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DrugSense Weekly
October 15, 1997 #016

A DrugSense publication

http://www.drugsense.org


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/29/24)


* Feature Article

     Am I a Criminal? 
       by Laura Kriho 

* Weekly News In Review


     Drugs And Youth 
        Designer Drugs New Love Potion for the Hip Couple 

     International News 
        UK: Blair Set to Appoint Nation's Drug Tsar 
        Corruption Adding up for Many Countries 
        Panama Ponders Motives of U.S. 
        UK: Pot, Politics and Prejudice 
        Decriminalize Drugs For Own Use, Officer Says 
        New Ruling From The Lord Chief Justice: Let's Talk About Dope 
        Latin American Cities Criticize Drug War 
        Decriminalizing Drugs an Option, Dosanjh Says 
        Latin Cities Sign Drug Declaration 
        UK: Huge Majority Want Cannabis Legalised 

     Medical Marijuana 
        Physicians' Group Opposes Medical Marijuana, 
             Endorses Handgun Control 
        New Winds Blowing for American Drug Policies 
        Drug Initiative in Washington State 
        Medical Pot Battle Rages On 
        S.F. Study of Marijuana, AIDS Patients Is Approved 
        San Mateo Board Stalls Pot Stores 
        Arcata, Marin Try New Medical Pot Policies 

     Needle Exchange, AIDS and Heroin 
        Still Need for Heroin Trial Says Specialist 
        AIDS Controversy 
        Heroin-Prescribing Program in Switzerland Said to 
           Improve Addicts' Health 

     Sentencing 
        Hemp Seed Trial Continues After Plea Talk Fails 
        Jury Justice 
        Hemp Seed Case Ends in Mistrial 

     The War on Drugs 
        Opponents of HB3643 Turn in Almost Twice the Number of 
            Signatures Needed 
        Editorial: The Drug Czar Softens 
        Journalists Honor MN Editor 
        Republican is Best Known for Advocating Decriminalization of Drugs 
        Maryland Aims 'Drug Buster' at Prisons' Visitors, Workers 
        US Marijuana Production Hits New High 

* Hot Off The 'Net

     Miss America, Kate Shindle, Comes Out For Needle Exchange 
     Marijuana Arrests For 1996 Most Ever! 

* DrugSense Tip of the Week

     MAP Mailing List and Article Finding Hints 


FEATURE ARTICLE     (Top)


Am I a Criminal?
by Laura Kriho

I was convicted of contempt of court after I refused to vote guilty when I served on a jury in a methamphetamine case in Gilpin County, Colorado.  I believed the evidence was insufficient, but the other jurors wanted to convict and get home for dinner.  Our discussions became very heated. In frustration, I told the other jurors that the defendant could get several years in prison if we convicted her.  (We weren't supposed to discuss sentencing consequences.) I also said I thought it was a shame that drug cases couldn't be handled by the family and community instead of the courts.  And I talked about the concept of jury nullification, the historic power of juries to vote according to their conscience. 

Another juror sent a note to the judge describing the "improper" arguments I was making.  The judge declared a mistrial, and I was investigated. The district attorney discovered that I was arrested (but not convicted) in 1985 for LSD possession, that I was an active proponent of cannabis law reform, and that I was familiar with the doctrine of jury nullification. 

I endured a trial in October 1996 where nine of my fellow jurors testified about how we deliberated.  I was finally convicted of contempt (after four months of deliberation by the judge) for failing to volunteer answers to questions I wasn't asked during jury selection.  According to the judge, I knew that the information the prosecutor had later discovered about me was important and should have volunteered it, even if I wasn't asked about it.  I was fined $1200.  My conviction is under appeal.

Since my prosecution, I have learned a lot about the history of juries and the importance of the doctrine of jury nullification.  Jury "nullification" describes the historic power of juries to vote according to their conscience, even if it is contrary to the evidence.  Juries can "nullify" laws in a particular instance, either because the jurors believe that the law is unjust or because they believe the application of the law in a particular instance would be unjust.  A jury can acquit for any reason.

