| April 6, 2001 #194 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Listen On-Line at: http://www.drugsense.org/radio/ | ||||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN | ||||||||||||||||||
(1) COLOMBIA: A PLAYER'S BID IN DRUG WAR (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Paramilitary Chief Offers To Deliver Top Colombian Dealers | ||||||||||||||||||
BOGOTA, Colombia, April 4 -- The leader of Colombia's paramilitary army has
offered to help arrange the surrender of as many as 20 of Colombia's top
drug traffickers wanted for trial in the United States. | ||||||||||||||||||
Carlos Castano, commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC), said his suggestion, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the
multibillion-dollar war on drugs, creating a de facto alliance between
himself and the U.S. government. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(2) GOV VENTURA SUPPORTS MEDICAL POT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
ST. PAUL, Minn. Gov. Jesse Ventura said Wednesday he supports legalizing
marijuana for medical use. | ||||||||||||||||||
"Medical marijuana? I fully support it, absolutely. Who is government to
tell someone if they have AIDS or cancer, what they should be taking?"
Ventura said in response to a question from a student at University of St.
Thomas. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(3) NATIONAL DRUG POLICY WILL BE MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN COMPASSIONATE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Bush also has to face a potential quagmire in Colombia. While U.S. intervention there clearly fails the "Powell Doctrine" tests of a clear objective and an easy victory, Bush seems unlikely to abandon a military mission in progress, especially one supposedly against the twin demons of drug cartels and leftist guerrillas. (Plan Colombia conveniently ignores the right-wing paramilitaries' involvement in the drug trade.) | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(4) CANADA: POT RULES TO EXEMPT ILL, THEIR CAREGIVERS FROM LAW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
OTTAWA - New federal marijuana regulations will offer seriously ill people and their caregivers exemptions from criminal possession laws, sources say. | ||||||||||||||||||
The regulations expected to be announced later this week by Health Minister
Allan Rock will outline the criteria that determine who qualifies to use
marijuana legally for medicinal reasons. | ||||||||||||||||||
They will also provide for licensing caregivers to grow marijuana,
something medicinal pot users have been demanding, said a government
official, speaking on condition of anonymity. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
The domestic policy scene remains uncertain; still czarless with
hardliners like Joe Biden growing impatient; Ken Guggenheim's AP story
carried McCaffrey's complaint-- along with criticism of ONDCP's head
in-the-sand approach to information. | ||||||||||||||||||
Also suggesting imminent change in policy: a conservative think tank
was reported to be rethinking its commitment to drug prohibition. As
for what the Bush Administration actually plans, the best source may
have been the undergraduate newspaper's summary of a Bush aide's
speech at Syracuse. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(5) MAKING DRUG WAR A NATIONAL PRIORITY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
More than two months into George W. Bush's presidency, there is still
no "drug czar" nominee. The president has traveled to Mexico to meet
with President Vicente Fox, met with President Andres Pastrana of
Colombia, conducted high-level discussions about the role of
faith-based organizations in drug treatment and prevention, and
announced the administration's funding priorities for drug policy --
all without a drug czar in office. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Thirteen years ago, I wrote the law that created the Office of National
Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar oversees, because I was
convinced we needed a coordinated federal drug policy, with one person
accountable for developing and implementing an effective national
strategy. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(6) DELAY IN NAMING DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR RAISES CONCERNS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
While the Bush administration proposes $730 million to stop drugs abroad and promotes character education to help stop them at home, an important player is missing from the fight: a drug policy director. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
The study by National Research Council said less than 1 percent of the money spent on drug enforcement is allocated to research. It recommended that work begin to find better ways of acquiring reliable data on drug consumption and the costs of illegal drugs. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(7) IN THE TANKS: IS THE WAR ON DRUGS OVER? (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- Next week the Heartlander, the monthly
