DrugSense Home
DrugSense Weekly
January 24, 2003 #285

Listen On-line at: http://www.drugsense.org/radio/


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/29/24)


* This Just In


(1) Judge Denies Gag Order Request In Pro-marijuana Activist's Case
(2) Federal Prisons Fight Drug Smuggling
(3) US NE: Bill Would Match Pot, Alcohol Penalties
(4) 4 Marines Die In Helicopter Crash

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) Medical Marijuana Groups Posting Roadside Billboards
(6) Medical Marijuana Gets Nod of Ehrlich
(7) Twins Study Bolsters Pot 'Gateway Theory'
(8) Sick Treatment - When Addiction Counselors Attack
(9) Rural Prescription Drug Trade Outpaces Cities

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-13)
(10) Findings Complicate Mena Case
(11) Cops And Coke
(12) A Conspiracy Nipped Can Still Bring Conviction, Justices Say
(13) The Death Of A Ranger Shows Venerable Job's New Hazards

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (14-18)
(14) The Trial Of Ed Rosenthal
(15) Alabama Teen Gets 26 Years For School Drug Sale
(16) Ottawa Battles To Regain Control Of Reefer Madness
(17) GW Sets Up UK Launch Of Cannabis Drugs
(18) The Temptation Of Dr. Weed

International News-

COMMENT: (19-25)
(19) Police Break Up Bolivian Protest Over Coca Farming
(20) Swedes Expelled From Bolivia For Supporting Coca Farmers
(21) Anti-Drug Office Closed Over Corruption
(22) War On Drugs Has Been A Waste Of Money
(23) Malaysia Aims To Wipe Out Drug Menace By 2015

* Hot Off The 'Net


     End Prohibition Now. Sign The Appeal To The U.N.
     Speak Out For Ed Rosenthal!
     Trust But Verify / by Doug McVay
     Canadian Medical Association Journal Report
     Mouse Model Links Alcohol Intake To Marijuana-like Brain Compounds
     Joseph McNamara On CBC Radio's "The Current"

* Letter Of The Week


     Scurrilous Disinformation Labeled As Health Advice
     / By Mett Ausley M.D

* Feature Article


     Book  Review:  Down  by  the  River  /  Reviewed By Stephen Young

* Quote of the Week


     Mark Twain


THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) JUDGE DENIES GAG ORDER REQUEST IN PRO-MARIJUANA ACTIVIST'S CASE    (Top)

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge on Thursday refused a prosecutor's request for a gag order in the trial of pro-marijuana author and activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland.

U.S.  District Judge Charles Breyer said there's no evidence jurors have been biased by extensive media coverage of the trial so far.

The case is "part of a larger public debate, and he's not going to muzzle that debate," said attorney Jim Wheaton, the First Amendment Project co-founder and senior counsel who argued against the gag on Rosenthal's behalf.

Assistant U.S.  Attorney George L. Bevan Jr. sought the gag order Wednesday after several consecutive days of intense coverage by local and national media.  He feared the admonition that Breyer gives jurors every day about not reading or watching any media accounts of the case would be insufficient, and jurors' viewpoints would be swayed.

But Breyer said Thursday that Bevan hadn't demonstrated enough risk of bias to outweigh the damage a gag order would do to press and speech freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 24 Jan 2003
Source:   Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright:   2003 MediaNews Group, Inc.  and ANG Newspapers
Website:   http://www.oaklandtribune.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/314
Author:   Josh Richman, Staff Writer
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal
Continues:   http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~1133336,00.html


(2) FEDERAL PRISONS FIGHT DRUG SMUGGLING    (Top)

WASHINGTON -- Using everything from a baby's diaper to burritos, smugglers regularly get illegal drugs to federal prisoners, even at the highest-security institutions, Justice Department investigators said Wednesday

Inmate visitors are the major source of drugs.  But Justice Department Inspector General Glen Fine found that mail and prison staff also bring in marijuana, heroin, cocaine and other drugs at the nation's 102 Bureau of Prisons facilities, demonstrating a need to upgrade interdiction efforts.

Prison personnel are of particular concern, Fine said, because they tend to bring in larger amounts that spread to more inmates.  There are few restrictions on personal items prison staff can bring to work, and there is no program for drug testing or random searches.

[snip]

In a written response, Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer criticized what she called the "lack of statistical support" for some of the report's conclusions.  She rejected a recommendation that the bureau begin searching prison staff when they come to work.

"Overall, staff morale will suffer, thereby creating unwarranted concerns in areas other than drug detection," Sawyer wrote.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source:   Herald, The (WA)
Copyright:   2003 The Daily Herald Co.
Website:   http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author:   Associated Press
Cited:   http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/inspection/I-2003-002/report.pdf
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n116.a03.html


(3) US NE: BILL WOULD MATCH POT, ALCOHOL PENALTIES    (Top)

From high school students in his district, Wausa Sen.  Doug Cunningham got the idea of raising the penalty for smoking dope.

