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DrugSense Weekly
May 13, 1998 #046

A DrugSense publication

http://www.drugsense.org


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* Feature Article


Tobacco bill Another Washington Boondoggle / By Mark Greer

* Weekly News In Reviews


Domestic News-

America's Drug Problem and Its Policy of Denial

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Sending Mixed Messages On Drugs

Is The Drug War Racist?

Drug Testing In Iowa: Does It Unfairly Target Employees?

Another Police Raid On A Home Yields No Drugs, But Much Trauma

Marijuana-

'Homegrown'- Dead Boss With Drug Cargo- A Stooge's Stuff of Dreams

Mendocino County To Keep Funds To Fight Pot

Marijuana Still Divides California

Tobacco-

Editorial: Land Of The Smoke-Free

Editorial- Thickening smoke

OPED: The New Political Scam- It's All For the Kids

International News-

Australia- Decriminalising Dope Produces No New Highs

Netherlands- Amsterdam In Purge On Sex And Drugs

UK-A Squandered Opportunity

UK Scotland: Addicts Swamp GP Surgeries

Colombia- Cocaine and the High Cost of Helicopters

Columbia- A Two-Edged Sword For The War On Drugs

UN- New Global War On Drugs Tackles A Losing Battle

CAN- War On Drugs Disasterous Failure

* Hot Off The 'Net


* DrugSense Tip Of The Week



FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Tobacco bill Another Washington Boondoggle / By Mark Greer

The dissolution of the Congressional tobacco deal was completely predictable.

It should be no surprise to anyone that the tobacco companies have wisely chosen to withdraw from the latest power and money grab from Washington under the guise of the disgustingly overused claim by politicians that "We're protecting our children." Not only do the tobacco companies realize that this precedent is the initial stage of eventual prohibition of tobacco but any rational person should be able to see how grossly these laws undermine personal freedom and free enterprise.  Regardless of what we think of tobacco, the laws themselves are antithetical to American values and beliefs.  Penalizing products we don't like or that we think are potentially harmful is a dangerous and demonstrably foolish course of action.

Watching the feeding frenzy from both sides of the isle is a testament to how completely devoid of logic our so-called leaders have become.  On this weeks Meet the Press, Congressman Henry Waxman came as close as anyone has to the heart of why this course of action is such folly by saying "No one is talking about prohibition." Of course he got it completely wrong because that is exactly what we are talking about.

Attempting to curb teen smoking by raising taxes by $1.10 per pack will not only prove to be the same dismal failure that drug prohibition has proven to be but we can expect the same dire results.  A black market will begin to emerge, criminals will become wealthy by selling stolen and illicitly grown tobacco products and by undercutting the high prices resulting from the new taxes.  Another unholy alliance between criminals, our "leaders," and the criminal justice system will ensue. Children will be even more attracted to using the illicit cigarettes because "drug dealers" have no compunction whatever over who they market to and because we've taught our children that breaking the law is fun and has little in the way of consequences.

The potential profit of $1.10 per pack is simply too good for criminals to pass up.  This is more than the average profit made per transaction by street level crack dealers.  The results are predictable and inevitable.  Soon after the passage of such laws the first reports of hijacked cigarette shipments and underground tobacco products will emerge.  All of course to the hand wringing of the same short sighted politicians that caused the problem.

We have a 70 year track record in trying to control peoples behavior. It is euphemistically and inaccurately called the war on drugs.  It, has actually been a war on the poor, and minorities and has lead to this country having more people in prison than any other industrialized nation in the world.  Another predictable result of this trillion dollar boondoggle is that any half wit sixth grader can buy drugs at will and teen drug use is at an all time high.  American citizens had better prepare for round two of this lunacy because that is exactly where we are headed with tobacco.

If we allow those in power to proceed down this slippery slope of increasing prohibition simply because we are addicted to the wishful thinking that prohibition will help curb teenage smoking, drug use, or anything else, then we deserve more of the same increased crime, clogged judicial systems, increased teen use, and billions of wasted law enforcement dollars that have resulted from drug prohibition.

