November 10, 2000 #174 |
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- * Breaking News (12/30/24)
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- * Feature Article
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Early Reactions and Results Regarding Tuesdays Election
By Chuck Thomas
- * Weekly News in Review
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Drug Policy-
COMMENT: (1-2)
(1) The Drug War on the Ballot
(2) Shaking up Drug Policy?
COMMENT: (3-7)
(3) Citizen Dan
(4) Club Drugs Finding Their Way into the Upstate
(5) Salt Lake City Drops D.A.R.E.
(6) Everett Follows Seattle's Lead, Drops Drug Tests for Most Jobseekers
(7) Treating Opioid Dependence -- New Data and New Opportunities
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
COMMENT: (8-10)
(8) Congress Urged to Get Tough on Abusive Police
(9) 4 Oakland Officers Charged With 49 Felonies In Misconduct Probe
(10) Deal Puts L.A. Police Under Supervision of Washington
COMMENT: (11-13)
(11) The Muddled Profiling Case
(12) Deaths Raise Questions About SWAT Teams
(13) Ex - Tenn. Cop Indicted in Wrong Raid
COMMENT: (14-15)
(14) O'Connor's Son is Facing Drug Charge
(15) High Court Gets Debate Over Police 'Impounding' a Home
Cannabis & Hemp-
COMMENT: (16-17)
(16) Tenth Amendment - Up in Smoke
(17) UK: Web: Cannabis Laws 'Too Strict' Say Doctors
COMMENT: (18-19)
(18) First Defense Witness Called At Kubby Trial
(19) Growers Hit Streets For Pot-Harvest Labor
International News-
COMMENT: (20-24)
(20) UK: Book Review: Smoke Without Fire
(21) Big World Banks Sign Pact to End Laundering
(22) White Powder in Reichstag Toilets, Red Faces in Berlin
(23) UK: Cocaine Found Inside Houses of Parliament
(24) Colombia: Murder Linked to Drug Rip-Off
- * Hot Off The 'Net
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FEED Magazine Announces Special Feature "The Future of Drugs"
- * This Just In
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DrugReform.org Offers Drug Policy Ballot Results.
- * Quote of the Week
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Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918)
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top)
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Early Reactions and Results Regarding Tuesdays Election
By Chuck Thomas
Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.mpp.org/
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The drug policy reform movement got a major boost from many of this
year's election results.
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First, the drug policy reform ballot initiatives passed by a landslide
in every state except Massachusetts and Alaska.
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Click here for detailed results: http://www.drugreform.org/results.tpl
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In sum, Colorado and Nevada removed criminal penalties for using and
obtaining medical marijuana, Utah and Oregon curtailed their property
forfeiture laws, and, most importantly, Prop 36 received 61% of the vote
in California, replacing prison sentences with drug treatment for
non-violent drug possession offenders.
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Unlike the coercive "drug court" model, Prop 36 removes the possibility
of jailing an offender who relapses or otherwise does not maintain
abstinence. It was strongly opposed by drug court judges, prison
guards, and U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey.
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Unfortunately, Massachusetts failed to pass an initiative which would
have both curtailed property forfeiture laws and offered treatment
instead of prison. In addition, Alaska failed to pass an initiative
which would have allowed marijuana to be sold like alcohol.
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Simply put, the wording of the Alaska initiative was beyond what the
voters are ready to accept. Nevertheless, the fact that an initiative
calling for complete legal access to marijuana -- and even the
possibility of reparations for people previously penalized for marijuana
offenses -- was able to get nearly 40% might enable reformers to
successfully argue that the public clearly are ready to support more
modest reform, such as removing criminal penalties for simple possession
or cultivation.
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Indeed, in a small but important contest, voters in Mendocino County,
CA, passed an initiative to allow adults to grow up to 25 marijuana
plants for their own use. (State and federal prohibition will still
apply, but it is an important symbolic victory -- plus, Mendocino County
growers may no longer have to fear their local law enforcement
officials.)
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Beyond the initiatives, there were many other significant outcomes:
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* U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) lost his bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
McCollum was one of the most vicious drug warriors in Congress, where he
chaired the crime subcommittee and regularly held hearings to tout his
harsh drug policies. He also introduced an anti-medical marijuana
resolution in 1998, prompting medical marijuana civil disobedience in
his Capitol Hill office. Having given up his House seat to run for the
Senate, McCollum will soon be out of a job.
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* U.S. Rep. James Rogan (R-CA) lost his re-election race in the House.
