> Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:20:56 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 10, 2007, #511
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
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>
> DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 10, 2007
> #511
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) U.S., Mexico In Talks To Bolster Drug Fight
> (2) Canada: Church Argues Marijuana A Sacrament
> (3) Column: And The Good News Is ...
> (4) LTE: Harsher Punishments Needed For
> Criminals
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) After 2 Years In Prison, A Man Is Free -
> Maybe
> (6) S.F. Scrambles To Fix Needle-Swap Program
> After Public Outcry
> (7) ACLU Protests Blanket Student Locker
> Searches
> (8) FBI Bows to Modern Realities, Eases Rules on
> Past Drug Use
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) Family Blames Cops In 80 Year-Old's Fatal
> Shooting
> (10) Getting Busted for Pot Can Cost Your Right
> to Vote
> (11) A Bust Goes Bust
> (12) DA Warns of Needle Exchange Problem
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (13) Pot Not A Police Priority, Deputy Chief
> Testifies At Trial
> (14) Huge Hemp Factory Set For Halesworth
> (15) Marijuana Crops Also Bad For Environment
> (16) Editorial: Marijuana Law Still Being Abused
>
> International News-
>
> (17) Afghanistan Expects Record Poppy Harvest
> (18) It's Easy For Soldiers To Score Heroin In
> Afghanistan
> (19) More Afghan Heroin Makes Way To Canada
> (20) Legalise Drugs To Beat Terrorists
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> They Can Hear You Now / By Jacob Sullum
> After The War On Drugs: Tools For The Debate
> Stars And Bars / By Daniel Lazare
> House Of Death Continues To Haunt Bush
> Administration / Bill Conroy
> FBI Changes Policy On Hiring Former Drug
> Users / Piper & Newman
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Texas Artist Preaches Freedom Philosophy
> Shamans Of The Amazon
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Common Sense For Drug Policy Public Service Ads
> Apply For A Drug Policy Reform Job
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> An Error Here / Francis A. Podrebarac, M.D.
>
> * Letter Writer Of The Month - July
>
> Bruce Mirken
>
> * Feature Article
>
> In Search Of A Presidential Candidate Who
> Will "Just Say No" /
> Jessica Peck Corry
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> P.J. O'Rourke
>
> 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
>
>
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>
> THIS JUST IN
>
=======================================================================
>
> (1) U.S., MEXICO IN TALKS TO BOLSTER DRUG FIGHT
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 09 Aug 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Sam Enriquez
>
> Amid Plans to Increase Levels of American Aid
> and Intelligence,
> Calderon Tries to Balance the Need for Security
> and Preservation of
> His Nation's Sovereignty.
>
> Mexico and the Bush administration are
> negotiating plans to greatly
> increase levels of U.S. aid and intelligence
> sharing on narcotics
> trafficking, presenting President Felipe Calderon
> with a politically
> challenging balancing act as his nation tries to
> stem runaway drug
> violence and assuage fears of a greater U.S. role
> in Mexican affairs.
>
> If approved by Congress, the reported aid package
> to Mexico would be
> well below the $5 billion Washington has spent
> fighting the cocaine
> industry in Colombia over the last seven years. But
> politically, such
> an agreement could mark a turning point in
> U.S.-Mexico relations,
> which for decades have been marked by mutual
> suspicion despite closer
> trade ties.
>
> Already, Mexico is installing a surveillance
> system, funded by the
> U.S. State Department, to enable eavesdropping
> on e-mails and
> cellphone calls.
>
> Further details of the new aid have been kept
> secret, but officials
> said Wednesday that proposals totaled hundreds of
> millions of dollars
> and included more surveillance, a national radar
> system, as well as
> communications systems, aircraft and training.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n944.a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) CANADA: CHURCH ARGUES MARIJUANA A SACRAMENT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2007
> Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
> Copyright: 2007 The Toronto Star
> Author: Tracey Tyler
>
> If some religions sip wine at the altar, others
> should be allowed to
> smoke pot. At least according to Rev. Edwin
> Pearson and Rev. Michel
> Ethier, two ordained ministers behind a proposed
> $25 million class
> action lawsuit challenging Canada's marijuana laws.
>
> The ministers, along with lay preacher James Hoad,
> allege the federal
> government is violating the religious freedom of
> members of the Church
> of the Universe, which claims marijuana as a
> "sacrament."
>
> In a statement of claim filed with the Federal
> Court of Canada, the
> trio accuses the government of harassing church
> members and "denuding"
> them of their dignity, often stopping them as
> they leave services
> seizing "sacramental cannabis" and rifling
> through parish records.
>
> [snip]
>
> The lawsuit, filed on behalf of as many as
> 4,000 church members,
> claims $9,000 in damages for each member for
> various breaches of the
> Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the alleged
> abuse of public office
> by unnamed government officials. The plaintiffs
> are also seeking $25
> million in punitive damages.
>
> The case is the latest gambit in the church's
> long-running battle
> against pot prohibitions. The basis of this latest
> challenge appears
> to be the plaintiffs' claim that since 2003,
> Canada has had no valid
> criminal law banning marijuana possession.
>
> That allegation might just "have some foundation
> in reality," says
> Toronto criminal lawyer Paul Burstein, who has no
> involvement in the
> case but extensive litigation experience in the
> area.
