| April 8, 1998 #041 | ||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Thoughts Inspired by a Visit to San Francisco by Kevin Zeese, President, Common Sense for Drug Policy, | ||||||||||||||
A visit to San Francisco is refreshing for a Beltway insider like myself. | ||||||||||||||
The day I arrived I heard this story: a medical marijuana patient goes
into a bar. An older women was smoking a cigarette (illegal in
Califoria bars since January 1). The patient asked the bartender if he
minded if he smoked his medicine. The bartender said "no problem." As
he lit the joint, the tobacco user said: "You're breaking the law." The
marijuana user replied, "No, you are."
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The next day, a headline in the Examiner proclaimed: "Hallinan: Pot Will Be Available." The top law enforcement official was promising that if the federal government closed Cannabis Buyers' Clubs he would personally assure that marijuana would be distributed by city officials. | ||||||||||||||
When I discussed this with Hallinan, he said he considered safe access to
medical marijuana to be critical to the health of the many ill San
Franciscans who use it. When I discussed the issue with Dr. Mitchell Katz,
director of the Health Department, he agreed Hallinan was on the right
track. | ||||||||||||||
When I come to California I joke with my hostess, Marsha Rosenbaum of the Lindesmith Center, that there is so much drug news, reading The San Francisco Chronicle is often like reading High Times. The next day the Chronicle reported that four mayors (three from the Bay area the other from West Hollywood) urging President Clinton to stop the prosecution of the marijuana clubs. On the following day, the Chronicle editorialized in support of the mayors and district attorney and against more court battles over the humane use of marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
The Bay area is often portrayed as so out of touch with the rest of
America, as to be irrelevant to national culture and politics. In
reality, the Bay area has been in the forefront of change, whether on
women's rights, gay rights, environmentalism, social justice, health
care, or economic development, Bay area trends have become national
policy more often than not. | ||||||||||||||
When I spoke at a rally for the Compassionate 9 -- the marijuana dispensary operators sued by the federal government -- I emphasized two points. First, this was a national issue. The federal government knows that if medical marijuana distribution succeeds in the Bay area many states will follow suit and the federal government will lose control. | ||||||||||||||
Secondly, I emphasized that moral authority is on the side of
reformers, who are protecting health by allowing safe access - not
criminal access, to medicine. Reformers are following the will of the
voters, not attempting to veto their vote. The federal government and
state attorney general are propping up failed drug prohibition in ways
that make seriously ill people suffer needlessly. Prohibitionists are
clearly the ones without moral authority. | ||||||||||||||
Inside the Beltway, Congress is moving to pass resolutions against
medical marijuana, an idea supported by over 60% of the public in
national polls (In San Francisco 80% voted for Proposition 215, 78% in
Oakland). The Congressional Right is moving toward what they describe
as a World War II style drug war as the linchpin of this congressional
election year. This seems out-of-step with the public on drug issues.
They keep pursuing the drug war path as more and more of the public
recognizes the drug war cannot succeed. | ||||||||||||||
For the first time in my twenty years working in drug policy, drug
warriors are less in tune with the public than reformers. The medical
marijuana issue is only one example. The Moyers TV series, while
imperfect, certainly made the point that policy makers are behind the
voters when it comes to recognizing the drug war is failing and public
health solutions are needed. Polls on medical marijuana, needle
exchange, treatment availability, education vs. prison all show support
for reform, but Congress, mired in the drug war past, continues to
pursue the same old failed strategies. | ||||||||||||||
This fall will help tell us where we are. Will California Attorney
General Dan Lungren, the most outspoken opponent of medical marijuana
in the state, be elected governor? Will medical marijuana initiatives
likely to be on the ballot in six states and the District of Columbia
go in the direction of California or the resolutions of the Congress?
Will referenda in Oregon and Arizona challenging drug war legislation
on marijuana recriminalization in Oregon and overturning the 1996
Arizona initiative be successful?
