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DrugSense Weekly
June 9, 2006 #452


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* This Just In


(1) U.S. Prisons Called Risk To Lives
(2) Vigil To Honor Children Lost To Drug Abuse
(3) Montel Williams Urges Ok For Medical Marijuana
(4) Mexico's Final Presidential Debate Focuses On Drug Crackdown

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-9)
(5) Drug Warriors Push Eye-Eating Fungus
(6) Editorial: No Cure Or Common Sense After 25 Years
(7) Senate OKs Syringe Sales
(8) "The Doctor Wasn't Cruel Enough"
(9) Father Wants Drug Dealers To Pay

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (10-13)
(10) Retired St. Paul Cop Surrenders Himself In Big Drug Bust
(11) E.C. Police Veteran Suspended After Discovered At Home
(12) Cop Admits Robbing Drug Dealers, Will Testify
(13) Conference of Mayors Backs Rocky's Measures

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (14-18)
(14) ACLU Sues Alaska Over State's New Marijuana Law
(15) Flower Children Of All Ages Still Blossom At OSU's Hempfest
(16) Libertarian Nominee Loretta Nall Fails To Get Enough Signature
(17) RCMP Hauls In Hashish Cache In High-Seas Sting Operation
(18) Marks' Former Wife Tells Her Incredible Story

International News-

COMMENT: (19-22)
(19) Drug Lab In Mexico Shut Down After Deaths
(20) Lawmakers, Bahamians Question End Of Army Air Support In Drug War
(21) Revealed: How 10 Joints Could Lead To 14 Years For Dealing
(22) Safe Injection Leads To Detox, Study Finds

* Hot Off The 'Net


     NORML'S Daily Audiostash Online
     Confronting Confinement
     Cultural Baggage Radio Show
     Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies News
     Turning The Corner In Baltimore
     NORML Conference Audio Online

* What You Can Do This Week


     Join A Media Activism Roundtable Online

* Letter Of The Week


     Marijuana Helped Critically Ill Youth / By Don McGrath

* Feature Article


     Book Review: Burning Rainbow Farm / By Richard Lake

* Quote of the Week


     Edward R. Murrow

DrugSense needs your support to continue this newsletter and many
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THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) U.S. PRISONS CALLED RISK TO LIVES    (Top)

Report Lists Overcrowding, Few Constructive Activities As Conditions That Cause Inmate Violence

Overcrowding, cruel conditions and a lack of constructive activities for inmates fuel violence in America's prisons and threaten public safety because most inmates return to their communities ill-prepared for daily life, according to a report to be presented to Congress today.

"Few conditions compromise safety more than idleness," says the report by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, a nonpartisan group that has studied conditions inside the nation's correctional facilities for the past year.  "But because lawmakers have reduced funding for programming, prisoners today are largely inactive and unproductive.  Highly structured programs are proven to reduce misconduct in correctional facilities and also to lower recidivism rates after release."

The report highlights issues that have emerged in Maryland as state officials struggle to control prison violence that records show has turned increasingly deadly in recent years.

"It sort of validates what we've been saying," said Frank C.  Sizer Jr., the state's prison chief.  "You can't continue to lock people up and not do anything with them and put them back into society with no tools to be able to cope."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright:   2006 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author:   Greg Garland
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n741.a02.html


(2) VIGIL TO HONOR CHILDREN LOST TO DRUG ABUSE    (Top)

The telephone call that forever changed Therese Pelicano's life came in the middle of the night two years ago.

"The police have called, and Dominic is gone," Ms.  Pelicano recalls her ex-husband saying to her on the phone about their 23-year-old son. "It's like your life stops," the Damascus resident says of her son's fatal heroin overdose May 11, 2004.  "I didn't believe it, and I just wanted to see him.  It's hard even now. It has been two years, and a part of me now doesn't believe it."

Ms.  Pelicano, 51, is among an estimated 600 parents from across the country who will attend the "Vigil for a Lost Promise" tonight in Arlington, where victims of drug abuse will be honored by their families during a candlelight ceremony.

For the first time, the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration is teaming up with other agencies and drug prevention groups to hold the vigil, which will feature music, photographs and speeches.  It is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.  at 700 Army Navy Drive in Arlington.

Catherine Harnett, chief of DEA's Demand Reduction Office, said the issue of drug abuse is often reduced to statistics.  "One of the purposes of the vigil is to really bring to light the fact that ... drug abuse is a problem that is not limited to any particular socioeconomic class or neighborhood," she said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Washington Times (DC)
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author:   Keyonna Summers
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n741.a04.html


(3) MONTEL WILLIAMS URGES OK FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA    (Top)

TRENTON -- TV personality Montel Williams, who says he daily breaks the law by medicating himself with marijuana, presaged emotionally charged testimony expected today when New Jersey, for the first time, considers allowing prescribed pot.

