July 25, 2003 #310 |
|
|
- * Breaking News (01/08/25)
-
- * This Just In
-
(1) Agents Warn Of Pot Sprayed With Weed Killer
(2) Court Reverses Conviction Of Tulia Drug-sting Victim
(3) Medicinal Cannabis Step Closer
(4) Soldiers Of Good Fortune
- * Weekly News in Review
-
Drug Policy-
COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) Bill To Protect Medicinal Pot Users Falls Short In House
(6) GOP Leads the Way on Drug Policy Reform
(7) Federal Judge Not Taking Plea Deals
(8) Plea Deals Garner Thousands of Dollars for Do-Good Groups
(9) In Year Of Cuts, Some Lawmakers Question Drug-Treatment Spending
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
COMMENT: (10-13)
(10) Drug Case A Black Eye For Prosecutors
(11) Chula Vista Man Still in Custody in Mexico
(12) West Palm Officer Guilty Of Laundering Money For Drug Dealer
(13) Doyle To Sign Plans To Open 2 Prisons
Cannabis & Hemp-
COMMENT: (14-18)
(14) Health Canada Set To Release Medical-Pot Manual
(15) Pot Paradox
(16) DNA Database Tracks Pot Trafficking
(17) Alaska Pot Case Heads For An Appeal
(18) Ontario Teen Calls Cops After Her Pot Is Stolen
International News-
COMMENT: (19-23)
(19) Chiang Rai Drug Forum: War On Drugs Set To Escalate
(20) Ozamiz Mayor To Drug Lords: 'I'll Butcher You'
(21) Supervised Drug Injecting Room Trial Considered A Success
(22) Police Attempt Entry Into Injection Room
(23) Safe Site By September, Mayor Says
- * Hot Off The 'Net
-
Halting Drug Reform
The Debate: Hinchey/Rohrabacher Medical Marijuana Amendment
ONDCP Deuputy Endorses Caging Patients / DS Focus Alert
House Defeats Effort To Divert Colombia Military Aid, Barely
Information For Health Care Professionals - Marihuana (Cannabis)
Open Letter To Health Canada, The CMA And The Press
Potential Medical Liability For Physicians Recommending Marijuana
Free Bryan Epis Petition
Marc Emery Summer Of Legalization Tour
Growing Outrage / Jacob Sullum
- * Letter Of The Week
-
Imprisoning Our Youth For Drug, Alcohol Abuse Is Stupid
/ By Joseph E. Hopwood
- * Feature Article
-
Congress Fails To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients
/ By Robert Kampia
- * Quote of the Week
-
Herman Tureaud
|
THIS JUST IN (Top)
|
(1) AGENTS WARN OF POT SPRAYED WITH WEED KILLER (Top) |
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma narcotics agents are spreading the word: Don't
smoke red dope.
|
Since the end of June, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs Control agents have been spraying fields of wild-growing
marijuana with weed killer laced with red dye.
|
Spraying is a much faster technique to permanently kill the marijuana.
The red dye is to warn the public the plants have been sprayed with
weed killer, said Mark Woodward, OBN spokesman.
|
The northwest part of the state has an abundance of wild-growing
marijuana because farmers in the area used to grow marijuana for the
production of hemp.
|
''Because the plant reproduces itself, there are fields and fields of
the stuff and it's just a nuisance,'' Woodward said.
|
During two weeks in June, an estimated 9.5 million plants were
destroyed in Blaine, Custer, Ellis, Grant and Woodward counties.
|
Officers will continue to destroy the plants until the fall. Farmers
who want to spray wild marijuana on their land can get free herbicide
from the Bureau of Narcotics.
|
[snip]
|
The weed killer sprayed on the plants is harmful to people who smoke
the marijuana, but studies have shown that a person would need to
smoke about 47 herbicide-laced cigarettes before it would harm them,
Woodward said.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 24 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Daily Ardmoreite, The (OK) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Daily Ardmoreite |
---|
|
|
(2) COURT REVERSES CONVICTION OF TULIA DRUG-STING VICTIM (Top) |
Nearly four years to the day after 46 people were arrested in the
controversial 1999 Tulia drug sting, an Amarillo appeals court
reversed the convictions of one of the defendants, a move that
apparently will result in the first exoneration of a person convicted
in the sting.
|
The 7th Court of Appeals, in an unpublished decision handed down
Monday, reversed eight narcotics convictions against William Cash
Love, who was handed sentences totaling 341 years by a Swisher County
jury. The decision remanded Love's cases to district court for new
trials.
|
Love, who is still in prison and could not be reached for comment,
likely will be the first person to be cleared after serving prison
time from the bust, based on prosecutors' plans not to retry his cases.
|
Love's attorney, Van Williamson, said Wednesday he had not yet talked
to his client, but he said this week's decision signals the beginning
of the end to a long journey for both of them.
|
"I'm happy we're toward the end of this," Williamson said. "It's been
a long time. I've been representing or involved with these defendants
since probably three days after the bust. I'm just glad it's finally
coming to an end."