>
> Earlier this month, an Ontario Court judge in
> Toronto acquitted a man
> named Clifford Long, holding that Canada's
> marijuana possession laws
> are unconstitutional. Justice Howard
> Borenstein's verdict had its
> roots in a case decided by the Ontario Court of
> Appeal seven years
> ago. In that case, the court said the
> criminal prohibition on
> marijuana possession was unconstitutional
> because the law did not
> include provisions to allow medical users to obtain
> the drug legally.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n943.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) COLUMN: AND THE GOOD NEWS IS ...
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
> Copyright: 2007 The Calgary Sun
> Author: Rick Bell
>
> You want good news.
>
> It is good to see the cops out in full force on
> the downtown river
> pathway, the foot soldiers of Operation
> Riverwalk, a thin blue line
> standing up for us and against those who figure
> they can do what they
> damn well please.
>
> Yes, it is mighty good to see the drug-dealing
> dirtbags crawl back
> into their holes, nowhere to be seen, not smoking
> their crack in our
> faces, not selling their stuff shamelessly in open
> view, not looking
> to prey on an easy mark, not strutting around like
> they own the place
> when they contribute sweet tweet to this city except
> grief.
>
> And it is really good to hear citizens thank the
> badges and give a
> thumbs-up and a smile, feeling just that little
> bit safer as they go
> about their lives not wanting to be hassled. The
> folks closest to the
> idiots, who have no way to be sheltered from a rude
> reality, know the
> score all too well.
>
> Chico Ziegler is with his shopping cart and his
> bottles, standing on
> the sidelines yesterday afternoon.
>
> "Get rid of the crackheads. Take them all down.
> Either that or let
> them kill each other, then come back and pick up
> the aftermath," says
> Chico, offering some advice to all the police on
> patrol -- the vans,
> the cars, the bikes, the shoes on pavement.
>
> "I'm alive but I could sleep here and be
> stabbed or shot. The
> crackheads can slit your throat. You never know."
>
> [snip]
>
> And those going to work in the towers and in
> the storefronts see
> things they do not like, things making them feel
> nervous, no matter
> what public relations spin they hear.
>
> Acting Sgt. Scott Todd does not dismiss the
> attitude of unease. "If
> people say they don't feel safe, it's a legitimate
> belief. It doesn't
> matter what the statistics say, you can't tell
> them what to feel,"
> says Todd.
>
> People do have fears. They imagine nastiness
> happening to them. Is it
> perception? Is it real? Save such stuff for the
> shrinks.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n947.a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) LTE: HARSHER PUNISHMENTS NEEDED FOR CRIMINALS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Florida Today
> Author: K.D. Williams
>
> Americans are disgusted with light punishment of
> criminals.
>
> Only really bad murderers are sometimes
> executed after years of
> waiting, and everyone else gets tasty food,
> air conditioning,
> exercise, television, and other amenities in prison.
>
> Why? Liberal interpretation about what "cruel and
> unusual" punishment
> means, plus ignorant interpretation of Jesus'
> teachings by religious
> activists.
>
> Swift, severe punishment controls crime but
> lawyers and judges might
> lose their jobs.
>
> The Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if
> they could see what
> liberal judges and lawmakers have done for
> "justice." Horse thieves
> were once hanged and inmates had few of the
> "constitutional rights"
> that today's lawyer's demand.
>
> Jehovah was a merciless judge. Stoning of
> adulterers and rebellious
> children was condoned. Enemies of the Jews
> were wiped out by the
> thousands.
>
> Then along came Jesus of Nazareth, with
> messages of love and
> compassion. Modern day judges listen to "turn
> the other cheek" and
> "love your enemies" as something governments
> should implement.
>
> Wrong. That philosophy was about personal behavior.
>
> Stop burning millions of dollars in courtrooms over
> what is supposedly
> cruel, and let voters decide. Why not execute
> murderers, rapists,
> scammers, drug traffickers, and crooked politicians?
>
> Because most legislators are either crooked or
> tied to crooked
> associates.
>
> K.D. "Don" Williams,
>
> Palm Bay
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n947.a07.html
>
>
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>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> A slow week in drug war news with few
> surprises. For example, as
> usual, innocence is no excuse in the drug
> war in Florida. San
> Francisco tries to fix a needle exchange
> program in which too few
> needles are being returned compared to
> programs in other cities.
> Hawaiian civil libertarians protest student locker
> searches; and the
> FBI is further lifting restrictions on previous
> cannabis users as
> agents.
>
> ===
>
> (5) AFTER 2 YEARS IN PRISON, A MAN IS FREE - MAYBE
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2007
> Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 St. Petersburg Times
> Author: Colleen Jenkins, Times Staff Writer
>
> Prosecutors May Retry Him For Having 58 Pills
>
> TAMPA - Prosecutor Darrell Dirks couldn't help
> but be suspicious.
>
> He had offered Mark O'Hara an out on a 25-year
> prison sentence. All
> O'Hara had to do was tell prosecutors the truth
> about why he had 58
> Vicodin pills in his possession.
>
> But O'Hara, a bread business owner from Dunedin,
> wouldn't cooperate.
> Three years in prison didn't sound like a deal,
> given that a doctor
> had prescribed the pills.
>
> He took his chances at trial and lost.
