A DrugSense publication

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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (04/20/24)

* Feature Article

     Federal Threat to 215 to Draw Patients From Across State to March and
     Rally in San Francisco

* Weekly News In Review

Medical Marijuana-

    Hallinan - Let The City pass out pot if clubs close

    Nevada Ballot Proposal Would Allow Medical Marijuana Use

Tobacco-

    Don't forget the already addicted smokers

Law Enforcement-

    Deportation Shatters Family

Forfeiture-

    Editorial - Forfeiture Law Abused

International News -

    Canada - LeDain Stands by '71 Report

    Canada Lifts Ban On Commercial Hemp Cultivation

    UK - Straw Rejects Review Of Laws On Cannabis As New MPs Own Up

    Ireland - Gardai In Drugs War Opposed To Legalising Cannabis

    Australia - PM Pledges Extra $100M For Drug War

    New Zealand - When The Smoke Clears

* Hot Off The 'Net

     DrugSense Goes International

* DrugSense Tip Of The Week

     An Easy way of Searching for Letter Writing Material

*Quote Of The Week

Federal Threat to 215 to Draw Patients From Across State to March and Rally in San Francisco

By Michael Schelenberger
Communication Works
San Francisco CA

Patients, Religious Leaders and Political Officials to Pray, March and Rally in Defense of Safe Access: Tuesday, March 24

SAN FRANCISCO - In a dramatic showdown between federal law and states rights, medical marijuana patients, religious leaders, and political officials from across California will converge in San Francisco on Tuesday, March 24, to protest a federal lawsuit that threatens to close six major dispensaries that provide marijuana to more than 11,000 sick and dying people.

"The federal government must realize the grave results of providing no alternative source for legal marijuana: either patients will resort to street dealing and use or will be deprived of a recognized and effective medical treatment," said San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who will speak at the rally.  "I join the efforts of those opposed to this ill-conceived backlash."

On March 24, medical marijuana advocates have planned a series of public events to coincide with the first hearing in the U.S.  suit filed against six cannabis patient clubs in Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and in Marin and Mendocino counties.  Medical marijuana supporters, including 65 patients bussed in from Los Angeles, will march from the heart of the Castro District to the U.S.  Federal Court House downtown. A press conference featuring passionate testimony and speeches by a doctors, patients, and local politicians will be held on the court house steps urging safe access to medical marijuana.

Since California voters approved an initiative allowing marijuana for medical use in 1996, local and state authorities - many of whom have worked with community groups to implement safe medical marijuana distribution systems for the seriously ill - have repeatedly locked horns with the Clinton administration.  The federal government has sought to permanently squelch cannabis dispensaries on the grounds that their operations violate federal drug laws, but has offered no alternative distribution system.  Caught in the crossfire are suffering and dying people who depend on marijuana to treat deadly illnesses like AIDS and cancer.

"While much is uncertain about how marijuana will be legally supplied, one thing is abundantly clear: Thousands of seriously ill and disabled Californians will be put in grave peril if these non-profit community-based programs are closed," said Scott Imler, Co-Chair of the California Conference of Medical Cannabis Providers.  Imler's group is organizing the March 24 events, along with the Medical Marijuana Patients and Caregivers Fund, and the D.C.-based Common Sense for Drug Policy, among others.

The full schedule of events is as follows:

Los Angeles: Monday, March 23

What:	Midnight Ride for Medical Rights

When:	11:00 p.m.

Where:

Depart from the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in West Hollywood, 7494 Santa Monica Blvd, #215 at Gardner.  Stop briefly at Metropolitan Community Church Headquarters, 8714 Santa Monica Blvd.  at La Cienega Blvd., for additional riders.

San Francisco: Tuesday March 24

Prayer Breakfast for Medical Rights

When:	8:00 a.m.

Where:	Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka St.  at 18th St.

Who: Speakers will include: (IN PROGRESS)

"Keep Faith with the Voters": A Patients March for Medical Rights

When:	11:00 a.m.

Where:

Start at Harvey Milk Memorial Rainbow Flag Pole on the corner of Market and Castro streets.  March will proceed down Market St. to the National AIDS Update Conference at the Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove St.  at Polk

Press Conference and Rally, followed by Federal Courthouse Vigil

When:	12:00 p.m., Noon

Where:	U.S.  Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate St. at Larkin St.

Who: Speakers will include: SF Supervisor Gavin Newsom, SF Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Dixie Ramagno, medical marijuana patient (IN PROGRESS)

Statewide Unity Supper

When:	5:00 p.m.

