| April 29, 2005 #397 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
(1) US AGAIN DISMISSES LAX GANJA TALKS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
THE UNITED States Government is maintaining its opposition to
decriminalising the use of marijuana as is being contemplated in
Jamaica. | ||||||||||||||||||||
According to David Murray, the special assistant to the director of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), this approach
is a prescription for failure, which will only make the drug problems
more complicated. | ||||||||||||||||||||
He noted that the evidence against the proposal to decriminalise the
personal use of ganja is now more convincing, citing the United
Kingdom as one example where the proposal has failed. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"They said the experience has not worked. They are reclassifying
marijuana ... it's dangerous and it impacts our society," he told
The Gleaner. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Mr. Murray also said a similar situation exists in Holland where
ganja is said to be recognised in some cases as being progressive.
But according to him, that country has seen unintended consequences
prompting it to 'get away' from cannabis cafe and the distribution
of cannabis among young people. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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In the meantime, Professor Barry Chevannes, a member of the
government-appointed National Ganja Commission (NGC), has rebuffed
Mr. Murray's statements as "most unfortunate".
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"There is absolutely no substance to that argument - decriminalisation will make things better," Dr. Chevannes told The Gleaner yesterday. "For example, no longer will youths be arrested for smoking." | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(2) US AL: MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION APPROVED BY HOUSE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
MONTGOMERY - Legislation to legalize the use of marijuana for medical
purposes got approved by a legislative committee Wednesday, but neither
the bill's sponsor nor the panel's chairman expect it to get any closer
to becoming law this year. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"I know it's not going to move," said the sponsor, Rep. Laura Hall,
D-Huntsville. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill on a sharply divided
voice vote Wednesday. Because of the voice vote, there is no official
record of how committee members voted. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The marijuana bill now goes to the House with only three meeting days
left in the legislative session. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(3) DRUG CZAR PLAYS DEFENSE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
If You Can Name the Current Drug Czar, You Are Probably Mad at Him. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Republican and Democratic members of Congress, law enforcement officials around the country, academics who study drug policy, even former and current staff members are raising complaints about the performance of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Under the leadership of John Walters, the office is accused of retreating from its mission, abandoning key programs without consulting with Congress, and losing (or forcing out) key staff members with years of experience. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Walters "is on the verge of gutting his own office," said Rep. Mark
Souder, R-Ind., who chairs the House Government Reform Subcommittee on
Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources. "This is a period of
more turmoil than we have had since the Bush administration took over,
inside ONDCP."
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[snip]
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(4) US CA: EDITORIAL: DEA ON THE WRONG TRAIL (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
When San Francisco's Board of Supervisors met Monday to discuss how to tighten oversight of the city's 43 medical marijuana dispensaries, Bush administration officials cheered, for all the wrong reasons. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Drug Enforcement Administration agents should have been thrilled that
the city is trying to fill the regulatory gulf created in 1996 when
Californians passed Proposition 215, vaguely sanctioning marijuana for
"any . illness for which marijuana provides relief." The DEA should be
offering to help cities draw a sharper line around legitimate medical
use. | ||||||||||||||||||||
But no. DEA agents hailed the effort because, they said, it would give
them a paper trail to bust more patients and doctors. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The agents' attitude captures the administration's pot policy: Rather
than focusing on curbing harmful drug abuse, it's mounting arbitrary and
vindictive assaults on both states' rights and patient care. In the next
month, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether the Justice
Department has the right to prosecute patients and doctors who use
medical marijuana in California and elsewhere. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The betting is that the court will side with the administration. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy
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COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America appeared to bite the hand
that feeds it last week, as it released a report about the alleged
growth in prescription drug abuse by teens. If there was really an
increase, does that mean all the drug companies that contribute
financially to the PDFA are finally being rewarded with market share
of the teen demographic? A more sober analysis of the report helps
to put the headlines in perspective. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Also last week, Ecstasy's out, according to USA Today; while a major
drugstore is facing big fines from the Oklahoma for failing to
properly monitor its cold medicine. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(5) 1 IN 5 TEENS ABUSED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
NEW YORK -- The nation's teenagers are increasingly trying prescription
drugs such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high, with the pill-popping
members of "Generation Rx" often raiding their parents' medicine
cabinets, according to the latest national study by the Partnership for
a Drug-Free America. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 17th annual study on teen drug abuse, released Thursday morning,
found that about one in five teenagers has abused a prescription
painkiller -- more than have experimented with either Ecstasy,
cocaine, crack or LSD. One in 11 teens had abused over-the-counter
products such as cough medicine, the study reported. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"For the first time, our national study finds that today's teens are
more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller to get high than
they are to have experimented with a variety of illegal drugs," said
partnership Chairman Roy Bostock. "In other words, Generation Rx has
arrived."