This power is also referred to as jury "discretion." Just as police use discretion on whether to enforce the law; and prosecutors use discretion when charging someone with a violation of the law; and judges use discretion in deciding whether to dismiss those charges; jurors also have the power to use discretion in applying the law. 

Jury nullification is not a new or radical concept.  It is an English doctrine that was brought over to the U.S.  and was well known to the authors of the Constitution.  Many of our early revolutionaries, accused of victimless crimes against the Crown, were set free by juries of their peers.  Jury nullification of unjust laws helped secure our rights to free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. 

Jury nullification allows citizens to send a message to legislators that certain laws should change.  For instance, one of the reasons Alcohol Prohibition was repealed was that it became virtually impossible to find jury to convict a person of an alcohol offense.  The legislators got the message. 

Until the end of the 19th century, judges routinely informed jurors of their power to judge the law as well as the facts in a case.  Although modern courts agree that jurors do have the power to evaluate the law, they say jurors don't have the right.  Therefore, the courts no longer inform juries of their lawful power (which the courts believe is not a right). 

My conviction has taken this reasoning a step further, implying that any potential juror who possesses knowledge of the power of jury nullification and who fails to volunteer that knowledge during jury selection, even if not asked, can and will be prosecuted.  The court has created a thought crime. Hopefully, my conviction will be overturned in a higher court. 

Meanwhile, I hope that my knowledge and experiences will help empower juries to fulfill their intended purpose as a check and balance on other branches of government and thus enhance our systems of justice and legislation. 

Laura Kriho
Gilpin County, Colorado

Laura Kriho has been an organizer for the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project for five years.  CO-HIP advocates the re-legalization of Cannabis sativa for industrial, medicinal, and personal use. 


Donations to help pay for legal appeals can be sent to:

The Laura Kriho Legal Defense Fund
P.O.  Box 729
Nederland, CO 80466

For more information on the Kriho case and other jury issues contact:

The Jury Rights Project


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW     (Top)


Drugs And Youth


Subj:   Designer Drugs New Love Potion for the Hip Couple
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n260.a07.html

Pubdate:   Wed, 08 Oct 1997
Source:   Hamilton Spectator
Contact:  

For special, romantic evenings, Peter and Maxine don't turn to fine wine and soft music.  They drop a drug called GHB. And the Ancaster couple say their bedroom experience is better than ever. 

These twenty-something suburbanites are part of a new wave of young designer drug users who are turning to chemistry to boost biology. 

"Without question, these nutrients are the best thing to happen to us since the night we met," says Peter, 25. 


International News


Subj:   UK: Blair Set to Appoint Nation's Drug Tsar
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n255.a01.html

Pubdate:   Sun, 05 Oct 1997
Source:   The Sunday Times (UK)
Contact:  

A CHIEF constable who once said he could envisage the legalisation of cannabis and called for licensed brothels is on a shortlist to be Britain's new "drug tsar". 

Keith Hellawell, chief constable of West Yorkshire, along with Ian Oliver, chief constable of Grampian, and Peter Storr, an executive of the United

Nations drug control programme, are three contenders out of 200 applicants to lead Tony Blair's fight against the illegal use of drugs. 

Downing Street is refusing to identify the successful candidate, who will be informed tomorrow.  "The tsar will need to take a cool, hard look at what is needed to smash this menace to society," said Blair when he outlined his plans. 


Subj:   Corruption Adding up for Many Countries
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n256.a02.html

Pubdate:   Mon 06 Oct 1997
Source:   Montreal Gazette
Contact:  

Mexicans once smiled about the prevalence of corruption in their society, so much so that a bakery ran a television ad 25 years ago that depicted a motorcycle policeman stopping a motorist for a bribe. 

"When he asks you for a mordida," said the announcer, playing on the Mexican word for bribe that literally means bite, "give him our bread."

No one runs such ads in Mexico any more.  Corruption is no longer a joke.

"We used to say that corruption greased the bureaucratic system in Mexico and made it work better," Mexican journalist Cesar Romero says.  "But now we see that it is drowning the system."

Mexico is not alone.  Corruption has become so endemic in developing nations and elsewhere that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have decided to tackle the issue head-on. 