Rogan had been pro-medical marijuana when he served in the California,
but flip-flopped when he came to D.C. three years ago, in order to
appease the House Republican leadership. There was also civil
disobedience in Rogan's office when he voiced his support for McCollum's
resolution in 1998. (He was the only House impeachment manager to
lose his re-election.)
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* U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO), a consistent champion of tough drug
sentencing laws, also lost his bid for re-election.
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Perhaps some of the politicians who are still fortunate enough to be
employed will begin to see a trend here.
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Finally, it's noteworthy that the number of votes received by both Ralph
Nader (who supports drug decriminalization) and Libertarian Harry Browne
(who supports the repeal of all drug prohibition laws) is much larger
than the number of votes separating Bush and Gore in that state (i.e.,
less than 1,800 votes).
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Because Gore's drug policy positions have been every bit as bad as
Bush's, many voters in Florida had refused to vote for Gore, choosing
Nader or Browne, instead. Interestingly, if only 10% of Browne's 18,000
votes -- or 2% of Nader's 100,000 votes -- had gone to Gore, then he
would have carried Florida. It may be reasonable to assert that Gore's
punitive, inflexible drug policies are what cost him the presidential
election.
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) |
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Domestic News- Policy
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COMMENT: (1-2) (Top) |
Our cut off for news items reviewed for this issue of the Weekly
coincides with the closing of polls, so with the exception of our
Feature Article above our COMMENT on election results will have to
wait. The major trend since '96 has been incremental drug policy
change via ballot initiative. Dan Baum (Rolling Stone) and Alan Bock
(WorldNet Daily) provided overviews of this year's initiatives.
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(1) THE DRUG WAR ON THE BALLOT (Top) |
This Month, Citizens Nationwide Petition For More Humane Policies
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THIS FALL, OPPONENTS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS take their case directly to
the people: They have successfully placed initiatives on the ballot in
five states to reduce the incarceration rate of nonviolent users. The
most ambitious marijuana initiative is Alaska's, which would eliminate
all pot-related penalties. In Colorado and Nevada, voters are expected
to approve the legalization of marijuana use for medical reasons. This
would bring the number of states with such laws to nine, including
Maine, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii and California...
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[snip]
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The most subversive and potentially most influential initiative may be
California's Proposition 36, which would do away with jail time for
most people convicted of small-time possession of any drug. Under
Proposition 36, they would have three chances to get off drugs before
facing a prison sentence.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 23 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Rolling Stone (US) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Straight Arrow Publishers Company, L.P. |
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(2) SHAKING UP DRUG POLICY? (Top) |
Although the two major-party candidates make much of their differences,
the likelihood of major changes in policy from what the current
administration offers is fairly low. ..
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The best likelihood of the beginning of a major change in settled
national policy arising from this year's election might come from
initiatives at the state level....
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But several drug-law reform initiatives are on state ballots with
decent chances of passage.
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[snip]
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The politicians, for any number of reasons, aren't going to do it. But
through ballot initiatives, the people are demonstrating a certain
healthy skepticism about the drug war and those running it.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Fri, 03 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | WorldNetDaily (US Web) |
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Copyright: | 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. |
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COMMENT: (3-7) (Top) |
Change in the prism through which the media examines drug issues has
been evolving- slowly but undeniably. A reporter who has played a key
role in that change was himself scrutinized by Ken Krayeske.
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An illustration of this changing emphasis: a reporter writing on club
drugs seeks a harm reduction viewpoint- and produces a far more
informative and accurate piece than usual.
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This slow evolutionary change does have an impact: two sacred cows are
increasingly questioned; at least in some parts of the country.
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Another example: this cautious endorsement of opioid maintenance in an
NEJM editorial would have been considered (unprintable) heresy only a
few years ago.
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(3) CITIZEN DAN (Top) |
Mention Dan Forbes to most people and they'd draw a blank. But the
Office of National Drug Control Policy certainly knows who Dan Forbes
is. In January, Forbes, 44, broke the story on Salon.com about how the
ONDCP secretly gave financial incentives to television networks to
insert the government's zero-tolerance War on Drugs message into the
scripts of prime- time shows. Forbes, a graduate of Hamilton College in
Clinton, NY, with experience in social work and acting, wrote and
researched most of the story from his Brooklyn apartment.
