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DrugSense Weekly
July 6, 2001 #206

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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/29/24)


* This Just In


(1) The Declaration Of Independence
(2) Canada Unveils New Marijuana Rules
(3) UK: Research Casts Doubt on Cannabis Benefits
(4) Portugal To Stop Busting Drug Users

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-10)
(5) The Quiet Death of Prime-Time Propaganda
(6) Think Tanks Drug War Lost
(7) New Wave of Methamphetamine Use Rolls into Region
(8) Councilman Calling for Anti-Rave Law
(9) 366 Cars Stopped, 80 Charged During Rave
(10) Fighting Ecstasy Gets New Priority

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (11-13)
(11) California Tries Treatment for Drug Users
(12) Local Drug Plans Scored
(13) Proposition to Drop Number of Female Inmates
COMMENT: (14-16)
(14) Figures Show Drug War Toughest on Minorities
(15) Profiling Difficult to Pin Down
(16) Pot's Rise Reported in Young Arrestees

Cannabis & Hemp-

(17) Study Raises Questions on Pot as Gateway Drug
(18) Drug Czar Recants: Cannabis Use Does Not Lead to Heroin
COMMENT: (19-20)
(19) We're Here. We're High. Get Used to Us.
(20) Illegal Weed Spotted in Grass
COMMENT: (21)
(21) Judge Throws Out Helicopter Drug Evidence

International News-

COMMENT: (22-27 )
(22) Cuba: Smuggle and You'll Die
(23) Iran Police Kill 9 Drug Traffickers
(24) OPED: Drugs, Spies and Power Without Limit
(25) Police Say Member of U.S. Navy Caught Smuggling Heroin From Colombia
(26) Senior Drug Mule Dies
(27) ICI Pulls Out of Cocaine War

* Hot Off The 'Net


    The Drug Policy Forum of Michigan (DPFMI) Off to a Running Start
    NIDA Report: Drug Use Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities
    NIJ Marijuana "Epidemic" Study Online
    ODCCP Global Illicit Drug Trends 2001 Online
    Keith Stroup of NORML to Chat at DrugSense
    DanceSafe Site Updated
    Political Cartoonist Rex Babin

* Letter of the Week


    Driving Up The Price Of Drugs (Again)
    by John Chase

* Feature Article


    LA Weekly Independence Day Special 25 Article on the Drug War

* Quote of the Week


    Thomas Jefferson


THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE    (Top)

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 04 Jul 2001
Source:   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright:   2001 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.jsonline.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/265
Author:   Thomas Jefferson
Note:   Printed as an editorial.
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1185.a07.html


(2) CANADA UNVEILS NEW MARIJUANA RULES    (Top)

TORONTO (AP) -- New regulations expanding the legal use of medical marijuana will allow people with terminal or debilitating illnesses to possess and cultivate pot, or designate someone to do it for them.

But the Canadian Medical Association opposed the rules announced Wednesday, saying that too little is known about the possible harm from the drug.

The guidelines take effect July 30, meeting a court-ordered deadline for the government to create the regulatory system.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 05 Jul 2001
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2001 The New York Times Company
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.nytimes.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Tom Cohen, The Associated Press
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1202.a08.html


(3) UK: RESEARCH CASTS DOUBT ON CANNABIS BENEFITS    (Top)

Setback for calls to license pot, as derivatives cause side effects and prove less valuable than conventional drugs for pain relief.

Cannabis derivatives are neither as effective nor as safe as conventional medicines for the relief of pain and prevention of sickness during cancer drug treatment, according to two reviews of existing evidence which will dismay those who hope to see marijuana licensed as a medicine.

However, neither study focused on the possible benefit to people suffering from multiple sclerosis.  Cannabis derivatives are being tested on substantial numbers of people with MS and other neuropathic disorders as a result of sufferers' claims that smoking dope relieved their symptoms and their pain.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 05 Jul 2001
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright:   2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author:   Sarah Boseley, Health Editor
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1205.a03.html


(4) PORTUGAL TO STOP BUSTING DRUG USERS    (Top)

LISBON - The Portuguese parliament yesterday decriminalized the use of illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin and viewed drug users as people in need of medical help.

