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DrugSense Weekly
February 18, 2000 #137

A DrugSense publication                      http://www.drugsense.org/

Please consider writing a letter to the editor using the email addresses on any of the articles below.  Send a copy of your LTE to .


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* Feature Article


    Where is my Doctor?
    Notes from a patient
    by Jay R. Cavanaugh, Ph.D.

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1)
(1) Hollywood Defends White House Drug Pact to Congress
COMMENT: (2)
(2) Editorial: Limiting Web Speech
COMMENT: (3)
(3) Tapping Into the Drug Market
COMMENT: (4-5)
(4) This is No Way to Fight the Drug War
(5) Court Allows Evictions Of Tenants Unaware of Relatives' Drug Use

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (6-9)
(6) Anger Grows as US Jails Its Two Millionth Inmate
(7) In America - Criminal Justice Breakdown
(8) Column: Truce Needed in Drug War
(9) A Nation of Too Many Prisoners?
COMMENT: (10)
(10) The Miseducation of Elaine Bartlett
COMMENT: (11)
(11) Denver Police Chief Resigns After 18 Months of Controversy
COMMENT: (12-13)
(12) Officer is Accused of Planting Drugs
(13) Getting to Bottom and Top

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (14-15)
(14) Kubbys' Trial Begins Tuesday
(15) The Pot Problem: Varying Approaches Creating Confusion
COMMENT: (16)
(16) House Shoots Down Hemp Bill (NH)

International News-

COMMENT: (17)
(17) Australia: Searching For An Epiphany in a Needle and a Tourniquet
COMMENT: (18-19)
(18) Canada: Her Fate in Minister's Hands
(19) Canada: Editorial: Rave Bust Flawed From the Start
COMMENT: (20)
(20) UK: The Cannabis Row 2 - By Golly, it's Good
COMMENT: (21)
(21) Editorial: Yes on Aid to Colombia

* Hot Off The 'Net


    New Forfeiture Site Encourages Letters to Congress
    Medical Marijuana Polls and Votes Info Page

* Quote of the Week


    Albert Einstein


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Where is my Doctor?
Notes from a patient
by Jay R.  Cavanaugh, Ph.D.

In 1997 a gallstone passed into my pancreas setting off a chain reaction leading to an acute episode of Pancreatitis.  Taken by ambulance to a trauma center I flat lined briefly from hypovolemic shock.  The next year was a haze of hospitals, CAT Scans, probes, tubes, surgery, and most of all pain.  I went from 185 lbs to 120 lbs and was pronounced terminal with Chronic Necrotizing Pancreatitis.

Somehow I began to recover and once off the narcotics was able to return to my work in medicine.  I am a Scientific Researcher and Health Administrator.  The trouble is the pain never stops and I can't just be snowed under with morphine if I wish to make my contribution to society.  My physicians, the best in Los Angeles, recommended that I try cannabis.  They told me privately they had patients who had received considerable pain relief from cannabis and that it would treat my malabsorbtion and help me gain weight.

The doctors who saved my life and now want to help me live with the pain can only talk to me about cannabis.  They have consulted their lawyers who have told them in no uncertain terms that despite Proposition 215 being the law of California with no Federal Challenge, the DEA has bluntly told physicians here that if they recommend cannabis their DEA number and possibly their very license will be taken.

I was ready to go to a sanctioned Cannabis Buyers Club but can't because physicians in California and elsewhere are being intimidated by the Federal Government.  My doctor's best advice was to go the black market where no standards are kept and I am subject to arrest, prosecution, and jail not to mention the loss of a 30-year career.

Our laws are being subverted.  Tactics of a government I once loved have become totalitarian.  I saw fear in my physician's eyes and profound sadness that he could not help his patient sitting in front of him in extremis.  My God what has happened to us.

I will live with the pain and my frail frame but I will not accept that my vote means nothing, that my representatives are frightening the very people we count on to help us in need.  I do not accept that our Government would rather have sick and dying patients go to the streets and the drug dealers and the scum risking everything rather than receiving proper professional medical care.  It is wrong. It is immoral. It is unconscionable and indefensible.  I will ask my friends, my fellow Scientists, and anyone else who will listen to write their Congressional Representative to stop this humiliating abuse.