journal of the Heartland Institute, will report that Joseph Bast, the
president of the conservative think tank, was arrested at Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport for possession of methamphetamine with
intent to distribute. | ||||||||||||||||||
It should be noted that the president's letter will be published on
April 1 and that it is fictitious drama is part of Bast's annual April
Fool's Day tradition. However, the letter's condemnation of the war on
drugs is no joke. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Now, after investing so much in the war on drugs, conservative think tanks seem to be contemplating a shift on the issue. ... | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(8) BUSH OFFICIAL TALKS ABOUT WAR ON DRUGS AT SYRACUSE U (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Oscar-nominated film "Traffic" dramatically
depicted the problems with the government's war on drugs, but failed to
bring home the golden statuette. | ||||||||||||||||||
The Bush administration hopes its new drug plan will also win accolades
from the American public. | ||||||||||||||||||
"We are going to pursue traffickers as criminals and provide
alternatives to individuals, especially at the lower end of the drug
trade," said Rand Beers, assistant secretary for international narcotic
and law enforcement affairs. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Beers said half the drug budget will now go to prevention, a large
increase from previous policies of the Clinton and the elder Bush
administrations that focused more on short-term solutions. The new drug
budget has not yet been released, he added. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (9-11) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
A expert panel attempting to evaluate our drug policy reported that the poor quality of available data renders meaningful assessment impossible; in a related item, a retrospective overview of the "crack baby" phenomenon confirmed what reformers have known for years. | ||||||||||||||||||
In an era when two synthetics represent the fastest growing illegal drug markets, the discovery that eight pounds of fentanyl could be produced in a one man clandestine lab should cause some policy makers to have second thoughts; predictably, it probably won't. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(9) DRUG RESEARCH INADEQUATE, WHITE HOUSE PANEL FINDS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
The quality of data and research on what works to reduce the supply and
demand for drugs is so poor that no accurate assessments can be made, a
report commissioned by the Clinton White House and released yesterday
has concluded. | ||||||||||||||||||
The report, by 15 economists, criminologists and psychiatrists assembled by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, took no position in the heated debate on whether to give more attention to drug enforcement or drug treatment. | ||||||||||||||||||
But the experts recommended a series of steps to increase government
financing for research into drug control policies and for better ways
to gather accurate data. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(10) CRACK NOT BIGGEST THREAT TO INFANTS, RESEARCHERS FIND (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
CHICAGO (AP) The "crack baby" phenomenon is overblown, according to a
study that suggests poverty and the use of cigarettes, alcohol and
other drugs while pregnant are just as likely as cocaine to cause
developmental problems in children. | ||||||||||||||||||
Blaming such problems on prenatal cocaine use alone has unfairly
stigmatized children, creating an unfounded fear in teachers that
'crack kids" will be backward and disruptive, according to the study,
an analysis of 36 previous studies. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(11) POLICE HIT A MOTHER LODE IN DRUG BUST (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Expecting Marijuana Plants, Agents Also Discover Largest Illegal Cache
Of Synthetic Heroin Ever Found. | ||||||||||||||||||
BIG BEAR, Calif. When detectives broke through the cabin door in Big
Bear City, they expected to find marijuana plants. They did not expect
Jason Williamson. | ||||||||||||||||||
Combining knowledge from a couple of college chemistry courses with
information from the Internet, Williamson apparently figured out how to
manufacture a synthetic heroin so powerful that just touching a pure
form of the drug can kill, police say | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Detectives who raided the cabin Dec. 4 seized fentanyl with a wholesale
value of $4 million to $5 million, enough of the drug to get 3 million
addicts high. It was the largest seizure of illicit fentanyl ever in
the United States, police said. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (12) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Free lance journalist Tim Wise's provocative look at school yard
shootings, racial stereotyping, and drug use appeared on the web on
March 6. The Chronicle's Mike Weiss wrote one of several printed