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[snip]
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(6) 'GENERATION RX' LABEL DAZZLES MEDIA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
The Partnership for a Drug Free America released its latest survey
on teen drug use last week, prompting the usual almost-verbatim
press-release reporting and expressions of being "shocked, shocked"
about "kids today" from the media. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Almost all of the coverage picked up the Partnership's label "Generation
Rx," so named because nearly one in five of this group of adolescents
reported having used the opioid Vicodin without a prescription. In the
third paragraph of its story, the AP included a quote from the
Partnership's chairman which said, "For the first time, our national
study finds that today's teens are more likely to have abused a
prescription painkiller to get high than they are to have experimented
with a variety of illegal drugs."
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But this is only the second time prescription drug use has been included
in the survey -- and it was at the same level when they measured it for
the first time, last year. The AP story (which was picked up by CNN,
among many others) buried this information in its last two paragraphs,
along with the fact that far more kids used marijuana than prescription
drugs. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(7) ECSTASY'S LOST 'ITS PANACHE' AMONG TEENS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Ecstasy was the "it" drug among certain teens and young adults for a
few years beginning in the late 1990s: a feel-good, dance-all-night
stimulant that was a driving force behind rave parties that featured
pulsating, melody-free music. | ||||||||||||||||||||
But after peaking in popularity in 2001, Ecstasy isn't so cool
anymore. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tighter airport security since the 9/11 attacks has pinched the flow
of the drug into the USA from chief suppliers in the Netherlands and
Belgium, making it less available and more expensive. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Meanwhile, federally funded anti-drug campaigns have produced
poignant TV spots warning that Ecstasy users risk brain damage or
death. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Teens and young adults have taken note. Last year, 57.7% of high
school seniors said they believed that taking Ecstasy just once or
twice could harm them, up from 33.8% in 1997, according to an annual
survey of teen drug use by the University of Michigan. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(8) DRUGSTORE CHAIN UNDER FIRE IN SALES OF PSEUDOEPHEDRINE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
More than 50 Walgreens stores in Oklahoma may have violated the
state's pseudoephedrine law and the company could be fined up to
about $100,000, a state official said Friday. | ||||||||||||||||||||
No other chain of stores in Oklahoma abused the law meant to curb methamphetamine production as much as Walgreens, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"It was kind of a slap in the face to other pharmacies in Oklahoma,"
he said. "There was just a pattern of noncompliance. We want them to
come in and explain why."