Has someone passed a law against logical thinking in Washington? Prohibition has never worked even once throughout the entire history of man.  It never can work because it is based on the flawed premise that government can control peoples appetites.  People get what they want. That is an undeniable fact.  Why is this so hard for politicians to grasp?

The exact same arguments about the cruel and self-serving tobacco companies could be made about nearly every fast food franchise in the country or scores of other legitimate businesses.  Fat has undoubtedly killed many more people than tobacco ever will.  It is not at all beyond the imagination to envision some overweight Congressman thumping his chest and extolling the virtues of his new bill the "Kiddie Fat Reduction Act" which will protect our children by taxing all products with a high fat content.  I can hear the cheers now. What next eight dollar Big Macs?


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW


Domestic News- The Drug War

COMMENT:    (Top)

These six articles record drug policy insanity in ways that range from the general to the highly specific.  Mathea Falco's entire piece is worth reading because it's a realistic
assessment of major US drug policy weaknesses from an intelligent and reasonably honest observer who is herself in denial because she thinks prohibition policy makes sense.

Hitz is the same IG who gave the CIA a clean bill of health after Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series was aired.  It's clear that defining contract workers as not belonging to the Agency was a key factor in "deniability" of Agency involvement. The SJMN has long since recanted, Webb was disgraced and forced out; how many people will ever read this belated admission?

Milloy's tongue-in-cheek piece is brilliant and also worth reading in its entirety.  As to whether the wod is racist, do bears poop in the woods? It's important that two black intellectuals have chosen to go public with something everyone knows, but black politicians haven't yet been willing to touch.  The new Iowa law suggests that drug hysteria has been elevated to a frightening intensity in the heartland.  Finally, yet another mistaken NYPD drug raid- time for Bob Herbert to chime in.

AMERICA'S DRUG PROBLEM AND ITS POLICY OF DENIAL

For almost 100 years, Americans have considered other countries the primary source of their drug problems.  When the first drug laws were adopted in the early decades of this century, the public associated drugs with immigrant groups and minorities: opium with Chinese laborers in the west, cocaine with blacks, and marijuana with Mexican immigrants in the southwest.  These drugs were seen as foreign threats to the social fabric, undermining traditional moral values and political stability.  Today this link between foreigners and illicit drugs continues to influence United States
international drug policy, prompting the government to use diplomacy, economic assistance, coercion, and military force to try to stop drugs from entering the country.

[snip]

Source:   Current History - April issue
Pubdate:   April, 1998
Contact:  
FAX: 215-482-9923
Mail:   Current History Inc.  4225 Main Street Philadelphia, PA 19127
Website:   http://www.currenthistory.com/
Author:   Mathea Falco
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n323.a02.html/all

DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

In testimony before the House Select Committee on Intelligence on March 16, the Central Intelligence Agency once again suffered a blow to its reputation.  This time the injury was self-inflicted. The CIA's own top watchdog, Inspector General Frederick P.  Hitz, admitted that although "dozens of individuals and a number of companies" involved in the agency's covert war against Nicaragua during the '80s were suspected drug traffickers, the CIA had legal authority to ignore their crimes as long as they were helping contra rebels fight the left-wing Sandinista government.

Hitz revealed that between 1982 and 1995 the spy agency had an agreement with the Justice Department, allowing it to ignore drug trafficking by its "agents, assets and non-staff employees." The directive, known as a "Memorandum of Understanding" (MOU), did not exempt the agency's full-time, career employees, who are known as CIA "officials." However, the agency did not have to tell the Justice Department about the criminal activities of "agents" or "assets" -- terms used interchangeably to refer to its paid and unpaid spies.  Also exempt were CIA contractors, such as pilots, accountants and military trainers, who supplied the agency with specific goods and services rather than intelligence.  "There was no official requirement to report on allegations of drug trafficking with respect to non-employees of the agency," Hitz told the committee.

[snip]

Source:   In These Times
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.inthesetimes.com/
Pubdate:   17 May 1998
Author:   Martha Honey
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n328.a06.html

SENDING MIXED MESSAGES ON DRUGS

The new media messages about drugs are really blowing my mind.

On the radio, you can hear an anti-marijuana spot warning that the evil weed causes memory loss.  That's bad.