Where:	Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka St.

Who:    This event is sponsored by the California Conference of Medical Cannabis Providers and will be hosted by San Francisco's Medical Marijuana Delivery Service.

Medical Marijuana

Hallinan:	Let The City Pass Out Pot If Clubs Close

Possibly a very important development; should this come to pass, it would be the first-ever direct confrontation between two governments over the issue.  As such, it could certainly prove interesting, and, if nothing else, would show the depth of the federal government's commitment to keeping marijuana illegal.

HALLINAN:	LET THE CITY PASS OUT POT IF CLUBS CLOSE

If the federal government shuts down California's marijuana clubs, city health workers could be called on to distribute the drug to patients who need it, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan said Saturday.

The former city supervisor and outspoken backer of medical marijuana made the suggestion in court papers he Plans to file Monday in U.S.  District Court in San Francisco in an effort to keep open The City's pot clubs- under siege by the courts and the U.S.  Justice Department.

[snip]

Mitchell Katz, director of the San Francisco Health Department, said the proposal remains "a hypothetical," but he expressed support for the concept.

[snip]

The proposal, which would have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, could make San Francisco the first city in the world actively to provide marijuana to its citizens and would continue The City's reputation as a municipal maverick and testing ground for progressive ideas.

[snip]

Board of Supervisors President Barbara Kaufman said she had not heard Hallinan's suggestion, but said the board would seriously consider it if pot clubs in the area were closed down.

[snip]

Source:	San Francisco Examiner

Pub Date: March 15, 1998

Byline:	Zachary Coile

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n184.a07.html

Nevada Ballot Proposal Would Allow Medical Marijuana Use

Another AMR initiative, this one a two-step process in Nevada.  Reading the full article reveals the AMR fingerprint: detailed concessions to potential critics written into the language of the initiative.  He who pays, calls the tune.

NEVADA BALLOT PROPOSAL WOULD ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

CARSON CITY, Nev.  (AP) -- A ballot proposal to allow marijuana use by Nevadans with serious health problems was filed here Friday -- following a lawsuit to ensure a lot of money can be spent on the ballot campaign.

[snip]

The AMR is the same group that launched a successful 1996 medical marijuana petition in California.  But a big legal battle developed over distribution through ``cannabis clubs.''

Dan Hart of Las Vegas, who is heading the signature-gathering for the Nevada initiative, said the problems that occurred in California shouldn't happen here.

[snip]

Hart must collect 46,764 signatures by Aug.  5 to get the proposal on the ballot.  Voters would have to approve the plan this November and again in November 1990 before the Nevada Constitution could be revised.

Source:	The Associated Press

Pubdate:	Sat, 14 Mar 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n184.a01.html

Tobacco-

Don't forget the already addicted smokers

This op-ed, part of the Clinton Administration's "plan" for the tobacco settlement, will appear in other papers next week.  Unfortunately, to avoid indirectly casting aspersions on the drug war, the "plan" has no substance as coherent policy.  It calls for a weakened, vilified tobacco industry selling ever less of its demonized product, and yet paying enough taxes to give the nation a positive cash flow.  Yeah, sure.

On a more human level, Koop doesn't explain why nicotine addicts rate more human concern than heroin addicts- must be because they're "legally" addicted.

DON'T FORGET THE ALREADY ADDICTED SMOKERS

C.  EVERETT KOOP

To date, most of the tobacco control efforts of this administration have focused on preventing young people from taking up smoking.  Everyone can agree that teen-agers and younger children should not smoke.  Even the tobacco industry can safely join in that refrain, and frequently does, with characteristic and clamorous hypocrisy.

[snip]

If we pretend that adult smoking is a consumer choice like any other, we fall prey to the trap laid by Big Tobacco.  Addiction makes the very notion of choice moot.  Who would freely choose sickness and suffering, lost productivity or 50 percent chance of premature death?

[snip]

Source:	San Mateo County Times

Date:	March 13, 1998

Page:	A 9

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n184.a04.html

Law Enforcement-

Deportation Shatters Family

This story poignantly reveals the self-righteous malevolence and inhumanity of current federal law enforcement.

DEPORTATION SHATTERS FAMILY

Gerardo Anthony Mosquera Jr.  was a good boy in a tough neighborhood, his parents say.  He took his studies seriously, enjoyed sports, stayed away from drugs and worked after school to help support his struggling family, which included three younger siblings and an infant son.