Subj:   Panama Ponders Motives of U.S. 
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n256.a04.html

Pubdate:   October 6, 1997
Source:   Toronto Star
Contact:  

PANAMA CITY - With the deadline for Washington to hand over the Panama Canal still two years away, controversy is growing over whether the U.S.  military really intends to leave the isthmus. 

The problems surround a proposal to turn sprawling Howard U.S.  Air Force Base here - with its state-of-the-art military hardware and 2.6-kilometre runway - into an international centre to fight drug trafficking throughout the hemisphere. 

In Panama, and among several of its Latin American neighbours, the proposal has opened old wounds over the 1989 invasion of Panama, raised concerns about U.S.  intervention elsewhere and hit all the hot buttons over American involvement in Latin American drug wars. 


Subj:   UK: Pot, Politics and Prejudice
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n259.a04.html

Pubdate:   October 5, 1997
Source:   Independent on Sunday, London, UK
Contact:  

Labour would like to decriminilise cannabis for personal use but does not dare.  That was the message from senior ministers in private at the party's conference last week. 

Despite the very scornful opposition from the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, in his main platform speech, behind the scenes senior members of his party applauded the Independent on Sunday campaign.  One very senior minister spoke of the need to overcome the "prejudice of the British people".  He, personally had no objection but he was fearful of the reaction from middle England.  Another said she was sure decriminilisation would come. Still another indicated that if the police came out in favour of relaxation, then Mr.  Straw might bend.


Subj:   Decriminalize Drugs For Own Use, Officer Says
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n260.a06.html

Pubdate:   Wed 08 Oct 1997
Source:   Vancouver Sun
Contact:  

OTTAWA -- Canada should decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use, says a high-ranking officer with the Vancouver police department. 

"I support that," deputy police chief Ken Higgins said here Tuesday, adding that addiction should be treated as a medical problem and drug-selling as a criminal one. 

"I'm not soft on drugs, believe me.  People who traffic in this sort of misery should be dealt with very severely."

"Let's get the addicts out of the way for the time being and concentrate on the trafficking and let [the health-care system] try to deal with addiction."


Subj:   New Ruling From The Lord Chief Justice: Let's Talk About Dope
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n261.a07.html

Pubdate:   Thu, 09 Oct 1997
Source:   The Independent
Contact:  

LONDON -- The country's most senior judge called for an open debate on decriminalising the use of cannabis, Our Legal Affairs Editor Patricia Wynn Davies says Lord Bingham has reignited a controversial debate that the Government wishes would go away. 

Yesterday's statement by the Lord Chief Justice gave a significant boost to the growing campaign for the decriminalisation of soft drugs.  "It is a subject that deserves, in my judgment, detached, objective, independent consideration," he said. 

The campaign to ditch a law which to many has been long discredited, has been led by the Independent on Sunday and a growing number of celebrities and public figures in the face of government hostility. 


Subj:   Latin American Cities Criticize Drug War
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n261.a08.html

Pubdate:   Thu, 9 Oct 1997
Source:   Associated Press

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) -- Drug policy officials from 10 Latin American cities signed a declaration Wednesday criticizing global anti-narcotics efforts for not doing enough to treat chronic drug abusers. 

"International cooperation prioritizes halting the cultivation and trafficking of illegal psychoactive substances, while minimizing prevention and treatment," the Medellin Declaration states. 

The document was the fruit of a two-day conference whose participants included the organizers of German and Swiss programs that allow addicts to consume illegal drugs in medically controlled settings. 

No representatives of U.S.  cities were invited to the conference, held in a city whose name is synonymous with the now-defunct cocaine cartel whose principal market was the United States. 


Subj:   Decriminalizing Drugs an Option, Dosanjh Says
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n263.a03.html

Pubdate:   Thu 09 Oct 1997
Source:   Vancouver Sun
Contact:  

Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh says drug addicts need to be treated with more compassion, and decriminalizing the possession of illegal drugs for personal use might be one way of doing that. 

Dosanjh said Wednesday he will place the issue of decriminalization before his counterparts in other provinces later this year if B.C.  police chiefs and mayors agree that it's time to encourage debate. 

