Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/21/24)

* Feature Article

    Peter McWilliams Dies - Yet  Another Heroic Casualty of the
    "War on Drugs" / by Mark Greer

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1-2)
(1) The War on Drugs - Why We Fight
(2) The Wasteful War on Drugs
COMMENT: (3-6)
(3) U.S. Judges Call for Legalising of Drugs
(4) Battle Over Drug Treatment Initiative Heats Up
(5) Treatment, Not Prison
(6) Drug Czar Challenges California Voters
COMMENT: (7-8)
(7) Knowledge Control
(8) Survey Finds More Teenage Heavy Smokers, Drug Users in 90s
COMMENT: (9)
(9) An Earlier 'War on Drugs'

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-12)
(10) More Whites Use Drugs, More Blacks Imprisoned
(11) All Men Are Created Equal--Except in Drug War
(12) Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?
COMMENT: (13)
(13) Inmate Freed in Rampart Scandal Files Lawsuit
COMMENT: (14-15)
(14) Drug Forfeiture Practice Raises Ethics, Freedom
(15) Border D.A.s to Decline Fed Drug Cases

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (16-20)
(16) New Zealand: MPs Get Steamed Up About Cannabis
(17) Australia: Victoria Urged To Soften Cannabis Use Laws
(18) UK: Tories Clash Over Cannabis Cafes Plan
(19) UK: Cannabis Legalisation Bill Before Commons
(20) CN ON: 150,000 Smoke Pot For Health In Ontario, New Survey

International News-

COMMENT: (21-22)
(21) UK: Doctors Search for Clues to Mysterious Killer
(22) UK: 3 Held Over 'Rogue Heroin' Deaths
COMMENT: (23-24)
(23) With U.S. Gone, Panama Is A Mecca For Drug
(24) U.S. Must Reduce Drug Consumption - Mexico President

* Hot Off The 'Net

    Mandatory Searches in "The Land of the Free"
    McCzar Bashes MAP in Congressional Testimony
    Peter McWilliams Final Interview and Books Available Online

* Quote of the Week

    Frederick Douglas, Abolitionist

Peter McWilliams Dies - Yet Another Heroic Casualty of the "War on Drugs"

Peter McWilliams is dead.  The Los Angeles author, publisher and cancer survivor living with AIDS, faced sentencing later this summer to a prison term that would surely have been a death sentence.  Details at this writing are quite sketchy but the news archive will surely have follow up articles shortly.

McWilliams was arrested in July 1998 on federal marijuana charges, after having given an advance to Todd McCormick, a medical marijuana patient, for a book (see http://www.petertrial.com/ for more details).

Last November prosecutors got an order barring him from telling the jury that he has AIDS, that marijuana is medicine, that the federal government gives marijuana to eight patients, or that California passed Prop.  215.

Stripped of any defense and facing a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, he pleaded to a lesser charge.

Peter was a great author and a hero to the drug policy reform effort. His last interview conducted just last week and aired on 20/20 can be viewed with RealVideo at:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000608_gmab_marijuana_feature.htm

A partial transcript with John Stossel and Barbara Walters can be read at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n790/a05.html

All of Peter's outstanding books have been left as a legacy to his great work.  All can be read or downloaded for free from his web site http://www.mcwilliams.com/

News clippings about Peter can be found in the MAP news archive at: http://www.mapinc.org/mcwilliams.htm

Peter is in a better place and those of us who remain to fight for sensible drug polices will miss him and hopefully will fight even harder to finish the job he began.

WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW

Domestic News- Policy

Since the days of Harry Anslinger, drug warriors have defended their policy with imaginative Op-Eds; however, their free ride may be over: witness a dozen withering responses the NY Post printed after airing the local DEA Chief's vacuous rebuttal of Arianna Huffington.

This is also a powerful example of MAP in action.

AS the special agent in charge of the New York Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, I read with interest Arianna Huffington's June 2 column, "The Drug War: Just Say 'No More.'"

