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DrugSense Weekly
May 3, 2002 #248

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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* This Just In


(1) UK: Police Chiefs Plan Softer Approach To Hard Drugs
(2) Europe Moves Drug War From Prisons To Clinics
(3) Canada: Prohibition Has Little Effect On Pot-smoking: Report
(4) US CA: Mandatory Sentencing Backlash Builds

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-10)
(5) The Myth Of 'Harmless' Marijuana
(6) Police Resistance To Gutting DARE Program Angers Panel
(7) Sen. George Asks UW For Probe On Vang Pao
(8) Oversight Lacking In 560 Drug Courts, Says Report
(9) Nextel Being Sued By City
(10) No Review for Drug Dealer Policy

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (11-14)
(11) Lawsuit Says Drug-Testing Policy Violates Constitution
(12) Cops' Account Disputed Again
(13) Justices Say A Hunch Not Good Enough
(14) Philadelphia Police Plan New Anti-Drug Push

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (15-19)
(15) Berkeley City Council Directs Police To Shun Dea In Pot Busts
(16) Guilty Plea In California Medical Pot Case
(17) California Sheriff Returns Pot
(18) Vermont Senate Committee Endorses Marijuana Bill
(19) Seven Held In Uk Cannabis Cafe Raid

International News-

COMMENT: (20-25)
(20) Afghan Shop Owners Protest Opium Raids
(21) Angry Opium Dealers Protest Raid On Shops
(22) U.S. Indicts Colombian Rebel Group
(23) Mega Orders Drugs Tests For Her Party Leaders
(24) 'Death Squad' Claim Denied
(25) 'Legalise All Drugs' - Mowlam

* Hot Off The 'Net


     Photos of MAP/DrugSense people at NORML conference in San Francisco
     Drug Czar Ignores IOM Report, Record of Failure
     A Failed Strategy: The War on Drugs
     Attorney  Tony  Serra  Delivers  Speech  At  NORML  Conference
     Straight Talk About DRUG FREE AMERICA Inc.
     Senate Committee Paper Sets Agenda For Meetings Across Canada
     Booze, Drugs Fuelling Crime, Report Finds
     Anti-Drug Conference Attracts Critics

* Letter Of The Week


     Testing Of Workers For Drugs Is Wrong /

By Walter F.  Wouk

* Feature Article


     NORML Conference Highlights / By Mark Greer

* Quote of the Week


     John Locke


THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) UK: POLICE CHIEFS PLAN SOFTER APPROACH TO HARD DRUGS    (Top)

Chief constables will call today for some heroin and cocaine users to be sent for treatment rather than ending up in court.

In radical plans for a shake-up of the drug laws, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) also proposes a more relaxed approach towards those caught with small amounts of cannabis.

A similar policy has been pioneered under the direction of Brian Paddick, the controversial commander whose tactics have led to an increase in arrests for hard drugs in his south London borough.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 02 May 2002
Source:   Independent (UK)
Copyright:   2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Website:   http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author:   Paul Peachey
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n840.a08.html


(2) EUROPE MOVES DRUG WAR FROM PRISONS TO CLINICS    (Top)

LISBON -- The last time the cops nabbed Miguel, he was carrying one envelope with several grams of heroin and another with a slightly smaller stash of cocaine.  "I thought, 'Oh Lord, here we go again,' " Miguel said, grimacing at the memory.  "I figured I was headed straight back to Leiria," the dank national prison where he has served two terms on drug charges.

As it turned out, Miguel did not do another stretch behind bars -- not because of a clever defense lawyer, but because of Portugal's fundamentally new battle plan in the long-running war on drugs: This nation of 10 million has decriminalized all drug use.

Today Miguel remains a free man, dividing his time between part-time work as an auto mechanic and outpatient treatment at Lisbon's biggest drug treatment clinic.

"It's a good deal, because what I really want is to give up drugs," said the 29-year-old addict, who admitted that he has sold small amounts of drugs on occasion to support his habit.  "And I could never do that in prison; in there, the dealers are living right next to you."

The way Portugal has handled Miguel (under clinic rules, his full name cannot be disclosed) and thousands of people like him reflects a shifting attitude toward drugs in many West European countries. Increasingly, drug users are viewed not as criminals, but as victims of a drug culture that tough laws could not control.

