| August 17, 2001 #213 | ||||||||||||||
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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 (Top) | ||||||||||||||
(1) JAMAICAN PANEL RECOMMENDS LEGAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
KINGSTON, Jamaica - In the heart of Kingston, about a dozen men stand
in an open-air emporium stacking long buds of marijuana even though
the crop is illegal in Jamaica. | ||||||||||||||
"High-grade, the best ... smell it," says a dreadlocked 27-year-old Rastafarian at the "Luke Lane" market, who gives his name only as Toro as he holds a bud in the air and beckons to a passer-by. Sale completed, he lights a joint of rolled marijuana and smiles. | ||||||||||||||
These days, he has a lot to be happy about. | ||||||||||||||
A government commission has recommended that marijuana be legalized
for personal use by adults - a move the government is likely to
endorse despite opposition from the United States, which has spent
millions to eradicate the crop on the Caribbean island. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(2) ECSTASY EXPERTS WANT REALISTIC MESSAGES (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Bethesda - As the popularity of the drug ecstasy (MDMA) continues to
climb -- 11% of high school seniors have tried it, according to a
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) survey -- behavioral
researchers are recommending control strategies that may seem
antithetical to ever-expanding law enforcement efforts. Instead of
focusing on eradication and punishment, these social scientists take
another tack: they encourage harm reduction that acknowledges the
realities of ecstasy. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(3) US: EASING OF DRUG RULES CONSIDERED (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The U.S. Department of Education may revamp the way it interprets and
enforces a federal law that bars student aid to applicants who have
been convicted of drug sales or possession. | ||||||||||||||
Under the 1998 law, a part of the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act, close to 40,000 college students with drug convictions
could lose student-loan eligibility this fall. | ||||||||||||||
The department is considering softening the statute by applying it
only to those students who had drug offenses while in college, rather
than convictions before they started school. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(4) A SPECIAL REPORT: HOOKED ON SWAT (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Fueled With Drug Enforcement Money, Military-Style Police Teams Are
Exploding In The Backwoods Of Wisconsin | ||||||||||||||
On Oct. 5, about 50 miles north of Madison in the peaceful Green Lake
County countryside of rural Dalton, the Olveda family was enjoying a
quiet evening. | ||||||||||||||
Wendy Olveda, five months pregnant, was on the computer preparing lessons for the fifth-grade class she teaches at Markesan Elementary School. Jesus, her husband, was in the bedroom reading, and their 3-year-old daughter, Zena, was passing the time quietly on a couch. | ||||||||||||||
Suddenly the door burst open and several armed men in black uniforms
burst into the home. Within seconds Wendy and her husband, Jesus,
were thrown roughly face down to the floor and ordered to put their
hands behind their heads. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-7) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Connecting the dots? | ||||||||||||||
Dan Forbes' latest revelation involved schools, not medical
journals; however it reminds us of the tax dollars the feds have
spent in their sneaky attempts to influence public opinion on drug
policy. | ||||||||||||||
Does a similar effort explain why a proud medical journal went from
chiding McCzar back in '97 to publishing blatant ONDCP propaganda
last week? | ||||||||||||||
It raises eyebrows to learn that the same journal simultaneously
refused to publish a long awaited clinical cannabis study;
dismissing it as "advocacy." | ||||||||||||||
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(5) READING, WRITING AND PROPAGANDA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
American School Kids Are Being Subjected To "News" Programs That
Contain Covert Government-Sponsored Anti-Drug Messages. | ||||||||||||||
Channel One, the company that beams TV news programs and commercials
into thousands of schools in the U.S., has broadcast dozens of news
segments that contained anti-drug messages in the past three years --
and received millions of dollars' worth of ad credits from the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy for doing so, Salon has
learned. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(6) DRUG WEB SITES PROVIDE HARMFUL INFORMATION-STUDY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
BOSTON - Internet surfers are far more likely to come upon Web sites
with wrong and potentially dangerous information about illicit drug
use than they are to find more reliable, informed sites, a new study
