| May 4, 2007 #497 | ||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||||||
(1) COST OF CARIBBEAN CRIME GROWS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Drug Trafficking Exacts Social, Economic Toll, World Bank Reports | ||||||||||||||
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Economists investigating the impact of crime in
the developing world are yielding some harsh findings. | ||||||||||||||
The social and economic costs are growing and are compounded with each
generation, feeding further cycles of violence. | ||||||||||||||
And America's closest neighbors have it worst, the World Bank says. A report to be released by the bank today says Jamaica is emerging as the murder capital of the Americas, while the Caribbean region now ranks as the world's most crime-ridden area, excluding places torn by civil war. Hijacking, burglary, kidnapping and rape are also on the rise, as a result of the region's role in the global drug trade. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(2) JUDGE QUESTIONS POLICE METHODS, EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG WAR (Top) | ||||||||||||||
It was a routine misdemeanor possession-of-marijuana case. But County Court Judge Barry Cohen rendered anything but a routine verdict last week, questioning whether the national war on drugs is effective, and whether investigating minor motor vehicle violations is a good use of officers assigned to the Palm Beach County Violent Crimes Task Force. | ||||||||||||||
The judge, in his written not-guilty verdict, also raised the question
of whether the drug war has led to an increasing perception among
blacks that they can be stopped in their vehicles for merely "driving
while black." The case involved a longtime Palm Beach International
Airport skycap in whose car marijuana was found when he was stopped
for a minor equipment violation. | ||||||||||||||
"My written verdict was intended only to stimulate a civilized
dialogue as to the collateral consequences of the War on Drugs," Cohen
said by e-mail. | ||||||||||||||
He succeeded. State Attorney Barry Krischer wrote a lengthy e-mail response to Cohen's order, saying he was "bewildered" by it. | ||||||||||||||
Krischer noted that the multi-agency task force, revived more than a year ago, is engaged in a battle against street gangs that kill to protect their drug trade. "Any effort to make the gang members more afraid of law enforcement than killing each other and innocent bystanders will by necessity be aggressive," he wrote to Cohen. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(3) DRUG TESTS IN QUESTION (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The Clause In The New Teachers' Contract Could Affect Hiring, HSTA's
Director Says | ||||||||||||||
A top union official is worried that Hawaii could have trouble hiring
teachers under a new contract mandating random and reasonable-
suspicion drug testing. | ||||||||||||||
"I think you are going to have a lot of very angry teachers," Joan
Husted, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association,
said yesterday. "We believe it will have a chilling effect on
recruiting." | ||||||||||||||
Island teachers will face drug testing starting in the 2008-09 school
year under a new contract that gives them 4 percent raises in each of
the next two school years. | ||||||||||||||
The deal will bring the pay of an entry-level teacher with a
bachelor's degree to $43,157, up from $39,901, and increase the top
teacher salary to $79,170 from $73,197. It also awards most teachers
one step up in the pay scale in the second semester, giving them an
additional 3 percent hike. | ||||||||||||||
The American Federation of Teachers, a national teachers union, ranks Hawaii 15th in the nation among average teacher pay. But critics say teachers here spend more money on everything from food to gas. | ||||||||||||||
Hawaii needs to hire about 3,400 teachers in the next two years,
Husted said, noting that the state would be joining only a handful of
other school districts that test teachers for drugs. | ||||||||||||||
"I didn't find too many teachers out there who were really thrilled
with this whole idea," she said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(4) AS FUNDING INCREASES, AFGHAN FORCES RANGE FROM RAGTAG TO READY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Faizal Karim, a sophomore at the National
Military Academy here, stood outside a classroom holding his English-
language homework assignment. For a group of cadets nearby, a lecture
in physics was ending. | ||||||||||||||
Bright-eyed, articulate and in a four-year course modeled after the
United States Military Academy at West Point, Mr. Karim is a hopeful
face in Afghanistan's nascent national security forces. He is 21 and
rejects the Taliban. "I want to serve my country's people," he said,
speaking in confident English. | ||||||||||||||
But several days before, an altogether different side of Afghanistan's
security forces was evident when a Dutch and Afghan patrol visited a
police compound in Oruzgan Province. The police officers there were
cultivating poppy within the compound's walls, openly participating in
the heroin trade. The Afghan Army squad that visited them, itself only
partly equipped, did nothing. | ||||||||||||||
These wildly contrasting glimpses of Afghanistan's security forces
illustrate the mix of achievements and frustrations that have
accompanied international efforts to create a capable Afghan Army and
a police force after decades of disorder and war. They also underscore
the urgency behind the renewed push to recruit and train these units,
which is now under way with an influx of equipment and training
approved by the Bush administration last year. | ||||||||||||||