Until now, drug users and those caught in possession of small amounts of banned drugs for personal use could be sentenced up to one year in jail.

With the move, Portugal became the third member of the European Union - after Spain and Italy - to decriminalize the consumption and possession of small quantities of drugs.

"The idea is to get away from punishment toward treatment," said Carlos Borges, spokesman for the Presidency Ministry which is responsible for drug policy.

Under the new law, police will report drug-takers to special commissions to be set up by local authorities which will be responsible for ensuring the addicts seek treatment.

[end]

Pubdate:   Fri, 07 Jul 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/
Page:   A29
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n945.a08.html
Note:   There has been very little attention paid to Portugal's reforms
in the English press.  What we have found is at:
http://www.mapinc.org/areas/portugal/


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-10)    (Top)

In a item befitting a slow news week, veteran ONDCP observer Dan Forbes reported on the quiet cessation of a controversial practice and wondered what it might signal about the new drug czar.

A measure of the media's continuing timidity is that not one publication ran a UPI reporter's balanced description of Peter Reuter's harsh criticism of drug policy (TJI last week).

But hype still sells papers: a scare story exactly like those that have chronicled the eastward spread of methamphetamine from California's Central Valley finally appeared in an Eastern newspaper.

Around the nation, club drugs continued to generate alarm as raves provoked increasingly punitive responses from local law enforcement agencies.


(5) THE QUIET DEATH OF PRIME-TIME PROPAGANDA    (Top)

With no fanfare, the White House drug office pulls the plug on its controversial program to pay TV networks for putting anti-drug messages in popular shows.

The White House program to financially reward television networks for anti-drug messages embedded in sitcoms and dramas was born in secrecy, achieved stunning midlife notoriety and now has been quietly terminated.

[snip]

The timing of such a move by acting director Jurith accomplishes several ends for the Bush administration.  It is unusual, considering the widely publicized expectation that John Walters would soon be nominated as drug czar, for an acting director to take such a step, though Jurith is a respected career civil servant.  But it allows Walters to avoid a potentially messy inaugural decision.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Jun 2001
Source:   Salon (US Web)
Copyright:   2001 Salon
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/381
Author:   Daniel Forbes
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1161/a01.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/forbes.htm (Forbes, Daniel)


(6) THINK TANKS DRUG WAR LOST    (Top)

WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- The United States is losing the war on drugs because of the shortcomings and failures of current U.S.  drug policy, says a recent report from a major think tank.

U.S.  policy, which is focused on interdiction and incarceration, has failed to reduce the availability of drugs, while forcing U.S. anti-drug institutions to watch helplessly as street prices of illegal substances mysteriously fell, said the report.

The report's author Peter Reuter -- a drug policy analyst with the RAND Institute and the founder and former director of RAND's Drug Policy Research Center -- said that this failure occurred despite a more than threefold increase in allotted drug war spending, from $10 billion annually in the 1980s to $35 billion in the late 1990s.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 26 Jun 2001
Source:   United Press International (Wire)
Copyright:   2001 United Press International
Author:   Stephanie K.  Taylor
Related:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1096/a01.html
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1146/a04.html


(7) NEW WAVE OF METHAMPHETAMINE USE ROLLS INTO REGION    (Top)

Many Small Towns Aren't Equipped To Deal With Drug Resurgence

[snip]

Methamphetamine use has undergone a revival of sorts
since the mid-1990s, steadily moving east from California through the Midwest.

In response, police in states such as Missouri and Michigan began heavily cracking down on clandestine labs and have seen the number of raids climb past 100 a year.

...  Before 1999, the SBI responded to perhaps two or three sites a
year, a number so low that the agency didn't bother to track the statistics.

