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DrugSense Weekly
January 5, 2001 #181


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/29/24)


* Feature Article


    MAP's DrugNews Archive Tops 50,000 Fully Searchable News Clippings
    A New Years Thank you to All NewsHawks. Editors, Letter Writers, and
    DrugSense/MAP Supporters / By Richard Lake, Senior Editor

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (1-2)
(1) Enthralling 'Traffic' Shines High Beams on a Chaotic Drug World
(2) Douglas Happy About 'Traffic' Debate
COMMENT: (3-5)
(3) California's Drug Addicts Now Finding Kinder, Gentler Punishment
(4) America Wavers on Get-Tough Drug Sentences
(5) We Lose the War When We See it as One
(6) FCC Blasts TV Over Non-Disclosure
COMMENT: (7-9)
(7) Bush's Choices Defy Talk of Conciliation
(8) An Unfit Nominee
(9) Should Ex-Felons be Disenfranchised?

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-11)
(10) Oregone to Hell?
(11) Sepulveda Case - Enough delays
COMMENT: (12-14)
(12) Harsh Drug Sentences Must be Re-Examined
(13) Clinton Should Consider Letting The Little Fish Go
(14) A Time for Clinton, Judges to Correct Drug-Term Injustice

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (15-17)
(15) Activists Make History for Cannabis
(16) Law Fickle In Use Of Marijuana
(17) Medical Marijuana Measure Masks Larger Failure of Vision
COMMENT: (18)
(18) Pot Use Sky-High

International News-

COMMENT: (19-22)
(19) Narcotic Flood Threatens to Wash Away Central Asian Stability
(20) US Army to Train Thais in War on Drugs
(21) Guatemala Sees Organized Crime as Security Threat
(22) Three Soldiers Join Forces

* Hot Off The 'Net


    NewsHawk Familiarization Page Updated
    MSNBC Special Sunday January 7 "America's new heroin Epidemics"

* This Just In


New Mexico thumbs its nose at the war on drugs / Daniel Forbes
Metro Accepts Marijuana Ad Banned in Boston

* Quote of the Week


Aristarchus, Greek Philologist


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

MAP's DrugNews Archive Tops 50,000 Fully Searchable News Clippings A New Years Thank you to All NewsHawks.  Editors, Letter Writers, and DrugSense/MAP Supporters / By Richard Lake Senior Editor

Four years ago, a small group of activists who knew each other only through the Internet, became concerned that the nation's press-- for whatever reason-- was doing an inadequate job of reporting on the drug war and was allowing our misguided policy of drug prohibition to thrive without effective opposition.  Convinced that letters to newspapers were an effective way to demand better coverage, MAP was founded to both educate interested parties and assist them to write such letters.  An archive of pooled news articles was started as part of that effort; little realizing that it would grow to its present size and become an invaluable tool for journalists and scholars of public policy.

MAP's material is submitted and formatted by unpaid volunteers.  The thoroughly searchable archive is managed by a world class web master. Over the years, at one time or other, more than 850 people have become "NewsHawks" by submitting articles and opinion pieces from all over the world.  The MAP idea has been cloned in Dutch. Other foreign language archives are in the planning stage.  As this is written the fifty-thousandth item is about to be submitted to the archive and formatted for inclusion.  It thus seems like an appropriate time to take a moment to acknowledge the efforts of all our volunteers who have contributed to making the MAP Archive the powerful force for drug policy reform that it is today.

As many of you know, our NewsHawks can create their own NewsHawk line for our articles.  Many do, providing links to their favorite sites.We thank you, too, NewsHawks, for providing the links as well as for NewsHawking! Below is a URL to those links, leaving out only those which are MAP/DrugSense pages.  A fair number of those pages are in support of other groups, and you can find those linked from our site map at http://www.drugsense.org/sitemap.htm

First, a huge thank you to all of our NewsHawks over the years:

(NOTE: What we hope is a complete list of our entire cadre of dedicated NewsHawks has been painstakingly assembled at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a253.html If you have helped MAP by NewsHawking articles and are not on the list please let Richard Lake () know an we will add you to the list.)

