doubling the specialist police manpower to combat drugs at a national level.

Crime figures reveal that drugs offences have more than quadrupled in the past decade, from 7,000 to 31,500.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, Mar 26, 1999
Source:   Scotsman (UK)
Copyright:   The Scotsman Publications Ltd
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.scotsman.com/
Forum:   http://www.scotsman.com/
Author:   Jenny Booth, Home Affairs Correspondent
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n347.a05.html


(18) UK: 10-YEAR-OLDS BEING OFFERED DRUGS    (Top)

SCHOOL CHILDREN as young as 10-years-old are being offered drugs in Northern Ireland.

A recent survey by the Health Promotion Agency found that almost a quarter of 10 to 16-year-olds have been offered drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   23 March 1999
Source:   Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright:   1999 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n339.a07.html


(19) GERMAN HEALTH MINISTER SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIHUANA    (Top)

(From The 'Stuttgarter Zeitung')

BONN Germany's drug czar, Christa Nickels (Greens), considers it sensible to use Cannabis products such as marihuana and hashish for therapeutic purposes in medicine.

Speaking exclusively of marihuana as a natural herb, she said it had shown itself to be "a potentially successful therapy in the treatment of AIDS, MS and cancer sufferers" and is "more cost effective than synthetic substitutes".

"Marihuana as a freely accessible drug is a different question," she said.

[snip]

Source:   Survey of German Language Press
Pubdate:   Tue, 23 Mar 1999
Courtesy:   Harald Lerch ()
Translator:   Pat Dolan ()
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n351.a01.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on MMJ now On-line (Fully Scanned)

http://www.drugsense.org/iom_report/


DrugNews Archive Tops 20,000 Searchable News Articles

The DrugSense DrugNews Archive broke the 20,000 article threshold this week.  Imagine a few years ago the only news we had on drug policy is what we read in our local papers.  Now we have a worldwide searchable archive (20,076 articles currently) and we are responding to a good percentage of them as they are published with our letter writing efforts.


Conservatives for Reform Web Site

Some may this new web site.  They are starting a media campaign against the drug war from a conservative libertarian perspective.

http://www.libertyproject.org/ad.cfm


Tip of the Week

Four Letters to the Editor in the Wall Street Journal = $18,000 for Reform YOU can do it too!

On Tuesday March 23 MAP sent out a Focus Alert responding to an article by Joe Califano in the Wall Street Journal on the IOM report.  Scores of MAP letter writers went into action.  Predictably On Wed March 31 four of these LTEs were published.

The Wall Street Journal has a circulation of 2 MILLION influential readers and this group of LTEs had an ad value of over $18,000.  YOU can help increase our influence and reach.  To learn how to write powerful letters that get ink please see:

http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm and http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

If you are not signed up to participate in MAP Focus Alerts and would like to be see http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

Please encourage others to get involved as well.  Letter writing (especially organized efforts) may be the most effective activity one can engage in on a regular and inexpensive basis to bring about needed reform.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"Another fertile source of this species of derangement [moral insanity] appears to be an undue indulgence in the perusal of the numerous works of fiction, with which the press is so prolific of late years, and which are sown widely over the land, with the effect of vitiating the taste and corrupting the morals of the young.  Parents cannot too cautiously guard their young daughters against this pernicious practice."

-- Dr.  W.H. Stokes, of the Mount Hope Institute on the Insane, Scientific American, April 1849.


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