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Sometimes in politics, a bread and butter winning issue suddenly
becomes a political albatross and the politicians backing it become
national jokes. Southern politicians of another era who automatically
voted for Jim Crow laws and got re-elected by shouting nigger and
standing in the way of integration quickly became political
embarrassments. While a few David Dukes remain, they receive minimal
support and are anathema to mainstream politicians. | ||||||||||||||
This November we'll be able to gauge public mood on the drug war as never before. Are elected officials out of step and supporting out-dated ideas?. If the votes go the way polls are suggesting, drug war politicians may be becoming political embarrassments, just like race baiting politicians. Are we about to take the first step in transforming the "Drug War" from national policy into political history? | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
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Medical Marijuana
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Felony Charges in Pot Case
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News Analysis: Medical Privacy at Issue in Pot Club Records Seizure | ||||||||||||||
Pot Candidate: High Hopes, High Visibility
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Medical Marijuana Enthusiast Hauled To Jail
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This improbable grouping of news articles speaks volumes about the
impact of 215 in California and the savage response it has provoked
from fascists at both the state and federal levels. Three proprietors
of buyers' clubs have been charged with felonies; two are functionally
out of business, but the third, lucky enough to live in San Francisco
(See Feature Article) is not only in business, he's running for
governor!
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In the most savage case of all, a chronically ill medical marijuana advocate and user has been deliberately (and probably illegally), sent back to jail by an inhuman federal judge who seems to have learned justice from Torquemada and compassion from Adolf Eichmann. | ||||||||||||||
FELONY CHARGES IN POT CASE
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Ukiah--Yvette Rubio, the woman arrested last fall for growing marijuana she said was for the Ukiah Cannabis Buyers' Club, has been charged with felony counts of possession and cultivation of marijuana for sale. | ||||||||||||||
Rubio, 31, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Northern Lake County
Municipal Court. If convicted, she could be sentenced to three years in
state prison. | ||||||||||||||
In September, authorities seized 51 plants from Rubio's property, which
is on the western border of Lake County. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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NEWS ANALYSIS: MEDICAL PRIVACY AT ISSUE IN POT CLUB RECORDS SEIZURE
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Civil liberty groups, doctors denounce San Jose police raid | ||||||||||||||
It is one of an AIDS patient's worst nightmares: Medical records
bearing the intimate details of illness are seized by police and pored
over by strangers. | ||||||||||||||
Last week, (1) it happened in San Jose to some 270 patrons of the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center, a club that provides marijuana to chronically ill patients under the rules established by Proposition 215. | ||||||||||||||
(1) (Note- The March 25 San Jose Mercury-News report of CBC operator
Peter Baez's arrest on felony charges was commented on in last week's
DS Weekly)
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POT CANDIDATE: HIGH HOPES, HIGH VISIBILITY
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SAN FRANCISCO--Here's one way the nation's best-known marijuana
distributor campaigns to be the Republican candidate for governor: He
goes to court. Actually, he is taken to court. As a defendant. For
distributing marijuana to the ailing. And one of the people who keeps
dragging him there is none other than his most powerful opponent in the
California gubernatorial race. | ||||||||||||||
Dennis Peron--a chain-smoking, pot-toking, commune-living, gay,
vegetarian, Buddhist Vietnam veteran--is trying to make life miserable
these days for Dan Lungren, state attorney general, presumptive
Republican nominee for governor and none of the above. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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MEDICAL POT ACTIVIST RETURNED TO JAIL AFTER FAILING DRUG TESTS
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Los Angeles (AP) - Medicinal marijuana activist Todd McCormick was
ordered back to jail Friday for violating bail by failing drug tests
three times this month. | ||||||||||||||
"Your honor, putting me in jail will serve no one," McCormick said
through tears to U.S. Magistrate Judge James McMahon. "There is not
justice in this. I didn't use any illegal substances. I am not using
marijuana."