shows. | ||||||||||||||
A study in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine found that
popular Internet search engines tend to direct users to sites that
appear to promote drug use and provide incorrect and even dangerous
information. | ||||||||||||||
Often overlooked by the popular search engines are those Web sites
that provide reliable information on illegal drugs, including sites
funded by the federal government, the study said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(7) THE GOOD DOCTOR (Top) | ||||||||||||||
He's been in on the AIDS battle since the beginning, but it's the feds Donald Abrams fights when it comes to scoring marijuana | ||||||||||||||
Dr. Donald Abrams won't say the word "joint." After what he's been through in his attempts to acquire marijuana from the feds for his research, it's hard to blame him if his incessant use of the term "marijuana cigarette" makes him sound like a fifth-grade health class teacher struggling to explain the dangers of reefer madness. | ||||||||||||||
"I do that on purpose," Abrams confesses. "I have to stay away from
coming across like an advocate." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Yet, as Abrams would discover, shaping a legitimate experiment was one thing, getting the weed to conduct the study was quite another. The science, quite simply, was in danger of being permanently lost in the politics swamping the potential benefits of medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
"It was unbelievable, the number of 'Catch-22's' I found myself
coming up against," Abrams says calmly. ... | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Abrams needs all the inner strength he can muster. For example and
ironically, given the care he takes to steer clear of the politics
and concentrate on the science and the patients, the New England
Journal of Medicine recently declined to print the results of Abrams'
much-heralded study on marijuana and protease inhibitors. Their
reasoning? It sounded too much to them as though he were advocating
medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (8-10) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The same SF Chronicle Sunday magazine that ran Abrams story also
took an in-depth look at burgeoning drug testing industry, which it
claims now generates six billion dollars a year. | ||||||||||||||
And sadly, testing is becoming norm for athletes of all types-- from
footballers to chess players. | ||||||||||||||
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(8) THE AMERICAN WAY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The Drug-Testing Industry Is A Multibillion Dollar Profit Center. And
A Giant Weapon In The War On Drugs. So Don't Be Surprised If You Have
To Pony Up Prior To Your Next Job Interview. | ||||||||||||||
So, you're looking for a job, one of the zillion workers who got the pink slip in recent months since the boom went bust. Or you're a recent graduate, about to get a full-time job for the first time. Or you're sick of your old job - the place has gotten too corporate, management is starting job evaluations or some other type of torture, you feel unappreciated and underpaid - and you just want out. | ||||||||||||||
So, you get your resume polished, hustle up some references and head
out into the proverbial job market with your proverbial hat in hand.
Better save the other hand for forking over an all-too-real cup of
urine. Yours. | ||||||||||||||
Drug testing. It's here and it's big. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The trend, now in its 15th year, has spawned a $5.9 -billion industry | ||||||||||||||
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[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Against this backdrop, two surveys suggest it's all much ado about
nothing.= For starters, the National Academy of Sciences concluded in
1994, after a three-year study, that there was no scientific evidence
that drug tests ensure safety and productivity on the job.
Secondly,... | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(9) LEAGUE SUSPENDS RUSSELL (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Darrell Russell, an Oakland Raider defensive tackle and a former USC
standout, was suspended Tuesday by the NFL for the first four
regular-season games for violating the league's substance-abuse
policy. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(10) U.S. CHESS CONCEDES ON DRUG TESTING (Top) | ||||||||||||||
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Delegates at the U.S. Chess Federations have
agreed to begin drug testing at tournaments under pressure from the
game's international governing body. | ||||||||||||||
The Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) is trying to make chess an Olympic sport. Routine drug testing is a requirement for recognition of any sport by the International Olympic Committee. | ||||||||||||||
