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DrugSense Weekly
July 7, 2006 #456


Table of Contents

* Breaking News (03/28/24)


* This Just In


(1) 1700 Overdoses That Didn't End In Death
(2) 15 Held In Raids On Pot Stores
(3) Cop Says He Aided Narcotics Rip-Off
(4) Cannabis 'Can Lead To Harder Drugs'

* Weekly News in Review


Drug Policy-

COMMENT: (5-8)
(5) OPED: Former Drug Czars Believe Their War Has Been Won
(6) Candidate Masel Sprayed, Arrested At Union Terrace
(7) Legislature Finally OKs Needle Exchange Program
(8) Mitt Vetoes Needle Sales Bill, Riled Pols Vow Override

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

COMMENT: (9-12)
(9) State Drug War Nets Big Haul
(10) New York City Judge Throws Out Mafia Cops Conspiracy
(11) Court Restores Drug Tests In Meth Cases
(12) Bill To Revise Proposition 36 Under Fire

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (13-16)
(13) Marijuana Fight Envelops Fisherman's Wharf
(14) Middle-Class Kids 'More Likely To Use Cannabis'
(15) Tories Keep Medical Pot
(16) Legalization An Option

International News-

COMMENT: (17-20)
(17) Two British Soldiers Killed As Afghan Poppy Crop Booms
(18) Dealer's Reduced Term Irks U.S., Canadian Police
(19) War On Drugs Won't Stop Problem: Expert
(20) PS Warning That Tories' Crime Laws Won't Work Was Ignored

* Hot Off The 'Net


    Lynn Zimmer 1947-2006
    Bringing The Gateway Theory Back / By Maia Szalavitz
    Impaired Reasoning /  By Jacob Sullum
    10 News Exposes 'Marijuana Doctors'
    Cannabinoid Chronicles
    Cultural Baggage Radio Show
    New  Radio  Ad  Calls  Out  Politicians  Who  Have  Used Marijuana

* What You Can Do This Week


    Write A Letter For MAP
    DPA Jobs And Internship Opportunities

* Letter Of The Week


    Taylor Was Wrong To Blame All Addicts' Parents / By Phyllis Spitler

* Feature Article


    Independence Day / By Colleen McCool

* Quote of the Week


    Marian Anderson

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THIS JUST IN    (Top)

(1) 1700 OVERDOSES THAT DIDN'T END IN DEATH    (Top)

The Kings Cross injecting centre has been saving lives for five years, writes Ruth Pollard.

IT IS one of the few State Government programs devoted to caring for those living on the fringes of society rather than throwing them in jail.

Lauded as brave and pioneering by many and derided by others as giving tacit approval to illicit activities, the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre quietly celebrated its fifth year of operation eight weeks ago.

Such is the sensitivity surrounding its operation there were no obvious celebrations, no fanfare - just a quiet determination to continue its work in the face of growing political opposition amid a law-and-order auction leading up to next year's state election.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 08 Jul 2006
Source:   Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright:   2006 The Sydney Morning Herald
Website:   http://www.smh.com.au/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author:   Ruth Pollard
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n895.a06.html


(2) 15 HELD IN RAIDS ON POT STORES    (Top)

Medical Marijuana Profiteers Targeted

With dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries doing a brisk business across San Diego County, and many patients showing no signs of serious illness, state and federal prosecutors decided they had seen enough.

Yesterday they conducted a multi-agency sweep that snared what officials said were the worst offenders: dealers capitalizing on California's loosely drawn medical marijuana law to make a profit.

The pot dispensaries have become "magnets for crime in San Diego," Police Chief William Lansdowne said.  The operators "have taken the compassionate use of marijuana and convoluted it into a million-dollar business."

Drug agents showed up at dispensaries in La Jolla, Ocean Beach, North Park and elsewhere across the city, detaining patients, running warrant checks on employees and arresting previously identified dispensary owners.

[snip]

"Their motive was not to better society," U.S.  Attorney Carol Lam said at a news conference announcing the arrests.  "But rather to make a profit by breaking the law."

Prosecutors took the unusual step of filing official complaints with the California Medical Board against four physicians who they said sell an inordinate number of recommendations for medical marijuana.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 07 Jul 2006
Source:   San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright:   2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Website:   http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author:   Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n894.a05.html


(3) COP SAYS HE AIDED NARCOTICS RIP-OFF    (Top)

Metro Detective Says Fellow Officer Deceived Him About Traffic Stop

Two undercover Metro officers pretended they were making an arrest but instead ripped off a kilo of cocaine from a drug dealer, one of the officers claimed in court papers filed two weeks ago.

The April 30, 2003, incident involving detectives Charles Williams III and Ernest Cecil is the subject of an investigation by the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration.

Williams, 38, was indicted in January and has been placed on paid leave.  Cecil, 49, was stripped of his police powers after a separate incident and has been on desk duty at the Hermitage Precinct.  He has not been charged with a crime.