Many times when Cunningham visited schools, students would point out that they have to pay a much heftier fine if they get caught with alcohol than if they get caught with a marijuana joint.  Minor in possession of alcohol carries a maximum $500 fine, and many judges set a $200 to $250 fine, explained Cunningham.  Possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana is a flat $100 fine.

Cunningham said students likely thought he would move to reduce the fine for the booze.  But the senator decided it was time to increase the punishment for marijuana possession.  His bill, LB176, makes the possession of a small amount of marijuana a Class IV misdemeanor, identical to a minor in possession conviction.

"It didn't seem logical to lower the minor in possession fine." And, he said, the difference sent the wrong message: that it is less harmful to smoke marijuana than to drink as a minor.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source:   Lincoln Journal Star (NE)
Copyright:   2003 Lincoln Journal Star
Website:   http://www.journalstar.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/561
Author:   Nancy Hicks
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n114.a11.html


(4) 4 MARINES DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH    (Top)

FALCON HEIGHTS, Texas (AP) -- Two military helicopters crashed in flames while helping the Border Patrol on a drug mission, killing all four Marine reservists on board.  The crash of the AH1W Super Cobra helicopters happened Wednesday night at Falcon State Park in far South Texas, near the Mexican border.

"We heard a loud boom and all of a sudden the engines in helicopters quit, so I went outside and looked and there was a ball of fire," said resident Larry Shoal.  He saw another ball of fire close by.

"There was nobody that could have survived that," the 67-year-old said Thursday morning.  "There was no way to help them."

Each helicopter carried a crew of two, said Armando Carrasco, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Six, a Defense Department unit that helps the Border Patrol in efforts to combat drug smuggling.

"The helicopters were conducting a nighttime aviation reconnaissance counterdrug operation in support of the U.S.  Border Patrol," Carrasco said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source:   Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright:   2003 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Website:   http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n115.a07.html


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-9)    (Top)

Medical marijuana is gaining a higher profile across the country.  In the west, new billboards protesting the federal prosecution of medical marijuana providers debuted around the state.  That prosecution goes on, and it is drawing its own media attention.  As discussed in DrugSense Weekly's Cannabis section this week, the case of grow guru Ed Rosenthal is proceeding and drawing outrage.  In the east, the new governor of Maryland said he would support medical marijuana legislation in the state.

Unfortunately, at the same time the old anti-marijuana myths keep getting dusted off.  After the release of a study performed on Australian twins, headlines trumpeted new support for the gateway theory.  The comments of the study's authors seemed to contradict this simplistic interpretation.

Is some treatment better than nothing for addicts? It depends on the kind of treatment program.  Some of them aren't just ineffective, they are downright abusive.  And, from Kentucky this week a flurry of stories about growing rates of prescription drug abuse in rural areas.


(5) MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROUPS POSTING ROADSIDE BILLBOARDS    (Top)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Along with roadside advertisements for beer, liquor and fast-food, California motorists will now see billboards promoting medical marijuana.  The 30 billboards, which began appearing Wednesday in San Francisco and across the state, feature an 8-year-old Chico girl whose father, Bryan Epis, is serving 10 years on federal marijuana cultivation charges.

"Medical marijuana, compassion not federal prison," read the billboards, which are sponsored by a host of marijuana groups.  They also show young Ashley Epis holding a sign that reads: "My Dad is not a criminal."

Her photo was taken at a rally outside the federal courthouse in Sacramento last year, where her father was sentenced for growing cannabis for a Chico medical marijuana club.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright:   2003 Hearst Communications Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Cited:   http://www.medicalmj.org/
Image:   http://www.medicalmj.org/ap_ashley.jpg
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n110/a04.html


(6) MEDICAL MARIJUANA GETS NOD OF EHRLICH    (Top)

Governor says he's likely to back decriminalization; Would be for use by terminally ill; Announcement gives impetus to Assembly bills

Gov.  Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced yesterday that he would likely back decriminalizing marijuana for terminally ill patients, a stance that is expected to give momentum to the issue this year in the General Assembly.

Ehrlich said he has been a longtime supporter of so-called medical marijuana, including co-sponsoring a bill last year in Congress that would have allowed states to liberalize drug laws so terminally ill patients could use the drug.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 17 Jan 2003
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   2003 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author:   Tim Craig, Sun Staff
Cited:   Marijuana Policy Project ( www.mpp.org )
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n081/a02.html


(7) TWINS STUDY BOLSTERS POT 'GATEWAY THEORY'    (Top)

CHICAGO - A study of Australian twins and marijuana bolsters the fiercely debated ``gateway theory'' that pot can lead to harder drugs.  The researchers located 311 sets of same-sex twins in which only one twin had smoked marijuana before age 17.  Early marijuana smokers were found to be up to five times more likely than their twins to move on to harder drugs.