"I break the law every day.  I will continue to break the law every day," a sometimes teary Williams told reporters at a State House news conference where the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, which supports medical marijuana, issued results of a poll it commissioned which showed support for their positions.

Today the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee will hear testimony, but not vote, on a proposal to allow seriously ill patients to possess one ounce of marijuana and six marijuana plants, if their doctor recommends it.  The state would oversee the program and issue registration cards.  In the poll, provided those specific descriptions of the rules, 71 percent of registered voters approved.

One sponsor is Sen.  Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, who is a former prosecutor.  "These people are not a threat to society," he said of the ill who seek salves for their pain.  "We owe it to them to adopt a policy that places a premium on compassion and relief."

[snip]

The Drug-Free Schools Coalition will also testify today.  It followed Williams' appearance at the State House Wednesday to point to poll results that conflicted with those from the Drug Policy Alliance and showed public support for the idea waning.

"Marijuana is intoxicating.  There's no surprise that sincere people report feeling better after taking it.  They may be feeling better, but they're not getting better," said Catharina Evans, whose father is a cancer survivor.

Evans acknowledged, in response to a question, that there are a number of drugs prescribed as painkillers that don't cure illnesses.

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright:   2006 Courier-Post
Website:   http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/826
Author:   Tom Baldwin, Gannett State Bureau
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/tlcnews/v06/n739/a02.htm


(4) MEXICO'S FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE FOCUSES ON DRUG CRACKDOWN    (Top)

Poll Shows Calderon, Lopez Obrador Tied With 36% of Voters

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leading presidential candidates, in the final debate of their campaigns, promised Tuesday to crack down on drug trafficking by increasing the use of the military, creating special courts to fight organized crime, and extraditing drug kingpins to the U.S.

Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, said he would create a "special agency against drug trafficking" that would be closely monitored to avoid corruption.  He promised "an iron hand," along with extraditions.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, said he would lift limits on the use of the army in the drug fight.  He also stressed job creation as an anti-crime measure, saying, "The fundamental solution is combating poverty."

Mr.  Calderon, a former senator, and Mr. Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, each had the support of 36 percent of surveyed voters going into the debate, according to a Tuesday poll by the newspaper El Universal.

Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI - the third-place candidate, with 24 percent in the poll - took both the leading contenders to task Tuesday for the growth in crime nationwide and in Mexico City, where their parties rule.

"Only two crimes out of every hundred are punished," said Mr.  Madrazo, citing specifically the explosion in drug peddlers.  "That's called impunity."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 07 Jun 2006
Source:   Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright:   2006 The Dallas Morning News
Website:   http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author:   Laurence Iliff, The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Mexico (Mexico)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n734.a07.html


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)

Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-9)    (Top)

As if they haven't already pushed enough death and destruction, some prohibitionist congressmen still don't understand that using uncontrollable fungus to attack drug crops isn't a good idea.  In a similar vein, the commitment of drug warriors to misery has been strong for most of the 25 years since AIDS was first identified, and thanks to their resolve, there are still a few states left in the U.S.  that don't allow needle exchange programs. New Jersey is one of the states, and a local newspaper there is saying enough is enough; a Massachusetts state senator is bringing the same message out of the legislature there.

Also last week, an interesting analysis of how a pain doctor avoided a conviction in a recent trial; and a North Carolina congressman wants to hold drug sellers liable for the actions of drug users.


(5) DRUG WARRIORS PUSH EYE-EATING FUNGUS    (Top)

Why are members of Congress advocating the use of a dangerous crop-killer in Columbia?

On April 16, the New York Times ran a full-page ad from contact lens producer Bausch and Lomb, announcing the recall of its "ReNu with MoistureLoc" rewetting solution, and warning the 30 million American wearers of soft contact lenses about Fusarium keratitis.  This infection, first detected in Asia, has rapidly spread across the United States.  It is caused by a mold-like fungus that can penetrate the cornea of soft contact lens wearers, causing redness and pain that can lead to blindness--requiring a corneal replacement.

That same week, the House of Representatives passed a provision to a bill requiring that the very same fungus be sprayed in "a major drug-producing country," such as Colombia.  The bill's sponsor was Rep.  Mark Souder ( R-Ind. ) and its most vocal supporter was his colleague Dan Burton ( R-Ind.  ), who has been promoting the fungus for almost a decade as key to winning the drug war.

The Colombian government has come out against it.  And those entities of the U.S.  government that have studied the use of Fusarium for more than 30 years don't recommend it either: The Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar's office, CIA, DEA, the State Department and the USDA have all concluded that the fungus is unsafe for humans and the environment.

