A DrugSense publication

http://www.drugsense.org

NOTE:

We have changed the format somewhat again in an attempt to improve

Table of Contents

* Breaking News (04/20/24)

* Feature Article

The Value of LTEs by Mark Greer

* Weekly News In Review

Domestic News -

Medical Marijuana

Leave Medical Pot Issue To Science

The Drug War

Group Upset over Libraries' Rejection of Marijuana Research Book

Marijuana Shootout

`War on Drugs' Seems More Than Metaphor in Border Towns

Tobacco Wars

Tobacco Assembly Votes to Lift Smoking Ban

Behind Fuming Bar Owners is Savvy Well-Heeled Group

Don't Let the Packs Back

International News-

Colombia Fails in Try to Impress Drug Czar

CIA Report Concludes Agency Knew Nothing of Drug Dealers' Ties to Rebels

* Hot Off The 'Net

New DrugNews Search engine Announced

* DrugSense Tip Of The Week

    
Subscribing and Unsubscribing from various lists and services

Letters to the Editor (LTEs), are among the more cost effective ways of getting our message to the public.  Not only are they read by large numbers of people, but, according to Reuters, they're among the most popular items in many newspapers.  They are viewed by many as having even more credibility than news items or feature articles, thus they clearly are more valuable than equivalent commercial advertising space.

The cumulative effect of these "ads" is to encourage much needed discourse on reform issues, promote the reform perspective and educate the public. Their frequent presence helps reverse the heretofore pervasive notion that discussion of drug topics was somehow taboo.  The assistance we provide in furnishing DrugSense Focus Alerts and Email addresses along with the text of published articles to respond to is our attempt to make LTE writing as easy as possible.  An extra bonus letter writers receive is a more accurate and informed position on drug policy, simply because of the research necessary to write an effective LTE.

In thinking about writing LTEs as a way of advertising, we have tried to place a dollar value on the effort.  The benefit of your published letter, as advertising, can be calculated by the following formula: $60.00/column inch for each 100,000 of circulation

For example: Los Angeles Times has a circulation of 1.2 million.  A published letter in the Times of 6 column inches (a column inch is usually 1.5 inches across by 1 inch down the page) would be calculated: $60 X 6 column inches X 12 (for 1.2 million).

That gives the LTE an equivalent ad value of
approximately $4,320.  As noted above, the additional premium of having the statement in a respected place, one frequently read by people who think, can't be accurately measured.

THE VALUE OF UNPUBLISHED LETTERS

Quite apart from the dollar value we arbitrarily assign to the relatively small number of letters which are published, there is the more elusive value of unpublished letters.  When an editor gets 5 or 10 letters responding to an editorial or article which has just appeared in his paper, he knows that this subject is extremely important to the general public and tends to make decisions that will encourage additional coverage.  He also will nearly always publish one or more of the letters thus making the number of letters submitted nearly as important as quality in influencing the decision to publish (this observation also seems to hold true for letters to large newspapers, magazines, and on air media sources as well).

Unpublished LTEs can also be profoundly important.  When they voice a consistent point of view and appear in reasonable numbers, they can be a powerful tool in modifying the views of even the most intransigent editor. Finally all these letters must be read, by at least by one junior person on the editorial staff.  The best ones are circulated and read by several. A well reasoned point in an unpublished LTE could be just the thing which influences a reporter's or editorial writer's point of view months or years later.

The Media Awareness Project (MAP) has posted hundreds of its published letters at: http://www.mapinc.org/lte/

This collection represents only a fraction of the thousands of LTEs that have been sent by MAP volunteers and published in newspapers nationwide. The cumulative effect of these efforts cannot be effectively quantified but we believe that it is beginning to have a profound impact on the attitude of the media towards drug policy and that effect can only increase as our numbers grow.

If you wrote a letter to at least one publication this week in response to the hundreds of articles we have provided via the DrugNews-Digest and DrugSense Weekly then give yourself a pat on the back.  It may be the most effective thing you could do to help bring about reform.

Domestic News

Medical Marijuana

This clever bit of dissembling on medical marijuana echos Barry McCaffrey's insincere plea that we "ask science," for a judgement without mentioning the disgraceful record of government "science" on marijuana research in general.

Amazingly, they picked up on the unpublicized DEA referral of the Scheduling issue to HHS without either crediting Jon Gettman's petition or acknowledging that the question at issue is potential for abuse and not medical benefit.  Are they confused or just being far too clever?