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Judge Unmoved
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The judge appeared unmoved by McCormick's sobs, and even refused to
allow McCormick to take his "special pillow" with him when marshals
took him into custody. | ||||||||||||||
"I can't believe this," McCormick said, burying his face in his hands
as his attorney put his arms around him. | ||||||||||||||
McCormick said the pillow, like marijuana, helps ease the pain of a
rare cancer he has suffered since childhood. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Marijuana
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This is a continuation of the bogus campaign orchestrated by Alan Leshner, the drug war's Josef Goebbels. It began with the July 1997 publication of rat brain research purchased by NIDA and shamefully over interpreted by Leshner- its purpose is to convince voters that marijuana is just as dangerous as heroin, at least to teens. | ||||||||||||||
U.S. STUDY: MARIJUANA IS ADDICTIVE
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Troubled teenagers who use marijuana can
quickly become dependent on the drug, Colorado researchers reported
Tuesday. | ||||||||||||||
More than two-thirds of teens referred for treatment by social service
or criminal justice agencies complained of withdrawal symptoms when
they stopped using marijuana, Dr. Thomas Crowley of the University of
Colorado and colleagues reported. | ||||||||||||||
``This study provides additional important data to better illustrate
that marijuana is a dangerous drug that can be addictive,'' Dr. Alan
Leshner, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which
paid for the study, said in a statement. | ||||||||||||||
``It also identifies the devastating impact marijuana dependence can
have on young people and highlights the fact that many both need and
want help dealing with their addiction,'' he added. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Corrections | ||||||||||||||
O.C. Jail Crowding Leads U.S.
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Most stories about incarceration focus on conditions in the nation's
prisons. This one illustrates that local jails, which house up to 1/3
of those in custody, are not in any better shape. | ||||||||||||||
ORANGE COUNTY JAIL CROWDING LEADS U.S. | ||||||||||||||
Jammed local lockups are forced to release thousands of inmates early.
Hundreds are soon charged in new crimes. | ||||||||||||||
Orange County has the most overcrowded jails among the 25 largest county systems in the nation, resulting in the early release of criminals, who sometimes are quickly arrested again for new offenses. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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The five-jail system run by the Sheriff's Department is at 140 percent
of its capacity, cramming a daily average of 5,368 inmates into what
was designed to hold 3,821. | ||||||||||||||
That exceeds the packed conditions in jails in New York City and Los Angeles County, and significantly outstrips the next most overcrowded jail system, in Atlanta's Fulton County, which is at 133 percent of its capacity, figures from the U.S. Justice Department show. | ||||||||||||||
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Forfeiture ACLU Challenges Oakland Over Car-Seizure Law | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Oakland, in a creative extension of the forfeiture principle, is
targeting both illegal drug customers and suburban johns. I guess a
city stuck with the Warriors, Raiders, and As, has to find revenue
wherever it can. | ||||||||||||||
ACLU CHALLENGES OAKLAND OVER CAR-SEIZURE LAW
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Ordinance lets police take autos of alleged drug buyers | ||||||||||||||
A pioneering Oakland city ordinance that allows police to seize alleged
drug buyers' cars is wobbly if not flat-out baseless under California
law, the American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday, citing an
opinion by state lawyers. | ||||||||||||||
But the criticism was denounced with equal intensity by one of the
city's legal advisers, who told police they can continue to enforce the
law with confidence that there is no basis on which it could be
overturned. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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In January, in the first test of ``Beat Feet,'' police arrested 14 drug
buyers on East Oakland streets that have long served as a regional
drive-through drug market. Police seized the suspects' vehicles -- a
move sure to discourage others from coming to town to buy drugs, the
law's backers believe. | ||||||||||||||