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There are 65 Walgreens in Oklahoma. Woodward said it's possible more
than 50 were violating the law. Attorneys for Walgreens have been in
negotiations with the state this week, he said. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Since February, bureau agents have been combing store logbooks to
see what violations occurred. Stores cannot sell more than 9 grams
of pseudoephedrine to a customer in a 30-day period, according to a
state law enacted in April 2004. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Customers sign a logbook, which stores are supposed to use to ensure
the law is not violated. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The drug is used to make meth. | ||||||||||||||||||||
A Walgreens in Enid had about 150 instances in which the law was
broken, Woodward said. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Law Enforcement & Prisons
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COMMENT: (9-12) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
More people, particularly women, are being packed into prisons, even in states that had been lagging behind national trends, like Minnesota. And, in Virginia, a sheriff offers interesting insights into how a Time Magazine story about drugs was reported. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(9) U.S. PRISONS SWELL IN '04 (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
2.1m, or 1-in-138 Americans Incarcerated
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WASHINGTON - Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week
between mid-2003 and mid-2004, the nation's prisons and jails held
2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S. residents, the
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By last June 30, there were 48,000 more inmates, or 2.3 percent,
more than the year before, according to the latest figures from the
Bureau of Justice Statistics. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The total inmate population has hovered near 2 million for the past
few years, reaching 2.1 million June 30, 2002, and just below that
mark a year later. | ||||||||||||||||||||
While the crime rate has fallen over the past decade, the number of
people in prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates
released, said the report's co-author, Paige Harrison. For example,
the number of admissions to federal prisons in 2004 exceeded
releases by more than 8,000, the study found. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Harrison said the increase can be attributed largely to get-tough
policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s. Among them are mandatory
drug sentences, "three-strikes-and-you're-out" laws for repeat
offenders, and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that restrict early
releases. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(10) STATE TOPS IN PRISON POPULATION INCREASE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sex Offender Cases, Meth Are Cited
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Minnesota leads the nation in the rise of its prison population, which has grown about 45 percent in the last five years, largely because of increases in methamphetamine and sex offender cases. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The number of prisoners in the state rose 13.2 percent, from 7,612
prisoners to 8,613 prisoners, from the year ended June 30, 2003, to
the year ended June 30, 2004. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The nationwide increase was 2.3 percent, with a total of 2.1 million
people incarcerated in the nation's prisons and jails as of June 30,
2004, according to figures released Sunday by the federal Bureau of
Justice Statistics. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Although Minnesota's prison population is increasing rapidly, the
state still ranks at the bottom for percentage of its population
that is incarcerated, said Liz Bogut, spokeswoman for the state
Department of Corrections. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The incarceration rate in Minnesota is 150 inmates per 100,000 in
population, which ties the state with Maine for the lowest rate in
the nation. The national average is 429 inmates per 100,000
population, Bogut said. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Most of the rapid increase in Minnesota's prison population involves
methamphetamine and sex offender cases, Bogut said. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(11) SYSTEM STRAINED AS MORE WOMEN ARE IMPRISONED (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Evidence Grows On Need To Treat Incarcerated Women Differently | ||||||||||||||||||||
CHILLICOTHE, Mo. - The lure of cocaine, a stolen refund check, a shoplifting spree and a dead infant cost them their freedom. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Now Carlotta Allen Hall, Carol Lesley, Dihann Coody and Bonnie
Segraves live in the same complex, locked away from the world, in a
place too many women end up these days: prison. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The four Missourians are part of a burgeoning population of female
inmates. Nationwide, their numbers have grown from about 12,000 in
1980 to more than 100,000 today. Missouri's two women's prisons are
at capacity, and females are being incarcerated at twice the rate of
increase for men. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Across the country, this influx has created gender challenges long
overlooked. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Male prisoners tend to quietly obey guards' orders and expect no
help from staff, experts say. Women talk back and expect programs to
improve their lives. Men might settle problems with fists. Women
fight with words. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Male and female criminals, it seems, are not the same. As such, they
shouldn't be treated the same, experts say. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(12) TAZEWELL COUNTY SHERIFF SAYS TIME ARTICLE MISLEADING (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
TAZEWELL, Va. - H.S. Caudill doesn't mind interviews when he has the
time. Tazewell County's busy sheriff simply wishes reporters would
stick to the facts and the quotations. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Caudill said he was correctly quoted some of the time and taken out
of context some of the time when Richmond Times-Dispatch staff
writer Rex Bowman did a correspondent piece for Time magazine's
edition dated March 28. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"I talked to Mr. Bowman for a maximum of 10 minutes," Caudill said.
"I am disappointed in the slant he took toward Tazewell County
including ideas like 'criminality in rural towns' as if there might
not be such a problem in the cities."