Spain, Italy and Luxembourg have also decriminalized possession and use of most drugs, and several other countries have effectively done the same by waiving criminal penalties for addicts who are not found to be dealing.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 02 May 2002
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Copyright:   2002 The Washington Post Company
Website:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n843.a06.html


(3) CANADA: PROHIBITION HAS LITTLE EFFECT ON POT-SMOKING: REPORT    (Top)

Senate Committee Debunks Various Theories About Marijuana Use

OTTAWA (CP) - Efforts to prevent marijuana use are having little impact, and young Canadians are smoking up in greater numbers than ever, a Senate report says.  An estimated 30 to 50 per cent of people 15 to 24 years old have used cannabis despite its illegality, the report, released Thursday by the Senate committee on illegal drugs, says.

"When you examine cannabis usage among youth, you realize that public policy has absolutely no effect," Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, committee chairman, told a news conference.

"The psychology of adolescents seems to take no account of the rules of law."

After studying the pros and cons of pot use for 14 months, the committee also concludes that scientific evidence suggests marijuana isn't a so-called gateway drug that leads to the use of harder drugs.

The discussion paper, intended to guide public consultation on the marijuana issues, indicates that millions of dollars in public money being spent to combat pot is wasted.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 03 May 2002
Source:   Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright:   2002 The Toronto Star
Website:   http://www.thestar.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author:   Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n844.a04.html


(4) US CA: MANDATORY SENTENCING BACKLASH BUILDS    (Top)

Courts:   A Life Term Given To A Minor Drug Offender In Alabama Is One
Case Cited By Critics Of The Laws, Which Face Judicial Review And Rollbacks In Several States.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  -- Theresa Wilson--a first-time, nonviolent drug offender--tried to sell a prescription medication to an undercover police officer for $150 back in 1998.  She was tried as a "drug baron" under this state's strict narcotics laws, and sentenced to life in prison.

On Wednesday, the 34-year-old mother of two got perhaps the first break of her life.  She was freed.

"You've gotten a second chance," said Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail.  "Don't blow it." To many, Wilson had become a symbol of the high price of mandatory sentencing.  And her release is the latest in a series of events challenging those laws.

Intended to target drug kingpins, many mandatory minimum laws, as they're known, more often have sent addicts, drug dealers' girlfriends and college kids peddling marijuana to prison for long terms.

Now the U.S.  Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases, probably in the fall, challenging California's three-strikes law, the toughest of its kind in the nation.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 02 May 2002
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright:   2002 Los Angeles Times
Website:   http://www.latimes.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author:   Eric Slater, Times Staff Writer
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000031157may02.story


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-10)    (Top)

The entrenched position of prohibitionists was on display across the country last week.  Drug czar John Walters took to the oped page of the Washington Post to attack marijuana with the usual doublespeak. Los Angeles Police appear unable to even think about alternatives to DARE, despite orders from the city's police commission.  The naming of a Wisconsin park led to new interest in CIA-related drug trafficking last week.  A participant in the Vietnam-era version of the scheme still insists it never happened.

An Alabama newspaper was one of the few in the country to notice that the U.S.  Government Accounting Office had issued a report about drug court programs.  The GAO said it's impossible to evaluate many programs due to a lack of data.

Police in Maryland are suing a cell phone company for not helping enough with narcotics investigations.  And, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a case from Cincinnati in which lower courts had rejected the city's plan to banish drug dealers from certain neighborhoods.


(5) THE MYTH OF 'HARMLESS' MARIJUANA    (Top)

Last December the University of Michigan released its annual survey "Monitoring the Future," which measures drug use among American youth.  Very little had changed from the previous year's report; most indicators were flat.  The report generated little in the way of public comment.

Yet what it brought to light was deeply disturbing.  Drug use among our nation's teens remains stable, but at near-record levels, with some 49 percent of high school seniors experimenting with marijuana at least once prior to graduation -- and 22 percent smoking marijuana at least once a month.

After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness," we've become almost conditioned to think that any warnings about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown.  But marijuana is far from "harmless" -- it is pernicious.  Parents are often unaware that today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 01 May 2002
Source:   Washington Post (DC)
Page:   A25
Copyright:   2002 The Washington Post Company
Webpage:  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11915-2002Apr30.html
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author:   John P.  Walters
Note:   The writer is director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n832/a02.html


(6) POLICE RESISTANCE TO GUTTING DARE PROGRAM ANGERS PANEL    (Top)

Los Angeles Police Commission members didn't shrink at ousting a powerful and popular police chief.  But they seem to have found a more formidable adversary in DARE, the LAPD's longtime drug-abuse education program.