So far this year, SBI cleanup crews have been summoned to 13 sites throughout North Carolina, from Erwin, a textile town in Harnett County near the Cape Fear River, to Wilkesboro in the northwestern corner of the state.  Four labs have been raided in the Triad, three of them - including labs in Thomasville, Trinity and High Point - within the past 10 days.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright:   2001 Piedmont Publishing Co.  Inc.
Author:   Deirdre Fernandes
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1166/a11.html


(8) COUNCILMAN CALLING FOR ANTI-RAVE LAW    (Top)

One member of the Greenville County Council says he will urge his colleagues to consider an ordinance discouraging or altogether prohibiting the all-night psychedelic dance parties known as raves.

The comments by Councilman Joe Dill came after 70 people were arrested last weekend on drug and disorderly conduct charges at a Westside rave staged at the Carolina Metroplex on White Horse Road.

"This is outrageous," said Dill, who says he'll bring the subject of raves up for discussion when the County Council reconvenes from its summer break in August.  "These things could turn into a major problem if we don't deal with it.  We don't need this in Greenville County, and I will definitely do everything I can to make sure it doesn't catch on here."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Greenville News (SC)
Copyright:   2001 The Greenville News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/877
Author:   April E Moorefield
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1170/a04.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves)


(9) 366 CARS STOPPED, 80 CHARGED DURING RAVE    (Top)

CHEYENNE, Wyo.  (AP) - Representatives of several law enforcement agencies said their large-scale presence at a techno music show south of town was justified.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 people attended the event at the Terry Bison Ranch. Eighty-three law-enforcement officers were among the 132 public safety officials on hand.

At a press conference Tuesday, representatives of the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, state Division of Criminal Investigation and other agencies said 366 cars were stopped and 80 people were charged with drug crimes.

Felony drug charges were filed against six people.

"People need to ask themselves, if we had done nothing whatsoever, what could have happened?" said Steve Miller, deputy director of the DCI.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Jun 2001
Source:   Casper Star-Tribune (WY)
Copyright:   2001 Casper Star-Tribune
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1144/a07.html


(10) FIGHTING ECSTASY GETS NEW PRIORITY    (Top)

Federal drug officials are creating a statewide computer database to combat Ecstasy trafficking in New Jersey, an intelligence system said to be the first of its kind in the nation.

The U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration's New Jersey database will contain information from local law enforcement agencies on all Ecstasy dealers and distributors arrested in the state and on patterns of the drug's sale.  It also will catalog the different types of the drug and allow DEA chemists to use sophisticated scientific methods to trace manufacturers.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright:   2001 Bergen Record Corp.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author:   Mitchel Maddux
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1167/a03.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (11-13)    (Top)

Proposition 36 went into effect on July 1 amid a great deal of uncertainty; a preliminary assessment by the Lindesmith Center not only found considerable variation in both preparedness and attitude from one county to another, it irked officials in at least one of them.

In any event, the most certain short term effect of 36 should be a sharp reduction in the number of women being imprisoned for drug offenses.


(11) CALIFORNIA TRIES TREATMENT FOR DRUG USERS    (Top)

The nation's boldest effort to put drug users into treatment instead of prison begins Monday in California.

Proposition 36, a sweeping initiative approved by voters in November, directs judges to require treatment instead of incarceration to most non-violent, drug users on their first and second offense.  It does not apply to drug dealers.

Previously, treatment was an option only if offenders pleaded guilty and a judge approved.

[snip]

"The stakes are high," says Jack Riley, criminal justice director of RAND, a non-partisan think tank.  "If Prop. 36 succeeds to any extent, we may see wide scale diversion across the country from incarceration to treatment.  If it doesn't work, we probably have done great harm to that cause."

Pubdate:   Mon, 02 Jul 2001
Source:   USA Today (US)
Copyright:   2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co.  Inc
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1171/a04.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm


(12) LOCAL DRUG PLANS SCORED    (Top)

In a blistering report on the county's plan to implement Proposition 36, a national drug policy foundation on Wednesday said the county is bolstering the criminal justice system instead of emphasizing drug treatment.