>
> An appellate court overturned the drug
> trafficking conviction last
> month, two years after O'Hara went to prison.
> The court said the
> trial judge should have let O'Hara's lawyer
> tell jurors that it's
> legal to possess Vicodin with a prescription.
>
> Now, O'Hara waits for prosecutors to decide
> whether they will retry
> his case.
>
> In their minds, O'Hara's stubbornness sent him to
> prison.
>
> O'Hara's attorneys say he had no other choice.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n933/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) S.F. SCRAMBLES TO FIX NEEDLE-SWAP PROGRAM AFTER
> PUBLIC OUTCRY
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2007
> Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
> Author: Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> City officials and nonprofit agency leaders,
> responding to an outcry
> over used syringes littering parks, say they are
> looking at ways to
> reform San Francisco's needle-exchange program -
> including locked,
> 24-hour syringe drop boxes and technologically
> advanced syringes.
>
> The city's needle-exchange program gives out 2.4
> million needles a
> year and receives 65 to 70 percent of them back
> after they're used.
> Other cities - including Portland, Seattle and
> jurisdictions
> throughout New Mexico - have return rates of
> well over 90 percent.
>
> In San Francisco, The Chronicle reported
> recently, many unreturned
> needles wind up in parks, playgrounds and other
> outdoor expanses.
>
> "We can recover a lot more needles," said Mark
> Cloutier, executive
> director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation,
> which runs most of
> the city's needle-exchange sites. "We
> understand it's a public
> health problem, and we're excited about the
> attention that's
> happening."
>
> Cloutier said a locked, 24-hour biohazard drop box
> will be installed
> on Sixth Street within the next six weeks. It
> will be available for
> anonymous needle drop-off any time, sort of
> like drop boxes for
> library books or rented movies. The AIDS
> Foundation likely will test
> it for six months but expects to open others
> around the city.
>
> "We're not going to put it in the middle of Union
> Square," he said.
> "It's where people can experience some anonymity."
>
> As it is now, injection drug users usually
> return their used
> syringes during the hours needle exchanges or
> health clinics are
> open. The AIDS Foundation operates seven
> exchange sites around the
> city, each of which is open two to four hours a
> week.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n921/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) ACLU PROTESTS BLANKET STUDENT LOCKER SEARCHES
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2007
> Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
> Copyright: 2007 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
> Author: Alexandre Da Silva
>
> It Says a Push to Allow Principals Access With No
> Cause Is Worrisome
>
> The American Civil Liberties Union is
> protesting a state push to
> allow drug-sniffing dogs in public schools and
> let officials open
> students' lockers without establishing
> reasonable suspicion.
>
> The state Department of Education argues that
> changes to the student
> discipline code known as Chapter 19 are
> needed to make campuses
> safer.
>
> The revisions come as education officials are
> considering expanding
> a pilot program through which a drug-sniffing
> dog found marijuana
> and several liquor bottles at all three Maui
> public schools it
> visited this spring.
>
> Members of a Board of Education committee
> debating the revisions to
> Chapter 19 agree the code needs to be updated
> with definitions like
> cyberbullying, forgery and hazing; and a
> prohibition of gadgets like
> laser pointers, iPods and DVD players, as well as
> gang
> paraphernalia, on school grounds.
>
> The issue of locker searches has been more
> controversial.
>
> "I think that if you are on a school campus,
> that it's not really
> your own personal property," said board
> Chairwoman Karen Knudsen.
> "But if the dog is specifically trained to be
> able to detect drugs,
> I don't see that that should be a problem if you
> don't have drugs."
>
> But Laurie Temple, a Hawaii ACLU attorney, said
> giving principals
> access to students' lockers at any time without
> reason or cause is
> "unnecessary, potentially unconstitutional and
> opens the schools up
> to liability."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n927/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) FBI BOWS TO MODERN REALITIES, EASES RULES ON
> PAST DRUG USE
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
> Source: Washington Post (DC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
> Author: Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Policy Change Comes as Agency Struggles to Fill
> Openings
>
> The buttoned-down FBI is loosening up: Under a
> little-noticed new
> hiring policy introduced this year, job applicants
> with a history of
> drug use will no longer be disqualified from
> employment throughout
> the bureau.
>
> Old guidelines barred FBI employment to anyone who
> had used
> marijuana more than 15 times in their lives or
> who had tried other
> illegal narcotics more than five times.
>
> But those strict numbers no longer apply.
> Applicants for jobs such
> as analysts, programmers or special agents
> must still swear that
> they have not used any illegal substances
> recently -- three years
> for marijuana and 10 years for other drugs -- but
> they are no longer
> ruled out of consideration because of more
> frequent drug use in the
> past.
>
> Such tolerance of admitted lawbreaking might
> seem odd for the FBI,
> whose longtime director J. Edgar Hoover once
> railed against young
> thugs filled with "false courage from a
> Marijuana cigarette."
>
> But FBI officials say the move is simply an
> acknowledgment of
> reality in a country where, according to some
> estimates, up to a
> third of the population has tried marijuana at some
> point.
>
> The loosened standards also come as the FBI
> struggles to fill the
> jobs it has -- particularly in the areas of
> counterterrorism and
> intelligence, which draw from a more varied pool
> of applicants than
> traditional agent positions.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n938/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-12)
>
> The drug war claims another innocent victim, this
> time in
> Jacksonville, Florida, where an 80 year-old man
> was shot and killed
> by undercover officers after he assumed they
> were drug dealers and
> confronted them about being on his property.