Commissioners first talked about gutting DARE's staff two months ago to free up more officers for the LAPD's depleted narcotics and gang units.

The deliberations have unfolded quietly in recent months in the shadow of the higher-profile controversy over the commission's rejection of a second five-year-term for Chief Bernard C.  Parks. Parks is now out, but DARE remains standing.  Despite commissioners' repeated requests, LAPD officials have yet to provide them with the "creative solutions" they had requested so that most DARE officers might be temporarily shifted to other duties and the program replaced by something else.

In fact, as the debate stretches into its third month, LAPD brass appears to be more interested in arguing DARE's merits and protecting it from further cuts than in responding to the commission's requests.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 30 Apr 2002
Source:   Los Angeles Times (CA)
Webpage:   http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000030651apr30.story
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author:   Jill Leovy
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)


(7) SEN. GEORGE ASKS UW FOR PROBE ON VANG PAO    (Top)

State Sen.  Gary George is calling on UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley to order an investigation into allegations by a UW-Madison professor that the commander of the CIA's secret army in the Vietnam War - now a leader of refugee Hmong in the United States - engaged in drug trafficking in Laos.

The allegations, 30 years old, resurfaced this month, enraging the refugee community.

"We will seek the truth and follow that path wherever it leads," George said Friday at a news conference at the State Capitol packed with Hmong veterans and supporters of Gen.  Vang Pao.

Professor Alfred McCoy wrote about his findings on the role of Vang Pao and the CIA in drug trafficking in southeast Asia in a 1972 book, "The Politics of Heroin."

[snip]

Since an April 17 article in The Capital Times recounting McCoy's allegations, Hmong veterans and leaders from throughout the state have protested his conclusions vigorously, picketing the University of Wisconsin and demanding that McCoy apologize.

The examination of Vang Pao's history was prompted by a proposal by Madison Park Board member Locha Thao that a new park on the far east side be named in honor of Vang Pao.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   Capital Times, The (WI)
Copyright:   2002 The Capital Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author:   Pat Schneider
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n809/a09.html


(8) OVERSIGHT LACKING IN 560 DRUG COURTS, SAYS REPORT    (Top)

WASHINGTON The government is not properly tracking whether 560 drug courts in the United States, including Birmingham's, are successful in keeping offenders off drugs and out of jail, according to a report released Monday.

Those 560 courts, out of 800 total, have received more than $217 million in federal grants since 1995.

The U.S.  Department of Justice "continues to lack vital information on the overall impact of federally funded drug court programs," according to a General Accounting Office review.  The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress and studied the issue at the request of U.S.  Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 23 Apr 2002
Source:   Birmingham News, The (AL)
Webpage:  
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/10195534051718237.xml
Copyright:   2002 The Birmingham News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Author:   Mary Orndorff
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)


(9) NEXTEL BEING SUED BY CITY    (Top)

Companies Accused Of Impeding Drug Cases; Charged With Defying Order; Disconnected Cell Phones Disrupt Police Wiretaps

Fed up with phone companies jeopardizing their wiretap
investigations, the city state's attorney's office is taking Nextel Communications to court for contempt in hopes that the wireless industry will stop impeding police eavesdropping.

Assistant State's Attorney Jill J.  Myers has asked a Circuit Court judge to fine Nextel for "intentional and willful noncompliance" with a court order demanding that the company not turn off a cell phone number used by an alleged drug kingpin.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 30 Apr 2002
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author:   Sarah Koenig
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n826/a08.html


(10) NO REVIEW FOR DRUG DEALER POLICY    (Top)

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to enter a constitutional debate over the policy of banishing drug dealers or other criminals from neighborhoods with severe drug and crime problems.

The court did not comment in rejecting an appeal from authorities in Cincinnati.  The city tried to ban drug criminals from the crime- and drug-plagued Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, but the policy was declared unconstitutional in state and federal courts.

The issue may return to the high court soon, however.  Challenges to "drug-free zones" are still working their way through lower courts.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 29 Apr 2002
Source:   Newsday (NY)
Copyright:   2002 Newsday Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author:   Anne Gearan, Associated Press
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n832/a03.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (11-14)    (Top)

There was little major news in the world of prisons and law enforcement this week.  Some less prominent stories showed that police officials often have their own ideas about drug law enforcement, regardless of constitutional principles, the viewpoints of others, and objective reality.

