Table of Contents

* Breaking News (12/30/24)

* Feature Article

How to Become a "Drug Policy Genius"
by Mark Greer

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1-4)
(1) McCaffrey will be Missed
(2) Bye-Bye, Barry
(3) The General's Farewell
(4) Dope Fiends
COMMENT: (5)
(5) Methamphetamine Statistics Attest to Drug's Misfortune
COMMENT: (6-8)
(6) Candidates Supporting Foolish War on Drugs
(7) But Proposition 36 isn't the Way to Do it
(8) Arizona's Anti-Drug Gamble: Taking Jail Out of the Equation
COMMENT: (9)
(9) Straight Dope: Druggies Worse Than Killers?

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-11)
(10) Police Pay, too: Nation's War on Drugs Exacts Terrible Price
(11) Tulia Breaks!
COMMENT: (12-13)
(12) Virginia Will not Charge MD Officer
(13) Police Say Detective, After Drug Buy, Killed Man Trying to Rob Him

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (14-16)
(14) How Britain's Cannabis Debate Unfolded
(15) Taking Cannabis "Safer Than Aspirin"
(16) Call to Decriminalise Drug
COMMENT: (17-18)
(17) The Pot Wars go on
(18) State Harvests Record in Marijuana Seizures
(19) As Plants Sprout up, State Police Dig Deep

International News-

COMMENT: (20-23)
(20) DEA Implicated In Deal With Terrorists
(21) Latin America Sees U.S. Drug Policy As Hypocrisy
(22) EU Sharply Cuts Aid to Colombia
(23) Three-Day Battle Leaves 54 Dead in Colombia
COMMENT: (24)
(24) Ex-Chihuahua Governor Denies Allegations in Ad

* Hot Off The 'Net

    Oregon Initiative URLs
    Anti-Feinstein adds in tow San Francisco papers
    Renee Boje Interview and Poll

* Quote of the Week

    Thomas Jefferson

How to Become a "Drug Policy Genius"
by Mark Greer

Looking for specific information on practically any drug related subject? Check out http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/

Or for a more versatile search capability see:
http://www.mapinc.org/find/

It is a searchable collection of thousands of news articles collected over the last 3 years from media sources around the world by volunteers of The Media Awareness Project (MAP) of the DrugSense organization. Search recent news or other selections including searching the entire archive.  Search on 3 or 4 words like "marijuana medical McCaffrey". You don't have to put "and" between your search terms and don't use common words like "the" or "for" The search engine ignores them so you get quicker results.

Click the Search button and a list of the headlines of all the news articles that contain all the words you asked for will be presented to you.  Scan these and click on any that sound interesting. You will then be presented with the entire news article and all the search terms you asked for will be highlighted for easy scanning.

Included is the publication's name, date of the article, the Email address for writing letters to the editor (best for recent articles only) the author of the article and more.  You can have any or all of the articles emailed to you with a couple of mouse clicks or you can read them on-line.

If you use this tool once you will bookmark it and use it often.  It may be one of the easiest to use and most complete information resources available on a vast array of drug related subjects.

DrugSense also provides a daily synopsis of all drug related news called DrugNews-Digest (we find and archive about 300 articles every week, usually within 24 hours of publication.)

This weekly newsletter of the most important developments in the news on drug policy is another way to stay on top of important drug policy news.  It is E-mailed to you once a week.

A weekly Focus Alert that enables you to take action by writing letters to the editor responding to important news issues, subscribed to.  See http://www.drugsense.org and http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm to sign up for or review any or all of these valuable and unique drug policy features

If you want to become a volunteer "NewsHawk" and help MAP by submitting articles you've spotted see http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm

For a huge collection of drug and drug policy related groups and information on specific areas of interest see
http://www.mapinc.org/dpr.htm

An excellent array of Drug War Facts complete with citations can also be viewed or For drug war Facts with citations see
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/

For a Clock that counts the costs of the drugwar (in dollars lives and suffering) as you watch see http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

For a comprehensive alternative to our failed drug policies see http://www.csdp.org/edcs/

While there are hundreds of excellent drug policy URLs, these are an excellent start towards becoming a "Drug Policy Genius."