echoes. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(12) WHITE BOYS LOADED (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
This column has been a statistic-free zone. But here are some numbers
that stunned me: | ||||||||||||||||||
White high school seniors are seven times more likely than blacks to have used cocaine; eight times more likely to have smoked crack; seven times more likely to have used heroin. More white students have used crystal meth than black students have smoked cigarettes. | ||||||||||||||||||
If you, like me, are white, those numbers probably run contrary to your
assumptions. However, they come from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. And there's more, this time from the Centers for
Disease Control: | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (13-16) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Selected items from the past week's news provide an exceptionally neat
explanation of how eight years under Democrat Bill Clinton actually
intensified a trend already underway during the administrations of
Reagan and Bush: disproportionate incarceration of blacks for drug
crime. | ||||||||||||||||||
Principal culprits have been (and still are) federally funded regional
task forces, racial profiling (as suggested by federal law
enforcement), and the discovery that there is money to be made in
incarceration. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(13) CLINTON'S TOUGH PRISON WATCH (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Washington -- Marsha Cunningham is doing big time in federal prison
because she lived with a drug dealer. | ||||||||||||||||||
There was no evidence that the pretty, young former temp agency worker
used or sold narcotics. But police found cocaine in the Dallas
apartment she shared with her boyfriend, who was also caught with dope
while driving her car. | ||||||||||||||||||
That was enough to send her away for 15 years under federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws, even though she had no prior convictions. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
There's a particularly ironic twist to a story that already casts the
United States as one of history's great incarcerators: Mr. Clinton's
most loyal supporters - black people - are those who have suffered most
from the incarceration policies he approved. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(14) TASK FORCES ACCUSED OF TARGETING BLACKS IN DRUG BUSTS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Rights Groups Add To Complaint; DA Says Officers Pursued Dealers | ||||||||||||||||||
LUBBOCK - Civil-rights violations and racial targeting aren't isolated to a Panhandle drug bust that became the focus of a Justice Department investigation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP say. | ||||||||||||||||||
Such violations occurred in a bust carried out in Hearne by a Texas
Regional Narcotics Task Force, the two groups said in an amended
complaint filed Wednesday with the Justice Department. | ||||||||||||||||||
The November drug bust in Hearne, about 20 miles northwest of
Bryan-College Station, resulted in the arrests of 38 people, all of
whom are black, on charges of felony possession or delivery of a
controlled substance. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
"These task forces selectively enforced the law on the basis of race,"
Mr. Harrell wrote of the South Central Regional Drug Task Force in the
amendment, which will be added the original complaint involving the
Panhandle Regional Narcotics Task Force. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(15) AMNESIA RUNS RAMPANT IN TESTIMONY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
TRENTON -- It's a minor miracle that Peter G. Verniero remembered to
show up yesterday to testify about all that he had forgotten about his
role in New Jersey's racial profiling debacle. | ||||||||||||||||||
He was on time, carefully coiffed and neatly dressed. The moment was pregnant with expectation that the former attorney general would reveal what he knew about racial profiling and when he knew it. | ||||||||||||||||||
But then he simply couldn't remember. He had forgotten memos, meetings,
numbers, legal proceedings, his thoughts at the time, conversations,
dates, times. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(16) PSYCHO FACTORIES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Nonviolent criminals go in and sadistic thugs come out, but with military spending down, America's small towns are hooked on prisons. | ||||||||||||||||||
"Going up the River" has a central idea so intuitively convincing, you
wonder how it ever escaped our attention: In the aftermath of the Cold
War, Americans have replaced military spending with spending on new,
high-tech, ever-more-punishing prisons. | ||||||||||||||||||
Prisons are now seen primarily as sources of jobs and revenue, rather
than as places for rehabilitating criminals. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
In part thanks to those mandatory drug-sentencing laws that treat
crimes involving crack cocaine much more harshly than those involving