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 24 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Amarillo Globe-News (TX) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Amarillo Globe-News |
---|
|
|
(3) MEDICINAL CANNABIS STEP CLOSER (Top) |
Parliament's health committee is expected to recommend the medicinal
use of cannabis.
|
However, the select committee is expected to dodge the question of
whether cannabis should be decriminalised but to keep the issue alive
by recommending that another committee inquire into that issue.
|
It appears likely the health committee will note that the evidence
presented to it suggests moderate use of cannabis is not particularly
dangerous to people's health and to recommend medicinal use of the
drug be legal, if it is prescribed.
|
If this is the tenor of the committee's report, it would be a
significant step in the cannabis debate in New Zealand.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Fri, 25 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 New Zealand Herald |
---|
Author: | Ruth Berry, and Rebecca Walsh |
---|
|
|
(4) SOLDIERS OF GOOD FORTUNE (Top) |
They fly helicopters, guard military bases and provide reconnaissance.
They're private military companies--and they're replacing U.S.
soldiers in the war on terrorism
|
At a remote tactical training camp in a North Carolina swamp, six U.S.
sailors are gearing up for their part in President Bush's war on
terrorism. Dressed in camouflage on a January afternoon, they wear
protective masks and carry nine-millimeter Berettas that fire
nonlethal bullets filled with colored soap. Their mission: recapture a
ship--actually a three-story-high model constructed of gray steel
cargo containers--from armed hijackers.
|
The men approach the front of the vessel in formation, weapons drawn,
then silently walk the length of the ship. Suddenly, as they turn the
corner, two "terrorists" spring out from behind a plywood barricade
and storm the sailors, guns blazing. The trainees, who have
instinctively crowded together, prove easy pickings: Though they
outnumber their enemy 3-to-1, every one of them gets hit. They return
from the ambush with heads hung, covered in pink dye.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Wed, 23 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Durham Independent (NC) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003, Durham Independent |
---|
|
|
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) |
|
Domestic News- Policy
|
COMMENT: (5-9) (Top) |
The political winds surrounding drug policy continue to shift. A
bill in the U.S. House to help patients avoid federal prosecution in
medical marijuana states was defeated, but not without a surprising
amount of support, more than similar bills enjoyed in the past.
|
The bill had bipartisan support, despite the perception that
Republicans are consistently tough on drugs. A piece in the
Baltimore Sun went further to suggest that the momentum for drug
policy change is coming from Republican governors in several states.
|
A federal judge has decided to stop accepting plea deals in a
variety of cases, including drug cases. Critics say that will slow
the system down. In Wisconsin, it appears a different kind of
bargaining was going on, as a prosecutor allegedly declined to
prosecute some crime suspects if they offered under the table
donations that went to groups like DARE. And in Massachusetts, where
a good amount of state money is spent on treatment each year, some
lawmakers think the figure is too large.
|
|
(5) BILL TO PROTECT MEDICINAL POT USERS FALLS SHORT IN HOUSE (Top) |
Washington -- A surprisingly strong bid to shield medicinal pot
smokers in California and nine other states from federal prosecution
was defeated in the House on Wednesday after a spirited debate that
centered on states' rights and even reached back to the pre-Civil
War "nullification" debate.
|
Proponents of the proposal by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, got 152 votes, compared to the
94 votes for medicinal marijuana in a 1998 House vote. But pot
opponents still won handily, with 273 votes, down from 311 in 1998.
|
Hinchey-Rorhabacher supporters cited such recent federal actions as
the successful prosecution of San Francisco medicinal pot grower Ed
Rosenthal as the actions of an over-reaching Department of Justice.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 24 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | San Francisco Chronicle (CA) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Hearst Communications Inc. |
---|
Author: | Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau |
---|
|
|
(6) GOP LEADS THE WAY ON DRUG POLICY REFORM (Top) |
WHEN TEXAS Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation last month to provide
treatment instead of incarceration for thousands of Texans convicted
of drug possession, he was in excellent company.
|
In fact, Republican governors around the country have taken the lead
in carefully and sensibly reforming criminal justice and drug
policies. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is in an excellent position to
join his colleagues in improving public safety and saving taxpayer's
dollars in the process.
|
Like so many Nixons going to China, Republican policy-makers are
rethinking prison expenditures for nonviolent and drug offenders and
changing public policy. In 2001 alone, there were prison closures in
six states: Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas and Utah, all
of which were governed by Republicans.
|
In December, Gov. John Engler signed a bill passed by Michigan's
Republican-controlled House and Senate to abolish most of his
state's mandatory sentencing laws for drug offenders. GOP Rep. Mike
Kowall, who chaired Michigan's Criminal Justice Committee at the
time, said, "Make no mistake about it: I have no problem with
putting people in jail. I consider myself to the right of Attila the
Hun. This just gets back to common-sense approaches to crime rather
than just locking them up and throwing away the key."
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 21 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Baltimore Sun (MD) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. |
---|
Authors: | Tara Andrews and Vincent Schiraldi |
---|
Note: | Tara Andrews is director of the Maryland Justice Coalition. Vincent |
---|
Schiraldi is executive director of the Justice Policy Institute.
|
|
(7) FEDERAL JUDGE NOT TAKING PLEA DEALS (Top) |
Prosecutor Says Process Will Grind To A Halt
|
Charlotte's chief federal judge has stopped accepting virtually all
plea agreements, a move that could dramatically slow prosecutions of
bank robbers, drug dealers and white-collar criminals.
|
U.S. Chief District Judge Graham Mullen's new policy affects plea
agreements that force criminals to give up their right to appeal.