The case offers a rare glimpse into the Metro Police Specialized Investigations Division, one of the department's most secretive units, whose plainclothes detectives frequently mingle among Nashville's narcotics underworld to root out drug criminals.

Federal prosecutors did not return several calls seeking comment yesterday.  Metro police officials confirmed that the federal probe was continuing but could offer few details.

A department spokesman said he did not believe the alleged corruption extends to other members of the SID or elsewhere in the Metro Police Department.

"There has been no outside complaint or information that would lead us to believe that anything is occurring ...," police spokesman Don Aaron said.  "We're not aware of any of these type of issues occurring now in SID.  Supervision would catch it. Word on the street would let us know something was going on."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Thu, 06 Jul 2006
Source:   Hendersonville Star News, The (TN)
Copyright:   2006 The Hendersonville Star News
Website:   http://www.hendersonvillestarnews.com/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1666
Author:   Christian Bottorff
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n895.a09.html


(4) CANNABIS 'CAN LEAD TO HARDER DRUGS'    (Top)

The long-running debate over the dangers of cannabis will be reignited by a study that challenges the idea that experimenting with the drug is harmless and does not lead to further drug use.

Prof Yasmin Hurd, Dr Sabrina Spano and Dr Maria Ellgren, working at the Karolinksa Institute, in Sweden, have demonstrated that cannabis can enhance future sensitivity to heroin.

Studying events in the brain of adolescent rats after cannabis exposure, they found that the drug affects the brain's natural chemicals, called endogenous opioids.  The chemicals are known to play a role in heightening positive emotions and creating a sense of reward.

That is the same system that is stimulated by hard drugs and is also present in humans.  In the case of the rats, those exposed to cannabis as adolescents took more heroin when given the opportunity.

[snip]

This year an independent report commissioned for the Commons science and technology committee concluded that the "gateway" theory - that its use leads on to the use of harder drugs - "has little evidence to support it, despite copious research".

The Swedish team's results show that the brain may "remember" previous cannabis usage and make users vulnerable to harder drugs later in life, specifically opioids such as heroin and morphine.

Pubdate:   Wed, 05 Jul 2006
Source:   Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright:   2006 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  
Website:   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author:   Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n890.a07.html


WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW    (Top)

Domestic News- Policy


COMMENT: (5-8)    (Top)

If you thought the drug war was a cruel, wasteful failure, a group of former drug czars have news for you: your' re wrong, the drug war is actually a cruel, wasteful success - or something like that.  They claimed the drug war has been won and they gathered to pat themselves on the back recently, but strangely, they didn't invite the press or the public to the victory ceremony.  Too many uncomfortable questions, presumably.  Anyone with a newspaper or internet connection and the ability to read would know that these former drug czars don't seem to get follow the news that closely.

Drug reformers are running for public office, though at least one being harassed by police.  Ben Masel, a U.S. Senate candidate and longtime drug policy activist appears to be inspiring so much fear that local authorities attacked him while trying to gather signatures on public property.  And, if the drug czars believe their own rhetoric while they were in office about the horrors of needle exchanges, they can't be happy to see how the practice continues to spread, now finally legally to Delaware.  Massachusetts is a lone holdout, and it looks like the governor there recently vetoed needle exchange legislation.  Supporters of the legislation in the state house have vowed to use some common sense and override the veto.


(5) OPED: FORMER DRUG CZARS BELIEVE THEIR WAR HAS BEEN WON    (Top)

The United States has won the war against illegal drugs.  That was the conclusion of a unique gathering on June 17, which marked the 35th anniversary of the war's beginning in 1971 with the appointment of Dr. Jerome H.  Jaffe, a psychiatrist, as the first White House drug czar.

Jaffe was joined at the anniversary gathering by six other former czars, Dr.  Robert L. Du Pont, Dr. Peter G. Bourne, Lee I. Dogoloff, Dr. Donald Ian Mac-Donald, Lee Brown and retired Army Gen.  Barry R. McCaffrey.  Also attending were 20 former staff members and a handful of experts, including me, a specialist historian.

The meeting, sponsored and hosted by the University of Maryland, was held for the purpose of making a historical record.

The seven former czars and former staff members held remarkably unanimous views, though they come from a variety of backgrounds and included Democrats and Republicans who worked for five very different presidents.  And what they had to say was often surprising.

The main conclusion that we won the war on drugs was the biggest surprise, because advocates of illegal drugs have in recent years filled the media with rhetoric about "the failed war on drugs." The czars' straightforward conclusion may come as a shock, but, as they outlined what the war was about, what they had to say made a lot of sense.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 30 Jun 2006
Source:   Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright:   2006 The Columbus Dispatch
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author:   John C .  Burnham
Note:   John Burnham is research professor of history at Ohio State
University, where he specializes in the history of medicine and American social history.
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n869/a05.html


(6) CANDIDATE MASEL SPRAYED, ARRESTED AT UNION TERRACE    (Top)

University police confronted Ben Masel, longtime local activist and current U.S.  Senate hopeful, while he was circulating nomination papers on the Memorial Union Terrace Thursday night.

