> Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:44:45 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, July 13, 2007, #507
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DrugSense Weekly, July 13, 2007
> #507
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Drug Case Could Backfire In Mexico
> (2) Column: The Police Aren't Experts On Drug
> Use
> (3) Drug Czar Gives Warning
> (4) Oped: The Paris Effect
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) OPED: Senator, You Used to Be a Pot Head -
> Now You're Talking Like A Narc
> (6) Column: Alaskan Candidate Has Most Sense
> About Drug War In Cities
> (7) Prescription Drug Abuse Soaring
> (8) Random Student Drug Tests Put In Doubt
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) Judges OK Warrantless Monitoring of Web Use
> (10) Female Inmates: Jammed Behind Bars?
> (11) 'Guru Of Ganja' Is Spared Prison Time
> (12) World's Drug Problem 'Under Control,' UN
> Says
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (13) Pot Group Sues To Make Feds Eat Words
> (14) Legalizing Pot Makes Sense
> (15) Pot Raids Funded By Grants
> (16) Judge Rejects Lawsuit Over Pot
>
> International News-
>
> (17) Rumors Rising Of Drug Cartel Ceasefire
> (18) Afghan Minister Resigns After Big Poppy
> Harvest
> (19) Council Kills Crack Pipe Program
> (20) Mayor Spends Office Time On Private Drug
> Plan
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> The President's Strained Mercy / By Jacob Sullum
> New Studies Expose Government Lies About Medical
> Pot
> Norml TV Ad Urges Viewers To "Discover A Whole
> New Outlook On Life"
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Collateral Sanctions Associated With Marijuana
> Offenses
> The SSDP Voice
> Dr. Lester Grinspoon Discusses Potent
> Cannabis And Un Report
> Barry Beyerstein: We Have Lost One Of The Best
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Write A Letter
> Create A Radio Or TV Ad And See It On The Air
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> Voluntary Student Drug Tests: Bad Idea /
> Robert Dougherty
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Bogarting Sanity In The Marijuana Wars /
> Kathleen Parker
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
> DrugSense needs your support to continue this
> newsletter and many
> other important projects - see how you can help at
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> THIS JUST IN
>
=======================================================================
>
> (1) DRUG CASE COULD BACKFIRE IN MEXICO
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007
> Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 The Dallas Morning News
> Author: Laurence Iliff, The Dallas Morning News
>
> Government Denies Claims That Seized Cash Was
> Tied to Ruling Party
>
> MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon's biggest
> bust in his biggest
> battle - against drug traffickers who have taken
> over large swaths of
> territory as they move narcotics to the U.S. -
> yielded no drugs and no
> cartel kingpins.
>
> Mexican and U.S. authorities seized more than $200
> million from Mr. Ye
> Gon's home in Mexico City in March. Authorities
> have called it the
> largest cash seizure in history. When federal police
> raided a house in
> an upscale Mexico City neighborhood, they found
> the largest stash of
> alleged drug money in the history of the fight,
> the government said.
> It came in at $205 million. Guns and equipment
> to make amphetamine
> pills were also seized, authorities said. Seven
> people, most household
> employees, were arrested.
>
> The huge cash reserve came from the illegal sale of
> a restricted cold
> medicine, pseudoephedrine, to narco labs that
> turn it into illegal
> methamphetamine, officials said.
>
> Zhenli Ye Gon, in New York last month, accused
> Mexico's ruling party
> of using him to hoard illegal money. Mr.
> Calderon's approval rating,
> boosted by the drug war in general, hit 65 percent.
>
> But recent video images of the home's owner - the
> Mexican nationalized
> Chinese native Zhenli Ye Gon - strolling New York
> streets and accusing
> the ruling party of using him to hoard its illegal
> money now threatens
> to taint the spectacular DEA-assisted seizure.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n832.a12.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) COLUMN: THE POLICE AREN'T EXPERTS ON DRUG USE
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jul 2007
> Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
> Author: Dan Gardner
>
> Well, thank goodness the Conservative government has
> silenced all talk
> of liberalizing Canada's marijuana laws. The way
> things were going,
> teenagers may have completely stopped smoking pot.
>
> What's that, you say? I have it backward?
>
> Everybody knows it's the namby-pamby approach that
> leads to more teens
> using drugs, while a hard line keeps kids on the
> straight and narrow.
> It's common sense. It's what the police say. And as
> we all know, what
> the police say is the gold standard of common sense.
>
> When the renowned social scientists of the Canadian
> Police Association
> testified to a Senate committee on illicit drugs,
> they claimed there
> is lots of evidence that liberal drug policies
> lead to greater drug
> use. "Legalization and permissiveness will increase
> drug use and abuse
> substantially," a spokesman told the senators.
>
> Everybody knows the police are the real experts on
> drugs, right? And
> the experts came out against decriminalization.
> Even talking about it
> sends a bad message to the kids, they argued.
> It says the drug is
> harmless. Acceptable. Keep it up, the police
> warned, and pretty soon
> your kid's high school will look like the set of
> a Cheech and Chong
> movie.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n838.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) DRUG CZAR GIVES WARNING
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jul 2007
> Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Record Searchlight
> Author: Dylan Darling
>
> Federal Official Calls Marijuana Growers
> Dangerous Terrorists
>
> The nation's top anti-drug official said people need
> to overcome their
> "reefer blindness" and see that illicit
> marijuana gardens are a
> terrorist threat to the public's health and safety,
> as well as to the
> environment.
>
> John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said
> the people who plant
> and tend the gardens are terrorists who
> wouldn't hesitate to help
> other terrorists get into the country with the
> aim of causing mass
> casualties. Walters made the comments at a
> Thursday press conference
> that provided an update on the "Operation
> Alesia" marijuana-
> eradication effort.
>
> "Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he
> said.
>
> After touring gardens raided this week in Shasta
> County, Walters said
> the officers who are destroying the gardens
> are performing hard,
> dangerous work in rough terrain. He said growers
> have been known to
> have weapons, including assault rifles.
>
> "These people are armed; they're dangerous," he
> said. He called them
> "violent criminal terrorists."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n837.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) OPED: THE PARIS EFFECT
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007
> Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 NOW Communications Inc.
> Author: Alan Young
>
> We Should Consider Jailing More Celebs If We
> Want To Develop Sound
> Justice Policies
>
> When Paris Hilton was languishing in jail reading
> her Bible, the Los
> Angeles Times set out to determine if her sentence
> was consistent with
> the punishments meted out to offenders in similar
> circumstances. To
> that end, the paper reviewed 2 million cases,
> found 1,500 that
> resembled Hilton's and concluded that in fact she
> was sentenced more
> harshly than most.
