| Sept. 6, 2002 #266 | ||||||||||||||||
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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) FEDERAL AGENTS RAID MEDICAL POT FARM (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Federal agents raided a marijuana farm Thursday
and arrested the owners, who helped write the state law legalizing
medical use of the plants. | ||||||||||||||||
Officers seized more than 100 marijuana plants, three rifles and a
shotgun, said Richard Meyer, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement
Administration in San Francisco. | ||||||||||||||||
Valerie and Michael Corral were arrested on federal charges of
intent to distribute marijuana and conspiracy, he said. A spokesman
for the U.S. attorney could not determine Thursday afternoon whether
formal charges had been filed. | ||||||||||||||||
"These are incredibly compassionate people who've worked closely
with law enforcement to help the sick and dying in our community,"
said Ben Rice, an attorney for the Corrals. "This is absolutely
outrageous." | ||||||||||||||||
The Corrals helped write the 1996 law that allows patients and their
caregivers to grow marijuana for their own medicine. They work with
local authorities to dispense their pot to people with doctors'
recommendations to use marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||
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(2) YOUTH DRUG USE IS UP, STUDY SHOWS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Wrong Message Is Sent, A Federal Official Says | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Use of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs
increased sharply among young Americans last year, according to a
government survey released Thursday. | ||||||||||||||||
The study also found sharp increases in the nonmedical use of
prescription painkillers and tranquilizers. Only tobacco use
declined. | ||||||||||||||||
John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, attributed the increased marijuana use to "a
fundamental misunderstanding" propagated by the baby boomer
generation that marijuana is safe and should be legal. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
The good news, Thompson said, was a continuing decline in smoking
among people 12-17. Their number is about one-third lower than it
was in 1997. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(3) U.S. STEPS UP AIR ATTACK ON COLOMBIA COCA CROP (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
ROSAL, Colombia - With the full support of the Colombian president, the United States has begun what American officials say will be the biggest and most aggressive effort yet to wipe out coca growing. | ||||||||||||||||
A round of aerial spraying to kill Colombia's mammoth drug crops,
which resumed here a month ago, is part of a new phase in the war on
drugs. U.S. officials said that it was bigger and more aggressive
than before and that if sustained, it could at last make substantial
inroads against coca growing in Colombia. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(4) U.S. WON'T PROVIDE POT TO ARIZONA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Officials at a federally funded marijuana research farm in
Mississippi say they never agreed to supply sick Arizonans with the
drug, despite wording in the Arizona initiative suggesting that it
would come from there. | ||||||||||||||||
Administrators say their farm isn't even a feasible option. | ||||||||||||||||
Proposition 203 would decriminalize the possession of small amounts
of marijuana and have the Arizona Department of Public Safety
distribute free monthly doses to the seriously ill. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
"There's no way Arizona can get this marijuana from the University
of Mississippi," said Thomas Hinojosa, a spokesman with the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Not only would Arizona's request not fit
the research criteria, but it would also conflict with federal law,
Hinojosa said. And generally, federal law takes precedence over
state law. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
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Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-9) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The biggest story of the week comes out of Canada, where a senate
committee report endorsed the legalization of marijuana. For more on
the issue, see this week's feature article by Matt Elrod, MAP's
multi-talented Webmaster. | ||||||||||||||||
At the time of deadline for DrugSense Weekly, U.S. reaction to the Canadian report seemed to be muted. But federal drug warriors in the U.S. seemed almost gleeful while declaring the existence of a pipeline between a methamphetamine ring and middle eastern terrorists. Perhaps it's only coincidental, but within days of that announcement, the DEA opened a new exhibit at its museum that is supposed to show the ties between illegal drugs and terror. | ||||||||||||||||
The sincerity of the museum exhibit was called into question by a
