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DrugSense Weekly
April 4, 2003 #295

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Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* This Just In


(1) Gop Leaders Press Ehrlich To Veto Medical Marijuana
(2) Tulia Drug Defendants, County Reach Deal
(3) Rosenthal Retrial Possible
(4) Court Says Mom's USe Of Pot Not Reason To Remove Kids

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) White House To End Drugs Terror Ads
(6) Fill-In Judge Fired For Refusal To Hear Drug Cases
(7) Minister Won't Identify Woman To Drug Agents
(8) The Agony And The Ecstasy
(9) Detox Center Seeks Acceptance

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-14)
(10) Texas Court Acts To Clear 38, Almost All Black, In Drug Case
(11) Judge Dismisses Charges Against 24 Defendants
(12) Editorial: Drug Task Force Must Stop Busts-For-Money
(13) Editorial: A Judge's Disgrace
(14) Drug Tester Is Sorry He Had His Hand Out

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (15-19)
(15) Foods Containing Hemp Face Impending DEA Ban
(16) White House Weighs In On Pot Issue
(17) Belgium To Legalise Cannabis
(18) Bill To Legalise Ganja For Private Use Soon, Says Nicholson
(19) Pot Charges Could Be Stayed Across Canada: Expert

International News-

COMMENT: (20-23)
(20) Police 'Refusing' To Help Govt Probe
(21) Wanna Get Picked Up?
(22) Vancouver Drug Facilities Draw Ire Of U.S. Officials
(23) More Funds Sought In Heroin Fight

* Hot Off The 'Net


     Cannabis: Marijuana - Hashish
     Mike Gray On Cultural Baggage
     Brazil Health Official Slams Current Drug Policy
     CBC Cannabis Archives
     Human Rights and the Drug War Updated

* Letter Of The Week


     Marijuana Morality / By Bruce Mirken

* Feature Article


     Save Federal Judicial Discretion! / By FAMM

* Quote of the Week


     Richard Cowan


THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) GOP LEADERS PRESS EHRLICH TO VETO MEDICAL MARIJUANA    (Top)

Rethink Longtime Support, White House, Others Urge

The Bush administration and other top national Republicans are heavily pressuring Gov.  Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to veto a proposal that would drastically reduce penalties for terminally ill patients who smoke marijuana to ease pain.

In recent days, several Republican officials have urged Ehrlich to reconsider his longtime support of medical marijuana, which has become one of the few issues that divide the state GOP.

Though Ehrlich, a Republican, has indicated a willingness to consider the bill, some of his advisers are worried about a public split with the White House.

There are signs that Ehrlich is trying to avoid the issue.  Former Education Secretary William J.  Bennett, a prominent Republican, is having trouble getting his phone calls to the governor returned.

Yesterday, John P.  Walters, the White House drug policy coordinator, used a speech in Baltimore to criticize proponents of medical marijuana, saying they had "conned" the Maryland General Assembly into supporting the measure.

He warned of the risk of subjecting the state to lawsuits and increased drug abuse if the bill becomes law.

"We stand in the city that I believe has suffered more from drug abuse and addiction than any city in the United States," Walters said while attending a drug-prevention conference downtown.  "It is an outrage that, in this state, the legalizers would come here to try to put additional people in harm's way."

Ehrlich, who co-sponsored medical marijuana legislation in Congress, is unfazed by Walters' warnings.

"I have always taken pride in my independent streak," Ehrlich said.  "I respect those guys.  They have a legitimate point of view, but we have a point of view too.  ... I can take some pressure."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 04 Apr 2003
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   2003 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Website:   http://www.sunspot.net/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author:   Tim Craig
Size:   148 lines 6611 bytes
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n486.a09.html


(2) TULIA DRUG DEFENDANTS, COUNTY REACH DEAL    (Top)

Settlement May Avert Lawsuits In Disputed Drug Convictions

Swisher County officials, moving quickly to stave off lawsuits that could bankrupt the Panhandle county, say they have settled with the 38 Tulia drug defendants whose convictions a judge said he will recommend be thrown out because the key prosecution witness was not credible.

The settlements range from $12,000 for the 13 people still in prison to $6,000 for those who served between six months and three years and $2,000 for those who did not serve any time, officials said.  Attorneys for some of the defendants said they would seek investigations - and possible lawsuits - - against the Panhandle Narcotics Regional Task Force that directed the investigation.

Retired state District Judge Ron Chapman on Tuesday said prosecutors and defense attorneys had agreed after a hearing on four cases that all 38 drug convictions - almost all involving black defendants - should be thrown out.  The judge, agreeing that former undercover agent Tom Coleman was not credible, said he will recommend that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals accept the settlement.

If new trials are ordered, the state's special prosecutors have said that they would not retry the cases.

[snip]

At an emergency meeting Tuesday night, the Swisher County Commissioners Court agreed to settle in exchange for no future lawsuits against the county, which has an operating budget of $3.1 million.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 3 Apr 2003
Source:   Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright:   2003 The Dallas Morning News
Website:   http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author:   David Sedeno, The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n485.a01.html


(3) ROSENTHAL RETRIAL POSSIBLE    (Top)

Lawyers for medical marijuana champion Ed Rosenthal asked federal Judge Charles Breyer for a new trial Tuesday after two jurors came forward to say their ability to deliberate was compromised by advice from an outside attorney.