I was so skeptical to hear stories of how our DEA and local police had become jack booted troopers of oppression.  Fantasies of some hippies that got stoned too much in the sixties I thought.  But no. My God it is actually true and happening here.  Our Government is here to protect our liberties not sow fear and propaganda.  Where is the America I believed in? Where is my doctor?


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (1)    (Top)

In a week dominated by prison and law enforcement issues; the policy arena was relatively quiet; echoes of earlier stories commanded the most attention- for example: TV producers saw nothing wrong with McCzar's flexible definition of PSA.

(1) HOLLYWOOD DEFENDS WHITE HOUSE DRUG PACT TO CONGRESS    (Top)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Television executives told Congress Wednesday they did not pander to the government's anti-drug campaign when they showed officials popular TV shows containing anti-drug themes in return for cash incentives.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 09 Feb 2000
Source:   Reuters
Copyright:   2000 Reuters Limited.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n186/a06.html


COMMENT: (2)    (Top)

Fortunately, others had a better grasp of the First Amendment.  The Capital Times (WI) was one of the few newspapers to notice and comment on the censorship provision in the Hatch-Feinstein bill.

(2) EDITORIAL: LIMITING WEB SPEECH    (Top)

U.S.  Sen. Russ Feingold does not make many missteps in Washington. But he tripped up when he signed on as a backer of the constitutionally troublesome Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999.

[snip]

The language of the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 is riddled with loopholes that overzealous police agencies could use to silence or restrict legitimate speech on the Internet.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 10 Feb 2000
Source:   Capital Times, The (WI)
Copyright:   2000 The Capital Times
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n189/a04.html


COMMENT: (3)    (Top)

Governor Whitman's New Jersey predecessor became yet another politician to formally endorse reform.  OK- an ex-politician- but not by much.

(3) TAPPING INTO THE DRUG MARKET    (Top)

Former Gov.  Brendan Byrne has an answer to America's drug problem: decriminalize marijuana and make use of heroin and cocaine a disorderly persons offense, with fines of $50 to $100 per offense.  Then take the billions of dollars saved on enforcement and pump it into education and treatment.

On New Jersey Network's "Due Process" show, to air Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., Byrne says it's time to stop "tolerating politicians whose only solution ...  is to increase the penalties and make the sentences mandatory." Byrne says the country needs to acknowledge that drug laws fail to stop drug use.

Pubdate:   Tue, 8 Feb 2000
Source:   New Jersey Law Journal (NJ)
Copyright:   2000 New Jersey Law Journal
Contact:  
Address:   P.O.  Box 20081, Newark, NJ 07101-6081
Fax:   (973) 642-0920
Website:   http://www.njlawjournal.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n202/a01.html


COMMENT: (4-5)    (Top)

Lest we get carried away, a familiar prohibition ally was busy amplifying a report unfriendly to needle exchange and a 3-judge panel from the normally fair Ninth Circuit upheld an oppressive federal regulation.

(4) THIS IS NO WAY TO FIGHT THE DRUG WAR    (Top)

A Plan To Help Addicts With Free Needles May End Up Feeding Their Habit

PARKED NEXT to an abandoned lot on Baltimore's south side, the big cream-colored recreational vehicle seems out of place.  So, too, do the dozen-odd men and women who gather by the RV's side door, most of them carrying brown-paper lunch sacks filled with used syringes.

[snip]

Anderson, who is a carpenter, described his addiction as "a miserable way of life, a game of Russian roulette." He was glad the needle exchange exists but added that what he needed was help breaking his habit, not easier access to more needles.  "This program is not helping your addiction," he said.  "It's just giving you an endless supply of clean needles with which to put the drugs into your veins."