They were about twice as likely to use opiates, which include heroin, and five times more likely to use hallucinogens, which include LSD.

[snip]

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association and was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.  It does not answer how marijuana, or cannabis, might lead to harder drugs.

``It is often implicitly assumed that using cannabis changes your brain or makes you crave other drugs,'' said lead researcher Michael Lynskey, ``but there are a number of other potential mechanisms, including access to drugs, willingness to break the law and likelihood of engaging in risk-taking behavior.''

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright:   2003 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author:   Lindsey Tanner /AP Medical Writer
Related:   http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion7.htm
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n106/a05.html


(8) SICK TREATMENT - WHEN ADDICTION COUNSELORS ATTACK    (Top)

[snip]

Imagine if physicians could justify being abusive, arrogant and condescending by arguing that it improves patient health.  Imagine that these professionals could decide not to use chemotherapy for cancer, for example, because they "don't believe in it," despite overwhelming research data.  That's what addiction care has been like for the last half-century.  To this day, there's a huge gap between clinical psychiatric knowledge and the way drug treatment actually goes down.

Clinical research shows that, like anyone else,
addicts--particularly women and the mentally ill--respond better to empathetic treatment than to attacks or humiliation.  The University of New Mexico's William Miller, for example, has demonstrated that patients are less likely to drop out and relapse if they have counselors who are compassionate, and not confrontational.

Yet for years, the sort of "care" Gloria Holmes received has been par for the course in addiction treatment.  Many providers believe that addicts needed to be "broken down" and then re-socialized, and that insults, humiliation and degrading treatment aid this process. And while the National Institute on Drug Abuse has shown that medications like antidepressants aid recovery, a large proportion of rehab programs still routinely deny addicts standard psychiatric medications on the premise that they could lead back to addiction.

Recently, a number of federal, state and local government initiatives have begun trying to reform drug treatment, through both regulations and research.  But they'll have to overcome a deeply entrenched legacy of anti-science and even anti-addict ideology.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 01 Feb 2003
Source:   City Limits MONTHLY (US NY)
Copyright:   2002, City Limits Community Information Service, Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/2751
Author:   Maia Szalavitz
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n092/a08.html


(9) RURAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG TRADE OUTPACES CITIES    (Top)

"I can't imagine that Kentucky has any more pain than Detroit has. There's something going on," April Vallerand, an assistant professor at Detroit's Wayne State University who serves on pain advisory panels.  Richard Clayton, an addiction expert who heads the University of Kentucky's Center for Prevention Research, said the problem is already out of control.

"This may be the first epidemic - if it is an epidemic - that started in rural areas," he said.  Courts and hospitals are overwhelmed.  The newspaper found that possession and trafficking charges for all controlled substances jumped 348 percent in eastern Kentucky from 1997 through 2001, while admissions of
prescription-drug addicts to residential drug-treatment centers tripled from 1998 to 2001.

Eastern Kentucky counties led the nation in per capita narcotics distribution in 1998, 1999 and 2000, the newspaper found.  In 2001, the St.  Louis area passed Kentucky, driven by large increases in the amount of OxyContin and of morphine, which is widely used to treat pain after surgery.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 18 Jan 2003
Source:   Middlesboro Daily News, The (KY)
Copyright:   2003 None found
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1854
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Note:   Associated Press cited as source
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n093/a06.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (10-13)    (Top)

Explosive new revelations have been uncovered in a lethal Colorado drug bust that took place in 1999.  Police said they shot Ismael Mena to death after he pointed a gun at them during a mistaken drug raid. The Denver Post reported last week on undisclosed tests showing that gunshot residue found on Mena's hand did not match the gun police said he was holding, and that no fingerprints were found on the gun and ammunition.

The police in Denver didn't explain what happened, but a group of Canadian drug cops say their legal problems were caused by their own drug use.  In Toronto, drug police accused of corruption were able to avoid prosecution by entering rehab.

The U.S.  Supreme Court ruled last week that a conspiracy doesn't have to be carried in order for marginal participants to be punished under harsh conspiracy laws.  The case, naturally, involved drug sales.

And, in another reminder that law enforcement officers get hurt by the drug war too, a Wall Street Journal story detailed the life and death of a national park ranger who was shot down after spending more of his professional time chasing marijuana smugglers than helping visitors enjoy the beauty of the park.


(10) FINDINGS COMPLICATE MENA CASE    (Top)

Sworn statements about the death of Ismael Mena raise troubling new questions about the much-criticized police shooting, including findings that gunshot residue found on Mena's hand did not come from a gun police said he fired at them.