[snip]

While Ms.  Huffington does not explicitly call for drug legalization, she is highly critical of the "drug war" and seems to outline one side of an academic debate about policy choices.  However, the debate is beyond academic....

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 08 Jun 2000

Source:	New York Post (NY)

Copyright:	2000, N.Y.P.  Holdings, Inc.

Contact:

Website:	http://nypostonline.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n771/a06.html

Author:	Lewis Rice, Special Agent in charge of the DEA's New

York Division.

It never ceases to amaze me how low some government employees will sink in order to advance the war on drugs ("Why We Fight," Opinion, June 8).

[snip]

The greatest harm from drugs comes from the "drug war."

[snip]

Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of economics would know the organizations to which Mr.  Lewis (Rice) refers... would never have come into existence were it not for drug prohibition.

[snip]

Thanks to his article, I learned that despite the billions spent on the drug war, drugs are now cheaper, sold in higher concentration and are easier and safer to take.

[snip]

Without drug prohibition, it is doubtful that crack would ever have been invented, much less found a home in the ghettos of American cities.

[snip]

As Agent Lewis Rice points out again and again, the history of the drug war is a series of ever more virulent outbreaks of drug abuse.

[snip]

We don't need a drug war.  What we need is a program to find out why government service makes people stupid.

[snip]

The reason why DEA special agent Lewis Rice continues stubbornly to participate in the unwinnable war on drugs is that his career depends on it.

[snip]

I have a simple question for DEA Agent Lewis Rice: How long will it take to make America "drug-free" and how much will it cost?

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 13 Jun 2000

Source:	New York Post (NY)

Copyright:	2000, N.Y.P.  Holdings, Inc.

Contact:

Website:	http://nypostonline.com/

Related:	Rice, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n771/a06.html

Related:	Huffington, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n733/a07.html

More trouble for the feds in California: The Guardian's LA correspondent reported growing judicial opposition to present drug policy after an interview with maverick Judge Jim Gray about his forthcoming book.

The qualification of an initiative mandating treatment instead of incarceration for the November ballot received generally favorable press commentary, even as it generated predictable opposition from the forces of law and order.

Finally, Barry McCzar's opposition to the initiative was treated with exceptional rudeness by an ex-Congressman writing in the conservative Union-Tribune.

The restricted sale of heroin, cocaine and cannabis 'would break the vicious cycle of violence' Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

American judges are growing so uneasy about their country's drugs laws that they are to go public with their calls for change.  The judge who will publish the names of his concerned colleagues is calling for the regulated sale of cocaine, heroin and cannabis as the only way to break the current international cycle of violence and imprisonment.

[snip]

James P Gray, a superior court judge in Orange County, California told the Guardian yesterday that his new book will contain the names of more than 20 judges who favour a change in the policies, some of whom support his call for legalisation, and are happy to say so publicly. He said that three times that number of judges had given him permission to quote them by name.  Many others had told him privately of their belief that a radical change to the drugs laws was urgently needed.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 10 Jun 2000

Source:	Guardian, The (UK)

Copyright:	2000 Guardian Newspapers Limited

Contact:

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

Forum:

http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/BBS/News/0,2161,Latest|Topics|3,00.html

Author:	Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n785/a06.html

SACRAMENTO -- The political war over a ballot measure about the war on drugs is escalating.

The powerful prison guards' union has come out strongly against a drug treatment initiative before voters in November, pledging to spend "serious" money to defeat the proposal.

But supporters of the initiative, which mandates treatment rather than jail or prison for first-and second-time drug possessors and nonviolent parole violators, plan to counter with funds from their wealthy patrons.  They also have a new supporter, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 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:	Bill Ainsworth, Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n775/a10.html

In terms of real drug-policy reform, the Drug Treatment Diversion Program initiative that will be on November's ballot is quite modest. In terms of what is politically feasible, it represents a huge step in the right direction.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 09 June 2000

Source:	Orange County Register (CA)

Copyright:	2000 The Orange County Register

Contact:

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n780/a03.html

We've all heard the familiar rap against generals -- that they tend to fight every new war with weapons and tactics from the last one.

