> Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 13:24:39 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 3, 2007, #510
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
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>
> DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 3, 2007
> #510
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Allman: Zip-Ties Are In
> (2) OPED: Globalization And The Narcotics Trade
> (3) Agencies Rally To Run Crack-Pipe Program
> (4) Editorial: Some Damage Undone
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) U.S. In Talks To Help Mexico Fight Drug
> Cartels
> (6) DEA Targets Landlords in Pot Battle
> (7)Official Downplays Threat of Prosecution
> (8) Medical Pot Users Storm Meeting
> (9) Suit Over Pot's 'Benefit' Stumbles
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (10) Cities Sue Gangs In Bid To Stop Violence
> (11) OPED: Stuffing Prisons With Black Men
> (12) Al Gore's Son Pleads Guilty To Drug Charges
> (13) No Ruling Yet In Medical Marijuana Suit
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (14) Pot Smoking Linked To Psychotic Disorders
> (15) 50 Top Experts Confirm Mental Health Risk
> (16) Column: Cannabis Data Comes To The Crunch
> (17) Marijuana Smoke Obstructs Air Flow
> (18) Bad Memories Of The DEA's Wild Day In L.A.
>
> International News-
>
> (19) Policy Shifts In Eradication Of Coca Crops
> (20) The Bitter Harvest Of An Illogical Policy
> (21) Gordon Brown Cuts UKP50m From Drugs Work
> (22) Tourists Sentenced To Four Years In A Dubai
> Jail For
> Carrying Specks Of Drugs
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> Spliff Split / By Jacob Sullum
> Getting Busted For Pot Can Cost Your Right To
> Vote / By Silja J.A. Talvi
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> The Thrilling Days When Marijuana Was Spelled
> With An H / By Jacob Sullum
> Drug Treatment Isn't A Silver Bullet / By
> Anthony Papa
> More Shoddy Reefer Madness Reporting Of Cannabis
> Risks / By Steve Rolles
> A Question For Presidential Candidates / By Dean
> Becker
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Please Refute Reefer Mania
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> Cannabis Health Risks Call For Education, Not
> Prohibition / Paul Armentano
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Reefer Inanity: Never Trust the Media on
> Pot / Maia Szalavitz
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> Albert Einstein
>
> 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) ALLMAN: ZIP-TIES ARE IN
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2007
> Source: Willits News (CA)
> Author: Mike A'Dair, TWN Staff Writer
> Cited: Sheriff Tom Allman
> http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/sheriff/
>
> The zip-ties are in. So says Mendocino County
> Sheriff Tom Allman.
>
> The zip-ties are an effort by Allman to reduce the
> element of fraud in
> the medical marijuana industry.
>
> Allman said that the zip ties are available at the
> sheriff's offices
> in Ukiah, Fort Bragg and Willits. This year the
> cost will be zero,
> according to Allman, but next year Allman hopes
> to sell the ties at
> $25 apiece. Each tie has a serial number blazoned
> onto the plastic;
> next year the ties may be able to contain a
> microchip. Allman said
> that each person who wishes to purchase a zip tie
> must have a valid
> state medical marijuana card.
>
> Allman said that the zip ties will help his officers
> determine whether
> a medical marijuana plant is legitimate or not, but
> not having a valid
> zip tie will not automatically mean that any
> unzipped plant that comes
> across the eyes of law enforcement will be
> confiscated.
>
> "My deputies have been told, if you go to a
> house that has medical
> marijuana zip ties, unless the patient has died
> (and it nullifies the
> prescription) it's no questions asked. You can
> look at the zip ties,
> you can see if it's a good number. You can even
> check to see if it's
> registered to that patient.
>
> "Now with people who are not in the program,
> what I have told my
> deputies is, don't automatically eradicate it if
> you don't see a zip
> tie. Because Senate Bill 420 says that the state ID
> card is optional.
> It's not mandatory. But you do conduct an
> investigation, to find out."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n920.a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) OPED: GLOBALIZATION AND THE NARCOTICS TRADE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2007
> Source: International Herald-Tribune (International)
> Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2007
> Author: Eduardo Porter
> Note: Eduardo Porter is a member of the New York
> Times editorial board.
>
> For all its global reach, there is something
> antiquated about the drug
> trade. The story of a bag of cocaine peddled in
> an American suburb,
> for instance, often begins in the Andes, where
> Quechua and Aymara
> Indians have harvested coca for centuries.
>
> Cooked in nearby labs and transported through
> Mexico into the United
> States by Mexican cartels, cocaine's path to market
> is not unlike that
> of a shirt - a straightforward chain from raw
> material in the third
> world to finished product in the first.
>
> Chemistry, and globalization, are changing this
> dynamic, however. The
> unusual case of Zhenli Ye Gon, who was arrested in
> Maryland last week
> following the discovery of $205 million of alleged
> drug money in his
> house in Mexico City, underscores how the same
> process of global
> sourcing that ripped apart the integrated
> industries of the 20th
> century, replacing them with networks of
> production scattered around
> the globe, is reconfiguring the drug trade, too.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n920.a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) AGENCIES RALLY TO RUN CRACK-PIPE PROGRAM
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2007
> Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
> Author: Jake Rupert
>
> Councillors Angry
>
> Two city councillors who voted to kill the
> municipality's crack-pipe
> program are annoyed that a group of health and
> social support agencies
> are keeping the program going.
>
> Three weeks ago, city council, on a 15-7 vote,
> cancelled the two-year-
> old program that saw health and social workers
> handing out clean pipes
> on demand in an effort to stop the spread of HIV and
> hepatitis C among
> drug users.
>
> The city's involvement in the program ends today,
> but yesterday the
> group, including six community health centres,
> the youth-services
> bureau, Ottawa's HIV/AIDS coalition and the AIDS
> Committee of Ottawa
> announced they will continue to run the program at
> least until the end
> of the year.
>
> College Councillor Rick Chiarelli moved the
> motion that killed the
> city's involvement in the program, and he thinks
> it should have been
> allowed to die.
>
> [snip]
>
> Orleans Councillor Bob Monette said continuing the
> program will mean
> increased drug use in a city that has seen
> crack smoking increase
> dramatically.
>
> "I guess the dealers will be happy," he said. "I
> know (the program)
> contributes to crack use. The easier you make it
> to do it, the more
> people do it.
>
> [snip]
>
> Members of the group say this type of thinking is
> dead wrong. They are
> convinced the program saves lives and have come up
> with $15,000 out of
> their budgets to keep the program running until
> the end of the year.
> During this time, they will seek permanent
> sources of funding from
> governments and other sources.
>
> [snip]
>
> The decision to cancel the program was made
> despite the city's chief
> medical officer of health imploring council not
> to -- and after an
> internationally accepted, peer-reviewed study by
> an epidemiologist
> found the program was having a positive effect
> on the behaviour of
> drug users.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n918.a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) EDITORIAL: SOME DAMAGE UNDONE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2007
> Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
> Copyright: 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
>
> Providing free, clean syringes to drug addicts
> is no cause for
> celebration. It just happens to beat letting them
> use dirty needles
> and spread a deadly disease -- which, in our
> deeply imperfect world,
> is the only real alternative. Now that New
> Jersey's leaders have
> become the last in the Union to grasp that piece
> of wisdom, Paterson
> and three other cities can begin benefiting from it.