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[snip]
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Copyright: | 2000 by Trans-High Corporation |
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For a first-person account, see:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a233.html
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(4) CLUB DRUGS FINDING THEIR WAY INTO THE UPSTATE (Top) |
The idea of a higher high was enticing.
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So, after drinking a few beers at a Greenville nightclub on Halloween
night, Joseph "Cannon" Outz accepted a soda-bottle cap full of "home
brew" from a friend and downed it with orange juice.
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An hour after drinking what he would later discover was Blue Nitro, the
21-year-old Berea resident collapsed into a seizure and began choking
on his own vomit. He survived only after paramedics were able to
restore his breathing.
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[snip]
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Emanuel Sferios, founder and national director of Dance Safe, which
encourages education while not condoning the use of drugs, said most of
the Ecstasy found in the United States is made in Europe...
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 05 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Greenville News (SC) |
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Copyright: | 2000 The Greenville News |
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(5) SALT LAKE CITY DROPS D.A.R.E. (Top) |
Maverick Mayor Rocky Anderson Calls The School Anti-Drug Program "An
Absolute Fraud"
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ON JULY 11TH, SALT LAKE CITY MAYOR ROSS "ROCKY" Anderson cut off
funding to D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), ending the
city's thirteen-year association with the controversial drug-education
program.
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[snip]
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It has not been shown, however, that the program actually works. A raft
of peer-reviewed studies, one spanning ten years, have demonstrated
that current and former D.A.R.E. students are as likely to use drugs as
those who never took the course. D.A.R.E. declined to speak with
ROLLING STONE.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 23 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Rolling Stone (US) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Straight Arrow Publishers Company, L.P. |
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(6) EVERETT FOLLOWS SEATTLE'S LEAD, DROPS DRUG TESTS FOR MOST JOBSEEKERS (Top) |
Everett has become the latest municipality in the state to drop a
requirement that everyone applying for a local government job be tested
for illegal drugs.
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As in Seattle, which dropped a similar requirement last month, the
change was made because of a state Court of Appeals ruling that the
Seattle ordinance was an invasion of privacy that violated the state
Constitution.
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Drug-testing policies also have been revised in Tacoma and Bellingham
since the court ruling in a case brought by the American Civil
Liberties Union.
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[snip]
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Source: | Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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(7) TREATING OPIOID DEPENDENCE -- NEW DATA AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES (Top) |
Heroin use in the United States has grown considerably over the past
decade. Approximately 3 million Americans have used heroin, (1) a fact
that has led to increasing concern about heroin-related problems such
as overdose, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection,
unemployment, and crime.
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[snip]
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However, if it is implemented properly, I believe that office-based
opioid maintenance can greatly increase the availability of a highly
effective and much-needed treatment. Increasing the access of patients
dependent on opioids to high-quality treatment should become an
important goal of the medical profession and of society.
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | New England Journal of Medicine (MA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 by the Massachusetts Medical Society |
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Author: | Patrick G. O'Connor, M.D., M.P.H., Yale University School of Medicine |
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Law Enforcement & Prisons
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COMMENT: (8-10) (Top) |
A report from the Civil Rights Commission confirmed what the news and
other prestigious studies have been saying for the past two years:
American law enforcement has an image which is becoming more tarnished
every day. As if to confirm that impression, scandals- one old and the
other new- made news in two large West Coast cities.
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(8) CONGRESS URGED TO GET TOUGH ON ABUSIVE POLICE (Top) |
Washington - Police misconduct remains an "incessant problem in the
United States, and the failure to wipe out abuse and brutality requires
wholesale changes, such as giving citizens the right to sue renegade
departments, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded yesterday.
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The commission, reviewing the progress and setbacks in police reforms
of the last two decades, found that better policing has often come at a
"terrible price'' for minority communities, which seem to bear the
brunt of the abuse.
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[snip]
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Civil rights groups yesterday applauded many of the commission's latest
findings, but police groups questioned the report's conclusions -- and
the timing.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sat, 04 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | San Francisco Chronicle (CA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 San Francisco Chronicle |
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(9) 4 OAKLAND OFFICERS CHARGED WITH 49 FELONIES IN MISCONDUCT PROBE (Top) |
OAKLAND--Four Oakland police officers were charged Thursday with
felonies including assault, kidnapping and filing false reports in a
crackdown on alleged police misconduct.
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The officers, who called themselves "The Riders" on their late-night
patrols through West Oakland, face a combined 49 felony charges for
alleged misconduct.