While anybody can NewsHawk an item, not every item that comes to us is appropriate, as indicated on the how to NewsHawk page (see Hot Off the "Net below).  Some articles need to have their format improved. Some are duplicates.  Thus a hard working team of editors has, over the years, maintained and improved our quality control.  Thank you, editors, for all that you do! Here is the list of editors, some not currently active, who have been a part of the editing posting team:

Allan Wilkinson, Andrew, Beth Wehrman, Derek Rea, Doc-Hawk, Don Beck, Eric Ernst, Frank S.  World, GD, Greg, Jay Bergstrom, Jo-D, Joel W. Johnson, John Chase, Josh Sutcliffe, Keith Brilhart, Ken Russell, Kiril Dubrovsky, Kirk Bauer, Larry Stevens, manemez j lovitto, Matt Elrod, Melodi Cornett, Mike Gogulski, Olafur Brentmar, Pat Dolan, Patrick Henry, Rich O'Grady, Richard Lake, Rolf Ernst, Terry F, Terry Liittschwager, Thunder

We all, NewsHawks and editors, do it for you, dear readers.  And to provide a database of items which authors, reporters and researchers use every day.

But we do it all the way we do, including the contact information for the source publications, so that folks can easily respond by writing Letters to the Editor.

And you do, by the thousands.  We hear that many of you average a half dozen or more letters sent for one published.  But you still keep at it, because it is how you play a role in "Moving the Discourse on Drugs from Hysteria to Sanity and Humanity." Today about 2,500 authors are represented in the Published Letters Archive of over 5,000 letters at http://www.mapinc.org/lte/.  If you use the dropdown next to the 'Display' button, you can see a list of all the authors, in three parts.  A huge thank you to all of you who write Letters to the Editor, published or not!

Oh, and we suspect that the NewsHawks do not find every published letter, so the archive is far from complete.

And a big thank you also to all the listmasters who manage our almost a hundred email lists, a fair number listed at
http://www.drugsense.org/lists/ and http://www.mapinc.org/lists/.  And our Focus Alert Specialists who write our Focus Alerts, which may viewed at http://www.drugsense.org/alerts.htm.  And all our webmasters who make all the pages happen ( see the site map above ).

Plus special thanks to MAP's executive director and board of directors who guide us so carefully -- listed at
http://www.drugsense.org/board.htm.

And finally, thank you to all who donate.  Without your donations we could not support our huge server, with well over sixty thousand webpages, and over a dozen major websites.

Everyone, please, give yourselves a good pat on the back! You rock!


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy

COMMENT: (1-2)    (Top)

Given that a number of important policy issues; Colombia and medical use to name but two, will be in the news in coming months, the ultimate message derived from "Traffic," looms as important.

Although most reviewers see it as the futility of a "war" on drugs, that assessment isn't universal.


(1) ENTHRALLING 'TRAFFIC' SHINES HIGH BEAMS ON A CHAOTIC DRUG WORLD    (Top)

In "Traffic," Steven Soderbergh's tough, enthralling thriller about the drug trade, Michael Douglas, as the newly designated U.S.  antidrug czar Robert Wakefield, flies off to southern California on a small government jet for a tour of the San Ysidro-Tijuana border near San Diego.  During the flight, he tells his advisors, none of whom has expertise in treatment or rehabilitation: "The dam is open for new ideas." Not a drop spills over; Wakefield's earnest appeal is met with stony silence.

New ideas are hard to come by in the endlessly touted war against drugs, and "Traffic" doesn't traffic in facile solutions.  (Or in hope; the tacit assumption is that vast quantities of narcotics will keep flowing into the U.S.  because the appetite for them will continue unabated.) But no movie has ever evoked, with such intelligence and dramatic power, the doomed campaigns and moral chaos, the base motives and high ideals of the troops in their far-flung battles.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Dec 2000
Source:   Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright:   2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.wsj.com/
Author:   Joe Morgenstern
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1944/a04.html
Cited:   http://trafficthemovie.com/


(2) DOUGLAS HAPPY ABOUT 'TRAFFIC' DEBATE    (Top)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Douglas says he's glad law enforcement officials have praised his new film "Traffic," even though it questions the effectiveness of the drug war.