>
> State health officials this week approved pilot
> programs that will
> give out clean needles in exchange for dirty ones in
> an effort to slow
> the spread of AIDS in Paterson, Newark, Camden and
> Atlantic City. The
> cities applied to start the service under state
> legislation passed in
> December, which made the programs legal on a
> limited basis. Although
> every other state allows a means of legal access
> to clean needles --
> either through needle exchanges or
> non-prescription sales - -- New
> Jersey did not join them easily.
>
> Needle exchange was blocked for more than a decade
> in Trenton. Leading
> opponents included former Gov. Christie Whitman,
> several Republicans
> in the Legislature and a key Democrat, state
> Sen. Ronald Rice of
> Newark. To get it passed, Governor Corzine and other
> supporters had to
> agree to several concessions, including a
> three-year limit on the
> program and no provision of state funds.
>
> [snip]
>
> Opponents tend to argue that distributing needles
> encourages drug use,
> as if the decision to inject heroin into
> one's veins was ever
> predicated on the availability of properly
> sterilized paraphernalia.
> On the local level, officials who object to the idea
> say it could make
> their cities drug marketplaces attracting addicts
> from miles around,
> as if the drug dealers might be stymied by a
> syringe shortage. These
> claims appeal to the understandable anger, fear
> and disgust of many
> voters. But don't bother looking for evidence to
> support any of them.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n921.a01.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-9)
>
> Mexican officials are reportedly in talks with
> U.S. officials on
> some sort of anti-drug aid package and policy
> adjustment. Will the
> U.S. insist Mexico adopt the same priorities
> as the DEA, and use
> a whole lot of resources on serious problems
> - like medical
> marijuana dispensaries? In addition to shutting
> down those
> dispensaries, which harm no one, the U.S.
> feds have also been
> threatening Californian landlords who rent to
> dispensaries with
> property forfeiture, and local politicians who
> approve dispensaries
> with aiding and abetting. Some medical cannabis
> users are insisting
> that their local government stand up to the feds.
> And,
> unfortunately, a judge determined the feds don't
> really have to be
> honest when distributing information about
> cannabis.
>
> ===
>
> (5) U.S. IN TALKS TO HELP MEXICO FIGHT DRUG CARTELS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007
> Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
> Author: Pablo Bachelet, MCT News Service
>
> Funding Aid Seen As Bolstering Calderon
>
> WASHINGTON - Mexican President Felipe Calderon,
> locked in a bloody
> confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating
> an aid package with
> the Bush administration worth hundreds of
> millions of dollars,
> several officials say.
>
> Officials on both sides are working out the
> details of the massive
> counter-drug aid package. The talks have been
> taking place quietly
> for several months and will be a central item
> on the agenda when
> President Bush and Calderon are expected to
> meet in Quebec Aug.
> 20-21.
>
> Mexican officials have been reluctant to go public
> with the
> discussions, mindful of anti-U.S. sentiments
> harbored by many
> Mexicans. However, the conservative Calderon
> believes he has little
> choice but to enlist U.S. help, given the
> cross-border nature of
> drug-trafficking and the ruthlessness of
> Mexico's drug gangs,
> officials and observers told MCT News Service.
>
> Most of the officials spoke on condition of
> anonymity because of the
> sensitivity of the topic and because details
> of the plan could
> change in coming weeks. In public, U.S.
> officials say little other
> than to acknowledge the discussions.
>
> "We're working very closely with the Mexicans on
> counter-narcotics
> on a variety of fronts and at all levels of
> government," said
> National Security Council spokeswoman Katherine
> Starr. "Presidents
> Bush and Calderon look forward to discussing
> this and other issues
> when they meet in Canada in August."
>
> But officials view the talks as a bold
> initiative by Calderon that
> underscores his resolve to tame drug-related
> violence - most of it
> between rival cartels - that has cost the lives of
> 3,000 Mexicans in
> the past year alone and forced the intervention
> of 20,000 federal
> troops.
>
> "I think the Mexicans realize it's going to get
> worse before it gets
> better," said Roger Noriega, a former U.S.
> assistant secretary of
> state for Western Hemisphere Affairs and now
> with the American
> Enterprise Institute think tank. "They can't
> do this alone and
> should not have to do this alone."
>
> One problem in the talks is that U.S. law
> enforcement agencies are
> wary of sharing crucial intelligence information
> with their Mexican
> counterparts, viewed as splintered and
> infiltrated by drug gangs.
> Noriega says such prejudices ought to be set
> aside and the two
> countries should carry out joint operations
> "seamlessly integrated
> across the border."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n910/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) DEA TARGETS LANDLORDS IN POT BATTLE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jul 2007
> Source: USA Today (US)
> Copyright: 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co.
> Inc
> Author: William M. Welch, USA TODAY
>
> Threatens to Seize Properties Where Medical
> Marijuana Sold
>
> LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Justice Department is
> unleashing a potent
> new weapon in its battle against California's
> hundreds of medical
> pot clinics, threatening landlords with arrest and
> property seizures
> for renting to tenants who flout federal drug laws.
>
> Intensifying its crackdown on pot sales that
> are legal under
> California law but illegal under U.S. law,
> agents of the Drug
> Enforcement Agency executed search warrants
> Wednesday in raids on 10
> marijuana dispensaries across Los Angeles.
>
> As agents were moving in, Los Angeles' City
> Council voted 11-0 to
> tentatively approve a one-year moratorium on more
> medical marijuana
> stores, which have exploded in number in the
> past two years.
>
> Federal officials estimate there are 400
> storefront and office
> operations selling medical marijuana in Los
> Angeles and L.A. County,
> up from 20 two years ago and more than double
> the number at the
> start of the year, DEA Special Agent Sarah Pullen
> said. Law
> enforcement officials contend the sales have
> become a source for
> recreational pot users.
>
> "It's clearly not about compassion or care at
> this point," Pullen
> said. "It's about money."
>
> The most serious threat to California's
> voter-approved pot sales
> came in a letter last week from the DEA to 150
> property owners or
> managers informing them that a tenant is
> operating a marijuana
> dispensary on the property in violation of federal
> law.
>
> [snip]
>
> L.A. Councilman Dennis Zine, sponsor of the
> moratorium, wrote DEA
> Administrator Karen Tandy on Wednesday
> protesting the focus on
> landlords. He asked "that you abandon this tactic."
>
> "Voters in California and in Los Angeles support
> the medical use of
> cannabis and want safe, well-regulated access," he
> said.
>
> Don Duncan, whose California Patients Group
> distributes medical
> marijuana from a store in Hollywood, said his
> landlord had not
> received a letter but felt threatened nonetheless.
> He said the store
> has been operating for a year and a half and sells
> to as many as 100
> patients a day.
>
> "It's very disconcerting, frankly," he said.