Source:   Reader's Digest (US)
Copyright:   2000 Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
Section:   Special Report
Page:   70
Contact:  
Address:   P.O.  Box 235, Pleasantville, NY 10570-0235
Website:   http://www.readersdigest.com/
Forum:   http://www.readersdigest.com/scripts/webx.cgi
Author:   Daniel Levine
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n184/a08.html
Note:   This article was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun, with some small
changes in words, substitles and paragraphing, and is at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n173/a02.html


(5) COURT ALLOWS EVICTIONS OF TENANTS UNAWARE OF RELATIVES' DRUG USE    (Top)

SAN FRANCISCO - A public housing tenant can be evicted for a household member's drug use even if the tenant was unaware of it, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The federal government's "one-strike" eviction policy, which applies to more than 3 million low-income tenants nationwide, is a reasonable step toward making public housing safe and drug-free, said the 9th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 14 Feb 2000
Source:   Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright:   2000 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  
Address:   P.O.Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852
Feedback:   http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.html
Website:   http://www.sacbee.com/
Forum:   http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.html
Author:   Bob Egelko, Associated Press Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n208/a08.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons
---------

COMMENT: (6-9)    (Top)

It's oddly fitting that our two millionth prisoner should be incarcerated in the same week that stories of police excesses and corruption produced more national headlines than never before.

It's also sadly typical that a foreign newspaper, the Guardian- was the only major daily to notice the Vigil mounted by a coalition of reform organizations.

From New York to California, our more intelligent columnists are at least beginning to emphasize the central role of the drug war in producing America's major social catastrophes.

(6) ANGER GROWS AS US JAILS ITS TWO MILLIONTH INMATE    (Top)

Vigils are being mounted today in more than 30 major cities in the United States to draw attention to the arrival of the two millionth inmate in American jails.  The US comprises 5% of the global population yet it is responsible for 25% of the world's prisoners.  It has a higher proportion of its citizens in jail than any other country in history, according to the November Coalition, an alliance of civil rights campaigners, justice policy workers and drug law reformers.

The coalition is co-ordinating protests across the US to draw attention to what they feel is a trend for locking up ever more offenders, most of them non-violent.

[snip]

"Two million is too many," said Nora Callahan of the coalition, which is calling for alternatives to prison for the country's 500,000 non-violent drug offenders.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 15 Feb 2000
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright:   Guardian Media Group 2000
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author:   Duncan Campbell, in Los Angeles
Cited:   The November Coalition: http://www.november.org/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n210/a03.html


(7) IN AMERICA - CRIMINAL JUSTICE BREAKDOWN    (Top)

The gruesome problems in the criminal justice system that have been overlooked for so many years are starting to burst into public view, and the system is breaking down in some parts of the country.

[snip]

There is an epidemic of police and prosecutorial misconduct and incompetence in this country.  The scandals in Los Angeles and Illinois are festering sores, symptoms of a complex disease that both threatens and -- to the extent that we ignore it -- shames us all.

Pubdate:   Mon, 14 Feb 2000
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2000 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum:   http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/
Author:   BOB HERBERT
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n203/a02.html


(8) COLUMN: TRUCE NEEDED IN DRUG WAR    (Top)

Today, Feb.  15, America's prisons are expected to reach a population of 2 million inmates.  Vigils and protests are planned in more than 30 cities to mark this miserable milestone.

Although violent crime has steadily dropped, our prison population has nearly tripled in 15 years.  The reason for the skyrocketing figure is simple: the war on drugs.

[snip]

We, the people, need to drill the message into our leaders' thick skulls to get the government out of our private lives.  Until we do, we can expect a society in turmoil.

Pubdate:   Tue, 15 Feb 2000
Source:   Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright:   2000 The Kansas City Star
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://www.kansascity.com/Discussion/
Website:   http://www.kcstar.com/
Author:   Frank Lingo, Special to The Kansas City Star
Note:   Frank Lingo's column appears on alternate Tuesdays.  To reach
him, send e-mail to
Cited:   Drug Reform Coordination Network: http://www.drcnet.org/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n212/a04.html


(9) A NATION OF TOO MANY PRISONERS?    (Top)

With Inmate Population Nearing 2 Million, Many Question The Punishment Over Prevention Approach.

NEW ORLEANS--Presumed innocent, they shuffle into the sooty, granite fortress on Tulane Avenue every morning, ankles shackled, hands chained to their hips.  Every evening, at least a dozen leave Orleans Parish Criminal District Court as felons, an exodus of the desperate, foolish, heartless and addicted.