Rosenthal juror Pamela Klarkowski testified that fellow juror Marney Craig consulted with an attorney friend during the trial who said she could not vote "her conscience." Klarkowski said the issue first came up when the pair was carpooling home to Sonoma County.

"We were traveling north and Marney said, 'Do jurors always have to follow the law? Don't they ever have the opportunity to make a decision based on conscience?'"

Klarkowski responded that jurors had taken an oath to weigh the evidence given, but added, 'Maybe you have a point.'" Craig then said she had "real questions" and would like to "call an attorney friend to ask about this point of law." "I said if you do, let me know what you find out," testified Klarkowski.

The next day on their way back into The City, Craig said her friend had told her to "do as we had been instructed, do as we had been told," said Klarkowski, a nurse in Marin Courty.

"Given instructions from the judge and all the evidence from prosecution, which was pretty tidy, I felt that was it, I didn't have much choice," she added.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source:   San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright:   2003 San Francisco Examiner
Website:   http://www.examiner.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/389
Author:   J.  K. Dineen
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n483.a03.html


(4) COURT SAYS MOM'S USE OF POT NOT REASON TO REMOVE KIDS    (Top)

Akron- Smoking marijuana daily does not make a woman an unfit parent and her four children should not have been removed by a county agency, an appeals court has ruled.

Teresa Scott is a single working mother who paid her rent and provided loving care to her children, her lawyer said, but when she admitted she smoked marijuana, the Summit County Children Services Board removed the children in August 2001.

The agency's decision was upheld in the county's Juvenile Court.

The 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals overruled that decision, 2-1, on Monday.

"While this court certainly does not condone a parent's use of an illegal substance or abuse of a legal substance, parents have a fundamental right to raise their children," said appeals Judges Donna Carr and William Batchelder.

"Without some evidence that Teresa's supervision of her children or the environment of her children has been affected in some negative way by her use of marijuana, there is not clear and convincing evidence" the children should be removed.

Judge Lynn Slaby dissented.  "I believe the continued use of an illegal substance can do nothing but have a detrimental impact on the children," he wrote.

He said people may argue that alcohol abuse may not warrant the removal of children, but "I believe there is a distinction between using a legal substance and the continued use of an illegal substance."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source:   Plain Dealer, The (OH)
Copyright:   2003 The Plain Dealer
Website:   http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Author:   Karen Farkas
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n481.a05.html


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)


Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-9)    (Top)

The biggest news of the week, the move to overturn convictions of 38 Tulia residents convicted on drug charges, is covered in the Law Enforcement & Prisons of DrugSense Weekly, but just as significant is the cancellation of the federal government's terror and drugs propaganda campaign.  The good news is tempered by the cancellation of a study indicating that the ads don't work, and reports that other aspects of the anti-drug ad campaign will continue.

Elsewhere in the news were inspiring stories of individuals standing up against drug war mentality.  A temporary judge in Arizona was fired for declining to hear drug cases.  A minister in Mississippi refused to give drug agents the name of a church member who turned in a load of marijuana.  Reason Magazine also offered a long study into the trials of Dr.  William Hurwitz, who only wanted to help patients cope with pain, before the feds got involved.

Finally, a new Scientology-based Narcanon treatment center is opening in Florida, but this one is exceptional.  It may receive state and federal funds for a program that some see as religious indoctrination.


(5) WHITE HOUSE TO END DRUGS & TERROR ADS

Also Stops Study That Found Campaign Wasn't Working

WASHINGTON -- The White House anti-drug office will end its controversial drugs-and-terror advertising campaign and, in a reversal, shift more of its $150 million budget toward children's media as it fights for Congress to extend the program another five years.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy will also cease a polarizing $8 million annual study that found the ads aimed at youth were not working and that pitted the drug office against the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Now, the office will direct 60% of its buys toward youth-oriented media -- the same percentage it had previously directed at adults -- and will focus on halting drug use among children already using rather than aim to deter youth from starting drugs.  The
drugs-and-terror ads will end in May.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Advertising Age (US)
Copyright:   2003 Crain Communications Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/2258
Author:   Ira Teinowitz
Cited:   http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n484/a13.html


(6) FILL-IN JUDGE FIRED FOR REFUSAL TO HEAR DRUG CASES    (Top)

A judge pro tem was fired Thursday, his first day on the job at a Mesa courthouse, for refusing to hear drug cases.

Arizona Chief Justice Charles Jones fired Marc Victor, a Mesa defense attorney, saying Victor "expressly declared his inability to be impartial in the application of the law and the disposition of cases before him."

But Victor, a marijuana legalization activist, said he recused himself only on drug cases, not all cases.