Yet, even after several years of efforts to create new army and police units, it remains difficult to fully assess their readiness. Some units, especially in the army, are motivated and much better equipped than any Afghan forces were five years ago. Others, especially in the police, remain visibly ragtag, underequipped, disorganized, of uncertain loyalty and with links to organized drug rings. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
In the months following the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn
Johnston by Atlanta Police, it's been difficult to find good news
about the Atlanta Police Department (see the Police and Prisons
section of DrugSense Weekly below for more bad news). Which is why
this week's lead story is interesting, even though it's a story that
has been written hundreds of times before in other newspapers around
the country. The story, published in the Atlanta-Journal
Constitution, details the great federal program through which local
police departments get combat-grade surplus military equipment at
almost no cost. The story offers no criticism of the program. At the
same time, the paper has been analyzing shortcomings Atlanta's
police department and wondering why there's such distance between
police and the community. Could it be that all this paramilitary
get-up, usually justified as a necessary part of drug prohibition
enforcement, makes some communities feel as if they are being
occupied, instead of protected? | ||||||||||||||
Also last week: A Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter in
Maryland challenged unethical tactics by university drug police; a
city council in New Jersey was drug-tested before its latest
meeting; and the last state holding out on needle exchange programs
sees some action in the legislature. | ||||||||||||||
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(5) POLICE BENEFIT FROM CASTOFF MILITARY GEAR (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Armored Vehicles Get a New Civilian Life | ||||||||||||||
For many law enforcement agencies in Georgia, the Pentagon has
become a Costco for military surplus: quality merchandise at
can't-beat-it prices. For more than 15 years, police and sheriff's
departments across the state have used the Department of Defense's
excess property program to stock their arsenals with new and used
equipment that ordinarily would have been out of their budgetary
reach. | ||||||||||||||
The Doraville Police Department's SWAT team got an armored personnel
carrier -- worth about $400,000 when it was new a few years ago --
at virtually no cost to taxpayers to aid officers in hostage
situations. Columbus police picked up a used helicopter last year
and saved the city nearly $200,000. | ||||||||||||||
Newnan police have gotten everything from M-16s to camouflage
uniforms to vehicles and a boat with a motor and a trailer, much of
it for counter-drug operations. | ||||||||||||||
Newnan Chief Douglas Meadows estimates his department, with an annual budget of about $5 million, has received $750,000 worth of excess military equipment over the last 10 years simply by asking. | ||||||||||||||
"It's a darned good program," Meadows said. Last year, Georgia law
enforcement agencies received nearly $2 million worth of surplus
equipment, according to the Defense Logistics Agency, which
administers the program nationwide. | ||||||||||||||
That's money saved by local city councils or county commissions.
And, ultimately, by local taxpayers. | ||||||||||||||
Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than $22 million in excess equipment has come to Georgia for homeland security or drug interdiction. In most cases, the surplus equipment is outdated or has been otherwise replaced by upgrades that better fit the military's needs. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(6) POLICE GO TOO FAR IN UNDERCOVER STINGS, SSDP SAYS (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Student activists are accusing University Police of violating
students' privacy with overly aggressive drug enforcement tactics in
the wake of several incidents in which officers posed as students or
drug dealers. | ||||||||||||||
Undercover officers frequently patrol hallways in dorms searching
for would-be narcotics buyers, University Police spokeswoman Maj.
Cathy Atwell said. But the activist group Students for Sensible Drug
Policy said police crossed the line when an officer attempted to
join their Facebook group under an assumed name. The students
discovered the officer when they cross-referenced her e-mail address
in the university directory. | ||||||||||||||
Atwell said she did not know of the Facebook incident SSDP
mentioned, but she defended officers' approach to busting students
for drugs in student housing. | ||||||||||||||
"This has always been a tactic that we've used," she said, noting
that drug enforcement is a particular priority for University Police
because drug use often leads to other types of crime. "Our police
are committed to upholding the drug and alcohol policy. ... What's
unreasonable about upholding the law?" | ||||||||||||||
The Diamondback confirmed the officer's identity after viewing the
notice of the officer's request to join the SSDP group and checking
her identity in the directory. SSDP also produced e-mail
correspondence with Facebook employees, who canceled the police
officer's Facebook account after finding the officer, whose name is
Julia Heng, was violating the social networking site's terms of
service by using the name Joy Oliver. | ||||||||||||||
Heng did not return messages left at the University Police station. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(7) JACKSON TOWNSHIP COUNCIL MEMBERS TAKE RANDOM DRUG-SCREENING TEST (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Mayor Misses Meeting Because Of Business Obligation | ||||||||||||||
JACKSON -- For the second time since adopting the practice, township
