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DrugSense Weekly
August 5, 1998 #58

A DrugSense publication

URL:   http://www.drugsense.org


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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (04/19/24)


* Feature Article


THE DRUG _POLICY_ PROBLEM - Part Two
Jeffrey A.  Schaler, PhD

* Weekly News In Review


Drug War Policy-

OPED - McCaffrey: Media Blitz Is Effective Against Drugs

Kids and the Politics of the Drug War

Suppression Of Debate Is Monkey On Nation's Back

Dea Official Becomes Rich At The Expense Of Agency

DEA Drives Off The Old Guard

Drug War: Prison Front-

Police Say Prison Works

Corcoran Guards Thwarted Probe, DA Tells Lawmakers

Female Inmates To Be Sent Out Of State

Don't Look For Parole In Texas

Drug War: Sporting Front-

2 Track Stars Fail Drug Tests

Tour Goes On as Riders Close Ranks

Olympics Chief's Call To 'go Soft' On Drugs Attacked

Governing Body Of World Basketball Votes To Penalize Use Of Cannabis

Blowing Smoke: Marijuana Use NBA's Biggest Drug Concern These Days

Medical Marijuana-

Prop.  215 Disallowed In Pot Trial

Medical Marijuana Advocate Pleads Innocent To Conspiracy Charges

Oakland May Back Medical Pot Providers

MS Victims To Puff Pot To Test Medicinal Effectiveness

International News-

Heroin Scandal Rocks London's Devout Jewish Community

60 Mexico City Police Suspended For Drug Use

Alleged Drug Chieftan Threatens To Kill Americans

* Hot Off The 'Net


Peter McWilliams -Two sites to keep you informed

* DrugSense Tip Of The Week


Prison stats on-line
The November Coalition

* Quote of the Week


Norman Mineta

* Fact of the Week



FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

THE DRUG _POLICY_ PROBLEM - PART Two
by Jefrey A.  Schaler, PhD

Editors Note: This is Part two of Dr.  Schaler's essay. Part one can be read in the July 29 issue of the DrugSense Weekly Volume # 57.  See: http://www.drugsense.org/news.htm The remainder of this article will be published in future issues.

QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK AND ANSWER

To understand the values and beliefs behind our federal drug policy, it is necessary to ask some unpopular questions:

Do illegal drugs cause crime? Given that drugs are inanimate objects, are they capable of causing a human action?Can drugs "act" in the way that people can?

Does drug use in the form of "addiction" encourage people to commit crimes other than the purchase and use of the drug itself? And if so, do the crimes stem from the addiction or from circumstances involved in the trade in illegal drugs, such as competition between dealers?

Should drug policies that are based on the relationship between drug use and crime be consistent with legal precedents?Should drug policies reflect court opinions regarding the nature of addiction and criminal responsibility, and vice versa?

For the most part, U.S.  drug policies are based on the assumption that drugs cause addiction.  But many leading researchers and thinkers question the very existence of addiction as an empirical entity in the sociological "positivist" sense, viewing it rather as a social construct.

Does addiction exist? Do drugs cause addiction? The answers to these questions depend on what we mean by "addiction." If by addiction we are referring to what drugs do to the physical body, then the answer to both questions is yes.  We know for a fact that drugs create changes in the body, a physiological dependency often characterized by tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and death.  However, if by addiction we are referring to how drugs get into the body, the answer is less clear.In this sense, research has produced no empirical evidence for the belief that drugs can cause drug users to lose control of their behavior.Furthermore, from a logical point of view, behavior is by definition a matter of choice.  Do the bodily changes effected by drugs cause people to ingest more drugs in the same way that epilepsy causes people to have seizures? Most people would say no.The two cases are categorically different.

It is important to be clear about the meanings of words.  When applied to human action, the term "behavior" refers to a mode of conduct or deportment.  Human behavior is moral agency and as such can never be caused.  Things are caused; people make choices.This difference is what makes us human.  To speak of human behavior as caused makes no more sense than to speak of things as capable of choosing.Such confusion of language is inaccurate and irrational.  The English philosopher Gilbert Ryle called this kind of mistake a "category error."

Shall we then create and implement policy on the assumption that addiction is simply a metaphor--that drug use is a moral issue ruled by choice? In that case, how much policy making is called for?If we agree that drug use is a choice--one that harms no one but the user--should the government make any effort to control it?