"I thought it was the honest, up-front thing to do," said Victor, who brought a six-page proposed "minute entry" with him to Maricopa County Superior Court, outlining why he believes drug laws violate the U.S.  and Arizona constitutions.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source:   Arizona Republic (AZ)
Copyright:   2003 The Arizona Republic
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author:   Jim Walsh, The Arizona Republic
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n458/a06.html


(7) MINISTER WON'T IDENTIFY WOMAN TO DRUG AGENTS    (Top)

An effort to help a parishioner has landed a Hattiesburg minister in the middle of a controversy with federal drug enforcement authorities.

But the Rev.  Kenneth Fairley said he will not violate the sanctity of the ministry by providing federal drug agents the identity of the woman who gave him a bag with an estimated $100,000 worth of marijuana she found in her house in February.

Fairley, pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, said the incident occurred when one of his parishioners asked him for advice on what to do with a large bag of marijuana she found in her house.

"She brought the bag to me at the church and told me a family member was apparently involved in drugs.  She wanted it off the streets," Fairley said Tuesday.

Fairley said he called Hattiesburg Police Chief David Wynn who sent an officer to remove the drugs.

"Five or six days later, two men with the Drug Enforcement Agency came to the church seeking to know the identity of the woman," he said.  "They told me that I needed to tell them or I could face obstruction of justice charges.  I told them I did not appreciate threats and asked them to leave."

A spokesman with the Gulfport office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the office closest to Hattiesburg, could not be reached for comment.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source:   Hattiesburg American (MS)
Copyright:   2003 Hattiesburg American
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1646
Author:   Lea Crager, and Nikki Davis Maute
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n480/a04.html


(8) THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY    (Top)

How The OxyContin Crackdown Hurts Patients In Pain

William E.  Hurwitz spent much of last year trying to find new doctors for his patients.  It wasn't easy, since physicians often are reluctant to treat chronic pain.  They worry that repeated prescriptions for large doses of narcotic painkillers will attract unwanted attention from the government.  That anxiety was the main reason Hurwitz had ended up treating so many people for pain -- about 300 patients suffering from cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, degenerative disc disease, diabetic complications, and other painful conditions.  Some of them had searched for months or years, growing increasingly desperate, before finding him.  Many lived hundreds of miles from his Northern Virginia office.

Hurwitz's retirement was not exactly voluntary.  A veteran of battles with state regulators and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the 57-year-old internist saw more trouble on the horizon.  After learning that he had been targeted by a federal grand jury investigation of prescription drug diversion, he decided to gradually transfer his patients rather than put them at risk of suddenly losing access to pain medication.

Hurwitz was still working to match patients with new doctors in November, when the DEA raided his home and office.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Reason Magazine (US)
Copyright:   2003 The Reason Foundation
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/359
Author:   Melinda Ammann
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n472/a05.html


(9) DETOX CENTER SEEKS WIDER ACCEPTANCE

CLEARWATER -- At Tampa Bay's newest alternative to mainstream drug treatment, the license issued by the state hangs next to commendations from the Church of Scientology.

Narconon, a controversial drug treatment program based on techniques developed by Scientology founder L.  Ron Hubbard, has opened its first Florida facility in Clearwater in a commercial park off U.S.

Past the meticulously clean lobby are classrooms where recovering addicts take a series of life improvement courses incorporating the same concepts and principles one encounters in introductory Scientology courses at a church mission.

[snip]

Now [Clearwater Narconon Director Chery] Alderman plans to do what no other Narconon program in the country does: Get taxpayer assistance in the form of state and federal grants.

She also plans to seek referrals from local court systems and permission to teach a Narconon-based prevention program in Pinellas public schools.

Some in the political elite indicate they will listen.  Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala and Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judges Linda Allan and Linda Babb have toured the facility and left impressed.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 30 Mar 2003
Source:   St.  Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright:   2003 St.  Petersburg Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author:   Robert Farley
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n469/a07.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (10-14)    (Top)

The long road to justice for 38 people convicted after an outrageous drug sting in Tulia, Texas may be reaching its end.  As widely reported, prosecutors moved to overturn convictions of all 38 after the credibility of an undercover cop who made the busts was shredded in hearings last week.  Making fewer headlines were the dismissals of 24 drug cases in Tennessee after another informant apparently lost his credibility.

An editorial in an Iowa college newspaper wondered whether the highly-publicized bust of a college president had more to do with a drug task force seeking funds than the protection of the public. Another editorial from Louisiana lambasted an indicted judge who copped a plea last week for allegedly trying to plant drugs on a critic, along with other crimes.  And corruption continues to challenge drug testing companies, as a Hawaiian drug tester was convicted of taking bribes to change drug test results.


(10) TEXAS COURT ACTS TO CLEAR 38, ALMOST ALL BLACK, IN DRUG CASE    (Top)

TULIA, Tex.  -- Conceding that they had made a catastrophic mistake in relying solely on the uncorroborated testimony of an undercover officer, prosecutors moved today to overturn the convictions of 38 people, almost all of them black, who were caught in a series of drug arrests in 1999 that tore this town apart.

A judge agreed with the prosecutors, and defense lawyers, that the Texas courts should vacate every conviction arising from the drug sting, including those in which the defendants pleaded guilty.

