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DrugSense Weekly
April 27, 2001 #197

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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/29/24)


* This Just In


(1) An Unwinnable War On Drugs
(2) Hypocrisy 101: W. Gets Tough On "Youthful Indiscretions"
(3) Will Foster Freed From Jail
(4) U.S. Shifts On Afghanistan Policy

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) Bush's New Drug Czar?
(6) Nevada Lawmakers Tackle 'Medical Marijuana'
(7) How Real is 'Traffic'?
(8) Virtually NORML
(9) Cranking up the War Against the 'Drug War'
COMMENT: (10-13)
(10) Bush to Require Disclosure of Drug Offenses for Student Aid
(11) City Law Targeting Raves Takes Big Step
(12) Conference Warns of Raves

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (13-17)
(13) Stir Crazy
(14) Desperate for Prison Guards, Some States Rob Cradles
(15) Inside Pelican Bay
(16) The Myth of Racial Profiling
(17) A Test of Civilization

Cannabis & Hemp-

(18) The Pol & The Pot
(19) Should Marijuana be Legalized?
COMMENT: (20)
(20) Up In Smoke
COMMENT: (21)
(21) 'Grassroots' Partnership Seeks High Vote

International News-

COMMENT: (22-25)
(22) Peru's Reckless Shooting
(23) Plane's Shooting Raises Doubts Over Drug War
(24) Spraying Misery
(25) Message To Bush - Fight Drugs With Aid, Not Guns

* Hot Off The 'Net


    MPP Call to Action
    Drugs and Disparity
    Articles on the Shoot down
    Grass : The Paged Experience

* Feature Article


    Bad News for Drug Warriors / by Tom O'Connell M.D.

* Quote of the Week


    Hans Habe


THIS JUST IN    (Top)


(1) AN UNWINNABLE WAR ON DRUGS    (Top)

What has the war on drugs done for Darryl Strawberry and Robert Downey Jr.? Are they better off or worse off? Are they the targets or the victims? Should they be thankful or regretful?

The war on drugs is really a war on people - on anyone who uses or grows or makes or sells a forbidden drug.  It essentially consists of two elements: the predominant role of criminalization of all things having to do with marijuana, cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy and other prohibited drugs and the presumption that abstinence - coerced if necessary - is the only permissible relationship with these drugs. It's that combination that ultimately makes this war unwinnable.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 26 Apr 2001
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2001 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Ethan A.  Nadelmann
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n735.a06.html


(2) HYPOCRISY 101: W. GETS TOUGH ON "YOUTHFUL INDESCRETIONS"    (Top)

America's insane drug war claimed fresh victims last week.  The casualties were rightly front-page news -- a child and her mother murdered in the skies of Peru in the name of protecting our children from drugs.

Receiving a lot less attention were the tens of thousands of young people wounded by the Bush administration's decision to strictly enforce a law that denies financial aid to college students convicted of possessing illegal drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 26 Apr 2001
Source:   Arianna Online
Copyright:   2001 Christabella, Inc.
Contact:  
Website:   http://ariannaonline.com/
URL:   http://ariannaonline.com/columns/files/042601.html


(3) WILL FOSTER FREED FROM JAIL    (Top)

Will Foster, the Oklahoma medical marijuana patent who was sentenced to 93 years in prison for keeping a small cultivation room in his basement, was released on parole yesterday.

Foster, a 42-year-old father of two, was arrested in 1995 for growing marijuana in the basement of his Tulsa, home.  He used the marijuana to relieve chronic pain caused by acute rheumatoid arthritis.

[snip]

The parole board quickly issued a unanimous recommendation for the release of Foster.  Oklahoma governor Frank Keating made the unusual move of turning this down.  The next year Foster came up for parole and he received the recommendation of the board but Keating rejected it.  On his third attempt at parole, Keating was busy being a candidate for attorney general and then the drug czar.  Only when it was clear that Keating would not get either position did he finally agree to release Foster.

Foster immediately flew to California where he plans to rebuild his life.