"Everyone who sees the movie comes out of it with a different reaction," Douglas said.  "We screened it for the DEA and U.S. Customs, and they're happy with it, believing it shows how tough their job is. Other people see it and think the message is that the war on drugs is futile.

"That's why I like it.  The movie has the courage to raise issues."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Dec 2000
Source:   Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright:   2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.seattle-pi.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1940/a02.html
Cited:   http://trafficthemovie.com/


COMMENT: (3-5)    (Top)

Varying interpretations of California's Proposition 36 have led to unresolved ambiguity: does the public want every arrested user treated as an addict? Or do they just want the cops to stop arresting users?

The Downey case has become an important symbol; one item despite the headline emphasized the need for "consequences," while a CSM column took a far more general view.

In Saint Louis, a retired police officer decried the drug war metaphor, but scoffed at any idea of "surrender."


(3) CALIFORNIA'S DRUG ADDICTS NOW FINDING KINDER, GENTLER PUNISHMENT    (Top)

LOS ANGELES -- When actor Robert Downey Jr.  was arrested last month in a Palm Springs spa, news reports cataloged the woes of the troubled actor, allegedly found once again with illegal drugs after a year in state prison and numerous bouts of drug treatment.

[snip]

Still, some who work with drug offenders argue that Downey's bad timing may, in fact, be fortunate.  While treatment is the key, they say serious consequences -- specifically, jail time -- often are the only things that force addicts to straighten out.

[snip]

NewsHawk:   M & M Family
Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Dec 2000
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright:   2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author:   Nita Lelyveld
Note:   originally printed in Philadelphia Inquirer-
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1940/a05.html
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm


(4) AMERICA WAVERS ON GET-TOUGH DRUG SENTENCES    (Top)

LOS ANGELES - America's war on drugs is facing a new front line - and it's not in Colombia or Mexico.  It's here at home, in the hearts and minds of an increasing number of Americans who think the "war" has gone horribly wrong.

Across the cultural landscape, there are signs that Americans are beginning to rethink the stiff drug-sentencing laws that have placed hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders behind bars.

[snip]

NewsHawk:   Freedom
Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Dec 2000
Source:   Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright:   2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.csmonitor.com/
Author:   Sara Terry, Special correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1937/a03.html


(5) WE LOSE THE WAR WHEN WE SEE IT AS ONE    (Top)

It has become fashionable in intellectual circles to declare that we have lost the "War on Drugs." There seems to be growing agreement among the Commentariat that decades of effort, entailing countless arrests and untold billions of dollars, have done little to stem the tide of illegal narcotics.  A popular metaphor is to liken the struggle to the Vietnam conflict -- a quagmire of futility from which there can be no honorable exit.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Dec 2000
Source:   St.  Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Copyright:   2000 St.  Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/Home
Author:   M.W.  Guzy
Note:   Note: M.W.  Guzy, St. Louis, is a regular contributor to the
Commentary page.  He is retired from the St. Louis Police Department.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1935/a06.html


COMMENT (6)

The FCC ruled last week on an inquiry sought by NORML; the Networks were wrong to accept payment form ONDCP for influence over programming without disclosure.  No punishment was imposed, but the networks were warned.


(6) FCC BLASTS TV OVER NON-DISCLOSURE    (Top)

TV networks should have identified the White House as a sponsor of several popular prime-time programs with anti-drug messages since the government paid $25 million for the right to approve scripts, regulators say in a ruling sought by marijuana supporters.

The Federal Communications Commission said ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the WB network were obligated to make viewers of the shows aware that they had received money from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

[snip]

Source:   Newsday (NY)
Copyright:   2000, Newsday Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.newsday.com/homepage.htm
Author:   Ian Hopper, Associated Press Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1931/a06.html
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm


COMMENT: (7-9)    (Top)

Easily the most controversial cabinet nominee, John Ashcroft seems certain to be opposed in the Senate; given that he's an ex-Senator, prospects of defeating him appear slim.  Of significance: most opponents don't even mention his position on drug enforcement.