TACOMA WA.  The overwhelming defeat of Initiative 685 last November should have settled the question of whether Washington State ought to circumvent the U.S.  government's drug-review process by legalizing "medicinal" marijuana.

But some cannabis proponents are still trying to fight this battle in the political arena rather than deferring to the scientific deliberations of the U.S.  Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health. State Sens.  Jeanne Kohl and Pat Thibaudeau, both Seattle Democrats, have introduced a bill that would let "seriously ill patients" smoke marijuana with permission of a doctor.  Backers of the failed I-685 are talking about putting yet another initiative on the ballot if the Legislature rejects the Kohl-Thibaudeau bill, as it would be wise to do.

The push for summary approval of therapeutic marijuana serves as a good reminder of why this country long ago opted to let hard research and cautious reviews - not anecdotes and emotional testimonials - govern the legalization of potent drugs.

[snip]

Initiative campaigns and legislative votes are no substitute for sober scientific review that ought to take place before dope-smoking is dignified with the status of legitimate therapy.  Such a review appears to be on its way; in December, the Drug Enforcement Administration asked the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a "scientific and medical evaluation" of marijuana as a potential medicine.  There will be a scientific verdict on medicinal marijuana.  Those who want to rush legalization through the political process give the distinct impression they are afraid of what that verdict will be.

Pubdate:	Sunday, Jan.  25, 1998

Contact:

Mail:	The News Tribune, P.O.  Box 11000, 1950 S. State St., Tacoma, Wa. 98411

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n071.a08.html

The Drug War

GROUP UPSET OVER LIBRARIES'S' REJECTION OF MARIJUANA RESEARCH BOOK

SOURCE:	Boston Globe

One of the most glaring examples of censorship in American government at all levels is in the area of drug policy.  The censors are at least as avid as religious censors in a theocracy.  That the Globe would even report this story is a plus for our side.  One wonders at the criteria used by Spokesman Albert's librarian for deciding "bias."

SYRACUSE, N.Y.  (AP) - Cheryl Weeks recognized instantly that some people would take exception to a book that discredits what it calls the ``myths'' about marijuana.

In a library, though, a diversity of viewpoints is a treasured goal.

So Weeks, a Binghamton high school librarian, said yes to the book when some of her other peers said no.

``On most issues, such as abortion, birth control, we try to represent all sides.  This was just one side of another issue,'' Weeks said Monday.

``Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence'' is earning praise as one of the most comprehensive reviews ever assembled about research on the drug.

But Binghamton was the only one of five school districts in upstate New York to accept the book when it was offered as a donation by a Syracuse-based group that advocates a rethinking of what it calls the nation's failed drug policy.

[snip]

Albany and Rochester rejected the book outright.  In Buffalo and Syracuse, the school districts' health committees are reviewing the book but are expected to turn it down too, said Eyle.

Dave Albert, a spokesman for the Albany School District, said a veteran librarian reviewed the book and decided it was ``biased and one-sided'' and was contrary to school curriculum.

[snip]

Source:	Boston Globe (MA)

Author:	Associated Press

Contact:

Pubdate:	Tue, 27 Jan 1998

Website:	http://www.boston.com/

The Oregonian: Marijuana Shootout

In one sense, this is an anomaly because the criminal market in which marijuana is sold is typically far less violent than other illegal drug markets.  In another sense, intrusive police techniques are intrinsic to drug law enforcement.  They have led to fatalities in the past and will do so in the future.  Is a "successful" pot bust worth the carnage?

The Oregonian, January 29, 1998

POLICE ACTED TO PRESERVE DRUG EVIDENCE

The Smell Of Burning Marijuana Led Officers To Take Action, Triggering Portland Shootout

By J.  Todd Foster and David R. Anderson of The Oregonian staff

Portland police officers caught in a fatal fire fight Tuesday were waiting on a search warrant when a drug suspect forced their hand by burning marijuana plants, a court record states.

The officers had every right to break down the door with a concrete stepping stone and confront suspect Steven Douglas Dons, legal authorities said Wednesday.

[snip]

......  officers' knocks on the door went unanswered, the affidavit states.
Then they smelled marijuana smoke at the house, a source said, and immediately sought a search warrant.

The search warrant was on the desk of Multnomah County Circuit Judge Michael Marcus and waiting to be signed,..