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen and Police Chief Bruce Chambers said they are ready to look at that and any other measure that might ease social and health problems on the Downtown Eastside. 

"Obviously, we have a problem, and we have to consider all possible solutions," Owen said.  "The realistic thing at this point is to deal that card on to the table and have a discussion."


Subj:   Latin Cities Sign Drug Declaration
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n263.a04.html

Source:   New York Times
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Thu, 09 Oct 97

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) -- Drug policy officials from 10 Latin American cities signed a declaration Wednesday criticizing global anti-narcotics efforts for not doing enough to treat chronic drug abusers. 

"International cooperation prioritizes halting the cultivation and trafficking of illegal psychoactive substances, while minimizing prevention and treatment," the Medellin Declaration states. 

The document was the fruit of a two-day conference whose participants included the organizers of German and Swiss programs that allow addicts to consume illegal drugs in medically controlled settings. 


Subj:   UK: Huge Majority Want Cannabis Legalised
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n266.a07.html

Pubdate:   Sun, 12 Oct 1997
Source:   Independent on Sunday
Contact:   email:

THE overwhelming majority of British people want the personal and medical use of cannabis to be made legal, according to a poll conducted for the Independent on Sunday. 

Eighty per cent of the public want the law to be relaxed.  Almost half those polled, 45 per cent, said they were in favour of the current restrictions being relaxed for those who needed cannabis for medicinal purposes, while more than one in three, 35 per cent, wanted it to be legally available for recreational use.  The Government's policy of maintaining the status quo,

that all cannabis possession should remain illegal, received the approval of one in six, 17 per cent. 


Medical Marijuana


Subj:   Physicians' Group Opposes Medical Marijuana, Endorses Handgun Control
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n256.a05.html

Pubdate:   27 Oct 1997
Source:   The Associated Press

YAKIMA, Wash.  (AP) -- The state's largest physician group Saturday opposed a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for medicinal use but endorsed a proposed handgun-control measure. 

The votes, which were expected, came at the Washington State Medical Association's House of Delegates annual meeting at the Yakima Convention Center.  The voice votes reflected recommendations made earlier this week by committees studying the issues. 

Initiative 685, the medicinal-drug measure, is sponsored by Dr.  Rob Killian, a Tacoma physician, but has lacked general support within the medical association. 

"It's not unexpected," Killian told the Herald-Republic of Yakima.  "The leadership of this organization, at the behest of the lieutenant governor, has been preparing for this vote for five months."


Subj:   New Winds Blowing for American Drug Policies
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n257.a07.html

Source:   Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol.  278, no. 11
Pubdate:   27 September 1997
Contact:   Dr.  Lundberg, Editor of JAMA,

On July 8, 1997, a star-studded group of American physicians (the self-named "Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy") met at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City.  Organized by David C. Lewis, MD, chaired by June E.  Osborn, MD, facilitated by Kenneth I. Shine, MD, and funded by grants from the MacArthur Foundation and the Open Society Institute, this group of physicians (listed at the end of this Editorial) met to discuss our largely failing US national policy on illicit drugs and to ponder new approaches. 


Subj:   Drug Initiative in Washington State
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n261.a01.html

Pubdate:   Wed, 8 Oct 1997
Source:   Associated Press

TACOMA, Wash.  (AP) -- As Washington state voters prepare to decide whether marijuana should be legalized for medical use, those who decried such measures a year ago have been noticeably quiet. 

Last fall, police, prosecutors and anti-drug forces that included White House drug policy chief Gen.  Barry McCaffrey ran commercials and spoke out against medical marijuana ballot questions in Arizona and California. 

The initiatives -- which both passed by wide margins -- removed penalties for possessing the drugs as long as they had been prescribed by doctors. 

With Washington voters preparing to vote on the same issue Nov.  4, the picture is different.  No visits from McCaffrey, no lavish TV commercials, no threats from Attorney General Janet Reno to go after doctors. 