The extraordinary turnabout followed hearings here last month in which the undercover officer, Thomas Coleman, and many other witnesses testified about his troubled law enforcement career, unorthodox methods, pervasive errors, combustible temperament and apparent racism.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2003 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Simon Romero, Adam Liptak
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n482/a08.html


(11) JUDGE DISMISSES CHARGES AGAINST 24 DEFENDANTS    (Top)

Credibility Of Informant In Drug Sting Is Questioned

Circuit Court Judge Clayburn Peeples recently dismissed charges against 24 defendants after officials said the confidential informant's credibility was questioned.

The 24 defendants were arrested as part of one of the largest Brownsville Police Department drug stings in recent years.  The accused were mostly small to moderate "street dealers."

Most of them were charged with sale of scheduled II controlled substance for allegedly selling crack cocaine.  They could have faced between three and 12 years in prison, if found guilty, depending on how much they sold.

Peeples dismissed the charges on Wednesday after District Attorney General Garry Brown requested it.

Brown read a statement in court that said the informant "committed certain acts, during the course of the investigation, that have destroyed his credibility as a witness."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source:   Jackson Sun News (TN)
Copyright:   2003 The Jackson Sun
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1482
Author:   RACHAEL MYER
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n463/a04.html


(12) EDITORIAL: DRUG TASK FORCE MUST STOP BUSTS-FOR-MONEY    (Top)

David England, the president of Des Moines Area Community College, was targeted by the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force to pad its grant application.  England is accused of having 2.5 pounds of pot at his home, along with someplant seedlings.  Yes, drugs are illegal, but prosecuting those who choose to use them should not occur for an agency's gain.

Many were not surprised that the bust on the England home happened in March, just a few weeks from the task force's April application deadline for federal aid, its main source of funding.  Last year, the task force received $500,000 from the federal Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Grant program.  The Byrne fund helps 25 drug task forces in Iowa.  The task-force program brings in around $5.5 million each year, with $3 million spent on actual task-force activities and the rest on prevention and treatment programs.

England's lawyer, Allen St.  Pierre, who is the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says, "The government will use this as an example." Even though task-force officials deny that they used the England bust to help their application, they admit that the grant process is very competitive. The applications show only arrest statistics, but the task force sends news clippings to the drug-control office to impress those who will fund its requests.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 27 Mar 2003
Source:   Daily Iowan, The (IA Edu)
Copyright:   2003 The Daily Iowan
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/937
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n460/a10.html


(13) EDITORIAL: A JUDGE'S DISGRACE    (Top)

Former Jefferson Parish Judge Ronald Bodenheimer made a disgraceful exit from public life Monday when he stood before a federal judge in New Orleans and pleaded guilty to three crimes, two of which involve him abusing his authority as judge.

Not only did Mr.  Bodenheimer admit to scheming to fix a custody case in favor of restaurateur Al Copeland, but he also admitted to reducing and splitting bonds to maximize profit for bondsman Louis Marcotte III.  Mr. Bodenheimer, owner of Venetian Isles Marina in eastern New Orleans, also says he conspired to plant drugs on a man who had criticized the marina.

Mr.  Bodenheimer brought shame upon the judiciary with his crimes, and it's wholly appropriate that he be punished severely.  His admission of guilt is likely to bring him 31/2 years in a federal penitentiary.  In addition to the incarceration, the chief disciplinary counsel for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board said he plans to file charges of misconduct against Mr.  Bodenheimer, asking the Supreme Court to permanently disbar him.

If Mr.  Bodenheimer were a blight on an otherwise spotless Jefferson Parish judicial system, local residents would probably be breathing a sigh of relief that he is off the bench.  But federal prosecutors think he will reveal even more corruption at the Jefferson Parish courthouse.  Federal officials say his 42-month sentence is conditioned on his promise to testify against others.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 02 Apr 2003
Source:   Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright:   2003 The Times-Picayune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n479/a09.html


(14) DRUG TESTER IS SORRY HE HAD HIS HAND OUT    (Top)

A former employee of Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii said he took bribes to alter drug-test results for federal defendants under supervised release because he felt sorry for them.

Carl Hauoli Kaikaina, 48, himself a convicted felon, had been ordered by the court to undergo urinalysis testing, making him aware of the seriousness and consequences of his actions, said Assistant U.S.  Attorney Tracy Hino.

"If he truly intended to help people, why was he charging people money?" Hino argued yesterday against Kaikaina's request for a more lenient sentence.

U.S.  District Judge Helen Gillmor sentenced Kaikaina yesterday to the maximum under federal guidelines of 24 months in prison for soliciting and accepting bribes on three occasions, plus one count of making a false statement.  He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison.  She also fined him $1,000.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright:   2003 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/196
Author:   Debra Barayuga
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n479/a06.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (15-19)    (Top)

Still shaking their collective heads in shock and awe over Operation Pipedreams, American marijuana law reformers were hit with another strategically targeted strike on the outskirts of cannabis last week when the DEA announced that their long-sought prohibition of hemp consumables, such as corn chips and frozen waffles, will take effect this 4/21.