>
> The research undertaken by the Times is the type
> of methodical and
> comprehensive approach needed for the
> development of sound public
> policy, but it appears this empirical work will
> only be done when the
> rich and famous stumble into the clutches of
> the criminal justice
> industrial complex.
>
> This data deficiency struck me last month when
> alleged Versace Crew
> gang member Nicholas Ebanks was acquitted of
> attempted murder.
>
> Justice W. Brian Trafford of the Ontario Superior
> Court excluded all
> the incriminating evidence obtained through a
> wiretap investigation
> because the police showed a "reckless disregard
> for the truth" when
> they applied for the tap. Their application
> was riddled with
> misleading inaccuracies and speculative opinions
> asserted as proven
> facts.
>
> I often wonder how many other prosecutions of
> serious offences fall
> apart because public officials fail to respect the
> constitutional and
> procedural requirements for investigation. The
> sad truth is that no
> one really knows, because no one is keeping track.
>
> [snip]
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007
> Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 NOW Communications Inc.
> Author: Alan Young
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n832.a01.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> It was a relatively light week in national
> news, leading to the
> selection of our first story. A U.S. Senator
> and reliable drug
> warrior was outed by a former roommate as a
> college pot smoker.
> Interesting, but how many of our current national
> legislators didn't
> smoke pot in college? In other political news,
> at least one U.S.
> Presidential candidate has spoken out against
> prohibition, at least
> as it is practiced in urban areas. At the same
> time, yet another
> report shows drug abuse as a problem for which
> the drug war is no
> cure. And, some good news for students in
> Tennessee, who may get
> protection from random drug testing from the
> state's constitution.
>
> ===
>
> (5) OPED: SENATOR, YOU USED TO BE A POT HEAD -- NOW
> YOU'RE TALKING
> LIKE A NARC
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2007
> Source: AlterNet (US Web)
> Copyright: 2007 Independent Media Institute
> Author: Norman Kent
>
> Editor's Note: The following is a letter
> addressed to Minnesota
> Republican Senator Norm Coleman -- a strong
> advocate of the brutal
> federal drug laws on the books -- reminding him
> that he used to be a
> happy, safe, fun-loving pot smoker.
>
> My friend Norman,
>
> Years ago, in a lifetime far away, you did not
> oppose the
> legalization of marijuana. Years ago, in our
> dorm rooms at Hofstra
> University, you, me, Billy, your future
> brother-in-law, Ivan,
> Jonathan, Peter, Janet, Nancy and a wealth of
> other students smoked
> dope.
>
> Sure, we had to tape the doors shut, burn
> incense and open the
> windows, but we got high, and yet we grew up
> okay, without the help
> of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's
> advice.
>
> We grew up to become lawyers. Our other friends,
> as you go down the
> list, are doctors, professors, parents,
> political consultants and
> professionals. No one ever got cancer from
> smoking pot or diabetes
> from using a joint. And the days of our youth
> we look back fondly
> upon as years where we stood up, were counted and
> made a difference,
> from Earth Day in 1970 to helping bring down a
> president and end a
> war in Southeast Asia a few years later. We
> smoked pot when we took
> over Weller Hall to protest administrative
> abuses of students'
> rights. You smoked pot as you stood on the roof
> of the University
> Senate protesting faculty exclusivity. As the
> President of the
> Student Senate in 1969, you condemned the
> raid by Nassau County
> police on our dormitories, busting scores of
> students for pot
> possession.
>
> You never said then that pot was dangerous. What
> was scary then, and
> is as frightening now, is when national
> leaders become voices of
> hypocrisy, harbingers of the status quo, and
> protect their own
> position instead of the public good. Welcome to
> the crowd of those
> who have become a likeness of which they
> despised. Welcome to the
> mindless myriad of legislators who gather in
> cocktail lounges to
> manhandle their martinis while passing laws
> against drunk driving.
>
> We have seen more people die last year from
> spinach then pot. We
> have endured generations of drug addicts
> overdosing on a multitude
> of drugs, from heroin to crystal
> methamphetamine. In your public
> life, as an attorney general, mayor and United
> States senator, you
> have been in the forefront of speaking out
> against abuses which are
> harmful. You have been a noble and honorable
> public servant. How
> about not being such a dope on dope?
>
> How about admitting that if the Rockefeller drug
> laws were applied
> to Norman Bruce Coleman on Long Island in 1968,
> or to me, or to our
> friends, and fellow students, you, I and others
> we knew and loved
> might just be getting out of jail now? How
> about recognizing that
> for too long too many have been wrongly arrested,
> unjustly
> prosecuted and illegally incarcerated for
> unconscionable periods of
> time?
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n801/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) COLUMN: ALASKAN CANDIDATE HAS MOST SENSE ABOUT
> DRUG WAR IN
> CITIES
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2007
> Source: Daily Southtown (Tinley Park, IL)
> Copyright: 2007 Daily Southtown
> Author: DeWayne Wickham, Guest columnist
>
> Of the eight Democrats vying for their party's
> presidential
> nomination, I think it's fair to say former
> Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel
> is the longest of the long shots.
>
> In presidential preference polls, support for
> him hovers around 1
> percent. When it comes to fundraising, his
> campaign coffers are
> nearly bare. So it's not surprising journalists
> tend to treat Gravel
> as a gadfly.
>
> And that's what I thought of him late last month
> when I sat across
> from the Democratic presidential candidates on
> the stage of Howard
> University's Crampton Auditorium. I was one of the
> three journalists
> who got to question the full field of Democratic
> contenders during a
> PBS presidential forum hosted by Tavis Smiley.
>
> The 90-minute, nationally televised program was
> billed as a chance
> for the candidates to "address issues of concern
> to black America."
>
> When the eight Democrats came on stage, they
> were introduced by
> Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the only sitting
> black governor --
> and only the second black governor ever.
>
> Virtually everyone was there to see and hear
> the frontrunners for
> the Democratic nomination -- New York Sen.
> Hillary Clinton and
> Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. In terms of polling
> numbers and money
> raised, they are light-years ahead of Gravel.
>
> But when the forum ended, it was what Gravel said
> that I found most
> intriguing.
>
> When journalist Michel Martin of NPR asked the
> candidates what they
> would do about the "scourge" of HIV/AIDS
> infection among black
> teenagers, Gravel's answer -- though not on point --
> hit an
> important mark.
>
> "The scourge of our present society, particularly in
> the
> African-American community, is the war on
> drugs," Gravel said in
> response to a question about the high rate of
> HIV/AIDS infections
> among black teenagers.
>
> Then he said this about the other Democrats on
> the stage: "If they
> really want to do something about the inner
> cities, if they really
> want to do something about what's happening to
> the health of the
> African-American community, it's time to end
> this war. ... All it
> does is create criminals out of people who
> are not criminals."