Subj:   Medical Pot Battle Rages On
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n261.a06.html

Source:   Arizona Republic
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Wed, 8 Oct 1997

WASHINGTON - A 1993 videotape shows that supporters of medical marijuana used the issue as a cover to advance their true goal of fully legalizing the drug, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said Wednesday. 

Romley handed the videotape to the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing on the medical use of marijuana.  On the tape, an advocate of legalizing marijuana is seen telling a San Francisco pro-drug conference that medical access is "the key" to ultimately decriminalizing the drug. 

"Once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana medically under medical supervision, the whole scam is going to be blown," Richard Cowan says on the tape.  At the time, he was the director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, a group that supports decriminalizing marijuana. 


Subj:   S.F.  Study of Marijuana, AIDS Patients Is Approved
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n262.a07.html

Source:   San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Thu, 9 Oct 1997

San Francisco researchers have won approval for the first federally sponsored study of the medical effects of marijuana on AIDS patients. 

With $1 million from the National Institutes of Health, doctors at San Francisco General Hospital will spend two years studying how the drug interacts with the latest AIDS medicines. 

The results of the study are certain to play a central role in the debate over medical use of marijuana, not only for AIDS patients, but for sufferers of numerous other diseases.  It is a debate that led California voters last year to legalize the medical use of pot, and has since become a major issue in the wrangling over national drug policy. 


Subj:   San Mateo Board Stalls Pot Stores
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n263.a07.html

Pubdate:   October 8, 1997
Source:   San Francisco Examiner
Contact:  

REDWOOD CITY - San Mateo County supervisors passed an emergency ordinance Tuesday that creates a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries until a local policy for them is developed. 

Passed by a 5-0 vote, the moratorium is intended to give supervisors time to come up with zoning regulations that would govern locations and operating procedures for dispensaries in unincorporated areas. 

The matter came before the Board of Supervisors after resident Salvador Garcia asked about setting up what would have been the first such dispensary in San Mateo County. 

Garcia wants to operate it in North Fair Oaks, an unincorporated part of Redwood City. 


Subj:   Arcata, Marin Try New Medical Pot Policies
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n265.a06.html

Source:   San Francisco Examiner
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Fri, 10 Oct 1997

One town and one county in Northern California are trying a new way to deal with medical marijuana - certifying the customers who need it. 

In less than a month, Marin County supervisors will likely approve a way to accredit patients who can benefit from marijuana, said County Health and Human Services Director Tom Peters. 


Needle Exchange,
AIDS & Heroin


Subj:   Still Need for Heroin Trial Says Specialist
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n258.a03.html

Source:   The Australian
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Tue, 06 Oct 97

The "fat lady has not sung" where the projected ACT heroin trial was concerned, a leading Australian drug policy spokesman said yesterday. 

Alex Wodak, director of drug and alcohol services at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, strongly criticised Prime Minister John Howard for intervening to quash the trial earlier this year, but said not all hope had been lost. 

"The arguments for a heroin trial are as compelling now as they were before the prime ministerial intervention," Dr Wodak wrote in an editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia. 

"As Justice Wood [of the NSW Wood Royal Commission into corruption] pointed out ..  'Without such a trial ... its efficacy or otherwise will never be known.' Until attempted, it is very difficult to move forward or to consider alternative strategies."


Subj:   AIDS Controversy
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n261.a04.html

Pubdate:   Wed, 8 Oct 1997
Source:   Associated Press
Date:   Wed, Oct 8, 1997

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several of President Clinton's AIDS advisers say they are considering resigning to protest the White House's refusal to spend federal money on buying clean needles for drug addicts. 

Some members of the Presidential Advisory Council on AIDS said Wednesday they also are upset the administration has not implemented other council recommendations. 

"I think it's fairly serious," Dr.  Scott Hitt, a Los Angeles physician who chairs the 30-member council, said of the resignation threats. 

Leading the protest is council member Robert Fogel, a Chicago lawyer and Clinton fund-raiser.  He said Wednesday he plans to seek a vote on the resignation at the council's next meeting in December. 