At the same time, you can read in news magazines that some legally prescribed antidepressants also may have adverse side effects, such as memory loss.  But that's okay, because a new pill to enhance memory is in the pipeline.

Cocaine and heroin are bad, we are told, because they artificially stimulate or block natural biochemical functions.  However, mood drugs such as Zoloft and Prozac are good, even though they do the same thing.

Just say no to drugs, the media messages say, except to those made by pharmaceutical companies.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 6 May 1998
Source:   Washington Post
Contact:   http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author:   Courtland Milloy
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n330.a04.html

IS THE DRUG WAR RACIST?

The government's policy has scorched the inner cities and put a generation of young black men behind bars.  Two leading African- American scholars reflect on the damage done.

America's war on drugs has ravished the inner cities it aspired to save.  Without curbing drug traffic, the crusade has sent a generation of young black males into the criminal-justice system, which offers them not rehabilitation but firsthand instruction in violent crime. While blacks make up thirteen percent of the national population and thirteen percent of the country's monthly drug users, they account for thirty-five percent of arrests for drug possession, fifty-five percent of convictions and seventy-four percent of prison sentences, according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that promotes criminal-justice reform.  Between 1986 and 1991, the number of blacks held in state prisons on drug charges rose by 465 percent, the project also reported. That increase partly reflects the inequality of federal sentencing rules, under which a person convicted of possessing five grams of crack cocaine receives the same five-year mandatory minimum as someone caught selling 500 grams of powder cocaine.

Such evidence has turned Glenn C.  Loury and Orlando Patterson into vociferous critics of the war.  Two of America's leading public intellectuals, both men espouse cautious, unromantic liberalism on issues like affirmative action are socially conservative about family values.

[snip]

Pubdate:   May 14, 1998
Source:   Rolling Stone Magazine
Author:   Samuel G.  Freedman
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.rollingstone.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n334.a10.html

DRUG TESTING IN IOWA: DOES IT UNFAIRLY TARGET EMPLOYEES?

"Reasonable Suspicion" Grounds For Random Alcohol & Drug Testing; Civic Employees Exempt From Law; Few Protection Measures For Employees

Employers in Iowa now have much more power when it comes to testing their employees and applicants for alcohol or drug use, due to the signing of House Bill 299 by legislators, earlier this month.

The bill expands the right of private companies to randomly test sample groups of employees for drugs or alcohol, as well as administer tests to individual employees, based on the employer's "reasonable suspicion." Refusal or failure of any test is grounds for suspension or dismissal, depending on the employers policies.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 8 May 98
Source:   River Cities' Reader ( IA)
Section:   Business
Author:   Devin Hansen
Fax:   ( 319) 323-3101
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.rcreader.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n335.a11.html

ANOTHER POLICE RAID ON A HOME YIELDS NO DRUGS, BUT MUCH TRAUMA

NEW YORK -- Police officers broke down the door of a Brooklyn apartment, guns drawn, tossed a stun grenade into the front hall and handcuffed everyone inside, including a mentally retarded 18-year-old girl who was taking a shower.  They were looking for guns and drugs. They found only a terrified family.

[snip]

Source:   New York Times ( NY)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate:   Fri, 08 May 1998
Author:   Michael Cooper
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n335.a03.html


Marijuana


COMMENT:    (Top)

Pot, in its various guises, continues to be the most important battle in the drug war.  A just- released film about the Northern California marijuana wars is apparently so focused on nonsense that there is no residual policy message.  On the real Mendocino battlefield, the board of supervisors voted to accept federal bribes for at least another year of warfare.

The CSM piece updates the San Francisco CBC soap opera fairly accurately

'HOMEGROWN': DEAD BOSS WITH DRUG CARGO: A STOOGE'S STUFF OF DREAMS

Question:   What happens when you cross "The Treasure of the Sierra
Madre" with the Three Stooges?

Answer:   "Homegrown," a wacky farce noir about three babes in the
woods shepherding a huge marijuana crop to marketable maturity when the murder of their wealthy boss fills their fool heads with dreams of becoming the millionaires next door.