>
> Even a minor bust can claim a citizen's voting
> rights too.
>
> And Texas justice is interesting as always.
> In Dallas, a former
> officer is making accusations of high level
> corruption; while in
> Bexar County, the local DA says police may be
> unable to control
> themselves from busting a needle exchange,
> despite a new law from
> the legislature.
>
> ===
>
> (9) FAMILY BLAMES COPS IN 80-YEAR-OLD's FATAL
> SHOOTING
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2007
> Source: Savannah Morning News (GA)
> Copyright: 2007 Savannah Morning News
> Author: Bridget Murphy
>
> JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - If anyone besides police
> had fatally shot
> 80-year-old Issac Singletary on his own
> Jacksonville property,
> they'd be charged with murder and in jail
> awaiting justice, his
> family said Friday.
>
> Standing on the front lawn of the Westmont
> Street property where
> police fired four shots that killed Singletary six
> months ago Friday
> during an undercover drug operation, some local
> leaders along with
> the family's lawyers demanded that the police
> officers be held
> accountable.
>
> Singletary came outside on Jan. 27 to tell two
> undercover detectives
> he mistook for drug dealers to get off his
> property, "which the law
> said he had every right to do," lawyer
> Benjamin Crump said, also
> standing with local NAACP President Isaiah
> Rumlin and state Sen.
> Tony Hill.
>
> Crump said Singletary's autopsy report shows
> police shot the man
> four times, including once in the back,
> something else that makes
> the family believe that authorities used excessive
> force.
>
> In April, State Attorney Harry Shorstein
> cleared police of any
> criminal wrongdoing in the case, although he
> found some aspects of
> it troubling. After one police official
> changed stories about
> whether he believed Singletary or a detective
> fired first, Shorstein
> said police actions were justified anyway since
> the 80-year-old man
> was an armed civilian who refused orders to drop his
> gun.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n916/a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) GETTING BUSTED FOR POT CAN COST YOUR RIGHT TO
> VOTE
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2007
> Source: AlterNet (US Web)
> Copyright: 2007 Independent Media Institute
> Author: Silja J. A. Talvi
>
> When a person is sent to prison for the first time
> on a drug-related
> felony charge, there is little chance that he
> or she will be told
> about the "collateral consequences" of their
> sentence.
>
> The severity of these residual punishments
> depends on the state.
> "Life Sentences: The Collateral Sanctions
> Associated with Marijuana
> Offenses," a report released in July by the
> Center for Cognitive
> Liberty and Ethics ( CCLE ), ranks Florida,
> Delaware, Alabama,
> Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Virginia,
> Utah, Arizona and
> South Carolina as the 10 states with the worst
> records for
> continuing the punishments of people who have
> already served their
> time.
>
> "Life Sentences" author Richard Boire writes
> that the long-term
> sanctions for drug crimes, even for relatively
> benign drugs like
> marijuana, can exceed those of violent crimes
> like premeditated
> assault, rape and murder. Intense
> criminalization of drugs began
> with the Nixon administration, which ignored
> its own appointed
> "marihuana" commission's recommendation that
> legalization for
> personal use was a logical alternative to
> costly and ineffective
> criminalization. The drug war intensified during
> the Reagan era and
> has since grown worse: Today, fully 45 percent of
> 1.5 million annual
> drug arrests are related to marijuana.
>
> Up until the early '90s, people who smoked pot
> were rarely arrested
> in large numbers. If sentenced, most users and
> small-time dealers
> did not face long sentences. That has
> changed. According to the
> Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project,
> marijuana-related arrests
> jumped up by 113 percent from 1990 to 2002,
> while overall drug
> arrests only increased by three percent during
> that time. Meanwhile,
> the Office of National Drug Control Policy (
> ONDCP ) has linked
> smoking weed to everything from teen violence to
> terrorism.
>
> "ONDCP's crusade seems to get more incoherent
> and detached from
> reality every day," says Bruce Mirken,
> communications director for
> the Marijuana Policy Project. "One minute they
> say marijuana makes
> you an apathetic slug, the next they say it turns
> you into a violent
> gangbanger. Neither has the remotest connection
> with reality, and
> these latest claims of a link between
> marijuana and violence are
> based on shameless manipulation of statistics
> taken completely out
> of context."
>
> Government-funded propaganda has been
> disseminated everywhere, from
> ads in some progressive magazines, to press
> releases regurgitated as
> "news" on cable stations like FOX News, to websites
> such as
> BlackNews.com, which recently posted an ONDCP
> article, "Early
> Marijuana Use an Early Warning Sign for Gang
> Involvement." For all
> of its hoopla about the consequences of drug
> use, the ONDCP hasn't
> shown an interest in documenting the problems
> faced by those
> convicted of felony drug charges after release.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n913/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) A BUST GOES BUST
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2007
> Source: Dallas Observer (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 New Times, Inc.