For example, bail money isn't good enough to get out of jail in one Louisiana municipality.  Morgan City has been sued over a policy that hinders arrestees from making bail without first passing, and paying for, a urine test.

In New York, witnesses are now disputing police accounts of a botched drug raid that left one man dead.  In New Jersey, the state Supreme Court ruled that police can't search people based solely on a hunch.  And in Philadelphia, police are ready to solve the city's drug problems in a single day.


(11) LAWSUIT SAYS DRUG-TESTING POLICY VIOLATES CONSTITUTION    (Top)

LAFAYETTE - A class action lawsuit has been filed against Morgan City, alleging that a policy that requires people arrested there to submit to drug test as a condition of bail is unconstitutional.

[snip]

Morgan City police arrested [Michael] Lemoine on May 2, 2001, on an DWI charge.  The charge has been dismissed.

According to the lawsuit, Lemoine was told he had to take a urine drug test - and pay $10 for it - if he wanted to be released on the preset bail amount for the charge.

If Lemoine refused the test, the lawsuit states, he would have had to wait for one of the semi-weekly bail hearings before a judge.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   Daily Advertiser, The (LA)
Copyright:   2002 South Louisiana Publishing
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1670
Author:   Richard Burgess
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n825/a01.html


(12) COPS' ACCOUNT DISPUTED AGAIN    (Top)

A second witness in the fatal shooting of Jose Colon -- who Suffolk police have said was accidentally killed by an officer during a drug raid in Bellport April 19 -- has come forward to dispute the police's version of events.

[snip]

...about 50 friends and relatives of Colon, who gathered on Friday
at noon to protest the shooting outside Suffolk's Fifth Precinct in Patchogue, said they don't believe police have been honest about what happened.

"I want justice for my son because he was murdered in cold blood," Colon's father, Juan Colon, said, calling for a special independent investigator.

"We can't have cops investigating cops," he said.  Colon also said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota is too close to the police department to conduct an impartial investigation.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   Newsday (NY)
Copyright:   2002 Newsday Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author:   Samuel Bruchey
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n809/a10.html


(13) JUSTICES SAY A HUNCH NOT GOOD ENOUGH    (Top)

The state Supreme Court, continuing a long tradition of favoring individual privacy rights over police powers, has ruled law enforcement authorities need more than a hunch about potential danger before searching a person arrested for a minor offense.

The case arises from a 1999 incident in Long Branch in which Detective Raymond Chaparro Jr.  arrested someone for trespassing, a disorderly persons offense, and searched him.  Police normally search people they arrest to be sure suspects don't have weapons.

Law enforcement officers say the decision could make it harder for them to work in drug-infested areas.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   Asbury Park Press (NJ)
Copyright:   2002 Asbury Park Press
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/26
Author:   Carol Gorga Williams
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n808/a08.html


(14) PHILADELPHIA POLICE PLAN NEW ANTI-DRUG PUSH    (Top)

The goal is prevention and deterrence rather than arrests, the police commissioner said - and the campaign will last "as long as it takes."

The Philadelphia Police Department is expected to launch its largest antidrug operation ever this week: an unprecedented campaign to disrupt narcotics trafficking citywide.

"We're going to take back this city - basically in one day," said Police Commissioner Sylvester M.  Johnson.

He said details of the effort would be revealed before the police move ahead.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 29 Apr 2002
Source:   Inquirer (PA)
Copyright:   2002 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author:   Robert Moran
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n825/a10.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (15-19)    (Top)

This week's first three stories focus on California, the most active battleground between federal and state's rights over medicinal cannabis legislation.  With the hope of avoiding further suffering by their sickest constituents, the Berkeley City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking local city police not to cooperate with the DEA in its ongoing investigation of medical marijuana compassion clubs.  Meanwhile, James Halloran, one of the men arrested in the last series of club busts, may have avoided jail time by pleading guilty to cultivation and money laundering in a plea bargain that could see him turn evidence against his former partners, including famed cannabis author/grow expert Ed Rosenthal.  Lastly, Hollister Sheriff Curtis Hill, who gained a brief amount of infamy for refusing to return 11 grams of medical marijuana to a seriously ill California man after a judge had ordered him to do so, has finally relinquished the cannabis.  The sheriff tried to get the cannabis seized by federal agents, but two federal magistrate judge's refused to sign the order that would allow the DEA to take possession of the marijuana.