[snip]

But generals (and especially those advanced to czar status) don't give up easily.  This one is not about to fall on his sword...

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 June 2000

Source:	San Diego Union Tribune (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Lionel Van Deerlin

The amazingly repressive Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Bill (MAPA) has generated a gratifyingly negative press response on First Amendment grounds, but continues to hang around in Congress- as worriedly noted by Jacob Sullum.

As to how our drug policy is actually working, reliable data is always a problem; the latest adolescent survey suggests "kids" still engage in risky behavior- but of a less violent variety- drugs over mayhem and sex with a condom.

"Doing heroin isn't as scandalous as writing about it," observes Ann Marlowe in her memoir Stopping Time: Heroin From A to Z.  Marlowe is recalling the angry letters she received from readers who worried that an article she had written might encourage people to use heroin.

However scandalous it may be, writing about heroin, unlike using it, is not illegal.  But a bill known as the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act could change that.

[snip]

It's disturbing that a piece of legislation like this one could sail through the Senate without a peep about the First Amendment.  But it's not surprising that drug control has evolved into knowledge control.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 08 Jun 2000

Source:	Reason Magazine (US)

Copyright:	2000 The Reason Foundation

Contact:

Website:	http://www.reason.com/

Author:	Jacob Sullum

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n775/a05.html

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

ATLANTA -- Cocaine, marijuana and cigarette use among high school students increased during the 1990s, according to a government survey that also says fewer teens are having sex and those who do are more likely to use condoms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, issued Thursday, showed improvement in some risky behavior: More students wear seat belts and fewer are carrying weapons or contemplating suicide.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 09 Jun 2000

Source:	San Jose Mercury News (CA)

Copyright:	2000 San Jose Mercury News

Contact:

Website:	http://www.sjmercury.com/

Author:	DAVID PITT

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n783/a12.html

For history buffs, a little known story from a New England editor made fascinating reading.

By the end of the 1920s, Prohibition had revealed itself to be a stunning failure.  People in all walks of life were blithely violating the law.  Along the nation's coasts and borders, a huge
alcohol-smuggling industry had arisen.  Organized crime controlled much of this business, and the word "Mafia" was first heard in the land.

[snip]

The Black Duck was a pivotal event in American's long and awkward experiment with Prohibition, and one that presages some of our agonies over the doomed-to-failure "War on Drugs."

Pubdate:	Sat, 10 Jun 2000

Source:	Providence Journal, The (RI)

Copyright:	2000 The Providence Journal Company

Contact:

Website:	http://www.projo.com/

Author:	Robert Whitcomb is the editor of the Journal's editorial pages.

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n789/a08.html

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

The major "news" of the week simply confirmed what most honest observers have known for years: racism ranks high among the drug war's many flaws.

As usual, one of the quickest and most accurate responses to the data came from a familiar source: Arianna Huffington.

For those interested in the nuances beyond the shocking discrepancies, Janny Scott's account of how racial tensions were played out in adapting "The Corner" for HBO Television is a good beginning.

The nation's war on drugs unfairly targets African Americans, who are far more likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses than whites even though far more whites use illegal drugs than blacks, according to a new report by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

The report, to be released today, said that African Americans accounted for 62 percent of the drug offenders sent to state prisons nationwide in 1996, the most recent year for which statistics are available, although they represent just 12 percent of the U.S.  population.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 08 Jun 2000

Source:	Washington Post (DC)

Copyright:	2000 The Washington Post Company

Contact:

Feedback:	http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm

Website:	http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Author:	Michael A.  Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n771/a03.html

Throughout the 20th century, which saw more than its share of inhumanity, the most common excuse about why such things were allowed to happen was "We didn't know." Well, after the report that Human Rights Watch released Thursday, we no longer will be able to use ignorance to shield us from the reality of the racial injustice perpetrated every day in America in the name of the drug war--completely ignored by national political leaders.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 10 Jun 2000

Source:	Chicago Sun-Times (IL)

Copyright:	2000 The Sun-Times Co.