Those account for almost all plea agreements in federal courts in
Charlotte and the Western District of North Carolina.
|
Mullen, in an order issued in June, called such agreements
"unconscionable" and announced he would no longer accept the deals.
|
"I don't think it's right," the judge told The Observer.
|
Noting that federal prosecutors retain their right to appeal, the
judge added: "Defendants have to take their chances with judges and
the government does not. Even in guilty pleas, judges can make
mistakes."
|
Mullen also believes that appeals would pave the way for appellate
courts to clarify sentencing guidelines and give judges more
direction in their powers.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 19 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Charlotte Observer (NC) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 The Charlotte Observer |
---|
|
|
(8) PLEA DEALS GARNER THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR DO-GOOD GROUPS (Top) |
Some Wisconsin courts - including those in Milwaukee and Waukesha
counties - have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from
criminals and doled the money out to local do-good groups such as
the Boys & Girls Clubs and DARE.
|
But such collections have all but ended in Fond du Lac County, where
a prosecutor bemoaned the loss of money to such groups.
|
And Dane County judges have washed their hands of the practice.
|
As the state Ethics Board investigates whether former attorney
general candidate Vince Biskupic violated the law by secretly not
charging people who gave money to local groups, prosecutors and
judges are interpreting the law differently on when and how
criminals can be ordered to pay.
|
Biskupic, a former Outagamie County district attorney, came under
fire after the Wisconsin State Journal reported that he agreed not
to charge about a dozen people who gave about $37,000 to
organizations loosely defined as crime prevention groups.
|
Unlike plea bargains approved in open court by a judge, these
alleged deals were done in secret, behind closed doors without
public knowledge or oversight.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 20 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
---|
http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm ( D.A.R.E. )
|
|
(9) IN YEAR OF CUTS, SOME LAWMAKERS QUESTION DRUG-TREATMENT SPENDING (Top) |
BOSTON In a year when lawmakers spared few education and health care
programs from cuts, they set aside $37 million for substance abuse
treatment and prevention more than the state spends annually to run
any state college.
|
That $37 million is also more than the state spends on community
policing, or expanding half-day kindergarten programs to full day,
or running the state Attorney General's office.
|
Some policymakers said that treating substance abuse should be last
on the priority list. But drug treatment advocates said the money is
necessary.
|
"It's our concern that without these services, many of these
individuals receiving methadone treatment would be back on the
street using heroin again," said Sara Hartman, vice president of the
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corps of Massachusetts.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 21 Jul 2003 |
---|
Copyright: | 2001 MediaNews Group, Inc |
---|
|
|
Law Enforcement & Prisons
|
COMMENT: (10-13) (Top) |
The excessive overkill used by some fighting the drug war was
highlighted in two stories this week. In Michigan, a man had
millions of dollars confiscated from him by police based on
suspicions about drug activities, even those suspicions haven't
panned out. In the second story, a California man is spending time
in a Mexican jail because he didn't know a used car he bought
contained drugs.
|
In Wisconsin, the governor pledged to open two new prisons in the
state, one of them focused on drug and alcohol treatment for
inmates. And, a Florida police officer was convicted of launder
money for a friend. According to the cop, he had no idea his friend
was selling drugs.
|
|
(10) DRUG CASE A BLACK EYE FOR PROSECUTORS (Top) |
Like a CAT scan series depicting the progress of a degenerative
disease, the long, strange saga of Joseph E. Puertas continues to
expose lesions in the criminal justice system.
|
Puertas is the 76-year-old Clarkston man Oakland County prosecutors
have been pursuing since 1997, when police in search of illegal
narcotics seized more than $1 million in cash, but no drugs, from
several Puertas family members' homes and businesses.
|
Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca eventually laid claim to
more than $4 million in cash, jewelry and other assets owned by
Puertas' spouse and children, and in 1999 Joe Puertas was convicted
of six counts of delivery of cocaine and one count of operating a
criminal enterprise.
|
Most of what has happened since is an embarrassment to law
enforcement in general and Gorcyca's office in particular.
|
Two months after Puertas' conviction, Michigan State Police released
results of an investigation in which officers, including the
then-commander of the state Narcotics Enforcement Team, expressed
grave doubts about the case against Puertas and the credibility of a
paid informant who testified for the prosecution.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 21 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Detroit Free Press (MI) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Detroit Free Press |
---|
Author: | Brian Dickerson, Free Press Columnist |
---|
|
|
(11) CHULA VISTA MAN STILL IN CUSTODY IN MEXICO (Top) |
TIJUANA - Mexican federal investigators are expected to decide today
whether to file charges against a Chula Vista man who claims he
didn't know a car he purchased from a U.S. auction contained drugs.