[snip]

Drug offenders account for the greatest percentage of new inmates, yet hardly anyone believes the drug war is any closer to being won.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 15 Feb 2000
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Los Angeles Times
Section:   Column One
Contact:  
Address:   Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax:   (213) 237-4712
Website:   http://www.latimes.com/
Forum:   http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/
Author:   Jesse Katz, Times Staff Writer
Cited:   Common Sense For Drug Policy: http://csdp.org/
The November Coalition: http://november.org/
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n211/a08.html


COMMENT: (10)    (Top)

The poignant story of how a young black women and her family were literally entrapped into becoming victims of the Rockefeller laws makes interesting and instructive reading.

(10) THE MISEDUCATION OF ELAINE BARTLETT    (Top)

New York's War on Drugs Held Her Hostage for 16 Years.  A Story of Prison, Politics, and One Woman's Pride.

By the time the sheriff's van lurched into the parking lot, she no longer cared if anyone noticed her wet cheeks and swollen eyes.  Tears had been rolling down Elaine Bartlett's face for two hoursóthe entire drive from Albany to Westchester County and she struggled to wipe them away with handcuffed hands.  Locked up for the last four months in an Albany jail, Elaine had heard plenty of horror stories about her new home, ugly rumors that swirled through her head.  The women at Bedford Hills will attack you, rape you, steal all your stuff.

[snip]

...And Elaine had no way of knowing that African Americans and Latinos
would eventually make up more than 94 percent of New York State's drug prisoners.

She also didn't know that law enforcement officials routinely lured people from New York City to Albany because of the capital's reputation for tough-on-drugs judges.  ...

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 12 Feb 2000
Source:   Village Voice (NY)
Copyright:   2000 VV Publishing Corporation
Contact:  
Address:   36 Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003
Feedback:   http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/contact.shtml
Website:   http://www.villagevoice.com/
Author:   Jennifer Gonnerman
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n195/a12.html
Related:   A selection of Rockefeller drug laws is linked at the end of this
article.


COMMENT: (11)    (Top)

In Denver, the police chief victimized by the Mena fiasco relatively early in his term was forced to resign shortly after being recalled from an ill-advised vacation.

(11) DENVER POLICE CHIEF RESIGNS AFTER 18 MONTHS OF CONTROVERSY    (Top)

DENVER, Feb.  9 -- Mayor Wellington Webb began a search today for a new police chief after a series of problems, including the accidental shooting death of a man in a botched drug raid, led him to seek the resignation of a 30-year veteran of the force who served less than 18 months as its chief.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 10 Feb 2000
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2000 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Address:   229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Fax:   (212) 556-3622
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum:   http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/
Author:   Michael Janofsky
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/states/co
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n186/a07.html


COMMENT: (12-13)    (Top)

A story from Baltimore illustrates that planting "evidence" is not confined exclusively to LA.

Speaking of LA: although the Times has become a veritable fountain of information about the spreading scandal, its frequent editorials remain strangely myopic by failing to see any connection with drug policy.

(12) OFFICER IS ACCUSED OF PLANTING DRUGS    (Top)

Complaints from police in Carroll spur probe by Md.  attorney general

The state attorney general's office is investigating a Westminster police officer for allegedly trying to plant drugs on suspects, an inquiry that could force the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal drug cases in which the officer was involved, officials said yesterday.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 09 Feb 2000
Source:   The Sun (Baltimore MD)
Contact:  
Pubdate:   Feb 9 2000
Author:   Mike Farabaugh (Sheridan Lyons contributed to this article.)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n196/a10.html


(13) GETTING TO BOTTOM AND TOP    (Top)

For a true cleanup, investigators must find out how deep and how high the Rampart corruption reaches.

It sounded like an over-the-top television script, but these were real-life allegations in the Los Angeles Police Department: corrupt cops planting rock cocaine on unsuspecting victims; officers selling stolen drugs to traffickers instead of arresting them; cops kidnapping gang members, stripping them naked and dropping them in rival gang territory; cops shooting a man and then allowing him to bleed to death while they concocted a scenario to justify the shooting;...  Allegations of police planting evidence--the mere possibility of which was scoffed at during the O.J.  Simpson trial--are now just one of a long list of charges being leveled against the LAPD.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 11 Feb 2000
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  
Address:   Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax:   (213) 237-4712
Website:   http://www.latimes.com/
Forum:   http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n192/a01.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (14-15)    (Top)

In California, a judge's ruling seems to guarantee that the long-awaited trial of Steve and Michele Kubby will finally get underway.  The addition of famed defense attorney Tony Serra adds to the anticipation.