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html

Website:	http://www.suntimes.com/

Author:	Arianna Huffington

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n784/a07.html

A White Journalist Wrote It.  A Black Director Fought to Own It.

BALTIMORE -- David Simon was white but he knew he could write black people.  Maybe not all black people but the ones he had known in Baltimore, where he had been a crime reporter for 14 years.  He had spent a year on a Baltimore drug corner and written a book that had done something almost unheard of: It had shown black inner-city drug addicts as complex and startlingly human.

[snip]

HBO needed African-Americans involved for two reasons, Mr.  Albrecht said: for creative reasons and for public relations.

"I really still wanted to find somebody who would be my .  . uh. . . . He paused, then used a vulgar expression for a person capable of detecting pretentious nonsense.  "You know?"

He wanted Charles S.  Dutton to direct "The Corner."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 11 Jun 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:	Janny Scott

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n802/a09.html (Part 1)

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n803/a04.html (Part 2)

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n802/a07.html (Part 3)

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n803/a04.html (Part 4)

Among L.A.  blacks, there's little doubt that racism also played a role in the unfolding Rampart scandal.  Another hint at its ultimate cost was revealed last week:

Courts:	Russell Newman, jailed for seven years, says officers planted

drugs and a gun on him.

A Los Angeles man whose drug conviction was overturned after he spent more than seven years in jail, on Tuesday filed the latest lawsuit growing out of the Los Angeles Police Department's ongoing scandal.

[snip]

Two months after Newman was paroled in March 2000, a Superior Court judge vacated his conviction and those of five other people whose cases were tainted by allegations of police misconduct.

Newman's attorneys, Gregory Moreno, Luis Carrillo, Danilo Becerra and Arnoldo Casillas, say they also filed claims against the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday on behalf of 25 other victims of police corruption and their family members.

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 2000

Source:	Los Angeles Times (CA)

Copyright:	2000 Los Angeles Times

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Hugo Martin, Times Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n772/a02.html

Two other troublesome areas remained in the news; a retired Kansas City Judge wrote an evaluation of the forfeiture scandal highlighted by Karen Dillon's series; of interest to MAPers, he built it around published LTEs.

An internecine battle between local and federal prosecutors pointed up the futility of the war our drug czar claims to be winning.  battle between local and federal prosecutors pointed up the futility of the war our drug czar claims to be winning.

When the free press reveals that officials within our public institutions are engaged in questionable conduct, the citizenry's suspicion of government -- present since 1776 -- is further heightened; an erosion of public trust and confidence follows.

The Kansas City Star's "Protect and Collect" series (May 21-22, A-1) about the artifice used by police departments ...  is such an example....  when the rule of law is undermined, respect for all government declines, as Joel S.  Heller wrote in "Seizure laws," his May 28 letter to the editor.

[snip]

Locally, will Kansas City's state commissioners address these ethics and erosion of freedom issues? Letter writer Hoffman suggested that it is time to hear from them or from Missouri's governor.  I agree. That's my opinion.  Perhaps you share it.

Pubdate:	Tue, 13 Jun 2000

Source:	Kansas City Star (MO)

Section:	As I See It

Copyright:	2000 The Kansas City Star

Contact:

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

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

Author:	Thomas E.  Sims (Judge on the Kansas City Municipal Court

for 25 years before retiring in 1995.

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n799/a06.html

AUSTIN Border district attorneys say they will stop prosecuting the drug cases routinely handed to them by federal prosecutors July 1 to protest what they call an unfair burden for which they are not reimbursed.

[snip]

The federal judiciaries along the border are the most overcrowded in the nation.  This situation will get worse when local district attorneys stop siphoning off some of the smaller drug busts, say officials.