Domestic News- Policy

Enough time had elapsed since McCzar's surprise resignation announcement for pundits to assess his contributions; opinions ran a gamut defined by the first two items.

A thoughtful analysis in National Review saw him as unpopular because of his implacable resistance to every aspect of reform; starting with California's Proposition 215.

Coincidentally, Harper's Weekly published an excerpt from a leaked tape in which he discussed that very subject with A.M.  Rosenthal. Talk about clueless!!

The person who replaces Gen.  Barry McCaffrey as the nation's drug czar will have big shoes to fill.

McCaffrey, a retired Army general who has been President Clinton's director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy since 1996, has resigned that position effective Jan.  6.

He has brought a military, no-nonsense approach to the post that has served the country well.  McCaffrey has not only been dedicated to reducing the number of illegal drug users, especially among youth, but in eliminating performance-enhancing drugs from sports, particularly the Olympic Games.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 22 Oct 2000

Source:	Deseret News (UT)

Copyright:	2000 Deseret News Publishing Corp.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.desnews.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1594/a06.html

Gen.  Barry McCaffrey: He came. He failed. He quit. But not without taking an unearned victory lap.  What is it about the job of drug czar that causes its occupants to heed Sen.  George Aiken's advice regarding the Vietnam War - -- "Declare victory and withdraw"? That's what McCaffrey did this week when he announced that he would resign his post on Jan.  6. …

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Sacramento Bee (CA)

Copyright:	2000 The Sacramento Bee

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html

Website:	http://www.sacbee.com/

Author:	Arianna Huffington

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1581/a01.html

The czar is dead.  Long live the czar.

If it hadn't been him, it would have been somebody else - and for that reason alone it is perhaps unfair to heap all of the scorn engendered by the Drug War in the last four years on retiring drug czar Barry McCaffrey.  Still, McCaffrey's announcement yesterday that he will leave office in January sent waves of glee rolling over those who believe that our nation's War on Drugs needs serious rethinking.  While the retirement of one drug czar is certain only to mean his replacement by another, many are overjoyed to see this one go.

[snip]

The new czar did not endear himself to many.  The largest blunder of McCaffrey's tenure, and the one that would set the tone for the next four years, came early on with his reaction to the medical-marijuana movement in the west.  In the matter of a few short months after California and Arizona passed medical marijuana initiatives in 1996,

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 18 Oct 2000

Source:	National Review (US)

Copyright:	2000 National Review

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nationalreview.com/

Author:	Ryan Sager

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1574/a04.html

From a 1996 conversation between "drug czar" Barry R.  McCaffrey and A.M.  Rosenthal, then a New York Times columnist, just after California and Arizona passed referendums legalizing the medical use of marijuana. ..  According to his office, McCaffrey routinely recorded telephone
conversations with journalists, often without their knowledge, to ensure that he was not misquoted.

[snip]

ROSENTHAL:	If it hadn't been for Soros-

McCAFFREY:	Yep.

ROSENTHAL:	-and a couple of other people that I run into at parties all

over the place and everybody admires, blah, blah, blah-

McCAFFREY:	Yeah.

ROSENTHAL:	-this would not have passed.

McCAFFREY:	Yeah, I agree.

ROSENTHAL:	And we all know that.

[snip]

Pubdate:	November 2000

Source:	Harper's Magazine (US)

Copyright:	2000 Harper's Magazine Foundation

Contact:

Website:	http://www.harpers.org/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1595/a11.html

Hardly a week goes by without another scare "series" on meth; this one, two-articles from Oklahoma, is typical- and underscores that this once medically prescribed agent has become the bathtub gin of the drug war.

The numbers stand solemnly on the page like tombstones in a cemetery, seemingly endless columns of statistics spelling out a single message: Methamphetamine is spreading like an invading army, overwhelming courts, counselors and law enforcement.

[snip]

Meth is becoming the most readily available drug because it is easy to make.  All the ingredients can be bought at the store and mixed together in a garage or bathtub.  Cocaine is derived from plants and requires a laboratory to concoct.