> "It'd be a shame to
> work this hard and be shut down based on
> intimidation. ... Right now
> we're waiting to see what happens."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n898/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS THREAT OF PROSECUTION
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jul 2007
> Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Press-Enterprise Company
> Author: David Olson, The Press-Enterprise
>
> President Bush's nominee to become U.S. attorney
> for the Inland and
> Los Angeles areas appeared to take the federal
> government's campaign
> against medical marijuana to a new level early this
> year.
>
> Tom O'Brien, currently chief of the criminal
> division for the U.S.
> attorney's office in Los Angeles, told members
> of the Coachella
> Valley Association of Governments on Jan. 8 that
> government
> officials could be prosecuted for allowing
> medical-marijuana
> dispensaries to operate.
>
> Marijuana is legal in California to treat certain
> medical
> conditions.
>
> It is illegal for all uses under federal law.
>
> Palm Springs is considering a proposal to allow
> medical-marijuana
> patients to grow the plant at city-approved
> collectives.
>
> Palm Springs City Councilman Mike McCulloch
> asked O'Brien whether
> members of city councils are "exposed to risk
> of arrest or other
> prosecution" if they allow dispensaries.
>
> According to a tape recording of the meeting,
> O'Brien answered,
> "Anyone who aids or abets the commission of a
> crime -- in this I
> believe you're hypothetical -- in terms of someone
> who is
> distributing marijuana, anyone who assists in
> that process is
> technically liable for prosecution."
>
> Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's
> office in Los
> Angeles, insisted Thursday that O'Brien never
> directly addressed the
> issue of liability.
>
> "In our interpretation, what he addressed there
> was saying like in
> some theoretical or possible world, that could
> happen, but I'm not
> going to address whether that is in the realm
> of possibility," he
> said.
>
> McCulloch called O'Brien's comments "intimidating."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n901/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) MEDICAL POT USERS STORM MEETING
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jul 2007
> Source: Bakersfield Californian, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Bakersfield Californian
> Author: James Burger, Calilfornian Staff Writer
>
> A large group of Kern County medical marijuana
> users and supporters
> demanded county supervisors uphold state law
> Tuesday.
>
> They said they struggle with ulcers, migraines,
> glaucoma,
> nervous-system disorders, heart problems and
> arthritis.
>
> Marijuana is the only drug that helps them live with
> their
> illnesses, they said.
>
> But while state law allows them to use
> marijuana with a doctor's
> recommendation, federal law doesn't.
>
> Recent federal raids against county-permitted
> marijuana dispensaries
> - -- and Sheriff Donny Youngblood's support for
> the raids -- have
> them riled up.
>
> "The federal government is panicking and
> throwing everything they
> can at us to stop the inevitable -- the
> legalization of marijuana
> for every American," said Doug McAfee, president
> of the Bakersfield
> chapter of NORML, a pro-legalization group.
>
> Supervisors expressed their own frustrations
> with the situation
> they're in.
>
> "If you want an example of bad public policy --
> this is it," said
> Supervisor Michael Rubio. "Local government is
> being let down by the
> state and federal government."
>
> County ordinances charge Youngblood with
> issuing permits and
> overseeing enforcement of the marijuana
> dispensaries.
>
> But following last week's raids, Youngblood
> announced he wouldn't
> issue any more permits because the federal
> government calls on him
> to enforce its laws.
>
> Marijuana users say Youngblood is breaking
> state law by complying
> with the feds.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n896/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (9) SUIT OVER POT'S 'BENEFIT' STUMBLES
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2007
> Source: Recorder, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.
> Author: Matthew Hirsch, The Recorder
>
> An Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit can't put the
> federal government
> on trial for saying that marijuana has no
> medical use -- but it
> might get to challenge the government for
> blowing deadlines, a
> federal judge in California ruled last week.
>
> Americans for Safe Access sued in February
> after two federal
> agencies refused to alter government-published
> statements saying
> marijuana has "no currently accepted medical
> use in the United
> States."
>
> In an eight-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District
> Judge William Alsup
> agreed with Justice Department lawyers that the
> federal Information
> Quality Act provides for only administrative,
> not judicial, review
> for people to challenge the "quality,
> objectivity, utility and
> integrity" of information disseminated by federal
> agencies.
>
> Alsup's ruling didn't address the government's
> claim that ASA lacked
> standing because it failed to identify members
> who suffered harm
> from the disputed statements or to show how the
> issue was germane to
> ASA's organizational purpose.
>
> Though Alsup rejected ASA's bid to revise
> those statements, he
> hinted the plaintiff might be able to at least
> force the government
> to address its assertion within a 60-day
> period provided by law.
>
> "Conceivably," Alsup wrote, "a district court may
> order an agency to
> act on the merits of an information-correction
> petition within a
> specific time frame."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n904/a01.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (10-13)
>
> Public officials are trying to stop gang problems
> by suing the gangs
> - it would be a lot easier to take the profit
> out of their biggest
> business. And it wouldn't have the net
> effect discussed in our
> second selection, about the disproportionate
> number of minorities
> incarcerated for drug offenses. You can bet a
> child of privilege,
> like Al Gore's son, won't be seeing jail time
> despite his repeated
> problems. And do the police have the right
> to tell a medical
> cannabis grower to destroy plants? A judge in
> California can't seem
> to decide.
>
> ===
>
> (10) CITIES SUE GANGS IN BID TO STOP VIOLENCE
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2007
> Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Bradenton Herald
> Author: Angela K. Brown, Associated Press Writer
>
> FORT WORTH, Texas -- Fed up with deadly drive-by
> shootings,
> incessant drug dealing and graffiti, cities
> nationwide are trying a
> different tactic to combat gangs: They're suing
> them.
>
> Fort Worth and San Francisco are among the
> latest to file lawsuits
> against gang members, asking courts for
> injunctions barring them
> from hanging out together on street corners,
> in cars or anywhere
> else in certain areas.
>
> The injunctions are aimed at disrupting gang
> activity before it can
> escalate. They also give police legal reasons to
> stop and question
> gang members, who often are found with drugs or
> weapons, authorities
> said. In some cases, they don't allow gang
> members to even talk to
> people passing in cars or to carry spray paint.
>
> "It is another tool," said Kevin Rousseau, a Tarrant
> County
> assistant prosecutor in Fort Worth, which
> recently filed its first
> civil injunction against a gang. "This is
> more of a proactive
> approach."
>
> But critics say such lawsuits go too far,
> limiting otherwise lawful
> activities and unfairly targeting minority youth.
>
> "If you're barring people from talking in the
> streets, it's
> difficult to tell if they're gang members or
> if they're people
> discussing issues," said Peter Bibring, an
> attorney with the
> American Civil Liberties Union of Southern
> California. "And it's all
> the more troubling because it doesn't seem to
> be effective."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n908/a15.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) AL GORE'S SON PLEADS GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2007
> Source: People Magazine (US)
> Copyright: 2007 Time Inc.
> Author: Ken Lee
>
> Albert Gore III pleaded guilty to four
> drug-related charges in an
> Orange County court on Monday, and opted to
> enter a drug rehab
> program to avoid prison time.
>
> Appearing with his lawyer before Judge Jacob H.
> Jager, Gore
> indicated to the court that he would enter
> an intensive 90-day
> residential center.