The Lindesmith Center, which backed the measure that mandates treatment over incarceration as an alternative to the nation's war on drugs, gave San Bernardino County its lowest grade: F.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Source:   San Bernardino Sun (CA)
Copyright:   2001 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Note:   Letters of 200 words or less are preferred
Author:   Chris Nguyen, Felisa Cardona
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1148/a03.html


(13) PROPOSITION TO DROP NUMBER OF FEMALE INMATES    (Top)

CHINO -- The number of inmates at the California Institution for Women is expected to drop significantly from the effects of Proposition 36, the voter-passed initiative that sends drug offenders to treatment programs instead of prison.

The legislation takes effect today and could have a big impact on the prison, where more than 80 percent of the inmate population is serving time for drug-related crimes, according to prison officials.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (CA)
Copyright:   2001 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Author:   Blanca E.  Cordova, Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1165/a02.html


COMMENT: (14-16)    (Top)

A widely reprinted AP item comparing the percentage of black males in prison with their representation in the recent census was shocking; but hardly surprising to anyone following the drug war.

One of the mechanisms producing those statistics-- profiling-- seems as vexing and intractable now as when first uncovered.

Finally; a private agency reported findings and conclusions which seem certain to provoke widespread discussion: a dramatic rise in the incidence of cannabis use in youthful arrestees was seen as positive.


(14) FIGURES SHOW DRUG WAR TOUGHEST ON MINORITIES    (Top)

Disparity In Jail Population Illustrated Across Country

NEW HAVEN, Conn.  - When an epidemic of crack and gang violence erupted in cities like New Haven in the 1990s, police and lawmakers struck back hard.

The war on drugs yielded dozens of new laws, including mandatory sentences for drug dealers and heavier penalties for dealing crack rather than powdered cocaine.

But those laws also had unintended consequences in minority communities.

Black men make up less than 3 percent of Connecticut's population but account for 47 percent of inmates in prisons, jails and halfway houses, 2000 census figures show.

One in 11 black men between the ages of 18 and 64 in Connecticut is behind bars, the census found.  In 1990, that figure was about one in

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Source:   Daily Southtown (IL)
Copyright:   2001 Daily Southtown
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/810
Author:   Diane Scarponi, The Associated Press
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1154/a09.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)


(15) PROFILING DIFFICULT TO PIN DOWN    (Top)

ACLU, State Police Remain At Odds Over Car Stops, Searches

Deborah A.  Jeon says little has changed since the American Civil Liberties Union first sued the Maryland State Police, accusing troopers of using race as a reason for stopping and searching minority motorists.

"State police have not taken the problem seriously," the ACLU staff lawyer maintains.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   2001 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author:   Del Quentin Wilber
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1144/a03.html


(16) POT'S RISE REPORTED IN YOUNG ARRESTEES    (Top)

Crime:   Marijuana Appears To Have Replaced Crack As Drug Of Choice For
Those Ages 18 To 20

While marijuana use during the 1990s held steady in the nation's general population, its popularity among 18- to 20-year-olds arrested for crimes soared and is now epidemic, according to a report released Friday by the U.S.  Department of Justice.

Moreover, the study of 23 cities, including Los Angeles, found that as marijuana use grew, crack and heroin use declined significantly, raising questions about the long-debated inevitability that marijuana use leads to harder drugs.

"I think the findings are powerfully significant," said the study's co-author, Andrew Golub, a senior researcher at the National Development and Research Institute, a New York-based private, nonprofit foundation.

[snip]

"This is a social phenomenon," Golub said.  "These youths define marijuana as not a drug."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 30 Jun 2001
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright:   2001 Los Angeles Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author:   Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writer
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1163/a10.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


Comment:   (17-18)

Although disingenuous drug warriors will undoubtedly continue to spout the gateway theory, articles from both sides of the Atlantic exposed the fallacy of this tired myth.