officials have undergone an unscheduled drug test. | ||||||||||||||
Jackson has contracted with a drug-testing company to show up twice a year, on random dates before Township Council meetings, to test the mayor and council, Township Administrator William Santos said. | ||||||||||||||
The company, DSI Medical of Pennsylvania, administered a test to all
five council members before their Tuesday night meeting, Santos
confirmed. | ||||||||||||||
Mayor Mark A. Seda did not attend the meeting and was not tested. Seda said he could not make the meeting because his commercial air-conditioning company was finishing a job in New York. | ||||||||||||||
"I didn't know there was a test taking place," Seda said. "I had no
idea." | ||||||||||||||
Santos said that no one in the township, not even his office, knew
DSI planned to administer a drug test this week. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(8) NEEDLE EXCHANGE APPROVED (Top) | ||||||||||||||
AUSTIN - Texans could save a lot of money if illegal drug users were
allowed to exchange clean needles, Sen. Bob Deuell said Thursday
before the Senate approved such a program. | ||||||||||||||
Texas is the only state in the country that does not allow a needle
exchange program for drug users. | ||||||||||||||
The Senate voted 22-7 for the measure, which has not cleared the
House. | ||||||||||||||
"It brings people in to get rehabilitated. It lessens the
contaminated needles in the drug-using community. It cuts down on
diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C," said Deuell, a
physician and Republican from Greenville. "And, in the long run, it
will save the state money." | ||||||||||||||
The bill did not trigger debate. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (9-12) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
More fallout from the Kathryn Johnston shooting in Atlanta. Federal
officials investigating the Atlanta Police say they have evidence of
widespread corruption in the department. While investigators
theorize that the corruption started in the narcotics division, that
corruption soon spread around the whole department, even to officers
who never served in the narcotics division - a warning sign to other
police departments. Also, the police informant who was pushed to lie
about the incident (who can only communicate to the press from an
undisclosed location) now plans to sue police because he can't make
money as an informant any more. | ||||||||||||||
Also last week: Another novel scheme for transporting drugs; and
another small town corruption trial ends, this time with fairly long
sentences. | ||||||||||||||
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(9) PROSECUTORS SAY CORRUPTION IN ATLANTA POLICE DEPT. IS WIDESPREAD (Top) | ||||||||||||||
ATLANTA -- After the fatal police shooting of an elderly woman in a
botched drug raid, the United States attorney here said Thursday
that prosecutors were investigating a "culture of misconduct" in the
Atlanta Police Department. | ||||||||||||||
In court documents, prosecutors said Atlanta police officers
regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated | ||||||||||||||
Narcotics officers have admitted to planting marijuana in Ms.
Johnston's home after her death and submitting as evidence cocaine
they falsely claimed had been bought at her house, according to the
court filings. | ||||||||||||||
Two of the three officers indicted in the shooting, Gregg Junnier
and Jason R. Smith, pleaded guilty on Thursday to state charges
including involuntary manslaughter and federal charges of conspiracy
to violate Ms. Johnston's civil rights. | ||||||||||||||
"Former officers Junnier and Smith will also help us continue our very active ongoing investigation into just how wide the culture of misconduct that led to this tragedy extends within the Atlanta Police Department," said David Nahmias, the United States attorney. | ||||||||||||||
Asked how widespread such practices might be, Mr. Nahmias said
investigators were looking at narcotics officers, officers who had
once served in the narcotics unit and "officers that had never been
in that unit but may have adopted that practice." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(10) SCARED POLICE 'SNITCH' TO SUE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Drug Informant Exposed Cover-Up | ||||||||||||||
Whoever said crime doesn't pay hasn't met Alexis White. | ||||||||||||||
While others shuffle off to work to early morning desk jobs, White
has slept late and made a living buying drugs throughout the city as
a police informant. | ||||||||||||||
That work, which netted White between $20,000 and $30,000 a year, came to an abrupt halt in November when an elderly Atlanta woman was fatally shot by police during a botched drug bust near White's neighborhood. Narcotics officers asked White, 45, to lie to help them with a cover-up, but he called authorities and exposed renegade cops. Three officers were indicted this week in the case, and two have pleaded guilty to killing 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. | ||||||||||||||
White plans to sue police and the city for his loss of income,
according to a notice his attorney, Fenn Little, hand-delivered
Friday to the offices of the mayor, city attorney, Municipal Court
clerk and police chief. But aside from his job, which can be
replaced, he's also suing because of his ever-present fear, which
can't be erased. | ||||||||||||||
White has been officially outed as an informant, more commonly
called a "snitch" or "rat." He feels this makes him Public Enemy No.
1 for street thugs and some police officers. His photo has been in
the newspaper and he's been interviewed on television. | ||||||||||||||
"The word 'scared' doesn't even cover it," White said Friday during
a telephone interview from an undisclosed location. "It's crazy.