A column in the San Diego Union-Tribune explained the importance of that position for those Democrats who might have missed its significance in Florida.


(7) BUSH'S CHOICES DEFY TALK OF CONCILIATION    (Top)

Cabinet Is Diverse but Not Politically

President-elect Bush is defying predictions of a bipartisan government and instead is naming a Cabinet that is little different from one he would have chosen if he had won a resounding victory, Bush advisers said.

[snip]

Commentators had predicted that Bush, having lost the popular vote by more than half a million and facing a tied Senate and a House with a bare Republican majority, would move quickly to signal that he planned to govern from the center.  Thomas E. Mann, a Brookings Institution scholar specializing in American governance, said that instead, Bush has shown "no concession to the fragility of his victory."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 01 Jan 2001
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Copyright:   2000 The Washington Post Company
Page:   A01 - Front Page
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author:   Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n001/a07.html


(8) AN UNFIT NOMINEE    (Top)

BOSTON -- Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri is on the extreme right of American politics.  As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee he worked to block the confirmation process, without a hearing, of any judicial nominee he suspected of the faintest liberal taint.  He sought to outlaw abortions even for victims of rape or incest.

His rigid ideology makes him a strange choice to be attorney general of the United States.  But for anyone who reveres that office, as I do, one particular episode shows that Senator Ashcroft is unfit to hold it.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 30 Dec 2000
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2000 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Column:   Abroad At Home
Author:   Anthony Lewis
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1941/a08.html


(9) SHOULD EX-FELONS BE DISENFRANCHISED?    (Top)

Should ex-felons who've completed their criminal sentences and paid their debt to society be allowed to vote?

For some 200 years, various states have said "no" by enacting so-called "civil death" laws, denying former criminals the right to re-enter the democratic process.

Florida's civil death law had sensational impact this year.  It kept so many African-Americans away from the polls that the state, and thus the presidency of the United States, were delivered to George W.  Bush. Blacks in Florida went for Al Gore by a 93 percent majority.  But 400,000 black Floridians, or 31 percent of the state's black men, are disenfranchised because of felony convictions, according to estimates by the Washington-based Sentencing Project.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Dec 2000
Source:   San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.uniontrib.com/
Author:   Neal Peirce
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1931/a02.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons

COMMENT: (10-11)    (Top)

By coincidence, two cases in which police killed innocent civilians during drug raids were updated last week; the bottom line is that nothing of consequence ever seems to happen to the cops.


(10) OREGONE TO HELL?    (Top)

His body was riddled with police bullets.  The case against the cops also may be riddled with holes.

The year 2000 was another very good one for the already successful civil litigation firm of Richard Mithoff and Tommy.

But despite the happy faces at the firm's annual posh Yule gala, the year ended on a bit of a down note.  In early December Mithoff's key witness in a high-profile case, the wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Houston and six former Houston cops involved in the killing of Pedro Oregon, pleaded guilty to aggravated perjury.

[snip]

A few days later U.S.  District Judge Simeon Lake dismissed the city from the lawsuit, thereby eliminating the only defendant capable of paying a potential big-money judgment to the Oregon family and Mithoff.

Pubdate:   Tue, 02 Jan 2001
Source:   Houston Press (TX)
Copyright:   2001 New Times, Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.houston-press.com/
Author:   Steve McVicker
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n005/a01.html


(11) SEPULVEDA CASE - ENOUGH DELAYS    (Top)

The community will hear the results of the Modesto Police Department's investigation into the shooting of 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda no later than Jan.  12. That's a firm commitment from Police Chief Roy Wasden, who says it will be kept whether or not other law enforcement agencies want further postponement.

The report is finished and it should be made public.  Further delays risk fueling suspicion and renewing the anger and distrust shown by some people following the Sept.  3 shooting during a dawn drug raid at the boy's home.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source:   Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright:   2000 The Modesto Bee
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://www.modbee.com/help/letters.html
Website:   http://www.modbee.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1886/a01.html


COMMENT: (12-14)    (Top)

President Clinton's commutation of the harsh sentences of 2 black women evoked no criticism; instead it provoked calls for more clemency and an overhaul of federal laws.