That the 17-year-old junior at Bell Gardens High School would put a bullet through his brain still seems inconceivable, says his distraught family, except for one painful fact: Gerardo had been despondent since his father--Gerardo Antonio Mosquera Sr., a legal resident of the United States for 29 years--was deported in December back to his native Colombia, part of a rising nationwide tide of such expulsions.  The father was removed because of a 1989 conviction for selling a $10 bag of marijuana--enough for one pot cigarette--to a paid police informant.

[snip]

Authorities say he has no one but himself to blame.  Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota denied him permission to return temporarily for his son's funeral today.

[snip]

Source:	Los Angeles Times

Pubdate:	Saturday, March 14, 1998

Author:	Patrick J.  Mcdonnell, Times Staff Writer

Contact:

Fax:	213-237-4712

Website:	http://www.latimes.com/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n180.a12.html

Forfeiture-

Editorial:	Forfeiture Law Abused

This article from Waco indicates that there is belated recognition, even in the heartland, that law enforcement can't be entrusted with a license to extort property in the name of the drug war.  Their admission that the press was asleep at the wheel" when the law was passed is refreshing.

FORFEITURE LAW ABUSED

Overzealous Law Enforcement Unfairly Confiscates Property

If Congress members were asleep at the wheel when they gave law enforcement a new crime-fighting tool in the 1980s, then so were the nation's newspapers, civil libertarians and others who attempt to guard the public from government abuses.

[snip]

It turns out that the warnings that the law could be easily abused by overzealous law enforcement were right.  Congress needs to correct the mistake it made when it passed the asset-forfeiture law.

[snip]

Police have used the forfeiture law as a way to enrich their departments with seized property.  This has led to law-abiding citizens being victimized by police.

[snip]

Source:	Waco Tribune-Herald

Contact:

Fax:	254.757.0302

Pubdate:	Fri, 13 Mar 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n180.a07.html

International News

In the world beyond America, drugs and drug policy remain very much in the news.  There is a growing ferment at the grass roots level for either legalization or decriminalization.  This is being resisted by government with similar rhetoric, but varying intensity, in every English speaking country.  I've tried to include representative articles from Britain and its former colonies, as counterpoint to the weekly potpourri of American outrages.

Canada:	LeDain Stands by '71 Report

Any one who has struggled through the LeDain report knows the Commission set great store on differentiating between users and traffickers, indicating they hadn't a clue about the role of prohibition law in creating a criminal market to begin with.  Nevertheless, their heart was in the right place, and LeDain hasn't changed his mind.

LEDAIN STANDS BY '71 REPORT

The LeDain Commission was set up by the federal government in 1969 as the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-medical Use of Drugs.  It issued four reports including one in 1971 on cannabis, which recommended that simple possession of cannabis and cultivation for personal use be permitted, but importation and trafficking remain a crime.

[snip]

"The heart of the study was, why should cannabis be treated so harshly compared to tobacco and alcohol?" says LeDain, who was one of three on the five-person commission who wrote the majority opinion.

Virtually none of the commission's recommendations were made into law, something LeDain blames on politicians.

[snip]

Source:	Edmonton Sun (Canada)

Pubdate:	Sun, 8 Mar 1998

Author:	Kerry Diotte

Contact:	.

Website:	http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n182.a01.html

Canada Lifts Ban On Commercial Hemp Cultivation

What's significant here is that the commentary is by the Minister of Health, not Agriculture.

CANADA LIFTS BAN ON COMMERCIAL HEMP CULTIVATION

TORONTO, March 13 (Reuters) - A 60-year-old ban on commercial hemp cultivation in Canada was lifted on Friday, paving the way for the tiny domestic research industry to transform itself into an international supplier of the raw material.

"For the first time in 60 years, Canadian farmers who meet the required provisions can now plan to grow hemp this spring," said Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock in a statement.

[snip]

Source:	Reuters

Pubdate:	March 13, 1998

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n184.a03.html

UK: Straw Rejects Review Of Laws On Cannabis As New MPs Own Up

The improbably named Jack Straw had his troubles added to by a poll of new members of Parliament.  The Independent is showing how one committed media source can make a difference.

STRAW REJECTS REVIEW OF LAWS ON CANNABIS AS NEW MPS OWN UP

The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, ruled out a Royal commission to review drug laws after one in five new MPs who responded to a survey admitted they had smoked cannabis.

Campaigners for decriminalisation of the drug were given a further boost when a Tory MP, David Prior, said he had used it when he was in his 20s and admitted: "Yes, I did inhale".

[snip]

Writing in the 'Independent on Sunday', which has been campaigning for reform, the MP for North Norfolk, who is the son of the former cabinet minister Lord Prior, said the law was inconsistently enforced and widely ignored.