>
> His words drew applause from the mostly black
> audience, but not even
> a nod of agreement from the other Democrats
> on stage with him.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n810/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE SOARING
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2007
> Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
> Author: Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press
>
> CHICAGO -- Drug abuse experts say the arrest
> of Al Gore's son
> underscores the growing problem of prescription
> drug abuse among
> America's youth. College students use the
> stimulant Adderall, an
> attention-deficit drug, to get a speedy high or
> pull all-nighters.
>
> The other drugs police say they found in Al Gore
> III's possession --
> marijuana, Xanax, Valium and Vicodin -- also are
> campus favorites,
> experts say.
>
> "Al Gore's son is just like everyone else's," said
> Dr. Donald Misch,
> director of health services at Northwestern
> University in Evanston.
> "The only thing missing was the No. 1 abused drug,
> which is
> alcohol."
>
> Al Gore III's arrest may raise awareness among
> parents, Misch said.
>
> "This is an opportunity for people to understand
> this is happening
> in your household," he said. "These are your
> kids. The drug dealers
> they're going to are their doctors, their parents
> and their
> friends."
>
> Students commonly pair pills with beer and
> cigarettes, experts say.
> They trade tips about the effects of prescription
> drugs on
> networking sites like Facebook and trade pills
> they've stolen from
> home medicine cabinets, ordered on the
> Internet or taken from
> friends with legitimate prescriptions.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n806/a11.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) RANDOM STUDENT DRUG TESTS PUT IN DOUBT
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2007
> Source: Tennessean, The (Nashville, TN)
> Copyright: 2007 The Tennessean
> Author: Jaime Sarrio, Staff Writer
>
> Opinion May Affect Midstate Schools
>
> A new state attorney general's opinion could
> jeopardize random
> drug-testing programs at several Midstate high
> schools, including
> those in Wilson County.
>
> The opinion, issued this week, states that Tennessee
> school
> districts cannot randomly test students for drugs
> just because they
> participate in extracurricular activities.
> Despite two decisions by
> the U.S. Supreme Court that random drug testing
> does not violate a
> student's rights, state law provides more
> protection than the U.S.
> Constitution against search and seizure.
>
> A survey by The Tennessean last fall found
> that of the 137 high
> schools in the Tennessee Secondary School
> Athletic Association, 40
> have drug-testing policies. More districts are
> exploring the idea of
> random drug tests for athletes and club
> participants.
>
> Grant Now in Question
>
> "I'm disappointed," said Ralph Ringstaff, a
> school board member in
> Williamson County, where school officials
> applied for a $560,000
> federal grant to launch a random drug-testing
> program this fall.
> "Anything to keep young kids from using drugs
> I'm in support of."
>
> No one available Thursday knew the grant's status.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n812/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-12)
>
> The drug war has led to yet another
> diminished expectation of
> privacy, as a judged ruled that federal agents
> don't need a warrant
> to monitor a suspect's computer use. In
> California, a report from a
> women's prison shows the facility packed to
> twice its capacity,
> thanks in large part to the drug war. Also last
> week, a prominent
> activist gets no prison time in a medical
> marijuana case, but still
> plans to appeal; and despite everything else you
> read each week in
> this section of the newsletter and others, the
> drug problem is under
> control, at least according to the United Nations.
>
> ===
>
> (9) JUDGES OK WARRANTLESS MONITORING OF WEB USE
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2007
> Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
> Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> Privacy Rules Don't Apply to Internet Messages,
> Court Says
>
> Federal agents do not need a search warrant to
> monitor a suspect's
> computer use and determine the e-mail addresses
> and Web pages the
> suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court
> ruled Friday.
>
> In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth
> U.S. Circuit Court
> of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer
> surveillance to the
> "pen register" devices that officers use to
> pinpoint the phone
> numbers a suspect dials, without listening to
> the phone calls
> themselves.
>
> The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen
> registers in 1979,
> saying callers have no right to conceal from
> the government the
> numbers they communicate electronically to the
> phone companies that
> carry their calls.
>
> Federal law requires court approval for a pen
> register. But because
> it is not considered a search, authorities do
> not need a search
> warrant, which would require them to show that
> the surveillance is
> likely to produce evidence of a crime.
>
> They also do not need a wiretap order, which
> would require them to
> show that less intrusive methods of
> surveillance have failed or
> would be futile.
>
> In Friday's ruling, the court said computer
> users should know that
> they lose privacy protections with e-mail and
> Web site addresses
> when they are communicated to the company whose
> equipment carries
> the messages.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n810/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) FEMALE INMATES: JAMMED BEHIND BARS?
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2007
> Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Sacramento Bee
> Author: E. J. Schultz
>
> Chowchilla Lockups Are at More Than Double Their
> Capacity, Provoking
> Health Concerns
>
> State corrections officials have crammed
> hundreds of inmates into
> two already overstuffed women's prisons in
> Chowchilla -- an influx
> that the state's prison medical czar says could
> cause health care
> services to "collapse entirely" in one of the
> prisons.
>
> By moving about 600 inmates from Southern
> California, prison
> officials have worsened crowding in the
> state's three all-female
> prisons. And with most of the attention on the
> state's jampacked
> male prisons, not much relief is in sight.
>
> "Because of the sheer numbers of men, women have
> just become what we
> call 'correctional afterthoughts,' " said Barbara
> Owen, a
> criminology professor at California State
> University, Fresno, and a
> national expert on women's prisons.
>
> Populations at the Valley State Prison for
> Women and the Central
> California Women's Facility have swelled by 8
> percent, leaving both
> prisons housing more than twice as many
> inmates as they were
> designed to hold.
>
> About 400 women are sleeping in prison
> gymnasiums, squeezed side by
> side in bunk beds. At Valley State, the
> increasing demand for
> medical care forced officials to shut down a
> preventive care clinic
> to focus on urgent aid.
>
> [snip]
>
> Owen and other experts say the spike is due to
> stiffer penalties for
> drug crimes.
>
> Nearly 65 percent of female inmates are
> incarcerated for nonviolent
> drug or property crimes, compared with about
> 40 percent of male
> inmates, according to a 2004 study by the Little
> Hoover Commission.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues: URL:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n821/a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) 'GURU OF GANJA' IS SPARED PRISON TIME
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jul 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
>
> Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja,"
> will get no prison
> time despite a conviction for growing and
> distributing hundreds of
> marijuana plants, a federal judge ruled Friday.
>
> A jury convicted Rosenthal, 63, in May of
> three cultivation and
> conspiracy charges after U.S. District Court
> Judge Charles Breyer
> prohibited Rosenthal's lawyers from telling the
> jury that he was
> working for a pot club sanctioned by the city of
> Oakland.
>
> On Friday, Breyer said a one-day prison
> sentence was punishment
> enough for Rosenthal, who once wrote the "Ask
> Ed" column for High
> Times magazine and has written books with titles
> including "The Big
> Book of Buds" and "Ask Ed: Marijuana Law.
