Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/30/24)

* Feature Article

    Attention Law Enforcement You Could Be Sued, Indicted,
    Even Sent To Prison As A Drug War Criminal!
    By Steve Kubby

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1)
(1) The Lure of Ecstasy
COMMENT: (2-3)
(2) More Federal Aid Sought to Fight Explosion of Drugs in Northwest
(3) Cigarette Consumption Falls, But More Teens Pick Up Habit
COMMENT: (4-5)
(4) Feds Want to Probe Mails for Drugs
(5) Editorial: Drug-Crazy
COMMENT: (6-7)
(6) Drug Reforms Would Keep Users Jail-Free
(7) OPED: Legalizing Drugs to Combat Terrorism

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (8-9)
(8) Experts Say Change in Police Drug-Money Policy Unlikely
(9) Police Who Dodge Forfeiture Laws Are Taking One Step too Many
COMMENT: (10-11)
(10) Editorial: Another Blow to Law Enforcement
(11) Battle Against Bad Cops isn't Fought Only in L.A.
COMMENT: (12)
(12) Brooklyn Courts Strained by Arrests in Drug Sweeps

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (13-15)
(13) Davis Fights to Suspend Licenses in Drug Cases
(14) Canada: Government Swamped With Bids to Grow Marijuana
(15) New Zealand: Committee Review of Cannabis Law Likely
COMMENT: (16)
(16) Harrelson Makes His Voice Heard on the History Of Hemp

International News-

COMMENT: (17-19)
(17) Canada: The Story of E
(18) Finally it Hits But I Don't Feel out of Control
(19) CN ON: Debate Over Raves Turning into 'Moral Panic'
COMMENT: (20)
(20) Scotland: California Clue To Lethal Injections
COMMENT: (21)
(21) Major Audit Firms Reject Colombia Contracts, Fearing Reprisal

* Hot Off The 'Net

    An Introduction to the Drug Policy Reform Movement Web Page On-Line
    New Country Specific MAPNews Editions!  Australia, Canada, U.K. and
    U.S. Now Available
    ZoomCulture Provides RealVideo Clips of DPF Conference
    Photos Of DPF Conference On-line
    Arianna Huffington Keeps Getting Better

* Quote of the Week

    William Lloyd Garrison

NOTE:	The Feature Article excerpted below can be read in it's entirety

at a web site set up by Bob Ames http://www.attentionlawenforcement.com

Attention Law Enforcement You Could Be Sued, Indicted, Even Sent To Prison As A Drug War Criminal!

By Steve Kubby

All wars end and eventually the War on Drugs will end as well.  After every war, comes an accounting of those who violated the human rights of others.  Where will you stand when that judgment day comes? Will you be exonerated or end up spending the rest of your life as a drug war criminal?

You may believe it is your duty to "do something about the drug problem," but those who violate the human rights of American citizens will someday be held accountable.  That day is surely coming and it may be sooner than you think.  If you and your fellow officers, no matter how well intentioned, continue to enforce the failed ideology of Zero Tolerance; you could find yourself spending the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, worrying about being charged and convicted of drug war crimes against your fellow citizens.

When police think and act like soldiers, they generate mistrust among their constituents, which in turn pushes law enforcement agencies further into an elitist, impersonal enclave.  The military mentality, along with machine guns and flash grenades, have no place in a free society.

Just listen to what Joseph D.  McNamara, the Retired Police Chief of San Jose and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution has to say about the military mentality that has infected the LAPD and police departments across the country

"The Board of Inquiry report released last week, for all its candor and commendable self criticism, does not cite the department's fundamental military style of policing as responsible for the horrible police crimes alleged by former Officer Rafael Perez, whose disclosures exposed the police misconduct at Rampart.  Rather than calling for the development of a new style of policing, the report focuses on internal management practices.  It contends that a few rotten apples, binge hiring, inadequate training, haphazard supervision, failure to hold supervisors accountable and other personnel shortcomings were the sources of the problems at Rampart."

Chief McNamara then goes on to warn, "Greedy" lawyers, not idealism, may thus end up provoking citizens in Los Angeles to demand that those who enforce the law should also obey it.  When police behave lawfully, people can tell the good guys from the bad.  Folks don't have to worry about cops shooting their teenagers or framing them, or plunging their city into bankruptcy.