[snip]

"The officers both saw and smelled the odor of burning marijuana

[snip]

The officers then attempted entry into the residence to halt the destruction of evidence."

Just inside the door, Dons allegedly fired at least 10 shots, snip

Officer Colleen Waibel, 44, was struck above and below her protective vest and died quickly.  Officer Kim Keist, 39, remained in serious condition after she was hit by two rounds, both possibly penetrating her vest.

[snip]

Mark McDonnell, a Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney who heads the drug unit, said knock and talks are valuable enforcement tools in the war on drugs.

[snip]

Source:	The Oregonian

Contact:

Website:	http://www.oregonlive.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n073.a02.html

'War on Drugs' Seems More Than Metaphor in Border Towns
Christian Science Monitor

This is a rare occasion when our side gets to state the contrarian view unopposed.  Kevin Zeese adroitly used a recent news release to comment on the extent to which the domestic drug war has become militarized.  This article appeared in both the Monitor and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

By Kevin Zeese

The Pentagon's recent recommendation to permanently cancel armed military patrols along the Mexico border is a good first step toward a drug policy not based on military force.  Armed soldiers on the border, however, are only the tip of the iceberg in our militarized drug war.

The incident that led to the proposed policy shift - the shooting death of young goat herder last year by a United States Marine on an anti drug surveillance mission- should never have happened.

When I visited the Texas border town where Esequiel Hernandez was killed, residents said they could not understand why they were treated like criminals simply because they lived on the border.  Military helicopters droned overhead.  Children were afraid to go outside.

Many in the community felt the military had taken from them one of their best and brightest.  Yet, the Department of Defense has yet to acknowledge any wrongdoing.  Instead, it hides behind last year's questionable grand jury decision not to indict the marine who fired the fatal bullet.

[snip]

Kevin Zeese is president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, a clearinghouse for drug policy alternatives.

Pubdate:	Friday, 30 Jan 1998

Source:	(1) Christian Science Monitor and (2) San Diego Union

Title:	(1) 'WAR ON DRUGS' SEEMS MORE THAN METAPHOR IN BORDER TOWNS

Contact:	(1)

Source (2) Tribune

Title:	(2) A LITERAL WAR ON DRUGS

Contact:	(2)

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n074.a03.html

ASSEMBLY VOTES TO LIFT SMOKING BAN

Source:	Los Angeles Times

The is the first area of serious non-compliance with laws limiting smoking.  Several California newspapers have reported that the ban isn't being enforced.  Hardly surprising, since a high percentage of any bar's best customers have dual legal addictions to alcohol and tobacco.

This is another area where we can expect to gain insight into popular conceptions and misconceptions involving addiction and the law.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--California's first-in-the-nation ban on smoking in taverns could go the way of Prohibition if a legislative measure to overturn the new law keeps moving forward.

The bill passed the Assembly with a 42/24 vote Wednesday night, and now goes to the Senate where its fate is uncertain.  The bill requires Senate approval and the governor's signature to take effect.

The measure would suspend the smoking ban starting next January for two years or until federal authorities set national ventilation standards to reduce smoke to safe levels.

[snip]

Enforcement of the law is left up to local agencies, with potential fines for bar owners and customers.

But many Californians have kept right on puffing, despite the ban intended to improve the health of customers and employees.  The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Edward Vincent, said it would protect jobs and give people the freedom to smoke and drink without suffering criminal penalties.

[snip]

Copyright Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

Author:	John Howard, Associated Press Writer

Pubdate:	January 29, 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n068.a04.html

BEHIND FUMING BAR OWNERS IS SAVVY, WELL-HEELED GROUP

Source:	Los Angeles Times

This long article is interesting for two reasons; one is the batle shaping up over smokers' rights,alluded to elsewhere.  The other is because it details the deep pockets of the "smokers' rights" lobby (read Big Tobacco).  Imagine what the drug policy reform movement could do with that kind of funding!

Tax-exempt alliance backed by tobacco firms helps run effort to kill smoking ban.  So far, it's working.

SACRAMENTO--From all appearances, the reaction against California's month-old bar smoking ban has been widespread, strong and spontaneous.  From Eureka to El Centro, tavern owners complain of lost business.  Patrons fume about the law and defy it.  Demonstrations spring up across the state. Local news outlets dutifully report on the flouting of the first state ban on smoking in bars, nightclubs and casinos.