On Friday, a police sting on San Pablo Avenue netted 17 men on suspicion of soliciting acts of prostitution. Many of them commuters on their way home to the suburbs, these suspects, too, were deprived of their vehicles and subjected to the mortification of ``Beat Feet.'' | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Hemp | ||||||||||||||
LTE: Response to March 11th Op-Ed; Drug-Czar Blast Hemp-Crop Advocates | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This LTE confirms the remarkable arrogance of US drug policy. Prior to
the '96 vote on 215. McC was tweaked editorially for "exceeding his
credentials" after he lectured on proper medical practice in the San
Francisco Chronicle. This year, in Kentucky he's opposed to
legalization of hemp, so he persuaded the Courier-Journal to provide a
platform from which to air his non-existent expertise in agricultural
economics. | ||||||||||||||
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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In response to your March 11th article, "Drug-czar blast hemp-crop
advocates," it is evident that Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey's contention
that "the cultivation of hemp is economically not feasible in the
United States," is merely a personal opinion. Although he says he is
open to new evidence that proves otherwise, he has consistently refused
to meet with individuals who are truly knowledgeable regarding
industrial hemp. | ||||||||||||||
It seems the only real reason the cultivation of industrial hemp is not economically feasible in the United States is simply because of the absurd restrictions imposed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, i.e., high barbed wire fences, 24 hour armed guards and so forth. The reality is, the United States is the only industrialized country that effectively prohibits the cultivation of industrial hemp. | ||||||||||||||
McCaffrey's belief that industrial hemp production "would completely
disarm all law enforcement from enforcing anti-marijuana production
laws," appears to be self-serving at best, since industrial hemp is
grown commercially in every industrialized country, including our
neighbors to the north, Canada. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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International News | ||||||||||||||
Crime Kings Meet To Carve Up Europe
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This may sound like a mixture of James Bond and Mario Puzo, but the fact that it appeared in the London Times and carries an endorsement from de Borchgrave gives it an aura of verisimilitude. Isn't it comforting that our drug laws help make it all possible? | ||||||||||||||
CRIME KINGS MEET TO CARVE UP EUROPE
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"Dividing Europe's spoils of crime"
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IN the ancient French town of Beaune, the strange mix of nationalities and expensive limousines escaped the notice of most residents, who were more interested in the price of wine at a nearby auction. | ||||||||||||||
Only now has the reason for an autumn gathering of Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Colombian "businessmen" at a hotel in the heart of Burgundy become apparent. According to newly disclosed French intelligence reports, representatives of the world's leading organised crime syndicates were holding a summit to discuss carving up western Europe for drugs, prostitution, smuggling and extortion rackets. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the global organised crime project at
the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in
Washington, said: "We know organised crime groups have met to carve up
the planet . . . There has been an astonishing growth in transnational
groups. The legal economy has gone global and the crime economy has
gone global as well."
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[snip]
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Pot Trial of MS Sufferer on Hold
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
In Canada, where hemp production was recently approved, Terry won the
right to use medicinal cannabis and the Constitutional challenge
by Chris Clay was a partial victory, Lynn Harichy's personal campaign
for medical marijuana is attracting increasingly favorable notice, as
these two articles attest. The postponement of her trial until
November is not seen as a setback. | ||||||||||||||
STIRRING THE POT WITH NEW MARIJUANA CLUB
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TORONTO (CP) - She knows firsthand the devastating effects of having
her home raided by police searching for pot. | ||||||||||||||
That's why Lynn Harichy is willing to risk going through it again.