> Author: Matt Pulle
>
> A Former Dallas Police Officer Says Her
> Partner Had No Right To
> Search A Car For Drugs
>
> On an April evening in 2006, two police officers
> were patrolling a
> crime-ridden neighborhood in Northwest Dallas, a
> few miles south of
> Love Field. One cop was a respected veteran, the
> other a rookie less
> than a month out of the academy, now learning
> on the job. The two
> saw a BMW pull out of a dilapidated apartment
> complex where drugs
> are often peddled.
>
> Suspicious that the driver of the car may have
> just hooked up with a
> dealer, they looked for an excuse to stop the
> vehicle for a traffic
> violation.
>
> When the driver rolled through a stop sign on
> a right turn onto
> Maple Avenue, the officers pulled the car over
> into a lit parking
> lot.
>
> The veteran officer, David W. Kattner, approached
> the vehicle on the
> driver's side window, while the rookie, Shanna
> Lopez, took the
> passenger side. Both shined their flashlights into
> the BMW.
> According to the police report, Kattner could
> clearly see a
> bright-blue plastic bottle top with an
> attached spoon, which is
> commonly used for snorting cocaine.
>
> On the tip of the spoon, he saw a residue of white
> powder.
>
> Also, on the passenger seat, they saw a pink
> plastic straw, which
> appeared to contain a powdery white substance.
>
> They arrested the driver, a Mongolian woman
> named Buyandelger
> Galbadrakh, and Kattner searched the vehicle and
> found meth, ecstasy
> and coke. That night they took her to the
> Dallas County jail and
> booked her on felony drug possession charges.
>
> It was just another routine drug arrest in a bad
> part of town, but
> more than a year later, it may come back to
> haunt a department
> reeling from accusations that at least three
> of its officers may
> have written fake tickets and made false arrests.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n928/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) DA WARNS OF NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROBLEM
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 02 Aug 2007
> Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
> Author: Don Finley, Express-News Medical Writer
>
> In a move that could threaten a pilot syringe
> exchange program for
> drug addicts in Bexar County, District
> Attorney Susan Reed has
> warned local officials that the legislation
> authorizing it doesn't
> trump the state's narcotics laws.
>
> "I'm telling them, and I'm telling the police
> chief, I don't think
> they have any kind of criminal immunity," Reed
> said. "That's the
> bottom line. It has nothing to do with whether
> they do it or don't
> do it -- other than if you do it you might find
> yourself in jail."
>
> An attorney general's opinion likely will be
> sought to resolve the
> issue, Reed and others said, which at best could
> delay the start of
> the program until sometime next year.
>
> An amendment attached to Medicaid legislation
> by state Rep. Ruth
> Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, in the waning hours
> of the
> legislative session authorized the pilot
> program here, after her
> bill that would have permitted such programs
> statewide died in
> committee.
>
> McClendon said she might seek an attorney
> general's opinion on the
> matter, which could take as long as six months.
> That would make it
> difficult for local authorities to gather
> enough evidence of the
> program's success -- should it prove
> successful -- to show the
> Legislature when it meets again in 2009. Supporters
> hope a
> successful local program will ease passage of a
> statewide bill next
> time.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n928/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (13-16)
>
> The constitutional challenge to Canada's
> marijuana laws and
> regulations under the Canadian Charter of Rights
> and Freedoms being
> heard in the British Columbia Supreme Court
> may be the most
> important challenge of this decade. The first
> hearings were in May.
> More testimony is scheduled for later this year.
> The constitutional
> challenge contends government regulations force
> Canadians onto the
> black market to buy marijuana. That
> interferes with the charter
> right to life, liberty and security of person, a
> position supported
> by other court rulings.
>
> While United States farmers, and a growing
> number of states,
> struggle to convince the DEA that they should
> be allowed to grow
> hemp like their Canadian counterparts, we read
> about how easily the
> British treat hemp for what it is.
>
> There is a growing awareness of the damage
> caused by marijuana
> gardens hidden in forests, as the report below
> notes.
>
> From a California newspaper which has supported
> Proposition 215 in
> the past comes a call for a new initiative to
> bring into check the
> excesses which it believes the voters never
> intended. If you have
> been following the news from California you
> should be aware that a
> backlash is growing. Could California be faced
> with an initiative
> which would roll back some of the medicinal
> marijuana progress of
> the past decade? An initiative to do just that
> in Oregon appears
> likely to be on the ballot.
>
> ===
>
> (13) POT NOT A POLICE PRIORITY, DEPUTY CHIEF
> TESTIFIES AT TRIAL
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
> Author: Richard Watts, Times Colonist
>
> Victoria's No. 2 cop testified in B.C. Supreme
> Court yesterday that
> neither the Vancouver Island Compassion Society
> nor its distribution
> of medical marijuana has ever been the
> subject of a criminal
> investigation.
>
> Deputy Chief Bill Naughton said the society's
> Cormorant Street
> office of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society
> has not generated
> any complaints, adding marijuana ranks behind
> drugs like cocaine,
> methamphetamine and heroin in terms of Victoria
> police priorities.
>
> "The enforcement of federal laws against
> marijuana takes a back
> seat," said Naughton, who was subpoenaed by the
> defence in the trial
> of Michael Swallow, 41, and Mat Beren, 33.
>
> Both men were charged with possession of
> marijuana for the purpose
> of trafficking and production of marijuana after
> a police raid on a
> compassion club grow-op.