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Caudill said the overall picture of the county including "sagging
barns" and "patch of Appalachian Virginia" was not necessary and
gives a stereotypical image of Four Seasons Country. | ||||||||||||||||||||
"Yes, we do have a problem with OxyContin, for instance, but I did not suggest that it should be called 'coal miner's cocaine' at any time. In fact, it was Mr. Bowman who asked why I thought it might be called that. I told him I didn't know but I would guess it might be that injured coal miners, who were in a great deal of pain sometimes, were given the drug to ease their suffering." | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Cannabis & Hemp-
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COMMENT: (13-17) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Our top story this week focuses on the contentious meetings taking
place between the city of San Francisco and the local medicinal
cannabis community addressing proposed regulations for compassion
clubs and dispensaries within city limits. Of particular concern are
any new record-keeping requirements that might be used against the
clubs in the event of renewed federal raids by the DEA, as well as
regulations that might limit the number of clubs =96 now numbering
43 =96 that are allowed to operate in San Francisco. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Our next story comes to us from the U.K. via Canada, where McGill university researcher Dr. Mark Ware has just published the results of a survey of British medicinal cannabis users that may be the most extensive of its kind to date. The study suggests that over 15% of those currently using cannabis for therapeutic purposes had it recommended by their physician. Our third story this week involves a police raid on a legal Canadian medicinal cannabis user named Margaret Harrington. The 50 year-old mother of two had the 10 plants she was growing for medical use seized by the police and is now facing cultivation charges, once again illustrating the many problems still plaguing Canada's federal medicinal cannabis program. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Our fourth story is a surprisingly balanced examination of cannabis grow-ops from Reader's Digest Canadian edition. An lastly, in yet another twist to the Shapelle Corby trial from Indonesia, actor Russell Crowe has announced his support for her release and return to Australia, as well as for the legalization of cannabis as a whole. Indonesian prosecutors in the case have opted to ask for a life sentence for Corby rather than the death penalty. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(13) FULL HOUSE FOR POT CLUB HEARING (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Former San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan told a Board
of Supervisors committee Monday that strict regulation of pot clubs
in San Francisco isn't feasible. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Now a defense lawyer, Hallinan said, "I'd certainly advise any
client of mine not to sign any document ... or keep any records that
a federal grand jury could subpoena."
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Hallinan, a longtime champion of medical marijuana, spoke at a
public hearing of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee,
which is trying to figure out how to rein in the burgeoning pot
dispensaries in the city. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The hours-long meeting drew dozens of speakers and a packed crowd at
City Hall. | ||||||||||||||||||||
With an estimated 43 such dispensaries, San Francisco is home to
more pot clubs than any other California municipality. The growth
has spawned complaints about smoking at the clubs, loitering, noise,
double-parking, people buying marijuana who don't have a medical
need for it, and people reselling the product on the street, said
Larry Badiner, the city's zoning administrator. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(14) SOME MDS RECOMMENDING MARIJUANA FOR MEDICAL USE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Marijuana has come a long way since the days when it was vilified in
public health films like 'Reefer Madness.' As Ottawa prepares to
reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts, a new study
suggests a few doctors are actually suggesting marijuana to some of
their patients. | ||||||||||||||||||||
As federal lawmakers prepare to pass legislation decriminalizing
possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use,
Montreal's McGill University Health Centre has issued a study
concluding some doctors already are suggesting their patients use
cannabis for a variety of medical purposes. | ||||||||||||||||||||
According to research published in March by Dr. Mark Ware, a pain
physician at the MUHC, 16 per cent of people cited in his survey
used marijuana for medical reasons after their doctor made the
suggestion. | ||||||||||||||||||||
A total of 947 people living in the United Kingdom who participated
in the study used marijuana for medical purposes. More than a third
(35 per cent) said they used it six or seven days a week. The majority
(68 per cent) said it helped with their symptoms and made them feel
better. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(15) POT CHARGE PAINS MOM (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
A Kemptville woman who smokes five grams of pot a day for pain
relief says she's facing a charge of growing the drug because of a
simple misunderstanding. But Health Canada and police say the rules
are clear: A licence to possess medical marijuana isn't permission
to set up your own grow op. Licenced users need to apply for a
special permit to grow their own. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Margaret Harrington, who says she spends much of her time in a
wheelchair, was charged with production of pot Friday. | ||||||||||||||||||||
An OPP officer, at her home for another matter, sniffed out her 10
plants. The mother of two will be in court May 4.