After a brief struggle, he was pepper-sprayed, arrested, and charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, then released.

Masel says he's being singled out.

Several politicians confirmed today in interviews they have used the terrace to solicit signatures, including both Democratic candidates for secretary of state.

Incumbent Doug La Follette said today he's been at the terrace "four or five lunch hours" this year soliciting signatures and was never asked to leave.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 30 Jun 2006
Source:   Capital Times, The (WI)
Copyright:   2006 The Capital Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author:   Steven Elbow
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n870/a01.html


(7) LEGISLATURE FINALLY OKS NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM    (Top)

Bill Aims To Cut Down On AIDS, Hepatitis C In Wilmington

DOVER -- Intravenous drug users in Wilmington will finally be able to get clean syringes under a pilot needle exchange program the General Assembly passed Thursday, delighting advocates who said the measure will reduce the spread of AIDS.

Infection from dirty needles is a leading cause of AIDS in Delaware, which had the nation's sixth-highest AIDS rate from all causes in 2004.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 30 Jun 2006
Source:   News Journal (DE)
Copyright:   2006 The News Journal
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/822
Author:   Cris Barrish
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n861/a08.html


(8) MITT VETOES NEEDLE SALES BILL, RILED POLS VOW OVERRIDE    (Top)

Gov.  Mitt Romney yesterday vetoed a bill that would bring the Bay State in line with 47 other states by allowing over-the-counter sales of hypodermic needles to prevent the spread of HIV - claiming the measure would only add to the state's heroin epidemic.

The Democrat-controlled Legislature, which approved the measure by wide margins in the House and Senate, swiftly vowed to override Romney's veto.  New Jersey and Delaware are the only other states that don't allow sales of hypodermic needles in pharmacies without a prescription.

"I'm just very disappointed," said state Rep.  Peter Koutijian ( D-Waltham ), a former prosecutor, who said he questioned Romney's concern for heroin addiction rates considering last week the governor vetoed $8.2 million for substance abuse treatment.

Lt.  Gov Kerry Healey pointed to state public health statistics that suggest HIV transmission rates due to intravenous drug use have declined annually while the number of heroin-related fatal overdoses and hospitalizations have shot up.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 01 Jul 2006
Source:   Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright:   2006 The Boston Herald, Inc
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Author:   Laura Crimaldi
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n878/a05.html


Law Enforcement & Prisons


COMMENT: (9-12)    (Top)

The governor of West Virginia has expanded the drug war there, and is about to toss another $1 million into the sinkhole of misery. Meanwhile, a judge dismisses a case against cops convicted of corruption; a judge rules that it is not unconstitutional to require drug defendants to pay for and take drug tests as they wait for trial; and California legislators go against the will of voters on a ballot initiative while initiative supporters take their case to court.


(9) STATE DRUG WAR NETS BIG HAUL    (Top)

State and local police have seized almost $6 million in illegal drugs over the past 18 months as part of a crackdown on the drug trade in West Virginia.

Gov.  Joe Manchin today was to unveil evidence gathered during two of the most recent drug raids: 6.5-pounds of crystal methamphetamine and five kilograms of cocaine, all seized by police during raids in the Charleston area.

Those drugs alone have a street value of more than $750,000.

When Manchin took office in 2005, he asked state and local police departments to refocus their efforts on eradicating the drug trade, which in recent years has become a hotbed of activity by dealers coming in from out of state.

Since then, the State Police have spearheaded dozens of raids and made as many arrests, targeting illegal drug operations all over the state.

Drug enforcement officials working undercover have made more than 500 drug buys in the past six months, State Police Col.  Dave Lemmon said this morning.  That's as many as were made during the entire year in 2004.

"The governor gave us a mandate, and we've accepted it and we've really been working hard," Lemmon said.  "The amount of meth and coke we've taken in recently, just around here, that's very uncommon.  But it's going to be ongoing, and we're going to be stepping up the pace even more."

Manchin pledged during his State of the State address in January to give the State Police $1 million this year to continue their efforts.  The money, which becomes available July 1, will allow police to work more undercover operations, set up additional drug buys and get more drug-related training.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Fri, 30 Jun 2006
Source:   Charleston Daily Mail (WV)
Copyright:   2006 Charleston Daily Mail
Author:   Kris Wise, Daily Mail Capitol reporter
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n872/a03.html


(10) NEW YORK CITY JUDGE THROWS OUT MAFIA COPS CONSPIRACY CONVICTION    (Top)

They did the crimes but might not do the time.

In a stunning development Friday, a federal judge threw out key racketeering conspiracy convictions against "Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa -- convictions that included their involvement in eight gangland killings from 1986 to 1991 -- because of a conflict with the federal five-year statute of limitations.

U.S.  District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein, in a 77-page ruling, said the trial "overwhelmingly established" the guilt of Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, in the slayings and other crimes, but wrote that the legal issue compelled him to acquit them.

"As a result of spillover prejudice resulting from the trial of that charge [racketeering conspiracy] with other crimes charged in the indictment, defendants are entitled to a new trial on the remaining charges," Weinstein said.