>
> In fact, it was the RCMP, not Victoria
> police, who in May 2004
> raided the house near Sooke used by the Vancouver
> Island Compassion
> Society to grow marijuana for its 600-odd
> members. Compassion club
> is the name commonly given to groups organized by
> citizens to supply
> marijuana as medicine.
>
> Swallow and Beren's lawyers have mounted a
> constitutional challenge
> to Canada's medical-marijuana regulations,
> contending they force
> people to obtain drugs on the black market.
>
> That's because, critics say, government-produced
> pot is poor
> quality, and rules for designated growers are
> too restrictive.
>
> Also testifying yesterday in Victoria was
> Senator Pierre Claude
> Nolin, who chaired the Senate Special Committee
> on Illegal Drugs,
> which called in 2002 for the legalization of
> marijuana in Canada.
>
> Nolin told the court the regulations, as they
> currently exist, are
> an obstacle to Canadians who want access to
> medical marijuana.
>
> He said the rules ask doctors to be
> "gatekeepers" for access to
> legal marijuana. It's a role doctors don't
> want, and so Canadians
> are being denied access to a medical product.
>
> "[The] medical profession is reluctant,
> generally reluctant," he
> said. "They don't want to be the gatekeepers,
> they don't want that
> responsibility."
>
> Canada's medical-marijuana laws, developed in
> response to earlier
> court rulings, allow citizens to use marijuana
> for medical purposes
> - for example, for relief from seizures or
> nausea. But approval
> requires a doctor to fill out and sign a form.
>
> Patients can then grow their own marijuana,
> designate someone to
> grow it for them or buy it from the government,
> which has hired a
> company to grow pot in Flin Flon, Man.
>
> Nolin, a Tory, said it would be more effective to
> have the
> government control the flow of marijuana through
> licensed
> distribution centres set up across the country.
>
> "We need to have a controlled environment," he said.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n946/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (14) HUGE HEMP FACTORY SET FOR HALESWORTH
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 8 Aug 2007
> Source: East Anglian Daily Times (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Archant
> Author: David Green
>
> THE WORLD'S biggest factory for processing hemp -
> claimed to be the
> "green" building material of the future - is
> being planned for a
> Suffolk town at a cost of UKP3.6 million.
>
> When running at full capacity the plant will
> employ 35 people and
> enable operator, Hemcore Limited, the UK's
> only commercial hemp
> processing company, to process 50,000 tonnes of
> hemp straw a year.
>
> [snip]
>
> Use of hemp-based products would help the UK to
> reduce its carbon
> emissions. Emerging markets included plastics
> reinforcement,
> nutrition, clothing and horticulture, he added.
>
> [snip]
>
> Hemp, which grows up to four metres high, is
> tolerant of both
> drought and heavy rain and does not require
> pesticides.
>
> Environment Minister, Phil Woolas, said: "This
> new investment in
> Suffolk will provide many benefits - for local
> jobs, the economy,
> and for those farmers who will have the
> opportunity to help meet
> increased demand for this crop.
>
> "It also gives a clear signal that the UK is serious
> about
> developing the bio-economy because of the many
> benefits it can
> provide - including reducing greenhouse gases,
> cutting waste and
> pollution and helping biodiversity."
>
> Hemp is a member of the cannabis family but has
> virtually no drug
> content. It has been used to make textiles for at
> least 6,000 years
> and was once widely cultivated in the UK to
> produce fibre for sails
> and rigging.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n945/a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) MARIJUANA CROPS ALSO BAD FOR ENVIRONMENT
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2007
> Source: Record, The (Stockton, CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Record
> Author: Alex Breitler, Record Staff Writer
>
> Toxic Poisons, Waste Foul Public Lands
>
> Come September, marijuana growers who have
> labored for five months
> in some of California's most remote country
> will abandon their
> secret gardens, taking their multimillion-dollar
> crops.
>
> What will they leave behind? Irrigation tubes
> that snake for a mile
> or more over forested ridges. Pesticides that
> have drained into
> creeks and entered the food chain, sickening
> wildlife. Piles of
> trash and human waste in the most rugged and
> bucolic drainages.
>
> The environmental consequences of marijuana gardens
> - or
> plantations, as they're more aptly called -
> are increasingly
> apparent as law enforcement continues its
> statewide crackdown on the
> illicit operations.
>
> [snip]
>
> Another concern revolves around endangered
> species. Pesticides are
> used to keep rodents out of the marijuana; those
> rodents, including
> wood rats, are a primary food source for the
> California spotted owl.
>
> At Whiskeytown National Recreation Area near
> Redding, park rangers
> investigating a tadpole die-off in a creek
> wandered upstream and
> found a small dam in which someone had
> rigged an open can of
> fertilizer. According to testimony later
> delivered before Congress,
> rangers crawled on their bellies up steep slopes
> and found marijuana
> gardens perched atop cliffs.