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"I thought everything was fine when I got my card," said Harrington,
50. "I put a few plants in the ground and they came and arrested me.
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"I thought I had applied for it when I was doing the original paperwork. It was a complete misunderstanding on my part." | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(16) GROW OPS -- AN INSIDE LOOK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
The suburban bungalow in northeast Toronto looks like its
neighbours, but when the Toronto Police Service's East Drug Squad
smash through the door on a rainy evening in February, it's quickly
apparent things are not what they seem. | ||||||||||||||||||||
I slip in behind the grow-lab team after they arrest a dark-haired,
pockmarked 32-year-old who was in his living room watching TV.
Police have given the all-clear after checking the barely furnished
place for booby traps such as electrified metal doorknobs or
leg-breaking bear traps, often used by growers to discourage
intruders. In the hallway, the heat hits me like a wall--it's a
humid 25 C. Two of the three bedrooms are plant nurseries, with
plastic sheeting on the floor and walls, obscuring the windows.
Small marijuana plants, about three weeks old, are in neat rows
under searing 1,000-watt lights. | ||||||||||||||||||||
That's nothing compared with what we find in the 1,000-square-foot
basement: It's a sea of green, where 845 waist-high plants are in
the early stages of bloom under some 50 lights that illuminate
almost every square inch of space. In another three to four weeks,
the plants would have matured to produce 84 kilos of high-potency
weed. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(17) FILM STAR RUSSELL CROWE JUMPS TO CORBY DEFENCE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hollywood superstar Russell Crowe has appealed to the Australian
government to act to save Schapelle Corby from life in jail over
what he says is a questionable charge. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Crowe, who owns a property at Nana Glen on the mid-north NSW coast
not far from the hippie capital Nimbin, also said it was time to
decriminalise marijuana, as the current system was jeopardising too
many lives. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 41-year-old Oscar award winning actor jumped to the defence of
of the Gold Coast woman, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of
smuggling more than 4kg of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar airport in
her bodyboard bag last October. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Photographs of the distraught 27-year-old were all over the front
pages of newspapers today after Indonesian prosecutors yesterday
announced they would seek life imprisonment rather than the death
penalty. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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International News
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COMMENT: (18-21) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Prohibitionists in the Philippines are seeking a closer walk with
communist Chinese officials, at least when the subject is "drugs". A
Philippine congressional representative, Antonio Cuenco from Cebu,
urged mutual cooperation with Chinese officials regarding
extradition of Chinese nationals to stand trial in the Philippines.
The bloody activity of Philippine death squads continue. An
ex-convict was murdered in Cebu City while three others, accused of
selling a few joints, were released after police revealed in court
that the pot cases were "made up." The three, like many drug
arrestees in the Philippines, say they fear for their lives at the
hands of "hunter team liquidation" (death squads believed to be
police). Philippine President Gloria Magapal Arroyo had last year
praised death squad activity. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hamid Karzai, the western-educated, secular Afghan president the
Bush administration installed in Afghanistan, had proclaimed
prohibition was a "holy war". Much was made over the seriousness of
the coming fight, the fight to stop drugs (opium and cannabis) from
growing bumper crops in the Afghan countryside again in 2005, as
happened in previous years. But Afghan farmers, according to reports
this week, have begun harvesting the year's first crop of raw opium,
in stark defiance of U.S. drug policy dictates from half a world
away. Confessed a disappointed Gen. Mohammed Daoud, Afghan deputy
interior minister for counter-narcotics, "Now, even if we do our
best, we cannot eradicate it all." Good point. Since when did
prohibition ever eradicate anything?