> Don't Get Busted."
>
> Nonetheless, Rosenthal said he planned to appeal
> his conviction. "I
> should not remain a felon," he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n809/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) WORLD'S DRUG PROBLEM 'UNDER CONTROL,' UN SAYS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jul 2007
> Source: Miami Herald (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
> Author: Frank Greve
>
> New Figures Point To Success In the Global War
> on Drugs, Thanks to
> Worldwide Efforts to Step Up Seizures and
> Disrupt Production
>
> WASHINGTON -- One war appears to be going well for
> the United States
> and its allies these days: the drug war.
>
> The availability of all major illegal drugs --
> except Afghan heroin
> -- is flat or down, and drug seizures are up
> sharply, according to
> newly released global figures.
>
> No one's saying the world's drug problem is
> solved, and the data on
> cocaine production in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia
> show little overall
> change. But one top analyst said the problem
> appears to be contained
> for now.
>
> "We seem to have reached a point where the world
> drug situation has
> stabilized and been brought under control,"
> Antonio Maria Costa,
> executive director of the Vienna-based U.N.
> Office on Drugs and
> Crime, wrote in an analysis of world drug trends
> released last week.
>
> Some experts say Costa is reading too much into
> small fluctuations
> in short-term supply and ignoring grim long-term
> forecasts.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n815/a09.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (13-16)
>
> Americans for Safe Access continues its
> efforts to require the
> federal government to be honest about medicinal
> marijuana in a case
> which, if successful, could help force the
> feds to stop its lies
> about medical and scientific facts.
>
> This week in Canada both the national newspapers,
> the Globe and Mail
> and the National Post, called for
> decriminalization of marijuana.
>
> A California article indicates that many
> government agencies are
> involved in removing marijuana grows, and, of
> course, telling tall
> stories about the value of the marijuana
> destroyed. The entire
> underground market for marijuana benefits from
> the government's
> apparent price support plan. And a judge's
> decision about Santa
> Barbara's Measure P speaks for itself.
>
> In last week's analysis comments I wrote,
> "Hidden deep in the
> proposed initiative is a requirement that only
> pills containing a
> synthetic form of THC be authorized for use,
> as if the 59 other
> known medically active chemicals in marijuana
> did not exist."
> Canadian expert Philippe Lucas, recently returned
> from a conference
> of researchers, tells me that over 500
> medically active chemicals
> have now been identified in marijuana. I stand
> corrected.
>
> ===
>
> (13) POT GROUP SUES TO MAKE FEDS EAT WORDS
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007
> Source: Recorder, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.
> Author: Matthew Hirsch, The Recorder
>
> Medical marijuana advocates and federal
> prosecutors have never
> agreed on whether the drug has medical value.
>
> Now, an Oakland, Calif.-based advocacy group
> wants a court order
> that would force the feds to see it their way.
>
> Americans for Safe Access is trying to use a
> little-known
> Clinton-era law to make federal agencies take
> back statements about
> marijuana -- for example, that pot has "no
> currently accepted
> medical use." The group says this "misinformation"
> costs it time and
> money to refute.
>
> But before the nonprofit can put any experts on
> the witness stand,
> it has to overcome a challenge to its standing to
> sue. The
> government's motion to dismiss the case is
> scheduled to be heard
> today before U.S. District Judge William Alsup
> of the Northern
> District of California.
>
> ASA sued in February under the Information
> Quality Act. That law
> calls on federal agencies to maximize the
> "quality, objectivity,
> utility and integrity" of information they send
> out to the public,
> and it includes an administrative process for
> people who seek to
> correct inaccuracies.
>
> In 2001 the Drug Enforcement Administration
> published a statement in
> the Federal Register saying marijuana has no
> currently accepted
> medical use in the United States.
>
> ASA, claiming that the government's position on
> medical marijuana is
> "patently false," petitioned the Department of
> Health and Human
> Services, so far unsuccessfully, to correct the
> statements in its
> analysis.
>
> [snip]
>
> In a brief by its lawyer, Stanford law professor
> Alan Morrison, ASA
> argues that it can satisfy the standing
> requirements by alleging
> that the government's statements increased the
> resources ASA had to
> spend on its work.
>
> According to Morrison, the group has spent more
> than $100,000 and
> hundreds of hours of staff time combating the
> government's position.
> A favorable decision in court would reduce the
> need to spend that
> money, he added. Even though a favorable ruling
> wouldn't legalize
> marijuana, he said it could encourage people to
> lobby Congress to
> reform the drug laws.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n832/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (14) LEGALIZING POT MAKES SENSE
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2007
> Source: National Post (Canada)
> Copyright: 2007 Southam Inc.
>
> [snip]
>
> The latest report on trends in international
> drug use from the UN
> Office of Drugs and Crime reveals that Canada leads
> the
> industrialized world in cannabis consumption.
>
> Worldwide, about 3.8% of members of the human
> species between the
> ages of 15 and 64 are thought to have used
> marijuana or hashish at
> least once during 2005. In Asia the figure is
> just 1.9%; in Europe,
> 5.6%; in the United States, a sobering 12.6%;
> but in Canada, it
> reaches a remarkable 16.8%, or more than one
> in six adults under
> pension age. Our proportion of pot users is
> virtually double that of
> England (8.7%) or France (8.6%) and, in a
> truly eyebrow-raising
> development, is nearly triple that of the
> famously libertine
> Netherlands (6.1%), a rather remarkable signal
> that cannabis would
> not necessarily become ubiquitous if it became
> available legally at
> the corner coffee shop. We apparently even have
> more THC tokers than
> Jamaica (10.1%). Only a handful of countries
> in Africa and the
> Pacific can rival us in affection for
> hemp-based smokeables.
>
> Is this a cause for concern? For those opposed to
> marijuana usage as
> a matter of principle, the report offers some
> encouraging news. The
> numbers provided to the UN by our police
> agencies suggest that
> overall marijuana and hashish production
> stabilized and possibly
> even declined in 2005, reflecting global trends,
> after a period of
> ferocious growth that saw the harvest double
> between 2000 and 2004.
> Trafficking to the United States is also down,
> and youth use within
> Canada seems to be declining rather quickly; the
> Centre for
> Addiction and Mental Health's measurements of
> cannabis use among
> junior-high and high-school students in Ontario
> show a 19% falloff
> in the proportion of onetime users between 2003
> and 2005. It may be
> that we have reached a state of relatively
> comfortable equilibrium
> among law enforcement, cultural attitudes
> towards marijuana,
> protection of our children and the pure
> aggregate black-market
> demand for the product.