>
> Supporters of legalizing marijuana say the
> environmental destruction
> that accompanies these hidden gardens would
> not occur if pot was
> treated like any legal agricultural product.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n933/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) EDITORIAL: MARIJUANA LAW STILL BEING ABUSED
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2007
> Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Ukiah Daily Journal
>
> [snip]
>
> While Prop. 215, the medical marijuana law,
> allows patients to
> appoint caregivers to grow their marijuana for
> them, we believe the
> vast majority who voted for Prop. 215 did not
> mean for it to allow
> any local resident to start growing enormous
> quantities of marijuana
> for people in San Francisco. We also believe
> that anyone who takes
> even one thin dime in return, is nothing more than
> a drug dealer. We
> believe medical marijuana caregivers are intended
> to be construed as
> caregivers are in other health care arenas: people
> who have personal
> contact with a patient and who care for them in
> many ways, not just
> by growing marijuana for them at a distance of
> hundreds of miles and
> then selling it to cooperatives. The law does
> not cite medical
> marijuana patients and their appointed "growers." It
> cites
> caregivers. That is something very different
> which has been twisted
> out of all proportion by people who are making
> big bucks using our
> neighborhoods to grow pot under false pretenses.
>
> We think it may be time for a new statewide
> ballot measure to amend
> Prop. 215 to specify exactly - and limit - what a
> caregiver is, how
> many plants can be grown by one person, and
> provide for local
> governments to regulate medical marijuana as they
> see fit as long as
> patients have access to marijuana - which we
> believe can be provided
> through local government growing programs in
> places like county jail
> gardens.
>
> It's time to bring Prop. 215 back to the
> compassionate law it was
> intended to be, not the drug dealer's haven it is
> now.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n943/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (17-20)
>
> The policies of prohibition once again brings a
> bumper harvest of
> opium from Afghanistan, news this week confirms.
> NATO has allocated
> some $475 million for "counternarcotics" there,
> but the allies can't
> decide how best to spend it. Gung-ho Washington
> prohibitionists are
> trembling with excitement at the prospect of
> using additional
> "coercive" tactics spending the loot. "[Opium
> farmers] need to be
> dealt with in a more severe way... There
> needs to be a coercive
> element, that's something we're not going to
> back away from or shy
> away from," proclaimed Tom Schweich, the
> State Department's top
> counternarcotics official. Others, including
> even the U.S. ONDCP,
> ironically, say use of more force "will drive
> farmers with no other
> income to join extremists."
>
> Just like Vietnam was back in the 1960s,
> modern Afghanistan is
> becoming a heroin bazaar for U.S. troops, according
> to an
> investigative report by Shaun McCanna in this
> week's Salon magazine.
> Detailing the ease which U.S. troops can score
> heroin near the big
> U.S. base at Bagram, McCanna looks at heroin
> addiction in the ranks.
> What can troops expect if they're caught using
> heroin? "They don't
> do anything to you... Two from my unit were sent
> home after they got
> caught more than once... They're still in the
> unit. Just got sent
> home."
>
> Canada's Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen
> Harper, for well over
> a year now, has dramatically increased the number
> of Canadian troops
> in Afghanistan. Now we are informed by the
> RCMP, that, lo and
> behold, more heroin from Afghanistan now
> "makes its way" back to
> Canada. "It's clear: there is a disaster there.
> Nobody can say that
> it's working. It's not working," said Thomas
> Pietschmann, researcher
> and author of the UN drug report warning of a
> flood of Afghan heroin
> headed for Canada.
>
> And we leave you this week with a plea from
> professor of European
> political economy Willem Buiter, which
> appeared in the Financial
> Times this week. "As an economist with a
> strong commitment to
> personal liberty and responsibility, my
> preference would be to see
> all illegal drugs legalised... Following
> legalisation, the
> production and sale of these drugs should be
> regulated to ensure
> quality and purity. They should also be
> taxed, as are tobacco
> products and alcoholic beverages... The
> principle-based argument for
> legalisation is that behaviour that harms
> others ought to be
> criminalised, not behaviour that hurts only the
> person engaged in
> it." Hard to put it any better than that.
>
> ===
>
> (17) AFGHANISTAN EXPECTS RECORD POPPY HARVEST
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 05 Aug 2007
> Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 San Jose Mercury News
> Author: Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - Afghanistan will produce
> another record poppy
> harvest this year that cements its status as the
> world's near-sole
> supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious
> debate over how to
> reverse the trend is stalling proposals to
> cut the crop, U.S.
> officials say.
>
> As President Bush prepares for weekend talks
> with Afghan President
> Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S.
> administration and among
> NATO allies have delayed release of a $475
> million counternarcotics
> program for Afghanistan, where intelligence
> officials see growing
> links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials
> said.
>
> U.N. figures to be released in September are
> expected to show that
> Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15
> percent since 2006
> and that the country now accounts for 95
> percent of the world's
> crop, 3 percentage points more than last year,
> officials familiar
> with preliminary statistics told The Associated
> Press.
>
> [snip]
>
> The program represents a 13 percent increase
> over the $420 million
> in U.S. counternarcotics aid to Afghanistan
> last year. It would
> adopt a bold new approach to "coercive
> eradication" and set out
> criteria for local officials to receive
> development assistance based
> on their cooperation, the officials said.
>
> [snip]
>
> "Afghanistan is providing close to 95 percent
> of the world's
> heroin," the State Department's top
> counternarcotics official, Tom
> Schweich, said at a recent conference. "That
> makes it almost a
> sole-source supplier" and presents a situation
> "unique in world
> history."