Canadian journalist who says the U.S. is not only allowing poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan, but actually encouraging even more. And,
finally, drug tests in schools aren't just about invasiveness,
punishment and isolation, according to drug czar John Walters. They
are also about forcing kids into treatment. Walters didn't mention
it, but this tactic will also eventually allow the drug warriors to
talk about how addictive marijuana is - why else would so many kids
be going to treatment for using pot? | ||||||||||||||||
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(5) LEGALIZE POT, SENATE COMMITTEE SAYS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
OTTAWA - A Senate committee said in a report Wednesday that
marijuana should be legalized. | ||||||||||||||||
The Special Committee on Illegal Drugs released its final report on
Wednesday morning, in which it says the public drug policy should be
of a guiding nature, rather than a restrictive one. | ||||||||||||||||
The committee also says the government should wipe clean the records
of anyone convicted of marijuana possession. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(6) DEA: DRUG MONEY FUNDS TERROR GROUP (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON (AP) Federal authorities have amassed evidence for the first time that an illegal drug operation in the United States was funneling proceeds to Middle East terrorist groups like Hezbollah. | ||||||||||||||||
Evidence gathered by the Drug Enforcement Administration since a series of raids in January indicates that a methamphetamine drug operation in the Midwest involving men of Middle Eastern descent has been shipping money back to terrorist groups, officials said. | ||||||||||||||||
``There is increasing intelligence information from the | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(7) EXHIBIT TIES DRUG SALES TO TERRORISM (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
ARLINGTON, Va. - Attorney General John Ashcroft and former New York
City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani helped open a museum exhibit Tuesday
intended to show Americans that buying illegal drugs can support
terrorist attacks. | ||||||||||||||||
The exhibit, titled "Target America," includes Sept. 11 rubble from
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It is housed at a museum in
the Drug Enforcement Administration's headquarters. | ||||||||||||||||
DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said the exhibit aims to educate
Americans about the role drug money has in terrorism. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(8) COMMENTARY: U.S. DELIBERATELY PROMOTING DRUGS IN AFGHANISTAN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
An interesting picture appeared in Canadian papers not too long ago.
It showed a combat patrol in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan
walking through fields of opium poppies. The troops weren't there to
destroy the poppies; they were looking for members of al Qaeda.
Hadn't they heard the Bush administration's line that supporting
drugs means supporting terrorism? | ||||||||||||||||
On this side of the world drugs are bad. Since September 11th, the
Bush administration has been increasing the number of U.S. military
advisors in Colombia. Their role has been expanded to accompany the
Colombian military to root out and destroy drug trafficking
operations. | ||||||||||||||||
Earlier this month the Bush administration succeeded in having its candidate elected in Bolivia. The campaign centered on whether the coca crops should be increased. Their candidate was against it. | ||||||||||||||||
So, why turn a blind eye to Afghanistan? The answer is simple. The
U.S. needs the support of the warlords who really run the country.
One government source has told me the Bush administration paid each
warlord at least $3 million dollars deposited into various Middle
East bank accounts. Other sources have said the U.S. has agreed to
increase poppy production. | ||||||||||||||||
Opium poppies are a major money-making enterprise. On just one
hectare a farmer can make ten times the money of other crops
including wheat. And the warlords will reap far greater profits
shipping the crop west as heroin and opium. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(9) FEDS - DON'T PUNISH KIDS OVER DRUGS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON - The federal drug director is urging schools to offer
help to students who use drugs, not just toss them out. | ||||||||||||||||
Guidelines in a report released Thursday by the Office of National Drug Control Policy urge treatment and counseling for drug-using high schoolers rather than simply suspending or expelling them. | ||||||||||||||||
``The goal is to say we believe we can do a better job of making kids healthy,'' said John P. Walters, who directs the office. Kicking students out of school without treatment can create ``drug-using dropouts,'' an even bigger problem, the report said. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (10-13) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Some stories published last week offered insightful peeks behind the