Mena, a 45-year-old Mexican immigrant, was shot by a police SWAT team on Sept.  29, 1999, after team members executing a drug search warrant entered the wrong house.  Police said they shot and killed an armed Mena after he refused to drop his gun and then fired at them.

The shooting stirred outrage in Denver.  Some residents formed the Justice for Mena Committee to press for a fuller explanation of what happened, and SWAT team members sued others who publicly questioned the official findings in the case.  In February 2000, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas, named as a special prosecutor to investigate the case, cleared the SWAT officers, calling the shooting justifiable.

But never-before-reported depositions taken in connection with the lawsuit filed by SWAT team members and other reports reveal new facts about the case...

[snip]

No fingerprints were found on the revolver police say they took from Mena's hand, nor were fingerprints found on the ammunition in the gun.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source:   Denver Post (CO)
Copyright:   2003 The Denver Post Corp
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author:   Amy Herdy


(11) COPS AND COKE    (Top)

A veteran Toronto police officer who once headed a drug squad is one of several cops who last spring took a secret "package" to stave off criminal prosecution, The Toronto Sun has learned.

The popular officer, who during a stellar career has dodged bullets and worked on huge cases, went into rehab after confessing to a decade-long cocaine habit, sources say.

The officer's case is being treated as a "disease" similar to alcoholism, sources say, and he has spent several months in drug therapy while on sick leave.

[snip]

The revelation that an unspecified number of Toronto drug cops went into rehab amid findings of "serious criminal wrongdoing" is contained in a $116-million civil lawsuit filed against Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino and 22 other police officials, prosecutors and politicians by eight former drug squad cops.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright:   2003, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author:   Alan Cairns
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n105/a02.html


(12) A CONSPIRACY NIPPED CAN STILL BRING CONVICTION, JUSTICES SAY    (Top)

WASHINGTON, Jan.  21 - The Supreme Court ruled today that members of a criminal conspiracy can be convicted regardless of whether the discovery of the plot by the police has made it impossible for the conspiracy to achieve its goal.

"The court has repeatedly said that the essence of a conspiracy is `an agreement to commit an unlawful act,' " Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court.  He added that the criminal agreement "is a distinct evil," punishable whether or not the substantive crime ever takes place.

The decision overturned a ruling two years ago by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.  The appeals court overturned the conspiracy convictions of two drug couriers who went to a shopping mall in Idaho expecting to pick up a shipment of drugs, not knowing that the police had already discovered the shipment while it was in transit.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2003 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Linda Greenhouse
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n099/a11.html


(13) THE DEATH OF A RANGER SHOWS VENERABLE JOB'S NEW HAZARDS    (Top)

ORGAN PIPE CACTUS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Ariz.  -- In the ovenlike afternoon heat last Aug.  9, Kris Eggle got a call for help.

Mexican police were chasing a truck that was about to cross the poorly marked national border into this desert park.  Mr. Eggle, a 28-year-old park ranger, raced to the scene and found the truck stuck in a dust-filled pothole on the U.S.  side. Several men spilled out and ran.

Mr.  Eggle spotted one of them trying to hide behind a bush. He approached the suspect and prepared to arrest him, when the man whipped out an AK-47 automatic rifle and fired.

[snip]

In all, the team captured 10 backpacks containing 492 pounds of marijuana.  "That's just nothing," shrugs Mr. Jones, who says the rangers assume they're catching a tiny fraction of the tons of marijuana moving through the park.

Mr.  Jones and his fellow rangers wonder if such busts may have led to Mr.  Eggle's death. Six days after the team captured the smugglers, Mexican gunmen killed four people on the other side of the border.  The victims, Mexican authorities have told the rangers, were drug smugglers unable to pay their debts to the larger cartel that runs the marijuana trade.  And the smugglers may have lost their income thanks to the rangers' recent patrols.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright:   2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author:   John J.  Fialka
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n106/a04.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (14-18)    (Top)

This week's cannabis section begins with a comprehensive update of the Ed Rosenthal medical marijuana cultivation case that began on Tuesday.  This important trial will likely set the stage for future federal government intervention and arrests in states that have legalized medicinal cannabis.  If you can help in any way, please contact Green-Aid at (www.green-aid.com).  As if to remind us of just how unreasonable and disproportionate the U.S.  penalties surrounding cannabis have become, our second story reports on the trial of a 19 year-old Alabama student who was sentenced to 26 years in prison for selling marijuana at his school.  How quick the U.S. courts are to sacrifice an individual - in these cases a young man, and an experienced and accomplished activist - in order to support a failed and obviously flawed drug policy.