>
> "This is what anyone coming off the street would
> be eligible for,"
> said Orange County District Attorney spokeswoman
> Susan
> Kang-Schroeder. "Gore didn't get any more or
> any less than anyone
> else."
>
> Gore was carrying 140 pills of Vicodin, along with
> "dozens" of other
> medications when he was pulled over on July 4
> in Southern Calif.
> while speeding in a Toyota Prius.
>
> Deputies searched his car after they detected the
> smell of
> marijuana, and found prescription drugs
> including Xanax, Valium,
> Soma, Vicodin and Adderall, as well as a small
> amount of marijuana.
>
> The former vice president's son has a history of
> encounters with the
> law.
>
> In August 2000, he was ticketed for going 97 mph
> in a 55-mph zone in
> North Carolina, and had his driving privileges
> suspended.
>
> Two years later, he was cited for DUI in
> Virginia. He eventually
> pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year's
> probation.
>
> And in December 2003, Gore was arrested for
> marijuana possession in
> Maryland after he was pulled over for driving
> with his headlights
> off. He was sentenced to drug counseling in that
> case.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n911/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) OPED: STUFFING PRISONS WITH BLACK MEN
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jul 2007
> Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Tallahassee Democrat.
> Author: Harold Jackson, Philadelphia Inquirer
>
> One of my four brothers graduated from the
> University of Iowa, but
> being a black male, I don't think I want to
> spend too much time in
> the Hawkeye State.
>
> Only about 2 percent of Iowa's population is
> black, but blacks are
> 13.6 times more likely than whites to be
> imprisoned there. That's
> more than twice the national average, which is bad
> enough. Hispanics
> nationally are imprisoned at double the rate of
> whites.
>
> I shouldn't pick on Iowa, though. I live in New
> Jersey, where blacks
> are imprisoned at 10 times the rate of whites.
> Over in Pennsylvania,
> it's five times.
>
> You would think the disparities would be worse in
> the Old South. But
> in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, where
> blacks make up larger
> parts of the population, they are only about three
> times more likely
> to be imprisoned than whites. ( Editor's note: In
> Florida blacks are
> 4.4 times more likely to be imprisoned than whites.
> )
>
> These incarceration statistics, released last week
> by the Sentencing
> Project, a research and advocacy group that
> promotes alternatives to
> prison, are sure to prompt recitations of that
> old Richard Pryor
> joke: I went to the courthouse to find justice,
> and that's exactly
> what I found: Just us!
>
> But it's not funny.
>
> [snip]
>
> According to Human Rights Watch, two out of
> every five blacks sent
> to state prisons nationally in 2000 were
> convicted of drug crimes.
> Although blacks constitute no more than 15
> percent of all drug
> users, 63 percent of drug offenders sent to
> state prisons were
> black.
>
> Why that discrepancy? Studies show the majority
> of drug offenders
> sent to prison in the last decade were convicted
> of low-level drug
> possession or sales. Where do most of those
> arrests occur? In
> low-income neighborhoods populated largely by
> blacks.
>
> Why? Because it's much easier to make a bust in
> poor neighborhoods
> where drugs are sold in open markets than in
> suburban neighborhoods
> where drug abuse is largely hidden.
>
> It's not that blacks are more likely to abuse
> drugs. The National
> Household Survey on Drug Abuse says whites make
> up about 72 percent
> of America's illegal drug users; blacks, 15
> percent. But blacks are
> most likely to be caught and sent to prison.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n916/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (13) NO RULING YET IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUIT
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2007
> Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Media News Group
> Author: Karen McIntyre, Staff Intern
>
> Judge Barbara Roberts is sitting in the hot seat
> right now, private
> legal strategy consultant Gordy Dise said after
> the judge did not
> make a ruling Friday about whether it's legal to
> sue regarding the
> way the medical marijuana law is being prosecuted.
>
> The case, David Williams versus Butte County, was
> put under
> submission until September, which means the
> judge did not decide
> whether the lawsuit can continue, and a new court
> date was
> scheduled. The case is the first of its kind in
> California.
>
> Williams, of Oroville, sued after a Butte
> County sheriff's deputy
> threatened to arrest the man if he didn't destroy
> all but 12 of the
> 41 marijuana plants he reportedly was growing
> for a seven-member
> collective.
>
> The legal amount of pot in a co-op is six mature
> plants, 12 immature
> plants and eight ounces of dried marijuana per
> patient, according to
> state Legislature's Senate Bill 420 enacted a
> few years ago.
>
> District Attorney Mike Ramsey established
> written guidelines that
> allow a larger one-pound threshold limit of
> pot per patient and
> requires members of a co-op to post their
> doctors' recommendations
> and "actively participate in the cultivation
> process" if their
> health allows.
>
> But if the Legislature cannot modify or change
> Proposition 215 --
> which passed in 1996 allowing medical
> marijuana with a doctor's
> recommendation -- then who is Butte County to
> modify the law, Dise
> said.
>
> "Butte County Sheriff and county municipal
> policies are trying to
> promulgate an illegal underground regulation
> contrary to the
> people's will and the law of this state," he
> said. "They have to
> enforce the law whether they like it or not."
>
> The District Attorney's Office reportedly issued
> the guidelines to
> "end any confusion" and prevent growers from
> using Proposition 215
> as a cover.
>
> Joseph Elford, Williams' San Francisco attorney
> for Americans for
> Safe Access, is challenging Ramsey's policies.
> He is suing the
> county on William's behalf in a civil suit
> claiming the deputy did
> not have the right to tell Williams to destroy the
> plants.
>
> Judge Roberts has heard arguments from both sides,
> and was scheduled
> to issue a written ruling Friday.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues: :
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n905/a04.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (14-18)
>
> Perhaps last Friday was the start of a reefer
> madness junk science
> research week. The British medical journal Lancet
> published a study,
> 'Cannabis Use and Risk of Psychosis in Later
> Life' which the media
> around the world had a field day with, most often
> exaggerating what
> the study concluded. A Focus Alert at
> http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0351.html covers some
> of the problems
> with both the study and the reporting. The study,
> a "meta-analysis,"
> has serious flaws, as an analysis of the
> process published by the
> British Medical Journal shows
> http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/309/6957/789
>
> Below are three press clippings, the first from
> the United States,
> about the study.
>
> At mid-week, the media latched on to a study
> which indicated that
> smoking a joint causes the same health damage as
> smoking between 2.5
> and five tobacco cigarettes. Most news reports,
> like the Associated
> Press article, below, which was published in
> many newspapers,
> exaggerated the research with scare headlines.
> For most casual,
> occasional, users the health damage risks are
> not significant.
> However, for daily users, including those who
> use marijuana as
> medicine, vaporization is a much safer way to use.
> As is usual there
> was no mention of this method of use in the
> media. Please see this
> webpage on the vaporization studies
> http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7240
>
> Finally, the Los Angeles City Beat brings a
> degree of passion to
> it's reporting of the DEA raids on medicinal
> cannabis collectives
> you would never find in the Los Angeles Times.
>
> ===
>
> (14) POT SMOKING LINKED TO PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jul 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Jia-Rui Chong, Times Staff Writer
>
> Heavy Marijuana Use Doubles the Risk, New Research
> Finds.