scenes of the drug war. An article published in Nebraska revealed
that money used to buy drugs in sting operations is generally not
recovered. Once again the drug war helps the black market to
prosper. | ||||||||||||||||
The process for nonviolent felons to regain their voting rights
after serving prison and probation terms is being overhauled in
Virginia. Before, it was a complicated task, involving a wait of at
least seven years for drug convict, and five years for other
convicts. Now it will be a uniform three-year wait, with less
paperwork. | ||||||||||||||||
In Oklahoma, a defense attorney says police are targeting an
immigrant pharmacist for selling legal drugs that can be used to
make methamphetamine. The attorney suggests his client's only crime
is a lack of language skills and his willingness to sell a legal
product. | ||||||||||||||||
And, another week, another police official is arrested for
corruption. This time, it's the head of a drug task force in
Tennessee. | ||||||||||||||||
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(10) UNDERCOVER DRUG DEALS REQUIRE MONEY -- LOTS OF IT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Officers often catch methamphetamine dealers through undercover
buys. When law enforcement officers run out of money -- usually
toward the end of their fiscal year -- they can't make those buys
anymore. | ||||||||||||||||
"This year, we ran out with six months left in our year," Norfolk
Police Division Capt. Steve Hecker said of his anti-drug task
force's investigative budget. "Once those funds are gone, you don't
have the ability to make a phone call, make a buy." | ||||||||||||||||
For those who want to see law enforcement be as effective as possible in fighting drugs, the lack of funds is a big problem. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Officers usually do not get their money back after they make an undercover deal. They could, of course, arrest a drug dealer right before the money changes hands. But then the dealer could be charged only with possession of a controlled substance and not dealing." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(11) VOTING-RIGHTS RESTORATION MADE EASIER (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
RICHMOND (AP) - Nonviolent felons may apply to have their voting
rights restored more quickly and easily under a streamlined policy
announced yesterday by Gov. Mark R. Warner. | ||||||||||||||||
"When an offender has served his full sentence and demonstrated he
can be a law-abiding citizen, he deserves an efficient and fair
process for restoring his most basic right," Mr. Warner, a Democrat,
said. | ||||||||||||||||
"For too many years, applications for restoring voting rights have
languished without official action. In my administration, applicants
will receive a decision, one way or another, within a reasonable
period of time." | ||||||||||||||||
The previous process, adopted in 1990, permitted ex-felons convicted
of drug offenses to apply for a restoration of voting rights seven
years after completing a sentence and any probation, parole or
supervised release. For all other ex-felons, the mandated wait was
five years. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Under Mr. Warner's new policy, which takes effect tomorrow, anyone convicted of nonviolent offenses may apply for a restoration of voting rights three years after completing his or her sentence, suspended sentence, probation, parole or supervised release. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(12) ATTORNEY QUESTIONS PRECURSOR CHARGES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Suspects were targeted by police, according to lawyer. The attorney for an Enid man charged last week with illegally selling drug precursors suggests authorities may have been picking on immigrants during the two-year investigation that culminated in seven arrests. | ||||||||||||||||
Defense attorney Greg Camp said it appears to him that investigators
took advantage of his client's muddled command of English when they
bought pseudoephedrine tablets from him on two occasions. Camp
represents Young Tag Cho, 30, who was charged Friday with two counts
of unlawfully selling drug precursors. | ||||||||||||||||
Cho is one of five people who work at Garfield County convenience
stores arrested last week on state charges at the conclusion of a
two-year investigation by local, state and federal authorities. Two
others are facing federal charges. | ||||||||||||||||
Five of those seven people are not native Americans. None of them
has any criminal history, Camp said. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(13) DRUG TASK FORCE HEAD ARRESTED (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested the director of the 10th Judicial Drug Task Force Tuesday night on drug charges stemming from reports evidence was missing from the DTF office in Charleston. | ||||||||||||||||
According to TBI spokesperson Jeanne Broadwell in Nashville, DTF
Director Kenneth Don Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was