Judging from the headlines, police departments across this great nation, from Los Angeles to New York City are about to reap the wrath of "Greedy" lawyers.  Although no elected officials are yet ready to deal with demilitarizing the LAPD, the L.A.  City Council is planning on over $200 million in law suits.  That estimate is probably low and doesn't include personal suits against police as well as a tremendous loss of credibility for the police.

Under the California Constitution Article 2 Section 10, Prop.  215 legally became the law of California the day after the 1996 election and only the voters can amend or repeal the Compassionate Use Act now that it has passed

(a) An initiative statute or referendum approved by a majority of votes thereon TAKES EFFECT THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION unless the measure provides otherwise.  [emphasis added]

Where is your moral tripwire for saying NO to a failed ideology and insisting on following the Constitution instead? If Washington and Jefferson were still alive today, would you arrest them for violating federal law? Would you fire on unarmed American citizens if ordered to? These are questions only you can decide.

Hopefully, you will give serious consideration to these important issues and you will make a new commitment to your oath to "Protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Will your future hold honor or a life as a war criminal? The choice is yours.

Domestic News- Policy

Time's cover confirms that MDMA (ecstasy) is now a big time criminal market.  The good news: the piece is fairly complete, reasonably accurate and far more balanced than their crack articles in the Eighties.

The elixir best known for powering raves is an 80-year-old illegal drug.  But it's showing up outside clubs too, and advocates claim it even has therapeutic benefits.  Just how dangerous is it?

[snip]

So we know that ecstasy is versatile.  Actually, that's one of the first things we knew about it.  Alexander Shulgin, 74, the biochemist who in 1978 published the first scientific article about the drug's effect on humans, noticed this panacea quality back then...

The ready availability of ecstasy, from Cobb County to Grand Rapids, is a newer phenomenon.  Ecstasy--or "e"--enjoyed a brief spurt of mainstream use in the '80s, before the government outlawed it in 1985. Until recently, it remained common only on the margins of society--in clubland, in gay America, in lower Manhattan.  But in the past year or so, ecstasy has returned to the heartland.  Established drug dealers and mobsters have taken over the trade, and they are meeting the astonishing demand...

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 05 Jun 2000

Source:	Time Magazine (US)

Copyright:	2000 Time Inc.

Contact:

Address:	Time Magazine Letters,

Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, NY, NY 10020

Fax:	(212) 522-8949

Website:	http://www.time.com/

Author:	John Cloud

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n713/a04.html

The ecstasy explosion is ill-timed for our drug warriors, who are not only trying to sell a war in Colombia; but are in disarray on the meth and heroin fronts as well.

In contrast, reduced cigarette sales shows that prohibition isn't necessary; in fact, the teen cigarette market- the only one where prohibition operates- is the exception.

WASHINGTON -- Pacific Northwest lawmakers, responding to an explosion in illegal drug use in the region, are seeking to more than double federal aid to crack down on methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and cocaine.

[snip]

"It really is very similar to an epidemic," said Rep.  Brian Baird, D-Wash.  "Our local communities -- particularly our rural communities - -- have been overwhelmed financially.  Those people are absolutely at their limit."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 29 May 2000

Source:	Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)

Copyright:	2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Contact:

Address:	P.O.  Box 1909, Seattle, WA 98111-1909

Website:	http://www.seattle-pi.com/

Author:	John Hughes - The Associated Press

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n711/a07.html

WASHINGTON - Americans are rejecting the smoking habit at a surprisingly rapid rate, a trend that is going global.

But there are signs of increased smoking in poor countries and among teen-agers and young women in several countries, and deaths blamed on smoking still are rising worldwide.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 22 May 2000

Source:	Charlotte Observer (NC)

Copyright:	2000 The Charlotte Observer

Contact:

Website:	http://www.charlotte.com/observer/

Author:	David Briscoe, of the AP

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n682/a04.html

Like other repressions facing unwelcome scrutiny, the drug war is responding in the only way its advocates understand: more repression.

Thankfully- as with "Plan Colombia," some eyebrows are being raised.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With drug traffickers becoming more savvy in the use of the post office to smuggle drugs, the U.S.  Customs Service is asking Congress for permission to search mail leaving the United States.