Cannabis news from the East coast focused on the Vermont medical cannabis bill, which has just been endorsed by the state Senate Health and Welfare Committee.  The more conservative Judiciary Committee must now approve the bill before the Senate breaks for the summer.

And in the UK, the death knell of prohibition was drowned out by the sound of sirens and drug-dogs as 60 officers raided the UK's second Dutch-style coffee shop, located in Dorset, as it was being featured in a BBC documentary on the financial aspects of the cannabis trade. The bust netted 7 arrests, or about 9 officers per detainee.  Even in the ever more liberal UK, poor policing policy prevails.  Pity.


(15) BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL DIRECTS POLICE TO SHUN DEA IN POT BUSTS    (Top)

The Berkeley City Council quietly and unanimously passed a resolution affirming the city's support for medical marijuana Tuesday night.

Against the recommendation of City Manager Weldon Rucker, the council directed the Berkeley Police Department not to cooperate with the Drug Enforcement Administration in investigations of medical marijuana clubs.

[snip]

The council, however, tabled a second measure calling for the city's support for Ed Rosenthal, a high-profile marijuana grower arrested in the Harm Reduction Center bust.

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Apr 2002
Source:   Daily Californian, The (CA Edu)
Copyright:   2002 The Daily Californian
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/597
Author:   Mike Meyers, Contributing Writer
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n799.a05.html


(16) GUILTY PLEA IN CALIFORNIA MEDICAL POT CASE    (Top)

OAKLAND -- An Oakland man arrested in February's federal raids of Bay Area marijuana sites pleaded guilty Tuesday to cultivation and money laundering charges that could put him in federal prison for life.

But James Halloran, 61, might not serve a day behind bars.  Under his plea bargain -- filed under seal but discussed in court Tuesday -- he might give prosecutors information useful in their case against others who were arrested Feb.  12, including well-known marijuana writer and activist Ed Rosenthal, 56, of Oakland.

"Mr.  Halloran is very ill -- that's why he pled today," Dennis J. Roberts, Halloran's attorney, told U.S.  District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong.  "He has hepatitis C."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 24 Apr 2002
Source:   Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright:   2002 MediaNews Group, Inc.  and ANG Newspapers
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/314
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n794.a10.html


(17) CALIFORNIA SHERIFF RETURNS POT    (Top)

[snip]

Sheriff Curtis Hill relinquished 11 grams of medicinal marijuana belonging to a terminally ill Hollister man Monday, hours before Judge Steve Sanders was poised to cite the lawman for contempt of court.

Two weeks ago, Hill said that he would not return Jack Campo's pot after UNET agents busted the man and his roommates last January during a drug raid at their rented home on Hilltop Road.  Because the 50-year-old Campo had a Stanford doctor's letter explaining his condition and that symptoms are relieved by smoking marijuana, the drug case against Campo was dismissed.  Sanders then ordered that the sheriff return the medical marijuana.

But Hill refused, pitting federal law against state law.  Under California's Proposition 215, medically qualified patients are allowed to possess small amounts of pot.  Under federal law, possession of any amount of marijuana is illegal.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Apr 2002
Source:   Pinnacle, The (CA)
Copyright:   2002 Pinnacle Publishing Co., Inc
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/2145
Author:   Kate Woods, Pinnacle Staff Writer
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n808.a07.html


(18) VERMONT SENATE COMMITTEE ENDORSES MARIJUANA BILL    (Top)

MONTPELIER -- The Senate Health and Welfare Committee Thursday unanimously endorsed a bill that would decriminalize marijuana possession and use for patients suffering from a variety of illnesses, but prospects for further action on the bill appeared dim.

By a 5-0 vote the committee sent the bill back to the full Senate after making a few changes.  But committee Chairwoman Sen. Nancy Chard, D-Windham, made it clear to members that theirs wasn't the final word.

"This bill must go to the Judiciary Committee because there's a lot of law enforcement (provisions) in it," she said.  "(Judiciary Committee Chair-man) Sen.  (Richard) Sears (D-Bennington) has made it clear that it's unlikely he'll have time to take testimony ...  and act on it."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 26 Apr 2002
Source:   Times Argus (VT)
Copyright:   2002 Times Argus
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/893
Author:   David Mace, Vermont Press Bureau
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n823.a13.html


(19) SEVEN HELD IN UK CANNABIS CAFE RAID    (Top)

Seven people have been arrested for alleged drugs offences after a police raid on a cannabis cafe.  Dorset Police raided the shop in Station Approach, Bournemouth, on Wednesday night, as it was being featured in a BBC Two documentary.