>
> People who smoke marijuana daily or weekly
> double their risk of
> developing a psychotic illness over their
> lifetime, according to a
> study published Thursday.
>
> Among all cannabis users, including sporadic
> experimenters and
> habitual users, the lifetime risk of psychotic
> illness increased by
> 40%, the report said.
>
> "It's not as if you smoke a joint and you're
> going to go crazy,"
> said Richard Rawson, who directs the
> Integrated Substance Abuse
> Program at UCLA and was not involved in the study.
>
> But he cautioned: "It's definitely not a good
> idea to use heavy
> amounts of marijuana."
>
> [snip]
>
> Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit
> drug in the U.S.,
> according to the federal government. In 2006,
> about 42% of America's
> high school seniors reported having tried
> marijuana at least once,
> according to an annual report funded by the
> National Institute on
> Drug Abuse.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dr. Victor Reus, a psychiatrist at UC San
> Francisco who was not
> involved in this study, said he was unconvinced by
> Zammit's
> conclusions for both psychotic and mood disorders.
>
> Too many outside factors contribute to the
> disorders, and the
> studies Zammit used were too vague to draw
> hard conclusions, he
> said.
>
> "There's a limit to what you can do with the
> data that's in these
> studies," he said.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n903/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) 50 TOP EXPERTS CONFIRM MENTAL HEALTH RISK
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007
> Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
> Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
> Authors: Jonathan Owen and Suzi Mesure
>
> Since the 'IoS' reversed its policy on
> legalising cannabis because
> of the drug's links with mental illness, many
> have joined the
> campaign to highlight its dangers. Here we
> report on the latest
> findings to cause concern.
>
> A poll of more than 50 of the world's leading
> authorities on drugs
> and mental health confirms that most believe
> cannabis, and
> particularly its stronger variant, skunk, pose
> significant health
> risks and increase users' susceptibility to
> psychosis and
> schizophrenia.
>
> The Government's announcement last week of a
> review that could see
> the reclassification of the drug and harsher
> penalties for
> possession re-ignited the debate about the risks
> of using cannabis.
>
> Launching the three-month consultation, Jacqui
> Smith, the Home
> Secretary, said: "Government must remain
> responsive - alive to new
> evidence, feedback and trends." Health ministry
> sources said that
> new medical evidence about the link between
> cannabis and mental
> illness, reported first in this newspaper, would
> form "a key part of
> the evidence" that the Government will consider.
>
> It will also examine a new study published in The
> Lancet last week,
> which said that cannabis users increased their
> risk of suffering
> psychotic episodes by some 40 per cent. The
> findings by the team at
> Bristol and Cardiff Universities, led by Dr
> Stanley Zammit, said
> that some 14 per cent of psychotic episodes among
> young people could
> be prevented if they avoided the drug.
>
> [snip]
>
> Nevertheless, despite the mounting evidence that
> cannabis use causes
> mental health problems - including The
> Lancet's publication last
> week - - not everyone believes skunk poses long
> term health risks.
>
> Professor Tim Kirkham, a psychologist at
> Liverpool University,
> argued: "Cannabis has been used safely for many
> thousands of years,"
> and says there have been "concerted efforts to
> demonise the drug's
> use." Dr Trevor Turner, former vice president of
> the Royal College
> of Psychiatrists, says: "I don't think it causes
> mental illness. I
> have never seen a case of so-called cannabis
> psychosis."
>
> Dame Ruth Runciman, the chair of UK Drug Policy
> Centre who set in
> motion the downgrading of cannabis, disputes that
> the drug of today
> is any different to the weed that Ms Smith would
> have toked back in
> early 1980s.
>
> "How do you know it's stronger?" she said,
> adding: "There is
> indubitably some skunk that is stronger about
> the place, but the
> evidence has been hugely exaggerated and does
> not support such an
> alarmist view... Cannabis as Class C is exactly
> where it should be."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n906/a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) COLUMN: CANNABIS DATA COMES TO THE CRUNCH
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2007
> Source: Guardian, The (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Guardian Newspapers Limited
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
> Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
> Author: Ben Goldacre, The Guardian
>
> You know when cannabis hits the news you're in for
> a bit of fun, and
> this week's story about cannabis causing psychosis
> was no exception.
> The paper was a systematic review and then a
> "meta-analysis" of the
> data which has already been collected, looking at
> whether people who
> smoke cannabis are subsequently more likely to
> have symptoms of
> "psychosis" or diagnoses of schizophrenia.
> Meta-analysis is, simply,
> where you gather together all of the numbers
> from all the studies
> you can find into one big spreadsheet, and do one
> big calculation on
> all of them at once, to get the most
> statistically powerful result
> possible.
>
> Now I don't like to carp, but it's interesting
> that the Daily Mail
> got even these basics wrong, under their headline
> "Smoking just one
> cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by
> 40%". Firstly "the
> researchers, from four British universities,
> analysed the results of
> 35 studies into cannabis use from around the
> world. This suggested
> that trying cannabis only once was enough to
> raise the risk of
> schizophrenia by 41%."
>
> In fact they identified 175 studies which might
> have been relevant,
> but on reading them, it turned out that there
> were just 11 relevant
> papers, describing seven actual datasets. The
> Mail made this figure
> up to "35 studies" by including 24 separate papers
> which the authors
> also found on cannabis and depression,
> although the Mail didn't
> mention depression at all.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n906/a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) MARIJUANA SMOKE OBSTRUCTS AIR FLOW
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2007
> Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Associated Press
> Author: Ray Lilley, Associated Press
>
> Damaging Effect Equals Inhaling Up To Five
> Tobacco Cigarettes, But
> Long-Term Use Doesn't Increase Emphysema Risk, Study
> Says
>
> WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)-- A single joint of
> marijuana obstructs
> the flow of air as much as smoking up to five
> tobacco cigarettes,
> but long-term marijuana use does not increase the
> risk of developing
> emphysema, new research suggests.
>
> The study by New Zealand's Medical Research
> Institute found that
> longtime marijuana smokers can develop symptoms
> of asthma and
> bronchitis, along with obstruction of the large
> airways and
> excessive lung inflation. The paper was
> released Tuesday ahead of
> its publication in the journal Thorax.
>
> "The study shows that one cannabis joint causes a
> similar degree of
> lung damage as between 2.5 and five tobacco
> cigarettes," lead author
> Sarah Aldington said.
>
> However, the researchers found that the
> progressive chronic lung
> disease emphysema, often associated with
> cigarette smoking, was
> uncommon among marijuana smokers. Only 1.3
> percent of the long-term
> marijuana smokers were found to have signs of
> the disease compared
> with 16.3 percent of those who combined
> marijuana and tobacco, and
> 18.9 percent of those who smoked only tobacco.
>
> [snip]
>
> Earlier studies have shown that smoking one
> joint results in three
> to five times more carbon monoxide and tar
> inhaled than smoking a
> cigarette of the same size. The New Zealand
> research also showed
> that the "products of combustion" in marijuana
> are very similar to
> tobacco, Beasley said.