The tests cost $300-$500 each. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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COMMENT: (11-13) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Press reports betraying the regional paranoia and distrust
surrounding methamphetamines and OxyContin continued last week. As
an aside; doesn't the persistence and desperation exhibited by users
of those agents signal the basic futility of our present "just say
no" attitude and also suggest there may be huge flaws in the
distinction between "licit" and "illicit?" | ||||||||||||||
News items relating to MDMA were scarcer and more muted; the San
Diego U-T even published Marsh Rosenbaum's sensible Op-Ed urging a
more balanced approach than NIDA hysteria. | ||||||||||||||
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(11) PAINKILLER'S DARK SIDE EMERGES IN RURAL AREAS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Rampant Abuse Of Prescription Drug Disrupts Va. Town; 'It's Costing
Lives' | ||||||||||||||
PULASKI, Va. - The armed robberies of pharmacies have the police
chief of this little town concerned, but then he has a lot on his
mind these days. | ||||||||||||||
There are the reports of girls prostituting themselves and of some
elderly residents suddenly becoming drug dealers. One officer had to
shoot a man who allegedly tried to run him down. | ||||||||||||||
In addition to all of that, a lot of people around him are dying
young. | ||||||||||||||
"And," says the chief, Gary Roche, "I got a public interest in people
not dropping dead." | ||||||||||||||
Pulaski's problems stem from the prescription pain reliever
OxyContin, which is being so abused in southwest Virginia and other
rural areas that many pharmacies have stopped selling it and doctors
have stopped prescribing it. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(12) AREA SEEING RISE IN HOME METH LABS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
CHAMPAIGN - A rise in the number of people in East Central Illinois
who are cooking their own methamphetamines poses problems for
merchants and residents, as well as police. | ||||||||||||||
"Virtually all the ingredients are commercially available items with
legitimate uses," said Master Sgt. Bruce Liebe, clandestine lab
program coordinator for the Illinois State Police. | ||||||||||||||
To cut down on shoplifting and to track down people with their own
meth labs, Champaign police are beginning to talk to merchants about
what to watch for that may indicate someone is involved in
manufacturing methamphetamines. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(13) TELLING OUR CHILDREN WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ECSTASY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Ecstasy seems to be on the minds of everyone these days. The euphoric drug topped this year's list of substances "increasing sharply" on the government's annual survey. More than one in 10 high school seniors has tried it, and MDMA (the chemical name for Ecstasy) is now being used by young people of all racial and ethnic groups. | ||||||||||||||
Last week the Drug Abuse Warning Network reported over 4,500
Ecstasy-related emergency room visits in 2000, up 58 percent from
1999. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
As a parent, I take issue with NIDA's refusal to reveal everything
that is known about MDMA. If our government is truly concerned about
young (and older) people who use Ecstasy, it will dispense with
rhetoric and give its young people the information they desperately
need to stay safe. And the sooner the better. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (14-17) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Developments in this area were unusually favorable and significant:
in California, Los Angeles DA's made an important concession to
spirit of Proposition 36. | ||||||||||||||
Further north, a three judge panel from the Ninth Circuit
effectively struck down drug sentences of over twenty years unless
Congress rewrites present law. That's because a successful appeal
would probably require the SC to reverse itself. | ||||||||||||||
As to mood in Congress; it may finally be softening in response to public opinion; at least according to an Op-Ed in the WSJ. | ||||||||||||||
Finally, late news revealed that in 2000, U.S. prison rolls stopped expanding and actually declined in the last six months. | ||||||||||||||
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(14) A BREAK FOR DRUG OFFENDERS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Prop. 36: D.A. Will Not Seek Jail Time For Defendants Convicted
Before Ballot Measure Went Into Effect. | ||||||||||||||
Giving a break to hundreds of drug defendants, the Los Angeles County
district attorney's office will not seek jail time for people who
were convicted but not sentenced before Proposition 36 took effect
July 1. | ||||||||||||||
The ballot measure, approved by voters last year, calls for drug
treatment rather than incarceration for certain offenders. But in
recent weeks, prosecutors and defense attorneys have battled in
courtrooms over whether defendants convicted before July 1 could