On that note, we take a look at the recent Canadian court decisions that have battered that countries cannabis prohibition.  In the light of imminent Canadian court-driven decriminalization of personal amounts of cannabis, the U.S.  prohibition looks all the more irrational.  In other good news, Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals has announced that it will have its first cannabis-based medicines on the market before year's end.  GW has been focusing its research on a sub-lingual spray for the reduction of neuropathic and MS related pain.

And finally this week, an interesting article about the father of modern mycoherbicides, Dr.  David Sands. The University State professor used to be the head of a U.S.  government-funded program researching the possibility of fungi-based eradication of cannabis and coca plants for use in Central and South America.  Is there a fungus around that attacks and destroys stupidity or ignorance? Now that st would be worth breeding.


(14) THE TRIAL OF ED ROSENTHAL    (Top)

A federal judge in San Francisco is blocking a jury from hearing evidence that could exculpate an outspoken medical marijuana activist.  Ed Rosenthal, who is facing 20 years in prison on federal drug charges, believed himself to be immune from prosecution when he was deputized by the nearby city of Oakland in 1998 to cultivate cannabis for chronically ill patients.

Rosenthal's case is a challenge by federal prosecutors to California's Compassionate Use Act (Prop.  215), a 1996 voter referendum that made the cultivation, possession and consumption of medical marijuana legal in California with a doctor's
recommendation.  Since the act did not provide for the distribution of medical cannabis, several California cities, including Oakland, have passed ordinances that authorize growers and distributors to meet this need.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 17 Jan 2003
Source:   AlterNet (US Web)
Copyright:   2003 Independent Media Institute
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1451
Author:   Ann Harrison, AlterNet
Note:   Please visit Green Aid http://www.green-aid.com/
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal (Ed Rosenthal)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n087.a04.html


(15) ALABAMA TEEN GETS 26 YEARS FOR SCHOOL DRUG SALE    (Top)

A Lawrence County High School student pleaded guilty Monday to selling drugs at school and received sentences totaling 26 years in prison.

Webster Alexander, 19, of 2161 Lawrence County 180, Moulton, received the jail time for six drug charges, including four for distributing controlled substances at the school.

Lawrence County District Attorney Jim Osborn said the sentences were stiff, but justified.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 15 Jan 2003
Source:   Decatur Daily (AL)
Copyright:   2003 The Decatur Daily
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/696
Author:   Clyde L.  Stancil, Staff Writer
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n087.a09.html


(16) OTTAWA BATTLES TO REGAIN CONTROL OF REEFER MADNESS    (Top)

Recipe for Reefer Madness:

Take:   One rookie justice minister who wants to decriminalize simple pot
possession.

Toss in: Several court rulings that Ottawa must allow medical use and possession of pot.

Spike with: Two lower-court acquittals (and counting) of recreational pot smokers by judges who say the law is no longer valid.

Bake:   At low heat on backburner for too long.

Serve up: Confusion for millions.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 20 Jan 2003
Source:   Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright:   2003 The Toronto Star
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author:   Tonda MacCharles
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n091.a07.html


(17) GW SETS UP UK LAUNCH OF CANNABIS DRUGS    (Top)

GW Pharmaceuticals, which has a Home Office licence to produce cannabis-derived medicines said yesterday that it was on track to launch the first of its products before the end of the year.

Geoffrey Guy, executive chairman, said the company hoped to follow up UK approval with similar licences in Continental countries in the near future, but it could be several years before the product is available in the US.

[snip]

GW's first launch in the UK is likely to be an under-the-tongue spray for treating sufferers from multiple sclerosis and neuropathic pain.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 16 Jan 2003
Source:   Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright:   2003 Telegraph Group Limited
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author:   Rosie Murray-West
Cited:   GW Pharmaceuticals http://www.gwpharm.com/
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?323 (GW Pharmaceuticals)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n074.a10.html


(18) THE TEMPTATION OF DR. WEED    (Top)

[snip]

This is not the first time reporters have called on Sands.  Between 1999 and 2000, he was hounded by media from all over the world--the BBC, Mother Jones, the London Observer and Newsweek all wanted access to the man and his groundbreaking research.  Sands was one of the world's few experts on mycoherbicides--fungi that kill other living plants.  Sands' specialty was a fungus meant to replace toxic chemicals as the weapon of choice in a drug war battle plan designed to decimate crops of coca and cannabis in the jungles of Colombia.

