| April 20, 2001 #196 | ||||||||||||||||
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Listen Online at: http://www.drugsense.org/radio/ | ||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
(1) 'WEST WING' PRODUCER FACES DRUG CHARGE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
LOS ANGELES, April 16 -- "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin was arrested over
the weekend at Burbank Airport after he was found with hallucinogenic
mushrooms in his carry-on luggage. | ||||||||||||||||
The 39-year-old executive producer, who had just completed writing the season's last episode of the Emmy-winning White House drama, was headed for a flight to Las Vegas when security personnel doing a routine check found the mushrooms wrapped in tissue paper, according to an airport spokesman. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(2) SONOMA COUNTY JURY ACQUITS MEDICAL POT FARMERS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Growers Seen As Caregivers In Verdict With Legal Ramifications | ||||||||||||||||
Sonoma -- Two men who had been accused of felony drug offenses for growing
marijuana for a San Francisco medical pot club were acquitted of all counts
yesterday by a Sonoma County jury. | ||||||||||||||||
Kenneth E. Hayes Jr., 33, and Michael S. Foley, 35, grew teary and wrapped
arms around each other as the verdicts were read. | ||||||||||||||||
Hayes, crying with relief outside the Santa Rosa courtroom of Superior Court Judge Robert Boyd at the end of the seven-week trial, said it was a just conclusion to an almost two-year battle with prosecutors. | ||||||||||||||||
"As long as there are sick and dying people, I will continue to serve them,
" Hayes said. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(3) HELMS GOES TO MEXICO AND FINDS AMIGOS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Mexico's sharpest critic, Sen. Jesse Helms, goes south of the border in a first for himself and the nation. In Mexico, Jesse Helms might have been regarded as the best example of the ugly American. That is, until this week. | ||||||||||||||||
The Republican senator from North Carolina has been Mexico's severest
critic, a staunch opponent of NAFTA and the fiercest advocate of the
argument that the nation's southern neighbor ought to be "decertified"
because of its corruption and uncooperativeness in the fight against
illegal drugs. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(4) U.S. NARCOTICS CAMPAIGN COSTS MORE THAN GULF WAR (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Effectiveness Unknown | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON - Governments in the United States spend twice as much each year
on combating illegal drugs as the country spent on the 1991 Gulf War, a
White House-ordered report says. | ||||||||||||||||
But despite the US$30-billion annual cost to federal, state and municipal governments, there is little research on whether the crackdown on illegal drugs is effective, said the National Research Council, which did the study. | ||||||||||||||||
"It's pretty distressing," said Charles Manski, a professor of economics at Northwestern University who was chairman of the study committee. | ||||||||||||||||
"Neither the necessary data systems nor the research infrastructure to
gauge the usefulness of drug-control enforcement policies exists,'' he
said yesterday. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
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Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-7) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
As the feds continue to lie low on drug policy, most drug news
originated outside the Beltway: | ||||||||||||||||
Analyst Kate Nelson's autopsy of Governor Johnson's reform package missed the point: passage of most of his measures probably wasn't ever possible; that his ideas will survive is a major victory. | ||||||||||||||||
In Massachusetts, the confusion allowing 62% of the public to favor
needle exchange and most local governments to oppose it was explained
by columnist Kenneth Moynihan. | ||||||||||||||||
The Oregonian disclosed that Lockney's Brady Tannahill hasn't been the
only student opposing a rigid local school district's drug testing
policy. | ||||||||||||||||
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(5) DRUG REFORM WILL HAVE TO COME WITH SOMEONE OTHER THAN GARY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
When Gov. Gary Johnson said the best thing about this year's
legislative session was that he "had fun," some of us wondered if he
was on drugs. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
So is the drug-reform charge dead? It is for now. A special session