>
> What's really remarkable about Canada's status as
> a cannabis capital
> is that if you were to set out looking for reasons
> to worry about it
> - -- reasons that do not amount to disliking it
> for its own sake --
> you would have an awfully hard time finding
> them. If Canada had
> rates of alcohol consumption that were more
> than four times the
> world average, the fact would be written in
> fire in dozens of
> different tables of medical and social
> statistics. You could tell
> from our auto-accident rates, from our rates
> of cirrhosis of the
> liver or even from family violence statistics,
> that we had a
> propensity for a very dangerous and nasty
> substance. If Canada had
> four times as many tobacco smokers as the average
> country, you could
> easily extract the news and quantify it to two
> decimal places from
> our statistics on cancer and cardiac health, or
> indeed from overall
> life-expectancy figures.
>
> But where is the health "footprint" of our love
> for the weed? Maybe
> it's hidden in our labour productivity
> statistics; it certainly
> doesn't seem to have any impact on our life
> expectancy or our other
> measurable health outcomes. Despite dauntingly
> high ostensible rates
> of use, and despite the hazards of adulteration
> and intensification
> that are attendant upon cannabis's illegal
> status, we don't seem to
> be doing ourselves any major harm from a long
> experiment in
> comparative weed tolerance.
>
> This is a strong datum in favour of the view
> that marijuana is
> fundamentally innocuous compared with the
> "historical" drugs of
> abuse that enjoy broad social and legal
> acceptance, and a blow to
> those who contend that it is a "gateway" to
> harder drugs, since
> there is nothing in the UN data on those drugs
> to suggest that we
> are passing through that gate in particularly
> large numbers. That
> would seem to leave very little, aside from the
> omnipresent trade
> and travel considerations that come from being
> a neighbour of the
> U.S., to stand logically in the way of
> decriminalization.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n830/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) POT RAIDS FUNDED BY GRANTS
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2007
> Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Record Searchlight
> Author: Dylan Darling
>
> Although its sheriff's office is leading a
> 17-agency blitz on
> illegal marijuana gardens in Shasta County, funds
> for the operation
> aren't coming from the county.
>
> Grants totaling $180,000 from the U.S. Drug
> Enforcement
> Administration and other agencies are paying
> expenses, including
> office supplies, deputy overtime, gasoline, food,
> ice and water for
> "Operation Alesia," Sheriff Tom Bosenko said
> Tuesday.
>
> "This is money we received from state and
> federal grants for
> marijuana eradication," he said.
>
> Also leading the charge on the marijuana gardens
> every day for the
> next two weeks are the U.S. Forest Service and
> California National
> Guard, but their spokesmen said they don't
> know how much will be
> spent on the operation.
>
> The other agencies involved are spending money
> they normally have
> earmarked for marijuana eradication on the
> operation, said Mike
> Odle, spokesman for the Shasta-Trinity National
> Forest.
>
> He said there wasn't one grant to cover the
> entire operation.
> Rather, the different agencies are providing
> resources for the
> effort.
>
> Along with pulling marijuana plants tucked into
> corners of publicly
> managed land in Shasta County, crews will tear
> out irrigation lines
> and remove fertilizers and pesticides used by
> pot growers, Odle
> said.
>
> In announcing the raid Monday, Bosenko quoted
> a National Park
> Service study that estimated restoration of a
> 1-acre marijuana
> garden to its natural state costs $11,000, but
> Odle said work during
> the operation shouldn't cost that much.
>
> He said the crews will be "reclaiming" the land,
> not "restoring" it.
> The difference is that there won't be work to
> smooth out terracing
> or planting native vegetation. He estimated the
> work will cost about
> $5,500 per acre.
>
> In the past, irrigation lines, small dams and
> supplies helpful to
> growers often would be left behind because the focus
> was on
> eradication, Odle said. This led to gardens
> popping up in the same
> spots each year.
>
> With Operation Alesia, officials hope to stop
> the gardens from
> sprouting anew.
>
> [snip]
>
> While the sheriff's office tagged the street
> value of the 8,000
> plants at $35 million -- saying each plant could
> produce a pound of
> processed pot worth $4,000 -- a marijuana
> legalization advocate said
> the numbers seemed inflated.
>
> Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana
> Policy Project, said
> plants usually produce about 3 to 5 ounces. While
> he wasn't sure how
> much an ounce of marijuana was selling for on the
> street in
> California, another advocate last year said an
> ounce goes for about
> $250. At that price, a pot plant would be worth
> from $750 to $1,250.
>
> He said the operation could have the unintended
> results of driving
> the price of marijuana up and driving growers
> deeper into the woods
> where it would be more expensive to try to stop
> their work.
>
> "This doesn't work," he said.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n832/a11.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) JUDGE REJECTS LAWSUIT OVER POT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writer
>
> A Santa Barbara judge has upheld a city
> ordinance requiring police
> to make enforcement of marijuana laws their
> lowest crime-fighting
> priority.
>
> Although Measure P, which was approved by 65% of
> the city's voters
> last November, does not decriminalize
> marijuana, it will further
> reduce the already infrequent arrests of
> adults possessing small
> amounts of marijuana.
>
> The ordinance requires officers to fill out
> extra paperwork on
> marijuana offenses and establishes a
> seven-member commission to
> monitor the department's compliance with the law.
>
> The law is similar to those passed in at least
> 10 other cities in
> the U.S., including Oakland, San Francisco, Santa
> Cruz, Santa Monica
> and West Hollywood.
>
> After Measure P passed, the city of Santa
> Barbara sued one of its
> chief proponents, local activist Heather Poet,
> claiming that the
> measure she backed was unconstitutional. But on
> Tuesday, Superior
> Court Judge Thomas P. Anderle threw out the city's
> suit, ruling that
> Poet had done nothing wrong and that the
> measure was "a proper
> legislative enactment."
>
> Santa Barbara City Atty. Stephen Wiley said he was
> uncertain whether
> the City Council would appeal the ruling. Some
> city officials and
> the Santa Barbara Police Department opposed
> Measure P, saying it was
> a burden on officers and created a needless layer of
> city
> bureaucracy.
>
> The city's lawsuit was the first substantive legal
> challenge to such
> laws, according to Adam Wolf, an ACLU attorney who
> represented Poet.
>
> "It's a resounding victory for free speech
> and the democratic
> process," Wolf said. "It affirms the fact that
> communities across
> America can tell their local police departments
> that they should be
> focusing on serious crime, not on low-level drug
> offenses."
>
> The judge rejected the city's claim that state and
> federal drug laws
> made the local measure invalid. "Police
> officers can still arrest
> those who violate drug possession laws in their
> presence," Anderle
> wrote in his ruling. "The voters have simply
> instructed them that
> they have higher priority work to do."