The press wasn't kind to Sands, or to his work.  Mother Jones portrayed him as a reckless scientist unconcerned about the potential health risks posed by mycoherbicides to the Colombian people.  Later that year the London Observer reported links between Sands' private Bozeman company, Ag/Bio Con, high-ranking U.S. military personnel, and Florida drug czar Jim McDonough.  As recently as last month, an article in Counterpunch, which dubbed Sands' coca-killing fungus "agent green," drew a parallel between Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele's merciless human experiments and a U.S. government proposal to spray Sands' fungal agent over Colombia.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 16 Jan 2003
Source:   Missoula Independent (MT)
Copyright:   2003 Missoula Independent
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1534
Author:   Jed Gottlieb
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n081.a04.html


International News


COMMENT: (19-25)    (Top)

Protests continued in Bolivia as thousands of poor coca farmers clashed with authorities over the US-dictated policy to destroy traditional coca plants.  Demonstrators shut down a main highway as police retaliated with tear gas and shotgun blasts, wounding three. In a sign of growing insecurity, the Bolivian government expelled four Swedish women accused of taking part in the demonstrations and aiding opposition leader Evo Morales.

In Mexico, the elite Federal Special Prosecutor's Office for Drug Crimes (FEADS) units were completely dismantled in the wake of evidence that the anti-drug agency was corrupted by drug profits. This is the second elite counter-narcotics unit in Mexico to be taken down in the last six years.  The Mexican Army conducted raids on FEADS offices in 11 states throughout Mexico over the past week.

Following in the footsteps of the Canadian federal auditor general and a parliamentary committee, a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal released last week also concluded that the "war on drugs" has been a waste of time and money.  Researchers cited evidence the largest heroin bust in Canadian history (over 100 kilograms) had absolutely no impact on the street supply of heroin. The study recommended moving to a harm-reduction approach.

And finally this week from Malaysia, more gung ho drug war declarations from the authoritarian Malaysian regime, this time another wildly optimistic promise to wipe out drug addiction by 2015.  Claiming that the "drug menace" is a major threat to Malaysia's security, the Islamic government pledged to rally all of society in the renewed fight.  Making Malaysia drug-free by 2015, asserted Moslem Home Minister Abdullah, would be done by a "media blitz," instilling an "anti-drug" culture, and activating "all agencies ...  to organise programmes that enhance discipline and morality of the public." According to government plans, "addicts" would also be forced into servitude in sweatshop factories, and on plantations.


(19) POLICE BREAK UP BOLIVIAN PROTEST OVER COCA FARMING    (Top)

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AP) -- Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse scores of protesters Friday in the fifth straight day of demonstrations against a coca eradication program.

Protesters since Monday have shut down the main highway linking this key central city to Santa Cruz, 200 miles to the east, by heaping boulders and logs along the roadway.

That action continued Friday as thousands turned out to oppose a U.S.-sponsored, government plan to destroy illegal coca crops - the base ingredient used to make cocaine .

Helmeted police chased demonstrators through the streets, firing tear gas into crowds gathered behind barricades of garbage cans and burning tires.

Doctor Eduardo Arnez said he treated three young men for shotgun wounds.  He claimed that police fired the weapons.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 17 Jan 2003
Source:   Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright:   2003 Associated Press
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/27
Author:   Associated Press
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n089/a04.html


(20) SWEDES EXPELLED FROM BOLIVIA FOR SUPPORTING COCA FARMERS    (Top)

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- The government has ordered four Swedish women expelled from Bolivia, accusing them of illegal political activism by supporting protests by coca growers.

The four women, who have been detained since Monday, were given until Saturday to leave Bolivia.

[snip]

The protests have left four people dead in clashes with police and soldiers.

The coca growers are protesting the eradication of their plants by the government.  Coca leaf is processed to make cocaine.

Deputy Interior Minister Jose Luis Harb said the Swedish women gave $2,000 to Evo Morales, the leftist leader of the coca peasants in the Chapare region, to help finance the protests.

Harb said the four women were detained because they joined several marches against the government, a political activity prohibited to foreigners.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 15 Jan 2003
Source:   Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright:   2003 The Associated Press
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/area/Bolivia (Bolivia)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n075/a11.html


(21) ANTI-DRUG OFFICE CLOSED OVER CORRUPTION    (Top)

For the second time in six years, the Mexican government has dismantled an elite federal anti-drug unit after discovering evidence that it had been corrupted by drug traffickers.

Closure of the Federal Special Prosecutor's Office for Drug Crimes followed simultaneous military raids last week on the agency's offices in 11 states.  The raids began in Tijuana, where seven agents are accused of offering to return nearly five tons of seized marijuana to drug lords in exchange for $2 million.

Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, whose office oversees the agency, said over the weekend that all 200 of the agency's employees are being questioned.

Pubdate:   Tue, 21 Jan 2003
Source:   San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright:   2003 San Jose Mercury News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n097/a03.html


(22) WAR ON DRUGS HAS BEEN A WASTE OF MONEY    (Top)

[snip]

The millions of dollars we spend annually to crack down on the use of illicit drugs is a big huge waste of time.