"Fusarium species are capable of evolving rapidly.  Mutagenicity is by far the most disturbing factor in attempting to use a Fusarium species as a bioherbicide," wrote David Struhs, then secretary of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, in a 1999 letter rejecting the use of the fungus against Florida's outdoor marijuana crop.  "It is difficult, if not impossible, to control the spread of Fusarium species."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source:   In These Times (US)
Copyright:   2006 In These Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/207
Author:   Jeremy Bigwood
Bookmark:  
http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n731/a06.html


(6) EDITORIAL: NO CURE OR COMMON SENSE AFTER 25 YEARS    (Top)

Twenty-five years ago, the first cases of AIDS were first reported. In the early years of the epidemic, little was known about the disease.  At first, it appeared restricted to the gay community. The disease did not just strike gay men.  It spread to men, women and children.  It destroyed a person's immune system. It was fatal. There was and is -- no cure.

Today, thousands of people live full lives with HIV, which can develop into AIDS.  While researchers have not found a vaccine to immunize against AIDS, new drugs have given affected people a chance for a full life.  While we cannot yet cure AIDS, we can slow the spread of the disease.  The best way is through education. But education is not enough.  New Jersey is one of only two states that does not permit the exchange of clean syringes without
prescriptions.  This must change.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source:   Herald News (West Paterson, NJ)
Copyright:   2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/2911
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n728/a09.html


(7) SENATE OKS SYRINGE SALES    (Top)

The state Senate passed a bill yesterday to legalize purchase of hypodermic needles over the counter, setting up a battle with Governor Mitt Romney, who has said he opposes the legislation.

Massachusetts would become the 48th state to legalize
over-the-counter sales of syringes to curb the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C through dirty needles shared by drug users.  Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey joined other Republicans in opposing the bill, saying it would encourage illegal drug use.

Supporters say the bill would save the state healthcare costs and lives.

New Jersey and Delaware are the only other states where
over-the-counter sales are illegal.  Currently, four Massachusetts cities -- Boston, Cambridge, Northampton, and Provincetown -- are running needle exchange centers where used needles can be returned for clean ones.

"This is not about enabling drug addicts," said Senator Steven A. Tolman.  "This is unequivocally about [stopping] dreaded diseases through the use of intravenous drugs and dirty needles.  It is something that I know we had to do."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright:   2006 Globe Newspaper Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author:   Russell Nichols, Globe Staff
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n738/a04.html


(8) "THE DOCTOR WASN'T CRUEL ENOUGH"    (Top)

How one physician escaped the panic over prescription drugs

When Dr.  Paul Heberle was arrested last April, dozens of chronic pain patients were left in agony.  One of Heberle's patients called no fewer than 37 doctors seeking care--all of whom refused to see him once he revealed the name of his prior provider.  Finally, Robert Holmes, a 40-year-old man who suffers from a lung injury and requires supplemental oxygen to breathe, resorted to visiting a methadone clinic for drug addicts.  He was turned away there, too. More than twenty others reported similar experiences at a meeting of patients affected by the arrest.  Six would later attempt suicide.

For many patients, the situation was devastatingly familiar.  Heberle had agreed to care for many of them after their previous physician was arrested and then convicted on some of the same charges that Heberle now faced: illegal prescribing of narcotics.  That doctor, David Klees, got 12 to 24 years in prison.  This time, however, the government would find it wasn't so easy to railroad a pain doctor.

In the last five years--since a media panic over prescription drug abuse began with law-enforcement-driven reports of an "Oxycontin epidemic"--dozens of doctors have been prosecuted for
"overprescribing" painkillers.  The Justice Department and the DEA have pushed this aggressive new campaign in the war on drugs.

Overwhelmingly, these cases have resulted in convictions with heavy prison terms--or plea bargains with shorter sentences that nonetheless drove the doctors out of medicine.  Advocates for pain patients report that, as a result, relief has been increasingly hard to find.

Fortunately, Heberle had an ally that Klees didn't: Siobhan Reynolds and her Pain Relief Network.  As the DEA and local prosecutors went as far as creating a poster with Dr.  Heberle's picture and the words "overprescribing controlled substances" and "Medicaid fraud" on it, Reynolds visited Erie, PA, to organize Heberle's patients and, for once, get their side of the story into the media.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 02 Jun 2006
Source:   Reason Online (US Web)
Copyright:   2006 The Reason Foundation
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/2688
Author:   Maia Szalavitz
Note:   Maia Szalavitz is a senior fellow at stats.org, a media
watchdog group, and author of Help At Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids.
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n716/a07.html


(9) FATHER WANTS DRUG DEALERS TO PAY    (Top)

Bill Would Hold Peddlers Liable For Users' Habit

RALEIGH, N.C.  - Illicit drug dealers should be liable for the spoiled lives of drug users, a father of a dead addict told lawmakers Thursday.

Now, Keith Thompson, with the help of state Sen.  Julia Boseman, has proposed a bill that would allow families, employers, acquaintances or even individual narcotic users to sue dealers for economic, mental and physical damages.  Under the bill, a dealer doesn't have to be responsible for the damages.  Virtually any person or group - even the state - could file suit against any convicted peddler.

"Drug dealers are parasites in our community," Thompson told a Senate committee Thursday, introducing the bill.