(17) STUDY RAISES QUESTIONS ON POT AS GATEWAY DRUG    (Top)

While marijuana use during the 1990s held steady in the nation's general population, its popularity among 18- to 20-year-olds arrested for crimes soared and is now epidemic, according to a report released Friday by the U.S.  Department of Justice.

Moreover, the study of 23 cities found that as marijuana use grew, crack and heroin use declined significantly, raising questions about the long-debated inevitability that marijuana use will lead to harder drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 30 Jun 2001
Source:   Herald, The (WA)
Copyright:   2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1160/a07.html


(18) DRUG CZAR RECANTS: CANNABIS USE DOES NOT LEAD TO HEROIN    (Top)

BRITAIN'S first drugs czar, Keith Hellawell, has softened his hard line on cannabis, saying that he no longer believes it necessarily leads on to harder drugs.

In a significant U-turn the anti-drugs co-ordinator, who was sidelined by David Blunkett, the home secretary, last month, said: "I do not believe it's a gateway drug."

[snip]

However, last week he said: "The evidence we've got from New Zealand is that if someone smokes a joint of cannabis a week they are 60 times more likely to be involved in harder drugs than those who do not use it at that level.  That is one piece of evidence.

"That does not mean that everybody who smokes 50 joints a year will automatically be involved in hard drugs."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Sunday Times (UK)
Copyright:   2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/439
Author:   Rosie Waterhouse
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1165/a01.html


COMMENT: (19-20)    (Top)

Two pro-cannabis propaganda stories showed not only how creative cannabis users are but also dispels the theory that pot smokers are lazy and unmotivated.


(19) WE'RE HERE. WE'RE HIGH. GET USED TO US.    (Top)

Jeff Jarvis and Tracy Johnson couldn't have planned it better. Increasingly frustrated by the stigma of what they see as a harmless and popular activity, they decided to take to the radio waves.

The couple, who moved from Aloha to Bend earlier this year, approached Portland's KUFO-FM in May with a proposed script for a 30-second radio ad.  The station turned them down.

KUFO wasn't alone in such thinking.  Jeff and Tracy, both 39, have also been turned down by Portland's KNRK-FM, KGON-FM, KKRZ-FM, KKCW-FM and KEX-AM, and by stations in Seattle and Bend.  Plan B--bus and Max banners--was nixed by Obie Media, which handles advertising on Tri-Met.  A proposed ad in the Sunday Oregonian was found by the paper to be "unsuitable for publication."

What offensive message do these two deviants propose? In short, it's this: A lot of normal (rather than NORML) people use marijuana, so be wary of stereotypes.

[snip]

Eventually the couple found some folks willing to take their money, here at WW (their full-page ad, which cost $2,555, appears elsewhere in this issue).  And they may yet hit the airwaves: On Friday, KDBZ-AM 620 (appropriately known as The Buzz) reviewed the script and said the station would consider running it.

Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Jun 2001
Source:   Willamette Week (OR)
Copyright:   2001 Willamette Week
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/499
Author:   John Schrag
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1144/a02.html


(20) ILLEGAL WEED SPOTTED IN GRASS    (Top)

Mysterious Mower Carves Out Slang Term For Marijuana

Did someone use a patch of grass to say something about an illegal weed?

That's one theory making the rounds after an unknown man mowed the number "420" in 20-foot-long digits onto a pair of Peoria hillsides flanking the McClugage Bridge and its Adams Street ramps this week.

That number has been used as underground slang in reference to marijuana.  State highway department officials are irked by the possibly symbolic vandalism in the shadow of the McClugage, one of Peoria's most-used gateways.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 29 Jun 2001
Source:   Peoria Journal Star (IL)
Copyright:   2001 Peoria Journal Star
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/338
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1157/a07.html


COMMENT: (21)    (Top)

Following closely in the footsteps of the U.S.  Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has also ruled that cops must obtain a warrant prior to peering into citizens' property with infrared radar.