[snip]

A total of 60 police officers as well as a police dog and handler were involved in the raid.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Apr 2002
Source:   BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright:   2002 BBC
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/558
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n804.a04.html


International News


COMMENT: (20-25)    (Top)

As Afghan opium traders fumed over government raids that looked more like stealing than orderly seizures, the UN optimistically predicted that it could take "a decade" to stop Afghani opium production.

A U.S.  grand jury returned an indictment against the Colombian FARC rebel group and six of its members.  This was, declared John Ashcroft, a great leap forward "toward ridding our hemisphere of the narcoterrorism that threatens our lives, our freedom and our human dignity."

Attempting to outdo one other in drug-war righteousness and purity, politicians in Indonesia were asked (as part of the PDI-P's party "commitment to combating the use of drugs"), to submit urine for drug testing.  The testing proposal was made by president Sukarnoputri Megawati, who is also the party chairman.  The proposed testing exempts the president.

A report last week in the Bangkok Post detailed allegations that Thai authorities were engaging in extra-judicial killings, summarily executing people suspected of selling drugs.  "Many addicts and dealers were killed after the government launched its campaign on drugs," said one social worker.  "Most were shot in the head."

And last week, former anti-drugs cabinet minister Mo Mowlam announced that all drugs should be legal.  "You'd have the money from tax," she noted.


(20) AFGHAN SHOP OWNERS PROTEST OPIUM RAIDS    (Top)

GHANI KHIEL, Afghanistan -- Soldiers stormed Afghanistan's biggest drug market, seizing more than 6 tons of opium.

The raid this week showed the interim government's resolve to wipe out the lucrative opium trade that resumed with the fall of the Taliban.  But shopkeepers said the soldiers appeared more like a thieving party, ripping the watches off the wrists of store owners, pulling money from their pockets and taking everything in the shops -- as well as the opium.

"They weren't interested in destroying our opium.  They took our opium to sell," said Javed Khan, a store owner.

Now residents of Ghani Khiel, 36 miles east of the provincial capital of Jalalabad, are fighting mad -- and heavily armed.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright:   2002 The Columbus Dispatch
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author:   Kathy Gannon, Associated Press
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n817/a02.html


(21) ANGRY OPIUM DEALERS PROTEST RAID ON SHOPS    (Top)

[snip]

On Friday residents warned they were ready to do battle with the government if a settlement is not brokered by their elders, who were meeting to find a way out of the impasse.  But negotiations won't be easy -- 50 residents are in jail and the entire village is up in arms.  The U.N. Drug Control Program, meanwhile, warned that it could take a decade to end poppy production in Afghanistan.

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   New London Day (CT)
Copyright:   2002 The Day Publishing Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/293
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n822/a07.html


(22) U.S. INDICTS COLOMBIAN REBEL GROUP    (Top)

WASHINGTON -- A federal grand jury, striking a blow against a terrorist threat outside the Arab world, indicted a Colombian rebel group and six of its members Tuesday on charges of murdering three Americans.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in U.S.  District Court in Washington, accused the FARC organization and the individuals of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, using a firearm during a crime of violence and aiding and abetting.

[snip]

"These three workers went to Colombia to do good but instead met with great evil," Attorney General John Ashcroft said.  "Today's action is a step toward ridding our hemisphere of the narcoterrorism that threatens our lives, our freedom and our human dignity."

Pubdate:   Tue, 30 Apr 2002
Source:   Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright:   2002 Associated Press
Author:   Ted Bridis, Associated Press Writer
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n828/a01.html


(23) MEGA ORDERS DRUGS TESTS FOR HER PARTY LEADERS    (Top)

JAKARTA - An executive-committee meeting of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle ( PDI-P ) began with party leaders taking a urine test.

''This is part of the PDI-P's commitment to combating the use of drugs,'' deputy secretary-general Pramono Anung said after the party's weekly meeting on Tuesday.

The order for the tests came from Ms Megawati, who is the party chairman.