Source:   Story of Will Foster
Author:   Don Wirtshafter
Website:   http://gnv.fdt.net/~jrdawson/willfoster.htm
URL:   http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9501.shtml


(4) U.S. SHIFTS ON AFGHANISTAN POLICY    (Top)

2 Narcotics Experts Join International Team To Help Farmers

United Nations, New York -- In a first cautious step toward reducing the near-total isolation of the Taleban, the Bush administration has sent two U.S.  narcotics experts to Afghanistan as part of an international team assessing how to help farmers who have ended opium poppy cultivation, according to UN officials.

[snip]

The Clinton administration had opposed projects to assist Afghans in a drug-eradication program.  U.S. policy had been to isolate the Taleban and punish them through UN sanctions because of their refusal to turn over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born Islamic militant wanted in connection with bombings of two U.S.  embassies in Africa. The United States may now have a less rigid policy.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 27 Apr 2001
Source:   International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright:   International Herald Tribune 2001
Website:   http://www.iht.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/212
Author:   Barbara Crossette, New York Times Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n742/a11.html


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-9)    (Top)

Dan Forbes still has an uncanny ability to scope out ONDCP; his Salon piece identifying the new czar as John P.  Walters, former Bennett deputy during Bush I, has elicited no denials from Bush II.

Those hoping for less punishment will be disappointed-- if quotes provided by hawkish Nevada Columnist Guy Farmer are accurate.

That 3/4 of Americans view the drug war as failing must irk such dedicated warriors as Walters and DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall, yet their best rhetorical efforts at countering that perception come across as increasingly weak tea.

Gary Johnson was everywhere last week; attacking the drug war on one TV show after another; Jake Tapper of Salon caught up with him after one of them.

Columnist Peter Shrag's perceptive overview of reform's recent political victories also warns they are subject to misinterpretation by a chronically confused and poorly informed electorate.


(5) BUSH'S NEW DRUG CZAR?    (Top)

John Walters, a hard-line drug warrior, is the leading candidate to replace Barry McCaffrey.  Advocates say he's a throwback to the bad old days of Bill Bennett.

April 20, 2001 - John Walters, a hard-liner who was former drug czar William Bennett's deputy during the first Bush administration, has emerged as the leading candidate to become director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to a knowledgeable drug policy source.

[snip]

Walters is a self-proclaimed hawk on drug policy matters who has been strongly critical of the Clinton administration's execution of the drug war.  At the ONDCP, he was responsible for developing enforcement policy and coordinating attempts to reduce the supply of banned drugs.  The Bennett-Walters drug office was characterized by widespread use of the bully pulpit to issue harsh moral condemnations of users of illegal drugs, little distinction between marijuana and drugs like heroin and cocaine and an emphasis on punishment over rehabilitation.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source:   Salon (US Web)
Copyright:   2001 Salon
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/381
Author:   Dan Forbes,
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n687/a09.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/forbes.htm (Forbes, Daniel)


(6) NEVADA LAWMAKERS TACKLE "MEDICAL MARIJUANA"    (Top)

Nevada voters, in their infinite wisdom (if that's the right word), saddled state lawmakers with a legal dilemma by approving a "medical marijuana" ballot initiative in 1998 and again last year.

[snip]

As former Deputy Drug Czar John Walters noted recently in the Weekly Standard, "Downey only seems to get treated for his addiction when he is forced to by the criminal justice system.  Indeed, it's hard to imagine a worse advertisement for the effectiveness of drug treatment than Robert Downey Jr..."

Those who advocate drug treatment programs instead of law enforcement and incarceration are natural allies of the drug legalizers.  "The therapy-only lobby is alive and well and more dogmatic than ever," observed Walters.  The therapy-only folks contend that drug addiction is a disease, not a pattern of behavior for which people can be held responsible.

"The idea that our prisons are filled with people whose only offense was possession of an illegal drug is utter fantasy," Walters asserted.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 22 Apr 2001
Source:   Nevada Appeal (NV)
Copyright:   2001 Nevada Appeal
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/896
Author:   Guy W.  Farmer
Note:   Guy Farmer is a semi-retired journalist and former U.S.  diplomat.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n704/a02.html


(7) HOW REAL IS 'TRAFFIC'?    (Top)

The movie "Traffic" is the most realistic portrayal of drug law enforcement and the ravages of drugs on American families that I've ever seen.  It accurately shows the complexity of the drug trade -- from its origins in foreign countries to its terminal point on our streets -- and how predatory drug traffickers victimize young, weak and vulnerable people in our society.