"I associate my experience with drugs [soft ones] not with Mick Jagger or Aldous Huxley but with passing my law degree and working in a bank," he said.

[snip]

Source:	Scotsman (UK)

Pubdate:	Mon, 16 Mar 1998

Author:	Gavin Cordon

Contact:

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n186.a05.html

Ireland:	Gardai In Drugs War Opposed To Legalising Cannabis

The quotes from this law enforcement worthy are straight from mid-fifties America; they might have been uttered by the late HJA himself.

GARDAI IN DRUG WAR OPPOSED TO LEGALISING CANNABIS

GARDAI Commissioner, Pat Byrne, has pledged to continue the fight against Munster's drug dealers after over =A36m was seized by members of the National Drugs Unit in Operation Blackwater in the past two months.

[snip]

Speaking in Cork, the Garda Commissioner also hit out at media commentators calling for the legalisation of cannabis.

"Commentators who criticise the use of Garda resources seizing cannabis worth millions of pounds as being wasteful seem clear in their objectives.  They promote a supposed soft drug as being harmless and advise the Gardai to concentrate on heroin or drugs that are perceived as being more dangerous.

"However Garda research shows that cannabis is used as a gateway drug and that there is a very strong connection between drug taking and crime," Commissioner Byrne said.

Garda research showed that among addicts, cannabis was the initial drug for just over 50%.

[snip]

Source:	The Examiner (Ireland)

Pubdate:	Thu, 12 Mar 1998

Author:	Gardai in drugs war opposed to legalising cannabis

Contact:

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n180.a05.html

Australia:	PM Pledges Extra $100M For Drug War

In Australia, prohibitionist premier Howard has struggled manfully, and thus far successfully, to keep the lid on pressure for liberalization. He shot down the heroin trial last summer; this is more of the same.

PM PLEDGES EXTRA $100M FOR DRUG WAR

The Prime Minister yesterday committed an extra $101.6 million over the next four years to alleviate the enormous personal and financial cost to the community of drug abuse, bringing the funding for his "tough on drugs" campaign to almost $190 million.

But any moves to decriminalise drug use remain firmly on the backburner, with Mr Howard's hand-picked Australian National Council on Drugs - also revealed yesterday - told it must adhere to his "zero tolerance" credo.

[snip]

Source:	Sydney Morning Herald

Pubdate:	Tue, 17 Mar 1998

Author:	Tom Allard

Contact:	()

Web:(http://www.smh.com.au)

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n187.a12.html

When The Smoke Clears

A dream interview with a reformer.  David Hadorn was able to deliver an unopposed indictment of current US policy along with a plea for local decriminalization.

WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARS

A group of prominent New Zealand scientists and professionals say that it's high time cannabis was treated the same way as alcohol and tobacco.

[snip]

Hadorn is convinced there is a mood for change in New Zealand.  That optimism has been shored up recently by the leaked 15-year WHO study on cannabis which confirmed that cannabis is safer than alcohol and tobacco.

[snip]

But even if the Government was prepared to risk the political fallout by considering cannabis reform, it would face huge pressure from the US to abort any liberalisation.

[snip]

Source:	New Zealand Listener

Pubdate:	March 21-27, 1998

Author:	Noel O'Hare

Contact:

URL:	http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n186.a10.html

DrugSense goes international

http://www.mbp.org/

The ideas and concepts developed by the DrugSense organization are spreading rapidly.  The first known European effort has been launched at: http://www.mbp.org/

This exciting page is an attempt to not only gather and further distribute drug related news but to translate it into numerous languages and to coordinate multi-national and multi-lingual letter writing efforts.

It is the first serious attempt to create a European version of DrugSense and MAP efforts.  This is a very challenging undertaking and we encourage and support the efforts of Jorg Jenetzky ( ) in getting the project going.

TIP OF THE WEEK

An Easy way of Searching for Letter Writing Material

http://www.mapinc.org/lte/

The above URL is a collection of over 700 published letters and articles written by DrugSense volunteers as part of The Media Awareness Project. This searchable archive is an extremely valuable research tool for new letter writers, those wanting to research a letter writing effort, and for those wishing to help recruit and point out the significant accomplishments that the reform movement is achieving.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"...First, is the dangers of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills-- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence.  Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man.  -Robert F. Kennedy, "Day of Affirmation," address delivered at the University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966, _Congressional Record,_ June 6, 1966, vol.  112, p. 12430.

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.

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