Border district attorneys are frustrated by what they see as a no-win situation.

"We wanted to do our share of fighting the war on drugs," Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra told the Associated Press earlier this year.

"But now it's too much."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 2000

Source:	San Antonio Express-News (TX)

Copyright:	2000 San Antonio Express-News

Contact:

Website:	http://www.expressnews.com/

Author:	Russell Gold

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n772/a07.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

While the fierce US commitment to cannabis prohibition is a given, that isn't true of the rest of the English-speaking world, as demonstrated in last week's news.  Remember too: there's a lot of behind-the-scenes U.S.  arm twisting in every country that liberalizing pot laws comes up.

Labour and National traded insults yesterday after National rejected Health Minister Annette King's proposal for Parliament's health committee to review New Zealand's cannabis laws.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 2000

Source:	Dominion, The (New Zealand)

Copyright:	2000 The Dominion

Contact:

Website:	http://www.inl.co.nz/wnl/dominion/index.html

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n767/a08.html

A new study has urged the Victorian government to soften cannabis-using laws along the lines of other states and territories, based on cautions and fines but no criminal record.

The National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University in Perth also recommended that multiple offenders should be fined but have no criminal record, and that first-time offenders be cautioned.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 13 Jun 2000

Source:	Australian Associated Press (Australia)

Copyright:	2000 Australian Associated Press

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n801/a09.html

Rayleigh MP Dr Michael Clark has branded his Tory colleague Teresa Gorman "irresponsible" after she spoke in favour of cannabis cafes.  Mrs Gorman, the veteran Tory MP for Billericay, has added her name in support of a controversial Commons' motion which would effectively legalise recreational use of the drug in cafes across the UK.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 2000

Source:	Evening Echo, UK

Copyright:	2000 Evening Echo

Feedback:	http://www.thisisessex.co.uk/scripts/email.asp

Web Site: http://www.thisisessex.co.uk

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n774/a01.html

A Bill calling for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use was coming before Parliament for its second reading today.

A cross-party group of MPs, including such well-known Commons names as Tony Benn and Martin Bell, signed an early day motion yesterday deploring the continuing criminalisation of the soft drug.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 09 Jun 2000

Source:	Belfast Telegraph (UK)

Copyright:	2000 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n781/a01.html

Study adds to the medical marijuana debate

About 2 per cent of Ontario adults are using marijuana for medical purposes, according to a new provincial survey.

But the study is limited.  In a 1998 telephone survey of more than 2,500 adults, researchers found 173 people who said they used marijuana for recreational purposes in the past year.  Of those, 49 said they had also used the illegal drug for medical reasons.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 13 Jun 2000

Source:	Toronto Star (CN ON)

Copyright:	2000 The Toronto Star

Contact:

Website:	http://www.thestar.com/

Forum:	http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/

Author:	Rita Daly, Health Reporter

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n803/a07.html

International News

Some interesting data from the furor over the unidentified agent killing heroin injectors in Ireland and the UK since May: the staggering difference between numbers of heroin injectors in Glasgow and the Netherlands.

Notice also the tendency to blame "rogue" heroin and punish street dealers- completely blurring any distinction between real Public Health an witless repression.

While City Tries To Halt Spreading Addiction

GLASGOW - Like many of this city's heroin addicts, Frances takes a fatalistic view of the mysterious infection that has hit Glasgow's junkies in recent weeks, claiming 11 lives.  ... but it is unlikely to break heroin's grip on people who already put their lives at risk several times a day ...

[snip]

In Glasgow,...  A surge in heroin imports from Afghanistan combined with unemployment and family breakdown in the city's bleakest neighborhoods have pushed the city's drug problem to epidemic proportions.  The number of addicts has nearly doubled ...  to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people.  By contrast, the Netherlands, with a population 25 times larger and no stranger to drug problems, has 20,000 registered addicts.