(21) JUDGE THROWS OUT HELICOPTER DRUG EVIDENCE    (Top)

'Invasion Of Privacy'

VANCOUVER - The Supreme Court of British Columbia has thrown out evidence gathered by the RCMP in a drug investigation because it was seized after police used a helicopter equipped with infrared radar without a warrant.

Justice Wally Oppal said using a helicopter without a search warrant amounted to an unauthorized invasion of privacy, noting the flyovers were so low police reported seeing someone urinating.

[snip]

"The accused's right to privacy was clearly violated by the inordinately low altitude of the flights.  The police admitted that the altitude of the flyovers was so low that they could see one of the parties urinating.  This was a private residence. The flyovers together with the use of the intrusive technology constituted an unlawful search and seizure."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Source:   National Post (Canada)
Copyright:   2001 Southam Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author:   Mark Hume
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1148/a11.html


International News


COMMENT: (22-27 )    (Top)

Tough rhetoric and action continued around the globe this week.  The Cuban government spoke of killing drug criminals, while the Iranian government was actually doing it.  The Australian government was a bit more subtle, advocating a plan to push its spy agency into the drug war.

Despite all the threats, drug smuggling continues, even among seemingly unlikely suspects.  One, a member of the U.S. Navy, was caught allegedly trying to take drugs out of Colombia.  In Canada, a 70-year-old man died with drug-filled balloons in his stomach.

And while some governments haven't let the shameful excesses of the drug war dissuade them from pursuing it, a British company has decided to withdraw from participating in the chemical assault on Colombia.


(22) CUBA: SMUGGLE AND YOU'LL DIE    (Top)

Nation Steps Up Enforcement Of Trafficking Laws

HAVANA - As drug seizures in Cuba rise to unprecedented levels, the island's justice minister warned Tuesday that traffickers who smuggle drugs in the land of Fidel Castro face the ultimate punishment.

"For humanitarian reasons, the death penalty doesn't please us.  But the message gets through to drug traffickers," said Justice Minister Roberto Diaz.

Cuban authorities last year seized more than 13 tons of drugs, more than they've taken in a single year since at least 1995.  Drug-laden boats and planes coming from Colombia and other nations increasingly use Cuban airspace and territorial waters to hide from authorities as they head toward the Bahamas and the United States.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 30 Jun 2001
Source:   Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright:   2001 The Dallas Morning News
Author:   Tracey Eaton
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1162.a02.html


(23) IRAN POLICE KILL 9 DRUG TRAFFICKERS    (Top)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Police have carried out a major crackdown on drug trafficking and abuse during the past week, arresting 11,892 addicts and traders, and killing nine traffickers in shootouts, Iran's official news agency said Sunday.

Police confiscated 1,949 pounds of drugs in the four-day sweep conducted across the nation, the Islamic Republic News Agency said. Seven trafficking rings were destroyed.

[snip]

Iran is a major route for smuggling drugs from Afghanistan and Pakistan to markets in the Gulf, Europe and beyond.  Opium, heroin, hashish and morphine are taken across the country.  Single busts involving a ton or more of drugs are not uncommon.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright:   2001 Associated Press
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1169.a07.html


(24) OPED: DRUGS, SPIES AND POWER WITHOUT LIMIT    (Top)

The combination of spies and drugs does not have a happy history. Which is one reason it's not a good idea to let spies get mixed up in the illegal drug trade while giving them immunity from the law.

Yet this explosive mix is sanctioned by the Intelligence Services Bill introduced into Federal Parliament last week.

[snip]

Although ASIS was set up in 1952 to collect national security information, it has expanded into gathering economic intelligence. Now the Howard Government wants it to penetrate overseas drug rings. Unfortunately, the huge amount of money in the drug trade and the clandestine world of spying has proved a volatile combination.