"Anybody can do it," Tim said.  "I can go within a five-mile radius and buy everything to get it."

[snip]

While it may seem like a poor man's cocaine, the effects are just as powerful.  Cocaine takes a while before it seduces the brain and only lasts 20 to 30 minutes.  Meth immediately takes control and lasts for hours.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 22 Oct 2000

Source:	Oklahoman, The (OK)

Copyright:	2000 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.oklahoman.com/?ed-writeus

Website:	http://www.oklahoman.com/

Author:	Scott Cooper

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1593/a01.html

Also:	Meth Addicts Face Inner Battle

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1593/a05.html

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

Outspoken drug war critic Joanne Jacobs had her hard-hitting column published in the conservative Witchita Eagle- but was sadly unable to dissuade her own editorial board from opposing Proposition 36.

Prop 36 opponents conveniently ignore that Arizona passed an even more liberal measure, not once but twice; it's been in effect for 2 years and the world hasn't ended because fewer are going to prison.

Al Gore and George W.  Bush are pushing drugs for the elderly. But neither is pushing for change in our nation's failing war on drugs. Both have official positions with the standard drug-war rhetoric.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Wichita Eagle (KS)

Copyright:	2000 The Wichita Eagle

Contact:

Website:	http://www.wichitaeagle.com/

Author:	Joanne Jacobs

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1580/a06.html

CALIFORNIA leads the nation in its zeal for locking up drug addicts. Over the past 20 years, we've increased 20-fold the number of people sent to prison for drug possession.

Yet tougher sentencing for drug offenses has not reduced crime or drug use.  It has merely packed our prisons with addicts who continue to use drugs while they learn to be hardened criminals.

[snip]

Yet we cannot support Proposition 36.  The money is tempting, but the changes the proposition makes to state law would be devastating to current successful treatment efforts.

Pubdate:	Mon, 23 Oct 2000

Source:	San Jose Mercury News (CA)

Copyright:	2000 San Jose Mercury News

Contact:

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

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1596/a09.html

Related:	http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm

PHOENIX - The prisoners shuffle through the basement courtroom in striped uniforms, their hands cuffed and legs shackled.  They were caught with pot or crack or crystal meth and are guilty of drug possession, yet a law unique to Arizona sends them not to prison, but back into the world.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Washington Post (DC)

Copyright:	2000 The Washington Post Company

Contact:

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

Author:	Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1579/a04.html

WorldNet Daily's Joel Miller is a scathing drug war critic; for his take on many of the above items- plus a few others- read his latest; if you really enjoy drug war bashing, go the website and read his recent columns.

Sometimes fact is not actually stranger than fiction, just a lot stupider.  Go no further than Columbus, Ga., and you'll see exactly what I mean.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 24 Oct 2000

Source:	WorldNetDaily (US Web)

Copyright:	2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.worldnetdaily.com/

Author:	Joel Miller

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1601/a09.html

Law Enforcement & Prisons

For an enlightened police view of the drug war, read this column by Richmond Chief Jerry Oliver (who had just returned from Joe McNamara's Hoover Institution seminar).

The weekly Texas Observer, (Austin) can be forgiven a few self administered pats on the back; they broke the Tulia story; now it's gone national and they have yet to receive proper credit.

With each massive drug seizure, evidence mounts that this country is sadly losing the war on drugs - not to drug cartels or drug traffickers over there - but to the dependably relentless appetite for illegal drugs created by our neighbors right here at home.  Eighty-six years after Congress passed the 1914 Harrison Act that criminalized drugs, America's drug consumption thrives.  Our nation's premier drug-war strategy of more police, more interdiction, and more incarceration is failing and the trajectory continues downward.

[snip]

A growing number of thoughtful Americans across the political spectrum have strong doubts about the efficacy of the current drug war, its costs, its true impact, and its future consequences.  They want to rethink our direction and possibilities.  As a police officer on the front line, quite frankly I'm one of them.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 22 Oct 2000

Source:	Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)

Copyright:	2000 Richmond Newspapers Inc.