But although the owners' complaints are real, behind them is a highly sophisticated public relations campaign, much of it orchestrated by a nonprofit, tax-exempt, tobacco industry-backed group based in Virginia and called the National Smokers' Alliance.

Assisting that group is one of the world's largest public relations firms, Burson-Marsteller.

[snip]

Copyright Los Angeles Times

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

Pubdate:	January 30, 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n074.a07.html

DON'T LET THE PACKS BACK

Source:	San Francisco Examiner

More evidence that the Tobacco Lobby will finance a major effort to roll back the smoking ban in bars.

Smoking in California bars has been banned less than a month; state lawmakers shouldn't backtrack on a matter of health whatever mitigation eventually might be taken against the statewide ban on smoking in bars that went into effect at the beginning of this month, it would be foolish for the Legislature to repeal the law.

That, however, was a live possibility after the Assembly backed the repeal Wednesday by a 42-24 margin.  The Assembly passed an attempt last year to keep the ban from going into effect, but the Senate failed to take up the measure and it died.

First, question how furiously Big Tobacco is pushing this repeal and how much money it will pour into legislators' campaign piggy banks.

[snip]

Bars have been one of the last refuges of smokers.  Curling cigarette smoke is part of the imagery of traditional bar scenes.  But in sufficient doses, that same smoke has been shown to kill.  Customers and employees were subjected to carcinogenic second-hand smoke whether they liked it or not.

Contact:

Website:	http://www.examiner.com

Pubdate:	Fri, 30 Jan 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n074.a08.html

International News

COLOMBIA FAILS IN TRY TO IMPRESS DRUG CZAR

Source:	San Jose Mercury News

The Dallas Morning News is the original source, and published it under the title: "Colombia Struggling To Counter Drug Image"

A similar raid was part of an unconvincing TV documentary, "Cocaine Cops," which aired in January on either Discovery or A & E.  The same Col.  Gallegos led the TV raid, which resembled a Viet Nam era helicopter assault, although without seeming opposition.

The documentary featured the General heading Colombia's military-style narcotic police.  McCaffrey, in mufti, appeared briefly. The film's soothing and unctuous voice-over couldn't convince this sceptical viewer that the General & the Colonel are courageous and efficient drug warriors because they come across as such clowns.  As a propaganda effort, it rates an F. This article helps explain why the film is so unbelievable and suggests that its filming may actually have produced the fiasco described below.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- It was envisioned as a chance to convey a vivid image to the American public: White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey standing amid the smoldering ruins of two captured
cocaine-processing laboratories.

Colombian officials wanted to use a two-day jungle raid last October as tangible proof of Colombia's cooperation in the war on drugs.

But when the raid ended, a Colombian police major and another anti-narcotics police agent lay dead inside one of five shot-up helicopters.  Police had to abandon the cocaine labs amid an onslaught by up to 400 Colombian guerrillas.  Subsequent anti-narcotics raids were sharply curtailed.

[snip]

The raid, largely overlooked amid the media commotion surrounding McCaffrey's Oct.  18-21 visit, underscores the lengths to which Colombian officials have gone to win the Clinton administration's favor ahead of its annual certification review of nations linked to drug trafficking.

[snip]

Gallego said in an interview last week that he had hoped to take the American drug czar on a tour of a captured drug-production facility.

[snip]

Contact:

Pubdate:	Sun, 25 Jan 1998

Author:	Tod Robberson of the Dallas Morning News

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n063.a10.html

CIA REPORT CONCLUDES AGENCY KNEW NOTHING OF DRUG DEALERS' TIES TO REBELS

COMMENT:

This concession to Political Correctness is frightening because it demonstrates the lengths to which respected institutions will go to distort history and preserve myth.  Certainly not all "conspiracy theories" are true, but enough clumsy cover-ups such as this one exist to lend some credibility to far more implausible stories.

Has the CIA had close ties to drug traffickers throughout its entire history, stretching from the Mediterranean in Forties through Burma, Viet Nam, Central America and Afghanistan? Does our President like women? Be serious.

Also, compare the actual denial in the last paragraph to the original allegation, which was that the Agency knew about and condoned drug dealers' participation in financing the Contras, not that they " dealt in drugs to support the contras."

WASHINGTON -- The CIA on Thursday released the first volume of an internal investigation concluding that the agency knew nothing about California cocaine dealers who claimed connections with CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua.