>
> After Poet was sued, she countersued, citing a
> state law intended to
> quash litigation known as strategic lawsuits against
> public
> participation, or SLAPPs. The law is intended to
> stop large
> organizations from silencing critics by filing
> lawsuits of
> questionable merit.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n830/a09.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (17-20)
>
> Drug cartels in Mexico have reached a "cease
> fire" agreement,
> according to an unnamed "U.S. federal law
> enforcer", reported the
> San Antonio Express-News this week. According to
> the
> Spanish-language Proceso newspaper, "leaders
> from the Gulf and
> Sinaloa cartels met in early June in the border
> state of
> Tamaulipas," to hammer out details of the
> cease-fire. Around 1,400
> people have died "at the hand of organized
> criminals" according to
> San Antonio Express-News, a pace which would top
> the previous record
> of nearly 2,000 killed last year.
>
> Reports keep coming in: this year's opium poppy
> crop in Afghanistan
> looks like it is the biggest ever. On the
> heels of this news,
> Afghanistan's counternarcotics minister,
> Habibullah Qaderi,
> resigned, clearing the way for U.S.-sponsored
> aerial spraying of
> herbicides. Qaderi and U.S.-installed Afghan
> president Hamid Karzai
> had opposed the idea of aerial spraying, but are
> expected to cave in
> the face of increasing U.S. pressure. Opium
> production in the arid
> land-locked nation had all but been eliminated
> under the Taliban,
> only to rebound to record levels since the
> U.S.-led coalition
> invaded the country.
>
> In a surprise vote, Ottawa, Canada city councilor
> Rick Chiarelli was
> able to halt the harm-reduction measure of the
> distribution of clean
> crack pipes. "We just voted to basically kill
> six to 12 people a
> year," said councilor Clive Douce, who had
> supported the
> harm-reduction effort in the city. Dr. David
> Salisbury, chief
> medical officer who administered the sterile
> smoking kit
> harm-reduction program that was cut, "noted the
> hospital bill for a
> patient who develops AIDS is $600,000."
> Although Councilor Rick
> Chiarelli claimed "absolutely no evidence" any
> harm was ever reduced
> to crack addicts, a University of Ottawa study
> last year found the
> sterile smoking kits had indeed "reduced the
> sharing of drug
> paraphernalia."
>
> And in Vancouver, Canada, Mayor Sam Sullivan
> caught the attention of
> media last week when the Vancouver Courier
> used a Freedom of
> Information request to learn that the Mayor "met
> 18 times over five
> weeks to discuss CAST." CAST (Chronic
> Addiction Substitution
> Treatment) is the mayor's "privately based
> plan to treat drug
> addicts with prescription medication," a plan
> which has attracted
> criticism as deferring to the federal Conservative
> party. Noted COPE
> Councilor David Cadman: "The public would be
> much better served if
> the mayor focused on the Four Pillars drug
> strategy and stopped
> kowtowing to the drug policy views of the
> federal Conservatives."
>
> ===
>
> (17) RUMORS RISING OF DRUG CARTEL CEASEFIRE
>
> Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
> Pubdate: Tue, 10 Jul 2007
> Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
> Author: Sean Mattson, Express-News Mexico
> Correspondent
>
> MONTERREY, Mexico -- The bullets still fly and the
> bodies pile up in
> disputed cartel turf in Mexico.
>
> But a sudden downturn in narco-executions near
> the Texas border is
> fueling speculation in recent weeks that
> Mexico's warring drug
> cartels have agreed to a truce.
>
> Mexican officials deny there was a "narco
> summit," but a U.S.
> federal law enforcer familiar with cartel
> movements said capos from
> the Gulf and Sinaloa drug-trafficking
> syndicates have agreed to
> peacefully divide some northeastern and central
> Mexican states.
>
> "That's why you don't see as much chaos,"
> said the official, on
> condition of anonymity.
>
> Compared to May, when police regularly were
> targeted and nationwide
> body counts topped 90 per week, Mexico's drug
> war has cooled off.
>
> [snip]
>
> While remarkably efficient at getting narcotics to
> their
> multibillion-dollar American market, Mexico's
> cartels struggle with
> internal rifts as well as enemy gangs, experts said.
>
> "For that simple fact, it's very difficult to
> think of a meeting in
> the style of 'The Godfather,'" said Tirado,
> who doubts talk of a
> cartel truce.
>
> Rumored details of the ceasefire between
> cartels are sketchy and
> differ depending on the source.
>
> News magazine Proceso reported last week that
> leaders from the Gulf
> and Sinaloa cartels met in early June in the
> border state of
> Tamaulipas.
>
> The U.S. law enforcer said a series of meetings
> occurred in central
> Zacatecas state and Mexico City, where they agreed
> to share
> Michoacan state, in western Mexico, and the
> border state of Nuevo
> Leon, where Monterrey is the capital.
>
> The Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel,
> will retain control
> over the border states of Tamaulipas and Coahuila,
> said the
> official, and Sinaloa will have Chihuahua,
> Sonora and Durango.
>
> [snip]
>
> But military operations have interrupted cartel
> activity. Scaling
> back the violence might be the most pragmatic way
> to avoid too much
> attention from authorities, said Javier Oliva, a
> security expert at
> the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
>
> "Drug trafficking needs social peace," he said. "If
> there's
> violence, there's more vigilance (from
> authorities)."
>
> Edgardo Buscaglia, an expert on international
> organized crime and
> law at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
> University, said talk of
> an alleged truce was not surprising.
>
> "It's very compatible with what happens
> elsewhere," he said, adding
> that there will always be some violence "no matter
> how many meetings
> they have."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n827.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (18) AFGHAN MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER BIG POPPY HARVEST
>
> Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
> Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Charlotte Observer
> Author: Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
>
> Last Year's Crop Accounted For 90% Of World's Heroin
> Supply
>
> KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's
> counternarcotics minister has
> resigned only weeks after Afghan laborers
> finished cultivating an
> opium poppy crop that could exceed last year's
> record haul.
>
> Habibullah Qaderi's resignation, confirmed by a
> deputy minister
> Sunday, came as U.S. and Afghan officials debate
> privately whether
> to use herbicides to reduce the drug problem.
>
> [snip]
>
> Qaderi headed the ministry since December 2004
> and survived several
> Cabinet shuffles, but Afghanistan's poppy crop
> has ballooned under
> his watch and the country's production last year
> accounted for more
> than 90 percent of the world's heroin supply.
> Western and U.N.
> officials have said this year's harvest could
> equal or exceed last
> year's record crop. The U.S. has proposed
> spraying the crops with
> herbicide as it does with coca plants in Colombia,
> where the current
> U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood,
> previously served.