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[snip]
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Alameda County Dist. Atty. Tom Orloff said 23 cases--mostly involving
drug possession charges--in which the officers were involved have been
dismissed.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Fri, 03 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Los Angeles Times (CA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Los Angeles Times |
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(10) DEAL PUTS L.A. POLICE UNDER SUPERVISION OF WASHINGTON (Top) |
Bid to determine abuses: Officers to record ethnic background of those
they stop
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Nearly 10 years after the brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King
by police officers and in the wake of the Rampart division's corruption
scandal, the city of Los Angeles announced yesterday it has cut a deal
with the U.S. government over its out-of-control police force.
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The deal makes the LAPD the largest police department in the United
States to fall under federal supervision.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | National Post (Canada) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Southam Inc. |
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Author: | Araminta Wordsworth, staff writer |
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COMMENT: (11-13) (Top) |
The NYT updated an already controversial New Jersey case by reporting
that the judge set off a storm of protest by dropping charges against
two state troopers.
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Two police shootings in other venues also continued to resonate; a Los
Angeles Times article questioned the use of SWAT teams to serve drug
warrants and in Tennessee, a rare indictment was handed down following
the recent fatal shooting of a black retiree.
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(11) THE MUDDLED PROFILING CASE (Top) |
It is time for federal prosecutors to step in and take control of the
New Jersey case in which two state police officers shot at four unarmed
black and Hispanic men on the New Jersey Turnpike.
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[snip]
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This questionable history makes it clear that the attorney general's
office has no credibility on this case. The people of New Jersey
deserve to have this critical case brought to trial in a just manner.
At this stage, federal prosecutors may be best able to deliver that
result.
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Pubdate: | Sat, 04 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | New York Times (NY) |
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Copyright: | 2000 The New York Times Company |
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Also see Chronology at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1641/a08.html
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(12) DEATHS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT SWAT TEAMS (Top) |
Police: | Accidents, Deaths And Raids At Wrong Addresses Put Pressure On |
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Departments To Disband Groups. Officers Defend Paramilitary Units As
Effective When Used Properly.
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MODESTO--No one disputes that Alberto Sepulveda was doing exactly as
he was told in the seconds after a police SWAT team burst into his
family's home early on the morning of Sept. 13.
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[snip]
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"Is it worth putting an entire family at risk, for what is sometimes a
small amount of drugs, or small-time dealers?" asked Kraska, a
professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky University who has
found that police deployment of paramilitary squads has jumped more
than 900% since 1980.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Wed, 01 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Los Angeles Times (CA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Los Angeles Times |
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Author: | Rebecca Trounson, Times Staff Writer |
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Related: | Drug War Toll From Police Shootings Continues to Rise -- How Many |
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Dead? Nobody Knows Because Congress Doesn't Care:
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/156.html#policeshootings
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(13) EX - TENN. COP INDICTED IN WRONG RAID (Top) |
LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) -- A former police officer who led a drug raid on
the wrong house that resulted in the death of an innocent man has been
indicted by a grand jury.
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Steve Nokes was charged Friday with criminal responsibility for
reckless homicide, tampering with evidence and aggravated perjury.
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John Adams, 64, was shot and killed Oct. 4 when five officers burst
into his home and Adams fired at them with a sawed-off shotgun,
according to police.
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[snip]
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Prosecutors said it was Nokes' fault that officers entered the wrong
house. They said Nokes, who didn't enter the house, also lied on the
affidavit to get a search warrant for the raid.
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Adams was black, and Nokes and two of the officers on administrative
leave are white.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sat, 04 Nov 2000 |
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Copyright: | 2000 Associated Press |
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COMMENT: (14-15) (Top) |
In Ohio, an item about a state official's son should provoke interest;
not only because of who was arrested- but because of how drugs
happened to be found.
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Another case involving police aggression in seeking drug evidence will
be heard by the Supreme Court. Don't bet on individual rights here;
they found a stash, didn't they?
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(14) O'CONNOR'S SON IS FACING DRUG CHARGE (Top) |
ATHENS, OH - A son of Ohio Lt. Gov. Maureen O'Connor is due in court
next week to face a felony cocaine possession charge.
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Alex J. Kipp, 21, of Akron, faces a maximum prison sentence of 12
months and a $2,500 fine, but his attorney said yesterday he is
unlikely to do jail time for a fifth-degree felony, if convicted.