Weinstein ordered a new trial for both men on charges of drug dealing and, in Eppolito's case, money laundering.  The retrial would involve charges that Eppolito and Caracappa were involved in a small methamphetamine transaction in Nevada, where they both lived after retiring from the Police Department.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 01 Jul 2006
Source:   Newsday (NY)
Copyright:   2006 Newsday Inc.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author:   Anthony M.  Destefano
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n873/a07.html


(11) COURT RESTORES DRUG TESTS IN METH CASES    (Top)

North Dakota's Supreme Court has reinstated a law that requires methamphetamine defendants to assent to random drug testing, at their own expense, if they're freed on bail.  A Fargo judge had declared the provision unconstitutional.

East Central District Judge Steven McCullough used a procedure that was "not conducive to reasoned decision-making" in ruling the law should not be enforced, the state Supreme Court justices said in a unanimous opinion.

"Our jurisprudence for deciding constitutional issues requires an orderly process for the development of constitutional claims, which .  was not followed in this case," Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle
wrote in the court's decision Thursday.

The case affects a law passed by the Legislature last year, which says people who are charged with methamphetamine crimes must agree to pay for their own random drug tests if they are granted bail.

The issue arose when Brent Alan Hansen, of Fargo, made his initial court appearance last October on four drug charges, including two felony methamphetamine charges.

McCullough asked Hansen's court-appointed attorney, Steven Mottinger, whether he wanted to question whether the law that required testing for his client as a condition of bail was constitutional.

Mottinger quickly took the hint.  Later that day, McCullough issued a written opinion saying the law encroached on the judicial system's own rules for granting bail.  The law also allows police to conduct a search without providing reasons to justify it, the judge concluded.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sat, 01 Jul 2006
Source:   Bismarck Tribune (ND)
Copyright:   2006 The Bismarck Tribune
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/47
Author:   Dale Wetzel, AP
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n873/a04.html


(12) BILL TO REVISE PROPOSITION 36 UNDER FIRE    (Top)

Jail Proposed For Refusal To Comply With Treatment

LOS ANGELES - Oliver Hamilton says he wasn't afraid of jail: He was afraid of change.

Two years ago, the San Diego Navy veteran overcame his fears and his 36-year drug and alcohol addiction with the help of Proposition 36, the ballot measure requiring treatment instead of prison for nonviolent drug offenders.

Today, the 49-year-old warehouse manager is fighting a bill that the governor plans to sign this week that rewrites the initiative.  It would allow judges to impose short-term jail sentences for recalcitrant drug offenders who refuse to comply with their court-ordered treatment.

"Really, no addict is afraid of jail," Hamilton said.  "Put them in inpatient programs.  That's what works."

But treatment hasn't worked for three out of four of the first- and second-time drug offenders sentenced to recovery programs under Proposition 36 since it went into effect July 1, 2001.

They never showed up for their court-ordered programs or they dropped out of the programs.

So a task force of prosecutors, public defenders, judges and treatment professionals proposed the short-term jail sentences and other changes in the initiative in hopes of getting more addicts into treatment and off drugs.

Lawmakers adopted the revisions last week in Senate Bill 1137.  Now Proposition 36's authors are planning to sue the state.

"It would reverse the intent of Prop.  36," said Margaret Dooley, Drug Policy Alliance Proposition 36 outreach director.  "It would take Prop.  36 from ( mandating ) treatment instead of incarceration, and make it ( require ) treatment and incarceration."

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 02 Jul 2006
Source:   Ventura County Star (CA)
Copyright:   2006 The E.W.  Scripps Co.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/479
Author:   Laura Mecoy, Sacramento Bee
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n880/a09.html


Cannabis & Hemp-


COMMENT: (13-16)    (Top)

We begin this week with a New York Times article on the ongoing issues facing San Francisco's emerging medical cannabis policies and program.  The recent controversy involves the opening of a medical cannabis compassion club at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco's most popular tourist destination.  The Green Cross has submitted an application to open their doors in August, but local businesses and residents have expressed concerns about opening up a dispensary in such a high traffic, tourist-driven area.  San Francisco currently boasts about 40 compassion clubs, which assist over 25,000 medical cannabis patients.

Our second story comes to us from the U.K., where a report from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime suggests that teens coming from a more affluent background are more likely to use cannabis than those from lower social and economic classes.  The report stems from a questionnaire sent to over 4000 school aged children in Edinburgh, and seems to re-enforce previous studies showing that cannabis users are generally of a higher income and education level than non-users.

Our next article comes to us from Canada, where Edmonton Sun columnist Mindelle Jacobs looks at ongoing problems with the federal medical cannabis program, with a focus on the recently released Canadian AIDS Society report on the human rights, ethical and legal challenges facing people with HIV/AIDS who wish to use medical cannabis.  And lastly this week, a Langley Times editorial calling for a common sense approach to regulated cannabis access for responsible adults that was prompted by the recent bust of two B.C. men who are charged with smuggling cannabis into (and cocaine out of) B.C.  by helicopter.