>
> Part of the reason for this is the way joints are
> smoked, with users
> often inhaling and holding the smoke in longer
> for a better hit.
> Marijuana joints typically do not have filters and
> they have shorter
> butts than cigarettes with a higher smoke
> temperature. Marijuana
> also is commonly smoked through pipes.
>
> Jeff Garrett, president of the Australia-New
> Zealand Thoracic
> Society, who was not involved in the study,
> said that although
> researchers found emphysema among marijuana
> smokers relatively rare,
> he emphasized that it does occur.
>
> Hospital specialists also are seeing an
> increasing number of people
> with emphysema specifically related to marijuana
> smoking, he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n915/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (18) BAD MEMORIES OF THE DEA'S WILD DAY IN L.A.
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2007
> Source: Los Angeles City Beat (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Southland Publishing
> Author: Ron Garmon
>
> Considered as paramilitary theater, the DEA
> raids last week on
> medical marijuana clinics across L.A. County
> were a nice touch of
> the old "shock" and "awe." Special care was
> shown in the timing,
> striking as they did during a press conference
> held at L.A. City
> Hall announcing a one-year moratorium on new
> collectives. The
> measure is widely held by local activists as
> legitimatizing efforts
> to self-regulate the area's burgeoning medical
> marijuana. At the
> conference, three L.A. City Council members -
> Dennis Zine, Janice
> Hahn, and Bill Rosendahl - said that they had
> sent a letter to Drug
> Enforcement Agency administrator Karen Tandy
> requesting the feds
> cease threatening clinics with asset forfeiture
> notices. Councilman
> Zine, an ex-cop, affirmed the city's intent to
> "uphold the will of
> our voters and adopt sensible guidelines to
> regulate the provision
> of medical cannabis in our communities."
>
> This minor triumph of countercultural Better
> Business got trampled
> by a high-noon sweep of collectives from West
> Hollywood to the
> Valley. Though DEA Special Agent Sarah Pullen
> shrugged off the
> timing as "coincidental," the raids underscored the
> Justice
> Department's long contempt for California's
> Proposition 215, the
> voters who passed it, and the loose coalition of
> local activists and
> city officials trying to ensure delivery of
> medical marijuana to
> patients.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n919/a03.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (19-22)
>
> We begin this week's review of international drug
> policy news with a
> Miami Herald article announcing that Plan Colombia
> (dousing Colombia
> with plant poisons -- glyphosate) is going
> to switch to manual
> eradication of coca plants. Stated President
> Alvaro Uribe: "Instead
> of uniting Colombians around the idea of
> eradicating drugs,
> [spraying] causes complaints and provokes
> reactions against
> eradication." Colombian papers cheered the
> move, as did "the
> government in neighboring Ecuador, for whom
> aerial spraying along
> the border had become a major diplomatic issue
> with Colombia." It
> remains to be seen how this Colombian-led move to
> stop the spraying
> will be tolerated in the boardroom of Dyncorp,
> as well as the U.S.
> Congress.
>
> From the U.K., an excellent editorial on opium
> policy:
> Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire versus
> Afghanistan. How can one
> explain to a poor Afghan farmer that his
> poppies are evil and
> illegal, but the poppies grown in
> Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire
> back in England (not to mention the poppies
> grown in Tasmania, or
> India, or Turkey), why those poppies are right and
> proper and legal?
> Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire grows "poppies
> for the
> pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith, which
> makes medical opiates
> and is eager for new sources of raw material
> because of a worldwide
> shortage of morphine and similar drugs." The
> Independent's editorial
> ends with a bit of history: "the U.S. has
> successfully pursued a
> legalisation policy before, when it became
> clear that the Nixon
> administration's attempts to stamp out Turkish
> opium farming was
> politically and socially impossible. Instead,
> they tried licensing
> and a preferential trade agreement, which proved
> highly effective."
>
> The U.K.'s new prime minister, Gordon Brown,
> continues the
> politician's standard repertoire of drug war
> smoke and mirrors.
> After orchestrating a mighty media blast via a U.K.
> government-sponsored report rehashing and
> spinning old studies into
> a scary new reefer madness campaign to support the
> re-classification
> of cannabis allowing police to arrest tokers,
> this week we learn
> that Brown intends to cut drug treatment
> programs by over 10
> percent. The 50 million UKP cuts, discovered
> from "an email leaked
> to The Sunday Telegraph", drew heavy criticism.
> "He's been making
> high profile announcements, like his war on
> cannabis, but the
> reality is very different. This reeks of
> hypocrisy."
>
> And finally this week, a warning from the
> oil-rich Arab Emirate of
> Dubai, in the Persian Gulf: you can be arrested
> for testing positive
> for cannabis. Last week, a UK citizen was
> sentenced to four years in
> a Dubai prison for having a tenth of one gram
> of hashish. Stories
> continue to come out of Dubai about foreigners
> jailed for years, for
> having a few flakes of pot (0.07 gm). Or none at
> all, as a positive
> test for illegal drugs is the same as possession.
> "Such was the fate
> of an 18-year-old Egyptian boy who smoked a
> cigarette containing
> hashish a day before he flew to the UAE this
> year. Traces of the
> drug were found in his blood and he was
> jailed... for four years."
>
> ===
>
> (19) POLICY SHIFTS IN ERADICATION OF COCA CROPS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007
> Source: Miami Herald (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
> Author: Sibylla Brodzinsky, Special to the Miami
> Herald
>
> Colombia Announced It Will Favor Manual
> Eradication of Coca Crops
> Over the Current System, Which Focuses Heavily
> on Aerial Spraying
>
> BOGOTA -- In a major policy shift likely to
> get both praise and
> close examination in Washington, Colombia has
> announced it will
> favor manual eradication of coca crops over the
> current system that
> focuses heavily on aerial fumigation.
>
> [snip]
>
> "Instead of uniting Colombians around the idea of
> eradicating drugs,
> [aerial spraying] causes complaints and provokes
> reactions against
> eradication," President Alvaro Uribe said in a
> July 20 speech in
> which he announced the shift. He said spraying
> would remain only a
> "marginal" part of the counter-drug strategy.
>
> Many longtime critics of the fumigation policy
> applauded the
> decision, including the government in neighboring
> Ecuador, for whom
> aerial spraying along the border had become a
> major diplomatic issue
> with Colombia.
>
> Move Lauded
>
> In an editorial, Colombia's main newspaper El
> Tiempo also cheered
> the change. 'Announcing a reduction in aerial
> spraying and
> reinforcing manual eradication is the first
> step for Colombia to
> formulate an anti-narcotics strategy that answers
> to more than just
> 'recommendations' from Washington," the editorial
> said.
>
> "It's an evolution [of the policy], . . . We are
> going to give more
> importance to the manual eradication than to
> aerial fumigation,"
> Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos confirmed last
> week to reporters
> in Washington, where he was discussing the
> new plans with U.S.
> policymakers and lobbying Congress to allow more
> flexibility in the
> use of U.S. counter-drug aid.
>
> "Manual eradication can be more effective and,
> at times, cheaper,"
> Santos added.
>
> Colombia has received nearly $5 billion over the
> past seven years,
> mostly for the war on drugs, making it the largest
> recipient of U.S.