standard-issue cocaine or other drugs, inmate populations are
disproportionately black. | ||||||||||||||||||
But new prisons are almost always built in white, rural areas, far from
inmates' homes. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (17-18) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Florida warned us not to expect wisdom- or even fairness- from the
Supremes, so we shouldn't be disappointed. Because the government's
case was civil and not criminal, questions had most to do with the
validity of "medical necessity;" so an adverse ruling will have
limited effect. The New York Times did a good job on the complexities,
while Alan Bock opines that medical use is still a winner, no matter
what the June ruling. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(17) SUPREME COURT HEARS US ARGUE AGAINST MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON, March 28 -- Although the Supreme Court is usually solicitous of states' rights, that attitude appeared today to stop well short of endorsing the medical use of marijuana, which California voters authorized in a 1996 referendum despite a federal law that considers marijuana to have "no currently accepted medical use." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
As a legal matter, the argument today was not directly about the validity of Proposition 215 itself but about what discretion the lower courts had in responding to the request for the injunction. | ||||||||||||||||||
Given this narrow focus, the Supreme Court is unlikely to issue a
definitive ruling on the future of the growing number of medical
marijuana initiatives, which have now been adopted by nine states. The
medical use of marijuana by individual patients and doctors, as opposed
to distribution through the pharmacy-like cooperatives, is not directly
at issue. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(18) TRACKING THE SUPREMES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Based on a couple of days in Washington, D.C., during which I have concentrated on the Supreme Court's oral arguments on medical marijuana in the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Club case, I believe more firmly than ever that, as Kevin Zeese of Common Sense for Drug Policy, who appeared with me on a panel at the Cato Institute said, "No matter what the Supreme Court does, the medical marijuana movement has won. There is no way the federal government can put this genie back in the bottle." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Finally, there is also the possibility of a tie. If there is a tie the
Ninth Circuit ruling -- that medical necessity is a legally cognizable
defense in federal cannabis possession, cultivation and distribution
cases -- would stand, but only in the Ninth Circuit, which includes
most of the western states. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (18-19) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Famous for "BC bud," Canada's westernmost province is also home to the
Marijuana Party, which plans a full slate of candidates in upcoming
elections. | ||||||||||||||||||
In New Zealand, where there's renewed pressure to relax laws on
recreational use, there's also cautious optimism about hemp. Mathew
Dearnaley provides an overview. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(19) MARIJUANA PARTY PREPARED TO LIGHT UP POLITICAL SCENE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
When was the last time there were 79 candidates for a new party in this
province, marijuana advocate asks | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
What began four years ago as a loose friendship of people under the
umbrella of the Canadian Cannabis Coalition last year transmogrified
into a bona fide political party. Since then, from the dreadlocked
stereotype emitting a cloud of narcotic smoke to the sober senior
seeking medical relief, Taylor says the pot party has attracted all
kinds. | ||||||||||||||||||
Marc Emery, former scourge of Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen for operating
the Cannabis Cafe and Hemp B.C., is the catalyst of the movement to
move the counter-culture above ground. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(20) HIGH TIME FOR HEMP TO HAVE ITS CHANCE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Promoters of a hemp industry are holding their breath for Government
permission to sow their first crops next spring. | ||||||||||||||||||
Not that deep inhalations will produce any illegal "highs," they are
keen to assure the public. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Yet New Zealand is one of the few countries still to bury lingering suspicions of a link between hemp and wacky baccy and allow a potentially lucrative industry in innocuous products to take root. | ||||||||||||||||||
These fears have mainly been laid to rest, even among the police, to a
point where the Government seems likely to support trial plantings
under strict conditions. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (21-23) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
UN and US attempts to reduce drug crops in two widely separated parts