[snip]

Newshawk:	Jeanette Irwin

Pubdate:	Wed, 07 Jun 2000

Source:	International Herald-Tribune (France)

Copyright:	International Herald Tribune 2000

Contact:

Website:	http://www.iht.com/

Author:	Tom Buerkle, International Herald Tribune

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n770/a11.html

Police yesterday arrested three men in connection with the death of a drug addict, as it emerged that the rogue heroin which has claimed the lives of addicts across Britain and Ireland may have killed three more people.

[snip]

Health officials have still to isolate the bacterium they believe is causing the deaths.  Their task is being made difficult by the fact that it is anaerobic and dies when it comes into contact with oxygen.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 12 Jun 2000

Source:	Guardian, The (UK)

Copyright:	2000 Guardian Newspapers Limited

Contact:

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

Author:	Gerard Seenan

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n797/a02.html

Not that the Western Hemisphere is more rational; notice that the report about Panama dates the litany of horrors from Noriega's arrest. Wasn't that for drug trafficking?

Then, there's President Zedillos's admonition to the U.S.  to clean up its act; if only that were the real problem and not a witless policy both nations are committed to.

Sadly, he's right about diminished national security.

Panama is a haven for illegal drug trafficking and money laundering that has grown worse since the pullout of U.S.  military forces last year, according to a law enforcement intelligence report.

"Panama's corrupt and ill-trained law enforcement units continue to be overwhelmed by trafficking efforts and are basically ineffective in their struggle," says the internal report obtained by The Washington Times.

[snip]

According to the report, Panama's political instability, economic woes and criminal activities began after the December 1989 arrest of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega by the U.S.  military. The situation has not improved under Miss Moscoso, whose administration has been unable to cope with the activities, despite increased efforts at drug interdiction.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 08 Jun 2000

Source:	Washington Times (DC)

Copyright:	2000 News World Communications, Inc.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.washtimes.com/

Author:	Bill Gertz, The Washington Times

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n776/a03.html

NEW YORK - Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo said on
Thursday that the United States was not an innocent bystander in the drug war, and cartels could only be toppled by reducing rampant U.S. consumption.

Zedillo, in New York on a two-day U.S.  visit, said drug trafficking was Mexico's most severe national security problem.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Thu, 08 Jun 2000

Source:	Reuters

Copyright:	2000 Reuters Limited.

Author:	Genevieve Wilkinson

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n772/a13.html

Mandatory Searches in "The Land of the Free"

Too late for this weeks edition but worth noting the San Francisco Bay Guardian reports almost unbelievably that mandatory searches of customers have been coerced by an SF night club right here in "The Land of the Free"

Editorial:	Killing S.F.'s nightlife

SAN FRANCISCO'S OFFICIAL war against nightlife has escalated to the point of near insanity with a May 31 settlement of the city's case against the popular dance club Ten 15 Folsom.

[snip]

Pubdate:	June 14, 2000

Source:	San Francisco Bay Guardian

Website:	http://www.sfbg.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n810/a11.html

McCzar Bashes MAP in Congressional Testimony

Not really new but interesting.  We found that Barry McCaffrey's testimony before Congress in which he purposely misleads and obfuscates the facts about the Media Awareness Project (MAP) are actually archived on the ONDCP web page.  If this isn't proof positive of the inaccuracy that is rampant on the ONDCP web page one is hard pressed to imagine what would be.

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/testimony/legalization/english/leglz%20final.htm

Peter McWilliams Final Interview and Books Available Online

As Mentioned in the Feature Article Peter McWilliams final interview can be watched on-line:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000608_gmab_marijuana_feature.htm

A partial transcript with John Stossel and Barbara Walters can be read at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n790/a05.html

All of Peter's outstanding books have been left as a legacy to his great work.  All can be read or downloaded for free from his web site http://www.mcwilliams.com/

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without planting up the ground.  They want rain without thunder or lightening.  They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.  The struggle may not be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.  Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did, and it never will." -- Frederick Douglas, Abolitionist

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