Reformers may have been fortified by the passage of a medical marijuana Bill in Maryland that reduced the penalty for self-medication from a criminal offense to a mere ticket and fine. Other incremental initiatives made progress in Missouri, Connecticut and Oklahoma (of all places), despite the perfectly legal efforts of the ONDCP to "clear up misinformation" for voters.

Meanwhile, possessing five grams or less for any non-commercial purpose will soon be legal with a capital "L" for anyone 18 or over in Belgium.  Both the Jamaican Attorney General and Canadian Justice Minister promise decriminalization in the very near future, but there is growing consensus within the Canadian legal community that the law prohibiting possession of 30 grams or less has been null and void for almost two years.


(15) FOODS CONTAINING HEMP FACE IMPENDING DEA BAN    (Top)

The use of hemp in corn chips, frozen waffles and other foodstuffs will be nipped in the bud next month under a new ruling by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Any cannabis products intended for human consumption will not be allowed to be manufactured or sold after April 21, the agency said yesterday.

A trade group representing dozens of companies that mix hemp oils and fiber into their products - including San Diego County-based Govinda's Fitness Foods and Dr.  Bronner's Magic Soap - said it plans to file a brief today in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco seeking a stay of the ban.

Several executives at companies distributing hemp-related goods threatened acts of civil disobedience if the ruling is enforced.

Hemp contains trace elements of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, which is found in marijuana.  U.S. drug laws list THC as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

"We expect most of the public to abide by the ban," DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source:   San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright:   2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n463.a02.html


(16) WHITE HOUSE WEIGHS IN ON POT ISSUE    (Top)

A local initiative aimed at softening the city's marijuana laws has caught the attention of the White House's drug prevention office.

Scott Burns, an appointee of President George W.  Bush and director of state and local affairs for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, will speak Thursday at a luncheon sponsored by a local anti-drug group at the Peachtree Banquet Center.  The subject of the luncheon will be how Proposition 1 conflicts with federal laws.

Burns, along with a staffer from the Washington, D.C., office and another from Kansas City, will also hold a news conference about the measure.

"We're not here to tell people how to vote.  The president has a strategy to reduce drug abuse, and any attempt to decriminalize or legalize drugs runs counter to our mission," said Kevin Sabet, a senior speechwriter with the drug policy office, which coordinates a widespread anti-drug media campaign.

Instead of telling people how to vote, Sabet said that Burns would be "clearing up misinformation."

For example, Sabet said that marijuana is a dangerous drug and its use puts more teenagers in rehab every year than alcohol and other drugs combined.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source:   Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Copyright:   2003 Columbia Daily Tribune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/91
Note:   Prints the street address of LTE writers.
Author:   Liz Heitzman
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n475.a02.html


(17) BELGIUM TO LEGALISE CANNABIS    (Top)

BRUSSELS -- The Belgian parliament has voted to legalise the personal use of cannabis, within certain guidelines, for anyone over the age of 18.

The move, which has been the subject of fierce debate in Belgium for the last two years, will allow users to smoke small quantities of the drug in private, provided they do not disturb public order.

Its sale will, however, remain illegal and Belgium will not tolerate Dutch-style coffee shops selling cannabis over the counter.  Hard drugs will continue to be outlawed.

The possession of up to 5g of cannabis for personal use will no longer be punishable and police officers who find such quantities in routine searches will take no action.

The country's ruling coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Greens said it had been trying to decriminalise use of the soft drug since 2001.

The new law cleared the final hurdle after the Belgian senate voted by a margin of 30 to 19 to adopt it.

Pubdate:   Sat, 29 Mar 2003
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright:   2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author:   Andrew Osborn, The Guardian
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n468.a09.html


(18) BILL TO LEGALISE GANJA FOR PRIVATE USE SOON, SAYS NICHOLSON    (Top)

ATTORNEY General A J Nicholson said yesterday that legislation is now being prepared to give effect to the recommendation of a commission, which sat two years ago, for the decriminalisation of marijuana when in private use here.

Nicholson did not say when a Bill will reach Parliament and neither did he give details of the drafting instructions, but stressed that decriminalising marijuana -- called ganja here -- will be within a limited scope.

"Yes, it will, for private use only," he told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

Marijuana is widely used in Jamaica, and is said by Rastafarians to be holy sacrament.  But the use of the drug is illegal, for which a person can be fined and, or, jailed.

Additionally, the island is one of the hemisphere's leading exporters of marijuana to the United States, and the Americans have promoted eradication and interdiction efforts in the island.

Earlier, in a speech to the Surrey Chapter of the Lay Magistrate's Association, Nicholson sought to draw a distinction between the historic use of marijuana in Jamaica and the country's more recent role as a trans-shipment point for cocaine and the crime and violence that has come in its wake.

"I am a 1942 model, which means I have been on planet earth for quite sometime and I know that it is only recently that we are having the kind of violent crimes that we are now experiencing," Nicholson told the lay magistrates.  "So it couldn't be caused from ganja.  The illegal trade in cocaine is what is tearing the heart out of Jamaica."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 30 Mar 2003
Source:   Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
Copyright:   2003 The Jamaica Observer Ltd,
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1127
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n466.a01.html


(19) POT CHARGES COULD BE STAYED ACROSS CANADA: EXPERT    (Top)

OTTAWA (CP) - Criminal charges for possessing small amounts of pot could be put on hold in provinces across the country following court rulings in Ontario and P.E.I., says a prominent legal expert.