|
Adrian Rodriguez, 25, said he took the 1991 Volkswagen Passat to a
Tijuana auto shop because it was making noises. Mechanics found a
secret compartment with about 15 kilos of marijuana packed in
plastic, and Rodriguez said he and the mechanics decided to call the
police.
|
Police then turned him over to the Mexican Attorney General's
Office, where he remains in custody.
|
His wife, Ali Jazmin Rodriguez, showed copies of a U.S. federal
forfeiture sale document that was issued March 5, 2003, and listed
the car's identifying characteristics. The car was bought for $600
at an auction of vehicles seized by the U.S. Customs Service, she
said. A lawyer for Adrian Rodriguez submitted the document to
Mexican federal investigators.
|
Abraham Sarabia, a spokesman for the Mexican Attorney General's
Office, said the car's origin is part of the investigation. Mexican
and U.S. courts have struck down or dismissed two similar cases in
recent months.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 17 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | San Diego Union Tribune (CA) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. |
---|
Author: | Anna Cearley, Staff Writer |
---|
|
|
(12) WEST PALM OFFICER GUILTY OF LAUNDERING MONEY FOR DRUG DEALER (Top) |
A West Palm Beach police officer was convicted Tuesday of laundering
$80,000 in drug money for a major crack cocaine dealer on his beat.
|
Herman A. Tureaud Sr. took bundles of cash from drug dealer Jerry
Hampton, investing the money into low-income housing. The scheme
collapsed when two West Palm Beach police officers conducting
surveillance on Hampton noticed Tureaud spending time with him.
|
A West Palm Beach federal jury took a little less than five hours to
find Tureaud guilty of four money-laundering charges and a single
count of lying to the Internal Revenue Service. He faces up to 85
years in prison.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Wed, 23 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Sun-Sentinel Company |
---|
Author: | Jon Burstein, Staff Writer |
---|
|
|
(13) DOYLE TO SIGN PLANS TO OPEN 2 PRISONS (Top) |
Gov. Jim Doyle said he will sign state budget plans to open two
empty and long-fought-over new prisons in April 2004, helping clear
the way for nearly half of the 2,290 prisoners held out of state to
return to Wisconsin.
|
Doyle, a Democrat, had proposed leaving prisons in New Lisbon and
Chippewa Falls closed until at least mid-2005 to save money. But
Doyle said over the weekend that he would approve language added to
the 2003-05 state budget by Republicans that would bump up the
opening dates. The news is likely to surprise some Republicans, who
had been told by administration officials that opening the prisons
would cost too much compared to leaving prisoners out of state.
|
Doyle said he changed his mind, in part, because Highview
Correctional Institution in Chippewa Falls will become the state's
first prison dedicated to drug and alcohol treatment under the plan.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Mon, 21 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Wisconsin State Journal (WI) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Madison Newspapers, Inc. |
---|
Author: | Tom Sheehan, State government reporter |
---|
|
|
Cannabis & Hemp-
|
COMMENT: (14-18) (Top) |
The shifting sands of cannabis prohibition continue to confuse all
North American drug policy reform observers and obsessives this
week. In a strange twist, Health Canada will be issuing users guides
to physicians and patients this week to accompany the court-ordered
supply of government cannabis. Health Canada's manual apparently
focuses on not using cannabis as a medicine at all and recommends
never smoking it; suggesting instead ingestion through tinctures or
suppositories(!). As a legal user of medicinal cannabis, I urge them
to stick this misguided manual where they expect us to put our pot.
|
Next is a comprehensive look at the state and federal politics at
play in the pot debate. This article is well-researched,
well-written, and a must read. Our third story examines how DNA
technology is being used to try to track the nation's pot
trafficking network. This huge waste of time, money, and technology
pleases the black market purveyors of cannabis, but baffles the
average citizen.
|
Our fourth story looks at a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision known
as "Ravin" that may protect the rights of Alaskans to use cannabis
within the privacy of their own homes. An attorney named Satterberg,
who believes that Ravin trumps the federal law against cannabis,
will argue his case before the Alaska Court of Appeals. And now to
add a bit of sugar to your coffee: a York teen has taken advantage
of the legal limbo surrounding cannabis in Ontario by reporting the
theft of $20 worth of cannabis by two young men. The police are
actively investigating the case. Ah lawlessness - now that's got to
make you smile
|
|
(14) HEALTH CANADA SET TO RELEASE MEDICAL-POT MANUAL (Top) |
Health Canada is set to release a user's manual this week for a drug
it has long opposed: marijuana.
|
The unprecedented move has been triggered by the courts, which
compelled Health Canada this month to begin distributing
government-certified marijuana to a group of patients who take the
substance to alleviate symptoms.
|
The department must also release a manual on how to use its dope -
but a draft version of the document shows patients will get little
practical advice about ingesting marijuana and lots of warnings
against using it at all.
|
[snip]
|
"We're not recommending, in fact, that marijuana be used," Suzanne
Desjardins, a Health Canada scientist who helped produce the manual,
said in an interview from Ottawa.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 20 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Toronto Star (CN ON) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 The Toronto Star |
---|
|
|
(15) POT PARADOX (Top) |
Supported by a teetering prosthetic leg held together with brown
mailing tape, John Stargel went to Nevada's Bureau of Vocational
Rehabilitation seeking job training.