The CIA inspector general's report was an effort to answer accusations made in newspaper articles published in August 1996 that drug-dealing Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters were responsible for introducing crack cocaine to black neighborhoods in California in the 1980s.

The series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News suggested that the CIA condoned the drug trafficking because the cocaine dealers kicked back millions of dollars to rebels fighting the Marxist Sandinista Government of Nicaragua.

[snip]

The CIA's inspector general, Fred Hitz, said Thursday that he had found no evidence that the agency, or any of its employees, had dealt in drugs to support the contras.

Source:	New York Times

Author:	Tim Weiner

Contact:

Website:	http://www.nytimes.com/

Pubdate:	Friday, 30 Jan 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n071.a05.html

WOW! Check out the new search engine for drug news articles at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/

It is quite improved and cool.  Congratulations and thanks to Matt Elrod for this terrific enhancement.  It's just getting fine tuned but it is an unbelievable resource for all reformers.  It includes an easily searchable archive of thousands of news articles on drug issues nationwide since 2/97.  It even Highlights the word(s) you search for. Quite amazing. The next time you need some facts or cites on virtually any drug related topic, give this new tool a try.

TIP OF THE WEEK

MAPTalk - There is an email list called MAPTalk where letter writers and readers of the DrugSense Weekly share ideas.  We hope that you will either join MAPTalk or forward a copy of your letters to so that they can be shared with other interested reformers.

We get occasional requests from people who want to subscribe or unsubscribe from MAP or other reform lists.  Here are step by step "canned" instructions.  Please save them.

Two ways to un subscribe and subscribe to or from MAP, DRC, and other reform mailing lists:

WAY ONE http://www.mapinc.org/

The easiest way, by far, to subscribe or unsubscribe to a whole pile of reform mailing lists is the MAP web page.  If you are able to get on the Internet go to http://www.mapinc.org/ and click (with your mouse) on "Mailing Lists" (at the bottom of the home page) select MAP Mailing lists, DRC, or whatever.  Next click on "Subscribe/Unsubscribe." Now click on the little arrow on subscribe and then click on subscribe or unsubscribe. Click on the little down arrow next to the various list names and select which list you want to get on or off.  Fill in your name and email address, send and you're done.  This is a wonderful way for busy people like you to quickly and easily log on or off lists and occasionally "look in." It takes just a minute or two and eliminates having to remember all the various commands and addresses.

While you're on the MAP web page look around at the wonderful enhancements such as our activist database sign up form (under "Sign me up") and the incredible list of LTEs we've had published in the last few months (under "MAP gets Published")

If you don't know how to "surf the net" Here are the instructions:

WAY TWO FOR THE "INTERNET CHALLENGED"

To subscribe to MAPTalk send a message to For DRC lists send to put _subscribe MAPTalk (or DRCTalk etc.) firstname lastname_ (The name is optional for MAP but mandatory for DRC) in the body of the message (insert your first name and last name - no dashes).  You will receive a confirmation that you are subscribed.

Example:	subscribe MAPTalk Barry McCaffrey

To unsubscribe from DRC lists send a message to with unsubscribe (list name) in the body of the message.  You will receive a confirmation that you are unsubscribed.

Example:	unsubscribe DRCTalk

To un subscribe from MAP lists send a message to with un subscribe (list name) in the body of the message.  You will receive a confirmation that you are unsubscribed.

Example:	unsubscribe MAPTalk

This works for DRCTalk, other DRC lists (like the MMJ list WWW list) and many other lists as well.

Again make your life easier and use the web page above.  It is a gift from the gods.  Hope this helps.

WAY THREE the MAP database

To be added to the MAP database (IE to receive or stop receiving FOCUS alerts or the newsletter) do the following:

To be added go to http://www.mapinc.org/join.htm and fill out the form. Alternately, if you are in a hurry, you can go to
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm and fill out the "short form" in a few seconds.  This will give us only minimal info on you and at some point you should fill out the "long form" so that we can serve your needs better.

Visit http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm to be removed from our database and/or unsubscribe from the Drugnews-Digest, DrugSense Weekly Newsletter and weekly Focus Alerts.

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.

Editor:	Tom Hawkins,

Senior-Editor:	Mark Greer,

We wish to thank each and every one of our contributors.

NOTICE:

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.