Philosophical as these questions are, they should not be confined to the ivory tower as some politicians and academicians may prefer.  If the advocates of a particular drug policy invoke science to justify their actions, they should be required by a discerning public to examine all available evidence, not just that which supports their political, economic, or moral interests.  If they invoke moral principles, they should be challenged to defend those principles in a clear and rational manner.

Any meaningful discussion of the values expressed in drug policies raises large philosophical questions.  We might begin by asking which is more important, health or liberty?Is it better to be sick and free from coercion in a society where medicine and state are separate, or to be healthy under the control of a therapeutic state?Can we trust our medical guardians to refrain from the paternalism and the persecution of "undesirables" exercised by theocracies throughout history?Who will guard us from the guardians?

The issue might be rephrased this way: Does the constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness include the right to harm oneself? We accept the need for government to protect us from one another, and we agree that the exercise of liberty at the expense of another's freedom constitutes crime.  But should the values of the majority dictate the personal behaviors of a minority when such actions harm no one else?Is it constitutionally proper for the government to protect us from ourselves?

Finally, can institutional methods of social control such as those advanced by our current federal drug policies increase responsibility and decrease liberty simultaneously? Or are these outcomes logically incompatible? If they are incompatible, what is actually going on in the field of drug control--and cui bono (who benefits)? Could it be that any drug policy short of total repeal of prohibition is simply a problem masquerading as a solution?These are questions we rarely hear discussed in a public forum.


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News-Policy


COMMENT:    (Top)

Fall-out from the ad campaign continued to resonate in the nation's op-eds; prevailing opinion seems to be that not only are the ads ineffective, the campaign itself is doing little to halt a growing number of drug-war desertions in the media.  McCaffrey was moved to write this defense which is still making the rounds of major dailies even as this is written.  Kendra Wright's trenchant rebuttal was published in the Austin American-Spectator.

Next is David Morris' remarkably accurate assessment of the current status of reform with the press; Morris analyzed how McCzar's Dutch debacle was dealt with on the Internet.  He was especially accurate for someone who had yet to discover MAP (although he had found Cliff Schaffer's library)

A WSJ piece details amazing blindness at the DEA; a mid-level functionary, cast in the mold of Aldrich Ames, brazenly siphoned a million dollars a year in government funds directly into a dummy company with his own name on it.  Following on the heels of a devastating GAO report, this could not have made good twenty-fifth anniversary reading at the embattled agency.

As if to underscore "embattled" the next article from an on-line publication disclosed why DEA Director Tom Constantine isn't popular with everyone at the agency.

In contrast to McCzar's tortured syntax, Jerry Sutliff's succinct treatment of a complex subject deserves to be read in its entirety.

MEDIA BLITZ IS EFFECTIVE AGAINST DRUGS
By Barry R.  McCaffrey

WASHINGTON, D.C.  - The Office of National Drug Control Policy has just launched a national advertising campaign to stop illegal drug use aimed at young people, 9 to 17 years of age, and the adults in their lives.  After test ads in 12 cities throughout the U.S., campaign has gone national, with regional adjustments for target audiences.

In some pilot cities, requests for information related to drug prevention and treatment increased 500 percent after the ads appeared, and calls to a national clearinghouse for anti-drug publications rose 300 percent.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 29 Jul 1998
Source:   Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact:  
Section:   Sec.1, page 16
Website:   http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author:   Barry R.  McCaffrey
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n631.a05.html

KIDS AND THE POLITICS OF THE DRUG WAR

This month House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton unveiled a five-year, $1 billion advertising campaign to combat adolescent drug use.  Between cartoons, America's kids will be bombarded with federally-sponsored anti-drug commercials.  But while Republicans and Democrats pat each other on the back for "knocking America upside the head" on the dangers of drug use, both parties are guilty of grandstanding on the teen drug problem without contributing substantially to the solution.