The proposal, included in a crime bill in the House, has hit opposition from the U.S.  Postal Service which believes such mail is protected by the Fourth Amendment's provisions against unlawful searches and seizures.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 26 May 2000

Source:	Associated Press

Copyright:	2000 Associated Press

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n699/a06.html

Drugs can lead you to do awful things -- and can do serious damage to you -- even when you don't take them.  Just look at a bill making its way through Congress.  The Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, sponsored by Republican Orrin Hatch and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, contains a couple of provisions that endanger the rights of all Americans.

The first provision would loosen the rules governing police searches. It would permit the police to search your residence, vehicle, or workplace and to take "intangible evidence" (by making a copy of your computer's hard drive, for example) without telling you.

[snip]

....The bill also would make it illegal to tell someone how to produce
drugs.  Thus, someone writing to a relative where marijuana has been decriminalized about a Web site with advice on growing the weed could face criminal prosecution.  Talk about Reefer Madness.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 26 May 2000

Source:	Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)

Copyright:	2000 Richmond Newspapers Inc.

Contact:

Fax:	(804) 775-8072

Feedback:	http://www.gatewayva.com/feedback/totheeditor.shtml

Website:	http://www.timesdispatch.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n697/a01.html

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/methact.htm

More opposition to the prevailing paradigm heard in California: An Examiner piece told about the harm-reduction initiative expected to be on the Fall ballot and an OP-Ed in the conservative Union-Tribune pointed out a growing problem and argued that full legalization is the only reliable solution.

With her bluntly cut blond bangs, pale blue eyes and quiet voice, Ninon Mayrbaurl is not the person you would expect to be sent to jail 15 times.

The 31-year-old Santa Rosa native has been convicted of burglary, but her major offense is what she considers a medical condition: a drug addiction that may have started when she tried marijuana at age 7, snorted cocaine at 15 or smoked crack at 18.

[snip]

Within weeks, a group of wealthy philanthropists, drug-reformers and medical marijuana promoters are expected to receive official word that a wide-ranging initiative they have written will go before California voters to address this growing problem.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 27 May 2000

Source:	San Francisco Examiner (CA)

Copyright:	2000 San Francisco Examiner

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Robert Salladay and Zachary Coile

Note:	After the main article is a sidebar entitled: Behind bars: Prison

statistics

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n704/a06.html

Drug addiction is a terrible thing....

America, and the world, should never relax their vigilance against drug addiction.  And yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that the ongoing prohibition of narcotics has not only failed to stem the flow of drugs into our country but is now placing the life of every single U.S. citizen in jeopardy.

How? By funneling billions of dollars out of the U.S.  economy and directly into the hands of international terrorists who, most experts agree, are only a stone's throw away from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Pubdate:	Sun, 28 May 2000

Source:	San Diego Union Tribune (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Contact:

Address:	PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191

Fax:	(619) 293-1440

Website:	http://www.uniontrib.com/

Forum:	http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX

Author:	Arthur Cole

Note:	Cole is a free-lance journalist living in Hope Valley, R.I.

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n710/a05.html

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

Echoes from the utterly damning KC Star series on the way police profit from forfeiture laws continued to reverberate.

KANSAS CITY (AP) Federal lawmakers could stop police from improperly keeping millions of dollars seized in drug busts and traffic stops, but a yearlong examination by The Kansas City Star found that change will not come soon or easily.

Congress passed legislation last month curbing some federal forfeiture powers.  But the version that reached the White House was missing a provision that could have blocked the way police across the country use federal agencies to circumvent their own state laws.

[snip]

When police seize money, they avoid taking it to state courts because most states have passed laws barring seized property from going directly back to police.

Instead, police call in a federal agency, which accepts the seizure under federal law, keeps a portion, usually 20 percent, for itself and sends the rest back to police.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 22 May 2000

Source:	Columbia Tribune (MO)

Address:	P.O.  Box 798 Columbia, MO 65205

Website:	http://www.showmenews.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n686/a05.html

A cop pulls you over.  Is it that broken taillight? Or is he looking for an excuse to confiscate that fancy car of yours?