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The town of Abbortsford, British Columbia, Canada, may ban the harm
reduction measures of safe-injection sites, needle exchanges and
even methadone clinics, if city councilors get their way. Councilors
voted to prohibit such harm reduction measures, as well as to ban
cannabis compassion clubs which distribute medical marijuana. An
upcoming hearing will let the public have their say, before the ban
becomes official. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(18) EXPANDED RP-SINO COOPERATION VS ILLEGAL DRUGS SOUGHT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
THE former chairman of the House committee on illegal drugs
yesterday sought an expanded cooperation between the Philippines and
China in the fight against illegal drugs, including the existing
extradition treaty between the two countries. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Lakas, Cebu), now the chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, said he will ask Speaker Jose de Venecia to include among the talking points the extradition of Chinese nationals involved in the illegal trade in the Philippines when House leaders meet with visiting Chinese Premier Hu Jintao. | ||||||||||||||||||||
]snip]
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"It wouldn't be amiss to point out that the Chinese government has to implement higher controls and regulation of chemicals and other substances used in the manufacture of illegal drugs," he added. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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(19) EX-CON SHOT DEAD WHILE ASLEEP (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
HE WAS released from the city jail last December. But his freedom
ended yesterday morning in another vigilante-style killing in Cebu
City. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Lombrino's killing happened on the same day another man was killed
in what police believed was a fraternity-related attack, and the
Regional Trial Court (RTC), in separate decisions, dismissed two
anti-drug cases, both for lack of evidence. | ||||||||||||||||||||
But if sources from inside Judge de Gracia's sala are to be
believed, acquitted drug suspects Perlita Sy Milan, Randy Nakar and
Carlito Ramas do not want to go back to the streets for fear of
"hunter team liquidation."
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Scared
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"Somebody told them that most drug suspects released by the court end up dead and they appeared shaken," said one court employee. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Milan, Nakar and Ramas were separately charged late in 2002 for allegedly peddling and possessing some sticks of marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Drugs Cases
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In the first drugs case dismissed yesterday, the arresting police
officer admitted during cross-examination that the buy-bust
operation that became the basis for the filing of the case was "made
up."
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Milan, who was arrested by elements of the Labangon Police Station on Aug. 16, 2002, pleaded not guilty to a peddling charge. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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(20) AFGHAN FARMERS DEFY U.S. OPIUM CLAMPDOWN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
MAYWAND, Afghanistan -- Afghan farmers have begun harvesting this year's opium crop, exposing the limits of a U.S.-sponsored crackdown on the world's largest narcotics industry despite claims Tuesday by President Hamid Karzai that drug cultivation was down sharply. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The sobering harvest news came a day after the arrest in the United States of an Afghan accused of being one of the world's biggest heroin traffickers and of close ties to the ousted Taliban regime. | ||||||||||||||||||||
On Tuesday morning, farmers could be seen gathering resin from opium
poppies near the main road through the southern province of
Kandahar, a key growing region belatedly targeted by
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"Now, even if we do our best, we cannot eradicate it all," in Kandahar, Gen. Mohammed Daoud, deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics, told The Associated Press. "It is a bad example for the other provinces and will make our job much harder." | ||||||||||||||||||||
Production of opium, the raw material for heroin, has boomed since
the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Last year, cultivation reached a
record 323,700 acres, yielding nearly 80 percent of world supply and
buoying the economy. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Karzai last year called for a "holy war" on a trade he says could
make Afghanistan an international pariah. Farmers in some areas have
switched to wheat, partly for fear of eradication, and Karzai said
Tuesday that U.N. and British government surveys showed cultivation
was down by 30 to 40 percent. | ||||||||||||||||||||
But U.N. drug experts have cautioned that cultivation is shifting to
more remote areas and rebounding opium prices could encourage a
revival in planting next year. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Countries, including the United States and Britain, are pouring
hundreds of millions of dollars into the anti-drug campaign. The
cash is being used to train police units to destroy laboratories,
arrest smugglers and destroy opium crops, as well as to fund
irrigation systems and other agricultural projects to help farmers
grow legal crops. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The U.S. military has promised to provide intelligence
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[snip]
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(21) ABBOTSFORD MAY BAN NEEDLE SITES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
A Public Hearing On The Bylaw Amendment Is Slated For
| ||||||||||||||||||||
ABBOTSFORD - Abbotsford city councillors are contemplating a plan to
ban safe-injection sites, methadone clinics and needle exchanges in