She was exempted because, according to protocol, examination of the President of Indonesia can be undertaken only by presidential doctors.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 25 Apr 2002
Source:   Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright:   2002 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/429
Author:   Jason Leow
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n823/a03.html


(24) 'DEATH SQUAD' CLAIM DENIED    (Top)

Two Dealers In Each Village Killed This Year

The government has declared Kalasin the first drug-free province, but critics ask whether police have been murdering dealers to keep the streets clean.

Sources say at least two suspected drug dealers in each village have been killed in the past year, but no estimates of the number of those killed were available.

Activists tell stories of ''death squads'' being deployed.  At the province's behest, villagers left sandal flower _ used for cremation _ at the doors of suspected dealers as a sign of death.

Within two weeks, some dealers were shot and killed, their bodies discarded in the street.

Provincial authorities say the shootings were justified
extra-judicial killings, and that the suspects resisted arrest.  They deny suggestions that police summarily executed suspected traffickers.

[snip]

NGOs believe the project is just a propaganda campaign for the government.

Angkhana Songsilp, of the Kalasin Network, said many drug addicts under her care had moved to nearby provinces because they were afraid of being arrested.

[snip]

Few addicts had been approached about joining rehabilitation centres, she said.

Many addicts and dealers were killed after the government launched its campaign on drugs, she said.  Most were shot in the head.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 28 Apr 2002
Source:   Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Copyright:   The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd.  2002
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/39
Author:   Onnucha Hutasing and Anucha Charoenpo
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n821/a04.html


(25) 'LEGALISE ALL DRUGS' - MOWLAM    (Top)

Former cabinet minister Mo Mowlam has called for the legalisation of all drugs - including ecstasy, heroin and cocaine.

Dr Mowlam, once responsible for the government's anti-drugs policy, told the Independent on Sunday she would tax drugs and use the revenue to help reduce addiction.

"You'd have the money from tax, which if it were ring-fenced for working with addicts whether cannabis, pills, barbiturates, coke or heroin you'd have a chance of beating it," she is quoted as saying.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 27 Apr 2002
Source:   BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright:   2002 BBC
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/558
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n815/a06.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

PHOTOS OF MAP/DRUGSENSE PEOPLE AT NORML CONFERENCE IN SAN FRANCISCO

http://www.drugsense.org/pix/norml2002/


DRUG CZAR IGNORES IOM REPORT, RECORD OF FAILURE

A DrugSense Focus Alert on John Walters in the Washington Post

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0239.html


A FAILED STRATEGY: THE WAR ON DRUGS

By Gustavo de Greiff - translated and published at Narco News.

http://www.narconews.com/degreiff2.html


ATTORNEY TONY SERRA DELIVERS SPEECH AT NORML CONFERENCE

http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1304.html


STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT DRUG FREE AMERICA INC.

Toni Latino of the Coalition for the Advocation of Medical Marijuana tells viewers why "anti-drug" forces from Florida are not to be believed.

http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1305.html


SENATE COMMITTEE DISCUSSION PAPER SETS AGENDA FOR PUBLIC MEETINGS
ACROSS CANADA

OTTAWA, May 2, 2002 - The Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs today released a discussion paper outlining its findings to date on marijuana policy and setting out issues for consideration in public meetings to be held across Canada in the coming weeks.

Available in PDF at:

http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/iddi/


BOOZE, DRUGS FUELLING CRIME, REPORT FINDS

Most Violent Offenders Say They Were Drunk, High During Crimes

Charlottetown - A national study on substance abuse and crime in Canada has confirmed what many have long suspected: that booze and drugs fuel criminal activity across the country.

Federal Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay released the results Tuesday of a three-year study into the cause and effect of substance abuse on Canadian crime rates.

The study found that alcohol is more often associated with violent crimes such as murder and assault, while illegal drugs are more commonly linked to break-ins and robberies.

Available in PDF at Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse,
http://www.ccsa.ca/


ANTI-DRUG CONFERENCE ATTRACTS CRITICS

Vancouver - A Vancouver anti-drug conference is being targeted by advocates of a more permissive approach to illegal drug usage.

The B.C.  Marijuana Party held a rally outside the trade and convention centre, because the International Drug Education and Awareness ( IDEA ) symposium is not open to anyone who supports drug use.

B.C.  Compassion Club president Hilary Black says the conference is about oppression, not education.