No one should hold their breath; particularly if Ashcroft is confirmed.


(12) HARSH DRUG SENTENCES MUST BE RE-EXAMINED    (Top)

President Bill Clinton acted with both compassion and common sense when he freed Kemba Smith from a federal prison last week.  A grateful Smith, a Richmond-area native who served more than five years of a 24 1/2 -year term, said after her release that she would ``urge revision of tough, mandatory sentences that require long periods of incarceration for nonviolent offenders.''

However, it will be up to Clinton's successor, President-elect George W.  Bush, to re-examine those Draconian sentencing guidelines. Thus, we'll all see just how ``compassionate'' the conservative Bush will

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Dec 2000
Source:   Virginian-Pilot (VA)
Copyright:   2000, The Virginian-Pilot
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.pilotonline.com
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1941/a01.html


(13) CLINTON SHOULD CONSIDER LETTING THE LITTLE FISH GO    (Top)

It's never too late to be fair.  In the last few weeks of his presidency, Bill Clinton should give serious thought to the thousands of Americans who have lost five years or more of their lives for trifling drug offenses.  The injustice is rooted in federal drug laws from the mid-1980s, which punish possession of crack cocaine 100 times more harshly than possession of powdered cocaine.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 02 Jan 2001
Source:   Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright:   2001 News-Journal Corp
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://www.n-jcenter.com/letters.shtml
Website:   http://www.n-jcenter.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n003/a08.html


(14) A TIME FOR CLINTON, JUDGES TO CORRECT DRUG-TERM INJUSTICE    (Top)

Recently, over 675 leading clergy wrote to President Clinton asking him to commute the sentences of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders who have served more than five years.  Columnists and editorial boards around the country are joining the call.

In the remaining days of the Clinton administration, how can the president identify some of those low-level, nonviolent drug offenders most deserving of release? He can appeal to the federal judges.

[snip]

Since 1995, the Clinton administration has sent over 100,000 drug offenders to federal prisons.  The federal prison population has doubled since Clinton entered office, from 73,000 to over 146,000.  There are now tens of thousands of low-level, first-time offenders in federal prison with no violence in their background.  Many of them deserve to be freed.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Dec 2000
Source:   San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.uniontrib.com/
Author:   Eric E.  Sterling
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1936/a08.html


Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (15-17)    (Top)

Following the Kubby trial, California's attention is shifting to the Oakland CBC case pending in the Supreme Court.  An Oakland Tribune article disclosed that several quasi-legal buyers' clubs still operate in the Bay Area.

Nevertheless, an article from a small town newspaper demonstrates that no one is safe from arrest-- even when he grows his own with a recommendation.

From Eureka came evidence that at least one editorial writer has-- albeit grudgingly-- grasped the real significance of medical marijuana.

It's about time.


(15) ACTIVISTS MAKE HISTORY FOR CANNABIS    (Top)

High Court To Hear Oaklanders' View

The Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative will make history this spring by arguing to the U.S.  Supreme Court that medical necessity for marijuana use should provide an exception to federal drug laws.

Meanwhile, Paula Beal isn't interested in making history -- she just wants to run her own medical marijuana clinic in a small storefront just off East 14th Street.  She intends to start taking clients early in 2001.  While the spotlight follows OCBC's battle to the nation's
highest court, others -- like Beal -- quietly are creating pot clubs of their own.

