| May, 27, 1998 #48 | ||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
EDITORS NOTE: | ||||||||||||||
In order to increase involvement and focus for our important letter
writing efforts, we have decided to include selected news articles
with contact information in the Feature Article section at times. When
you see this you are encouraged to take action by writing a short
letter to the editor responding to this article and using the Email
address provided. | ||||||||||||||
Also please send a copy of your letter to This will
help us monitor our effectiveness. | ||||||||||||||
We will also continue occasional guest editorials from important
reform leaders in this section. | ||||||||||||||
Thanks, as always, for your help | ||||||||||||||
PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TO IF YOU CAN | ||||||||||||||
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WHAT ARE G8 LEADERS SMOKING? | ||||||||||||||
There is something very special about illicit drugs. If they don't
always make the drug user behave irrationally, they certainly cause
many non-users to behave that way. -- Harvard professor of medicine
Lester Grinspoon. | ||||||||||||||
IRRATIONALITY is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting
different results. Judged by this yardstick, the illicit-drug policies
of most Western governments are indeed irrational. These policies do
not achieve their stated aims -- reducing the supply of drugs, cutting
crime, making citizens safer or weakening organized crime -- but rather
the reverse. And yet British Prime Minister Tony Blair put a more
vigorous prosecution of the international war on drugs high in the
agenda of the leaders of the G8 nations meeting this past weekend in
Birmingham. | ||||||||||||||
Illicit-drug prices show a long-term decline, indicating plentiful and
growing supply of a commodity that the UN estimates represents about 8
per cent of international trade. At the same time, prohibition makes
drugs far more expensive than their cost of production. The price of
pure heroin for medicinal purposes is about one-30th of the street
price, and the difference goes straight to organized crime, a
state-dictated subsidy to gangsterism. | ||||||||||||||
The criminalization of drug use has massively increased crime,
particularly of the victimless variety. Thousands of people in North
America are in prison solely because they bought, sold or were in
possession of illicit drugs. Many real crimes against persons and
property are carried out by people whom drug-criminalization has
marginalized and who have no other way of paying the | ||||||||||||||
Throughout the world, drug money finances corruption on a massive
scale, undermining the rule of law and transferring power to those
segments of the population brutal, clever and ruthless enough to supply
a need that governments have naively tried to suppress. Raise the
stakes by stepping up the war effort, and the outcome must be more
lives ruined for victimless crimes and even fatter profits for even
scarier people. | ||||||||||||||
Of course drugs are harmful and their use has social costs, but
reasonable people weigh these against the human and social cost of
prohibition, which is measured not only in dollars, but in lost
liberty, the coarsening of the law, the courts, the police and the
prisons. According to one recent Canadian university study, the total
cost of illicit drugs to the Canadian economy is a small fraction of
the cost of alcohol use ( $7.5-billion) or tobacco use ( $9.6-billion).
Many of the ills we traditionally associate with drug use are in fact
the fruit of our drug policy, and a calmer policy would meliorate these
ills. | ||||||||||||||
Fortunately, a few courageous governments are beginning to say that the
drug-war general has no clothes. Recent Swiss experiments with
medically controlled heroin use, for example, show that many addicts
were able to participate fully in society while paying the cost of
their habit. Decriminalization allows strategies of harm reduction
through regulation to be used with success, such as needle exchanges,
making access for underage users more difficult and restricting sources
of supply and acceptable venues for use. | ||||||||||||||
Even in the United States, popular revulsion against the excesses of
the war on drugs is making inroads. Four states now allow medical use
of marijuana. Two of them -- Arizona and California -- decided this
policy recently by strong popular votes in referendums. | ||||||||||||||
Prohibition does not work and cannot work, and its costs are higher
than those of a policy of properly supervised and regulated access to
drugs. Given that the elimination of drugs from our society is not an
option, the G8 leaders should have been asking themselves how they can
minimize the harm that drugs represent. As it is, their policies
maximize the damage. | ||||||||||||||
Copyright ( c) 1998, The Globe and Mail Company | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
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Domestic News- Drug War Policy | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The drug czar has become a questionable asset for an embattled
president. One wonders how long Clinton can tolerate a less than
compliant McC's blend of disloyalty (needle issue) and ineptitude
(Mexican foot-in-mouth syndrome) in the face of an overt Republican
move to make the drug war a political issue. | ||||||||||||||
As for labor agreements, it should hardly surprise us that
Congressional drug warriors are untroubled by such niceties when
there's a drug war to be fought. | ||||||||||||||
The last article speaks for itself. Clearly safety becomes an elastic
concept when comparing profitable legal drugs to illegal pot, where
government profit is found in suppression, not sales. | ||||||||||||||
DRUG POLICY CHIEF IS FACING SOME NEW FOES | ||||||||||||||
McCaffrey's 'Tactics' on Needle Exchange Program Prompt Anger Among
Advocates | ||||||||||||||
National drug policy chief Barry R. McCaffrey staked out his