arrested around 11:30 Tuesday night and charged with simple
possession of the Schedule II drug cocaine. TBI Special Agent
In-Charge Richard Brogan arrested Wilson and booked him into the
McMinn County Jail around 1:30 a.m. today. | ||||||||||||||||
The DTF operates under the supervision of the District Attorney's
Office and aids agencies within the District in drug investigations,
as well as conducting independent investigations. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (14-18) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
It is a general rule in teen slasher movies that the psychopathic
killer must be convincingly slain at least three times. Reefer
madness myths have even greater resiliency. Following his
announcement last week that adolescent cannabis use is a gateway to
"hard drugs", no doubt timed to counter November cannabis
initiatives, Drug Czar John Walter's resurrected the tale that
today's weed is "30 times more potent" than the schwag boomers may
have experimented with at Woodstock. No mention of the two-toke
hashish they were puffing by the mud pit. | ||||||||||||||||
Speaking of phobias and fantasies, Canadian author Spider Robinson treated us to an entertaining analysis of the discomfort court-mandated medicinal cannabis regulations are causing his dilatory Health Minister. Nevertheless, drug war dodger Steve Kubby finally won the right to cultivate and possess north of the border. | ||||||||||||||||
In Britain, critics on both sides of the debate continued to find fault with David Blunkett's tepid attempt to please everyone. The police lobbied to retain some discretion while an academic warned of increasing disparities and eroding respect for the law. | ||||||||||||||||
From Michigan to cyberspace, friends and supporters of slain freedom
fighters Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland "Rollie" Rohm took time
to remember and keep their dream alive. | ||||||||||||||||
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(14) MARIJUANA TODAY: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The public debate over marijuana has been plagued by difficulties,
not the least of which is a lack of accurate information. Any policy
debate that draws activists promoting their cause is likely to
suffer from confusion. But the debate over marijuana has been
further muddled by careless or gullible media reports. Too often,
journalists are fed misleading advocacy information that they
swallow whole. | ||||||||||||||||
For instance, one columnist recently charged that worry about the
increased potency of today's marijuana is wildly overstated. In
fact, he calls such claims "whoppers," because the active ingredient
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) "has only doubled to 4.2 percent from
about 2 percent from 1980 to 1997." | ||||||||||||||||
No wonder the public has trouble getting a clear picture. His source
for this information is the Marijuana Policy Project, a group of
marijuana legalizers relying on a study that covers just those
years. Unfortunately, the columnist did not check his facts with the
Drug Enforcement Administration, which monitors scientific studies
of marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(15) THE FLIN FLON FLIP-FLOP (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Anne McLellan's Reversal on Support for Medicinal Marijuana Should
Make Canadians Sick | ||||||||||||||||
Recently I went in hospital for a test that required injecting me
with a radioactive drug. I told them, as I always do, that drugs
invariably hit me harder than most people, and they nodded and shot
me up with the standard dose, as always, and I vomited nonstop for
the next eight hours. One of these days I'll write a column
exploring why donning a white uniform induces deafness -- but not
today. | ||||||||||||||||
This column's about what they did for my nausea that day -- which was nothing. They shot me up with four successive drugs, starting with Gravol (a standard dose) and working up to the mightiest antinausea drug in the pharmacopoeia, without effect. I retched continuously until it was simply not possible for my stomach to clench any more; then, thank God, I was able to persuade them to stop helping me, and let me go. My problem soon vanished. The impulse to vomit uncontrollably only returned today, when I sniffed the latest mound of media manure from Health Minister Anne McLellan. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(16) U.S. DRUG FUGITIVE GETS CANADIAN POT LICENCE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
VANCOUVER -- A high-profile American fugitive also facing drug
charges in B.C. has been granted the right to smoke and grow huge
quantities of marijuana for medical purposes. | ||||||||||||||||
Steve Kubby, who fled with his family to Sechelt on B.C.'s southern
coast to avoid a jail term in California, said he is "cleaning out
our garage to start growing. | ||||||||||||||||
"The Americans would do well to come up to Canada and see how the
Canadians are doing this," said Kubby, 56, after receiving his
exemption. | ||||||||||||||||