A provincial court judge in P.E.I.  ruled this month that an Ontario court decision which prompted the adjournment of all simple possession charges in Ontario should be binding in other provinces as well.  He was referring to the Parker case in Windsor, Ont. - now under appeal - which saw charges thrown out against a 16-year-old boy on the argument that the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act no longer effectively prohibits possession under 30 grams.  It led the federal Justice Department to ask its Crown attorneys to seek an adjournment or stay of all simple possession charges in Ontario.

Justice officials last week similarly stayed all pot possession charges in P.E.I.  as a result of the ruling there.

Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall law school in Toronto, said judges in other provinces may also follow suit out of sheer frustration with Ottawa's sluggishness in dealing with marijuana possession laws.

"Really, I think people are fed up and I would think that pretty much across the country, with the exception of possibly Alberta, most courts would be more than happy to start staying marijuana prosecution."

[snip]

"If raised, I can't imagine many courts wanting to proceed with these minor cases knowing that they may be imposing criminal records on people who effectively have done nothing criminal."

In an interview, Justice Ralph Thompson of P.E.I.  provincial court said he'd received several requests for a copy of his ruling from other provinces.  Adding to the law's vulnerability is the fact Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has promised to introduce new legislation to decriminalize marijuana.

The legislation, originally promised by the end of April, could now take until the end of the session in late June, Cauchon said recently.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 30 Mar 2003
Source:   Canadian Press (Canada Wire)
Copyright:   2003 The Canadian Press (CP)
Author:   Louise Elliott
Continues http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03.n474.a07.html


International News


COMMENT: (20-23)    (Top)

Thai government death squads continue to slaughter drug users.  Thai officials find they are blocked from investigating the murders: police refuse to cooperate.  Police are openly killing suspects; any excuse seems to do.  For example, police in one Thai city last week claimed a drug user drowned himself in a bucket of water, while in custody.  Noting the lack of investigation over obvious death squad murders, Thai Attorney general Wichian Wiriyaprasit admitted the orders for police not to investigate the killings had come from the prime minister himself: "I suspect the silencings were carried out to prevent the dead from implicating police."

While police in British Columbia may not yet have resorted to death squads as in Thailand, Vancouver city police apparently have their own ways of punishing drug "dealers" outside of the law.  Six police officers were charged with assault after caught beating drug suspects, and then dumping them miles out of town last January.  The six cops were suspended pending further investigations.

The existence of safe-injection sites in Vancouver is provoking much wrath and harsh rhetoric from hard-line prohibitionists in Canada and to the south.  U.S. Drug Czar John Walters, unconcerned by police death-squads or brutality anywhere, denounced the safe-injection centers in Canada as "state-sponsored personal suicide," reported the Wall Street Journal.  A Canadian Alliance party spokesman wailed that each safe injection center would become "a magnet" for addicts seeking to evade punishment.  About 70% of Vancouver residents support safe injection centers there.

On the heels of news that an Australian heroin shortage had ushered in a new era of drug-free obedience to government dictates, the Australian government admitted last week that their aim was to procure more money for government bureaucrats, in the name of "prevention." A government-sponsored report on heroin predictably concluded that government needs to grow ever larger and be fed more money.  Hopeful government officials urged taxpayers to view this as an "investment."


(20) POLICE 'REFUSING' TO HELP GOVT PROBE    (Top)

Justice Ministry officials say requests for reports into murders have been ignored

Police have apparently refused to cooperate with a government investigation into the "silencing" of more than 1,000 people in

the first month of a crackdown on drug trafficking, senior Justice Ministry officials said yesterday.

The attorney general, his deputy and a deputy permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry complained that police had failed to submit a single report to the investigating committee

on the estimated 1,000 cases of murdered drug suspects.

[snip]

Following police reports at the end of February that more than 1,000 drug suspects had been killed, there was mounting public concern that the pressure to apprehend a large number of criminals may have led to unlawful executions.

[snip]

Attorney general Wichian Wiriyaprasit said he was perplexed at the lack of assistance as the order came from the prime minister.

"As such, I suspect the silencings were carried out to prevent the dead from implicating police," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, the acting deputy director

of the Justice Ministry's Forensic Science Institute, said it was impossible for a drug suspect to commit suicide by immersing his head in a bucket of water.

"So we won't call this suicide," she said, referring to a report from Hua Mark police station that drug suspect Hong Khampu had committed suicide by drowning himself early Sunday morning inside a detention room.  Pornthip said she couldn't investigate because the case was outside her institute's jurisdiction.

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Nation, The (Thailand)
Copyright:   2003 Nation Multimedia Group
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1963
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n475/a12.html


(21) WANNA GET PICKED UP?    (Top)

[snip]

On Saturday, March 21, six Vancouver city police officers were charged with assault after the alleged beating of three suspected drug dealers were taken on a 'Starlight Tour' to Stanley Park on January 14.  A young member of the force came forward to superiors in the wake of the incident, and police Chief Jamie Graham swiftly suspended the six, telling reporters

that he was stunned by the allegations and promising an immediate criminal investigation.