[snip]

Despite a perception that the fight against drugs is lost, today's level of drug use is less than half what it was two decades ago.  This progress was made during a time when people thought casual drug use was socially acceptable.  But slowly we learned that the consequences and risks of using drugs were severe.  Through a balanced approach of law enforcement, prevention and treatment, our nation has made a positive impact on the levels of drug trafficking and use.  For the sake of our sons and daughters, the potential Carolines of the world, we need to persevere, with courage and determination.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Copyright:   2001 The Washington Post Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author:   Donnie R.  Marshall
Note:   The writer is administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n696/a10.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)


(8) VIRTUALLY NORML    (Top)

Gov.  Gary Johnson comes to Washington hoping to find converts to his anti-drug war crusade.  He leaves one frustrated man.

Gov.  Gary Johnson, Republican of New Mexico, shakes his head. He doesn't seem angry, or outraged -- just sort of a combination of the two.

But he's also kind of mellow.  Like he's used to it all.

We're sitting in the green room at C-Span; Johnson's just finished taking an unreal number of supportive viewer calls on the morning chat show, "Washington Journal." But the conversation eventually turns to the victims of the shot-down missionary plane in Peru, which Johnson -- who has perhaps become the nation's leading critic of the drug war -- sees as just two more casualties in a senseless losing battle.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 24 Apr 2001
Source:   Salon (US Web)
Copyright:   2001 Salon
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/381
Author:   Jake Tapper
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n721/a08.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/johnson.htm (Johnson, Gary)


(9) CRANKING UP THE WAR AGAINST THE 'DRUG WAR'    (Top)

It's more than likely that come June, the U.S.  Supreme Court will uphold federal attempts to shut down OCBC, ...  But however the court rules, voter-enacted medical marijuana laws in Arizona, Maine, Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada -- plus one passed last year by the Hawaii Legislature -- will remain on the books. One of every five Americans now lives in a place where state law allows the medical use of pot.

[snip]

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that 74 percent of Americans believe that the drug war is a losing cause.  And while most are not ready to decriminalize drugs, a large majority support policies allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for their patients.  And in states such as California, sizable majorities are ready to send most hard drug addicts to treatment rather than prison.

But those attitudes could easily change if the reform laws don't work in the states where they've been enacted.  Here again, California is likely to become the bellwether state.  The reformers think it can be done, but the big tests still lie ahead.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 18 Apr 2001
Source:   Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright:   2001 The Sacramento Bee
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author:   Peter Schrag
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n676/a04.html


COMMENT: (10-13)    (Top)

In other news, it's increasingly obvious that policy makers at both federal and state levels are oblivious to public sentiment; they want strict enforcement of existing drug laws and are leaning toward tougher laws against club drugs.

Many of the rural newspapers that warned readers about the meth danger a year or two ago are now publishing similar scare stories about club drugs.

Any concern about alienating youth seems completely off their radar screens; they seem to be forgetting that the same young people will be voting in a few years.


(10) BUSH TO REQUIRE DISCLOSURE OF DRUG OFFENSES FOR STUDENT AID    (Top)

Washington --- The Bush administration says it will enforce a 1998 law requiring college students to disclose drug convictions on the main application for federal financial aid.

The law prohibits federal grants, loans or work assistance for at least one year after a student has been convicted of possessing or selling an illegal drug.  But the Education Department under President Clinton allowed applicants to skip the question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

"Congress passed a law.  We're enforcing it accordingly," department spokeswoman Lindsey Kozberg said Wednesday.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source:   Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Page:   1 - Front Page
Copyright:   2001 Cox Interactive Media.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author:   George Bennett, Cox News Service
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n703/a04.html


(11) CITY LAW TARGETING RAVES TAKES BIG STEP    (Top)

Landlords Would Face Jail If They Rented Drug Site

An ordinance that would make it a crime for Chicago landlords to knowingly rent out buildings for rave parties where illegal drugs are used was approved Wednesday by the City Council's Committee on Police and Fire.