their city, saying they don't think such services are the best way
to deal with drug addiction. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Councillors voted unanimously Monday to proceed with plans to amend
a zoning bylaw to prohibit such services. The plan would also
prohibit facilities that produce or distribute marijuana for
medicinal purposes. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The bylaw amendment, which received first reading Monday, still must
go before a public hearing, slated for May 16, then to second and
third readings by city council. | ||||||||||||||||||||
[snip]
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
DRUGSENSE VIRTUAL CONFERENCE ROOM SCHEDULE
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Voice/Text conferences on How To Write Letters To the Editor That Get
Printed; SB74, SB8 and Jerry Cameron LEAP Tour of Ohio; and How To
Increase DPR-related Media are currently scheduled - click the link
anytime for updates - for from 1 May thru 11 May. Details at
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/pal_sched.php
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DRUG WAR CASUALTY STATISTICAL GRAPHS UPDATED
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The November Coalition has updated its superb, printable, graphs using
fresh data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. See
http://www.november.org/graphs/
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EPHEDRA BUZZ
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The subversive potential of dietary supplements. | ||||||||||||||||||||
By Jacob Sullum
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TEA BREAK
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Should drug laws make exceptions for spiritual highs?
| ||||||||||||||||||||
By Jacob Sullum
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CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
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Listen LIVE Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT, 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at
http://www.KPFT.org/
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MARIJUANA NEWS WORLD REPORT FOR APRIL 28TH 2005
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Dutch Mayors And People Favor Legalization. Czar's Little Helper Lies To
Jamaicans About the Dutch, And Everything Else. Alaskan Governor Dumps
Head Public Defender Who Questioned Cost of Making Cannabis a Felony.
ACLU Sues DEA for Suppressing Research. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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SCIENCE, NOT POLITICS, SHOULD GOVERN MEDICAL RESEARCH, SAYS ACLU
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WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today announced a legal
challenge to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s policy of obstructing
private research that could lead to marijuana being approved as a
prescription medicine. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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CANNABIS USE NOT ASSOCIATED WITH INJURY AMONG TRAUMA PATIENTS
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April 28, 2005 - Louisville, KY, USA
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Louisville, KY: Use of cannabis is not independently associated with
injuries requiring hospitalization, according to clinical data published
in the March issue of the Journal of TRAUMA Injury, Infection, and
Critical Care. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
METH LAWS PROVEN EFFECTIVE
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By Mett Ausley
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Editor, The Auburn Plainsman:
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Your April 14 editorial showed appropriate skepticism toward
proposed anti-methamphetamine legislation which admittedly seems at
first glance just another dubious drug war gimmick. Given our drug
laws' sorry track record, The Plainsman can be excused for too
hastily dismissing a rare example of pragmatic anti-drug policy
supported by actual evidence. | ||||||||||||||||||||
As methamphetamine labs migrated eastward from the Pacific,
successive states reflexively adopted stricter enforcement and
harsher sentencing. While politically expedient, these efforts
failed to abate labs or halt their spread. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Oklahoma responded with characteristic toughness, but meth labs ran
rampant for a decade, swelling prisons and costs. Faced with a
budget crunch, Oklahoma enacted controls on pseudoephedrine a year
ago. The result was stunning: Meth lab activity quickly dropped 50
to 80 percent statewide and has remained subdued. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Complaints have been few. Other states are following suit, and a
federal bill is pending. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Current evidence thus supports restricting pseudoephedrine as an
easy, cheap and effective approach to an otherwise refractory meth
lab problem. Drug war critics should endorse judicious legislation
while denouncing superfluous gimmickry contrived for "toughness"
bluster and political appeal. | ||||||||||||||||||||
As meth lab proliferation follows a distinctive geographic and
demographic pattern conducive to regional approaches, the need for a
federal law is questionable. That the proven success of this
strategy signifies the failure of traditional punitive measures
should not be overlooked in public debate. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Mett Ausley
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
What's The Drug Czar's Problem?
| ||||||||||||||||||||
By Stephen Young
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The headline over a recent National Journal article about U.S. drug
czar John Walters seems fairly mundane: "Drug Czar Plays Defense" (
see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n687/a07.html )
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But the subtitle generates more interest. "If you can name the
current drug czar, you are probably mad at him."