Contact:

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

Author:	Jerry Oliver

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1591/a05.html

The story we broke in our June 23 issue about a racially tainted drug sting in a small Panhandle town, and the highly suspect undercover agent who ran it, has officially entered the media food chain.  It has now been digested by so many news outlets - beginning with Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now and ending with a front page story in The New York Times and a feature segment on CNN that the carnivores at the top of the chain are now referring to the story in shorthand.  The racially divided town, the questionable police work, the incredibly long prison sentences - it's all just "Tulia" now.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Texas Observer (TX)

Copyright:	2000 The Texas Observer

Contact:

Website:	http://www.texasobserver.org/

Bookmarks:	Tulia: http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=Tulia

Racial Issues: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1592/a01.html

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

The troublesome issue of police shootings of civilians was highlighted by two more cases; the typical outcome in Maryland suggests the New York cop should have little fear of being charged.

The Prince George's County police officer who fatally shot a Hyattsville man last month after trailing him into Fairfax County will not be charged with a crime, the Fairfax prosecutor announced yesterday, because the officer reportedly feared for his life and acted in self-defense.

[snip]

Horan (R), the longest-serving prosecutor in Virginia, has not charged a police officer in a shooting incident in his more than three decades in office.  He had the option to present this case to a grand jury, but declined.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 24 Oct 2000

Source:	Washington Post (DC)

Copyright:	2000 The Washington Post Company

Contact:

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

Author:	Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1600/a11.html

An undercover narcotics detective who minutes before had bought $30 worth of heroin in a buy-and-bust operation in Brooklyn yesterday shot and killed a man who tried to rob him, the police said.

[snip]

The police said the man confronted the detective at 11:50 a.m.  in front of 371 Troutman Street, in Bushwick, about half a block from where the detective had just bought three $10 glassine envelopes of heroin.

[snip]

Through Monday, 25 suspects have been shot by the police this year, a 26 percent decrease over the same period last year, when 34 were shot, according to figures provided by the Police Department.  Of the 25 suspects shot this year, 10 died and 15 were wounded.  Last year, 10 suspects were killed and 24 wounded.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 21 Oct 2000

Source:	New York Times (NY)

Copyright:	2000 The New York Times Company

Contact:

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

Author:	Elissa Gootman

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1588/a03.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

Last week, we noted Britain had surged into the lead in the plodding race to legalize cannabis; now we have a chronology of how it all came about.

That lead was further bolstered this week by voices from medicine and the clergy..

OCT 5: At the Tory Party Conference, Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe announces controversial proposals to introduce on-the-spot fines of UKP 100 to drug users.  Her comments spark a backlash from drug campaigners and police unions, saying they are unworkable, brand recreational users as criminals and will not solve the drugs problem.

OCT 7/8: Six senior Tories admit they have tried cannabis at university, undermining Miss Widdecombe's proposals.  Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy calls for legalisation of the drug.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 18 Oct 2000

Source:	News & Star (UK)

Copyright:	2000 News & Star

Contact:

Website:	http://www.news-and-star.co.uk/

Cited:	Legalise Cannabis Alliance, http://www.lca-uk.org/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1578/a03.html

Cannabis is a safer drug than aspirin and can be used long-term without serious side-effects, says a book by a leading Oxford scientist.  The Science of Marijuana, by Dr Leslie Iversen of Oxford University's department of pharmacology, found many ``myths'' surrounding marijuana use, such as extreme addictiveness, or links with mental illness or infertility, are not supported by science.

He also found cannabis is an inherently ``safe drug'' and legalising it for medical conditions should be considered, he says.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Irish Independent (Ireland)

Copyright:	Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd

Contact:

Website:	http://www.independent.ie/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1596/a05.html

A LEADING Free Church Minister is the latest establishment figure to support calls for cannabis to be decriminalised.

Professor Donald Macleod, the controversial principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh who was at the centre of a damaging church split three years ago, also did not rule out legalising the drug in the future.  He is likely to enrage the church's strait-laced members with his views.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 22 Oct 2000

Source:	Scotland On Sunday (UK)

Copyright:	2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.