Officials said the law, which carries a jail sentence of up to 6 months, is a cautious first step in the battle against Ecstasy and other designer drugs, which are gaining popularity and were linked to three deaths in the Chicago area last year.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source:   Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright:   2001 Chicago Tribune Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author:   Kevin Lynch
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n688/a07.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves)


(12) CONFERENCE WARNS OF RAVES    (Top)

Expert Says It's Vital To Stop The Use Of Designer Drugs At All-Night Parties

By the end of Tuesday's conference on raves and club drugs, the crowd had one more question: Is it happening here?

There was no clear answer.

No arrests have been made in connection with designer drugs since the all-night raves began surfacing in the north state in the past year or two, authorities said.

But that's no reason to get complacent, they were quick to add.

At least 250 police officers, social workers, teachers and students heard shocking, sometimes chilling stories on Tuesday about the relatively new drugs and their effects.  Retired Los Angeles police detective Trinka Porrata, considered to be a worldwide expert, led the conference at the Holiday Inn on Hilltop Drive.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 18 Apr 2001
Source:   Redding Record Searchlight (CA)
Copyright:   2001 Redding Record Searchlight - E.W.  Scripps
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author:   Alex Breitler
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n687/a02.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves)


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (13-17)    (Top)

A book examining the recent explosive growth of America's prisons found it to have been primarily motivated by greed at various levels; beyond that, overcrowding has already vitiated any potential benefits.

Two detailed accounts in the weekly press provide ample confirmation of the author's contentions-- and also underscore the dangers implicit in an over expanded and overcrowded prison system.

As for how those prisons are stocked and maintained; the importance of point of view was strikingly underscored by two senior columnists.  A supercilious George will sniffed incredulously at the mere suggestion of police bias, while Anthony Lewis wrote passionately that a society is measured by the way it treats its prisoners.


(13) STIR CRAZY    (Top)

How America's Get-Tough-On-Crime Attitudes Created A Prison-industrial Complex

NON-FICTION : GOING UP THE RIVER: Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T.  Hallinan (Random House, 263 pp., $24.95)

Gene Roberts, the former editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, likes to say that the most important stories don't break, they ooze.  He cites the migration of African-Americans from the South to the North after World War II as a historic shift that got little or no coverage at the time it was happening.

In "Going Up the River," Wall Street Journal reporter Joseph T. Hallinan examines an equally historic shift that has oozed in the 1980s and 1990s -- the staggering growth of a prison-industrial complex that has become entrenched with little public awareness or media attention. The U.S.  prison system has grown tenfold in 30 years, he reports, and the 2 million men and women now behind bars on any given day make up one of the largest migrations in the nation's history.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 22 Apr 2001
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright:   2001 San Jose Mercury News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author:   Julia Cass, Mercury News editor
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n711/a02.html


(14) DESPERATE FOR PRISON GUARDS, SOME STATES ROB CRADLES    (Top)

LANSING, Kan.  Donald Culbertson's face betrays the untamed skin of a teenager, and his uniform practically swims on his gangly frame.  His buzz haircut does nothing to disguise the fact that he is not long out of high school, and his way of blowing off steam after work is to play video games.

[snip]

"Put together the shortage of officers, the size of the system, the attrition rate and new officers coming on line almost all of the time, and you have a dynamite keg," said Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  "You have a real threat in terms of the security of state prisons."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2001 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Pam Belluck
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n709/a03.html


(15) INSIDE PELICAN BAY    (Top)

Instructions are written in tiny print on small scraps of paper that are wrapped in protective coverings and hidden in body cavities of departing prison parolees and inmate visitors.

Called "kites" or "wilas," the smuggled messages are a key part of an elaborate communications system that has enabled Nuestra Familia gang leaders at Pelican Bay State Prison, 250 miles north of Santa Rosa, to run organized crime syndicates on the streets of Northern California communities, authorities say.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 22 Apr 2001
Source:   Press Democrat, The (CA)
Copyright:   2001 The Press Democrat
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author:   Mike Geniella, The Press Democrat
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n707/a04.html


(16) THE MYTH OF RACIAL PROFILING    (Top)

IT is former Sen.  Eugene McCarthy's axiom: Anything said three times in Washington becomes a fact.  So it now is a fact, universally attested and detested, that racial profiling is a widespread police tactic. Everyone says so, especially since the disturbances in Cincinnati set off a riot of television chatter, many of the chatterers having no direct knowledge of that city, or of policing.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright:   2001 San Jose Mercury News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author:   George Will
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n686/a08.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)


(17) A TEST OF CIVILIZATION    (Top)

BOSTON -- There is a class of Americans, two million of them, who have little if any way to vindicate their constitutional rights.  They can be abused, tortured, raped without effective recourse to law.