[snip]

Aren't cops, after all, supposed to be the good guys? And by that I mean not simply on the right side in the conflict between good and evil, but the ones who play by the rules.  Laws are laws, correct?

Yet, since the so-called war on drugs began in the mid- 1980s, police have increasingly thumbed their noses at constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures, from the use of no-knock search warrants to aggressive use of forfeiture laws.

And they justify it with the same logic as some rogue cop who plants cocaine on a known drug dealer: The end justifies the means.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 24 May 2000

Source:	Kansas City Star (MO)

Copyright:	2000 The Kansas City Star

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.kansascity.com/Discussion/

Website:	http://www.kcstar.com/

Author:	Mike Hendricks,

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n691/a08.html

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n682/a02.html

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm

The good news: we're skipping the usual Rampart update; the bad news: it's because another LA law enforcement scandal grabbed the headlines.

Smarting from their own scandals, two LA times writers wrote a long article on how police everywhere are corrupted by illegal drug money. Their (typically) naive approach meant the most obvious solution couldn't even be mentioned.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is snarled in the biggest criminal investigation of its own deputies and civilian staffers since a narcotics unit scandal in the late 1980s.  Both deputies and civilian employees are alleged to have participated in credit card fraud, and at least two are also suspected of selling drugs to jail inmates.  The allegations, coming on the heels of the L.A.  Police Department probe, are another sharp blow to the region's public confidence in law enforcement.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 26 May 2000

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Address:	Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053

Fax:	(213) 237-4712

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

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n698/a07.html

Scandal:	National Crackdown Finds Where There's Law, Even In Smallest

Of Forces, There's Potential For Disorder.

DULUTH, Minn.--One day Officer Kerwin Hall climbed into his patrol car and found two $100 bills on the seat.  Before long he was taking cash directly from the hands of drug dealers.  In return he would steer his police cruiser away from certain streets notorious for drug sales.

[snip]

Compared with the Rampart scandal, most of these cases involve smaller forces and are less visible to the nation at large.  But within the affected communities, the impact is no less devastating.

[snip]

With plenty of time on his hands, he offered this explanation for the culture of cops and crime: "There's just too much wrong out there, too much temptation.  There's too much going down, too many people who aren't reporting things.  "You've got cops who actually make a better living getting money on the outside and it doesn't just go down to patrolmen.  It goes higher. It's accessible.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 28 May 2000

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Address:	Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053

Fax:	(213) 237-4712

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

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

Author:	Richard A.  Serrano, Times Staff Writer

Times staff writer Ronald J.  Ostrow contributed to this story.

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n708/a05.html

A rarely mentioned drug war consequence: justice delayed, was cited by Judge Kane last week.  NYC's wasteful and ill-fated Operation Condor provides a good case in point.

The caseload in Brooklyn's criminal courts nearly doubled in April compared with the same month last year largely because of the huge number of arrests in a sweeping Police Department anti-narcotics plan, and court officials are expressing fears that the case backlog may get out of hand.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 25 May 2000

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	2000 The New York Times Company

Contact:

Address:	229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036

Fax:	(212) 556-3622

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

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

Author:	Alan Feuer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n691/a11.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

California, a state where medical marijuana was passed nearly four years age, still doesn't have enabling legislation and patients are still arrested; perhaps the governor's stance on recreational use provides a clue.

In sharp contrast is the attitude toward medical marijuana in Canada; also the chance that New Zealand, after much discussion, may be the first English-speaking country to formally soften its cannabis laws.

Driving:	Legislators Resist Federally Backed Policy, Which Has Lapsed.

Opponents Say Offense, Penalty Aren't Related.

SACRAMENTO--Smoke a joint.  Get caught. Lose your driver's license for six months.

To Democratic Gov.  Gray Davis, who has labored to fashion a tougher-than-thou image on law-and-order issues, treatment of those busted for even minor drug offenses should be that simple and severe.

But to the more liberal Democrats who control the California Legislature, a push by Davis to revive a stiff drug policy championed by former U.S drug czar William J.  Bennett a decade ago goes way too far--and many are vowing to block it.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 24 May 2000

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Fax:	(213) 237-4712

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

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

Author:	Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n692/a11.html

The title of Canada's official marijuana pusher is being hotly contested this month from coast to coast.