this fall to redraw legislative district boundaries will feature more
than enough blood all on its own. And next year's regular session will
be lame-duck Johnson's last. | ||||||||||||||||
But therein, Anaya says, lies hope. | ||||||||||||||||
"A lot of Democrats who tried to erect roadblocks to the advancement of
these bills because they were being supported by the governor made it
known to me that whenever there's a Democrat sitting in that
(governor's) chair - -- or even a non-Johnson Republican -- then they
would be willing to support this." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(6) CELLUCCI LEAVES BEHIND THE HOT ISSUE OF NEEDLE EXCHANGE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Gov. Jane M. Swift has inherited from her predecessor any number of
political hot potatoes. One of those is the Cellucci-Swift
administration's muted support of efforts by health groups around the
state to initiate programs providing intravenous drug users with clean
needles. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Billboards have sprouted along Interstate 290 in support of needle exchange, and advertisements have begun to appear on Worcester radio stations. Maybe a real local campaign could get under way, and Worcester could lead the state in finding out just how hot a potato Mr. Cellucci has left Ms. Swift and the rest of us to toss around. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(7) THE GIRL IS NOT A GUINEA PIG JOINING A TEAM (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Or Being A Research Subject Shouldn't Strip Oakridge High Schooler Of
Her Civil Rights | ||||||||||||||||
Ginelle Weber deserves a trophy. | ||||||||||||||||
The young scholar-athlete from Oakridge won't get one for sports, since
she was kicked off her volleyball team for refusing to join a
school-driven drug research project. She should get one for character,
standing up for basic civil liberties when everyone told her to sit
down. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Weber has "undermined the entire program at that particular school or
on that team," said Dr. Linn Goldberg, the project's clearly displeased
principal investigator. "She is saying, 'I want to be different than
you.' " | ||||||||||||||||
Last time we checked, that wasn't a crime. | ||||||||||||||||
Families in other communities have fought against drug testing, but
Ginelle Weber is doing it alone in Oakridge. She is 16 now. She is a
brave young woman who didn't ask to be brave. | ||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (8-12) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
NIDA Director Leshner,troubled- as well he should be- by the runaway
popularity of OxyContin, discussed drug abuse without any clue that he
appreciated the irony implicit in his complaints. | ||||||||||||||||
More bad publicity looms for the drug war in the form of the
desperate plights of two well-known athletes. | ||||||||||||||||
Another group in the process of being embarrassed by a surge in drug
use is the military; they might have forgotten that most recruits are
the same age as most first-time ecstasy users. | ||||||||||||||||
Finally, the unreality prize of the year should go to President Andres
Pastrana for his attempt to put a happy face on the chaos our drug
policy has produced in the nation he's "leading." | ||||||||||||||||
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(8) PRESCRIPTION DRUGS BECOMING CONCERN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON--Four million Americans are abusing prescription drugs, including sleep-deprived people who become addicted to sedatives and family members who sell spare pills on the street, the government says. | ||||||||||||||||
Pharmaceuticals designed to relieve pain, calm stress or bring on sleep provide great benefit for millions, but when the drugs are used for nonmedical reasons they can lead to addiction and damaged health, said Alan I. Leshner, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Leshner said people who abuse prescription drugs are generally of a
different population group than those who use street drugs such as
heroin, crack or cocaine. He estimated there are about 5 million
"hard-core street addicts." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(9) STRAWBERRY UNABLE TO APPEAR IN COURT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
TAMPA, Fla. -- Darryl Strawberry has "very severe depression" and will
be physically unable to appear in court for at least three weeks, his
lawyer told a judge today during a hearing. | ||||||||||||||||
Judge Florence Foster of Hillsborough County Circuit Court set a date
of May 4 for the next hearing on whether Strawberry had violated his
probation on a drug-related conviction. His lawyer, Joseph H.