They are the inmates of America's prisons.  As such, they get little sympathy from the public.  But I hope and believe that few among us would want even those who have been properly convicted and imprisoned to be deprived of their legal protection from physical harm and brutality.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2001 The New York Times Company
Section:   Opinion/Op-Ed
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Anthony Lewis
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n699/a10.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


Comment:   (18-19)

Governor Johnson conducted a whirlwind DC tour which brought cannabis reform to the nation's media, especially TV.  His delivery, far more polished (although still laced with the paternal "don't do drugs!"), is now uniform whether he's facing the choir at NORML or a skeptical television host.


(18) THE POL & THE POT    (Top)

To Gov.  Gary Johnson, the War on Drugs Has Misfired

"We need to legalize marijuana," New Mexico Gov.  Gary Johnson said yesterday, and the crowd cheered wildly.

The crowd, it should be noted, was gathered at the annual conference of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Copyright:   2001 The Washington Post Company
Author:   Peter Carlson, Washington Post Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n690/a01.html


(19) SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?    (Top)

[snip]

CARLSON:   ...  this is a quote -- we pulled this out of "Playboy." This
is what you said to a group of high school students in your state of New Mexico, and I'm quoting now: "You hear you are going to lose your mind and go crazy and even die if you smoke marijuana.  You know what? I smoked marijuana.  And when I smoked it, none of those things happened. In fact, it was kind of cool."

Now, drunk driving is kind of cool too in a way, but would you get up and tell high school kids that they ought to drunk drive?

JOHNSON:   No, and that's the distinction that you need to make here.  If
you drink and you get in a car, you crossed over the line between acceptable behavior -- and by the way, at one point that was not acceptable behavior, that was against the law! But you drink and you get in a car, you cross over the line.  You're going to do harm to somebody.

Those same rules need to apply to marijuana, or any other drug. Meaning, smoking marijuana in the confines of your own home doing no harm, arguably, to anybody other than yourself.  Do you belong in prison? No.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source:   CNN (US)
Show:   CNN Crossfire 19:30
Copyright:   2001 Cable News Network, Inc.  A Time Warner Company
Hosts:   Jake Tapper, Tucker Carlson
Guests:   Gary Johnson, Robert Maginnis
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n716/a07.html


COMMENT: (20)    (Top)

Over four years since 215 passed, California remains in disarray on "medical marijuana." Will the whiff of jury nullification emanating from Sonoma last week encourage the legislature to finally do its job?


(20) UP IN SMOKE    (Top)

California Still Lacks Coherent Standards On Medical Marijuana

In the aftermath of a second major defeat, it's no surprise that Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins will reconsider his judgments about medical marijuana cases.

After seven weeks of testimony, a jury on Thursday took less than five hours to acquit two Petaluma men.

[snip]

So, it may fall to Attorney General Bill Lockyer to pull together prosecutors, Proposition 215 advocates and others to fashion standards that are consistent and enforceable.

Pubdate:   Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Source:   Press Democrat, The (CA)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n699/a07.html


COMMENT: (21)    (Top)

Up North, cannabis reform is also gaining political strength (and provoking editorial wordplay); in its latest move, the 'Marijuana Party' (BCMP) is seeking common cause with the more traditional Canadian Alliance.


(21) 'GRASSROOTS' PARTNERSHIP SEEKS HIGH VOTE    (Top)

Former Jaffer Aide Onside

The B.C.  Marijuana Party has embarked on a surprising joint venture with the deputy national director of Stockwell Day's federal leadership campaign and several Canadian Alliance parliamentary assistants to help smoke out the right wing vote in the upcoming provincial election.