So, with Stephen Gyllenhaal as director and co-writer with Nicholas Kazan, "Homegrown" is off and romping with its spirited cast through a plot that mingles murder mystery, rustic comedy, outlaw sociology, plant husbandry, lusty romance and layers of old-fashioned avarice, which is to say old-fashioned business.

[snip]

Source:   New York Times ( NY)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate:   Fri, 8 May 1998
Author:   Lawrence Van Gelder
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n335.a05.html

MENDOCINO COUNTY TO KEEP FUNDS TO FIGHT POT

UKIAH - After an emotional four-hour debate Tuesday, Mendocino County supervisors decided to keep accepting yearly $250,000 state allocations targeting marijuana growers rather than end an anti-pot war local critics contend can't be won.

For the second year, Supervisors John Pinches and Charles Peterson could not muster a third vote to become the first county in California to say no to the pot money.

[snip]

Source:   Santa Rosa Press Democrat (CA)
Contact:  
Mail:   P.O.  Box 569, Santa Rosa, 95402
Website:   http://www.pressdemo.com/
Author:   Mike Geniella
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n335.a06.html

MARIJUANA STILL DIVIDES CALIFORNIA

SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite renewed efforts to shut down the nation's most famous medicinal marijuana club, a gold stenciled pot leaf remains boldly emblazoned across its store front facade and traffic is as brisk as ever.

Upstairs, patrons with a physicians' recommendation buy various grades of marijuana cigarettes, or baked goods, and consume them in a setting that's more like a disco than a doctor's office.

The mood is relaxed and confident, seasoned by months of legal challenge that show no sign of letting up.  Last week, a California bid to close the club immediately was denied, but a full hearing is slated for June.

[snip]

Source:   Christian Science Monitor
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.csmonitor.com/
Pubdate:   Monday May 4, 1998
Author:   Paul Van Slambrouck,
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n325.a02.html


Tobacco


COMMENT:    (Top)

The obvious linkage between tobacco policy and drug policy continues to be steadfastly ignored by most pundits, even as their own rhetoric makes it ever more obvious.  Krauthammer, an ardent supporter of drug prohibition is almost comical in his excoriation of the "..but what about the kids?" argument, clearly forgetting that it's the last refuge of drug warriors under pressure to justify their lunacy.

LAND OF THE SMOKE-FREE

There is no case for stiff new penalties against America's tobacco firms

The extraordinary political battle over the future of America's tobacco industry seems likely to come to a climax over the next few weeks.  Will Bill Clinton work with Republicans on Capitol Hill to impose drastic new penalties on the once-mighty industry? Or will president and Congress settle for posturing - each aiming to outbid the other ahead of this autumn's Congressional elections, proposing ever more outlandish punishments, until the process collapses without yielding legislation? The tobacco firms too have a choice to make.  Now that Congress has picked apart the deal they agreed with state governments last June - a deal that, on any
disinterested assessment, was already harsh - should they refuse to co-operate in seeking a national agreement, as they now threaten to do? And, if so, should they fight their cases through the courts or seek quick settlements state by state?

Complicated stuff.  Let us simplify. The politicians are debating, in effect, whether to thump the industry severely or beat it to within an inch of its life.  Perhaps even now it isn't too late to point out there is no case for doing either.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Source:   Economist, The ( US)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.economist.com
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n329.a02.html/all

THICKENING SMOKE

The latest strategy to derail tobacco legislation in Congress involves loading it up with unrelated provisions aimed at illegal drug use.  This attempt to change the subject ( and to embarrass President Clinton as soft on drugs in the process) is a cynical manipulation by Big Tobacco and its allies in Congress.  With a majority of Americans wanting a meaningful tobacco control law this year, members need to resist extraneous junk and stay focused on the mission, which is saving a new generation of children from getting hooked on smoking.  On Wednesday a group of Senate Republican leaders, citing figures showing that high school marijuana use is increasing faster than smoking, unveiled their proposal to use tobacco industry revenues to enforce narcotics laws. They said they would move to attach it to every tobacco bill that comes up.  In the House, meanwhile, Speaker Newt Gingrich is leaning toward submerging his own long-promised teen smoking proposal into a broader bill fighting drug abuse.