[snip]

Since viewing the ads, my 14-year-old and 10-year-old have learned it is possible to get high from everyday household products.  How many other children who would never have considered such products as intoxicants now have the notion planted in their heads? This is not the type of education I want for my children.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Source:   Austin American-Statesman
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.Austin360.com/
Author:   Kendra E.  Wright
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n638.a03.html

U.S.  SUPPRESSION OF DEBATE IS MONKEY ON NATION'S BACK

On July 9, before he left on what his office called a "fact-finding" tour to the Netherlands, U.S.  drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey declared the Dutch drug policy "an unmitigated disaster." The stunned Dutch ambassador responded: "I must say that I find the timing of your remarks [rather astonishing], six days before your planned visit [to gain] firsthand knowledge about Dutch drugs policy and its results."

[snip]

Americans who believe that our drug policy is doing more harm than good lack the power and resources of the drug prohibitionists.  But they make up for it in scholarship.  Indeed, they seem to believe that simply by presenting facts, they will convince the policy-makers.

The motto of one Web site declares "Just Say Know." My favorite information fount is the remarkable Schaffer Library of Drug Policy (www.druglibrary.org/schaffer).  The nation owes a debt to Clffford Schaffer, .

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 28 Jul 1998
Source:   St.  Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
Section:   Opinion, 7A
Contact:   (Reader Advocate Nancy Conner)
Fax:   651-228-5564
Website:   http://www.pioneerplanet.com
Author:   David Morris, Columnist
Note:   Morris, a local author, lecturer and consultant, can be
reached at 1313 Fifth St.  S.E., Suite 306, Minneapolis, Minn. 55414.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n633.a03.html

DEA OFFICIAL BECOMES RICH AT THE EXPENSE OF AGENCY

ARLINGTON, Va.  - David Bowman's cubicle, usually a bureaucrat's ideal of meticulous order, was a shambles.  His desk had been rifled, his computer was gone.  This much, though, was left undisturbed on the cubicle wall: the seal of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency he had served for 21 years.

[snip]

Indeed.  The Bowmans had lived luxuriously for years, thanks to the father's mysterious side business, Bowman Enterprises Inc.  The company grossed $1 million a year on average.  But investigators have concluded that the money was illegally siphoned to a bogus company from DEA headquarters here, in hundreds of checks averaging just under $9,000 each.  In all, the government says in an indictment, Mr. Bowman stole more than $6 million between 1990 and 1996.

And for years, nobody noticed.

[snip]

Source:   Wall Street Journal
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.wsj.com/
Pubdate:   Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Author:   Phil Kuntz - Staff Reporter
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n640.a02.html

DEA DRIVES OFF THE OLD GUARD

Changing times brought on by Janet Reno have forced many of the agency's most experienced, toughest agents into early retirement. Their departure may be great news for drug cartels.

They call themselves the "Jurassic narcs" - a fitting description for such an endangered species.

[snip]

Pubdate:   August 17, 1998
Source:   Insight On The News Online
Section:   Vol.  14, No. 30
Contact:  
Website:   www.insightmag.com
Author:   Jamie Dettmer
Note:   Published in Washington, D.C.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n633.a12.html

TAINTED DRUG JUSTICE

Milton Friedman pointed out over 25 years ago that prohibitionary laws are at their core corrupting of law enforcement, the judicial system and society itself.

Drug transactions between seller and buyer are consensual - neither makes the complaint about the activity.  Consequently, law enforcement authorities resort to using informants to obtain convictions.

This leads inevitably to a point where, as was said by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, "The judicial process is tainted and justice cheapened when factual testimony is purchased, whether with leniency or money" ("Loss of plea deals perils war on crime," July 20).

The war on drugs would become nearly impossible should the 10th Circuit decision stand.  For that reason I am confident the decision will not. The verbal contortions required to reverse the dead-on correct decision will make interesting reading.

GERALD M.  SUTLIFF
Emeryville

Pubdate:   Thu, 30 Jul 1998
Source:   San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.examiner.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n632.a06.html


Prisons-


COMMENT:    (Top)

Rapidly expanding prisons are among the more durable consequences of a harsh drug policy.  Even though they imprison at only one sixth the US rate, British prison rolls are also at record levels, explaining why the recommendations of a professional police organization provoked squawks of outrage.

Closer to home; the unsuccessful attempt to whitewash Corcoran brutality may score some points for Gray Davis in November, but the real problem is that an over-expanded, under-funded California prison system is a ticking bomb.

The poignancy of sending young mothers beyond their families' visiting range obviously didn't register with economy minded legislators in Wisconsin.