nonetheless be sentenced under Proposition 36. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(15) COURT REJECTS BEEFED-UP SENTENCES IN DRUG CASES (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Decision In Tacoma Case Could Affect Thousands Of Cases | ||||||||||||||
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court has ruled it is
unconstitutional for judges to add time to drug traffickers'
sentences after a jury conviction, a decision that ends a 17-year
practice and could ultimately affect thousands of cases in nine
Western states. | ||||||||||||||
In a 2-1 decision Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco struck down a 1984 law allowing judges to hold hearings
after a jury conviction to determine if more time could be added to
the sentence based on the amount of drugs involved. | ||||||||||||||
The decision was based on a June 2000 U.S. Supreme Court opinion that requires juries to decide facts that determine potential sentences. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(16) MANDATORY PRISON TIME IS BEING RETHOUGHT (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Congress Explores Ways to Lessen Harshness and Disparities | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Mandatory minimum prison sentences, a fixture of the
national drive to crack down on crime for almost two decades, are
losing their allure among longtime proponents. | ||||||||||||||
Lawmakers here and elsewhere are starting to rethink sentencing
policies that require judges to impose fixed, substantial terms for
certain crimes.Liberal Democrats for years have complained that long
sentences for nonviolent criminals are disproportionately harsh on
minorities and the poor. But in recent months President Bush, other
prominent Republicans and influential judges have voiced their doubts
about them too. | ||||||||||||||
Now comes the hard part: determining the details of any proposed
changes. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(17) NUMBER OF STATE PRISON INMATES DROPS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Last Year's Modest Decline First Since 1972; California Prisons See
Very Slight Rise | ||||||||||||||
The number of inmates in state prisons fell in the second half of last year, the first decline since the U.S. prison boom began in 1972, according to a Justice Department report released Sunday. | ||||||||||||||
The decline was modest, a drop of 6,200 inmates in state prisons in
the last six months of 2000, or 0.5 percent of the total, the report
said. But it comes after the number of state prisoners rose 500
percent over the last three decades, growing each year in the 1990s
even as crime dropped. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
"I think it is a very significant development," said Alfred
Blumstein, a professor of criminology at Carnegie Mellon University.
"It is really the first change in direction in 30 years in the march
toward incarceration." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||
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Articles discussing the effects of Canadian cannabis policies on the
U.S. covered many positions. Prohibitionist, Robert Maginnis,
claimed medicalization will lead to the end of pot prohibition while
drug law reformer, Ellen Goodman, reviewed the politicalization of
this herb and suggested we follow Canada's lead. An editor in
British Colombia reported that their health minister is more
concerned about the health of Canadians rather than the political
battles of America and the rest of the world. | ||||||||||||||
Another set of opposing arguments was clearly won by drug law
reformer Richard Cowan. An Oregon editor took his readers through
the same 'ol tired path of gateway theories and 'save the children'
pleas while Cowan showed that prohibition of cannabis is causing
more harm than the actual substance itself. | ||||||||||||||
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(18) CANADIANS BRAVE ENOUGH TO GET IT RIGHT (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Marijuana has a medical history that goes way back beyond the time
when the straight-laced Queen Victoria took it for menstrual cramps.
It was used widely in the West for pain and sleep, until aspirin and
barbiturates came along. It was demonized in the 1930s with "reefer
madness" propaganda and in the 1960s when Haight-Ashbury was covered
in a stoned haze. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Here we get to the heart of the matter: the drug war in which
marijuana has played a starring role, with 700,000 arrests in 1998.
There is a fear that if grandma can smoke it legally for her health,
granddaughter will smoke it to get high. | ||||||||||||||
"We're seeing America's war on drugs being taken to an extreme that begins to make no sense," says Glantz. Politicians are so afraid of appearing soft on drugs they can't draw any distinctions. | ||||||||||||||
Compare this to morphine. We don't allow morphine on the street but
we permit it in the doctor's arsenal for the treatment of pain.