Subj:   Heroin-Prescribing Program in Switzerland Said to Improve Addicts'
Health
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n266.a02.html

Pubdate:   Sept.  19, 1997
Source:   Psychiatric News
Contact:  

More than five years after closure of the notorious "Needle Park" in Zurich, Switzerland The Swiss government has reported that an alternative, three-year trial of controlled heroin prescribing for heroin addicts has been a resounding success. 

Five years ago the failure of a daring Swiss experiment that permitted an open air drug market in Zurich's Platzspitz park made headlines worldwide.  That experiment collapsed of its own weight when the open, unregulated market attracted hordes of addicts and drug dealers from Europe and beyond. 

Television and newspaper stories featured nightmarish scenes of trampled shrubbery, urine-soaked soil littered with syringes, and zonked out junkies lying on park benches.  Petty crime and overdoses soared. All this made for sensational news and elicited much head shaking as to what this implied for further attempts to deal with narcotics addiction in a medically oriented, non punitive way (Psychiatric News, September 1, 1993). 


Sentencing


Subj:   Hemp Seed Trial Continues After Plea Talk Fails
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n255.a02.html

Pubdate:   Oct 1997
Source:   Tribune-Herald, Hawaii
Contact:   FAX: (808) 969-9100 Phone: (808) 935-6621

An attempt to resolve the hemp seed trial of Aaron Anderson with a plea agreement delayed the start of Thursday's session.  But in the end Anderson decided not to plea bargain with prosecutors, opting instead to go forward with the trial. 

When asked why he decided not to enter into the plea agreement, Anderson responded, "Because I'm not guilty.  Why should I plead to something that I'm not guilty of."


Subj:   Jury Justice
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n257.a05.html

Pubdate:   September 24, 1997
Source:   San Fransisco Bay Guardian
Contact:  

IN THE 1957 FILM 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda stood up to 11 cantankerous jurors and convinced them to examine their prejudices and consider the consequences of their deliberations in the trial of an 18-year-old Latino.  Forty years later, a Colorado juror followed Fonda's example and paid the price -- but set a precedent for justice in California and across the country. 

In May 1996, Laura Kriho, a 32-year-old research assistant at the University of Colorado, served on a Gilpin County jury for the trial of a woman charged with methamphetamine possession.  Kriho told the Bay Guardian she wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant understood that drugs were in her purse.  But she went a step further: Kriho argued to the 11 other jurors that drug possession cases should be handled by family and community, rather than by the courts. 


Subj:   Hemp Seed Case Ends in Mistrial
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n264.a04.html

Pubdate:   Fri, 10 Oct 1997
Source:   Hawaii Tribune Herald
Contact:   Hawaii Tribune Herald, 355 Kinoole St., Hilo, Hawaii 96720

The hemp seed trial of Aaron Anderson ended in a mistrial Wednesday after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict. 

"We are dead-locked," said the final written communication signed by all 12 jurors. 

Deputy Prosecutor Kay Iopa said she has not yet decided whether to retry Anderson. 

"It's kind of premature," she said.  "We need to evaluate it thoroughly."

But court-appointed defense, lawyer Brian De Lima said that he will be filing a motion to ask that the charge against Anderson be dismissed. 


The War on Drugs


Subj:   Opponents of HB3643 turn in almost twice the number
         of signatures needed 
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n255.a08.html

Source:   National Review
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Mon, 06 Oct 1997

Opponents of a law that would recriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana said they turned in plenty of signatures Friday to force a vote on the issue next year. 

Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement said they turned in 95,032 signatures to the state Elections Division, almost twice as many as the 48,841 valid signatures needed to qualify a referendum for the 1998 general-election ballot and prevent the new law from taking effect today. 

State elections officials have 15 days to verify the signatures, but given the number turned in, it appears almost certain there will be enough. 


Subj:   Editorial: The Drug Czar Softens
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n257.a01.html

Pubdate:   Mon, 06 Oct 1997
Source:   Orange County Register
Contact:  

Judging just from the wire stories, we were almost ready to entertain the hypothesis that "drug czar" Gen.  Barry McCaffrey was showing signs of being educable, perhaps even of adjusting views in response to evidence rather than politics.  After more investigation, it seems more likely that he is simply reluctant to get out front on an issue where he thinks the prohibitionists will continue to lose. 