position on needle exchange programs, made his point to President
Clinton and won his battle last month. But the retired general may
have made new enemies. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Some in the administration were outraged when they learned McCaffrey had enlisted Republicans in his effort. Five members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for his resignation. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DRUG WAR'S LABOR BATTLE | ||||||||||||||
House Bill's Provisions to Help Chase Traffickers Stumble Over
Suspension of Customs Service's Union Agreements | ||||||||||||||
The war on drugs is producing a labor battle on Capitol Hill, where Republicans and Democrats are locked in combat over some federal workers' union contracts and charges that the Clinton administration is bowing to union pressure at the expense of drug interdiction efforts. | ||||||||||||||
At issue is a provision in a far-reaching drug enforcement bill, scheduled for a House vote today, that would, in some cases, allow the commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service to override collective bargaining agreements if he believes they are detracting from the agency's ability to put its officers on the front lines of the drug war. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DEATHS OF SIX VIAGRA USERS REPORTED BY DRUGMAKER | ||||||||||||||
Six patients who had taken the wildly popular impotence pill Viagra
have died since the drug hit the market last month, the Food and Drug
Administration confirmed yesterday. | ||||||||||||||
It remains uncertain, however, whether the medication played a role in
the deaths or if it was coincidental that victims had taken the pill.
The fear is that a combination of Viagra and the heart medication
nitroglycerin, used routinely to treat chest pain, can lead to a fatal
drop in blood pressure. It was a drug interaction that Viagra maker
Pfizer Inc. had warned of, but that patients might not have taken
seriously in the giddy popular embrace of the new treatment. ``I knew
this was coming,'' said Dr. Myron Murdock, director of the Impotence
Institute of America, | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Murdock said he hoped that the deaths -- if confirmed to be related
to Viagra -- will not lead the FDA to pull the drug from the
market, because it has proven itself so effective for its intended
use. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The policing of the drug war seems to bring out the worst in law enforcement agencies; the LAPD's casual treatment of seized property shouldn't surprise OJ veterans, the judge in Sacramento was upset because the cops couldn't account for the speed produced from ingredients supplied in the sting, and finally, in Hawaii, Don Topping got a chance to make some common sense points to the good guys. | ||||||||||||||
AUDIT ASSAILS LAPD'S ACCOUNTING FOR SEIZED VALUABLES | ||||||||||||||
Police - Although conceding that gains have been made since the last
survey in 1992, report says storage problems raise temptation of theft
and abuse. | ||||||||||||||
The Los Angeles Police Department is "sloppy" when it comes to storing and accounting for guns, drugs, jewelry, electronic equipment and other property seized by police, the city's controller said Wednesday. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Each year, the LAPD's property division processes about 250,000 pieces
of property, ranging from weapons, cash and guns to blood- and
semen-stained clothing. Officials said the LAPD's 18 police stations
received, on an annual basis, about 13,000 guns, $2 billion worth of
drugs and as much as $5 million in currency. | ||||||||||||||
Auditors discovered that some of those items were either misplaced or
missing with no explanations. Other property, such as drugs, were not
always kept in the most secure locations. | ||||||||||||||
In one case, some "high-value drugs" and cash were stored next to
employees' snack foods in a vault. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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NOTORIOUS PAIR FAIL TO AVERT DRUG TRIAL | ||||||||||||||
Judge rips agents, but won't dismiss charges | ||||||||||||||
A federal judge in Sacramento declined Tuesday to dismiss charges against two notorious drug dealers, even though he concluded that state agents engaged in "outrageous" conduct in an effort to target the men. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
But prosecutor Nancy Simpson said the agents followed internal
regulations and performed the "reverse sting" operation with "a lot of
consideration and thought" about the public's welfare. | ||||||||||||||
"There are a limited number of ways in which you, as a narcotics agent, can effectively investigate these types of cases," she emphasized. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DRUG AGENCY ON DEFENSIVE AT HEARING ON POT SPRAYING | ||||||||||||||
The U.S.Drug Enforcement Administration is soliciting public comment on its continuing use of herbicides to eradicate marijuana plants. | ||||||||||||||
But most speakers at a hearing last night at the Ala Moana Hotel urges
legalization of the drug, down sizing of the drug agency and government
promoting of a hemp-production industry. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
About 20 people spoke at the hearing on an environmental impact statement supplement detailing the chemicals used and procedures followed in spraying the illegal plant on land and from the air. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The impact statement says "the human health risk assessment... indicated that no effects to humans were likely to occur from the normal use of glyphosate in the cannabis eradication program." | ||||||||||||||
"Marijuana users also are unlikely to be subject to health effects from
glyphosate-contaminated marijuana," it said. | ||||||||||||||