The fledgling pro-cannabis party, which plans to run a full slate of candidates in the May 16 vote, is hoping to convince Alliance supporters that its less-government, heavy-on-personal-freedom platform is a more comfortable fit than the policies of the favoured B.C. Liberals.  And to get the message out, it has hired Sean McKinsley, a former aide to MP Jason Kenney and advisor to Mr.  Day, to run its high-tech computerized phone bank.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source:   National Post (Canada)
Copyright:   2001 Southam Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author:   Jonathon Gatehouse
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n694/a11.html


International News


COMMENT: (22-25)    (Top)

Without question, the fatal downing of a plane carrying American missionaries by a Peruvian Air Force jet was the most densely covered story of the week.  As the tale unfolded, it was inevitable that the questions raised would shift from the specifics of the incident to the entire drug war; especially its emphasis on interdiction.

In Colombia, that interdiction is represented by a feckless aerial spraying program of dubious effectiveness.

Although one might have gathered from US media coverage that the Summit of the Americas in Quebec last week-end was only about protests against NAFTA, President Bush also heard some pointed objections to US drug policy.

Whether he bothered to listen is another question.


(22) PERU'S RECKLESS SHOOTING    (Top)

It should not have taken the tragic deaths of two innocent members of an American missionary family to force Washington to re-examine its cooperation with Peru's risky drug interdiction program.  Although the facts of last Friday's incident are still being sorted out, the deaths raise serious questions about how Peru's air force has been carrying out a program involving help from the Central Intelligence Agency to fight drug trafficking.  The White House is right to suspend the program's operations until it can be sure more reliable controls are in place.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 24 Apr 2001
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2001 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n714/a07.html
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n717/a10.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)


(23) PLANE'S SHOOTING RAISES DOUBTS OVER DRUG WAR    (Top)

WASHINGTON -- The shooting down of a missionary plane by anti-drug forces in Peru is raising new questions about the effectiveness of the U.S.-led drug interdiction program overseas.

White House officials lauded the program Monday and called the deaths of American missionary Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, an "isolated incident."

[snip]

But the cocaine business remains lucrative in Peru, which is one indication that interdiction and eradication efforts are having little impact.  The high value reflects "trafficker success in transporting drugs from Peru to external markets, and returning to make additional purchases," the State Department report says.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 24 Apr 2001
Source:   USA Today (US)
Section:   News; Pg 8A
Copyright:   2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co.  Inc
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Authors:   Donna Leinwand, Jack Kelley
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n719/a05.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?172 (Peruvian Aircraft Shooting)


(24) SPRAYING MISERY    (Top)

SAN JUAN DE CERRO AZUL, despite its impressive name, consists of just half a dozen wooden huts.  It stands on a ridge overlooking steep hillsides at the end of a bruising dirt track, an hour by jeep from the riverside town of San Pablo, on the Magdalena in the south of Bolivar department.  For the past ten years, San Juan has been home to Eliecer Galvis, a 38-year-old farmer.

[snip]

That is the vicious circle that is at the heart of Colombia's plight. As an illegal product, cocaine attracts a risk-inflated price. Although most of the profits go to dealers in consumer countries, what filters back to Colombia amounts to significant wealth in a poor country: estimates of the money repatriated by the drug industry range from $2.5 billion to $5 billion a year (or 2-4% of GDP).  For comparison, Colombia's defence budget is $2.8 billion, including army and police pensions.  Whether the drug money is used to finance illegal armed groups or to corrupt officials, the outcome has been a catastrophic weakening of the democratic state and the rule of law.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 21 Apr 2001
Source:   Economist, The (UK) (US Edition)
Copyright:   2001 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/132
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n690/a02.html


(25) MESSAGE TO BUSH - FIGHT DRUGS WITH AID, NOT GUNS    (Top)

This week, leaders of 34 nations will gather in Quebec City for the third Summit of the Americas.  On behalf of a powerful and growing movement in Latin America, I'm coming to Canada to deliver a message: "Plan Colombia,"the U.S.-backed anti-drug aid package, must be stopped -- for the good of Colombia and the hemisphere.

[snip]

This week, 100 Latin American civic and political leaders, including Nobel laureates Rigoberta Mench Tum and Adolfo Perez Esquivel, former Bolivian president Lydia Gueiler Tejada and former Colombian foreign minister Rodrigo Pardo, joined me in sending a letter to George W.  Bush urging him to use the Quebec City summit as an opportunity to take Plan Colombia back to the drawing board.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source:   Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright:   2001, The Globe and Mail Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author:   Antonio Aranibar Quiroga
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n686/a04.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

MPP Call to Action

If you have not done so already, please visit http://www.mpp.org/CA today to automatically send an e-mail to your legislators, encouraging them to enact every provision of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

Submitted by Ellen Komp


Drugs and Disparity

"Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court" at:

http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/

It will be released formally at a press conference including people from the faith community, civil rights leaders and juvenile justice experts.  For more information on the press conference, contact Laura Jones or Jason Ziedenberg at (202) 737-7270.