|
But the 53-year-old former construction worker was refused
assistance after he noted to his case worker that he is a legal
smoker of medicinal marijuana, which voters here approved in 2000.
|
"So one state agency approves my medicine, and another says that if
I take my medicine, I can't get any help. Wow," said Mr. Stargel,
whose doctor authorized his marijuana use to offset his chronic
pain.
|
The dismissal of Mr. Stargel's case is one more pot paradox that a
growing number of states are facing as voters and legislatures from
California to Maryland continue to support doctor-prescribed use of
the weed, which was outlawed by the federal government in 1937.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 20 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Washington Times (DC) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 News World Communications, Inc. |
---|
Author: | Steve Miller, The Washington Times |
---|
Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
|
|
(16) DNA DATABASE TRACKS POT TRAFFICKING (Top) |
State forensic scientists are compiling a DNA database to track the
nation's marijuana distribution network. It is built upon two
principles: Genetic material does not lie, and drug dealers always
grow the most potent marijuana possible.
|
In three years scientists at the state Forensic Science Laboratory
have mapped the genetic profile of about 600 marijuana samples taken
from around New England. As the database expands, scientists foresee
a new way for investigators to trace the drug from grower to smoker.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 20 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Associated Press (Wire) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Associated Press |
---|
Author: | Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press writer |
---|
|
|
(17) ALASKA POT CASE HEADS FOR AN APPEAL (Top) |
The fate of an argument that the Alaska Constitution gives adults
the right to possess small amounts of marijuana in their homes could
be decided by a local case being considered by the Alaska Court of
Appeals.
|
A lawyer for a North Pole man convicted in 2001 of possessing
marijuana in his home has appealed the conviction based on a claim
that a nearly three-decade-old Alaska Supreme Court decision
declaring personal pot possession a state constitutional right is
still the law.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sun, 20 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc. |
---|
Author: | Dan Rice, Staff Writer |
---|
|
|
(18) ONTARIO TEEN CALLS COPS AFTER HER POT IS STOLEN (Top) |
Hey, officer, can you help me get my dope back? A teen called York
Region cops Thursday to report her marijuana had been stolen in a
street robbery.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 19 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Toronto Sun (CN ON) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership. |
---|
Author: | Jonathan Kingstone |
---|
|
|
International News
|
COMMENT: (19-23) (Top) |
A meeting in Chiang Rai, Thailand of prohibitionist politicians and
bureaucrats from Thailand, China, Laos, Burma, and India will announce
a "Declaration" affirming their resolve to fight drugs. The meeting
focused on forming a common strategy to stop precursor chemicals used
to manufacture drugs like heroin and amphetamines. As expected,
Thailand blamed the Burma-based United Wa Army for drug trafficking.
Officials remained hopeful that illusory crop-substitution programs
could replace lost incomes to small farmers accustomed to growing
opium.
|
Death squad rhetoric continues to heat up in the Philippines.
Berating the "devils" who would suggest his city had a drug problem,
the Mayor of Ozamiz City last week proclaimed, "I'll butcher you" to
"drug lords and dealers" last week. The Philippine anti-drug user
pogrom was recently stepped up as President Gloria Arroyo declared
"all-out war" against "illegal drugs." Translation: jail more
cannabis users.
|
The Sydney trial of a supervised injection center is a success,
according to an Australian government evaluation. The positive
review clears the way for funding next year. In an 18-month-period,
about 3,800 people registered at the center made some 56,000 visits.
Over 400 overdose incidents were noted, but none were fatal. Lives
were saved because medical staff were on hand to head off problems.
|
As Vancouver slowly works toward the establishment of safe injection
centers in that city, disgruntled police continue to voice their
displeasure and thwart the process. Last week, police tried to enter
private injection rooms at an unofficial center for addicts while
people were injecting. A registered nurse on duty said police burst
into the facility late Saturday night hoping to roust addicts. The
officers left after failing to produce a search warrant.
|
Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell affirmed his campaign
promise to open a city-sponsored safe injection facility, despite
lacking the $6 million funding needed. The estimated $2 million
needed yearly to run the facility is the largest obstacle to the
opening the center. The mayor is "optimistic" that the funding can
be secured, allowing the site to open in mid-September.
|
|
(19) CHIANG RAI DRUG FORUM: WAR ON DRUGS SET TO ESCALATE (Top) |
Ministers from Thailand, India, Laos, Burma and China are poised to
announce a Chiang Rai Declaration outlining their political
commitment to curbing the flow of narcotics and precursor chemicals
within the region.
|
The ministers, including Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana, will
meet today in Chiang Rai as part of a regional drug forum.
|
Yesterday's meeting of senior official focused on formulating a common
strategy on how to contain precursor chemicals, legally produced in
many countries in the region but sold on the black market to producers
of illicit drugs like heroin and methamphetamines.
|
The forum, which for the first time includes India, was expected to
green-light the establishment of a network that would bypass
bureaucratic red tape by linking the respective counter-narcotics
agencies of each country, said Pol Lt-General Chidchai Vanasatidya,
secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotic Control Board (ONCB).