Ficarrotta, said it was his intention that Strawberry would admit at
some point to a probation violation. | ||||||||||||||||
After the hearing, Assistant State Attorney Darrell Dirks said he would
recommend that Strawberry be sentenced to prison "based upon what we
know about Mr. Strawberry and his criminal history." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(10) MARINOVICH IN FIGHT OF HIS LIFE AGAINST DRUG ADDICTION (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
LOS ANGELES -- For a long time, Todd Marinovich hid his addiction to
heroin. The lanky quarterback had dropped out of football to play
guitar in a bar band, so hardly anyone noticed the weight loss, the
drain of color from his already pale complexion. | ||||||||||||||||
Even when he returned to the game, venturing to the Canadian Football League two years ago, Marinovich kept a junkie's schedule. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(11) ECSTASY USE SOARS IN MILITARY ARMED FORCES AIM FOR TOUGHER TESTING (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- The military is worried about the skyrocketing use of Ecstasy among its troops and is looking at more stringent drug testing to prevent the popular youth drug from invading the ranks. | ||||||||||||||||
Drug testing by the Air Force, Army and Navy indicates that usage is as
much as 12 times what it was two years ago. | ||||||||||||||||
"The availability of club drugs is absolutely a major source of
concern," says Col. Peter Durand, a drug and alcohol-abuse program
manager for the Air Force. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(12) DESPITE THE MEDIA, THE DRUG WAR MAY HAVE A HAPPY ENDING (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Hollywood is one of the most powerful arbiters of public opinion in the
U.S. | ||||||||||||||||
This impact extends far beyond America's borders; its reach, indeed, is
global. Examples of this are everywhere, but as the president of
Colombia, I feel compelled to mention the recent wave of movies, such
as "Traffic," "Blow" and "Proof of Life," and television series such as
"The West Wing" and "Law & Order," because they have all dealt in some
way with the war against illegal drugs. | ||||||||||||||||
They have, moreover, sparked a debate about the need to fight this war. In some instances they have stated outright that such a war is futile. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Still, in Colombia we are guided by a hard-headed optimism and by a
strong belief that it is right to stand up to those forces that would
undermine our democracy. It has also meant a great deal to Colombians
to know that we are not alone in this challenge and that we have the
support of many in the U.S. | ||||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (13-16) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
One way to understand the strikingly different projections for
California and US prison populations; Prop. 36 was a statement of
public opinion the feds have yet to acknowledge: imprisonment has been
overdone by the drug war. | ||||||||||||||||
A good example of the federal arresting machine in action was provided
when the Albuquerque Journal disclosed that the local Amtrak office
had been targeting passengers for the DEA; then Amtrak confirmed the
practice has been nationwide. | ||||||||||||||||
As for the racial bias our criminal "justice" statistics reflect so
blatantly: Crispin Sartwell's LAT Op-Ed explains how our prison
population has come to be so skewed. | ||||||||||||||||
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(13) LAW SEEN RESULTING IN FEWER INMATES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Proposition 36's Impact Forecast | ||||||||||||||||
SACRAMENTO -- California's prison population will drop by more than 5,000 inmates in the first year after voters opted to send drug offenders to treatment programs instead of prison, according to new projections. | ||||||||||||||||
The nation's largest prison population -- 160,655 inmates at the end of
2000 -- will keep shrinking until 2004. Then, tough-on-crime laws will
cause the population to grow again, although much more slowly than prison
officials had projected before. | ||||||||||||||||
By 2006, the population is projected to be nearly 18,000 smaller than the
state Department of Corrections had predicted six months ago, before voters
approved Proposition 36 in November. | ||||||||||||||||
Despite the drop, prison officials say they need to keep building maximum-security prisons for hard-core offenders. And officials in California's 58 counties could see their budgets stretched considerably as | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(14) BUSH SEEKS $4.66 BILLION TO COPE WITH FEDERAL PRISON POPULATION (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Fueled by tough mandatory sentences for drug crimes, the
federal prison population will soon soar nearly a third, even as the
population explosion in state prisons levels off. | ||||||||||||||||
To cope with the projected influx of new inmates, the Bush administration
is asking Congress for $4.66 billion next year for the federal Bureau of
Prisons, an increase of 8.3% from current spending. ... | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(15) AMTRAK 'SHARING' INFORMATION WITH D.E.A. (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Something to think about next time you decide to ride the rails: Amtrak
has acknowledged that one of its ticketing offices has been "sharing
information" about passengers with the Drug Enforcement Administration,
and then taking a 10 percent cut of any assets seized from drug
couriers. | ||||||||||||||||
"We provide a limited amount of information about our passengers to the
D.E.A. and other agencies as a part of their law enforcement
activities," said Debbie Hare, an Amtrak spokeswoman. "I can't tell you