That's progress of a sort, perhaps, but of a modest sort.  What happened? At a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, Florida Republican Rep.  Bill McCollum asked Gen. McCaffrey if he would come to Florida to campaign against a medical marijuana initiative.  Besides Florida, Alaska, Washington, Arkansas, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are expected to consider laws to allow sick people legal access to marijuana in the near future. 


Subj:   Journalists Honor MN Editor
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n260.a01.html

Source:   San Francisco Chronicle
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Tue, 7 Oct 1997

NOTE:   The San Jose Mercury News series that started all the discussion about
CIA involvement in cocaine trafficking can be found at: http://www.sjmercury.com/drugs/

The executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News on Monday was named one of the first recipients of the national Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society of Professional Journalists. 

Jerry Ceppos was recognized for his May 11 column in which he acknowledged several shortcomings of a controversial Mercury News series called "Dark Alliance."


Subj:   Republican is Best Known for Advocating Decriminalization of Drugs
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n263.a11.html

Pubdate:   Thu, 09 Oct 1997
Source:   Los Angeles Times
Contact:  

SANTA ANA - Orange County Superior Court Judge James P.  Gray began a leave of absence Wednesday to campaign for the congressional seat now held by Rep.  Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove). 

Gray, a Republican best known for supporting the decriminalization of drugs, has hinted for several weeks that he was weighing such a campaign.  Republicans Lisa Hughes, a family law attorney and certified public accountant, and Anaheim City Councilman Bob Zemel also have announced their candidacies. 


Subj:   Maryland Aims 'Drug Buster' at Prisons' Visitors, Workers
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n265.a10.html

Pubdate:   Sat, 11 Oct 1997
Source:   Houston Chronicle
Contact:  

Originally Published in the Baltimore Sun October 2, 1997
Contact:  

BALTIMORE -- The hand-held vacuum looks like a Dust Buster, but it collects more than just lint.  Call it the drug buster.

With this new drug-detection system, called the Ionscan 400, the state is searching for the most minute traces of illegal narcotics on people who visit or work at Maryland's prisons.  Officials say it's more accurate than a drug-sniffing dog -- and never gets tired or needs food or exercise. 


Subj:   US Marijuana Production Hits New High
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v97.n268.a08.html

Pubdate:   Oct 12, 1997
Source:   Scotland On Sunday, Edinburgh, UK
Contact:  

It is the marijuana harvest season in California, and this year is like no other.  It has been confirmed tha the US is no longer a mere drugs market for latino cartels but is also a land they now literally plough. 

Drug enforcement agents in California's famed 'emerald triangle' started to notice the change in the early 1990s.  Marijuana plants, high-grade sinsemilla worth a minimum of UKP2,500 for one pound wholesale, started appearing in oddly straight, long rows.  And on a scale never before seen.

At one location, thousands of the illegal plants had been planted on old logging roads on private forestry land.  Then there was the field that confirmed the agents were facing farmers, not dabblers; sheriffs' deputies found a cache of 100,000 seedlings in 17 clandestine greenhouses camouflaged by a canopy of foliage.  Enough for several fields.


HOT OFF THE 'NET     (Top)


Miss America, Kate Shindle, recently came out for needle exchange.  Originally she was opposed to needle exchange saying drug use was against the law.  Then she looked at the facts and changed her mind.

Weekly readers can let her know they appreciate her looking at the facts and not being afraid to tell politicians the truth -- needle exchange is good public health policy and good drug policy. 

To let Kate Shindle know that her stand is appreciated readers can leave a message on the Miss America web site located at
http://www.missamerica.org/talktous.html


Marijuana Arrests For 1996 Most Ever!
FBI Data Confirm Clinton's Marijuana War To Be Toughest In Nation's History

For the full report please see the National NORML site: http://www.norml.org/news/fax/97-10-07.shtml

See the Marijuana Policy Project's site at http://www.mpp.org/arrests.html for a graph of marijuana arrests over the last seven years. 


DRUGSENSE TIP OF THE WEEK     (Top)


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