Thompson said his daughter, Blaire, had struggled with a heroin addiction for years.  But after going 90 days without feeding her habit in 2004, she began talking about quitting her job as a kindergarten teacher to write a book about the danger of illegal drugs.

However, Blaire's dealer called one morning to offer another fix. She overdosed on heroin that night.  She was 26.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 02 Jun 2006
Source:   Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Copyright:   2006 Sun Publishing Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Note:   apparent 150 word limit on LTEs
Author:   Mike Baker, The Associated Press
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n711/a07.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (10-13)    (Top)

Lots of cops arrested for drugs this week.  Most notable is the biggest drug bust in Minneapolis history, in which the accused is a retired police officer from St.  Paul. The working officer from Indiana who happened to be hanging at a dealer's house when the FBI raided it is almost as interesting.

Also, reform-oriented Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson convinced other American mayors to support a resolution against mandatory minimums for drug offenders.


(10) RETIRED ST. PAUL COP SURRENDERS HIMSELF IN BIG DRUG BUST    (Top)

The Former St.  Paul Officer Turned Himself In After Minneapolis Police Seized About 22 Pounds Of Cocaine And 8 Pounds Of Methamphetamine

Retired St.  Paul police officer Clemmie H. Tucker turned himself in to Minneapolis police Wednesday afternoon in a drug case involving $4 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine.

"There's nothing to compare it to," Capt.  Rich Stanek said about the size of the seizure.  "This is one of the largest, if not the largest," narcotics seizure for Minneapolis police.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright:   2006 Star Tribune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author:   Chao Xiong, Star Tribune
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n740/a04.html


(11) E.C. POLICE VETERAN SUSPENDED AFTER DISCOVERED AT HOME RAIDED    (Top)FOR DRUGS

Chief Vows To Continue Cleaning Up Department

EAST CHICAGO | East Chicago police Sgt.  Roosevelt Howard is on administrative leave because the FBI discovered him at a home in which agents were executing a search warrant for narcotics, city police said.

Following widespread speculation regarding why Howard was suspended last week, Police Chief Angelo Machuca said in a written statement Thursday that Howard is on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation into his brush with the FBI.  "I have committed to clean up this department, and I will continue to stand to that commitment," Machuca's statement says.

Howard was not arrested or charged with a crime and could not be reached for comment.

Under former Mayor Robert Pastrick, Howard was a police commander, the third-highest ranking position in the department behind the chief and deputy chiefs.  Mayor George Pabey demoted the 18-year veteran to his former rank of sergeant in 2005, Police Department attorney Tom Ryan said.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 03 Jun 2006
Source:   Times, The (Munster IN)
Copyright:   2006 The Munster Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author:   Joe Carlson
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n714/a08.html


(12) COP ADMITS ROBBING DRUG DEALERS, WILL TESTIFY    (Top)

A police officer near the center of a ring of cops accused of robbing drug dealers on Chicago's South Side has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Corey Flagg, 35, a member of an allegedly rogue Englewood District tactical unit, entered a guilty plea to drug conspiracy charges Wednesday before U.S.  District Judge Ronald Guzman.

Flagg allegedly was recruited along with others by Officer Broderick Jones, also charged in the case, "to conduct vehicle stops and home invasions of drug dealers in order to illegally obtain drugs, money and weapons from those drug dealers," the plea agreement says.  Flagg could have faced up to life in prison, but he would now be sentenced to about 10 years and 6 months in prison for his help.

His lawyer, Jeffrey Steinback, said he expects that cooperation will include Flagg testifying against his former partners.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright:   2006 Chicago Tribune Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author:   Jeff Coen, Tribune staff reporter
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n737/a06.html


(13) CONFERENCE OF MAYORS BACKS ROCKY'S MEASURES    (Top)

Heeding Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the U.S.  Conference of Mayors is urging Congress and the Bush administration to oppose criminalizing undocumented workers and to launch policies that help cities reduce the need for fossil fuel.  The mayors this week also endorsed other Anderson-backed measures - including a call to end mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders and to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 07 Jun 2006
Source:   Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright:   2006 The Salt Lake Tribune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/383
Author:   Lori Buttars
Cited:   U.S.  Conference of Mayors http://www.usmayors.org
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rocky+Anderson
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n730/a03.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (14-18)    (Top)

We begin this week with a look North (even for this Canadian editor) to Alaska, where the ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the state for attempting to supercede a 30-year old Alaska Supreme Court ruling that decriminalized the personal use of cannabis.  The suit was initiated after Gov.  Frank Murkowski signed a cannabis
recriminalization bill into law, which the ACLU argues is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and contrary to the 1975 Ravin vs.  Alaska ruling. The ACLU have asked a Juneau Superior Court judge to block the implementation of the Murkowski bill, suggesting that it also threatens the rights of medical cannabis users by not exempting them from arrest and prosecution.