> assistance in the Western Hemisphere.
>
> [snip]
>
> Analysts warn, however, that any eradication
> efforts not accompanied
> by comprehensive efforts to give farmers a legal
> alternative to coca
> growing are doomed to fail.
>
> "The farmers have to be taken into account.
> Otherwise,
> they will just wait for the eradicators to leave,
> and
> they will replant," said Astrid Puente of the
> environmental group AIDA, which monitors fumigation
> in
> Colombia.
>
> Miami Herald correspondent Pablo Bachelet
> contributed to this report
> from Washington.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n909.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) THE BITTER HARVEST OF AN ILLOGICAL POLICY
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2007
> Source: Independent (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
> Author: Thomas Sutcliffe
>
> For those of you who like brainteasers, here is
> a conundrum. Last
> Tuesday in the Lords, the freshly ennobled
> Lord Malloch Brown,
> Minister of State at the FCO with
> responsibility for Africa, Asia
> and the United Nations, was coming clean
> about the failure to
> eradicate opium production in Afghanistan. He
> said: "It is a
> terrible black mark on the international
> community's performance in
> Afghanistan ... that so far we have not prevailed
> in the efforts to
> defeat the growth of this pernicious crop."
>
> [snip]
>
> And the puzzle I would set you is this: how would
> you explain to an
> Afghan farmer who has just seen his livelihood
> destroyed that in
> several rural provinces of England - all areas
> where the writ of the
> British Government still runs - the cultivation of
> opium poppies has
> recently increased markedly, with the explicit
> approval of the
> authorities?
>
> It's true that the farmers of Northamptonshire
> and Lincolnshire who
> have recently turned fields over to the
> cultivation of opium poppies
> aren't selling their crop to drug dealers, or
> at least not to
> outlawed ones. They're growing the poppies for
> the pharmaceutical
> company Macfarlan Smith, which makes medical
> opiates and is eager
> for new sources of raw material because of a
> worldwide shortage of
> morphine and similar drugs.
>
> [snip]
>
> As the Senlis Council, a development think-tank,
> has reported, the
> U.S. has successfully pursued a legalisation
> policy before, when it
> became clear that the Nixon administration's
> attempts to stamp out
> Turkish opium farming was politically and
> socially impossible.
> Instead, they tried licensing and a
> preferential trade agreement,
> which proved highly effective. Perhaps Gordon
> Brown could suggest
> that George Bush might emulate the Taliban and
> Richard Nixon, and
> put practical results ahead of ideological
> purity. It's not the
> plant that's pernicious, it's the policy.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n913.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (21) GORDON BROWN CUTS UKP50M FROM DRUGS WORK
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007
> Source: Sunday Telegraph (UK)
> Copyright: Telegraph Group Limited 2007
> Author: Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor, Sunday
> Telegraph
>
> The flagship government scheme for treating
> drug addicts faces
> singeing budget cuts of UKP50 million, it can
> be revealed today.
>
> Drug treatment programme: Gordon Brown cuts
> UKP50m from drugs work
> Spending on drug treatment programmes faces cuts
>
> Plans to slash total funding by more than 12 per
> cent, outlined in
> an email leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, come
> less than a fortnight
> after Gordon Brown tried to show off his
> anti-drug credentials by
> signalling his desire to reclassify cannabis
> from Class C to the
> more serious Class B.
>
> Last night, the Conservatives accused the Prime
> Minister of
> hypocrisy.
>
> [snip]
>
> Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions
> secretary, said last
> night: "When he was chancellor, Gordon Brown
> always used to hide the
> bad news in the small print. Now he's Prime
> Minister, we're finding
> the same thing.
>
> "He's been making high profile announcements,
> like his war on
> cannabis, but the reality is very different. This
> reeks of
> hypocrisy."
>
> On its Tackling Drugs, Changing Lives website,
> the Home Office
> trumpets successive increases in PTB funding.
> It boasts: "Drug
> treatment continues to be a major priority."
>
> Martin Barnes, the chief executive of the
> charity DrugScope, said:
> "It is extremely concerning that the expectation
> among officials is
> of cuts in funding. The Prime Minister has
> spoken of the need to
> improve drug treatment, but this is difficult
> to reconcile with
> behind-the-scenes discussion of cuts being on the
> table."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n913.a11.html
>
> ===
>
> (22) TOURISTS SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN A DUBAI
> JAIL FOR CARRYING
> SPECKS OF DRUGS
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2007
> Source: Times, The (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd
> Author: Michael Theodoulou
>
> Two Britons visiting Dubai have each been jailed
> for four years for
> possessing tiny amounts of soft drugs for personal
> use.
>
> The harsh sentences highlight the zero-tolerance
> policy to all drugs
> enforced by the authorities in the United Arab
> Emirates, a
> federation of seven Gulf states. A mere speck of a
> drug forgotten in
> a trouser pocket can bring a four-year jail term.
>
> One of the Britons, aged 22 and identified only by
> his initials, PP,
> was arrested at Dubai airport on June 7 when 0.11
> grams (0.04oz) of
> hashish were found in his bag, according to local
> media reports. The
> amount would barely be enough to make one joint.
>
> [snip]
>
> Since January last year possession of even trace
> amounts of illegal
> drugs has resulted in four-year jail terms for
> foreigners in transit
> through Dubai.
>
> "The presence of drugs in the body is counted
> as possession," the
> Foreign Office cautions. In other words,
> travellers can be jailed
> even if they have no drugs on them: a trace in the
> blood-stream of a
> drug consumed before entering the UAE is
> enough to secure a jail
> term.
>
> Such was the fate of an 18-year-old Egyptian
> boy who smoked a
> cigarette containing hashish a day before he
> flew to the UAE this
> year. Traces of the drug were found in his blood
> and he was jailed
> in April by a court in the emirate of
> Fujairah for four years.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n916.a04.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> SPLIFF SPLIT
>
> Why don't more Republicans oppose the DEA's
> medical marijuana raids?
>
> By Jacob Sullum, August 1, 2007
>
> http://www.reason.com/news/show/121689.html
>
> ===
>
> GETTING BUSTED FOR POT CAN COST YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE
>
> By Silja J.A. Talvi, In These Times, July 31, 2007.
>
> Once you've been arrested for the harsh
> anti-marijuana laws on the
> books, you can be denied everything from food
> stamps to voting
> rights to the right to adopt a child.
>
> http://alternet.org/drugreporter/58346/
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Tonight: 08/03/07 - Valerie Corral, director of
> Women's Alliance for
> Medical Marijuana
>
> Listen Live Fridays 8:00 PM, ET, 7:00 CT,
> 6:00 MT & 5:00 PT at
> http://www.kpft.org/
>
> Last: 07/27/07 - Eric Sterling, President Criminal
> Justice Policy
> Foundation and LEAP member, Drug War Facts,
> Poppygate, Dr. Mitch
> Earleywine on MJ plus Psychosis and Bruce
> Mirken of Marijuana
> Policy Project
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_072707.mp3
>
> ===
>
> RETURN WITH ME NOW TO THE THRILLING DAYS WHEN
> MARIJUANA WAS SPELLED
> WITH AN H
>
> Today is the 70th anniversary of the
> Marihuana Tax Act, which
> Franklin Roosevelt signed into law on August 2,
> 1937.