The Redding Record-Searchlight, which covered the recent acquittals of two patients who also grew their own, summarized the attendant law enforcement posturing in a recent editorial.

(14) KUBBYS' TRIAL BEGINS TUESDAY    (Top)

Judge Turns Down Continuance Request

Medical marijuana proponents Steven and Michele Kubby appeared in an Auburn courtroom Monday seeking to delay a trial to prosecute them on charges of possession of marijuana for sale.

However, Judge James L.  Roeder denied two motions to continue, saying the case has dragged on for more than a year and has hit several bumps along the road to trial.

[snip]

Most recently, Steven Kubby filed on Feb.  10 for a counselor substitution to replace Dale Woods with J.  Tony Serra, a well-known San Francisco attorney, to represent Steven Kubby.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 15 Feb 2000
Source:   Auburn Journal (CA)
Copyright:   2000 The Auburn Journal
Contact:  
Address:   1030 High St., Auburn, CA 95603
Website:   http://www.auburnjournal.com/
Author:   Jessica R.  Towhey, Journal Staff Writer
Cited:   Steve and Michele Kubby: http://www.kubby.com/
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/kubby.htm
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n209/a02.html


(15) THE POT PROBLEM: VARYING APPROACHES CREATING CONFUSION    (Top)

We're trying to understand all of this medical marijuana news that is swirling around us here in the north state, and we suspect you are, too.  So, try to work through this with us.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 13 Feb 2000
Source:   Redding Record Searchlight (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Redding Record Searchlight - E.W.  Scripps
Contact:  
Address:   PO Box 492397, Redding, CA 96049-2397
Website:   http://www.redding.com/
Forum:   http://www.redding.com/disc2_frm.htm
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n202/a13.html


COMMENT: (16)    (Top)

Fierce opposition from the DEA and its allies (including the governor) scuttled a New Hampshire hemp bill that appeared headed toward approval.

(16) HOUSE SHOOTS DOWN HEMP BILL (NH)    (Top)

Its supporters got a brief glimpse at success, but hemp will not be taking its place alongside lumber, apples and maple syrup as a homegrown state product anytime soon.

By a vote of 192-152, the House yesterday rejected a bill to legalize the growing of industrial hemp, the biological cousin of marijuana - even after several House committees had approved the proposal.  The House did hold onto the bill for further study, casting it back into the limbo it has occupied for much of the past three years as several other states have proceeded to legalize the cash crop.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 11 Feb 2000
Source:   Concord Monitor (NH)
Copyright:   2000 Monitor Publishing Company
Contact:  
Address:   One Monitor Drive Concord, NH 03302-1177
Fax:   (603) 224-8120
Website:   http://207.180.37.15/
Author:   Alec Macgillis
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n195/a05.html


International News


COMMENT: (17)    (Top)

Those interested in a concrete example of what harm reduction is all about should read this description of a functioning Australian facility in the shadow of a much-delayed official government injection room.

(17) AUSTRALIA: SEARCHING FOR AN EPIPHANY IN A NEEDLE AND A TOURNIQUET    (Top)

IT IS not yet 11am, and already more than 80 "sharps" lie in the scratched yellow box hanging off the wall.  More are scattered on the ground, close to the rock that serves as an altar to heroin.  This alcove, next to the Wesley Church in Lonsdale Street, is a communion site for more than 100 people every day.  They come to hit-up and anyone interested in saving their souls will first have to save their lives.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 13 Feb 2000
Source:   Age, The (Australia)
Copyright:   2000 David Syme & Co Ltd
Contact:  
Address:   250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website:   http://www.theage.com.au/
Author:   Peter Ellingsen
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n208/a09.html


COMMENT: (18-19)    (Top)

In Canada, Rene Boje was ordered extradited to the US; her fate now rests with a minister who has the power to deny the US request.

There was also disquieting evidence that Canadian law enforcement is behaving more like their US counterparts; at least the youthful rave employees were only strip-searched; not shot.