Molly Ivins' long article explains how fear of recidivism has all but eliminated parole in Texas.

POLICE SAY PRISON WORKS

Senior police officers have embarked on a collision course with the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, by asking him to abandon plans for more community punishments and, instead, to send even more criminals to prison.

The challenge by the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales comes at a time when the prison service is struggling to cope with a record jail population of 65,000.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 26 Jul 1998
Source:   Independent, The (UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author:   Ian Burrell, Home Affairs Correspondent
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n626.a04.html

CORCORAN GUARDS THWARTED PROBE, DA TELLS LAWMAKERS

Special Hearing On `Blood Sport' Fights

A district attorney told legislators yesterday that prison guards used a code of silence to block his investigation of brutality at California State Prison at Corcoran.

The prosecutor testified before a special committee looking into operations at the San Joaquin Valley prison, where eight guards were indicted in February on federal charges of staging ``blood sport'' fights among inmates in which one convict was killed.

[snip]

Source:   San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate:   Wed, 29 Jul 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n627.a05.html

FEMALE INMATES TO BE SENT OUT OF STATE

Panel allows move of 120 women to West Virginia prison to ease crowding

Madison - In as little as two weeks, Wisconsin for the first time will send female inmates to a prison out of state to ease severe crowding, under a contract approved Thursday by a key legislative committee.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Source:   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Contact:  
Fax:   (414) 224-8280
Website:   http://www.jsonline.com/
Author:   Richard P.  Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n632.a11.html

DON'T LOOK FOR PAROLE IN TEXAS

[snip]

The overall parole approval rate, according to the latest figures from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, is 22 percent for both violent and nonviolent offenders, which means it's actually much lower for violent offenders.  This is the lowest approval rate in state history.  Before 1992, the approval rate was about 60 to 70 percent and was simply a way of managing the prison population.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jul 1998
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author:   Molly Ivins, columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Note:   This item came from SJMN on-line edition
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n627.a01.html


Drug War: Sporting Front-
---------

COMMENT:    (Top)

Two events illustrated how drug policy impacts sports; the Tour de France was turned into a shambles over the issue of doping, and two American Olympians were suspended for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The IOC's position is as interesting as it is hypocritical: using banned drugs is OK if you are merely cheating to win, but try taking pot and we'll ban you.

Speaking of recreational use, the little noticed FIBA decision could become a big issue for NBA contract negotiators.

TOUR GOES ON AS RIDERS CLOSE RANKS

GRENOBLE, France--What doping scandal? After agreeing with bicycle-racing authorities to discuss the sport's pharmacological problems in the fall and deciding not to talk now about anything but the athletic aspect of the Tour de France, the 147 remaining riders continued Sunday to roll toward their rendezvous with the Alps.  If teams had psychologists instead of sports doctors they would say the race is in denial.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 27 Jul 1998
Source:   International Herald-Tribune
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.iht.com/
Author:   Samuel Abt, International Herald Tribune
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n623.a06.html

2 TRACK STARS FAIL DRUG TESTS

U.S.  won't enforce IAAF suspensions

Another drug scandal rocked international sports Monday when track and field's world governing body announced that two of America's top athletes, sprinter Dennis Mitchell and 1996 Olympic shot-put champion Randy Barnes, had been suspended for possible doping offenses.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 28 Jul 1998
Source:   Dallas Morning News
Section:   OpEd
Contact:  
Website:   www.dallasnews.com
Author:   New York Times News Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n630.a10.html

OLYMPICS CHIEF'S CALL TO 'GO SOFT' ON DRUGS ATTACKED

LEADING figures in British athletics yesterday reacted in anger and astonishment to calls by the president of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) for a relaxation in doping restrictions.

Juan Antonio Samaranch ignited the latest drugs controversy during a Spanish newspaper interview when he demanded some "harmless" performance-enhancing drugs be legalised in sport.

[snip]

Source:   Scotsman (UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.scotsman.com/
Pubdate:   Tue, 28 Jul 1998
Author:   Nick Thorpe
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n628.a06.html

GOVERNING BODY OF WORLD BASKETBALL VOTES TO PENALIZE USE OF
CANNABIS

FIBA NOTE: The FIBA World Congress meeting this week in Athens elected Abdoulaye Seye Moreau of Senegal as its new president.  He replaced American George E.  Killian who served for eight years.