Ever since Health Canada released the terms of a five-year contract it plans to give a Canadian supplier of marijuana this summer, requests for more information have been coming in like green buds in the spring.

Potential dope growers include McGill and Guelph universities, SNC-Lavalin, GW Pharmaceuticals, British Columbia's Ministry of Forestry, the village of Masset, B.C., and something called the Molecular Delivery Corporation in California.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 27 May 2000

Source:	Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)

Copyright:	2000 The Ottawa Citizen

Contact:

Website:	http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

Author:	Jack Aubry

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n703/a07.html

WELLINGTON -- Health Minister Annette King plans to recommend that Parliament's multi-party health committee carries out a review of cannabis laws.

Mrs King said the committee could bring a multi-party approach to any changes.

The review was not top of her list of priorities and, given the committee's workload, may not be running before Christmas.

She said a proposal floated over the weekend by National leader Jenny Shipley for more lenient treatment of people caught with cannabis could be put before the review.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 29 May 2000

Source:	Press, The (New Zealand)

Copyright:	2000 The Christchurch Press Company Ltd.

Contact:

Address:	Private Bag 4722, Christchurch, New Zealand

Fax:	+64-3-364-8238

Website:	http://www.press.co.nz/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n709/a05.html

When the history of the repeal of marijuana laws is written, Woody Harrelson will deserve prominent mention.

Actor narrated `Grass,' a film about marijuana laws

Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Staff Critic

Woody Harrelson has a reputation for getting behind causes.  A few years ago, he climbed the Golden Gate Bridge, protesting the destruction of ancient redwood groves.  He lent his support to the Proposition 215 campaign, the medical marijuana initiative, and has been outspoken on the virtues of hemp.  He also has a reputation as one of the nicest and most unaffected guys in the movie business.

On Friday, ``Grass,'' a colorful documentary about the history of marijuana in the United States, opens at the Castro Theatre.  Harrelson is the narrator.  ...

The film, by Ron Mann, maintains a tone of lighthearted bemusement, even as it piles on evidence that the war on drugs has been a waste.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 30 May 2000

Source:	San Francisco Chronicle (CA)

Copyright:	2000 San Francisco Chronicle

Contact:

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

Forum:	http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/

Author:	Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Staff Critic

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n716/a07.html

International News

Although Time featured ecstasy on its cover, the most complete source of useful information was Canada; read these three long articles in their entirety; then go through the complete "slide show" at http://www.dancesafe.org/

From Clandestine Labs That Dot The Dutch Countryside To The Dance Floors Of Urban Canada, A Team Of Globe And Mail Reporters Tracks The Life Cycle Of The Controversial 'Rave Drug' Known As Ecstasy.

[snip]

But there is nothing lenient in the Dutch attitude toward ecstasy, which under the Opium Act is classified as a Schedule 1 hard drug.  That puts it in the same category as heroin and cocaine, whose usage within the country of 16 million is the lowest in the Western world.

[snip]

Busts are usually too small to be newsworthy, and most drugs get through.  "It's amazing how much the drug trade resembles a legitimate business," Staff Sergeant Matheson says.

The "mules" who carry the goods into Canada are the most expendable members of the smuggling operation...

[snip]

"Ecstasy is everywhere .  . . It is a middle-class drug that has crossed all boundaries.  It's at house parties, clubs, weekends at the cottage," says David Collins of Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force, a group that works with drug users.

"Where's ecstasy? Where isn't ecstasy?"

Pubdate:	Sat, 27 May 2000

Source:	Globe and Mail (Canada)

Copyright:	2000, The Globe and Mail Company

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Timothy Appleby, Colin Freeze, Natalie Southworth, Roma Luciw

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n701/a01.html

Toronto -- Last weekend, I took some ecstasy and danced all night and, astoundingly, I did not die.  I did not go to a rave, but to an established nightclub in Toronto where two famous DJs from Detroit were the night's attractions.  I went with middle-class people, one in magazine publishing, aged 26, whom I will call Mr.  Bad, and one in book publishing, aged 31, whom I will call Ms.  Innocent.