However, a spokesman for the state Agriculture Department urged the federal agency to be aware of the potential of contaminating the water source of many Big Island residents who use open rain-catchment tanks. | ||||||||||||||
Donald Topping, president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii,
asked, "If the herbicide is so safe, why are there so many caveats,
such as 'not expected to', 'is unlikely that,' rather than offering
guarantees?" | ||||||||||||||
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Esequiel Hernandez- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The unpunished killing of an 18 year old schoolboy by US Marines on
"drug patrol" continues to have important after-effects a year later;
a Texas congressman was still seeking answers, even as his colleagues
were voting overwhelmingly to allow continued militarization of the
border. Most significantly, this issue may have finally provoked
scrutiny of the drug war by Amnesty International. | ||||||||||||||
TEEN'S DEATH ILLUSTRATES THE DANGER OF BORDER MILITARIZATION | ||||||||||||||
This month, families across the country will gather to celebrate
their children's graduations. But one family, instead of marking a
son's high school achievements, will observe the one-year
anniversary of his death. | ||||||||||||||
On May 20, 1997, Esequiel Hernandez of the border town of Redford,
Texas, became the first U.S. citizen killed by U.S. troops on U.S.
soil since Kent State. | ||||||||||||||
The high school senior was stalked, shot and left to bleed to death
by a four-member Marine unit in camouflage. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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SUBPOENA PLANNED IN BORDER SHOOTING | ||||||||||||||
Congressman vows legal action to get Justice Department files on death
of Esequiel Hernandez | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Frustrated with the answers he has received so far, Rep.
Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said Tuesday that he will seek to subpoena
the Justice Department for more information about the shooting death
last year of a Texas teen-ager by U.S. Marines patrolling the border
with Mexico. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOUSE BACK MILITARY PATROLS OF US BORDERS | ||||||||||||||
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Washington-The House passed a $270 billion defence bill Thursday that includes authorizing the military to help patrol U.S. borders in the war against drug smuggling and illegal immigration. | ||||||||||||||
Opponents said the plan - an amendment approved 288-to-132 - could turn
the U.S. Mexican border into an armed corridor. | ||||||||||||||
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ON THE BORDER | ||||||||||||||
HARLINGEN, Texas ( AP) -- Amnesty International will release its
first-ever report this week on human rights abuses by Immigration and
Naturalization Service agents on the U.S-Mexico border. | ||||||||||||||
The report's international release will coincide with the first anniversary of the death of Esequiel Hernandez -- the Texas teenager shot and killed by a Marine patrolling the Mexican border. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Alcohol- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Alcohol remains an unsolved problem, especially in the form of
excessive underage drinking on campuses. | ||||||||||||||
News from animal labs continues to suggest that drug taking behavior
is heavily dependent on genetic endowment. Perhaps some day we'll have
a policy which reflects that understanding. | ||||||||||||||
UNIFIED ALCOHOL POLICIES FOR CAMPUSES STATEWIDE UNDER DISCUSSION | ||||||||||||||
INDIANAPOLIS ( May 19, 1998) -- Bill DeLong likens how colleges tackle alcohol abuse on campus to "preaching chastity in a brothel." | ||||||||||||||
Why should students listen, he asks, when they're bombarded with "happy
hour" promotions, bars sell to those under age 21, alumni get drunk on
campus and officials are afraid to suspend or expel students for
violations? | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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SCIENTISTS LOCATE NEIGHBORHOOD OF ALCOHOLISM GENE | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON -- Researchers mapping the highway of human heredity
have found some streets that may lead to alcoholism. | ||||||||||||||
Their work could lead to ways of identifying youngsters most at risk of
becoming alcoholics and helping them avoid that future. | ||||||||||||||
An estimated 14 million Americans suffer from alcoholism and it has
long been known that the problem runs in families. But it had not been
clear if it was inherited or a result of environment, Dr. Enoch
Gordis, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, said yesterday. | ||||||||||||||
Now, he said, researchers have concluded that inheritance plays a role
and they have located likely neighborhoods for the genes that can lead
to trouble. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Medical Marijuana | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
In California, the operating clubs still clung to a tenuous existence,
but were looking at almost certain closure this week. The future
largely depends on how California voters respond to what's been done
(and not done) with Proposition 215. | ||||||||||||||
SHERIFF PLANNING TO CLOSE DOWN S.F. POT CLUB BY TUESDAY NIGHT | ||||||||||||||
Says he has to follow judge's order | ||||||||||||||
He won't say when, but Sheriff Michael Hennessey is putting together a
plan to forcibly close and lock the Cannabis Healing Center sometime
before Tuesday afternoon, taking everything that isn't nailed down with
him. | ||||||||||||||
Hennessey said he has no choice but to obey a ruling by San Francisco
Superior Court Judge William Cahill, issued Thursday, that ordered the
club shut down within five days. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Tobacco | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The Senate continued its unenlightened debate over the tobacco bill.