The congress also voted to penalize the use of marijuana (cannabis) by players in FIBA competitions.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 28 Jul 1998
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author:   Sarah Boseley Scripps Howard News Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n626.a01.html

BLOWING SMOKE: MARIJUANA USE NBA'S BIGGEST DRUG CONCERN

The stock line with regard to marijuana use in the NBA for years went something like this: if commissioner David Stern walked in on a team at half time and they were getting high, he would have no other recourse than to smile and just say no if a player asked him if he had a light.

Evidently, players rarely say no these days amid reports that as many as 70 percent smoke pot at least on a recreational basis.

Because it's not included with cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and opium in the league's current drug policy.  With the existing agreement with the union being scrapped in the current lockout by owners, the marijuana issue is one of the elements being carved into the negotiations over a new deal.

[snip]

Source:   CBS SportsLine
Contact:   http://www.sportsline.com/u/feedback/feedback.htm
Website:   http://www.sportsline.com
Pubdate:   Mon, 20 Jul 1998
Author:   Mike Kahn, CBS SportsLine Executive Editor


Medical Marijuana


COMMENT:    (Top)

The concerted attacks on 215 by hostile law enforcement at local, state and federal levels leave little doubt about how important they think marijuana prohibition is to their meal tickets.

The shocking tactics used against David Herrick 2 weeks ago in an Orange County court will probably be repeated against Marvin Chavez. This judicial misconduct will hurt the prohibitionist's image in the long run, but meanwhile, it actively victimizes advocates of medical marijuana, many of whom are patients themselves.  They are being made to pay a terrible price for their compassion and humanity.

In asking about Peter McWilliams' condition, I also talked to Ass't Warden Linda Thomas.  She wouldn't give me any useful information either.

Oakland is a rare bright spot: a friendly local government working with an impeccable distribution team to see if medical marijuana might become practical reality despite unrelenting federal opposition.

In Britain, more details were released about the privately financed research Effort to develop a workable system for administering vaporized.

PROP.215 DISALLOWED IN POT TRIAL

Courts:   A judge says prosecutors can subpoena Cannabis Co-Op patients'
medical records.

A Santa Ana judge ruled Friday that Orange County Cannabis Co-Op founder Marvin Chavez cannot use Prop.  215 as a defence in his upcoming pot-peddling trial, Chavez's defence attorney said.

And Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzergald also upheld a prosecutor's request for proof that people who obtained pot for alleged ailments were actually ill, defence attorney Jon Alexander said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 25 Jul 1998
Source:   Orange County Register (CA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.ocregister.com/
Author:   Jeff Collins-OCR
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n626.a07.html

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE PLEADS INNOCENT TO CONSPIRACY CHARGES

LOS ANGELES, July 27 - A Los Angeles medical marijuana advocate pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he conspired with several others to grow massive amounts of the drug to sell to Cannabis Buyer's Clubs.

Peter McWilliams, who claims he is suffering from AIDS and cancer, is accused of conspiring with Todd McCormick to supply the clubs, which distribute marijuana to those who say they use it as medicine.

[snip]

A status conference was set for Aug.  24 in front of U.S. District Judge George King.  Last week, McWilliams was granted $250,000 bail. So far, he hasn't come up with the money to post it.

Meantime, Assistant U.S.  Attorney Fernando Aenlle-Rocha said he hopes officials from the Metropolitan Detention Center will "take steps to remedy the problem" of the defendant not receiving all of his medications.  Linda Thomas, a spokeswoman for the downtown lockup where McWilliams is being held refused to discuss the case.

[snip]

Source:   KNBC - MSNBC affiliate in Los Angeles
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.msnbc.com/local/KNBC/default.asp
Pubdate:   Tue, 28 Jul 1998
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n628.a03.html

OAKLAND MAY BACK MEDICAL POT PROVIDERS

OAKLAND - The Oakland City Council is expected tonight to make designated providers of medical marijuana "officers of the city," giving them legal immunity from criminal and civil actions.

Robert Raich, attorney for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, said the city's support should block the federal government's efforts to shut down the pot club.

"This will hopefully blast a hole right through the Controlled Substances Act," said Raich, who is representing the club and its executive director, Jeff Jones, in the pending federal lawsuit.