(13) MARIJUANA FIGHT ENVELOPS FISHERMAN'S WHARF    (Top)

The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no advertisements and not even a scrap of sourdough.  Yet everyone seems to think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing customers from all over the region to sample its aromatic wares.

For some, that is exactly the problem.

The Green Cross is a cannabis club, one of scores that sell marijuana to patients with a doctor's note.  They have sprouted around California in the decade since the passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use and sale of marijuana to those suffering from chronic pain, illness or infirmity.  San Francisco, a hot spot in the AIDS epidemic, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition in 1996 and has about 30 clubs, serving some 25,000 patients and caregivers.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 03 Jul 2006
Source:   New York Times (NY)
Copyright:   2006 The New York Times Company
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author:   Jessee McKinley
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n883.a05.html


(14) MIDDLE-CLASS KIDS 'MORE LIKELY TO USE CANNABIS'    (Top)

Teenagers from affluent areas are more likely to smoke cannabis than those from poorer backgrounds, say researchers who believe middle-class parents encourage their children to take the drug rather than alcohol.

The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime reveals that by the age of 16 one-third of teenagers had taken some form of drug and for 79% of these it was cannabis alone.

But 35% of teenagers from more affluent backgrounds, with parents working in non-manual jobs, had used cannabis within the past year compared with 30% of those whose parents were either in manual occupations or unemployed.

The researchers, based at Edinburgh University, say this finding is "statistically significant".  While delinquency and hard-drug use are more common in areas of greater deprivation or high crime rates, more frequent cannabis use was greater within prosperous neighbourhoods, particularly those with a high student population.

The researchers carried out the study using questionnaires sent to around 4,000 Edinburgh schoolchildren.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Mon, 03 Jul 2006
Source:   Edinburgh Evening News (UK)
Copyright:   2006 The Scotsman Publications Ltd
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1626
Author:   Kate Foster
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n885.a05.html


(15) TORIES KEEP MEDICAL POT    (Top)

As much as the Tories would probably love to ditch the medical marijuana program, they have quietly extended the contract with the government's official pot grower.

The five-year, $5.7-million deal the Liberals inked with Prairie Plant Systems, which grows Ottawa's weed in an abandoned mine in Manitoba, expired Friday (after a six-month extension was previously granted).

Now the contract has been stretched until the end of September while the feds put out a request for proposals for a new five-year deal.

The Tories must wish the whole medical pot issue would just go up in smoke.  In fact, things are about to heat up.

In a recent report, the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) slammed Ottawa's marijuana monopoly and urged the government to allow designated producers to grow pot for multiple people.

[snip]

Pubdate:   Sun, 02 Jul 2006
Source:   Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright:   2006, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author:   Mindelle Jacobs
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n877.a03.html


(16) LEGALIZATION AN OPTION    (Top)

The arrest of two men in a scheme which saw marijuana hauled into the U.S.  by helicopter is being hailed by law enforcement officials on both sides of the border.

They say the helicopter was hauling cocaine back into Canada, after dropping off marijuana in remote areas that were accessible by helicopter.

This is just another indication of the massive scale of drug smuggling that goes on in this area.

In addition to marijuana being traded for cocaine, it is often used to purchase handguns.  These guns are then distributed among people involved with the drug trade, and this has led to many murders throughout the Lower Mainland.  [snip]

Medicinal use of marijuana is proven to have some beneficial effects, and is legal in Canada.  Perhaps it is time to consider wider legalization.

Pubdate:   Sun, 02 Jul 2006
Source:   Langley Times (CN BC)
Copyright:   2006 Langley Times
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/1230
Author:   Frank Bucholtz
Comments:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n881.a02.html


International News


COMMENT: (17-20)    (Top)

There's just no stopping those poppies from popping up all over Afghanistan, especially this year where a another bumper crop is expected.  The invading powers of the U.S. and U.K. are concerned, about poppies "in the south" of Afghanistan, because that's where the Taliban are.  (Bumper opium poppy crops in U.S.-allied northern Afghanistan are no problem of course.) The deaths of two British soldiers there last week highlighted the dilemma: should the invading armies pretend to give a "grace period" to farmers who would be "allowed" to grow poppies in the south? The Americans, according to the Belfast Telegraph, will have none of it, naturally preferring a more gung ho and aggressive approach that involves a technological fix, "such as aerial eradication.  Western sources say that the US may use a form of Agent Orange, a defoliant which was once used to notorious effect in South Vietnam." Expect similar results.

Canadian police are "irked" at laws that don't punish "dealers" as harshly as in the U.S., the Canadian National Post paper reported this week.  Police, which in Canada as elsewhere seem have far more influence with government than the mere will of the majority of the people, were reportedly incensed at the lack of jail time given a Canadian transferred from the U.S.  prison system to the Canadian system, according to a Canadian police association spokesman.  When the man was found to be shot (the victim) after his release in an apparent botched drug deal, police jumped on the event as proof that Canadians need to be jailed more often and longer for non-violent drug offences.  "He won the lottery when he was transferred" to Canada rued a police spokesman.