Articles on the Shoot down

The Muskegon (MI) Chronicle -- hometown paper of the late Roni Bowers, Baptist missionary mistakenly shot down in Peru -- has a great section of their website listing articles on the shoot down.  The URL is:

http://mu.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/pages/perucrash.html

Submitted by Doug McVay


Grass : The Paged Experience

This book accompanies "Grass, the Movie," the 2000 award-winning documentary film by Ron Mann.  Through vast archival imagery, new graphics by Paul Mavrides, and Mann's text, the book navigates through the history of marijuana prohibition in the US, focussing both on the legislative and extra-legal machinations developed and also on the popular media manipulations employed to legitimize these restrictions.

The book also includes essays by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum on pot and film, Dr.  John Morgan on pot and music, and Keith Stroup of NORML on the past and present politics of pot, and is introduced by actor/activist Woody Harrelson.

http://www.autonomedia.org/grass/


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Bad News for Drug Warriors
by Tom O'Connell M.D.

One week ago, two seemingly unrelated news items were posted to the MAP archive; one was the Salon piece by veteran ONDCP observer Dan Forbes who scooped the world by identifying John P.  Walters as the Bush Administration's choice to be the new drug czar.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n687/a09.html

The second was the original AP report that a plane carrying American missionaries was shot down by a Peruvian Air Force jet.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n697/a02.html

As the week progressed, it became apparent that the two stories are not only closely related, but together, may represent an important watershed in the public's understanding of just how feckless and destructive our drug policy really is.

Those who follow drug policy news closely have been aware for some time of the growing disconnect between public opinion and those who implement policy.  This was first manifest when Arizona and California passed 'medical marijuana' initiatives in 1996 over the strenuous objections of high ranking state and federal officials; the perception was further strengthened by passage of similar initiatives in 1998.

In 2000, California's Proposition 36 mandating treatment instead of incarceration extended the scope of the public's dissatisfaction with the drug war into the realm of its reliance on punishment.

Significantly, in passing 36, voters disregarded the opposition of many of the media sources which had supported 215.  Subsequently, the enthusiastic reception accorded "Traffic" and the results of the latest Pew Survey have suggested to thoughtful columnists and editorial writers that public dissatisfaction with the drug war may run even deeper than they first suspected.

In this setting, the nomination of a proponent of interdiction like Walters, who recently spoke scornfully of the very concept of 'treatment,' must be a bitter disappointment for those who had read the failure of the Bush team to quickly select a drug czar as a shift away from his father's hard line on drugs.

When the Senate begins to question Walters, many will also discover "Body Count," the harshly doctrinaire book he co-authored with Bennett and DiIulio in 1997, an effort for which the British phrase "over the top" seems particularly apt.

Peru's unique contribution to the strategy of interdiction had been to use military jets to shoot down small planes suspected of ferrying coca paste to Colombian labs; like most interdiction strategies, its "success" merely forced traffickers to use other tactics, so-- like all interdiction techniques ever devised-- it must be judged a strategic failure.

The discovery that not only is it still being used, but had resulted in the killing of a young mother and her infant daughter and was initiated at the behest a US spy plane could not have come at a worse time for our drug warriors.  As the Peruvian story unfolds with the all-too predictable efforts of the two governments to point fingers at each other, it seems to be striking a chord with a public already far more disenchanted by the drug war than bureaucrats and politicians realize.

The missionary plane was shot down only a week ago; the story may yet blow over quickly, but by underscoring the futility and destructive nature of the new drug czar's favorite 'drug control' strategy, it has guaranteed the policy he represents will receive considerable hostile scrutiny in the weeks to come.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"The world is one percent good, one percent bad, ninety-eight percent neutral.  It can go one way or the other, depending on which side is pushing.  This is why what individuals do is important." -- Hans Habe


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