Contact:	letters_sos@ scotlandonsunday.com

Website:	http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/

Author:	Mike Merritt

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1590/a10.html

William F.  Buckley, author of an important criticism of the drug war in 1996, wrote an opaque and ultimately disappointing critique of the current US movement to decriminalize cannabis.

Meanwhile, from the huge stands grown by Mexican criminal organizations in California's national forests-- to modest individual gardens in rural New Jersey, the Fall pot seizure madness continued around the nation.

Is this progress?

Tony Knowles is the young, dashing Democratic governor of Alaska, and he cannot like it to be treated as an old fogey, which is what is happening.  One aggressor writes in the Anchorage Daily News on Monday asking the governor to grow up on the question of Proposition 5.  If the proposition is carried, marijuana would be legal in Alaska, as it is in the Netherlands and (de facto) in France, and prospectively in Switzerland.

[snip]

Although the subject comes up, it certainly will not appear on the agenda of either of the political parties.  A politician running for national office might as well acclaim Arafat as sanction the legalization of pot.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Sacramento Bee (CA)

Copyright:	2000 The Sacramento Bee

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html

Website:	http://www.sacbee.com/

Author:	William Buckley

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1581/a07.html

MADERA, Calif.  (AP) -- The state's marijuana harvest is in and the good news is law enforcement officers seized a bumper crop.  The bad news is they seized a bumper crop and operations are growing in size.

Working mostly on public lands and in Central Valley counties, officers harvested 345,207 marijuana plants -- 43 percent more than last year's record -- valued at $1.3 billion.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Mon, 23 Oct 2000

Source:	Sacramento Bee (CA)

Copyright:	2000 The Sacramento Bee

Contact:

Feedback:	http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html

Website:	http://www.sacbee.com/

Author:	Brian Melley, Associated Press Writer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1602/a04.html

The call was placed by a hunter scouting deer territory in the woods of rural Winslow Township, Camden County.  Marijuana plants were growing deep in a thicket near a local sand quarry, he reported to a special State Police hotline.

Within hours, two troopers from the State Police marijuana eradication task force, two National Guardsmen and an investigator with the Camden County Prosecutor's Office - dressed in camouflage outfits and with service weapons on their hips - reached the scene.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Tue, 17 Oct 2000

Source:	Star-Ledger (NJ)

Copyright:	2000 Newark Morning Ledger Co.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nj.com/starledger/

Author:	Guy Sterling, Star-Ledger Staff

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1569/a01.html

International News

There was a surfeit of news from and about Colombia-- all bad.  The Miami Herald rehashed details of the "successful" US backed plot to destroy the cartels-- yes, the same one that handed cocaine to FARC and the Paramilitaries.

In more recent developments, Plan Colombia was disowned in two separate conferences by both South American and European governments; finally, there was the latest debacle for the Colombian Army; loss of a Blackhawk helicopter added painful irony.

In a desperate effort to trap Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, the governments of the United States and Colombia allied themselves to a fearful criminal organization that was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Escobar's associates and friends in 1993, according to testimony and documents obtained by El Nuevo Herald.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	Miami Herald (FL)

Copyright:	2000 The Miami Herald

Contact:

Website:	http://www.herald.com/

Author:	Gerardo Reyes, El Nuevo Herald

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1582/a06.html

Regional Discontent is Growing and Increasingly Out In the Open

BUENOS AIRES -- The next U.S.  president may have to be more creative to obtain greater Latin American cooperation in the war on drugs: One can sense a growing and increasingly open regional discontent with current U.S.  anti-drug policies.

Even Argentina, one of the closest U.S.  allies in South America, is keeping a prudent distance from the $1.3 billion U.S.  military package to fight drugs in Colombia.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sun, 22 Oct 2000

Source:	Miami Herald (FL)

Copyright:	2000 The Miami Herald

Contact:

Website:	http://www.herald.com/

Author:	Andres Oppenheimer

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1602/a07.html

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

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - The European Union plans an aid package for Colombia that falls far short of what Colombian officials had expected, weakening an anti-drug strategy that has failed to win significant domestic or international support beyond the United States.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Fri, 20 Oct 2000

Source:	International Herald-Tribune (France)

Copyright:	International Herald Tribune 2000

Contact:

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

Author:	Scott Wilson, Washington Post Service

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1583/a09.html

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

CARACAS, Oct.  20 - In the Colombian military's bloodiest setback this year, left-wing guerrillas killed 54 members of the army and the national police during a three-day battle in a rugged northwestern state, officials reported today.  Almost half of the dead perished when a U.S.-made Black Hawk helicopter crashed after being hit by guerrilla fire.