Nightmares." | ||||||||||||||
White, in federal protective custody, has been hiding out in a
budget motel for the past five months while the FBI continues to
investigate Atlanta Police's narcotics unit. Due to safety concerns,
White has barely seen his mother, who lives in East Atlanta, or his
wife and 7-year-old girl. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(11) DRUG RING, TOUR BUSES LINKED (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Area Residents Paid to Pose As Passengers, Federal Officials Say | ||||||||||||||
Using a pair of tour buses and people paid to pose as travelers, a
group of men has been running millions of dollars worth of marijuana
from Arizona to Detroit for more than a year, according to a federal
investigation announced in Milwaukee Friday. | ||||||||||||||
On Wednesday, federal agents surrounded one of the buses in Arizona,
seized $1.4 million in cash and arrested three men. Agents caught up
with a second bus in Oklahoma City, where four duffel bags
containing $1.2 million were pulled out of the external luggage
compartment, according to the criminal complaint and news release
from the U.S. attorney's office. Agents did not seize any drugs,
just cash. | ||||||||||||||
[redacted] are charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000
kilograms of marijuana and appeared in court in Arizona Friday. If
convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison and $4
million in fines. | ||||||||||||||
The case will be prosecuted here because the investigation started
after a Wisconsin drug agent learned about the operation. An
informant in Milwaukee told the agent that someone had robbed drug
dealers on a bus of $1.3 million. Also, bus drivers and riders were
recruited out of Milwaukee, and several area residents were on board
Wednesday, officials said. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(12) CORRUPTION TRIAL (Top) | ||||||||||||||
CABOT, Ark - A former small-town police chief and his wife were
sentenced to long prison terms Tuesday for running a criminal
organization dealing in drugs and jewelry. Prosecutors portrayed
former Lonoke Chief Jay Campbell as running his department as a king
and ignoring claims that his wife, Kelly, was having a sexual
relationship with an inmate. | ||||||||||||||
Special Circuit Judge John Cole followed jury recommendations and
sentenced the former chief to 40 years in prison, Kelly Campbell was
sentenced to 20 years. | ||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (13-17) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Other state legislatures are following the lead of New Mexico in
attempting to legalize the use of medical marijuana. The Rhode
Island legislature is extending and improving its law, which the
Governor says he will veto. But the legislature is likely to
override the veto. | ||||||||||||||
A bill in Illinois bill faces an uncertain future, as a health
reporter states. | ||||||||||||||
If the Minnesota bill reaches the governor, it will be vetoed. An
OPED by a state senator shows that reefer madness is alive and well
in Minnesota. | ||||||||||||||
When efforts at the state level are not successful, activists may turn to the local level. Such is the case in New Hampshire. | ||||||||||||||
While we could wish otherwise, not all superb articles are printed
in major newspapers. The vaporization article at the end of this
section is an example of one of them. | ||||||||||||||
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(13) HOUSE APPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL (Top) | ||||||||||||||
With two months to spare, the House of Representatives | ||||||||||||||
Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize medical marijuana
last year; since then New Mexico has passed similar legislation.
However, Rhode Island's pioneering move had an expiration date. The
law has a built-in sunset clause for June 30, unless legislators
make it permanent. | ||||||||||||||
Governor Carcieri will likely veto the bill, for the same reasons that he vetoed it last year, said his spokesman, Jeff Neal. While the state law legalizes marijuana possession for authorized caregivers and patients with doctors' approval, the only way to actually get the seeds or plants is to buy it illegally. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The bill doubles the amount of marijuana the caregiver can possess,
to 24 marijuana plants and 5 ounces of usable marijuana, for his or
her qualifying patients. The bill also requires the Health
Department to report on the medical-marijuana program every
odd-numbered year to the House Committee on Health, Education and
Welfare and the Senate Judiciary Committee. | ||||||||||||||
Already, there are 257 Rhode Islanders who are registered to use
medical marijuana. Medical studies have been issued, as recently as
a few months ago, that show marked relief for people suffering from
chronic debilitating diseases. | ||||||||||||||
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(14) WILL OUR LEADERS BE DOPES? (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Or Will They Have the Courage to Legalize Medical Marijuana? | ||||||||||||||
Multiple sclerosis patient Julie Falco makes a compelling case that
Illinois should legalize marijuana for medical uses. | ||||||||||||||
Three times a day, Falco eats a small marijuana brownie to relieve
tingling, numbness, spasticity, bladder problems, insomnia and
depression. Pot works so well she has tossed out her prescription
drugs. | ||||||||||||||
"I'm in a better place physically, mentally and spiritually from
taking this," she says. | ||||||||||||||
Falco, 42, recently testified for a bill that would legalize medical
marijuana. A Senate vote could come as early as today. | ||||||||||||||
But the bill faces significant opposition from Republicans and
Downstate Democrats. | ||||||||||||||
"Legislators tend to be unnecessarily nervous," says Bruce Mirken of
the Marijuana Policy Project. "It may take a couple of years for
them to get the courage for a floor vote to pass." | ||||||||||||||
Regardless of what happens in Springfield, momentum appears to be