The biggest heroin haul in Canadian history - 100 kilograms of the stuff, seized by Vancouver police in 2000 - didn't make the slightest dent in supply, the researchers found.

Heroin was just as easy to get in the weeks after the bust and the price actually went down, according to the study.

"We saw literally zero impact on the street," noted Dr.  Martin Schechter, senior author of the paper.

[snip]

If there have been any successes, the parliamentary committee certainly couldn't find them.

There wasn't a shred of evidence submitted during the hearings that supports our ongoing police crackdown on illegal drugs.

[snip]

It is no surprise that the Vancouver researchers in the latest study have also embraced the harm-reduction approach.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Source:   Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright:   2003, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author:   Mindelle Jacobs
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n103/a04.html


(23) MALAYSIA AIMS TO WIPE OUT DRUG MENACE BY 2015    (Top)

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has pledged to free the country
of drug addiction by 2015, following reports that 70
per cent of addicts admitted to drug rehabilitation
centres returned to the habit afterwards.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said that the campaign against the drug menace - seen as a major threat to the country's security - would involve all sections of society and be undertaken by the National Drugs Council.

[snip]

'Therefore, a new approach has to be taken immediately before this gets out of control to ensure Malaysia and Asean are free of drugs by 2015.  This is the approach we have taken,' said Datuk Abdullah, who is also Home Minister, after a meeting of the council.

[snip]

Datuk Zainal said: 'Drug addicts will be given training in areas like plantations and electronics during their stay at the rehabilitation centres, which would enable them to be placed with factories and offices in the private sector.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source:   Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright:   2003 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/429
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n103/a09.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

END PROHIBITION NOW.  SIGN THE APPEAL TO THE U.N.

By Arnold S.  Trebach

http://www.radicalparty.org/elist/archivio/corafax/cog02-03ese.htm


SPEAK OUT FOR ED ROSENTHAL!

A DrugSense Focus Alert.

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0259.html


TRUST BUT VERIFY

by Doug McVay - Common Sense for Drug Policy - for DrugWar.com

Using this stuff leads to hard drug use and abuse?

By now people have heard of the just-published report in JAMA regarding 'gateway theory' and cannabis use.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v289n4/rfull/joc21156.html

Many media outlets are reporting the research as showing that cannabis use at an early age leads to use of hard drugs later on.  There's a good deal less -- and more -- to the study than has been reported so far, at least in the US.

Continues:   http://www.drugwar.com/mcvayverify.shtm


CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL REPORT

"More than 93% of the nearly $500 million spent annually on Canada's drug strategy goes toward efforts to reduce the illicit drug supply. However, little is known about the effectiveness of this strategy. On Sept.  2, 2000, Canadian police seized approximately 100 kg of heroin in one of the nation's largest-ever seizures of this drug.  An ongoing prospective cohort study of injection drug users afforded an opportunity to evaluate the impact of this seizure."

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n106/a02.html


MOUSE MODEL LINKS ALCOHOL INTAKE TO MARIJUANA-LIKE BRAIN COMPOUNDS

"Brain molecules similar to the active compound in marijuana help to regulate alcohol consumption, according to new reports by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Bethesda, Maryland, and a separate NIAAA-supported group at several New York state research institutions."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/nioa-mml011703.php


JOSEPH MCNAMARA ON CBC'S "THE CURRENT"

Police Corruption

It's dominating headlines in Toronto this week ...  police officers in an elite narcotics squad allegedly stealing drug money.  Dozens of cases being thrown out of court.  An inquiry into the allegations about to wrap up.  Joseph McNamara should know. He's a former chief with the San Jose police department, and a 35-year veteran of policing.  Mr. McNamara is now a university professor and is currently studying the U.S.  war on drugs. He says it's leading to rampant gangster cop corruption in many cities.

Audio:   http://drugpolicycentral.com/real/leap/mcnamara1.rm


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

SCURRILOUS DISINFORMATION LABELED AS HEALTH ADVICE

By Mett Ausley M.D
Dear Editor,

The Herald's recent article on marijuana's dangers (Fighting drug legalization through prosecutors, December 27), essentially a press release from the Drug Czar's office, reminds me of East Bloc propaganda from the Cold War.  There's nothing new, and the dire warnings simply reflect old issues repackaged with a harder slant and shriller tone announcing the government's position that marijuana now poses the greatest "threat" of all drugs.  Indeed that may be true, but the threat they're worried about isn't
health-related, rather the embarrassing possibility that the public may soon overturn a cornerstone of drug policy by legalizing pot.

From a medical perspective, the seemingly bold health warnings are uniformly ambiguous, stripped of context, misleading and plainly contrived to convey alarm rather than fact.  For example, the facile statement that marijuana is "addictive" somehow escapes elaboration, leaving one to wonder how this slippery term should apply here.  The breathless revelation that marijuana has surpassed heroin as a "factor" in emergency room visits loses its punch when one considers that the number of heroin users is minuscule compared with pot smokers.