of the world are proceeding on schedule, but reports form the involved
countries also mention that the poor peasants in both places have yet
to receive the compensatory aid they were promised. | ||||||||||||||||||
Also concerning Colombia: two political scientists used an imaginary confrontation between General Cilin Powell and Secretary Colin Powell to demonstrate how mindless our intervention in that nation really is. | ||||||||||||||||||
One wonders just how long the Secretary will take such heat. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(21) WORLD'S OPIUM SOURCE DESTROYED (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Luke Harding In Hadda Sees Dramatic Evidence Of The War Being Waged On
The Drugs Trade By The Hardline Taliban | ||||||||||||||||||
The mud-walled village of Hadda in south-eastern Afghanistan used to
consider itself lucky. The farmers who live here had not one but two
lucrative sources of income. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
But this year things are different. In a development that has gone
unnoticed and unrewarded by the international community, Afghanistan's
fundamentalist Taliban rulers have dramatically ended the country's
massive opium trade, The Observer can reveal - a move that has also
plunged Hadda's farmers into despondency and debt. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Skeptics have questioned whether the Taliban have genuinely eradicated poppy cultivation. But all the evidence suggests they have. 'All the indicators are that they have done it. The prices have increased dramatically,' one informed UN source in Kabul admitted last week. | ||||||||||||||||||
The UN's Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), meanwhile, which compensated farmers who switched from opium to other crops, was scrapped in December because of a lack of funding from the US and other donors. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(22) HIDDEN COSTS OF PLAN COLOMBIA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Vast swathes of southern Colombia now look like desert - crops withered away, the ground parched and brown, vegetation nowhere to be seen. | ||||||||||||||||||
The US-sponsored aerial drug eradication, the biggest in the world, is
well under way, destroying every plant that grows over 30,000 hectares
in this fragile Amazonian ecosystem. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
But on the ground there is evidence that legal crops are being
destroyed too. | ||||||||||||||||||
While the fumigation campaign has been going since the end of last
year, the other component of Plan Colombia, the $80m to help coca
farmers switch to legal crops, has not arrived. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(23) COLOMBIA: A PLAN, BUT NO CLEAR OBJECTIVE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
General Powell To Secretary Powell: We Need To Talk Colombia | ||||||||||||||||||
Of all the unfinished foreign policy business Bill Clinton bequeathed to George W. Bush, Colombia stands out as perhaps the most volatile and dangerous. Later this month, when the 34 democratically elected leaders of the Western hemisphere meet at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Bush will have his first opportunity to fully articulate his policy toward Latin America. His fellow presidents will be especially eager to hear what he has to say about the growing conflict in Colombia, which has begun spilling into neighboring countries. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
As the Bush administration formulates its policies toward Latin America
and Colombia's worsening crisis, no senior official will be more
influential in grappling with the diplomatic and military factors than
Colin Powell. When he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
Powell was known for advocating caution and clarity of purpose before
committing U.S. military forces abroad -- the so-called Powell
Doctrine. Now, as secretary of state, Powell has the chance to help
craft the policy the military will carry out. | ||||||||||||||||||
If Gen. Powell could buttonhole Secretary Powell, what advice might he
give him? | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (24-25) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Lately, Canada's drug war has focused on biker gangs; in true
separatist fashion, Mounties launched sweeps two days apart in Quebec
and Calgary. Although clearly uncoordinated, their stated goals and
targets were similar and local Mountie spokespersons were both
doubtful illegal drug sales would be daunted for long. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(24) CANADA: MASSIVE RAIDS AIM TO CRIPPLE HELLS ANGELS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
138 Arrests Expected To Ease Ottawa Drug Traffic | ||||||||||||||||||
A police crackdown yesterday against Quebec's Hells Angels, which saw
more than 100 bikers arrested and which left their leader Maurice "Mom"
Boucher facing a 13 new murder charges, will put a dent in the Ottawa
drug traffic, police say. | ||||||||||||||||||