how long it has been going on, but this program exists all across the
country." | ||||||||||||||||
A computer link from Amtrak's ticketing terminal in Albuquerque to the
local D.E.A. office allows agents to peruse passengers' names and
itineraries and to see whether they paid in cash or credit. The
information determines which passengers will be questioned or have
their luggage searched by drug-sniffing dogs. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(16) RACISM DISGUISES ITSELF AS THE NATURAL ORDER (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
White racism is elusive: a complicated set of half-formed ideas,
pervasive moods, involuntary visceral responses. Yet in each era of
American history, racism has taken on an institutional embodiment that
both demonstrated its continued vitality and provided a flash point for
anti-racist action. | ||||||||||||||||
Until the Civil War, the flash point was slavery. And from the late 19th century until the civil rights movement, it was legal segregation. | ||||||||||||||||
In our era, the flash point is law enforcement. Racial profiling and
police brutality are central to the experience of minorities in this
country. Perhaps the scariest and most revealing statistics bearing on
race relations in the U.S. concern incarceration rates. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
That someone is a "criminal" is not a natural fact; it is a category
created by the laws themselves and their enforcement. And too often
being a criminal in this country means only that one is an African
American man. That is not to say that there is no hope. As the
movements against slavery and segregation showed, even white people can
eventually be made to see the truth. | ||||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (17-18) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Separate, but related studies of the effects of cannabinoids were reported; even though researchers frankly admitted they didn't have all the answers, they still list blocking the "high" as a top priority. | ||||||||||||||||
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(17) STRAIGHT DOPE ON THE MUNCHIES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Most people, whether they use pot or not, know that the evil weed
induces what is affectionately known as "the munchies." | ||||||||||||||||
It's a mystery that scientists have been working to unravel over
several decades. Now, they've uncovered one more scientific point of
the munchy mechanism, which could lead to drugs that can help patients
who need to gain weight. Or lose it. | ||||||||||||||||
They've drawn the first firm link between "cannabinoids," and the
body's normal regulation of body weight. The study appears in the April
12 issue of the scientific journal Nature. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(18) SCIENTISTS FIND WAY TO BLOCK EFFECTS OF MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Chemically blocking receptors in the brain that respond to a key compound in marijuana squelches the ''high'' caused by the drug, scientists said on Thursday in a finding that could lead to treatment for marijuana abuse and perhaps even for obesity. | ||||||||||||||||
Researchers with the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse ( NIDA )
have confirmed for the first time in people that chemically blocking
the brain's cannabinoid receptors -- proteins on the surface of brain
cells -- cuts the intoxicating effects of smoked marijuana. The study
involved 63 adult men with histories of marijuana use. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (19-20) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Mary Lynn Mathre's professionalism is paying off-- big time. Her
article was (finally) published in the April edition of the American
Journal of Nursing and her activism was featured in the April issue of
another professional journal. | ||||||||||||||||
Canada's cannabis schizophrenia is still active: the RCMP was
arresting medical growers even as the government was talking with
activists about how to implement medical use. | ||||||||||||||||
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(19) A VIRGINIA NURSE TAKES ON A TOUGH ISSUE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
The branding of marijuana as an illegal substance, according to Mary
Lynn Mathre, is causing many people with chronic diseases to suffer
needlessly or secretly use the drug and live with the fear that they
could lose their job, home or freedom at any time. And that's why
she's at the forefront of a movement promoting patients' access to
medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||
The Virginia Nurses Association member is calling on her health care
colleagues to convince policy-makers that marijuana can be the key to
enhancing certain patients' quality of life. But first she must
convince many of those same colleagues that marijuana should be viewed
as an acceptable palliative and preventive medication and not as a
"gateway" drug - one that leads to hard-core drugs like cocaine and
heroin. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(20) OTTAWA CRITICIZED OVER POT RAIDS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
OTTAWA -- Ottawa was chastised yesterday for allowing police raids against growers of medicinal marijuana and for taking too much time to study requests from sick Canadians who say pot would ease their pain. | ||||||||||||||||
The government is moving to offer people with specific illnesses controlled access to marijuana, but it was criticized by a Federal Court judge and a B.C. group for creating confusion in the meantime. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (21-23) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
From Down Under: the heretical idea introduced in a BBC broadcast a