[snip]

A list of medical marijuana clubs compiled recently by the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) shows plenty of Bay Area options outside Oakland -- two are listed in Berkeley, two in Marin County, one in Stockton, four in Santa Cruz and seven in San Francisco.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 26 Dec 2000
Source:   Oakland Tribune (CA)
Copyright:   2000 MediaNews Group, Inc.  and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.oaklandtribune.com/
Author:   Josh Richman, Jeff Chorney, Staff Writers
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1931/a05.html


(16) LAW FICKLE IN USE OF MARIJUANA    (Top)

Growers, Smokers And Officers Face Different Rules In Different Jurisdictions

The 100 marijuana plants that once flourished under grow lamps in Mike Lee's Crockett home now sit, boxed and browning, in a police evidence locker.  To Lee, a 52-year-old handyman, they are confiscated medicine for chronic gastritis, a condition he claims he has suffered for years, and one that calls for at least five joints a day.

Detectives ran across the indoor garden and arrested Lee while investigating a fire in his building.  They see the plants as contraband, figuring it is more marijuana than one man needs, regardless of his doctor's note.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 31 Dec 2000
Source:   Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Contra Costa Newspapers Inc.
Feedback:   http://www.contracostatimes.com/contact_us/letters.htm
Website:   http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Author:   Leslie Fulbright, Times Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1949/a03.html


(17) MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEASURE MASKS LARGER FAILURE OF VISION    (Top)

County supervisors made a cautious move this week that should provide some help to medical marijuana users without taking the county onto shaky legal ground.

The U.S.  Supreme Court eventually will rule on California's Proposition 215, and it makes no sense for the county to anticipate their decision.

[snip]

While there are valid arguments against legalizing marijuana, it might make more sense to regulate, control and tax it like tobacco and alcohol than to condone hypocrisy of this sort.  We have been trying to suppress marijuana for almost a century, with no result but a great expenditure of public funds that might have been put to better use. The experience with alcohol prohibition in the 1920s should have been a sufficient lesson in futility.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 21 Dec 2000
Source:   Times-Standard (CA)
Copyright:   2000 The Times-Standard
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.times-standard.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1937/a05.html


COMMENT: (18)    (Top)

From Canada: an uninformed article bemoaning the classical effects of any substance prohibition: younger initiates experimenting with an ever more potent product.


(18) POT USE SKY-HIGH    (Top)

AADAC Says More Teens Addicted To Marijuana Than Alcohol For the first time, marijuana has replaced alcohol as the most abused drug among Calgary youths seeking help from the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

[snip]

"It's not the same stuff it used to be -- it's stronger, therefore the impact of it is much higher," she said, adding the drug can be psychologically addictive.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Dec 2000
Source:   Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright:   2000 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Author:   Bill Kaufmann
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1929/a08.html


International News


COMMENT: (19-22)    (Top)

Thanks to Plan Colombia, the American press has partially opened a sleepy eye to the destabilization our domestic policy is producing in South America.  An even larger, more populous region is jeopardized by the same forces; yet the other eye remains firmly closed.

An item from Singapore proves this phenomenon isn't confined to Central Asia.  Our press may be clueless, but the Pentagon is not.

A report from Central America suggests that Colombia and its neighbors aren't the only regional nations being affected by our drug war.

And as for Colombia; an old Cold War hand found considerable peril for the US lurking in the alliances fostered by that particular adventure.


(19) NARCOTIC FLOOD THREATENS TO WASH AWAY CENTRAL ASIAN STABILITY    (Top)

BISHKEK.  Central Asia has become an international center of drug business and drug trafficking.  According to the UN experts, 80% of heroin consumed by Western Europe comes from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Half of these drugs - about 120 tons of heroin equivalent a year - is delivered to Europe through the Central Asian countries.  Today the ancient Great Silk Road is used as the route of drug trafficking.

[snip]

This unique combination of historical and geographical factors has ensured a large flow of drugs through the region.  From 1992 to 1996 the transit of opium through Central Asia rose 13.5 times.  Opium, heroin, morphine, and hemp are delivered to Europe in exchange for synthetic drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 30 Dec 2000
Source:   Times of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan)
Copyright:   2000 The Times of Central Asia
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://www.times.kg/comments/
Website:   http://www.times.kg/
Author:   Kanai Manayev
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1942/a07.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Asia


(20) US ARMY TO TRAIN THAIS IN WAR ON DRUGS    (Top)

BANGKOK - With experience gained from efforts against the cocaine trade in Colombia, US Army units will next month begin training Thai troops trying to stem a narcotics tide coming from Myanmar. A joint command headquarters is to be set up in the northern city of Chiang Mai next month, the Bangkok Post quoted a senior Thai military officer as saying.