[snip]

Most of the $11.7 million helicopter remained unrecoverable because of combat and treacherous terrain, hampering an investigation into the cause of the crash, which killed 18 army troops and four crewman.  U.S. sources said three other helicopters on the same mission returned to base riddled with FARC gunfire, suggesting the crash may have been the result of a guerrilla attack.

[snip]

Pubdate:	Sat, 21 Oct 2000

Source:	Washington Post (DC)

Copyright:	2000 The Washington Post Company

Contact:

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

Author:	Scott Wilson, Washington Post Foreign Service

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1583/a11.html

Incoming Mexican President Fox's difficulty finding a new "anti-vice czar" underscores the futility of cleansing Mexico's bureaucracy while drugs remain illegal in the US.

Former Chihuahua Gov.  Francisco Barrio Terrazas took out a full-page ad in Juarez newspapers Tuesday denying allegations that he took protection money from the late drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes while Barrio was governor.

[snip]

Barrio, a member of the National Action Party, or PAN, is being considered by President-elect Vicente Fox for a new Cabinet-level post as the "anti-corruption czar."

[snip]

Pubdate:	Wed, 18 Oct 2000

Source:	El Paso Times (TX)

Copyright:	2000 El Paso Times

Contact:

Website:	http://www.borderlandnews.com/

Author:	Diana Washington Valdez

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20001018-53240.shtml

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1574/a03.html

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

Oregon Initiative URLs

Oregon has two progressive measures on the November ballot dealing with criminal justice: Measure 94, repeal of mandatory sentencing; and Measure 3, no civil forfeiture without conviction.  Willamette Week just came out with their endorsements, and while they agree with the essence of these initiatives, they recommend a No vote (cowards).  For the gory details, go to the following site:

http://www.wweek.com/html/leada2.html#crime or just to
http://www.wweek.com/ and look for the lead story for this week.

Submitted by Nora Callahan
The November Coalition

Anti-Feinstein ads in two San Francisco papers

Today, Tuesday, there will be two anti-prohibitionist ads published urging voters to vote for candidates who are not prohibitionists.

One is a full-page Anti-Feinstein ad in the West Coast version of the New York Times.

http://www.ProhibitionHasFailed.com/images/NYTfinal.jpg

The other targets an Oregon prohibitionist.

The ad asks voters to "Just say NO to Bill Witt".

http://www.prohibitionHasFailed.com/Images/lessWitt.pdf

These ads are combined with a media campaign.

Submitted by Sandee Burbank
Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA)
http://www.mama.org/

Renee Boje Interview and Poll

A popular television show in British Columbia, called BC NOW, which airs on the Knowledge Network, featured an interview with Renee Boje. The interview was shown on Wednesday, October 25th and will be re-broadcast on Saturday, October 28th.  You can watch the interview on-line, at: http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/showshow.cgi?n=331

BC Now is holding a public poll asking people to email or phone with their opinion on Renee Boje's case; Should Renee be surrendered to the US to serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in Federal Prison, or should Canada take a stand against the US War on Drugs and allow Renee to remain in Canada as a refugee?

Please email or phone in and tell BC Now what you think.  If the public shows enough support of Renee's case, her lawyer, John Conroy, believes that the Canadian Minister of Justice will allow Renee to live in Canada, where she is safe.

Email BC NOW at:
Phone BC NOW at: 800-663-1238
Fax BC NOW at: 604-431-3383

Thank you for your help.
In unity, freedom & love,
The Renee Boje Defense Team
http://www.reneeboje.com

`Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.' - Thomas Jefferson -

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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