Australian drug treatment expert Dr.  Alex Wodak said that the so-called "war on drugs" isn't working.  Wodak, director of alcohol and drug services at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia, made his comments in Canberra last week.  "The scientific debate is well and truly over.  Harm reduction clearly works, it's effective, practical, affordable, whereas the war on drugs more and more is seen as expensive, ineffective and severely counterproductive."

When the Canadian Conservative government took the reins of power this year, they promised that mandatory prison terms would be enacted to send a stern "message" that government drug laws must be obeyed.  But within days of taking office, senior federal lawyers in the Canadian Justice Department warned Justice Minister Vic Toews that mandatory minimums don't deter crime one bit, but do pack jails with petty offenders.  "Research into the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentences has established that they do not have any obvious special deterrent or educative effect and are no more effective than less serious sanctions in preventing crime," revealed a briefing book prepared for the incoming justice minister.  The warning against ineffective mandatory minimums came to light via an Access to Information request.  The briefing confirmed mandatory minimums have "no discernible benefits" and "could run afoul of Charter of Rights and Freedoms protection against cruel and unusual punishment."


(17) TWO BRITISH SOLDIERS KILLED AS AFGHAN POPPY CROP BOOMS    (Top)

Two more British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, as Western officials there admit that the country is about to produce its largest ever poppy harvest.

The two soldiers were named today as Corporal Peter Thorpe, 27, of the Royal Signals, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi, 24, of the Intelligence Corps, from Birmingham.

The deaths, on Saturday, bring the number of Britons killed in the past three weeks to five.  The members of 3rd Para Battlegroup were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck a defensive post at the regional headquarters in the town of Sangin, in Helmand province.  Other soldiers were injured but it is not yet known how many.

The incident came as Western military commanders and
counter-narcotics officials appear at odds over how to approach the drugs situation in the south.  Military officers are fearful the $1bn (UKP540m) a year campaign to eradicate the drug is helping pull in recruits for the Taliban.  "The trends indicate that the area of cultivation will be considerably higher than in 2004," said a representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which will publish its annual report of the Afghan opium harvest next month.

[snip]

Hamid Karzai, the President, announced last year a jihad on opium poppy production, backed by a near-$1bn campaign, led by the UK.  It led to a fall by 21 per cent drop in the area under cultivation. Those gains have been wiped out.

[snip]

Some military commanders argue that eradication operations in the south should be suspended for a year or more.  A Nato officer said: "There may have to be a period of grace where we say that by a certain time frame there can be no more poppy cultivation and at that point we will eradicate."

The officer said that such an approach would give Western forces the "moral high ground" against the Taliban's ongoing campaign to present itself as the defender of poppy farmers.

Counter-narcotics officials contend that a suspension of eradication would only produce a surge in production.  They argue this would help to fund elements with a vested interest in maintaining the current instability, which has resulted in more than 1,600 people being killed this year.  The drugs economy is valued at $2.7bn, more than 50 per cent of the legal economy.  The government's legal revenues, outside of foreign aid, were $330m last year.  Corruption is endemic.

[snip]

In Washington, there is pressure for a more radical approach, such as aerial eradication.  Western sources say that the U.S. may use a form of Agent Orange, a defoliant which was once used to notorious effect in South Vietnam.

Pubdate:   Mon, 03 Jul 2006
Source:   Belfast Telegraph (UK)
Copyright:   2006 Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/42
Author:   Tom Coghlan
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n886.a03.html


(18) DEALER'S REDUCED TERM IRKS U.S., CANADIAN POLICE    (Top)

TORONTO - When Sean Erez was found crumpled and bleeding in the elevator of the Westin Harbour Castle hotel this week, shot when an alleged drug deal went awry, he could well have still been inside an American prison for his international drug trafficking enterprise.

That a decade was shaved off his 15-year sentence
imposed in a Brooklyn courthouse in November, 2001 --
after he applied to serve his sentence in Canada rather
than in the United States -- is angering
victims-of-crime advocates and police officers on both
sides of the border.

"He won the lottery when he was transferred here.  What a hell of a deal he got on the exchange rate," said Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Professional Police Association, which represents 54,000 police officers.

"That's what you do with drug traffickers in Canada, is it? Did your government pay for his hotel room as well?" asked a U.S.  federal drug investigator.

[snip]

Since drug trafficking is not considered a crime of violence in Canada and because this is Mr.  Erez's first time in a Canadian prison, under law, he was eligible for Accelerated Parole Review.

[snip]

Mr.  Erez survived but has been charged with drug trafficking. Police described the incident as a botched drug transaction.

This case highlights the need for changes in Canada's justice system, critics said.

"It seems odd that anyone can pretend there isn't an element of violence in this person's lifestyle and career choice and the kind of activities he has done," said Mr.  Sullivan. "If it wasn't so serious it would almost be funny."

Mr.  Cannavino called on the new Conservative government to conduct a review of the prison and parole system in Canada.