[snip]

At a recent community forum in Strathcona, the neighbourhood adjacent to the Downtown Eastside, one resident told the Ubyssey
that police informed the crowd that no one would even be allowed
to spit between 100 West and 100 East Hastings during the operation without being arrested.  Employing an 'arrest and release' tactic, the police would take people into custody, transport them from the area and then drop them off.  The aim

simple: to make it difficult for dealers and users to stay on the street.

Such tactics will force folk out of reach of both the newly built safe-injection site and the two-year-old health contact centre on Hastings.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 25 Mar 2003
Source:   Ubyssey (CN BC Edu)
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/706
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n468/a05.html


(22) VANCOUVER DRUG FACILITIES DRAW IRE OF U.S. OFFICIALS    (Top)

Angering U.S.  officials fighting the war on drugs, the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia, is opening North America's

first safe-injection sites for heroin users.

[snip]

"If I thought tripling the police force would solve this problem, I would do it," says Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, who was previously British Columbia's chief coroner.  "But that's not the case.  We're dealing with addiction and disease.

And prison doesn't solve either of those problems."

One supervised site is already operating at a clinic that treats people with HIV and AIDS.  Officials in the West Coast port city, located north of Seattle, say they hope to have a second safe-injection site running by summer.

Critics, including U.S.  drug czar John Walters, warn the sites

will encourage heroin addiction and worsen the city's drug problem. Mr.  Walters has called Vancouver's safe-injection sites
"state-sponsored personal suicide."

[snip]

In 2000, then-mayor Philip Owen, championed the idea of treating drug addiction as a public-health issue.  His office devised a strategy that emphasized "harm reduction" as well as law enforcement, and pushed methadone clinics, needle exchanges and

safe-injection sites.

[snip]

Canada's Health Ministry has said it's willing to allow
safe-injection sites as "pilot projects," provided scientific research is conducted to determine their effectiveness.  [snip]

A recent poll showed 71% of Vancouver residents support such sites. Critics say they set a dangerous precedent.  Randy White, justice critic for the Canadian Alliance federal political party, says safe-injection sites result in "harm extension." He adds that safe-injection sites are "a magnet" for addicts looking to use drugs without threat of prosecution.

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright:   2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author:   Joel Baglole
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n477/a11.html


(23) MORE FUNDS SOUGHT IN HEROIN FIGHT    (Top)

PRESSURE for increased government spending on drug prevention grew yesterday with the release of a new report on the cost of heroin abuse.

One of the report's authors, Professor Alison Ritter, said at its launch by Health Minister Bronwyn Pike that the Government needed to address the issue.

The Herald Sun revealed yesterday the Premier's Drug Prevention

Council study found the cost to the community of heroin abuse was at least $845 million a year.

It reported that government spending on drug prevention was less than 1 per cent of the economic cost of heroin abuse.

[snip]

Former police chief Neil Comrie, a member of the council, said the research study showed a modest 5 per cent reduction in heroin uptake could free up $42 million for other priority areas.

"This commitment (to prevention) must be seen as an investment, not a cost," Mr Comrie said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 01 Apr 2003
Source:   Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright:   2003 News Limited
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/187
Author:   Geoff Wilkinson
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n479/a05.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

Cannabis:   Marijuana - Hashish

A book by Kleanthis Grivas posted by Drugtext.org

http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/grivas/


Mike Gray On Cultural Baggage

Listen online to the recording of this radio show from Houston, Texas.  Drug Crazy author Mike Gray's segment starts at about the 16 minute mark, and lasts for about 40 minutes - a superb 40 minute review of the entire War on Drugs.

http://www.cultural-baggage.com/ramtorm/tofdb4satmar.ram


Brazil Health Official Slams Current Drug Policy

By Adriana Veloso, posted at narconews.com

Regina Benevides Criticizes Her Own Government's Anti-Drug Office

http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article724.html


CBC Cannabis Archives

An audio/vidio collection on the "marijuana debate" in Canada dating from the Le Dain Commission forward.

http://archives.cbc.ca/300c.asp?69-652-1-69


Human Rights and the Drug War Updated

I just wanted to let you know that we've added three new pages to the Human Rights and the Drug War website, one for Ed Rosenthal, one for Lynn and Judy Osburn, and an update on the Tulia TX situation.  You can access any of them from the main URL, http://www.hr95.org/

Submitted by Chris Conrad


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

Marijuana Morality

By Bruce Mirken

White House drug czar John P.  Walters' dishonesty about medical marijuana ("Drug czar calls Maryland marijuana bill 'immoral,'Y" Metro, yesterday) now borders on the pathological.

Mr.  Walters, presumably with a straight face, called a bill to reduce - not eliminate - criminal penalties for patients who use marijuana to relieve pain and nausea caused by cancer, AIDS and other illnesses, "scientifically irresponsible and contrary to our high standards for approval of medications."