[snip

Pubdate:   Sun, 01 Jul 2001
Source:   Sun-Herald (Australia)
Copyright:   2001 John Fairfax Holdings Ltd
Author:   Brian Toohey
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1170.a02.html


(25) POLICE SAY MEMBER OF U.S. NAVY CAUGHT SMUGGLING HEROIN FROM COLOMBIA    (Top)

BOGOTA -- Colombian police said they caught a member of the U.S.  Navy trying to smuggle 0.9 kilograms (2 pounds) of heroin into the United States after swallowing the drugs.

Police on Wednesday identified the suspect, arrested Sunday at the international airport in Cali as he tried to board a Miami-bound flight, as 20-year-old Christian Gonzalez.  They said he is a Colombian national with permanent residency in the United States.

Gonzalez was carrying U.S.  military identification and told police he worked for the U.S.  Navy, Cali police spokesman Col. Javier Pareja said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 27 Jun 2001
Source:   Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright:   2001 Associated Press
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1153.a04.html


(26) SENIOR DRUG MULE DIES    (Top)

TORONTO -- Peel police and the coroner's office are probing the death of a 70-year-old British drug courier at Etobicoke General Hospital early yesterday morning.

Police have refused to release the elderly man's identity pending the notification of his next of kin in Middlesex, England.

Airport officers said the senior had swallowed 12 rubber pellets of heroin and it appeared one broke inside him shortly after he arrived at the terminal on an Air Canada flight Saturday night.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 02 Jul 2001
Source:   Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright:   2001, Canoe Limited Partnership
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1176.a05.html


(27) ICI PULLS OUT OF COCAINE WAR    (Top)

ICI has pulled out of the controversial U.S.  project to spray vast areas of Colombia with herbicides in an attempt to eradicate its cocaine and heroin trade.

The British chemicals company's decision, which came after an Observer investigation revealed its involvement, will be a major embarrassment to the U.S.  government and will dent the credibility of the plan.

ICI does not want its name dragged into such a programme, particularly as there have been reports of children in Colombia who have inhaled the chemicals falling ill.

The $1 billion programme, instigated by former President Bill Clinton, will also be hit by revelations that an individual working for the U.S.  company fumigating the coca and opium plants has been suspected of smuggling heroin back into the US.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 1 July 2001
Source:   Observer, The (UK)
Copyright:   2001 The Observer
Author:   Antony Barnett and Solomon Hughes
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1166.a07.html
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/colombia.htm


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

The Drug Policy Forum of Michigan (DPFMI) Off to a Running Start

Hearty congratulations to yet another DrugSense/MAP supported state focused group.  The Drug Policy Forum of Michigan is developing its membership and web activism with both an active E-mail list and a new web page.  http://www.drugsense.org/dpfmi/


NIDA Report: Drug Use Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities.

NIDA has just (6/29/01) released a publication on Drug Use Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities.  An electronic copy of the report can be downloaded from: http://www.nida.nih.gov/DESPR/DUAREM/index.html

This report confirms a point made in one of Common Sense's recent ads on race, drug use and disparities in drug enforcement ...

http://www.csdp.org/ads/kids.htm

...  that African-American young people are much less likely to be drug
users than white youth.

Submitted by Doug McVay


The Rise of Marijuana as the Drug of Choice Among Youthful Adult Arrestees, June 2001, National Institute of Justice

This NIJ Research in Brief discusses trends in marijuana use among booked adult arrestees from 1987 through 1999.  Results were detected through urinalyses served by the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program at 23 locations nationwide.  It also explores trends within the mainstream population based on self-reports of past-month marijuana use recorded by the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and Monitoring the Future (MTF) programs and presents key findings.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/187490.htm


Global Illicit Drug Trends 2001

First released in 1999, this report is now prepared annually by the Research Section of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), which is part of the Vienna-based United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP).  The report takes a statistical approach to assessing the status of world supply in and demand for illicit drugs.

http://www.odccp.org/global_illicit_drug_trends.html


Join Keith Stroup of NORML on Sun.  July 8, 2001 8PM Eastern in the Drugsense Chat Room

http://www.drugsense.org/chat/

Mr.  Stroup will also be appearing on Mon. July 9, 2001 8PM Eastern in the NY Times Drug Policy Forum

Stay tuned to http://www.cultural-baggage.com/schedule.htm for a schedule of future guests.