The early-morning series of raids was carried out simultaneously in 77 municipalities across Quebec by more than 2,000 police, including local, provincial and RCMP officers. The co-operative police operation was an avowed attempt to "destabilize" the Hells Angels' crime empire. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(25) CANADA: MAJOR BIKER BUST NETS DRUGS, GUNS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
CALGARY -- In the biggest bust of its kind in Alberta, a massive early
morning raid netted cops $1 million in dope, scads of weapons and
resulted in the arrest of dozens of people - including nearly half the
membership of the Calgary Hells Angels. | ||||||||||||||||||
"Not only is it large by Calgary standards, but by national standards
as well," said Calgary police Insp. Murray Stooke. | ||||||||||||||||||
The 11-month undercover operation ended yesterday when more than 200 Calgary police officers, Edmonton cops and Mounties executed 27 search warrants at separate locations, beginning about 4:30 a.m. | ||||||||||||||||||
"We laid about 200 drug-and-weapon-related charges," said Calgary
police Chief Jack Beaton. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
New Site Focuses on Colombia, Crop spraying, U.S. Involvement | ||||||||||||||||||
A relatively new web-site provides some valuable information on
Colombia and the Andean region. You can also find information about the
organization. | ||||||||||||||||||
Submitted by Karen Crump Director, Information Services Latin America | ||||||||||||||||||
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Blow | ||||||||||||||||||
In the turbulence of the 1970s, the international drug trade underwent a
fast, violent and lucrative revolution — and one ordinary American was at
its center. He could have been your next door neighbor. But in just a few
short years, George Jung, a high-school football star from Small Town
USA, single handedly became the world’s premiere importer of cocaine
from Colombia’s Medellin cartel, changing the course of an entire
generation. | ||||||||||||||||||
Blow is a high-velocity look at George Jung’s spectacular rise and fall
— based on the true story of how powder cocaine turned into America’s
biggest drug problem and how one man from the blue-collar suburbs
became the 35 billion-dollar a-year conduit to the Colombian cartels.
Ted Demme (Monument Ave.) directs this riveting look at the manic allure
— and dangerous reality — of a drug smuggler’s everyday life, and unfolds
one of the great untold stories from the recent annals of American crime
and culture. | ||||||||||||||||||
This site contains multimedia content and is best viewed with a
high-speed internet connection. | ||||||||||||||||||
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Medical Marijuana Reflections After Supreme Court Argument
by Kevin Zeese | ||||||||||||||||||
I've been considering the next steps regarding medical marijuana after listening to and reflecting on the Supreme Court argument last week. The lawyers for the Oakland dispensary did an excellent job in presenting our case but it is my view we should prepare for the worst. While it is impossible to judge the outcome of a case from the argument most of the justices seemed hostile to the medical necessity defense being applied to dispensaries charged with federal law violations. | ||||||||||||||||||
Prior to the argument I participated in a forum at the Cato Institute
with Alan Bock, an editor of the Orange Country Register and author of
"Waiting to Inhale"-- a book on medical marijuana, on medical
marijuana. You can view that forum at: | ||||||||||||||||||
Alan begins the forum and I come on about 27.00 into the event. | ||||||||||||||||||
There is not much I would change in my views after hearing the argument. There are three things I want to emphasize in preparation for possible federal medical marijuana prosecutions in the future. | ||||||||||||||||||
1. Patients and caregivers in states, particularly those that have | ||||||||||||||||||
2. Jurors, i.e., voters, should be educated about their ability to vote | ||||||||||||||||||
3. The dispensaries need to think about how they can change their | ||||||||||||||||||
While I hope the Supreme Court rules in our favor -- because it will
force the federal government to be more sensible about medical marijuana
and develop a method of safe access for patients -- I do not see a
defeat in this case as a defeat for medical marijuana. Indeed, it may be
an opportunity to heighten the conflict and thereby heighten public
education -- not just about medical marijuana but about drug warriors
who put fighting a lost war ahead of the health of seriously ill
Americans. It will also be an opportunity for us to show the government
-- and ourselves -- that our liberty is in our hands and cannot be taken
away by abusive laws. | ||||||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
"It is said that 'power corrupts,' but actually it's more true that
power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other
things than power." -- David Brin | ||||||||||||||||||
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