Our second story reports on the 20th annual Columbus, Ohio Hempfest, which took place last weekend at Ohio State University.  The SSDP-sponsored event featured over 50 vendors, and was attended by 1000s of happy hempsters calling for an end to the war on responsible adult cannabis use.  Next, the sad news that as Alabama gubernatorial candidate (and U.S.  Marijuana Party founder) Loretta Nall's name will not appear on the November ballot, as she fell short of the 41,300 signatures needed to get a third party candidate included on the ballot.  Never deterred, Loretta plans to run as a write-in candidate.  For more info, please check out
www.nallforgovernor.com

Next, news that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seized 22.5 tonnes of hashish 320kms off the coast of Angola.  This was the RCMP's first drug operation in international waters, and has resulted in the arrest of three alleged members of Montreal's notorious West End gang.  Lastly this week, an interview with the ex-wife of the U.K.'s most famous cannabis smuggler, Howard Marks (otherwise known as Mr.  Nice). Judy Marks has just finished a book called "Mr.  Nice and Mrs. Marks - Adventures With Howard", which details the couples 30 years relationship and their adventures in the drug smuggling underworld.


(14) ACLU SUES ALASKA OVER STATE'S NEW MARIJUANA LAW    (Top)

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state of Alaska today over a new law penalizing marijuana possession for personal use in the home.

The civil liberties group alleges the new law is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

"Is marijuana so dangerous that it justifies restricting a fundamental right? The state thinks it's yes, we think it's no," said Michael Macleod-Ball, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska.

The lawsuit also claims the law allows prosecution of people who use marijuana for medical purposes, which the Alaska Department of Law disputes.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 05 Jun 2006
Source:   Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright:   2006 The Seattle Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author:   Matt Volz
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Cited:   http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/decrim/25779prs20060605.html
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n731.a01.html


(15) FLOWER CHILDREN OF ALL AGES STILL BLOSSOM AT OSU'S HEMPFEST    (Top)

For more than 35 years, David "Shake" Shakin has kept the faith.

While many "flower children" of the 1960s and early 1970s have dropped out of the peace movement and joined the establishment, Shakin remains a true believer.

His hair is white, but he still wears a beard.  He calls an artists commune outside Athens, Ga., home.  And he supports himself by traveling the country selling hand-made Indonesian jewelry at music and community festivals.

Shakin, 55, brought his jewelry business to Hempfest yesterday on the Ohio State University campus.  He was among about 50 vendors that set up tables and booths at the 20 th annual pro-marijuana event.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 04 Jun 2006
Source:   Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright:   2006 The Columbus Dispatch
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author:   Robert Ruth, The Columbus Dispatch
Cited:   Ohio Hempfest 2006 http://www.ohiohempfest.com
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Ohio+Hempfest
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n726.a07.html


(16) LIBERTARIAN NOMINEE LORETTA NALL FAILS TO GET ENOUGH SIGNATURE    (Top)

The colorful Libertarian Party nominee for governor, Loretta Nall, said Monday she will run as a write-in candidate after failing to get enough signatures to get her name on the general election ballot.

"I'm not dropping out," Nall said.

Tuesday is the deadline for third-party candidates to turn in voters' signatures to the secretary of state to get ballot access for Nov.  7. Nall needed 41,300 signatures to get on the general election ballot.  She said she and her supporters collected between 10,000 and 15,000 signatures, which she plans to turn in Tuesday to make a point about Alabama having one of the nation's toughest ballot access laws for third parties.

"In almost any other state, that would have been enough to get ballot access," she said.

Nall, who founded the U.S.  Marijuana Party after her misdemeanor arrest for marijuana in 2002, has already proven to be a colorful addition to the gubernatorial contest even without ballot access. Her Web site discussions about why she doesn't wear panties and her animated fundraising gimmick, "Stripping for Cash," have attracted about as much attention on the Internet as the mainstream candidates.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 05 Jun 2006
Source:   Tuscaloosa News, The (AL)
Copyright:   2006 The Tuscaloosa News
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1665
Author:   Phillip Rawls, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n730.a05.html


(17) RCMP HAULS IN HASHISH CACHE IN HIGH-SEAS STING OPERATION    (Top)

It was a sting operation on the high seas that was daring even for seasoned Canadian police.

One day last month, a boat sailed secretively onto the waters off the coast of Africa to deliver an illicit cargo: nearly 1,000 bags of hashish from Pakistan destined for Canada, police said.

About 320 kilometres off the coast of Angola, the boat met with another vessel that was to pick up the drugs and deliver them to Montreal.  Unbeknownst to the suppliers, however, the pickup vessel was filled with 50 undercover Mounties.

Yesterday, the RCMP in Montreal unveiled details of a swashbuckling maritime police operation that netted them 22.5 tonnes of hashish. Police said it was the first time Mounties headed out onto international waters to intercept drugs.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source:   Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright:   2006, The Globe and Mail Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Authors:   Ingrid Peritz, and Tu Thanh Ha
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n728.a04.html


(18) MARKS' FORMER WIFE TELLS HER INCREDIBLE STORY    (Top)

HOWARD Marks' ex-wife last night revealed how she fell out of love with the world's most notorious marijuana smuggler when he went straight.