few weeks ago was echoed in Oz and also by an American academic with a
(well-known) penchant for honesty. | ||||||||||||||||
Also heretical: Dutch tolerance for Ecstasy was detailed in an
accurate Washington Post report that has appeared in several leading
dailies. | ||||||||||||||||
The Dutch may have sent a signal by cutting off Pino Arlacchi well before the current flurry of charges surrounding UNDCP. | ||||||||||||||||
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(21) COULD IT BE THAT YOUNG PEOPLE TAKE DRUGS BECAUSE THEY, AH, LIKE THEM? (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
"It feels great. The best feeling I've ever had in my life. Better than
sex, better than anything. This is the only time I feel warm, safe and
in control." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
While such an attitude is hardly novel in the drug scene, Britons were
outraged when dozens of users told a new BBC television documentary,
Chemical Britannia, that they took cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and even
heroin simply because the drugs made them feel good. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
At an international conference in Melbourne last week, UCLA Professor
Rodney Skager admitted that experimenting with drugs was "always a
crapshoot - you cannot predict which way the dice will roll", but
insisted education should be honest. | ||||||||||||||||
"(That) means acknowledging up front that ... significant numbers do
not like the experience and avoid further use, while others like it,
even perceive personal benefits, and yet do not progress to
dysfunctional use," Professor Skager said. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(22) PRAGMATIC DUTCH TOLERATE ECSTASY USE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Despite U.S. Alarm, Party Drug Is Widely Used In The Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
AMSTERDAM -- At a jam-packed private party at the edge of this city's
red-light district, the theme one recent night was 1980s retro, the
music was blaring and much of the crowd was in an Ecstasy-energized
frenzy. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
For years, Holland has pursued what may be the industrial world's most
tolerant approach to drug use. Amsterdam is dotted with "smoking
shops," establishments where people can buy small amounts of marijuana
and hashish without fear of prosecution. Officials have extended this
tolerance to Ecstasy, and take what they call a pragmatic view that,
whether society likes it or not, a certain number of people are going
to use the drug, so the risks should be minimized. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(23) NETHERLANDS BLOCK FUNDS FOR UNDCP (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands have withdrawn their financial support for
the drug-fighting agency of the United Nations. Minister Evelyne
Herfkens of Development Cooperation has come to this decision after
persistent accusations came to light about mismanagement at the highest
level of the UN-agency in Vienna, the UNDCP. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
The director general of the United Nations Drug Control Program, a well-known mafia expert from Italy, Pino Arlacchi, has already for some time been the object of severe criticism. Numerous top staff members of UNDCP's head-office in Vienna have resigned, among them the experienced UN administrator and respected director for operations and analysis, Michael von der Schulenburg. In his letter of resignation the latter talks about UNDCP as an organization that is falling to bits. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (24-26) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
While many were praising "new" cooperation between Mexico and the US,
a Canadian journalist mentioned the elephant in the living room: a
huge fraction of Mexico's economy comes from drugs. | ||||||||||||||||
Juan Tamayo's balanced Miami Herald report suggests that environmental
damage and anti-US sentiment are far more likely results of spraying
than enduring "control" of coca. | ||||||||||||||||
The upcoming "Summit of the Americas" in Quebec will predictably be stiffed by American media; that may be why Al Giordano was careful to mention it during a long interview with his old newspaper. | ||||||||||||||||
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(24) FOX CAUTIOUSLY STALKING MEXICO'S DRUG CARTELS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The New President Fears An Insurgency If He Presses Too Hard | ||||||||||||||||
MEXICO CITY -- Drug trafficking is among the major contributors to
Mexico's annual national income, rivaling top legal industries such as
oil and assembly-for-export and dwarfing more obvious money-makers like
tourism. | ||||||||||||||||
But with the accession to the presidency of Vicente Fox, an vowed ally
of the government of the United States where the drugs find their
market, Mexico's powerful drug cartels are facing new pressure from
investigators and prosecutors. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
With an annual cash turnover of over $32 billion US this makes Mexico's
drug cartels among the country's leading industries. It far outstrips,
for example, tourism which provides only 1.5 per cent of the country's
$500 billion US gross domestic product, or $7.5 billion US, despite the
resort trade's high profile. | ||||||||||||||||
The drug trade may be subterranean, but its leaders are well known and
survive through a vast protective network of suborned officials, police
and senior army officers. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(25) STEPPED-UP COCA BATTLE IGNITES DEBATE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
U.S. - Colombia Fight On Cocaine Draws Farmers' Ire | ||||||||||||||||