She's started a medical marijuana club that begins distributing pot
today, providing a service she hopes will stop anyone enduring what she
did. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Members are given a quarter ounce of organically grown marijuana a week
or one ounce a month, said Harichy. | ||||||||||||||
She says she's met both Health Minister Allan Rock and Prime Minister Jean Chretien and she believes medical marijuana will soon be available. | ||||||||||||||
Derek Kent, a spokesman for Rock, declined comment on Harichy's
club. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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POT TRIAL OF MS SUFFERER ON HOLD UNTIL RULING ON MEDICAL DEFENCE
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Mindful that a milestone marijuana-as-medicine case is working its
way toward the Ontario Court of Appeal this fall, a judge has
postponed the trial of London's Lynn Harichy. | ||||||||||||||
Harichy, 36, was to go on trial April 27 on a single charge of
possessing marijuana, which she insists she needs to ease the
spasms and pain of multiple sclerosis. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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Federal prosecutor Bill Buchner said the Crown agrees to the
adjournment sought by the defence team. | ||||||||||||||
Harichy's four-day trial is now set for Nov. 17 to 19 and Nov. 23. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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UK: Young Scots a Generation of Criminals
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UK: Army Of Addicts Costs City 400M Pounds Each Year
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COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
There was an amazing display of tunnel vision in the March 31 Scotsman; one long article dealt with the staggering increase in youthful prisoners, another with the equally staggering increase in hard drug use among juveniles, yet the prison article didn't once refer to drugs and the drug article didn't mention prisons. | ||||||||||||||
YOUNG SCOTS A GENERATION OF CRIMINALS
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One In Ten 18-Year-Olds Convicted In Court
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CRIME is a young man's game, with a staggering one in ten of all
18-year-old Scottish youths convicted in the courts of serious crime in
1996. | ||||||||||||||
Figures released by the Scottish Office yesterday showed how conviction
rates among 18-year-old males are more than 11 times the rate among men
over 40. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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ARMY OF ADDICTS COSTS CITY 400M EACH YEAR
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About 400 million worth of goods are stolen every year in Glasgow to
buy supplies for the city's 10,000 hard-drug users. | ||||||||||||||
The cost of the city's ever-increasing drug problem was tallied
yesterday by the Greater Glasgow Drug Action Team. | ||||||||||||||
[snip]
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
MSNBC maintains a UK site, which this week is featuring a fascinating seven part look at the criminal drug market in Britain as seen through the various eyes of dealers, customers, cops, coroners, and do-gooders. | ||||||||||||||
If this link is no longer active as you're reading this, the text of
the seven articles can be found at:
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The Addiction Treatment Forum Web Site (http://www.atforum.com) was updated
on April 6. New News Briefs included for April are:
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- New Gene Linked To Addiction
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A free subscription to the Addiction Treatment Forum newsletter is
available at the website. | ||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK
by Mark Greer | ||||||||||||||
WAYTAGO "REDFORD"!!
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SF Chronicle circulation 518,000
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I'd like to make a few points to all those who are frustrated and want to help bring about reform. Writing a letter to the editor is an excellent way to take action that really can make a big difference. Especially when combined with the efforts of thousands of others letter writers. | ||||||||||||||
Sometimes we can take our individual efforts and successes for granted because we are getting to where we see published reform LTEs in major papers on a near daily basis but think about what Redford has done in the letter below. Half a million people may have read this letter. It may have made them think, or may have encouraged them to get active in reform or it may simply have sent the message that status quo thinking may be flawed. | ||||||||||||||
How many of us can afford to contribute $1,200 to reform in a given year?
Givens and hundreds of others have essentially taken out "ads" on behalf
the reform movement in the form of published letters. The value of these
letters is an impressive return on the time invested and both benefits the
entire reform movement and influences the media to give more attention to
reform issues. | ||||||||||||||
What better way can the average reform minded person invest some time than
to browse through the DrugSense Weekly or the news archive, find an article
that gets them motivated and write a letter. If every reformer who receives
this post took that simple action once a week _No Matter What_ the
cumulative results would be nothing short of amazing. | ||||||||||||||
Just DO it - It's FUN and it really makes a difference. | ||||||||||||||
At 10:35 PM 4/6/98 -0700, wrote:
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NARCOMANIACS
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Editor -- The police raid on the patient files of the
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REDFORD GIVENS
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San Francisco
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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In a column by Jack Anderson in the Washington Post, June 24, 1972, p.31, Mr. Ingersoll had this to say about the subject of legalization.... | ||||||||||||||
"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the street but also to protect the public from HARMFUL IDEAS." (Emphasis added) | ||||||||||||||
Robert Ingersoll...then Director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. (In 1974 he became the first Director of the DEA.) | ||||||||||||||
Submitted by Erik Skidmore
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"Totalitarianism is when people believe they can punish their way to
perfection."
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Submitted by Donald Topping
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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. | ||||||||||||||
COMMENTS Editor: Tom O'Connell ()
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We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks. | ||||||||||||||
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