His lawyer, John Conroy, who has represented many high-profile pot
activists in court, says he believes Kubby is the first U.S. citizen
to be granted one of the approximately 800 exemptions that have been
issued by Health Canada since "He's certainly the first one of the
high-profile pot refugees," said Conroy. | ||||||||||||||||
Kubby's permit allows him to grow 59 marijuana plants at a time for
medical use, to store up to 2,655 grams of the drug and to travel
within Canada carrying up to 360 grams. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(17) BLUNKETT'S CANNABIS STRATEGY 'FLAWED' (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
An academic will warn chief police officers that retaining the power
of arrest for simple cannabis possession is a sideways step that
could lead to confusion among officers when the drug is | ||||||||||||||||
Tiggey May, who co-wrote a study on the policing of cannabis funded
by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is expected to tell a drugs
conference on Thursday that she fears that the home secretary's
decision to keep the power of arrest when certain aggravating
factors apply was a mistake. Though supporters of the move have
argued that the retention will stop cannabis users from mocking
officers by smoking in front of them, Ms May believes this is
"hardly a persuasive argument". | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Ms May said yesterday that there was danger in cannabis users
"having laws forced upon them that they don't believe in" at a time
when "crack houses are opening up in a number of cities, and heroin
prices are continuing to fall". She added: "Most officers we spoke
to did not think that criminalising young people was a good use of
their time". | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
The Association of Chief Police Officers is, however, struggling to
draw up the guidelines for officers regarding the aggravating
factors. They are due to be published in November. Ms May warned
yesterday that the guidelines, if unclear, could lead to disparity
of practice within and across regions. | ||||||||||||||||
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(18) VANDALIA PAIR'S CRUSADE CONTINUING IN CYBERSPACE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
VANDALIA -- It all began back in the early '90s, when Grover "Tom" Crosslin bought the 34-acre farm and an adjoining 20-acre woods. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
"We consider this a war on us and we are fighting back," Crosslin once wrote on the farm's Web site at www.rainbowfarmcampground.com | ||||||||||||||||
That war ended with Crosslin's death at the hands of an FBI sniper
on Sept. 3, 2001, and with Rohm's death at the hands of a Michigan
State Police sharpshooter 12 hours later. Both were angry over the
ongoing focus of Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter and Cass County
authorities on their lives at Rainbow Farm, with allegations of
illegal drug use and distribution and the loss of "their" son,
Robert, because of it. | ||||||||||||||||
"In a way," says local attorney Dan French, "it's our own little
Waco." | ||||||||||||||||
Rainbow Farm Campground's operation may be no more on Pemberton Road. And the Rainbow Farm telephone hot line has been disconnected. But a memorial Web site dedicated to the late Rainbow Farm Campground owner and his companion continues in cyberspace at www.rainbowfarmcamp.com, the successor to Rainbow Farm Campground's old Web site. Its message, emblazoned with "In Memory of Rainbow
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[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (19-23) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The former head of the federal judicial police in the state of Nuevo
Leon, Mexico, was killed last week in a hail of bullets. Officials
linked the victim, who lead the police in Nuevo Leon from 1992 to
1994, to the "Gulf Cartel." | ||||||||||||||||
An article published in a British Psychological Society magazine
caused a flurry of controversy by publicizing a study conceding MDMA
may not be the killer bogeyman some claim it is. Researchers
disclosed previous studies had overestimated the harms of MDMA, were
misleading, often biased; and that data existed showing MDMA
"exposure had no long-term effects." Meanwhile, UK Tory MPs, already
incensed over a planned downgrade in the classification of cannabis,
are striking back by increasing drug-driving punishments. (No
attempt will be made to distinguish between cannabis and other
drugs.) | ||||||||||||||||
With a pliant right-wing Uribe regime firmly in place, the U.S.
proclaimed a new era of "mass fumigation" for Colombia. Officials
optimistically chirped that this new tweak would turn the tide
against coca. Critics note this will simply cause planting to spread
to a wider area. | ||||||||||||||||
And finally this week, the "war" on substances of which politicians
disapprove claimed another collateral casualty: the American bridge
player and silver medalist Disa Eythorsdottir was stripped of her
title after she refused to take a drug test in Montreal.