"They are handling cases like they get a bonus every time they let someone out," he said.

Pubdate:   Thu, 06 Jul 2006
Source:   National Post (Canada)
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author:   Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n890.a02.html


(19) WAR ON DRUGS WON'T STOP PROBLEM: EXPERT    (Top)

Australia's drug problem will worsen if governments continue to treat substance abuse as a law-enforcement matter ahead of a health issue, a leading expert on the subject has warned.

Alex Wodak, director of St Vincent's Hospital's alcohol and drug service, said harm-reduction initiatives such as injecting rooms and needle-exchange programs had proven successful.

But he said the so-called "war on drugs" was costing a bomb and failing to lessen the impact of drug use.

Dr Wodak was speaking in Canberra after addressing the Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform.

[snip]

"The scientific debate is well and truly over.  Harm reduction clearly works, it's effective, practical, affordable, whereas the war on drugs more and more is seen as expensive, ineffective and severely counterproductive."

Dr Wodak said there was considerable community support for harm reduction but many people, wrongly, saw law enforcement as the only way to reduce the impact of drug use.

[snip]

He said ice - crystallised methamphetamine - had supplanted heroin as the major problem drug in some parts of Australia, posing serious ramifications for health authorities.

"We see people coming down with amphetamine psychosis and they are now presenting at major hospitals in ever-increasing numbers, presenting major problems for mental health units,"

Pubdate:   Mon, 03 Jul 2006
Source:   Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright:   2006 The Sydney Morning Herald
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark:   http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n881.a05.html


(20) PS WARNING THAT TORIES' CRIME LAWS WON'T WORK WAS IGNORED    (Top)

Mandatory Prison Terms Ineffective, Lawyers Told New Justice Minister

The Conservative government, within days of taking office, was warned by senior federal bureaucrats that its central election pledge to impose new automatic prison terms won't deter crime or protect the public, internal documents reveal.

The Tories apparently ignored the advice from Justice Department lawyers, which was contained in a briefing book for Justice Minister Vic Toews released yesterday through an Access to Information request.

"Research into the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentences has established that they do not have any obvious special deterrent or educative effect and are no more effective than less serious sanctions in preventing crime," said the briefing book.

It added that minimum mandatory sentences have "no discernible benefits" in terms of public safety, and could run afoul of Charter of Rights and Freedoms protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

[snip]

The Conservatives, motivated in part by an increase in gun violence in major Canadian cities, particularly Toronto, say heavier penalties send a public message to would-be criminals.

The Justice Department's advice echoes warnings from academics and interest groups outside government.

Minimum mandatory sentences are controversial because they eliminate flexibility for judges to impose sentences as they see fit.

[snip]

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day confirmed in May the government has set aside between $220 million and $245 million over the next five years to build new prison cells, in anticipation of passing new laws to impose longer sentences.

The money, however, does not include the cost of the Conservatives' election promise to impose new minimum mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes, which critics predict would flood prisons, as it has in the United States.  Mandatory prison terms for drug trafficking alone could put thousands more prisoners in the federal system, which houses 12,500 inmates.

So far, the Tories have not gone ahead with the mandatory drug sentences.

Pubdate:   Thu, 06 Jul 2006
Source:   Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright:   2006 The Ottawa Citizen
Details:   http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author:   Janice Tibbetts, The Ottawa Citizen
Continues:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n891.a09.html


HOT OFF THE 'NET    (Top)

LYNN ZIMMER 1947-2006

Lynn Zimmer died Sunday morning at the age of 59.

Professor Zimmer, a sociologist at Queens College in New York, was widely regarded among both drug policy scholars and activists as the most original thinker on drug issues in the United States.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/070506lynnzimmer.cfm


BRINGING THE GATEWAY THEORY BACK

By Maia Szalavitz

http://www.stats.org/stories/bringing_gateway_jul06_06.htm


IMPAIRED REASONING

Should last week's joint disqualify a pot smoker from driving today?

By Jacob Sullum

http://www.reason.com/sullum/062806.shtml


10 NEWS EXPOSES 'MARIJUANA DOCTORS'

http://www.10news.com/news/9480300/detail.html


CANNABINOID CHRONICLES

Volume 3, Issue 11, July/August 2006

http://www.thevics.com/publications/vol3/VICSNews3_11.pdf


CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW

Tonight:   07/07/06 - Loretta Nall, Alabama gubernatorial candidate +
Roger Goodman state rep candidate in Wash state.

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

Last:   06/30/06 - NY Times Columnist John Tierney + Terry Nelson of
LEAP, Black Perspective, Poppygate, Drug War Facts.