[snip]

The beat is dark and deep, a crisp and clean house beat with varying percussion patterns and a throbbing kick drum.  It is impossible to understand this music unless you have been dancing for at least an hour.  It takes a while to find yourself solidly within this driving beat.  Once there, it feels powerful -- clean and sexy at the same time.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 27 May 2000

Source:	Globe and Mail (Canada)

Copyright:	2000, The Globe and Mail Company

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Russell Smith

Cited:	http://www.dancesafe.org and http://www.ecstasy.org/

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n706/a08.html

U.S.  Expert Allen Ho Inquest: Issues Presented Out Of Proportion To Evidence, He Says

The debate over designer drug use in the U.S.  in the past three to four years can best be described as a "moral panic," the Allen Ho inquest heard yesterday.

[snip]

Where such panics involve drugs, particular drugs are portrayed as more destructive or addictive than they actually are, and reports tend to use loaded words such as epidemic.  Stories about a single high-profile death can also be portrayed as a typical case.  "Very often, these horror stories live on for years," said Dr.  Jenkins.

Debates normally feature one or more "moral entrepreneurs" who take ownership of an issue and try to influence public opinion...

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 24 May 2000

Source:	National Post (Canada)

Copyright:	2000 Southam Inc.

Contact:

Fax:	(416) 442-2209

Feedback:	http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary.asp?s2letters

Website:	http://www.nationalpost.com/

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

Author:	Jennifer Prittie

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n693/a05.html

The morbidity and mortality of illegal markets is highlighted in UK and Irish reports of the mysterious deaths of heroin users; first, a cluster of deaths in Glasgow, then another in Dublin.  It's not anthrax- as was speculated last week.

Health experts investigating a mystery infection which has killed 11 heroin users in Glasgow believe a spate of similar deaths in California may offer some important clues, The Observer has learned.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 28 May 2000

Source:	Observer, The (UK)

Copyright:	2000 The Observer

Contact:

Fax:	0171 713 4250/4286

Website:	http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/observer/

Author:	Stuart Millar, Scotland Editor

A revealing tidbit from the normally sterile world of accounting: the socioeconomic climate in Colombia is so bad the US Government is unable to induce a private firm to do a simple audit.

WASHINGTON (AP) Two big accounting firms, fearing "potential reprisals," rejected contracts to review Colombian national police records for possible misuse of drug-fighting funds provided by the United States, so State Department auditors have taken over the job themselves, records show.  The audit is being performed as Congress considers a Clinton administration proposal to send Colombia $1.6 billion in fresh drug-fighting aid.

[snip]

State Department officials sought the audit after a top Colombian National Police official was accused of embezzling American money intended for the force's air wing.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 26 May 2000

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	2000 The New York Times Company

Contact:

Fax:	(212) 556-3622

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

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n704/a04.html

An Introduction to the Drug Policy Reform Movement
by Matthew Elrod

This is the text of a 45 minute presentation given by Matt to The Western Regional Criminology Articulation Committee at the Justice Institute of B.C.  in Canada Friday May 26, 2000. It is an exceptional presentation to an exceptional audience.

http://www.drugsense.org/me/talk.htm

Submitted by Richard Lake

New Country Specific MAPNews Editions! Australia, Canada, U.K.  and U.S.  Now Available

Matt Elrod has again worked his magic by creating still another way you can receive the news items from our clipping service.  For details see:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n716.a05.html

Submitted by Richard Lake

ZoomCulture Provides RealVideo Clips of DPF Conference

ZoomCulture has done a nice job of recording many of the highlights of the DPF Conference in Washington DC last week.  Some really outstanding speeches and clips are available for your review:

http://www.zoomculture.com/general/dcoffice/dpf/

Photos Of DPF Conference On-line

You can get some glimpses of the DPF conference at:

http://www.csdp.org/dpf2000.htm

Thanks to Doug McVay for taking the photos and making them available on the web.

Submitted by Kevin Zeese

Arianna Huffington Keeps Getting Better

The War On Drugs: Just Say 'No More'

You won't find the latest good news about our war in the foreign-news section of the paper.  That's because this war is being fought at home. But you won't find it in the domestic-news section, either.  That's because the media are barely reporting anything outside the talking points of the presidential candidates.

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/060100.html

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/authors/huffington

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