The vote to limit liability leaves the McCain Bill in bad shape and
suggests that there will be long, bitter battles in both houses before
a bill emerges. | ||||||||||||||
TOBACCO BILL SUFFERS SETBACK OVER LIABILITY-LIMIT VOTE | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON - A bipartisan Senate majority uniting liberals and
conservatives stripped a key provision from the sweeping
tobacco-control bill yesterday, raising new doubts about Congress'
ability to pass any tobacco measure this year. | ||||||||||||||
The Senate, in a 61-37 vote, in essence eliminated the legal protections from damage suits for the tobacco companies that were included in the tobacco bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The setback appears to have left the legislation in critical condition.
Its sponsors had hoped to complete Senate action on it this week,
before Congress begins a week long Memorial Day recess. | ||||||||||||||
Instead, the measure was to be pulled off the Senate floor today for
more urgent legislation. Plans are to take it up anew at some
unspecified time in June, and many contentious amendment battles are
still ahead. The Senate's June schedule is already crowded with many
must-pass appropriations bills. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Look for the need to support Colombia's corrupt and incompetent
military in an ever-expanding civil war create giant headaches for
spin doctors in ONDCP. | ||||||||||||||
With typical arrogance, we carried out a sting against Mexican banks without telling them. What would be our response if they checked out Citibank and Wells Fargo the same way? What might they find? | ||||||||||||||
Illegal drugs are a prime source of criminal finance the world over; newly enfranchised black South African are among the newer players. | ||||||||||||||
COLOMBIAN GENERAL DENIES ABUSES AS U.S. CANCELS VISA | ||||||||||||||
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States has revoked the visa of a
senior Colombian general who human-rights groups say has a lengthy
record of backing paramilitary forces involved in death squad
activity. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MEXICAN BANKS INDICTED IN DRUG MONEY PROBE | ||||||||||||||
Operating out of a storefront in a gritty neighborhood of Santa Fe
Springs, undercover agents from the U.S. Customs Service carried out a
three-year sting that ended Monday with the indictment of three Mexican
banks and 107 people on charges of laundering millions of dollars for
Latin American drug-smuggling cartels. | ||||||||||||||
The indictments returned by a Los Angeles federal grand jury represent
"the culmination of the largest, most comprehensive drug money
laundering case in U.S. law enforcement history," said Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin. | ||||||||||||||
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GANGSTERS DECLARE WAR ON MANDELA | ||||||||||||||
IN THE Little House on the Prairie, an illegal drinking den less than
30 minutes' drive from the centre of Cape Town, the rich and powerful
of the "new" South Africa gathered last week to talk politics and
money. As the wind whipped sand across the Cape Flats, a desolate plain
that is home to 3m impoverished people, members of the Sexy Boys and
Hard Living gangs sipped cold beers and announced that they were going
to war. | ||||||||||||||
Brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle, Sticks "The Mongrel" Nbugane, a self-confessed mob hit man, leapt to his feet and fired bullets into the wall. "This is what they have got coming," he cried. | ||||||||||||||
The gangsters who control South Africa's burgeoning prostitution, drugs
and protection rackets have been angered by the plan of President
Nelson Mandela's government to seize their assets. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This newly released site at | ||||||||||||||
Is a great resource on the California Compassionate Use Act (Prop 215 medical marijuana). It has actual text, an interesting chronology and could be useful as a model for other state based organizations. | ||||||||||||||
Check it out! | ||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||
Using the DrugNews Archive Effectively. | ||||||||||||||
The DrugNews Archive at | ||||||||||||||
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can be an excellent information resource if properly used. We occasionally
get comments that information could not be found. In many cases this is due
to "pilot error." The default for your search is "Current News" this is
only a very small percentage of the 10,000 articles that are archived. If
your initial search does not yield what you are after, click on the
arrow next to "Current News (30 days)" and do a search on the "Older
News 1998" archive or the "Older News 1997" archive. | ||||||||||||||
Using multiple search words like "McCaffrey and DARE" (don't use the quotes
in your search) will help narrow your search down. | ||||||||||||||
This massive but very easy to search archive can help you in many and varied ways from finding inconsistent quotes from drug warriors to enhancing your letter writing efforts with facts and cites. | ||||||||||||||
Please use it. | ||||||||||||||
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