Audio:   http://drugtruth.net/cbaudio06/FDBCB_063006.mp3


NEW RADIO AD CALLS OUT POLITICIANS WHO HAVE USED MARIJUANA

A potentially controversial new ad campaign from the Marijuana Policy Project names prominent public officials, including President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Al Gore, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as having admitted to using marijuana.  The ad then asks, "Is it fair to arrest three quarters of a million people a year for doing what presidents and a Supreme Court justice have done?"

http://mpp.org/releases/nr20060630.html


WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK    (Top)

WRITE A LETTER FOR MAP

Former Drug Czars Declare "Victory" In War On Drugs - A MAP Focus Alert

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0332.html


DPA JOBS AND INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Policy Assistant, New Mexico Office - Santa Fe, NM

Policy/Administrative Assistant, New Jersey Office - Trenton, NJ

Deputy Director, State Organizing and Policy Project - New York, NY

http://www.drugpolicy.org/about/jobsfunding/jobs/


LETTER OF THE WEEK    (Top)

TAYLOR WAS WRONG TO BLAME ALL ADDICTS' PARENTS

By Phyllis Spitler

I felt compelled to respond to the statements Bob Taylor made in The Times' special report on heroin.  I respect Bob's work as the Porter County Drug Task Force coordinator.  That he is expected to perform this important and difficult mission with little manpower and abysmal funds is appalling.  That needs to be changed.

However, I was stunned by statements he made concerning parents.  He declared that 100 percent of the drug problems of young people is the parents' fault.  I find that statement to be 100 percent incorrect! For instance, in our home:

* My husband and I have never been "all wrapped up in our big paying jobs." I am an elementary school teacher, for heaven's sake.  I don't make big bucks!

* "Never at home"? We were always home!

* "Have all this money ( from their parents )"? Manda was working three jobs to make her own money!

* "No parental involvement"? My husband and I were always involved in Manda's life.  Manda was the most important person to her dad and

I took Bob's statements very personally.  Bob, of all people, should know drug addiction is a complex societal problem.  However, he painted all people addicted to drugs and their families with a hugely broad brush.

How can his statements possibly be universally accurate?

As parents, we love our children so very deeply.  However, drug-addicted people have one person to hold responsible for their addiction, and that person is themselves.  Before she died from a heroin overdose, my daughter, Manda said she had only herself to blame ( for her drug use ).

Phyllis Spitler Valparaiso

Mother of Manda Marie Spitler, who died at age 20 of a heroin overdose on March 31, 2002

Pubdate:   Fri, 30 Jun 2006
Author:   Phyllis Spitler
Source:   Times, The (Munster IN)
Referenced:   http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n858/a01.html


FEATURE ARTICLE    (Top)

INDEPENDENCE DAY

By Colleen McCool

On the 4th of July we celebrate freedom from tyranny and oppression but, of course, that doesn't mean we have it.  With more people in prison here than anywhere else on earth, is this the way to be the land of the free?

The drug war is a senseless, hypocritical, failed policy.  It has turned Texas into a prison kingdom, incarcerating around a 1000 poor souls out of every 100,000 of us, more than any totalitarian regime in the whole world..

Our official's betrayal of the public trust is an epidemic! They have forgotten their role as public servants! Instead they would have us cower before our masters! Our law enforcement have forgotten how to serve and protect!

Big government tries to legislate morality.  Like flagellant priests, overzealous drug warriors draw blood daily from their brothers for their medicinal and recreational drug use.

No legitimate business last long if it kills it's customers or shoots the competition.  No legitimate business would sell drugs to children or recruit them to sell to their peers.  This happened during alcohol prohibition and it is happening today.  Once again, prohibition creates more danger to the user and society by increasing violent crime and corruption of public officials.

The drug war obviously exacerbates, rather than reduces, racial prejudice! The White incarceration rate nationwide was 393 per 100,000, Latino-957 and Black-2,531.

The Controlled Substances Act is one of those bad laws like the Fugitive Slave Act and the Volstead Act.  When juries refuse to convict on "drug crime," drug warriors will be politically dead bodies.  Jury nullification is a constitutional power tool we the people pack!

Yes, the truth is out and spreading like wildfire! It will not be suppressed, until every household knows the clamor, the swelling protest, exposing dark, dirty secrets of heinous crimes against humanity! Truth is our fireworks for this dry year in Texas.

We are in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, etc.  for the oil or power and money.

War is a tool governments use to make us more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources.  The Iraq war and drug war are smokescreens for corruption but something smells rotten!

We tolerate tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals.  They are implicated in about a quarter of the deaths that occur each year in this country.  War, prisons, the militarization of police creates a booming economy for some on the suffering of many.  A less hypocritical policy, in the spirit of Rev.  Martin Luther King, Jr. with our Bible and Constitution always close at hand, "will overcome," drug abuse with compassion, education and treatment.

We can see where our laws are causing more harm than good with modern statistical reporting, and change accordingly.  We can't take that necessary evil, money out of the equation but we can demand compassionate policy and ethics from our leaders when peace lovers, liberty lovers, true patriots unite!

Leaders responsible for current quagmire will one day answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity.  It's time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic.  The monetary costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.

"God bless America, land that I love!"

Colleen McCool is a Texas portrait artist, poet and political activist Her poem, "Spirit of '76," proves her point that support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus.  www.mccoolportraits.com/Spirit.htm


QUOTE OF THE WEEK    (Top)

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might." - Marian Anderson


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