>
> By Jacob Sullum, August 2, 2007
>
> http://www.reason.com/blog/show/121724.html
>
> ===
>
> DRUG TREATMENT ISN'T A SILVER BULLET
>
> Memo to Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Al Gore III
>
> By Anthony Papa, AlterNet, August 3, 2007.
>
> It is time to treat addiction for what it is, a
> medical problem, not a
> criminal one -- even for celebrities who rely on
> rehab clinics to bail
> them out and continue driving down that road to
> oblivion.
>
> http://www.alternet.org/story/58672/
>
> ===
>
> MORE SHODDY REEFER MADNESS REPORTING OF CANNABIS
> RISKS
>
> By Steve Rolles, Transform Drug Policy Foundation
>
>
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-shoddy-reefer-madness-reporting\
-of.html
>
> ===
>
> A QUESTION FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
>
> Dean Becker of Houston Texas has a question
> to the Republican
> Candidates: The drug war has cost our nation more
> than $11 Trillion
> dollars thus far, is it not time to tax, regulate
> and actually control
> the distribution of these drugs to adults?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6TaJ_WQ89M
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> PLEASE REFUTE REEFER MANIA
>
> A DrugSense Focus Alert
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0351.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> CANNABIS HEALTH RISKS CALL FOR EDUCATION, NOT
> PROHIBITION
>
> By Paul Armentano
>
> Re: Marijuana's scary science, July 26.
>
> Columnist Margret Kopala's claims that cannabis
> use is a causal
> factor in mental illness are far from
> scientifically established. At
> best, an observable association between
> cannabis use and mental
> illness has been established in a minority of
> users; however, much
> of this association may stem from the use of
> other drugs or from
> individuals with psychotic symptoms
> self-medicating with marijuana.
>
> More important, such potential health risks
> associated with cannabis
> use -- when scientifically documented --
> should not be seen as
> legitimate reasons for criminal prohibition.
> Rather, such effects
> support the call for legally regulating marijuana
> so that officials
> can better educate users on its potential risks,
> and so that better
> safeguards may be enacted restricting its use
> among potentially
> vulnerable populations, especially young people.
>
> Ms. Kopala's remarks, even if taken at face
> value, no more warrant
> the continued criminalization of pot than does
> the desire that
> pregnant women refrain from alcohol warrant the
> blanket prohibition
> of booze.
>
> Paul Armentano, Washington, D.C. National
> Organization for the
> Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2007
> Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n898/a06.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> REEFER INANITY: NEVER TRUST THE MEDIA ON POT
>
> By Maia Szalavitz
>
> Watching the media cover marijuana is
> fascinating, offering deep
> insight into conventional wisdom, bias and failure
> to properly place
> science in context. The coverage of a new
> study claiming that
> marijuana increases the risk of later
> psychotic illnesses like
> schizophrenia by 40% displays many of these flaws.
>
> What are the key questions reporters writing
> about such a study
> needs to ask? First, can the research prove
> causality? Most of the
> reporting here, to its credit, establishes at
> some point that it
> cannot, though you have to read pretty far
> down in some of it to
> understand this.
>
> Second -- and this is where virtually all of the
> coverage falls flat
> - -- if marijuana produces what seems like such a
> large jump in risk
> for schizophrenia, have schizophrenia rates
> increased in line with
> marijuana use rates? A quick search of Medline
> shows that this is
> not the case -- in fact, as I noted here earlier,
> some experts think
> they may actually have fallen. Around the world,
> roughly 1% of the
> population has schizophrenia ( and another 2%
> or so have other
> psychotic disorders ), and this proportion
> doesn't seem to change
> much. It is not correlated with population use
> rates of marijuana.
>
> Since marijuana use rates have skyrocketed
> since the 1940's and
> 50's, going from single digit percentages of the
> population trying
> it to a peak of some 60% of high school seniors
> trying it in 1979 (
> stabilizing thereafter at roughly 50% of each
> high school class ),
> we would expect to see this trend have some
> visible effect on the
> prevalence of schizophrenia and other psychoses.
>
> When cigarette smoking barreled through the
> population, lung cancer
> rose in parallel; when smoking rates fell, lung
> cancer rates fell.
> This is not the case with marijuana and
> psychotic disorders; if it
> were, we'd be seeing an epidemic of psychosis.
>
> But readers of the AP, Bloomberg, The Washington
> Post, and Reuters
> were not presented with this information. While
> CBS/WebMD mentioned
> the absence of a surge in schizophrenia, it
> did so by quoting an
> advocate of marijuana policy reform, rather than
> citing a study or
> quoting a doctor. This slants the story by
> pitting an advocate with
> an agenda against a presumably neutral medical
> authority.
>
> Furthermore, very little of the coverage put the
> risk in context. A
> 40% increase in risk sounds scary, and this was
> the risk linked to
> trying marijuana once, not to heavy use. To
> epidemiologists,
> however, a 40% increase is not especially
> noteworthy-- they usually
> don't find risk factors worth worrying about
> until the number hits
> at least 200% and some major journals won't
> publish studies unless
> the risk is 300 or even 400%. The marijuana
> paper did find that
> heavy use increased risk by 200-300%, but that's
> hardly as sexy as
> try marijuana once, increase your risk of
> schizophrenia by nearly
> half!
>
> By contrast, one study found that alcohol has been
> found to increase
> the risk of psychosis by 800% for men and 300%
> for women. Although
> this study was not a meta-analysis ( which
> looks at multiple
> studies, as the marijuana research did ), it
> certainly is worth
> citing to help readers get a sense of the
> magnitude of the risk in
> comparison with other drugs linked to psychosis.
>
> Of course, if journalists wanted to do that,
> they would also cite
> researchers who disagree with the notion that
> marijuana poses a
> large risk of inducing psychosis at all, such
> as Oxford's Leslie
> Iversen, author of one of the key texts on
> psychopharmacology, who
> told the Times of London that
>
> "Despite a thorough review the authors admit
> that there is no
> conclusive evidence that cannabis use causes
> psychotic illness.
> Their prediction that 14 per cent of psychotic
> outcomes in young
> adults in the UK may be due to cannabis use is
> not supported by the
> fact that the incidence of schizophrenia has not
> shown any
> significant change in the past 30 years."
>
> Such comments don't help the media stir up
> reefer madness, which
> they've been doing, quite successfully, for the
> last few decades.
> Perhaps covering the marijuana beat makes you crazy.
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jul 2007
> Source: Huffington Post (US Web)
> Copyright: 2007 HuffingtonPost com, Inc.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Unthinking respect for authority is the
> greatest enemy of truth."
> -- Albert Einstein
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
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>
> Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content
> selection and analysis by
> Stephen Young (steve@...), Cannabis/Hemp
> content selection
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> (rlake@...), International
> content selection and analysis by Doug Snead
> (doug@...),
> This Just In selection, Hot Off The Net selection
> and Layout by Matt
> Elrod (webmaster@...). Analysis
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