> Britain, whose troops are in charge of Helmand
> province, the world's
> largest poppy growing region, has said it
> would support limited
> spraying.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n821.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (19) COUNCIL KILLS CRACK PIPE PROGRAM
>
> Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
> Pubdate: Thu, 12 Jul 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
> Author: Katie Daubs, With files from Jake Rupert
>
> Surprise Move Called A Blow For Public Health In
> Ottawa
>
> Council decided yesterday to end the city's
> controversial crack pipe
> program -- a move heralded as a great day for
> tourism, but a sad day
> for public health.
>
> "We just voted to basically kill six to 12
> people a year," said
> Councillor Clive Doucet. He was referring to the
> estimated number of
> people who, because of the program, did not
> contract communicable
> diseases from sharing infected drug paraphernalia.
>
> The program's intent, said chief medical officer Dr.
> David
> Salisbury, was not to prevent drug use, but to
> prevent the spread of
> diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C.
>
> [snip]
>
> "If we cannot control the HIV epidemic, it will
> affect all of us.
> Whether in the pocketbook, or with the ones
> we lose," he said.
>
> Dr. Salisbury noted the hospital bill for a
> patient who develops
> AIDS is $600,000. The crack pipe program cost
> the city $7,500 a
> year.
>
> After the motion carried, a visibly upset Dr.
> Salisbury said the
> city could see a rise in incidences of HIV and
> Hepatitis C.
>
> Councillor Rick Chiarelli, who introduced the
> surprise motion to end
> the program, said there was "absolutely no
> evidence" the program had
> reduced communicable diseases.
>
> But last year, a University of Ottawa study
> said it radically
> reduced the sharing of drug paraphernalia,
> although it increased
> crack smoking.
>
> University of Ottawa epidemiologist Lynne
> Leonard said despite the
> increase in crack use, there was "significant
> scientific evidence"
> that showed the program reduced the harm
> associated with crack
> smoking.
>
> Originally, council was supposed to only decide
> yesterday whether to
> review the program.
>
> [snip]
>
> Earlier, the group of about 25 residents marched
> to City Hall with
> bags of used crack pipes they'd picked up on their
> front lawns. They
> clashed with a small group from the AIDS
> Committee of Ottawa who
> yelled "Crack kits save lives." As a shouting
> match ensued, Mayor
> Larry O'Brien arrived, and stood with used crack
> pipes sprinkled at
> his feet. He had to ask his staff for protection
> from the boisterous
> protesters.
>
> [snip]
>
> In a press release, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
> Network called the
> decision to cancel the program "irresponsible"
> and "shortsighted."
> The group from Sandy Hill stood on the sidelines
> and applauded the
> mayor. They saw things differently. "It's a
> great day for Ottawa,"
> said member Sabina Sauter. "It's a great day for
> tourism."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n833.a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) MAYOR SPENDS OFFICE TIME ON PRIVATE DRUG PLAN
>
> Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
> Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Vancouver Courier
> Author: Mike Howell
>
> According to his calendar, Sullivan met 18 times
> over five weeks to
> discuss CAST
>
> Mayor Sam Sullivan spent more time on his
> privately based plan to
> treat drug addicts with prescription medication
> than any other city
> issue in January and February.
>
> Sullivan met 18 times with doctors, business
> people and others
> between Jan. 12 and Feb. 26 to discuss his
> Chronic Addiction
> Substitution Treatment (CAST) proposal,
> according to his calendar.
>
> The Courier obtained the mayor's calendar for
> Jan. 1 to May 6 under
> the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy
> Act.
>
> The number of meetings on CAST has opposition
> city councillors
> scratching their heads. Sullivan says the CAST
> proposal will not go
> before council because it doesn't involve city
> money.
>
> Then why, say COPE Coun. David Cadman and
> Vision Vancouver Coun.
> George Chow, is the mayor using his office to
> work on a proposal
> that the public likely won't see?
>
> "This is the way the man operates," Cadman said.
> "He operates using
> the mayor's office to do business other than
> city business."
>
> Cadman said the public would be much better
> served if the mayor
> focused on the Four Pillars drug strategy and
> stopped kowtowing to
> the drug policy views of the federal Conservatives.
>
> [snip]
>
> "I don't think Mayor Sullivan seems to
> understand what his role is
> as mayor of this city in working with this
> council to move ahead on
> these strategies," Cadman said. "He thinks he's
> better off to move
> outside the city and bring in people like John
> Reynolds, who are
> influential in Ottawa to make this [CAST proposal]
> happen."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n831.a07.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> THE PRESIDENT'S STRAINED MERCY
>
> If Bush wants to correct unjust sentences, why stop
> with Scooter Libby?
>
> By Jacob Sullum, July 11, 2007
>
> http://www.reason.com/news/show/121284.html
>
> ===
>
> NEW STUDIES EXPOSE GOVERNMENT LIES ABOUT MEDICAL POT
>
> By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted July 13, 2007.
>
> The Republican governor of Connecticut is the
> latest politician to
> look foolish for pushing tough anti-marijuana
> policies in the face of
> scientific data that proves the arguments hollow.
>
> http://alternet.org/drugreporter/56753/
>
> ===
>
> NORML TV AD URGES VIEWERS TO "DISCOVER A WHOLE NEW
> OUTLOOK ON LIFE"
>
> `No prisons for pot' commercial now airing in
> Maryland
>
> July 12, 2007 - Washington, DC, USA
>
> http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7302
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Guest: 07/13/07 - Jay Fisher, asst Atty General in
> Georgia, a member of
> Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
>
> Listen Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT,
> 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at
> http://www.kpft.org/
>
> Last: 70/6/07 - Voices from US Social Forum, panel
> "How to end the
> drug war, today" Pt.2 + Aaron Dixon of Center House,
> Poppygate, Black
> Perspective & Drug War Facts
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_070607.mp3
>
> ===
>
> LIFE SENTENCES
>
> Collateral Sanctions Associated With Marijuana
> Offenses
>
> A report by the Center for Cognitive Liberty &
> Ethics
>
> published July 2, 2007
>
>
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/rpts/col_sanctions.htm
>
> ===
>
> THE SSDP VOICE
>
> A Publication of Students for Sensible Drug Policy
>
> Issue 5, Summer 2007
>
> http://www.ssdp.org/newsletter/200707/
>
> ===
>
> DR. LESTER GRINSPOON DISCUSSES POTENT CANNABIS
> AND UN REPORT
>
> CBC Radio "The Current," July 12, 2007
>
>
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/media/200707/20070712thecurrent_sec1.ram
>
> ===
>
> BARRY BEYERSTEIN: WE HAVE LOST ONE OF THE BEST
>
> When I say one of the best, I mean that in every
> sense of those words.
> Barry, who just died at the young age of 60, was
> a superb scholar,
> teacher, social activist, and human being. He was
> wise,
> compassionate, and kind to everyone with whom he
> came in contact. I
> cannot remember in all of the years I knew him --
> almost half of his
> life -- any action on his part that was not
> gentle and caring and
> very, very wise.