Condemning "medical" marijuana while trotting out the shopworn "gateway theory" once again is downright shameless.

Well.., everybody gets to believe in Santa Claus for a while, I guess.

I do agree on one point-marijuana isn't harmless.

Neither are sunshine, aspirin or jogging.

For some persons it can be habit-forming and impair social function, and may cause more serious harm in a small minority of users.  At best, it's a frivolous diversion for adults.

Anyone considering using marijuana should be made aware of these small but genuine risks.  Regrettably, our officials, preoccupied with politics and saving face, are attempting to foist upon us scurrilous disinformation labeled as health advice.

Sincerely,
Mett Ausley, MD,
Lake Waccamaw, NC

Pubdate:   01/08/2003
Source:   Paintsville Herald, The (KY)


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Book Review: Down by the River/ Reviewed By Stephen Young

Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family By Charles Bowden Simon & Schuster, 433 pages

Trying to understand a seemingly senseless 1995 murder, author Charles Bowden follows a trail of drug-related corruption littered with human remains in "Down by the River."

In the world he describes, people disappear, arms are hacked off with axes and whole families are buried alive.  It's a horrible story, but once started, difficult to put down, and crucial as document of the devastating consequences of prohibition.

"Down by The River" covers a broad range of subjects, but the drug war stands at its heart.

"The tale involves two countries, the United States and Mexico, fused together in one lie," Bowden writes near the beginning of the book.

The Rio Grande, the river of the title, serves as a border between the United States and Mexico.  It separates the city of Juarez, Mexico from El Paso, Texas, where the events primarily take place.

Focused on a DEA agent who rose to a position of authority after a series of fabled busts, the book shows how his career and family life crashed down in the wake of his brother's murder.  Obsessed over determining why his brother was killed, the agent finds powerful interests on both sides of the border obstructing his investigation.

As the story progresses, Bowden details increasingly complex connections between drug cartels and government on both sides of the river.

A DEA agent might not seem like a sympathetic subject for readers, like me, who are critics of the drug war.  However, the author makes agent Phil Jordan's motivations understandable, and portrays him as a likable if flawed person.  Bowden cites plenty of disturbing facts for context, but the book is really about people on both sides of the drug trade.

"The drug war lacks any honest metaphors," Bowden writes.  "The common ones such as drug lords and drug czars are falsely grand.  It is simply a business and like all businesses it has merchants and like all merchants they have power and access to people in power. The merchants are natural lobbyists.  They are strictly business."

The myth of the supernarc is also stripped down.  While Bowden clearly respects Jordan, he offers an unromantic view of his work. Jordan and his colleagues lie to gain trust - just enough trust for effective betrayal.

Those who already understand prohibition as a brutal and destructive farce may be startled by some details.  A Mexican marijuana plantation comprising four square miles somehow goes undetected by law enforcement within the country as well as the expensive surveillance technology operated in the United States.  Smuggling schemes that count the loss of large jetliners as the cost of doing business.  Investigations pointing toward the upper echelons of Mexican government before suddenly being abandoned.

Readers are repeatedly reminded that drugs and cash flow more or less freely over the border.  In many ways, Bowden writes about boundaries that get violated, even if citizens of both countries attempt to ignore those violations.

Ominously for U.S residents, the book suggests those violations will become more blatant.  The nastiest violence has been restricted to the Mexican side of the border for now, but just a few weeks ago, newspapers published stories about a sudden, unexplained mass murder in the little town of Edinburg, Texas.  Six men were shot to death under one roof.  Investigators suspect drugs were involved.

It sounds like an incident out of "Down by the River," where the cartels kill indiscriminately on mere suspicions that their operations might be compromised.

In the book, one of Bowden's sources suggests that Jordan, the DEA agent, needs to stop thinking about drugs.  She doesn't see them everywhere as Jordan does.  Bowden replies from grim experience.

"It is everywhere, if you look, if you know how to look.  It is too big to ignore."

Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly and author "Maximizing Harm," www.maximizingharm.com


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain."

- Mark Twain, "Tom Sawyer"


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

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

CREDITS:  

Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by Stephen Young (), Cannabis/Hemp content selection and analysis by Philippe Lucas (), International content selection and analysis by Doug Snead (), 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.


MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE

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

-OR-

Mail in your contribution.  Make checks payable to MAP Inc. send your contribution to:

The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
D/B/a DrugSense
14252 Culver Drive #328
Irvine, CA, 92604-0326
(800) 266 5759


RSS DrugSense Weekly current issue this issue

Back Issues: 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010