Speaking for the first time since she split with the 61-year-old Welsh criminal mastermind, Judy Marks claimed her former husband's love of the spotlight as a celebrity ex-con drove them to divorce rather than the extreme highs and lows of their life on the run.

The Bridgend man - who penned his autobiography Mr Nice - seduced her when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl.  The couple ended up juggling a multi-million pound trafficking empire with marriage and children.

"I fell for Howard because of his wonderful blue eyes and the sensual way he would roll a joint," said Judy, 51, from her sea-front apartment in Majorca.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 04 Jun 2006
Source:   Wales on Sunday (UK)
Copyright:   2006 Trinity Mirror Plc
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/3763
Author:   Nathan Bevan
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n728.a10.html


International News


COMMENT: (19-22)    (Top)

After a spate of deaths in the U.S.  which were attributed to heroin spiked with the powerful synthetic opiate, fentanyl, a drug lab in Mexico was taken down by U.S.  anti-drug agents this week. While U.S. Drug Enforcement agents shut down one fentanyl lab near Guadalajara, they warned that more fentanyl-laced heroin could still be out there.  "There may be more than one source," Walters said. There always is.

Bahamian government officials were upset this week after the U.S. announced a squadron of Army drug interdiction helicopters based in the Bahamas would be taken away.  "The traffickers obviously would see that as a signal to increase their activity," fretted Joshua Sears, Bahamian ambassador to the United States.  Drug-war jingoes in the U.S., reacted predictably.  A letter signed by prominent U.S. Congressional prohibitionists, among them Indiana Republican Congressmen Mark E.  Souder, and Dan Burton, urged the U.S. not withdraw the anti-drug copters and their support crews from the Bahamas.

If draft regulations of new drug possession thresholds in the U.K. proposed by the Home Office are put into effect, many more users of cannabis and other drugs would be swept into prison for years, say observers.  Thresholds for presumption of dealing could be as low as five grams for cannabis, or five MDMA tablets.  In theory, one could be jailed for 14 years simply for possessing 10 cannabis cigarettes under the new, proposed limits.

The more often drug users visit the supervised injection center in Vancouver, Canada, the more likely they are to enrol in a detox program, says a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Noted study co-author Dr.  Thomas Kerr, "If you use the site at least weekly, you are two times as likely than others to enter detox." The Insite supervised injection center in Vancouver is the first such center to open door in North America.


(19) DRUG LAB IN MEXICO SHUT DOWN AFTER DEATHS    (Top)

CHICAGO - U.S.  agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main source of a powerful painkiller that has killed at least 100 heroin users in eight states, the federal drug chief said Monday.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the painkiller, fentanyl, was mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it entered the United States.

"There may be more than one source," Walters said.  "We think this is the principal source."

The U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration is testing samples of fentanyl seized in a May 28 raid of a suspected
fentanyl-manufacturing operation near Guadalajara but has not yet confirmed that the drug is linked to the U.S.  deaths, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson said.

Five Mexican citizens were arrested during the May bust, including one Walters described as the chemist.

Walters said that the dealers may have started using fentanyl because they were looking for a competitive advantage on the street but that inept mixing of the drug combination made it deadly.

He also warned that millions of deadly doses of the fentanyl-laced heroin might still be on the streets.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source:   News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
Copyright:   2006 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n740.a10.html


(20) LAWMAKERS, BAHAMIANS QUESTION END OF ARMY AIR SUPPORT IN DRUG WAR    (Top)

MIAMI -- The proposed withdrawal of Army air support from a U.S.-Bahamas anti-drug effort could entice cocaine and marijuana smugglers to return to the vast island chain and may undo more than two decades of progress, key U.S.  lawmakers and Bahamian officials said.

"It would clearly have negative consequences for the region as a whole," Joshua Sears, the Bahamas' ambassador to the United States, said Thursday in a telephone interview.  "The traffickers obviously would see that as a signal to increase their activity."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, citing war needs elsewhere, said in a letter last month that he intends to withdraw seven Army Blackhawk helicopters and their crews from Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos - known as OPBAT for short - by Oct.  1, 2007. The Associated Press reported the letter's contents Wednesday.

[snip]

Five U.S.  House members, including two Republican committee chairmen, said it would be a mistake to withdraw the helicopters and urged Rumsfeld in a May 25 letter to reconsider.

[snip]

The congressional letter was signed by Reps.  Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the International Relations Committee, and Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the Government Reform Committee; Indiana GOP Reps.  Mark E. Souder, chairman of an anti-narcotics subcommittee, and Dan Burton, head of a western hemisphere subcommittee; and Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright:   2006 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author:   Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n739.a11.html


(21) REVEALED: HOW 10 JOINTS COULD LEAD TO 14 YEARS FOR DEALING    (Top)

Prosecutions to Soar Under Plan to Slash Limits for
Drug Possession

Drug users caught with as few as five ecstasy tablets or five grams of cannabis - enough for about 10 joints - will be prosecuted as dealers under new regulations drawn up by the Home Office, the Guardian has learned.  The plan to slash the limit for cannabis possession for personal use would mean that anyone found with more could face a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

The Home Office has written to the government's own drug experts, the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs, telling them that ministers are also minded to set the threshold for possession for heroin and cocaine at two grams.