[snip]

Source:   Sacramento Bee (CA)
Contact:   http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html
Website:   http://www.sacbee.com/
Pubdate:   July 28, 1998
Author:   Lesli Maxwell Bee Correspondent
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n629.a06.html

MS VICTIMS TO PUFF POT TO TEST MEDICINAL EFFECTIVENESS

The Guardian

LONDON - The first human trials of the medicinal properties of marijuana will controversially involve inhaling substances made from the entire weed, not derivatives, it became clear Tuesday.

Dr.  Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, a company he set up with a license from the British Home Office to explore the medical uses of marijuana, told the House of Lords select committee on science and technology in London that he expected to move to clinical trials, probably with multiple sclerosis sufferers, within the next few years. He hoped the drug would be licensed as a medicine within five.

[snip]

Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author:   Sarah Boseley Scripps Howard News Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n626.a01.html


International News


COMMENT:    (Top)

The international scene provided little but embarrassment for the drug war; London may have been shocked at criminal behavior from an unaccustomed source, but Mexicans had to little reason for surprise.

The bizarre Caribbean threat might easily have evoked memories of Panama- that was the last time we invaded a sovereign country to make a drug bust.

HEROIN SCANDAL ROCKS LONDON'S DEVOUT JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Orthodox Jewish community has been shocked by a series of arrests of its members for alleged heroin smuggling.  Police and Customs inquiries are centering on a drugs link between Israel, Antwerp and London.

[snip]

Source:   Independent, The (UK)
Pubdate:   Sat, 25 Jul 1998
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author:   Paul Lashmar
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n624.a10.html

60 MEXICO CITY POLICE SUSPENDED FOR DRUG USE

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Sixty officers from Mexico City's police force were suspended Tuesday after failing a drug test, the latest blow to an already dismal reputation for Mexico's capital police force.

The suspended officers included delegates to two of the city's biggest districts and two other high-ranking officials, the city's attorney general Samuel del Villar told a news conference.

The scandal came days after 15 policemen were arrested in a brutal rape and kidnap case of three teenage girls.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 29 Jul 1998
Source:   Reuters
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n630.a05.html

ALLEGED DRUG CHIEFTAN THREATENS TO KILL AMERICANS

WASHINGTON -- A St.  Kitts drug trafficker known as "Little Nut" is threatening to randomly kill American veterinary students there if the United States succeeds in extraditing him for trial, the State Department said yesterday.

The threats by 37-year-old Charles Miller, wanted in Florida for cocaine smuggling, prompted an implicit warning that American authorities are prepared to go after the man if he harms U.S.  citizens.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Source:   Standard-Times (MA)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.s-t.com/
Author:   George Gedda, Associated Press writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n643.a05.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

Peter McWilliams updates

Two sites are doing a good job of keeping us informed on the arrest and incarceration of the nationally famous author and medical marijuana activist Peter McWilliams.  To review the latest on this developing case see:

http://www.marijuanamagazine.com/

http://www.me.mtu.edu/~hull/


TIP OF THE WEEK


There is a really disturbing yet useful web page on the growth of the prison industry at:

http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/DailyNews/prisons980802.html

Be sure to click the Profits&Punishment banner.

And by all means scroll down to "Prison Population and interactive Atlas" Here you can click on your state on a US map to find incarcerations rates, growth percentages and other prison growth stats.  Great for cites and quotes in LTEs


The November Coalition

Do you have a friend, relative, or loved one in prison who is a victim of our failed and cruel drug policies?

Do you need to provide examples of the hypocrisy and unfairness of our existing policies?

Please visit the November Coalition web page.  There you will find the names and horror stories of scores of people who have had their lives ruined by foolish laws maintained by a corrupt and power mad federal government.

A ten minute visit to this page should convince nearly any open minded individual that "The War on Drugs" is doing more harm than good.  See

URL:   http://www.november.org/


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

`Being briefed by the CIA is like being a mushroom: you're kept in the dark and fed manure' - Norman Mineta


FACT OF THE WEEK    (Top)

Every year since 1975, 85% of high school seniors have said they find illegal drugs "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain.

Source:   Johnston, L., Bachman, J.  & O'Malley, P. (1996). National
survey results from the monitoring the future study, HHS, National Institute on Drug Abuse.


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