(18) CANADA: HER FATE IN MINISTER'S HANDS    (Top)

The fate of a California woman trapped in a legal quagmire over the medical use of marijuana is in the hands of Justice Minister Anne McLellan.

A B.C.  Supreme Court judge yesterday signed an order to have Renee Danielle Boje extradited to Los Angeles, where a conviction on one of three drug charges would land her a minimum of 10 years in jail.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 10 Feb 2000
Source:   Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright:   2000 The Province
Contact:  
Address:   200 Granville Street, Ste.  #1, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3 Canada
Fax:   (604) 605-2323
Website:   http://www.vancouverprovince.com/
Author:   Andy Ivens
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n202/a12.html
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/renee.htm


(19) CANADA: EDITORIAL: RAVE BUST FLAWED FROM THE START    (Top)

POLICE BUSTS for narcotics tend to target pot growers or known traffickers and crack houses.  Tips from informants or disgruntled gang members are part of this long-lasting "war on drugs."

But the battle seems to have gone seriously awry at a rave dance on Maynard Street in Halifax last month.

First there was the uproar over Halifax Regional Police strip-searching the rave's young employees - before the dance event actually began and while almost all customers waited outside.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 14 Feb 2000
Source:   Halifax Daily News (CN NS)
Copyright:   2000 The Daily News.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.hfxnews.southam.ca/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n203/a04.html
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/rave.htm


COMMENT: (20)    (Top)

From Britain- among a spate of articles on the split within Labour over decriminalizing cannabis, came Simon Regan's personal recollections of his own use- far too frank for a US columnist, but a breath of fresh air, nevertheless.

(20) UK: THE CANNABIS ROW 2 - BY GOLLY, IT'S GOOD    (Top)

The debate on the decriminalisation of cannabis has been a long time coming.  In 1965 a friend of mine was caught with an eighth of on ounce on him and got five years in Maidstone jail.  Only last week another friend of mine was found with a similar amount and was let off with a caution.

[snip]

In the 60s, I took cannabis largely because it induced mild mind expansion.  Such things as music became more enchanting and fascinating. In the 90s my intake is (almost) all medicinal.  On millennium eve, I cooked another cake and gave a slice to my octogenarian mother (who is severely arthritic) and a crusty old retired colonel from the Guards.

Both have since asked me for the recipe.

Pubdate:   Wed, 09 Feb 2000
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright:   Guardian Media Group 2000
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author:   Simon Regan
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n189/a05.html


COMMENT: (21)    (Top)

As a Colombian debacle looms ever closer, the Washington Post gave US "aid" an unrealistic thumbs up (both the NY and LA Times dithered).

(21) EDITORIAL: YES ON AID TO COLOMBIA    (Top)

THE REVOLUTIONARY Armed Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym FARC) have been fighting for power for nearly four decades.

They have little support among Colombia's people, but thanks to payoffs from the drug producers they protect, the FARC has grown into a 15,000-man army equipped with the best weapons and communications technology money can buy--better, by and large, than the Colombian army has.

[snip]

The best reason for the aid, however, is that it will help in the search for a negotiated settlement to the war, which is the strategic objective of both President Pastrana and President Clinton.  In this respect, critics who say the administration's proposal would complicate peace talks are falling for the FARC's bluff.

In fact, the FARC will not bargain in good faith unless confronted with a credible military threat.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 10 Feb 2000
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Copyright:   2000 The Washington Post Company
Address:   1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n185/a03.html
See also:
NY Times: Dangerous Plans For Colombia
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n199/a10.html
LA Times: Explain Colombia Aid
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n212/a05.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

New Forfeiture Site Encourages Letters to Congress

A new Web site has just gone on-line: http://www.forfeiture.org/

The forfeiture coalition's goal is to generate 100,000 letters from constituents to their U.S.  senators in the next two weeks -- before the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on S.  1931, the Hatch/Leahy forfeiture reform bill.


Medical Marijuana Polls and Votes Info Page

Richard Lake reports:

Rob Ryan mentioned the following page he created during the chat this evening, and I have to admit that it is very nice.  Pulls together all the votes and polls on mmj into a nice set of charts.

http://www.robryan.org/mmj.html



QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein


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