building for medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(15) WHY MEDICAL MARIJUANA IS WRONG FOR MINNESOTA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
I have voted "no" five times on the "medical marijuana" bill in
Senate Committees and now on the Senate floor. I feel great
compassion and concern for the Minnesota residents who believe that
marijuana might help them to relieve their pain at the end of their
life. Nonetheless, I cannot help them. | ||||||||||||||
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA has never approved marijuana
for medicinal use; accordingly, doctors are prohibited from
prescribing it, and pharmacists may not dispense it. There is no way
for the terminally ill to obtain marijuana except from an illegal
source. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
This proposal sends a horribly mixed set of messages -- to law enforcement, to kids, to drug dealers, and to law-abiding residents of our state. Imagine what our world would look like if an officer pulls over someone and finds 2.5 ounces of marijuana on the front seat. The driver pulls out a "user card," so now the officer must stop his work. The officer would need separate probable cause to search for a gun or other drugs in the vehicle. How do we train officers for dealing with the crime that will occur around these dispensaries, when many of the people at these so-called "businesses" will have a "user card," creating legal immunity? | ||||||||||||||
Do we really think that the same people who might need this drug to
address their illness might not also need money and be willing to
sell their excess marijuana? Do we really think that those intending
to buy and sell marijuana to feed their own habits of crack and meth
won't find a way to steal it or buy it from the vulnerable? And what
about the violent gang members who make it their business to buy and
sell drugs? Last year there were more than two dozen murders in
Minneapolis where marijuana transactions were involved. | ||||||||||||||
Imagine a world where school teachers, bus drivers and custodians can legally possess marijuana, and the superintendent, parents, and school board don't know. Imagine a world where sickly grandparents and patients in nursing homes have marijuana in their drawers. Our children know how to find ways to buy alcohol and cigarettes illegally, and they know how to sneak liquor from cabinets. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(16) HANOVER WILL VOTE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Hanover -- A New Hampshire group pushing for changes to drug policy
has placed an article on the Town Meeting warrant asking voters to
allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. | ||||||||||||||
The article states that Hanover police officers "are urged" not to
arrest anybody over the age of 21 for marijuana possession if the
person can "produce written certification," signed by a doctor,
stating that the drug is for a therapeutic use. It would not apply
to "distribution, cultivation, or sale" of the drug, nor to driving
under the influence. | ||||||||||||||
Town Manager Julia Griffin said that while the article may provoke a
lively discussion, voters should understand that it would be dead on
arrival, even if approved. State law makes possession of marijuana
-- for medical or other purposes -- illegal, and the state's drug
policy in this case would supersede that of the town. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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(17) NEW STUDIES DESTROY THE LAST OBJECTION TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Anyone who advocates for medical marijuana sooner or later runs into
arguments about smoking: "No real medicine is smoked." "Smoking is
bad for the lungs; why would any doctor recommend something so
harmful?" It's a line of reasoning that medical marijuana opponents
have used to great effect in Congress, state legislatures, and
elsewhere. Indeed, the FDA's controversial 2006 statement opposing
medical marijuana was couched in repeated references to "smoked
marijuana." | ||||||||||||||
But new research demonstrates that all those fears of "smoked
marijuana" as medicine are 100 percent obsolete. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Back in 1999, the Institute of Medicine's White House-commissioned
report on medical marijuana conceded marijuana's medical benefits,
saying that what is needed is "a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid
drug delivery system." | ||||||||||||||
The new studies -- one from the University of California, San
Francisco, and the other from the University at Albany, State
University of New York -- confirm that such a system is here. It's
called vaporization, and has been familiar to medical marijuana
patients for many years, but few outside the medical marijuana
community know it exists. Unlike smoking, a vaporizer does not burn
the plant material, but heats it just to the point at which the THC
and the other cannabinoids vaporize. In the Volcano vaporizer tested
at UCSF, the vapors are collected in a detachable plastic bag with a
mouthpiece for inhalation. | ||||||||||||||
The UCSF study, conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams and colleagues and
just published online by the journal Clinical Pharmacology and
Therapeutics ( to appear in the journal's print edition on May )
compared a commercially available vaporizer called the Volcano to
smoking in 18 volunteers. The subjects inhaled three different
strengths of marijuana either as smoked cigarettes or vaporized
using the Volcano. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The two methods produced similar THC levels, with vaporization
producing somewhat higher levels, and were judged equally efficient
for administration of cannabinoids. The big difference was in
expired carbon monoxide. As expected, there was a sharp increase in
carbon monoxide levels after smoking, while "little if any" increase
was detected after vaporization. "This indicates little or no
exposure to gaseous combustion toxins," the researchers wrote.