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[snip]
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According to police, Mr. Kipp was pulled over at 10:35 p.m. for
allegedly running the traffic signal. A police dog routinely used in
such stops reportedly sniffed out the drugs.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Wed, 01 Nov 2000 |
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Copyright: | 2000 The Blade |
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(15) HIGH COURT GETS DEBATE OVER POLICE 'IMPOUNDING' A HOME (Top) |
Keeping Occupants Out Until Search Warrant Obtained Is At Issue
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WASHINGTON -- The state of Illinois asked the Supreme Court yesterday
to let police officers bar people from entering their homes during the
time it takes to get a warrant to search for drugs or other illegal
items that can readily be destroyed.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | San Diego Union Tribune (CA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. |
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Author: | Linda Greenhouse, New York Times News Service |
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Cannabis & Hemp-
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COMMENT: (16-17) (Top) |
It's taken a while- since California and Arizona approved medical use
in '96- to be precise; but Richard Pearl- writing in Liberty Magazine-
has framed the issue perfectly; and (surprise) it's not merely about
medical use.
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In Britain, popular support for medical use is widespread and a recent
poll suggests that its physicians are more outspoken and knowledgeable
on the subject than their American counterparts.
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(16) TENTH AMENDMENT - UP IN SMOKE (Top) |
The United States Supreme Court recently issued a stay which prevents
the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative from providing medical
marijuana to those who qualify according to California Law 11362.5,
sometimes called the Compassionate Use Act and better known as
Proposition 215.
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Federal law states that there is no medical use for marijuana and any
use of it is illegal under federal statute. About that there is no
disagreement. What is in dispute is related to whether or not 535
members of Congress have the right to make medical decisions for every
single man, woman, and child in America and overrule the medical
judgement of physicians.
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[snip]
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In none of those enumerated powers does it give Congress the power to
regulate what plants may be grown, what medicines may be used, or what
laws a state or people of a state can pass, as long as those laws do
not take away the rights and responsibilities of the Constitution.
Plainly, any regulation of this sort must be done at the state level,
if at all.
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The Court would do well to remember the words of James Madison, the
father of the Constitution and the principle author of the Bill of
Rights: | "The ultimate authority... resides in the people alone." |
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Fri, 01 Dec 2000 |
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Source: | Liberty Magazine (US) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Liberty Foundation |
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(17) UK: WEB: CANNABIS LAWS 'TOO STRICT' SAY DOCTORS (Top) |
More than half of doctors believe the laws on cannabis are too strict
and one in three want the drug legalised, a survey has found.
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Eight out of 10 doctors say they would prescribe cannabis to patients
with serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis (MS) or cancer, if
they were allowed to.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Wed, 01 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | BBC News (UK Web) |
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COMMENT: (18-19) (Top) |
Back in California, at the historic Kubby trial, the first defense
expert provided testimony which- if believed by the jury- amply rebuts
the charge of growing for sale.
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Elsewhere in California, an article in the Sacramento Bee filled in
more details on how large "gardens" sponsored by Mexican criminal
gangs are replacing local entrepreneurs.
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(18) FIRST DEFENSE WITNESS CALLED AT KUBBY TRAIL (Top) |
Jurors in the trial of medical-marijuana advocate Steve and Michele
Kubby heard about the technical aspects of marijuana cultivation
Tuesday as the first day of defense testimony began at Placer County
Superior Court.
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[snip]
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Logan testified that Kubby's 107 mature plants, which were seized Jan.
19, 1999, by narcotics agents at their Olympic Valley home, would not
exceed the yield allowed under the Bay Area standard. Kubby's garden
would produce less than 31/2 pounds, Logan said.
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"I think this was for personal use," Logan testified. "I think the
yield is well within the guidelines."
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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Copyright: | 2000 Tahoe World |
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Author: | Brucke Schuknecht, World News Service |
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(19) GROWERS HIT STREETS FOR POT-HARVEST LABOR (Top) |
MEXICAN CARTELS RECRUIT, IMPORT WORKERS
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Miguel Alvarado, 19, said he was pushing his ice cream cart on
Fruitridge Road in Sacramento when a more lucrative opportunity came
calling. Two men had stopped to buy ice cream that mid-September day.
One excitedly told him he could earn $100 a day, "plus commission," if
he'd just accompany them to the mountains. Alvarado insisted that they
said he would work cutting pine trees. But according to a statement he
later gave Colusa County sheriff's investigators, he soon learned
otherwise.