Although home secretary John Reid has yet to take a final decision, draft regulations seen by the Guardian - to be introduced into parliament shortly under last year's drugs act - will mean that those found with more than these specified amounts will be charged with possession with intent to supply.  Under the act, dealers of cocaine and heroin face a maximum of life imprisonment.

The plan to set the cannabis threshold at 5g marks a sharp reversal from David Blunkett's decision 18 months ago to ensure that cannabis possession was usually dealt with by confiscation and an informal warning.

The proposed thresholds are so low that the advisory committee, which discussed the issue on May 25, is believed to have warned the Home Office that they will cause policing problems.  The committee suggested the cannabis threshold should be set at 28g, or 1oz.  The experts also told ministers that the five tablet limit for ecstasy was low given that they can be bought for 50p each in some areas and some users take up to 10 in one session.

The Home Office letter to the ACMD, seen by the Guardian, says that ministers are setting thresholds at this stage only for the drugs that cause the most harm or which are most prevalent - heroin, crack, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis.  It adds that the proposed levels for all the drugs - except amphetamines - are considerably lower than those originally proposed because most respondents to a consultation on the proposals considered the limits excessive.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Wed, 07 Jun 2006
Source:   Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright:   2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author:   Alan Travis, home affairs editor, The Guardian
Cited:   Drugscope http://www.drugscope.org.uk/
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n729.a05.html


(22) SAFE INJECTION LEADS TO DETOX, STUDY FINDS    (Top)

Frequent Visits To Counsellors Big Help

VANCOUVER -- The more a drug user visits Vancouver's experimental supervised-injection site, the more likely that user is to go into detox, suggests a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"If you use the site at least weekly, you are two times as likely than others to enter detox," said co-author Dr.  Thomas Kerr from the Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Research.

"We weren't surprised that the site had resulted in less public disorder or syringe sharing, but we were kind of astounded actually that the more you use this facility, the more likely you are to enter treatment."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 08 Jun 2006
Source:   Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright:   2006 Times Colonist
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author:   Frances Bula, CanWest News Service
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n735.a05.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

NORML'S DAILY AUDIOSTASH ONLINE

The Daily AudioStash will be available via Podcast and direct MP3 download every weekday at 4:20PM EST via www.norml.org

Hosted by NORML News presenter Chris Goldstein

www.normlaudiostash.com


CONFRONTING CONFINEMENT

Report of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons

http://www.prisoncommission.org/report.asp


CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW

Tonight:   6/09/06 - Nell Bernstein, author of "All Alone in the
World-Children of the Incarcerated"

Listen Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT, 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at www.KPFT.org

Last:   6/02/06 - Fred Gardener, Editor of Medical Journal
O'Shaughnessy's, Dr.  David Duncan: Cannabis does NOT cause Cancer, Tom Angell, Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Audio:   http://drugtruth.net/cbaudio06/FDBCB_060206.mp3


MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHEDELIC STUDIES NEWS

06/08/2006

http://www.maps.org/news/


TURNING THE CORNER IN BALTIMORE

Drug War Chronicle Feature

06/09/2006

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/439/thecorner.shtml


NORML CONFERENCE AUDIO ONLINE

Hear selected speeches and interviews from the NORML 2006 Conference.

http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6881


WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK    (Top)

JOIN A MEDIA ACTIVISM ROUNDTABLE ONLINE

Gather with leading hearts and minds from the drug policy reform movement as we discuss ways to write Letters to the Editor that get printed.  We'll also discuss ways to get notable OPEDS printed in your local and in-state newspapers.  We'll also educate on how to increase drug policy coverage in your local radio markets.

Special focus in the month of June will be on possible drug law changes in Mexico; the Drug Czar's misinformation on cocaine interdiction efforts in Colombia and the FDA's comments on marijuana's medical efficacy and resulting media comment.

The conferences will be held throughout the month of June on Tuesday evenings starting at 9 p.m.  Eastern, 8 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Mountain and 6 p.m.  Pacific in the DrugSense Virtual Conference Room. SEE: http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for details on how you can participate.  Discussion is conducted by voice (microphone and speakers all that is needed - however, you may listen if you don't have a microphone) and also by text messaging.

Your host for the session is MAP's Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath.  Questions about the meeting should be emailed only to him at


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

MARIJUANA HELPED CRITICALLY ILL YOUTH

By Don McGrath

Regarding the recent article "Trenton is the next battleground in marijuana fight," the two quoted opponents of legalizing marijuana for medical use rely on arguments that are simply false.