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Sounds accurate, at least in my personal situation. But I'm opposed
to the whole concept of a federal drug czar, and I find the tactics
of Walters little more despicable than his predecessors. In the
National Journal, however, other drug warriors just as conniving and
dishonest as Walters describe an unlikable bureaucrat, both
imperious and isolated. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Former employees, law enforcement officials, even hard-line
congressional drug warriors like the not-too-bright Rep. Mark Souder
of Indiana, seeming ideological soulmates of Walters, express their
irritation with the czar and the current state of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Representatives from drug war special interest groups and even other
federal agencies seem offended that Walters and top level ONDCP
staff have met with them rarely, if at all, since Walters took the
helm. | ||||||||||||||||||||
At the risk of rubbing salt in those wounds, I can't help but recall
that Walters took time and resources to fly himself and/or other top
ONDCP personnel to at least two separate legislative committee
meetings here in my home state of Illinois during the past 14
months. | ||||||||||||||||||||
There have been trips to other states to influence either
legislative or electoral processes. These ethically questionable
trips have raised complaints about the ONDCP's failure to comply
with local lobbying laws. The ONDCP has always responded that it is
above the law. | ||||||||||||||||||||
When Walters himself appeared in my state capital a few months ago,
he lied right into the faces of lawmakers about why he was here. He
wasn't there to improperly influence the legislators who were
considering a medical marijuana bill, he claimed, as if there was a
proper way for an appointed federal official to pressure state
lawmakers. | ||||||||||||||||||||
The National Journal article implicitly blames the czar's popularity
problems on personality clashes, conflicting styles, and fierce
competition for limited resources. But, as his lobbying hijinks
indicate, I think Walters may have inadvertently identified the real
problem some years ago. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Back in 1996, Walters co-authored a book called "Body Count." The
book argued that crime wasn't caused by a lack of material wealth;
it was instead caused by the inability of society to instill a sense
of right and wrong in young people. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Jobs and money weren't the problems, according to the book, values
were. The authors found a concise phrase for what they saw as the
issue: moral poverty. | ||||||||||||||||||||
I disagree with the conclusions of the book, but now I see how the
concept of moral poverty may be useful in other ares. Like the drug
czar's office, with its big budget and limited ethics. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Walters declined to be interviewed for the National Journal article.
But one of his underlings said the proof of Walters success is a
decline in reported drug use (a dubious statement at best), and that
the office was able to pull off a series of ads painting drug users
as terrorists. The ads failed, like the whole anti-drug ad campaign,
which continues to be infused with federal money. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hence the problem. At this point, Walters has to know what's up. He has a lot more information to willfully ignore than those who came before him. Former drug czar Barry McCaffrey may have really believed taxpayers support anti-drug ads were a good idea, but now Walters has all the evidence to demonstrate they were not. | ||||||||||||||||||||
If a fact doesn't support prohibition, Walters twists it or ignores
it. Such a strong commitment to a clearly bankrupt policy from
someone who should know better indicates serious moral poverty.
Perhaps it goes beyond that. A false idol has been made of
prohibition, and Walters and his colleagues bow down to it no matter
how it degrades them or the rest of us. | ||||||||||||||||||||
To me, that's immoral and disgusting. Walters may be playing
defense, but in the most offensive manner. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly and author of
"Maximizing Harm" - http://www.maximizingharm.com
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||||
"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to
affairs." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
Stephen Young (), Cannabis/Hemp content selection
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content selection and analysis by Doug Snead (),
Layout by Matt Elrod ()
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