>
> By Arnold Trebach
>
>
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/tribute_to_barry_beyerstein
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> WRITE A LETTER
>
> Participate in the DrugSense Focus Alert on
> Common Sense Marijuana
> Policy.
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0349.html
>
> ===
>
> CREATE A RADIO OR TV AD AND SEE IT ON THE AIR
>
> Want to put your creative talents to work for a good
> cause? Take on a
> fun and exciting project to support the largest
> marijuana policy
> reform organization in the United States - and maybe
> see your work on
> the air.
>
> The Marijuana Policy Project is going to be running
> radio and TV ads
> with the goal of changing the way people think about
> marijuana users.
>
>
http://www.mpp.org/site/c.glKZLeMQIsG/b.2230709/k.2003/Ad_Contest.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> VOLUNTARY STUDENT DRUG TESTS: BAD IDEA
>
> By Robert Dougherty
>
> Drug testing of students, as well intentioned as
> it may be, is not a
> substitute for real, fact-based drug education.
> When we relegate our
> responsibility to teach our children about drugs
> to an agency such
> as the ONDCP ( Office of Drug Control Policy ) we
> can only cross our
> fingers and hope for the worst.
>
> Any agency that relies on keeping people in the
> dark about drugs in
> order to cash its paycheck should not be the
> model here. ( Have you
> seen the talking dog commercial? ) If this is
> supposed to be the
> best way to teach our children about the dangers
> of drugs there is
> something seriously wrong.
>
> John Walters should have been booed out of the
> room when he asserted
> that marijuana use leads kids to crime and
> violence. Our policy of
> prohibition is the one to blame here.
>
> Walters is nothing but a public figurehead
> for the drug testing
> industry, playing with people's emotions in a
> city stricken by the
> plague of violence. In the end it's worth it
> to note that Mr.
> Walters is still receiving his paycheck and
> every one of us is
> signing the check.
>
> Robert Dougherty
> Philadelphia
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jul 2007
> Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n000/a154.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> BOGARTING SANITY IN THE MARIJUANA WARS
>
> By Kathleen Parker
>
> News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III,
> was busted for pot
> and assorted prescription pills has unleashed a
> torrent of mirth in
> certain quarters.
>
> Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view
> the son's arrest and
> incarceration as comeuppance for the father's
> shortcomings.
> Especially rich was the fact that young Al
> was driving a Toyota
> Prius when he was pulled over for going 100
> mph" just as Papa
> Gore was set to preside over concerts during a
> 24-hour,
> seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise
> awareness about
> global warming.
>
> Whatever one may feel about the former vice
> president's
> environmental obsessions, his son's problems are
> no one's cause for
> celebration. The younger Gore's high-profile
> arrest does, however,
> offer Americans an opportunity to get real about
> drug prohibition,
> and especially about marijuana laws.
>
> For the record, I have no interest in marijuana
> except as a public
> policy matter. My personal drug of choice is a
> heavenly elixir made
> from crushed grapes. But it is, alas, a drug.
>
> Tasty, attractive and highly ritualized in our
> culture, wine and
> other alcoholic beverages are approved for
> responsible use despite
> the fact that alcoholism and attendant problems
> are a plague, while
> responsible use of a weed that, at worst, makes
> people boring and
> hungry, is criminal.
>
> Pot smokers might revolt if they weren't so mellow.
>
> Efforts over the past few decades to relax
> marijuana laws have been
> moderately successful. Twelve states have
> decriminalized marijuana,
> which usually means no prison or criminal
> record for first-time
> possession of small amounts for personal
> consumption. ( Those states
> are: Alabama, California, Colorado, Maine,
> Minnesota, Mississippi,
> Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina,
> Ohio and Oregon. )
>
> Yet even now, federal law enforcement agents
> raid the homes of
> terminally ill patients who use marijuana for
> relief from suffering
> in states where medical marijuana use is
> permitted. These federal
> raids have become an issue in the 2008 presidential
> race as
> candidates have been asked to take a position. A
> summary is
> available on the Marijuana Policy Project Web
> site ( mpp.org ).
>
> Beyond the medical issue is the practical
> question of criminalizing
> otherwise good citizens for consuming a
> nontoxic substance"
> described by the British medical journal Lancet
> as less harmful to
> health than alcohol or tobacco" at great
> economic and social
> cost. Each year, more than 700,000 people are
> arrested for
> marijuana-related offenses at a cost of more
> than $7 billion,
> according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
>
> Here's a Bingo thought for people concerned
> about the federal
> deficit, America's 4.5 million uninsured children or
> our
> soon-to-be-bankrupt Social Security system:
>
> If marijuana were legalized, regulated and
> taxed at the rates
> applied to alcohol and tobacco, revenues would
> reach about $6.2
> billion annually, according to an open letter signed
> by 500
> economists who urged President Bush and other
> public officials to
> debate marijuana prohibition. Among those
> economists were three
> Nobel Prize winners, including the late Milton
> Friedman of
> Stanford's Hoover Institution.
>
> Friedman and others were acting in response to a
> 2005 report on the
> budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition
> by Jeffrey Miron,
> visiting professor of economics at Harvard. By
> Miron's estimate,
> regulating marijuana would save about $7.7
> billion annually in
> government prohibition enforcement" $2.4 billion
> at the federal
> level and $5.3 billion at the state and local
> levels.
>
> That's a lot of money for English tutors and
> health care for
> indigents. Add to that amount income taxes
> that would have to be
> paid by marijuana producers. Drug dealers
> don't pay taxes, after
> all. Nor do they concern themselves much with
> rules of the workplace
> and worker welfare. Miron argues that legalizing
> marijuana would not
> increase use because decriminalization hasn't
> increased use. But, he
> says, legalization would reduce crime by
> neutralizing dealers and
> eliminating the violent black market.
>
> Legalizing marijuana isn't an endorsement of
> underage or
> irresponsible use.
>
> Best would be that everyone deal with life
> unmedicated, but adults
> arguably have a right to amuse themselves in
> ways that don't harm
> others.
>
> While some may balk at the idea of legalized
> pot, it seems clear
> that some remedy is in order. At the very least, a
> fresh,
> freewheeling debate free of politics and
> bureaucratic self-interest
> is overdue.
>
> Maybe Al Gore could moderate.
>
> Kathleen Parker's column is syndicated by the
> Washington Post
> Writers Group. This column was published in
> several newspapers.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Cowardice asks the question: is it safe?
> Expediency asks the
> question: is it political? Vanity asks the
> question: is it popular?
> But conscience asks the question: is it right?
> And there comes a
> time when one must take a position that is
> neither safe, nor
> political, nor popular - but one must take it
> simply because it is
> right." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
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