A major overhaul of the DanceSafe website is currently underway. Many features like the DanceSafe E-Board and a newsfeed from the Media Awareness Project have already been completed.  Look for more big changes in the coming weeks.

http://www.dancesafe.org/


Political cartoonist Rex Babin joined The Sacramento Bee on May 9, and his work appears five times weekly.

http://www.sacbee.com/voices/sac/babin/babin_page.cgi?babin_20010704.gif


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

NOTE from the Author: Henceforth I am avoiding 'drug war' in what I write and speak.  It is 'drug prohibition' from now on. This switch was easy switch in my 'John Ashcroft' letter just pubbed in the Miami Herald.

IMO, we should have favored this term all along.  Now that prohibition has been medicalized it is no longer a war.  But it is still prohibition.

John Chase

The November Coalition


DRIVING UP THE PRICE OF DRUGS (AGAIN)

Re: the June 26 article "In Dade, Ashcroft touts river cocaine seizures" :

John Ashcroft is not the first U.S.  attorney general to brag about driving up the price of illegal drugs in Miami.

In 1928 the then assistant U.S.  attorney general, whose job was to enforce Prohibition, bragged how she had blockaded Rum Row -- the Florida and New Jersey coasts -- and caused the Miami price of a case of good liquor to climb to $125 from $35.  She was Mabel Walker Willebrandt, writing in her 1929 book The Inside of Prohibition.  The title of Chapter 17 is ``Routing Rum Row.''

Her blockade made bootleggers so desperate to meet demand that they adulterated good liquor with wood alcohol and other solvents, thus triggering an epidemic of blindings, paralysis and death from adulterated liquor.  This, in turn, eroded public support for Prohibition and contributed to its demise four years later.

Interdicting any popular drug makes it more dangerous.  The higher price drives off casual users, who are no problem anyhow, and motivates abusers to commit property crimes to get their fix at the higher price, even if it means using a drug of unknown composition.

Ashcroft should tell us what is different about drug interdiction now that will make it succeed when the last time it was tried, in 1928, it failed.

JOHN CHASE

Palm Harbor

Pubdate:   Mon, 02 Jul 2001
Source:   Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright:   2001 The Miami Herald
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author:   John Chase
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1177/a01.html


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

LA Weekly Independence Day Special 25 Article on the Drug War

In Lieu of a Feature Article this week, we direct your attention to this weeks phenomenal issue of the "LA Weekly." The entire issue entitled "The Independence Day Special" was dedicated to the failed drug war.  It contains no less than 25 separate articles covering the entire gamut of our nations biggest embarrassment.

The full series has been permanently archived in the DrugNews Archive at: http://www.mapinc.org/find?193

Freedom to Exhale has compiled the series along with related links at:

http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/ds.htm

The cover and presentation are also well worth a look at:

http://www.laweekly.com


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others." - Thomas Jefferson


DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense offers our members.  Watch this feature to learn more about what DrugSense can do for you.

TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS:

Please utilize the following URLs

http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

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CREDITS:  

Content selection and analyses by Tom O'Connell
(), Cannabis/Hemp content selection and analysis by Jo-D Dunbar (), International content selection by Steve Young (), Layout by Matt Elrod ()

We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, NewsHawks and letter writing activists.  Please help us help reform. Become a NewsHawk See http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on contributing clippings.


NOTICE:  

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.  Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


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For a $100.00 contribution we will send you a copy of Maximizing Harm by Stephen Young.  For a $250.00 or greater donation you can choose between a copy of Drug Crazy by Mike Gray, or a copy of Shattered Lives by Mikki Norris, et al

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