"Vaporization of marijuana does not result in exposure to combustion
gases, and therefore is expected to be much safer than smoking
marijuana cigarettes." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
A second study, by Dr. Mitch Earleywine at the University at Albany,
State University of New York, involved an Internet survey of nearly
7,000 marijuana users. Participants were asked to identify their
primary method of using marijuana ( joints, pipe, vaporizer,
edibles, etc.) and were asked six questions about respiratory
symptoms. After adjusting for variables such as age and cigarette
use, vaporizer users were 60 percent less likely than smokers to
report respiratory symptoms such as cough, chest tightness or
phlegm. The effect of vaporizer use was more pronounced the larger
the amount of marijuana used. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
International News | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (18-21) (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The repeated failure of U.S. counter-narcotic (prohibition) efforts
in Afghanistan is highlighted in an excellent piece from UK
journalist Gwynne Dyer, carried in Canadian and New Zealand papers.
Dyer revealed a PSYOP snafu last week, when British forces broadcast
that "many people of Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy,"
only to later retract the message, promising to instead crack down.
Dyer concludes: "buying up the opium crop is about the only thing
that would give the [occupying armies] a chance of winning its
increasingly nasty little war." But don't expect U.S. drug warriors
to give up their profitable little drug wars anytime soon; that
might send the wrong message. | ||||||||||||||
Speaking of failure and foreign drug war adventures, U.S. drug czar
(ONDCP chief) John Walters was caught trying to spin the disaster
that Plan Colombia has become, reported the Houston Chronicle this
week. Even though the U.S. has burnt $4 billion dousing Colombian
campesinos and rainforests with glyphosate (plant poison), more
coca is grown there than ever, and cocaine is cheap and plentiful
back in the U.S.A. But don't expect the drug czar (read: propaganda
meister) to talk about that. "When the data show a brief rise in
cocaine prices, the drug czar holds a high-profile press
conference," noted one analyst. "But when the trend goes back down
again, the drug czar sends it in a letter to one senator." Notably,
even Charles Grassley, Republican co-chair of the Senate Caucus on
International Narcotics Control, was forced to admit the ONDCP "has
gotten quite good at spinning the numbers". | ||||||||||||||
What would you think if a minority right-wing government was
elected, and began handing over power to the police as fast as
possible? What would you think if that government then attempted to
jail increasingly petty drug "criminals" (under the guise of making
the streets safe), packing judicial panels and committees with
police and private prison profiteers? What would you think if the
same right-wing government stoked fears of rising violent crime
(when it was actually falling!) and then, further, urged police to
lobby for that party and that leader? We conclude with two articles
about Canada's right-wing Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who,
believe it or not, has done all of the above in his short tenure.
The first, from the Globe and Mail, revealed Harper's continual
carping about "very high" crime rates to be pure bunk, crime in
Canada has been falling for over a decade. And an OPED from the
Edmonton Journal this week castigated Harper for recruiting Canada's
police forces to lobby for the Tory party's agenda to profitably
jail more Canadians for "crime" (drugs). | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
(18) TALL POPPIES ANOTHER HEADACHE FOR THE US (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Respected people of Helmand," the radio message began. "The soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan National Army do not destroy poppy fields. They know that many people of Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy. The ISAF and the ANA do not want to stop people from earning their livelihoods." | ||||||||||||||
It was such a sensible message that it almost had to be a mistake,
and of course it was. The message, written by an ISAF officer and
broadcast in Helmand province last week on two local radio stations,
was immediately condemned by Afghan and American officials from
President Hamid Karzai on down. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Next year, of course, Afghan farmers would plant twice as many poppies so the costs of the operation would rise over time. | ||||||||||||||
And nothing will stop the flow of heroin to the West: even if poppy production were entirely suppressed in Afghanistan it would simply move somewhere else, like the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. | ||||||||||||||
But buying up the opium crop is about the only thing that would give the ISAF a chance of winning its increasingly nasty little war. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
(19) DOES WHITE HOUSE LETTER SHOW WAR ON COCAINE A FAILURE? (Top) | ||||||||||||||
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The street price of cocaine fell in | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Walters made the disclosure in a January letter to Sen. Charles
Grassley, the Republican co-chair of the Senate Caucus on
International Narcotics Control. The Washington Office on Latin
America, a lobby group, obtained the letter and made it available to
The Associated Press. | ||||||||||||||
Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, told the AP that Walters would not comment on
the letter, but Lemaitre described it as "an accurate reflection of
our agency's thoughts on the issue." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
U.S. officials have insisted that Plan Colombia is reducing the
quality and availability of cocaine in the United States, which gets
90 percent of its cocaine from Colombia. | ||||||||||||||
But Grassley, in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press, said
the letter is "all the proof that anybody needs" that the White
House drug office "has gotten quite good at spinning the numbers,
but cooking the books doesn't help our efforts to curb cocaine and
heroin production and consumption." | ||||||||||||||
The numbers cited by Walters contradict upbeat appraisals made by
U.S. officials as recently in March -- two months after Walters'
letter. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
"When the data show a brief rise in cocaine prices, the drug czar
holds a high-profile press conference," said Adam Isacson, an
analyst at the Washington-based Center for International Policy.