Eythorsdottir (originally from Iceland) evidently had a prescription
for a back medication, but had not obtained additional permission
from officials. | ||||||||||||||||
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(19) FORMER POLICE COMMANDER GUNNED DOWN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
MONTERREY, Mexico - A former federal police commander was gunned down outside his home in northern Mexico, marking the 10th execution-style slaying in the past month in Nuevo Leon state. | ||||||||||||||||
Ricardo Ruben Puente, 46, was shot four times after he and his wife
pulled up to their home Saturday night in the affluent city of San
Pedro. His wife, who was getting out of the car at the time, was not
injured, authorities said. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Puente served as head of the federal judicial police in the state
from 1992 to 1994. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Police said the slain victim had ties to the Gulf cartel. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(20) ECSTASY NOT DANGEROUS, SAY SCIENTISTS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Three leading psychologists have provoked an outcry by claiming that
the dance drug ecstasy may not be dangerous and that some of its
ill-effects may be imaginary. | ||||||||||||||||
The drug has been blamed for causing deaths and permanent brain
damage, but the psychologists are strongly critical of animal and
human studies into its effects, claiming that they are misleading
and overestimate the harm ecstasy - scientifically known as MDMA -
can cause. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Writing in the magazine the Psychologist, published by the British Psychological Society, they claim that many of the studies since 1995 have been flawed. They also accuse researchers of bias. | ||||||||||||||||
Ecstasy is said to affect cells in the brain which produce serotonin, the chemical known to influence mood. But the changes observed involved the degeneration of nerve fibres, which can be regrown, and not the cell bodies themselves, the psychologists say. | ||||||||||||||||
They accuse other scientists of minimising the impact of data suggesting that ecstasy exposure had no long-term effects. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(21) TORY PLAN TO OUTLAW DRUG-DRIVING (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Driving under the influence of drugs could be made a criminal
offence, under a bill sponsored by a Tory MP. | ||||||||||||||||
Shadow Home Office minister Nick Hawkins plans to introduce a bid to get drug-driving recognised as an offence in its own right - separate from drink-driving - during the next session of Parliament. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Samples from Durham Police suggested that in 50% of fatalities the
victims had traces of either cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy or another
prescription drug. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(22) U.S. STARTS MASS FUMIGATION OF COLOMBIAN COCA FARMS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
President Uribe Fully Cooperative | ||||||||||||||||
Rosal, Colombia -- With the full support of the new Colombian president, the United States has begun what officials say will be the biggest and most aggressive effort yet to wipe out coca growing. | ||||||||||||||||
A round of aerial spraying to kill Colombia's mammoth drug crops,
which resumed here a month ago, is part of a new phase in the war on
drugs. U.S. officials said that it was bigger and more aggressive
than before and that if sustained, it could at last make substantial
inroads against Colombia's coca growing. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Despite the rosy predictions, drug policy analysts and some
lawmakers in Washington warn that the intensified program could just
cause coca planting to spread to a wider area. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Although the United States has spent $1.7 billion since 1999 in Colombia to stamp out drugs, the amount of coca in Colombia has increased 25 percent from 2000 to 2001, according to U.S. estimates based on images from satellites and projections by analysts. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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(23) DRUG-TESTING SCANDAL HITS HOME FOR U.S. BRIDGE TEAM (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
MONTREAL--The world of bridge was in an uproar Sunday after a drug- testing scandal at the world open championships in Montreal. | ||||||||||||||||
American player Disa Eythorsdottir was stripped of her silver medal
for refusing to take a drug test. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Four U.S. team members were chosen for the tests, but Eythorsdottir,
who is originally from Iceland, refused. | ||||||||||||||||
Close to tears, she said, "They have taken everything, my medal, my
name. | ||||||||||||||||
"I am on a diet drug connected with a back condition. I asked the
authorities whether the drug was on the banned list, and they did
not know. | ||||||||||||||||
"The drug is on prescription, but I did not obtain a certificate to
cover it." | ||||||||||||||||
There are no prohibited performance-enhancing drugs for bridge, so
the WBF relies on the list of banned substances supplied by the
International Olympic Committee. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
White House and DEA Work to Defeat Michigan Drug Initiative | ||||||||||||||||
By Dan Forbes - posted at Drugwar.com | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
The report from the Canadian Senate committee that is rocking the
world of drug policy. | ||||||||||||||||
DS Weekly Cannabis Analyst Phillipe Lucas will be disussing the
Senate Report on the Bill Goode Show, CKNW Vancouver, between
1:20-2pm PST today. | ||||||||||||||||
Phil writes "Let's keep up the attention on this important document.