Streaming Video

http://vancouver.cbc.ca/clips/Vancouver/ram-lo/0200501_drugidea.ram

Cited:   http://www.ideas-canada.ca/
Cited:   http://www.ideas-canada.org/


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

Testing Of Workers For Drugs Is Wrong

By Walter F.  Wouk

The right to be left alone is, in the words of the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "The most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." The right to privacy is an implicit guarantee of the Constitution; yet it's the right most violated by government officials and corporate America, who force millions of Americans to submit to drug testing in order to get or keep a job.

Drug testing presumably innocent individuals as a condition of employment is a repudiation of everything America stands for.  Drug testing reverses the presumption of innocence upon which much of our legal system is built.

The Fourth Amendment protects the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.  Many courts have ruled that to require a urine sample to be analyzed is a search under the Fourth Amendment

According to the U.S.  Department of Labor, more than 90 percent of U.S.  companies with more than 1,000 workers require drug tests. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest corporation, drug tests all of its 800,000-plus employees.

Drug tests can reveal the use of contraceptives, pregnancy, medications used for depression, epilepsy, diabetes, insomnia, high blood pressure and heart disease.  Employers have found drug testing a simple way to look into an individual's medical history.  They can easily obtain confidential medical information and use it to eliminate job candidates and force employees out of their jobs.

Employers who require individuals to submit to drug testing, as a condition of employment, are demonstrating their contempt for the U.S.  Constitution, the Bill of Rights and "We the People."

There is no place in a free country for gratuitous drug testing.  It is fundamentally anti-American.

Walter F.  Wouk,

Cobleskill

Wouk is director of The Thomas Paine Project, an organization dedicated to protecting the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Date:   04/20/2002
Source:   Daily Star, The (NY)


HONORABLE MENTION

SOCIETY PROGRAMMED TO RELY ON DRUGS
Author:   Dr.  Robert Sasse
Pubdate:   04/21/2002
Source:   Oshawa This Week (CN ON)
URL:   http://www.mapinc.org/letters/2002/04/lte333.html


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

NORML Conference Highlights

By Mark Greer

NOTE:   We decided to delay any follow up reporting on the NORML
conference until this issue so that we could have time to gather and post some of the great photographs taken by many DrugSense/MAP volunteers, compiled by Richard Lake, and organized and posted to the web page by Jo-D Harrison.  This collection can be reviewed at:

http://www.drugsense.org/pix/norml2002/

The NORML Conference in San Francisco was one of the finest and most enjoyable conferences I have ever attended.  The attitude was upbeat, positive, and aggressively pro-reform.  The crowd numbers represented the largest NORML conference ever and by a fairly hefty margin.  Hats off to Keith Stroup, Allan St.  Pierre and other key NORML staff for pulling off a really excellent event.

I was particularly pleased to see the high percentage of DrugSense/MAP staff and volunteers that were able to attend.  It seemed that everywhere you looked you saw another DrugSense T-Shirt or jacket.  Many were being worn by people I had never met face to face before.  For me this really seemed to help us to build an esprit de corps both among direct DrugSense/MAP supporters and amongst those with a looser affiliation with our organization.  Judging from the amazing amount of kudos and kind words I came away assuming that we must be doing something right that is helping a wide array of activists in a number of different ways.

On Thursday PM we had a very nice dinner for about 40 DrugSense folks in a private room catered by Zingare Ristorante, an upscale restaurant near the Crowne Plaza Hotel.  This was a really enjoyable kick start to the 3 day conference.  We had an "open mic" session during which various reform leaders discussed developing projects, acknowledged many of the attendees for their contributions and, in general, we had a great time patting each other on the back for a wide array of jobs well done.

One of the highlights of the conference was a very funny and yet right on target analysis of the drug war by Bill Maher.  We had hoped to have a streaming video of this excellent presentation on-line by now but it is still pending.  Stay tuned. Among other things, Maher called for a huge march similar to the Million Man March on the mall in Washington D.C.  and aimed at reforming marijuana laws. It appears that this suggestion is being taken seriously by many in the reform movement.

The entire flavor of the conference was one of positive, confident, movement towards more sensible drug policies.

I will not reinvent the wheel in describing the many excellent panels and speeches as Phil Smith has already done an outstanding job of this at: http://drcnet.org/wol/234.html#normlconference

Suffice it to say that, if this sort of trend keeps up, we are well on our way to more major victories and sooner rather than later.

Have a nice day Asa.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." - John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690


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