Imagine the uproar if we were to outlaw morphine. There is no logic
in treating marijuana differently. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(19) SOME IN U.S. HUFF WHILE CANADIANS PUFF MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Canada's "medical" marijuana decision is another step toward drug
legalization. In the past. the use of marijuana for medical purposes
required a special government exemption. Now, Allan Rock. Canada's
health minister. who alleges that he was forced by the courts to
expand his country's marijuana program says, "This compassionate
measure will improve the quality of life of sick Canadian,
particularly those who are terminally ill." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Unfortunately, the United States is sliding down the same drug slope
as Canada. Nine states have embraced the use of pot as medicine. Even
though our Supreme Court recently ruled that the Controlled
Substances Act made no exception for the use of marijuana by ill
people, that decision was narrow and will certainly be tested
further. More ballot initiatives aimed at "medicalizing" or
decriminalizing marijuana will test our resolve. | ||||||||||||||
For the sake of both Canadian and U.S. citizens, Canada must reverse
its pro-drug direction. | ||||||||||||||
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(20) POT DECISION TRULY CANADIAN (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Throughout all this the eyes of the world have been upon us as we magically transform the devil weed into respectable medicine. | ||||||||||||||
The U.S. is particularly curious. There, a person can be sent to jail
for a year for possession of a marijuana and five years for growing a
plant. Medicinal purposes for the plant are on no public drawing
boards. | ||||||||||||||
Health Minister Allan Rock said he isn't worried Canada's liberal
medicinal marijuana policy might draw the wrath of the President
George W. Bush's administration. | ||||||||||||||
He said in time and with further research other governments around
the world will probably follow Canada's lead. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(21) GLAMORIZATION OF MARIJUANA POSES RISKS FOR SOCIETY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
At issue here is the fact that as the drug becomes more socially
accepted in this country through its decriminalization for medical
reasons, the ill effects of marijuana will be ignored. Any study on
drug use in this country will show that marijuana is the most
pervasive of all narcotics, and more young people are learning how to
use it than any other drug. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
And if people with a pattern of addiction take up marijuana, it is
very likely that they could go on to use more serious drugs. The
decision to use marijuana is easier to reach if one believes that the
drug is a harmless and healthy substance instead of the powerful
narcotic it actually is. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(22) LEGALIZE WITH CONFIDENCE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
First, I cannot imagine anyone ever using hard drugs without having
first tried marijuana, but that is not always the case. Even if there
were such an absolute correlation, that would still not prove
causation. The Institute of Medicine Report points out that because
"underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use,
marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely the first, "gateway"
to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug
effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of
other illicit drugs." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||
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New from around the world showed harm reduction becoming more widely
accepted. Several law enforcement officials in Australia essentially
conceded that drug dealers are winning the drug war this week. Some
officials went on to endorse trials in which heroin would be given
to addicts, despite entrenched opposition from the Prime Minister.
Elsewhere in the country, the benefits of injection rooms, another
harm reduction measure, were becoming obvious. | ||||||||||||||
Time Magazine reported how cannabis tolerance is sweeping Europe,
and an article from Scotland showed how a similar policy is quietly
being pursued there. | ||||||||||||||
A challenge to the mainstream media's coverage of the drug war in
Latin America and elsewhere got more attention last week as Al
Giordano's Narconews was profiled by a number of outlets, including
Rolling Stone. | ||||||||||||||
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(23) NCA CAN'T BLOCK DRUG SMUGGLING (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Australia's top level crime fighting body yesterday admitted it can't
stop drugs importation and lent its support to a heroin trial, with
addicts being supplied from a government store. | ||||||||||||||
The National Crime Authority said unpalatable options had to be considered to tackle the rising problem of drugs and organised crime. | ||||||||||||||
Profits beyond the comprehension of many were fuelling a drug trade
which had spiralled since the 1980s, and most shipments slipped
through undetected, NCA chairman Gary Crooke said. | ||||||||||||||
The reach of organised crime in Australia was pervasive, multi-faceted and with enormous social and economic costs. Drugs remained the most lucrative commodity for organised crime, he said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(24) POLICE LOSING DRUGS WAR, SAYS RYAN (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The NSW Police Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan, says Australia is losing the war on drugs - a contradiction of the Prime Minister's upbeat assessment that law enforcement measures are "already paying off". | ||||||||||||||
Mr Ryan said that despite large heroin seizures in the past 18 months
there was a rise in cocaine use, and an "enormous spread" of
amphetamines. | ||||||||||||||
"I think we are [losing the war], and so is every other country.