"But when the trend goes back down again, the drug czar sends it in
a letter to one senator. Why is that?" | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
(20) DOES HARPER'S MESSAGE MATCH THE STATISTICS? (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Recent Figures Seem to Contradict PM's Assertions About High Rates
and Trend Toward Serious Offences | ||||||||||||||
OTTAWA -- As the Conservatives set out to focus on crime this week in Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a kickoff speech on Thursday arguing that crime rates are high by historic standards and there is now a trend to more serious crime. | ||||||||||||||
But does the Prime Minister's message match the | ||||||||||||||
Reported crime rates have generally fallen over the past 15 years.
In his speech, however, Mr. Harper remarked on how crime has risen
since he was a boy in the 1960s. | ||||||||||||||
"Even if Canada's crime rates are low by international standards, they are still very high by our own historical standards," Mr. Harper told an awards dinner for the York Regional Police Force. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
There was a dramatic increase in the 1960s and 1970s in most of the Western world, which may be partly ascribed to a younger population because of the baby boomers, but it has never been adequately explained, University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob said. | ||||||||||||||
"They peaked in the early 1990s, and then drifted downward," he
said. | ||||||||||||||
That's especially true of the overall crime rate, which fell almost
25 per cent from 10,342 crime incidents per 100,000 people in 1991
to 7,761 in 2005, the last year reported by the Canadian Centre for
Justice Statistics. | ||||||||||||||
The rate of violent crime fell less dramatically, by 7.6 per cent,
since 1992. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
(21) HARPER WRONG TO ASK POLICE TO LOBBY (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Police officers across Canada should politely decline Prime Minister
Stephen Harper's invitation to become active political allies in his
quest to toughen an array of criminal laws. | ||||||||||||||
In a speech Thursday, Harper urged police officers to use their
considerable numbers and position in society to lobby opposition
parties. But such a call to arms, metaphorically speaking, is both
inappropriate and dangerous. It could fuel speculation that the
prime minister has far too cosy a relationship with the top brass of
the RCMP and other police forces. | ||||||||||||||
The Canadian public deserves to feel confident that their police forces keep to their assigned role as objective, apolitical peace officers who respect the rule and the spirit of the law. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ | ||||||||||||||
By Cathie From Canada | ||||||||||||||
http://cathiefromcanada.blogspot.com/2007/05/dont-believe-everything-you-read.html | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
GOOD COP, BAD DOCTOR | ||||||||||||||
William Hurwitz's conviction tells physicians to put drug control
above pain control. | ||||||||||||||
By Jacob Sullum | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
A NEW BOTTOM LINE FOR THE WAR ON DRUGS | ||||||||||||||
By Bill Piper | ||||||||||||||
Now that two of the Atlanta police officers responsible for killing
92-year-old Kathryn Johnston have pled guilty to manslaughter,
planting evidence and a cover-up, it is time for policymakers to
change the policies that led to her death. | ||||||||||||||
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-piper/a-new-bottom-line-for-the_b_47640.html | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
VAPORIZER UPDATE | ||||||||||||||
By Mitch Earleywine | ||||||||||||||
Opponents of medical cannabis continue to emphasize that a smoked
medicine must be a bad idea. I'm happy to say that recent work on
the vaporizer should put this argument to rest. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
POT USE DOESN'T EXACERBATE SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA, STUDY SAYS | ||||||||||||||
Marijuana use is not associated with heightened symptoms of
schizophrenia, according to data to be published in the journal
Schizophrenia Research. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Listen Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT, 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at
http://www.kpft.org/ | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
GLOBAL MARIJUANA MARCH | ||||||||||||||
Marijuana law reform activists in over 230 cities across the globe
will hold marches this weekend to protest the criminal prohibition of
cannabis. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
DENYING MARIJUANA FOR CANCER INCREASES SUFFERING | ||||||||||||||
By Harlan Miller | ||||||||||||||
The news hits you like a freight train as the doctor tells you that
you have been diagnosed with leukemia. | ||||||||||||||
He informs you the most effective treatment is to start chemotherapy
treatments immediately to try and combat the invading death that is
upon you. | ||||||||||||||
With the treatment will be terrible side effects, including extreme
nausea and crippling pain. | ||||||||||||||
He informs you that he can treat you with a synthetic drug that contains THC, the active chemical in marijuana, but it only has about a quarter of the effectiveness of natural marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
Even though he can't "recommend" it because it is currently illegal, he suggests "off the record" that if you know of anyone who has access to marijuana, it might be a good idea to get some. | ||||||||||||||
You are a law-abiding citizen, so you stick with the pharmaceutical