Don't let it become the next LeDain Commission! The next 6 months
may decide the next ten years of cannabis policy." | ||||||||||||||||
More Streaming Media | ||||||||||||||||
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20020904/pot_legalize_senate_020904/ | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
WAMM Raid Protests - Today Sept 6th! | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
National Call-In Day to Oppose the RAVE Act | ||||||||||||||||
Call Your Senators on Friday, September 6th | ||||||||||||||||
On Friday, September 6th thousands of voters will be calling their Senators and urging them to oppose the RAVE Act, a bill that is a danger to free speech and public health. Please join this National Call-In Day by calling your Senators on September 6th. Senators need to know that you oppose this bill. The National Call-In Day coincides with musical protests around the country in opposition to the RAVE Act, with raves and rallies in Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles on the 6th (and in San Francisco on the 7th). | ||||||||||||||||
You can contact your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard at
202-224-3121. To find out who your Senators are go to: | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
SSDP's National Conference is quickly approaching and is promising
to be one of the largest and most important gathering of drug law
reform activists this country has ever seen. | ||||||||||||||||
Please visit http://www.mpp.org/conference/ for information and to
register. | ||||||||||||||||
Your attendance at the SSDP/MPP conference is essential to the
growth and development of our network of knowledge, people and
ideas. | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
War is Brewing in Colombia | ||||||||||||||||
by Oliver Houston from www.colombiareport.org | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Report Shows Almost 16 Million Americans Currently Use Illegal Drugs
Original online at: | ||||||||||||||||
Today (September 5, 2002), the US government released the results of
the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the primary method
of estimating the prevalence of illicit drug, alcohol and tobacco
use in the US. | ||||||||||||||||
According to the Survey, in 2001 15.9 million Americans age 12 and
older used an illicit drug in the month immediately prior to the
survey interview. This represents an estimated 7.1 percent of the
population in 2001, compared to an estimated 6.3 percent the
previous year. | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Question 9 | ||||||||||||||||
By Alice Lillie | ||||||||||||||||
To the editor: | ||||||||||||||||
In regard to the Aug. 24 article on the marijuana initiative
("Economic Benefits Touted"): | ||||||||||||||||
As a Libertarian, I am a strong supporter of Question 9, but not
because of any cash flow to the state. "Economic Benefits" really
mean more choices and purchasing power for individuals, not more
money for the government. | ||||||||||||||||
I support Question 9 mainly because it gives individuals more
freedom to make decisions over their own lives. Adults have the
right to decide what does and what does not go into their bodies and
parents have the right to decide this for their children. These are
God-given rights. In a truly free country people do not go to jail
because they smoke a politically incorrect plant. | ||||||||||||||||
Actually, all laws prohibiting marijuana should be repealed and no
new ones enacted. In other words, there should be a free market, or
at least marijuana should be on the same legal footing as other
goods and services. | ||||||||||||||||
I also support Question 9 because, like Yucca Mountain, it is a
states' rights issue. President Bush, regardless of rhetoric, is a
staunch opponent of states' rights just as he is of individual
rights, and he wants all power to be vested in the federal
government (actually in his own hands). | ||||||||||||||||
The Bush administration needs a good, sound woodshed experience for
many reasons and Nevada is just the state to give it to them.
Passage of Question 9 will do just that and make me proud to be a
Nevadan. | ||||||||||||||||
Alice Lillie, | ||||||||||||||||
Las Vegas | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
WHAT'S UP IN CANADA, EH? | ||||||||||||||||
I confess, I was caught off guard by the Special Senate Committee on
Illegal Drugs Report (1). Don't get me wrong. I knew the report was
coming. I had been looking forward to it since the Committee was
founded in 2000 to study all aspects of illicit drug policy and then
reconvened in 2001 with the narrower mandate of considering just
cannabis policy "in context." | ||||||||||||||||
Nor, based on my own reading of the evidence the committee reviewed
and heard from such witnesses as Gov. Gary Johnson, Ethan Nadelmann
and Dr. John Morgan, was I surprised that the Committee made the
enlightened recommendations they did. That the evidence and the
experts were crying out for legalization seemed as painfully obvious
as it always has. Still, on the eve of the report's release, I
confidently predicted that the Committee would recommend
decriminalization, or perhaps legalized personal cultivation and
possession. | ||||||||||||||||
I had covered the work of previous parliamentary committees for Cannabis Culture Magazine (2). These committees are struck up whenever Parliament needs to back burner a politically sensitive issue. Most recently, an Advisory Committee on Medicinal Marijuana Regulations is being formed to ease the discomfort of our health minister. Legislators can procrastinate as long as some study or other is in the works; as long as the jury remains out. If they can stall long enough, then our courts are forced to deal with the problem and suffer both the domestic and international heat. | ||||||||||||||||
What I failed to take into consideration is that our senators, like
the judges who struck down our medicinal cannabis laws, are
appointed, not elected, and are therefore not as vulnerable to
pressure from Canadian and American prohibitionists. The Senate
Committee were able to make recommendations based on science and
outcomes, not sending symbolic messages to teens and American drug
warriors. | ||||||||||||||||
Not so Parliament's back-up House of Commons Committee on
Non-Medical Use of Drugs (3), due to release their findings this
November. I expect their report will redeem my pessimistic powers of
precognition. In fact, they seem to have already made up their
minds. MP Paddy Torsney, chair of the 15-member committee, said
there is "no possibility it will recommend legalization of pot."