While both Terrence Farley and David Evans maintain that this bill is actually a ploy to legalize marijuana for recreational use throughout the state, that is clearly not the case.

The bill in the N.J.  Senate restricts use to seriously ill patients.

They also argue that only FDA tested and approved drugs should be allowed for patients.

A few years ago, my youngest son was diagnosed with cancer at one of the leading hospitals in New York.

After trying all available, but ineffective, FDA-approved medications to relieve the pain and nausea of his cancer and associated chemotherapy, his medical team recommended "off the record" that he use marijuana.

He did, it was effective and it extended his life by 18 months before he died in 2004.

While that was not an FDA-approved test, it certainly was not a "hoax."

Farley's and Evan's position that only FDA-approved drugs are acceptable as medicine would change quickly if they had a child with the same diagnosis.

It's unfortunate that only a bad dose of reality would likely open either of their very closed minds to marijuana as a medicine.

DON McGRATH
Robbinsville

Pubdate:   Sat, 03 Jun 2006
Source:   Ocean County Observer (NJ)


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

Book Review: Burning Rainbow Farm

By Richard Lake

"Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke," by Dean Kuipers (2006, Bloomsbury Press, $24.95 HB)

When I received my review copy of the book "Burning Rainbow Farm" I didn't know what to expect.  Having talked with the author, Dean Kuipers, a few times over the years since that Friday morning, August 31, 2001 when Tom Crosslin burned Rainbow Farm to the ground, I had wondered about the book.

In the years before that fateful Labor Day weekend I had visited Rainbow Farm events at the invitation of Rainbow Farm's long time business manager and webmaster, Doug Leinbach 'TP Doug.' I was able to speak from the stage, and given a back stage pass.  I renewed a number of old friendships, some going back to the '70s, and made new friends.  Tom Crosslin would take me aside to talk about the ups and downs of his efforts, which are well covered in the book.  When the sound level of the bands would get to me, I was encouraged to enjoy myself on the porch of the farmhouse.  One evening Nora Callahan of The November Coalition and I used Doug's computer in the basement for an internet chat session with folks from several countries.

The events were always fun, and full of hope and support for marijuana law reform.

Reading the book the first thing I did was look for the names of friends, and what was written about them.  Yes, there was the memorable quote from Gatewood Galbraith:

"'I have one question to ask you....  and here it is: Did my father's generation hit the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima so'd I'd have to piss in a cup to hold a job in America?!'

"Hell no, came the roar."

You may recognize the names of other activists who are mentioned, for example: Adam Brook, Tommy Chong, Chris Conrad, Stephen Gaskin, Steve Hager, Jack Herer, Gideon Israel, Marvin Marvin, Ben Masel, Elvy Musikka, Chad Rea, John Sinclair, and Keith Stroup.  But this book is not about them.

It is about the life and death of Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohm.  And about the life of others involved in the management of Rainbow Farm; Doug Leinbach, Max Robinson, Derrik DeCraene, Moe Yonkers and others.  Biographies best describe the detail in Burning Rainbow Farm for these folks.

And about Cass County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Teter, who never visited a Rainbow Farm event.  He was responsible for the trouble, the searches, and the eventual death of Tom and Rollie.

Perhaps for some the history leading to the deaths of Tom and Rollie will be more than they wish to know.  But it is a part of the history of marijuana law reform that should be a 'must read' for everyone.

In 1999 Greg Schmid, a Saginaw attorney, wrote an initiative, the Personal Responsibility Amendment (PRA), to amend the Michigan constitution to, as the book says, "establish pot as a legal medicine, relegalize the hemp industry, decriminalized small time possession and strip the cops of the corrupting "collars for dollars" incentive driving drug asset forfeiture." When no national organization or funder would support PRA, which was ahead of it's time, Rainbow Farm stepped forward and became a center for PRA training, activity and support.  Greg became the Michigan NORML state coordinator, in charge of Michigan NORML.

Thus Michigan NORML became a leader in reform efforts, passing medical marijuana initiatives in several cities, and now working to pass initiatives in several more, as can be seen at this webpage http://www.drugsense.org/caip

There are many sources from which you may purchase the 373 page hard cover book.  I recommend purchasing it through Michigan NORML so that their continuing reform efforts are supported.  I like to think Tom and Rollie would approve.  Details are at
http://www.minorml.org/booksale.html

If you would like a signed copy of the book, which is dedicated in part to Rollie's son Robert, Michigan NORML will provide, for an extra $5, which will go to Robert.

Richard Lake is the senior editor for the Media Awareness Project of DrugSense.  At the encouragement of Doug Leinbach he led the effort to create the Rainbow Farm Memorial Website, based in part on the original website, and list masters the Rainbow Farm TRIBE email announcement list.  See http://www.rainbowfarmcamp.com/


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

-- Edward R.  Murrow


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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 ().  Analysis comments represent the personal views of editors, and not necessarily the views of DrugSense.

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.


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