[snip]

Source:   Boston Globe ( MA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.boston.com/globe/
Pubdate:   Fri, 8 May 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n335.a04.html

THE NEW POLITICAL SCAM: IT'S ALL FOR THE KIDS

ONCE UPON a time, a politician would promise to do anything -- abolish taxes, hold back the tides, run over his grandmother -- in the name of the ``working man.'' Not anymore.  Nowadays everything is done in the name of ``families'' or, better still, for ``children.''

From Iraq to gun control, from global warming to air bags, there is nary a public policy issue that is not sold as a way to protect kids.  Sure, gun locks might save an adult or two. But the important thing is what they do for the little ones.

[snip]

Source:   San Jose Mercury News ( CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate:   Fri, 8 May 1998
Author:   Charles Krauthammer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n337.a04.html


International News


COMMENT:    (Top)

The first article (Australia) confirms other experience that benign enforcement of marijuana laws is not associated with either increased crime or addiction to "harder"drugs.  The second (Netherlands) confirms that while drugs remain illegal, benign enforcement is strictly a matter of official forbearance and can change overnight.

In Britain, the Independent is championing decriminalization of marijuana, but favors continued outlawing of "hard" drugs- a policy which doesn't seem to be working any better in Aberdeen than in other parts of the globe.

It appears that the benighted lunacy which passes for our international drug policy is forging ahead with plans to make both Colombia's civil war and environmental damage to even worse.

The headline writer in Toronto is not as sanguine about the prospects of drug war victory as Pino Arlaachi.  The upcoming UN special session on drugs will be our best chance to call attention to the travesty of a global criminal market created by US law and sustained UN treaty.

DECRIMINALISING DOPE PRODUCES NO NEW HIGHS

A TWO-YEAR national marijuana study has found decriminalisation has not caused any increase in its use in Australia.

The findings of the study carried out by the Drug and Alcohol Services Council of South Australia in conjunction with other national research facilities for Australia's health and justice ministers was presented to a meeting in Melbourne yesterday, but the ministers left any action on the report up to individual jurisdictions.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 5 May 1998
Source:   The Australian
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Author:   John Kerin
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n326.a03.html

AMSTERDAM IN PURGE ON SEX AND DRUGS

FOR many visitors to Amsterdam, the most startling sights have long been the "coffee shops" where marijuana is openly sold and the "window brothels" that display prostitutes like mannequins.  But the sex and drugs capital of Europe is undergoing a purge to rid itself of its reputation as a city where anything goes.

Nearly half the 400 cafes that supplied soft drugs have been shut down on the orders of Schelto Patijn, the forceful mayor, mostly on the grounds that they have broken rules governing the amount of stock on the premises or have traded hard drugs.

[snip]

Source:   Sunday Times ( UK)
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Sun, 03 May 1998
Author:   Peter Conradi
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n323.a05.html

A SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY

Drug tsar Keith Hellawell's White Paper misses the point, argues Graham Ball

TACKLING Drugs to Build a Better Britain, the title of drug tsar Keith Hellawell's proposals for solving the country's biggest social crisis, sounds like a spin-doctor's daydream.

The White Paper, unveiled last Monday, is long on rhetoric and short on logic.  For many involved in countering drug problems, it represents a squandered opportunity.

[snip]

Source:   Independent, The ( UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author:   Graham Ball
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n329.a11.html/all

ADDICTS SWAMP GP SURGERIES

Doctors tell of struggle to cope as Aberdeen suffers big rise in numbers using hard drugs

Doctors in Aberdeen are struggling to cope with a huge surge in demand for help from drug addicts, some as young as 14.

One inner-city practice has had a 100-fold increase in the number of people requiring treatment in just five years.  Addicts outside the GP network are having to wait up to ten months to be seen by the city's only dedicated drug abuse service.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 8 May 1998
Source:   Scotsman ( UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.scotsman.com/
Author:   Farnk Urquhart
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n334.a03.html

COCAINE AND THE HIGH COST OF HELICOPTERS

SAN JOSE DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia-On a government airstrip here in the sweltering heart of a no man's land roamed by Marxist guerrillas,drug traffickers and right-wing death squads sits a row of six UH-1H helicopters, the primary weapon Colombian police have to combat both the flow of drugs to the United States and the spread of lawlessness here.