We're not winning; that is the point." | ||||||||||||||
Mr Howard and senior Federal ministers yesterday reinforced their opposition to proposals for a heroin trial, which was supported for the first time on Wednesday by the National Crime Authority. | ||||||||||||||
"While I'm Prime Minister, while this Government is in power, we will not give any aid or comfort to heroin trials," Mr Howard said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(25) DOOR LEADS AWAY FROM DEATH IN GUTTER (Top) | ||||||||||||||
TWENTY drug addicts who would probably have overdosed in a King's
Cross gutter are alive after being revived at Australia's first
legally sanctioned injecting room. | ||||||||||||||
The 20 success stories have become statistics of a new kind - figures
used to show why the contentious drug injecting centre has a place in
the battle plan against the scourge of drugs. After 12 weeks of
operation, it has more than 800 users registered, up to 100 people a
day using its facilities and about 200 addicts who have signed on for
health and welfare programs, including rehabilitation. | ||||||||||||||
And then there is the one statistic that counts above all else - no
deaths. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(26) EUROPE GOES TO POT (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Technically, it is still illegal, but so many cannabis users flout
the law that governments opt to go easy. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
It used to be that Holland was Western Europe's only tokers'
paradise, courtesy of 900 cannabis cafes where adults can legally buy
five grams of marijuana or hashish. | ||||||||||||||
But now, all over the Continent, the weed has won a new level of
social acceptance. And where voters lead, politicians are following,
as they ease up on criminality. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
When 45 million people have broken the law, the law may not be an ass
but it is certainly an endangered species. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(27) POLICE IGNORE CANNABIS DEALERS IN ATTEMPT TO CRACK DOWN ON HARD DRUGS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Police have effectively abandoned the targeting of cannabis dealers
to concentrate on heroin and cocaine, the Scottish Executive
confirmed last night. | ||||||||||||||
Official figures obtained by Scotland on Sunday reveal that while
police forces are confiscating ever-increasing amounts of `Class A'
drugs, including heroin, seizures of "soft" drugs have fallen by up
to 90%. | ||||||||||||||
Although ministers have refused to tone down their official line on cannabis, behind the scenes they have encouraged chief constables to throw their full resources into the battle against hard drugs. | ||||||||||||||
An Executive spokesman admitted: "There has been a change in policy.
All forces are now targeting hard drugs as the main priority rather
than other substances. Targets are set in terms of seizing Class A
drugs. | ||||||||||||||
"It does not mean we are completely ignoring Class B drugs, but Class
A drugs have been identified as the most pressing area for urgent
action." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(28) HOT MUCKRAKER: AL GIORDANO (Top) | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Consequently, in the spring of 2000, Giordano launched narconews.com, a nonprofit pro-legalization site that presents Giordano's reporting on the Drug War as well as the best of the Latin American reporting in translation. ( "Pro-legalization is just the train," Giordano says. "The destination is much more sweeping - authentic democracy, peace with justice, human rights." ) The lawsuit, which was filed in New York State Supreme Court last August by the National Bank of Mexico - Banamex - alleges libel, slander and interference with prospective economic advantage. The alleged defamatory statements involve reports that major narcotics trafficking was occurring on property owned by Roberto Hernandez,= the bank's owner and president. | ||||||||||||||
It is probably safe to say that this suit is not about money. Since
filing the suit, Banamex was sold to Citigroup for $12.5 billion
dollars and Hernandez, who ranks 387th on Forbes magazine's list of
the wealthiest people on earth, is worth about $1.3 billion.
Conversely, Giordano's most valuable possessions are a $1,200 laptop
and a guitar. | ||||||||||||||
It is also probably safe to say that in filing this suit, Banamex
didn't know with whom it was picking a fight. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Judge James Gray And DEA Head Hutchison On 'The O'Reilly Factor' | ||||||||||||||
This August 15, 2001 edition of Fox-TV's 'The O'Reilly Factor'
segment features California's Judge James Gray and the new head of
the Drug Enforcement Administration, Asa Hutchinson. Fox-TV's host
O'Reilly shows himself to be a drug-war-crazed prohibitionist,
advocating compulsory drug testing, compulsory drug treatment for
people testing positive on the compulsory drug tests, and active
military interdiction at the border. | ||||||||||||||
Submitted by: D. Paul Stanford | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
"In The City, Pot Helps Addicts Kick Crack" On Alternet | ||||||||||||||
A new article by Maia Szalavitz on Alternet | ||||||||||||||
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LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Drug Legalization Supporters 'Proudly Have An Agenda' | ||||||||||||||