|
[snip]
|
Market access in foreign countries, including the US and in Europe,
for farmers who have switched from opium cultivation to legitimate
crops would be high on today's agenda when ministers meet, Chidchai
said.
|
[snip]
|
In spite of millions of dollars being spent over the past three decades
to try to curb the drug trade, narcotics production in the region
continues to grow steadily, while Thailand's western neighbour, Burma,
has become Asia's biggest producer of methamphetamines, known locally
as ya ba.
|
[snip]
|
Thailand has singled out the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army, Kokang
Chinese and Kachin Independent Army, all of which are remnants of the
now-defunct Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and situated in Burma's
section of the Golden Triangle, as being responsible for much of the
opium and heroin flowing through the region.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Thu, 24 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Nation, The (Thailand) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Nation Multimedia Group |
---|
Author: | Piyanart Srivalo, Don Pathan |
---|
|
|
(20) OZAMIZ MAYOR TO DRUG LORDS: 'I'LL BUTCHER YOU' (Top) |
OZAMIZ CITY -- "Kung dili kamo mamahawa diri sa dakbayan sa Ozamiz,
pang-ihawon ta g'yud mo tanan. (If you don't leave Ozamiz City, I'll
butcher you.)"
|
This was the warning of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. to drug lords
and dealers even as he vowed to intensify the local campaign against
illegal drugs.
|
Parojinog, who claimed that his campaign against illegal drugs
started even before President Arroyo declared an all-out war against
illegal drugs last month, said his drive has already started to bear
fruit. He said his goal was to make Ozamiz drug-free.
|
[snip]
|
Responding to criticisms and allegations that Ozamiz City is one of
the worst places in the country in terms of illegal drugs, Parojinog
said, "Kamong mga panuwaya kamo, ayaw ninyo dalahiga ang maayo nga
imahen sa Ozamiz (You devils, don't give Ozamiz a bad name)."
|
[snip]
|
The police operations resulted in the seizure of 17 sachets and 100
grams of shabu with an estimated value of P182,600. They also
recovered five kilos of marijuana worth P5,000. Charges have been
filed.
|
Pubdate: | Fri, 18 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Mindanao Gold Star Daily (Philippines) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 Mindanao Gold Star Daily. |
---|
Authors: | Gerry Gorit, Nora Soriqo |
---|
|
|
(21) SUPERVISED DRUG INJECTING ROOM TRIAL CONSIDERED A SUCCESS (Top) |
An evaluation report into an 18 month trial of Australia's first
medically supervised injecting centre has cleared the way for the
continuation of the $A2.4m (UKP1m; $US1.6m; euros1.4m) a year
project.
|
The 233 page evaluation found that from May 2001 to October 2002,
3810 registered individuals made 56861 visits to the centre. A total
of 409 incidents of drug overdose were recorded--including 329 from
heroin and 60 from cocaine--though none were fatal.
|
The report estimates that at least four lives were saved as a result
of the proximity of users to medical staff. The report was prepared
by the evaluation committee headed by John Kaldor, professor of
epidemiology and deputy director of the national centre of HIV
epidemiology at the University of New South Wales.
|
[snip]
|
The government approved the trial in the hope that it may "decrease
overdose deaths, provide a gateway to treatment, reduce the problem
of discarded needles and users injecting in public places."
|
The evaluation found that the injecting centre made 1385 referrals
to drug treatment services "especially amongst frequent attenders"
and that there was no negative effect on the community nor any
evidence of an increase in crime. Support for the centre among local
residents rose from 68% to 78% during the trial period.
|
Launching the report, the special minister of state for New South
Wales, John Della Bosca, backed the continuation of the centre
beyond its legislated end date of 30 October 2003. "The centre did
save lives; there was no 'honey pot' effect detected, no increase in
crime or drug related loitering in the Kings Cross precinct," he
said.
|
Draft legislation will be introduced in September to make the
injecting rooms permanent. The New South Wales branch of the Green
party--one of the parties holding the balance of power in the upper
house--are advocating that centres be established outside Sydney.
|
[snip]
|
The Australian Capital Territory's government has indicated that it
too will now consider establishing a medically supervised injecting
room.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 19 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | British Medical Journal, The (UK) |
---|
Author: | Bob Burton, in Canberra |
---|
|
|
(22) POLICE ATTEMPT ENTRY INTO INJECTION ROOMS (Top) |
Vancouver -- Police tried to bust into private injection rooms at an
illegal drop-in centre for addicts while people were shooting up, a
nurse alleged yesterday.
|
Megan Oleson, the on-site registered nurse, said three police
officers entered the centre late Saturday night, spooking addicts.
|
Volunteers tried to stall the officers, who didn't have a warrant
and left eventually. Vancouver Police Const. Sarah Bloor said the
group is blowing the visit by police way out of proportion.
|
[snip]
|
Pubdate: | Tue, 22 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Globe and Mail (Canada) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003, The Globe and Mail Company |
---|
|
|
(23) SAFE SITE BY SEPTEMBER, MAYOR SAYS (Top) |
City and Health Authority to Make Pitch for Money on
Monday
|
Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell said Friday he is optimistic he will
deliver on his election promise of a safe injection site for
intravenous drug addicts even though the $6 million in funding for
operating expenses is not yet in place.