But the helicopters can't fly.  They are part of an aging fleet of 36 "Hueys" provided to Colombia by the United States -- most of which have been grounded over the past two months because of mechanical problems, seriously eroding the ability of police to find and destroy cocaine and heroin laboratories, detect clandestine airstrips and interdict drug shipments flowing northward.

[snip]

Source:   Washington Post
Contact:  http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author:   Douglas Farah
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n331.a04.html

A TWO-EDGED SWORD FOR THE WAR ON DRUGS

U.S.  thinks deadly herbicide is just right for Colombia's fields

BOGOTA, Colombia - It is so strong that just a few granules sprinkled over a pesky tuft of grass on a driveway in San Francisco killed an oak tree several metres away.

Dow Agro Sciences, the manufacturer of the herbicide known as Tebuthiuron, or Spike, warns customers never to apply it near trees, water sources or any place where it can accidentally kill desirable plant life.  Dow specifically says this is not the product for wide-scale eradication of illicit drug crops.

Which is how U.S.  authorities want to see it used in Colombia.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tuesday, May 5, 1998
Source:   Toronto Star ( Canada)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.thestar.com/
Author:   Tod Robberson, Special to the Star
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n328.a09.html

NEW GLOBAL WAR ON DRUGS TACKLES A LOSING BATTLE

27 world leaders set to sign U.N.  pledge next month

UNITED NATIONS - The world is about to go to war against drugs.

Again.

After years of fighting a losing battle against the $400 billion (U.S.) global narcotics industry, the international community has come up with a strategy it thinks could finally make a difference.

At least 27 leaders will sign a pledge in New York next month to dramatically reduce drug addiction in their countries over the next decade.

`The addiction problem we face now isn't a spontaneous expansion of traditional culture.  Today's world market has been created by forces like organized crime.' - Pino Arlaachi, head of the United Nations Drug Control Program

[snip]

Pubdate:   May 4, 1998
Source:   Toronto Star ( Canada)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.thestar.com/
Author:   Stephen Handelman
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n325.a07.html

WAR ON DRUGS DISASTROUS FAILURE

Oppressive Fantasies Of Prohibition Create Criminals As Blinded Leadership Remains Bogged In Inertia

Normally, when a course of action has proven such an overwhelming failure that it feeds the problem, that approach is dropped in favor of new ideas.

Not so with the war on drugs.  This annual, multi-billion dollar debacle whose prohibition fuels the engine of the black market is curiously defended at all costs by the agents of inertia.

They'd rather ply the safe side of the political street than embark on innovative policy requiring leadership.

Increasing numbers of law enforcement veterans and conservative pundits are questioning the philosophy of criminalizing the personal use of various drugs.  So why do other conservatives worship personal responsibility, yet insist on the criminalization of private choice?

[snip]

Pubdate:   May 11, 1998
Source:   Calgary Sun (Canada)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Author:   Bill Kaufmann -- Calgary Sun
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n341.a04.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

A web page called TRAC has been designed to provide accurate and unbiased evaluation of the DEA, FBI, ATF, and IRS.

About TRAC

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) is a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization associated with Syracuse University.

It is loaded with useful information, graphs, etc.  (often not too flattering) on these organizations.  e.g. the DEA's efficiency has dropped recently and over half of all cases handled by the FBI are either drug or bank related.

http://www.trac.syr.edu/
-----
On May 12, the New York Times Opinion section, contained a beautiful ad, 6 1/2 inches (3 columns) by 11 inches high.  It was the only ad on the two opinion pages.  The headline, in 1/2 inch type, read: 'Let me ask you something...  If you had a choice what would it be, Marijuana or Martinis?'

The ad may be viewed on the ACLU web site along with commentary and a public feedback area.

http://www.aclu.org/forms/nytimesad051298.html


TIP OF THE WEEK


There's a very good search engine type page at

http://www.sau.edu/cwis/internet/wild/index.htm

It can help new web surfers to discover a wide array of useful sites including drug related info and much more.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK


Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.' - George Orwell -


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