[snip]

This group is a narcotics trafficking outfit operating inside Myanmar, and is expected to increase methamphetamine output to 600 million pills from the 400 million this year.

Only 25 million pills were seized in Thailand this year, he said. The United Wa State Army has been described as perhaps the largest narcotics trafficking group in the world.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 31 Dec 2000
Source:   Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright:   2000 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Contact:  
Website:   http://straitstimes.asia1.com/
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1950/a02.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Thailand


(21) GUATEMALA SEES ORGANIZED CRIME AS SECURITY THREAT    (Top)

Narcotics:   Smugglers, Flush With Profits From A New Contraband, Have
Become A Formidable Force.

GUATEMALA CITY--Powerful organizations that already control smuggling, auto theft and arms trafficking in Central America are using those established networks to transport illegal drugs, U.S.  and regional officials warn.

The infusion of drug money is allowing criminal enterprises to become a force that can threaten national security, worrying military and church officials as well as government authorities.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 31 Dec 2000
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright:   2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  
Feedback:   http://www.latimes.com/siteservices/talk_contacts.htm
Website:   http://www.latimes.com/
Author:   Juanita Darling, Times Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1949/a02.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Guatemala


(22) THREE SOLDIERS JOIN FORCES    (Top)

THE improbable but fast-growing friendship of three career military revolutionaries -- Fidel Castro of Cuba, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela -- poses an urgent challenge to U.S. interests worldwide and to President-elect George W.  Bush. It is a friendship with considerable power: Venezuela and Iraq are among the top 10 oil exporters in the world, and Cuba is a beneficiary of their largess and, in Venezuela's case, a mentor of revolution.

[snip]

To complicate matters and his relations with the United States, Chavez has been openly supporting leftist guerrilla movements in neighboring Colombia.  The rebels control big swaths of Colombian territory, along with numerous coca plantations.  Last month, Chavez invited two Colombian rebel leaders, including the daughter of the chief of the principal guerrilla movement, to address the "Latin American Parliament" held in the national legislative chamber.  Washington has already committed $1.3 billion, mainly in military aid, to the eradication of both guerrillas and coca plantations.

This could foreshadow a big U.S.  commitment in Colombia and an eventual conflict with Chavez that may interfere with the flow of oil north from Venezuela.

Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Dec 2000
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright:   2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author:   Tad Szulc
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1941/a10.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

NewsHawk Familiarization Page Updated

Jo-D Dunbar and Richard Lake have collaborated to update the NewsHawk web page.  This handy page let's people know how to assist MAP by becoming a NewsHawk and sending articles in to our editorial clearinghouse.

http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm

This is a nice update which both simplifies and clarifies how anyone can be easily be involved in this important activity.


MSNBC Special Sunday January 7 "America's new heroin Epidemics"

Sunday night January 7th MSNBC premiere's "...along comes the horse..." a two hour documentary on heroin in the US.  The documentary was shot in the US and Colombia over eight months last year.  It begins at 8PM-10PM and then repeats at 10PM till midnight, ET.

There will be a web site for reaction and information.

Submitted by Michael Singer, Executive Producer

http://www.msnbc.com/news/508923.asp


THIS JUST IN    (Top)

Hot Articles in Too Late for This Issue

New Mexico thumbs its nose at the war on drugs / Daniel Forbes http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/01/05/johnson/index.html

Metro Accepts Marijuana Ad Banned in Boston
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n009.a08.html


2000- A Year in the Life of Marijuana Prohibition
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n010/a04.html
Website:   http://www.marijuananews.com/
Author:   Kevin Christopher Nelson
Note:   Nelson is a writer living in Bellingham, WA.
Also:   MAP is providing this review as an exception to our announced
policy on web only items.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"The law is like a spider web where the little flies get caught and the big flies fall through."-- Aristarchus, Greek Philologist


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