Surely, Mr.  Walters is aware that the New England Journal of Medicine, considered the world's most prestigious medical journal, called for lifting the ban on medical use of marijuana back in 1997, calling it, "misguided, heavy-handed and inhumane." Surely, he remembers that the Institute of Medicine, in a 1999 report commissioned by his office, stated, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety ...  all can be mitigated by marijuana."

And, surely, Mr.  Walters knows that the movement to protect medical marijuana patients from criminal penalties includes the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the California Medical Association, the Florida Medical Association and at least one former U.S.  surgeon general, among others.

It is Mr.  Walters, not these experts, who is "cynical, cruel and immoral."

Bruce Mirken, Director of Communications Marijuana Policy Project, Washington

Date:   03/26/2003
Source:   Washington Times (DC)
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/492


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Save Federal Judicial Discretion!

By Families Against Mandatory Minimums

The House of Representatives passed legislation on March 27 that would, among other things, radically limit judicial discretion to grant downward departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. This legislation, referred to as the Feeney Amendment, constitutes an extraordinary transfer of power to federal prosecutors, dramatic changes to the laws and procedures that govern sentencing and a drastic encroachment on the independence of the federal judiciary. It places virtually all sentencing discretion in the hands of federal prosecutors.  The amendment was attached to child abduction legislation at the last minute in an effort to avoid a debate of its merits and a discussion of its flaws.  No input from the Sentencing Commission, the bar or federal judges was sought.

FAMM and several allies immediately sent a letter in opposition to the full House of Representatives before the vote.  And we have been working diligently to stop this measure ever since -- but we need you help.  Because the measure is attached to popular child-abduction legislation that will bypass the committee process, time is of the essence.  This bill could be enacted into law in the next few days.

SUMMARY OF THE FEENEY AMENDMENT:

Offered by Rep.  Feeney (R-FL) with the full support of Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the legislation will dramatically restrict the ability of federal judges to depart from the federal Sentencing Guidelines.  Today, if a judge feels that a guideline sentence is unjust or unwarranted, sometimes he or she may "depart" on one or more grounds to achieve a sentence that he or she feels is just. Departures are permitted when judges find that the guidelines do not adequately account for certain circumstances that must be considered in reaching a just sentence.  Departures help judges fit the punishment to the crime.  FAMM has always supported the federal Sentencing Guidelines because they permit each judge to fit the punishment to the offense and the offender.

Departure authority, while used rarely, is essential to ensure that the Guidelines allow judges discretion, something that mandatory sentencing does not permit.  FAMM has always stood for judicial discretion.

If the amendment passes into law much will change:

1.  Judges sentencing first time, non-violent offenders will be
utterly forbidden from considering youth, military service, community involvement, charitable deeds, or family responsibility.

2.  Judges will be unable to depart from the guidelines for "aberrant
conduct" or for a combination of factors, none of which by itself would warrant a departure.

3.  Judges will be forbidden from awarding a one-point sentence
reduction for "extraordinary acceptance of responsibility" unless the government attorney specifically authorizes the reduction.

4.  Judges will be forbidden from awarding any downward departures
unless they are explicitly authorized in the federal Sentencing Guidelines.

5.  The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which amends the Sentencing
Guidelines, is forbidden to authorize any new grounds for departure in those guidelines until 2005.

REASONS FOR OPPOSING THE FEENEY AMENDMENT:

- Judicial discretion is necessary because no set of rules can predict the circumstances of every individual defendant.

- The Feeney Amendment, in effect, transforms the guidelines into a system of mandatory minimum sentences.

- Throughout the Guidelines' 15-year existence, most criticism from judges, academics and observers has been aimed at their excessive severity and rigidity.

- The Feeney Amendment would overrule a decision of the Supreme Court, Koon v.  United States, that was written by Justice Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia and Thomas.

- Downward departure rates are well below the range contemplated by Congress when it authorized the Sentencing Guidelines, except for departures requested by the government.

- The overwhelming majority of downward departures (79%) are requested by federal prosecutors to reward cooperation or to manage the high volume of immigration cases in certain border districts.

- The government can appeal downward departures it doesn't consider appropriate, and it wins approximately 80% of such appeals.

- The bill imposes burdensome reporting requirements on the judiciary without any new funding.

- The Feeney Amendment would result in increased incarceration at taxpayer expense without any proven need.

- Such a dramatic rewriting of federal sentencing law requires hearings and input from judges, the bar, the Sentencing Commission and other experts.

- The amendment is designed to increase penalties imposed on persons sentenced in federal cases by limiting federal judges from exercising long-standing judicial discretion to mitigate the punishment even for first-time, nonviolent offenders who have otherwise exhibited exemplary conduct, including military service and charitable works.

- The changes wrought by this amendment will be very costly in terms of additional legal challenges, increased prison terms for even nonviolent first offenders where compassion exercised by Article III judges would be appropriate, and the untold costs to families and society as a result of the increased incarceration.

This is excerpted from an alert by Families Against Mandatory Minimums.  For more information, and details on how to respond, see http://www.famm.org/si_federal_sentencing_feeney.htm


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"Nothing is 'harmless,' and harmlessness is not a prerequisite for being legal."

Richard Cowan, see http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=657


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