By Kirk Muse | ||||||||||||||
I agree with the premise of your Aug. 1 editorial, "Drug legalization
agenda reaches Tulia city limit" - that many of those attending the
July 22-23 demonstration in Tulia had an agenda beyond just the
injustice of a particular drug sting operation in 1999. | ||||||||||||||
I proudly count myself as having such an agenda. | ||||||||||||||
Those who opposed slavery had an agenda, as did those who opposed the
mass murder of Jews and other minorities in Germany, and those who
opposed racial segregation. | ||||||||||||||
Those who opposed alcohol prohibition because it was | ||||||||||||||
And yes, we who oppose recreational drug prohibition because it is
counterproductive and causing much more harm than it prevents proudly
have an agenda. | ||||||||||||||
Kirk Muse, | ||||||||||||||
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Honorable Mentions | ||||||||||||||
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The Story of Float #62 | ||||||||||||||
By James E. Gierach | ||||||||||||||
On Saturday, August 11th, a little boy was shot through the back of
his head as he played in his room on the West Side of Chicago --
another innocent victim of a runaway drug-war society. | ||||||||||||||
On the same, sunny, beautiful day that the boy was shot, Martin
Luther King Drive hosted the Bud Billiken Parade. Over two hundred
floats, vehicles and marching groups paraded before thousands of
people and maybe millions on television. The first two hours of the
six-hour parade were televised. | ||||||||||||||
To the creators of float #62, Saturday's parade represented the
culmination of weeks of around-the-clock problem-solving, design
work, float construction, imploring and strategizing. The idea: to
present to millions of Chicagoans, and particularly black Chicagoans,
a solution to the myriad problems of guns, gangs, violence, killing
and drugs. The story started on July 2nd when Greg Harris of the
Chicago Defender newspaper called me to invite me to take an ad
in the Defender. For $1,500, I could buy two-inches of newspaper
space for a message of my choice and $700 of that fee would pay the
entry fee for a charitable organization to put a float into the Bud
Billiken Parade. I set my notes of Greg's call aside but did not
throw them out. | ||||||||||||||
For several years, I had encouraged community groups and political
and religious leaders to march against the drug war, instead of drugs,
to stop the violence and the killing. Too no avail, I hasten to add.
Then, within a week or so of Greg's call, gang crossfire riddled an
adorable four-year-old with bullets on Chicago's West Side, Robbie
Anderson, son of Barbara Singleton. | ||||||||||||||
We traveled through the suburbs at 20 to 30 m.p.h., east on 95th
Street to the Dan Ryan expressway. Oh, Mayor Richard M. Daley would
be furious. Rev. DeVille said that he had recently suggested to Mayor
Daley that we have to legalize drugs and the mayor turned a
reddish-purple color. After all, Daley made his bones on backs of
drug-war cadavers, putting people behind bars for consensually buying
and selling drugs. He helped turn American into a nation of prisons.
Drug war has turned America into the prison capital of the world, a
country with the highest rate of incarceration in the world; formerly,
the land of the free. Drug war is justification for prison slavery,
the disparate incarceration of people of color to save our kids and
provide jobs to economically depressed areas of Illinois. But we were
on the way to a parade that catered to people of color, and we carried
a message of hope. We were towing a float with hope. | ||||||||||||||
As we marched, I studied the crowd. I searched for eye contact with
someone bothering to read the banner [which read, "END THE DRUG WAR TO
STOP THE KILLING"]. Without prodding, some people would raise their arm
overhead or cheer to manifest agreement with the message. Others seemed
unobservant or inattentive. I responded to the responsive by pointing
at them, or raising my hand over my head and shouting, "End the drug
war. Stop the Killing." Step after step and block after block, I
scanned from one side of the street to the other, acknowledging support.
When we passed a police officer, I raised my voice even louder. End the
drug war. When someone really was tuned in or smiling in appreciation,
I rewarded the attention with performance: Stop the guns, stop the
gangs, stop the killing, stop the violence, fight AIDS, fight prisons,
fight corruption, fight everything bad -- End the drug war!!! My
hollering was cathartic, good for me, good for them. | ||||||||||||||
During the parade march -- television or not, newspaper photos or not, companions or not -- I was uninhibited. There was nothing between the people and me. Nothing to bar my all-important message from reaching those who needed to hear it. No editor, no producer, no photographer, no political boss, no media gatekeeper, no one could stop me from directly proclaiming my message to the people! Proclaim I did! | ||||||||||||||
[These excerpts are from a much longer version of the article, which
is available in its entirety at | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
"The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds and express their ardor and faith in some supreme deed, have advanced mankind and enriched the world." -- Emma Goldman, 1917 | ||||||||||||||
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