medication. | ||||||||||||||
As the treatments of chemo continue, your nausea is so severe you
can't eat anything with out violently throwing up. | ||||||||||||||
Your body is racked with severe pain to the point you have to be
heavily sedated. | ||||||||||||||
Your existence is reduced to a point where you do nothing but lay in
bed, slowly withering away without nutrition, the chemo killing you
as well as the cancer. | ||||||||||||||
You can't interact with your loving husband, your kids and your
closest friends. | ||||||||||||||
You die alone months before your physical body perishes. | ||||||||||||||
If only you could have had legal access to the one medically known
chemical that could have alleviated or greatly diminished these
horrible side effects. | ||||||||||||||
But instead some other human who is representing you decided you
were not deserving of this last bit of happiness. | ||||||||||||||
Why? | ||||||||||||||
Harlan Miller | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
STUPIDEST DRUG STORY OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||
By Jack Shafer | ||||||||||||||
Is Reuters Drinking Bong Water? | ||||||||||||||
Why don't the hacks who cover the illicit-drug beat just turn their
keyboards over to the drug-abuse industrial complex and let them write
the stories? | ||||||||||||||
This week, Reuters moved a story based on a government press release about marijuana potency issued by the Office of National Drug Control Policy--the office of "drug czar" John P. Walters. The press release and the Reuters story state that marijuana potency has reached its highest level since the government started monitoring it in the late 1970s. The average levels of THC in marijuana now stand at 8.5 percent. ( THC is the primary active ingredient in marijuana. ) This compares to a little less than the 4 percent measured in 1983. | ||||||||||||||
Headlined "U.S. Marijuana Even Stronger Than Before: Report" on
Reuters' Web site, the piece quotes nobody outside of government as it
channels drug warrior hysteria. | ||||||||||||||
As this drug-czar chart shows, the average percentage of THC in
cannabis samples analyzed by the ongoing Marijuana Potency Monitoring
Project at the University of Mississippi has increased over the years.
Assuming for just a moment that these findings accurately reflect
marijuana potency, I've got a question: So what? | ||||||||||||||
Back in 2002, when Czar Walters warned of the dangers of stronger pot
in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed, drug scholar Mark A.R. Kleiman of
UCLA responded with this item in his blog: | ||||||||||||||
"What matters isn't how strong the material is, but how intoxicated
the users get. And there's lots of evidence that marijuana users tend
to have a target level of intoxication and learn how to titrate dosage
to reach that level. Studies that ask marijuana users to roll a joint
have found that the average size has halved, from about half a gram to
about a quarter of a gram, and there's anecdotal evidence that sharing
a single joint has become more common." | ||||||||||||||
So much for the inherent dangers of superpotent weed. But how accurate
are the government's measurements of average THC? Writer Brian C.
Bennett notes that the number of drug samples tested in the government
study has varied widely, making meaningful comparisons of increased (
or decreased ) potency difficult. The collection of samples doesn't
appear to be as scientific as it does anecdotal. The czar's press
release asserts that two-thirds of the samples analyzed in the most
recent study came from law enforcement seizures and purchases, and the
rest from domestic eradications. | ||||||||||||||
Bennett writes that the kinds of marijuana seized and tested vary from
year to year, also. In 2000, sinsemilla, the extra-potent flowering
tops of the marijuana plant, constituted 3.66 percent of the tested
samples. In 2004, 18.39 percent of the samples were sinsemilla. Guess
which year produced a higher average measure of THC? In 2000, the
figure was about 5 percent. In 2004, about 7 percent. | ||||||||||||||
The Reuters article also conveys the views of a National Institute on
Drug Abuse official in reporting that "60 percent of teens receiving
treatment for drug abuse or dependence report marijuana as their
primary drug of abuse." Kleiman's blog puts the treatment numbers in
perspective by pointing to the University of Maryland's Center for
Substance Abuse Research, which reports that the increase in marijuana
treatment admission is driven by the increase in criminal justice
referrals. Marijuana arrests "have roughly doubled over the past
fifteen years," Kleiman writes in his blog, "with the vast bulk of
those arrests ... for simple possession. Other studies show that for
juveniles, most non-criminal-justice referrals reflect parental
pressure." | ||||||||||||||
None of this is to champion the use of marijuana. I just want
journalists to stop regurgitating whatever the drug warriors tell
them. Bennett catalogs some of the most ridiculous claims about
marijuana potency made by officials and published in the press during
the last 40 years. If you take these statements at face value, a
single joint rolled from today's marijuana should carry a bigger punch
than several tons of yesteryear's Mexican grass | ||||||||||||||
I've never smoked marijuana and I don't advocate its use. For compelling health reasons, kids should avoid it, and many seem to do just that. According to a Monitoring the Future study, the number of high-school pot smokers remains flat or down over the last decade. | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
- Mark Twain | ||||||||||||||
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