|
Campbell said he expects the site to open by the first or second
week of September. During last November's civic election campaign he
promised the site would be open Jan. 1.
|
Despite his upbeat attitude, Campbell provided no specifics on where
the money will come from when he and Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority president and chief executive officer Ida Goudreau updated
the Four Pillars Coalition on the planned site Friday morning.
|
"I'm an optimistic guy," he said when asked afterwards how the
funding can be found. He said the funding is a provincial
responsibility.
|
[snip]
|
The health authority has already applied for funding from the
Vancouver Agreement, aimed at improving the Downtown Eastside and
has also applied for money through the federal drug strategy's
primary health care transition fund.
|
The $2-million-a-year funding for the three-year pilot project
remains the biggest hurdle to the safe injection site. Health Canada
approved the site in June as a three-year research pilot project and
approved an exemption to allow controlled substances to be injected
at the site.
|
Pubdate: | Sat, 19 Jul 2003 |
---|
Source: | Vancouver Sun (CN BC) |
---|
Copyright: | 2003 The Vancouver Sun |
---|
Author: | David Hogben, Vancouver Sun |
---|
|
|
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top)
|
THE DEBATE: HINCHEY/ROHRABACHER MEDICAL MARIJUANA AMENDMENT
|
What follows is the historic debate on medical cannabis in the United
States House of Representatives as printed by the Congressional
Record. The actual vote took place on 23 July, was 152 for, 273
against and nine not voting.
|
The debate is on line, in four parts, at the following webpages:
|
|
|
HALTING DRUG REFORM
|
By Dan Forbes, published at TomPaine.com
|
|
|
ONDCP DEPUTY ENDORSES CAGING PATIENTS
|
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #268 Thu, 23 July 2003
|
On Tuesday, July 22, the Los Angeles Times ran a column by ONDCP
Deputy Director Andrea Barthwell. Citing her background as an M.D.,
Barthwell strongly debunks the idea of medical marijuana. Nothing much
is new here, though she is clear to focus her criticism on 'smoking'
marijuana. Also she specifically notes that 'feeling better' from
using marijuana is not a valid reason to use it. One must 'actually
get better' or otherwise be subject to arrest and prosecution.
|
|
|
HOUSE DEFEATS EFFORT TO DIVERT COLOMBIA MILITARY AID, BARELY
|
DRCNet, Drug War Chronicle, Issue #297, 7/25/03
|
In a borderline show of strength, House Republicans Thursday barely
beat back efforts by Democrats to redirect $75 million in funds
destined for the Colombian military. The vote, on an amendment to the
$17 billion foreign aid appropriations bill, was 226-195, leaving
opponents of US support for Colombia's embattled government just 16
votes short of victory. The foreign aid appropriations bill passed on
a vote of 370-50.
|
|
|
INFORMATION FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS - MARIHUANA (CANNABIS)
|
Health Canada, Office of Cannabis Medical Access, July 24, 2003
|
This document has been prepared for the Drug Strategy and Controlled
Substances Programme to provide information on the use of marihuana
for medical purposes.
|
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/ocma/publication/marihuana/toc.htm
|
INFORMATION FOR THE PATIENT - MARIHUANA (CANNABIS)
|
This leaflet is published by Health Canada for patients who have been
authorized by Health Canada to possess dried marihuana.
|
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/ocma/publication/info_for_patient/info_for_patient.htm
|
|
OPEN LETTER TO HEALTH CANADA, THE CMA AND THE PRESS
|
Canadians for Safe Access
|
http://safeaccess.ca/pr/csapr6.htm
|
|
White Paper on The Potential Medical Liability For Physicians
Recommending Marijuana As A Medicine
|
EVI, Washington DC July 23, 2003
|
http://www.educatingvoices.com/WhitePaper.asp
|
|
FREE BRYAN EPIS PETITION
|
http://www.hr95.org/epis_petition.htm
|
|
MARC EMERY SUMMER OF LEGALIZATION TOUR
|
Pot-TV Running Time: 6 min Date
|
http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2086.html
|
|
GROWING OUTRAGE
|
By Jacob Sullum, Reason Online, July 23, 2003
|
The DEA's Medical Marijuana Raids Show Contempt for The Constitution.
|
|
|
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top)
|
IMPRISONING OUR YOUTH FOR DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE IS STUPID
|
By Joseph E. Hopwood
|
I respond to the Daily Mail's July 17 editorial, "Expunging: Criminal
offenses are public record to discourage repeat performances." The
editorial needs rethinking, a great deal of it.
|
As a fourth-generation member of an old West Virginia crime family, let
me assure you that putting people in prison for long periods makes no
sense except to policemen who live off the practice.
|
We now have 2 million people in prison who will someday return to
society more prone to crime than when they were sentenced, and who will
be fodder for the next generation of policemen.
|
Taxpayers in West Virginia support a prison population equal to a city
the size of Wheeling -- very expensive welfare. It would be far cheaper
to give them all scholarships to Morgantown.