LARANDIA, COLOMBIA - From the air, a Colombian police raid to spray
herbicide on coca fields is a graceful aerial ballet of swirling
crop-dusters and menacing helicopter gunships that drape a stream of
household weedkiller on the coca bushes below. | ||||||||||||||||
But the view is different from the ground. Coca farmers describe it as
an indiscriminate rain of poison that kills their food crops as well as
the coca, makes children and animals sick and devastates the ecology of
Colombia's Amazon River Basin. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(26) A CONVERSATION WITH AL GIORDANO (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
On the eve of his return to New York City to answer a libel suit
brought by Banamex executive Roberto Hernandez, Narco News Bulletin
publisher/editor/correspondent Al Giordano took part in an e-mail
exchange with the Phoenix's Dan Kennedy. An edited transcript of their
conversation follows. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
(Giordano)- - Colombia: Washington has now revealed its bellicose agenda with the Plan Colombia $1.3 billion military intervention in the Andes. And a real antiwar movement is building in North America, not to mention throughout Latin America. You'll see manifestations of that later this month, when 20 heads of state hold their "Summit of the Americas" event in Quebec City from April 20 to 22. The action will be in the streets - a la Seattle, Prague, Davos -and it will fall heavily upon the US-picked chairman of the Organization of American States, former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria, who has betrayed his own people by backing Plan Colombia. Put on your seat belts. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Listen to NORML Conference Live | ||||||||||||||||
Click below for a live audio feed of the 2001 NORML Conference currently
underway in Washington, DC. | ||||||||||||||||
See the agenda for a list of speakers and topics. | ||||||||||||||||
Dr. Grinspoon's prepared text for his speech at the Conference, as discussed in last week's DrugSense Weekly Newsletter, is online at: | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
DrugSense/MAP Site Map Updated | ||||||||||||||||
The DrugSense/MAP site map has been updated to include the ever growing
list of web sites and organizations for which we provide various levels
of support. | ||||||||||||||||
Twenty-Nine and growing is the current count of web sites either Hosted by DrugSense or Powered by MAP! We also provide and support more than 100 drug policy email lists for a wide array of groups and interests. | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Federal Drug Control Budget On-line | ||||||||||||||||
The ONDCP has released its analysis of the federal drug-control budget. For those who don't already have a copy, I've placed a PDF of the document in the research section of the CSDP website. | ||||||||||||||||
The URL is: http://www.csdp.org/research/budget_fy2002.pdf | ||||||||||||||||
Have a look and see where your money is being wasted. | ||||||||||||||||
Submitted by Doug McVay | ||||||||||||||||
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Press Release The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation | ||||||||||||||||
Over 100 Top Latin American Leaders Call on President Bush to Halt
"Plan Colombia" at Upcoming Summit of the Americas | ||||||||||||||||
Nobel Laureates, Political and Religious Ministers, Civic and Cultural
Leaders Call U.S. Anti-Drug Aid Source of Violence, Threat to
Environment | ||||||||||||||||
(212) 548-0383 or Shayna Samuels (212) 547-6916 | ||||||||||||||||
Days before the Summit of the Americas begins in Quebec City, a
formidable cross-section of Latin American leadership is calling on
President Bush to go back to the drawing board with "Plan Colombia,"
charging that the U.S.-backed anti drug campaign is fueling a bloody
war, poisoning food crops and the environment, and forcing tens of
thousands of poor farmers off their land. | ||||||||||||||||
The remarkable group - composed of former heads of state, cabinet
ministers and legislators, as well as prominent authors,
intellectuals, and civic leaders - sent an open letter to President
George W. Bush, asking him to rethink the US aid package. The list of
prominent signatories includes Guatemalan Nobel Laureate Rigoberta
Menchu, Former President of Bolivia Lydia Gueiler Tejada, Former
Colombian Foreign Minister Rodrigo Pardo, and Uruguayan author Eduardo
Galeano. | ||||||||||||||||
The Latin American signatories say that aid to Colombia should address the root causes of warfare and drug-related violence by increasing support for peace efforts and economic development. They urge President Bush to use the Summit as an opportunity to begin a discussion about international support for an alternative approach. | ||||||||||||||||
The letter reads in part: "We understand, that there are no easy answers or quick fixes to Colombia's tragic dilemma of warfare and drug related violence. And we believe the United States has a legitimate interest in reducing the damage done by illegal drug use. But we are gravely concerned that current policy will cause more harm than good in Colombia and the region at large - while having little or no effect on the drug problems of the consumer countries." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
NOTE the balance of this press release can be read at: | ||||||||||||||||
The list of signatories is available online at: | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to
think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing
superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the
conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane,
and intolerable." -- H.L. Mencken | ||||||||||||||||
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