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[snip]
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Wheeler, the chief deputy sheriff in Colusa County, said all seven
suspects held in the local case appeared to be low-level laborers who
wound up wandering in the mountains as their supervisors got away. The
workers said they never got paid.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 05 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Sacramento Bee (CA) |
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Copyright: | 2000 The Sacramento Bee |
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Author: | By Peter Hecht, Bee Staff Writer |
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International News
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COMMENT: (20-24) (Top) |
Those with a serious interest in the evolution of current global drug
policies- and their intellectual underpinnings- should at least read
this review of three pertinent books- if not the books themselves.
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Those global policies undergird criminal markets generating 8-9% of
the world's GDP; several large banks just announced they will
cooperate so as to deny those funds re-entry to the legitimate economy.
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Anyone believing that will happen would probably be able to shrug off
evidence suggesting that elected officials in two Western democracies
favor a product unique to those markets- and that its country of
origin is governed by someone allegedly tainted by those funds.
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(20) UK: BOOK REVIEW: SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE (Top) |
In this exclusive essay from the London Review of Books, Richard
Davenport-Hines considers three books which explode some of the myths
surrounding marijuana
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The Science of Marijuana by Leslie Iversen. Oxford, 278 pp., $18.99, 6
April, 0 19 513123 1
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Drug Diplomacy in the 20th Century: An International History by William
McAllister. Routledge, 344 pp., $16.99, 9 September 1999, 0 415 17989 0
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Drugs and the Law: Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of
Drugs Act 1971 Police Foundation, 148 pp., $20, 28 March, 0 947692 47 9
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"Marijuana has no therapeutic value, and its use is therefore always an
abuse and a vice," trumpeted Harry Anslinger, the implacable
Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics in 1953:
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Thu, 02 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | London Review of Books (UK) |
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Copyright: | London Review of Books 2000 |
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Author: | Richard Davenport-Hines |
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(21) BIG WORLD BANKS SIGN PACT TO END LAUNDERING (Top) |
Eleven of the world's biggest banks have unveiled plans to implement a
uniform code to stop criminals from laundering illicit profits through
the world's financial systems.
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[snip]
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However, the banks involved concede the initiative may have
shortcomings despite its good intentions.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Wed, 01 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Vancouver Sun (CN BC) |
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Copyright: | The Vancouver Sun 2000 |
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(22) WHITE POWDER IN REICHSTAG TOILETS, RED FACES IN BERLIN (Top) |
"How many of our politicians are drug addicts?" was the headline in
Berlin tabloid BZ yesterday after traces of cocaine were discovered in
toilets used by elected officials and civil servants in Berlin's
Reichstag parliament building.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sat, 04 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Irish Times, The (Ireland) |
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Copyright: | 2000 The Irish Times |
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Author: | Derek Scally, in Berlin |
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(23) UK: COCAINE FOUND INSIDE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (Top) |
EVIDENCE of cocaine being snorted inside the Houses of Parliament has
been discovered. Several samples collected by The Sunday Times from
lavatories at Westminster have tested positive for the drug.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Sun, 05 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Sunday Times (UK) |
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Copyright: | 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. |
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Author: | Maurice Chittenden |
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(24) COLOMBIA: MURDER LINKED TO DRUG RIP-OFF (Top) |
Suspect: | Pastrana Relative Took Cash |
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The abduction and murder of Colombian President Andres Pastrana's
father-in-law in the early 1990s may have been the violent outcome of
a $2 million drug money rip-off, according to a Colombian national
recently arrested in South Florida in connection with the case.
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[snip]
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Pubdate: | Fri, 03 Nov 2000 |
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Source: | Miami Herald (FL) |
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Copyright: | 2000 The Miami Herald |
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Authors: | Alfonso Chardy, and Gerardo Reyes |
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top)
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FEED Magazine Announces Special Feature "The Future of Drugs"
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FEED Magazine (www.feedmag.com) is proud to announce that it has
published the first installment of its latest special issue, "The Future
of Drugs". Throughout the week, FEED will continue to publish
fascinating new works on various aspects of the topic.
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http://www.feedmag.com/drugs/
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Submitted by Jens Flemming
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THIS JUST IN (Top)
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DrugReform.org Offers Drug Policy Ballot Results.
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Most of the outcomes of drug policy initiatives from around the nation
can be viewed at:
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http://www.drugreform.org/
|
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top)
|
"The last struggles of a great superstition are very frequently the
worst." -- Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918)
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"A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom,"
Vol. II, p. 123, c. 1896.
|
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