|
There are only two solutions to the crime problem -- education and
psychological treatment for those who need it.
|
The prison mentality is growing rapidly among all classes.
|
Warehousing a convict as punishment wastes a man's life, and the
ex-prisoner will be thinking of those wasted years when he blows
your head off.
|
Half the people in prison in our country are in prison for
drug-related crime. Another 30 percent are in prison due to another
addictive drug, alcohol.
|
Putting the cream of our youth in prison for drugs and alcohol is
stupid. It never did any good and never will.
|
Addiction is a very natural state for the human animal, and we all
have a constitutional right to use any drug, addictive or not, in
our own self-interest.
|
At least that is what I taught my children.
|
Drugs do not hurt our democracy or threaten our freedoms. It's the
handcuffs, stupid.
|
Joseph E. Hopwood,
Quantico, Md.
|
Source: | Charleston Daily Mail (WV) |
---|
|
|
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top)
|
CONGRESS FAILS TO PROTECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS
|
By Robert Kampia
|
On July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives had a chance to protect
from arrest patients who have a medical need to use marijuana.
Tragically, the House failed to do so.
|
Fortunately, more than half of Colorado's House delegation voted to
protect these vulnerable citizens. Only Reps. Scott McInnis (R-Grand
Junction), Marilyn Musgrave (R-Loveland), and Joel Hefley
(R-Colorado Springs) failed to do so.
|
An amendment proposed by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA) would have prevented the U.S. Justice Department
and its Drug Enforcement Administration from interfering with state
medical marijuana laws by raiding and arresting patients and
caregivers. This moderate proposal would not have forced any state
to allow medical marijuana if it doesn't want to. It would simply
have required the DEA to respect the wishes of those states that
have chosen to protect seriously ill patients from arrest.
|
As a result of the House action, patients battling cancer, AIDS,
multiple sclerosis, and other terrible illnesses, who find that
marijuana relieves their pain and nausea, will still face being
rousted out of bed, arrested, handcuffed, booked, and thrown in jail.
|
This isn't just a possibility. It is precisely what happened to
Suzanne Pfeil last September.
|
Pfeil, partially paralyzed from post-polio syndrome, was asleep in
bed when DEA agents raided the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical
Marijuana in Santa Cruz, California, of which she is a member.
Agents stormed into Pfeil's room, pointed automatic rifles at her
head, and demanded that she get out of bed. When she pointed to her
leg braces and said, "I can't," they handcuffed her and ransacked
the premises.
|
Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican, summed up the amendment in
an eloquent, emotional speech on the House Floor. "It is immoral for
us to put people in jail for trying to alleviate suffering," he
said. "It is a travesty for the federal government to send police
into my state to arrest people and put them in cages for doing
something that the people of my state have voted to make a legal
practice."
|
But that is precisely what the federal government has been doing --
and will continue to do, with the explicit permission of Congress.
It is doing so despite the fact that back in 1997, the prestigious
"New England Journal of Medicine" called the federal ban on medical
marijuana "misguided, heavy- handed and inhumane." The federal
government continues its war on patients despite pleas from the
American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health
Association, the American Nurses Association, and literally hundreds
of other medical, nursing, and public health organizations.
|
But there are reasons for hope. The battle to end this war on the
sick is gaining momentum, fueled by anger and disgust over the DEA's
raids on patients.
|
The last (and only other) time that medical marijuana was addressed
on the House floor, in 1998, a symbolic resolution condemning state
medical marijuana laws passed by 311 to 94. This time, 152 House
members voted to take concrete action to protect medical marijuana
patients. More than two- thirds of House Democrats stood up for
patients, as did 15 Republicans who bravely defied their party's
closed-minded leadership.
|
Reps. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) and Bob Beauprez (R-Wheatridge)
were among those courageous Republicans. In time, they will find
themselves on the right side of history.
|
The tide has turned. The federal government's pointless, misguided
war on patients will end. The only questions left are how soon it
will happen -- and how many people battling terrible illnesses will
suffer in the meantime.
|
Robert Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project
in Washington, D.C., which worked in support of the
Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment.
|
|
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top)
|
"He wasn't the kind of person who wore a lot of gold chains. He was
kind of conservative." - West Palm Beach police officer Herman
Tureaud at his trial for money laundering explaining why he didn't
know his friend and business partner was a drug dealer. For more
details, see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1088/a04.html
|
|
DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense
offers our members. Watch this feature to learn more about what
DrugSense can do for you.
|
TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:
|
Please utilize the following URLs
|
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
|
http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
|
|
Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
Stephen Young (), Cannabis/Hemp content
selection and analysis by Philippe Lucas (),
International content selection and analysis by Doug Snead
(), Layout by Matt Elrod ()
|
We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, NewsHawks and letter
writing activists. Please help us help reform. Become a NewsHawk See
http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on contributing clippings.
|
|
|
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.
|
|
MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE
|
http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
|
-OR-
|
Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to MAP Inc. send your
contribution to:
|
The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
D/B/a DrugSense
14252 Culver Drive #328
Irvine, CA, 92604-0326
(800) 266 5759
|
|