Vice-chair Randy White added, "The general consensus is that
legalization is not the route to follow." | ||||||||||||||||
Canadian prohibitionists were also quick to condemn the report,
perhaps too quick. For example, the Canadian Police Association, a
trade union representing over 50 municipal police boards and
commissions across Canada, held a press conference a scant four
hours after the Committee released their report. Four hours is about
how long it takes to send a fax from Ottawa to Washington and
receive a reply, not how long it takes to carefully analyze a 600
plus page report that was two years in the making. | ||||||||||||||||
However, as touched on above, this political hot potato will be making its way to the Supreme Court of Canada this December. (4) The Court has agreed to entertain J.S. Mill's argument that "The State has no business or interest or authority to proscribe private conduct that does not involve harm or a definite risk of harm to another individual or other individuals or to society as a whole." | ||||||||||||||||
Mill defined a "harm threshold", a degree of harm that must be exceeded before the deprivation of liberty inherent in criminal sanctions can be justified. We aren't talking about the right to get high, but rather, the right not to be criminalized for engaging in relatively harmless conduct. If the Court concludes that responsible cannabis use by consenting adults exceeds the "harm threshold," then they will establish it so low that fast food will rise above it. | ||||||||||||||||
What makes the constitutional challenge the most significant of
these three northern developments is that our Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, on which the challenge is based, only came into effect in
1982. A mere fortnight on the legal timescale. This will be the | ||||||||||||||||
What does all this mean to our American cousins? The U.S. media has
been doing a remarkable job of ignoring it, but according to
Canadian press accounts, American warriors are staying the course.
(5) Last July, when our Justice Minister timidly hinted at the idea
of studying the concept of decriminalization, DEA Administrator Asa
Hutchinson responded, "We have great respect for Canada and Britain
as well, and if they start shifting policies with regards to
marijuana it simply increases the rumblings in this country that we
ought to re-examine our policy. It is a distraction from a firm
policy on drug use." (6) | ||||||||||||||||
I hate to say it, but Hutchinson is right. Unlike the Netherlands,
Canada is too close, both geographically and culturally, to dismiss.
Unlike Colombia, we are too white to fumigate, arm and/or invade. Of
course, if the DEA were confident that cannabis law reform
invariably leads to ruin, then you would expect them to welcome our
proving their hypothesis. | ||||||||||||||||
So, at a minimum, the Senate Committee's unequivocal call for legalization should make lesser reforms, such as decriminalization, more palatable. It should increase "rumblings" in the U.S. that they too should re-examine their policy (note to MAP letter writers). Finally, I pray it distracts the DEA from their senseless raids on compassion clubs and illegal interference with ballot initiatives. | ||||||||||||||||
Matthew M. Elrod, Metchosin, B.C., http://www.drugsense.org/me/ | ||||||||||||||||
1) Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, | ||||||||||||||||
2) Canada's Farce of a Drug Policy Review Continues, | ||||||||||||||||
3) Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs, | ||||||||||||||||
4) Canada: Top Court Challenge In Works | ||||||||||||||||
5) War On Drugs Is Still On, U.S. Insists, | ||||||||||||||||
6) Let's Just Say No To The Drug War | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
"We've been throwing money at the drug situation for as long as I can remember. There's more drugs out there today than there ever has been. I don't know if more money would make a dent in the problem." | ||||||||||||||||
- Capt. Chuck Sherer of the Columbus, Neb. Police Department. See http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1623/a11.html for more details. | ||||||||||||||||
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Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
Stephen Young (), Cannabis/Hemp content
selection and analysis by special guest editor Matt Elrod,
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analysis by Doug Snead (), Layout by Matt Elrod
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