>
> [snip]
>
> Schweich, an advocate of the now-stalled plan,
> has argued for more
> vigorous eradication efforts, particularly in
> southern Helmand
> province, responsible for some 80 percent of
> Afghanistan's poppy
> production. It is where, he says, growers
> must be punished for
> ignoring good-faith appeals to switch to
> alternative, but less
> lucrative, crops.
>
> "They need to be dealt with in a more severe
> way," he said at the
> conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic
> and International
> Studies. "There needs to be a coercive
> element, that's something
> we're not going to back away from or shy away from."
>
> But, in fact, many question whether this is the
> right approach with
> Afghanistan mired in poverty and in the throes of
> an insurgency run
> by the Taliban and residual al-Qaida forces.
>
> Along with Britain, whose troops patrol
> Helmand, elements in the
> State Department, U.S. Agency for International
> Development, the
> Defense Department and White House Office of
> National Drug Control
> Policy have expressed concern, saying that
> more raids will drive
> farmers with no other income to join extremists.
>
> There is also skepticism about the incentives
> in the new strategy
> from those who believe development assistance
> should not be denied
> to local communities because of poppy growth,
> officials said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n931.a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (18) IT'S EASY FOR SOLDIERS TO SCORE HEROIN IN
> AFGHANISTAN
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2007
> Source: Salon (US Web)
> Copyright: 2007 Salon
> Author: Shaun McCanna
>
> Simultaneously Stressed and Bored, U.S. Soldiers
> Are Turning to the
> Widely Available Drug for a Quick Escape.
>
> [snip]
>
> The true extent of the heroin problem among
> American soldiers now
> serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is unknown.
>
> At Bagram, according to a written statement provided
> by a
> spokesperson for the base, Army Maj. Chris
> Belcher, the "Military
> Police receive few reports of alcohol or drug
> issues." The military
> has statistics on how many troops failed drug
> tests, but the best
> information on long-term addiction comes from
> the U.S. Veterans
> Administration. The VA is the world's largest
> provider of substance
> abuse services, caring for more than 350,000
> veterans per year, of
> whom about 30,000 are being treated for opiate
> addiction.
>
> [snip]
>
> Experts think it could be a decade before the
> true scope of heroin
> use in Iraq and Afghanistan is known.
>
> Dr. Jodie Trafton, a healthcare specialist with
> the VA's Center for
> Health Care Evaluation in Palo Alto, Calif.,
> says it takes five or
> 10 years after a conflict for veterans to
> enter the system in
> significant numbers.
>
> The VA has recently seen a surge in cases from the
> first U.S. war in
> Iraq. "We're just starting to get a lot of Gulf
> War veterans," she
> explains.
>
> For the first few years after a conflict, it's
> hard to gauge the
> number of soldiers who've developed a substance
> problem.
>
> [snip]
>
> The anecdotal information, however, suggests
> there may be a wave of
> new patients coming, and it will include many heroin
> users.
>
> [snip]
>
> I asked to buy heroin a dozen times during two
> trips a year apart
> and never heard the word "no"; I also saw
> ample evidence that
> soldiers were trading sensitive military
> equipment, like computer
> drives and bulletproof vests, for drugs.
>
> Other soldiers who have served at Bagram agree:
> Heroin, they say "is
> everywhere." And although they haven't shown up
> in the statistics
> yet, reports from methadone clinics suggest the
> VA's future patients
> may already be back in the States in force.
>
> Much like the caskets that return to the Dover Air
> Force base in the
> dead of night, America's new addicts are
> returning undetected.
>
> Back in the States, it is not difficult to find
> a soldier who has
> returned from Afghanistan with an addiction.
>
> [snip]
>
> "They don't do anything to you [for using]," a
> reservist tells me.
> "Two from my unit were sent home after they
> got caught more than
> once." What happened to them? "Nothing. They're
> still in the unit.
> Just got sent home." Are they still using?
> "Don't know. I never
> asked."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n943.a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (19) MORE AFGHAN HEROIN MAKES WAY TO CANADA
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2007
> Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
> Copyright: 2007 The Halifax Herald Limited
> Author: Steve Rennie, Canadian Press
>
> Counter-Narcotics Efforts Clearly Flawed, Says
> Report
> Researcher
>
> The Mounties have warned at least two federal
> agencies that Afghan
> heroin is "increasingly" making its way to Canada
> and poses a direct
> threat to the public despite millions of dollars
> from Ottawa to fund
> the war-torn country' s counter-narcotics
> efforts, newly released
> documents reveal.
>
> "The RCMP informs us that Afghan heroin is
> increasingly ending up
> on, or is destined for Canadian streets," say
> Foreign Affairs and
> Defence Department briefings, obtained
> separately by The Canadian
> Press under the Access to Information Act.
>
> The Afghan-produced heroin "directly threatens"
> Canadians, say the
> identically worded briefings.
>
> Paul Nadeau, the director of the RCMP's drug
> branch in Ottawa, said
> about 60 per cent of the heroin on Canadian
> streets comes from
> Afghanistan.
>
> [snip]
>
> Roughly 92 per cent of the world's heroin comes
> from opium poppies
> grown in Afghanistan, according to the 2007
> World Drug Report,
> released in June by the United Nations Office on
> Drugs.
>
> [snip]
>
> The Afghan counter-narcotics programs are
> co-ordinated by that
> country's national drug control strategy. But
> the drug control
> strategy is badly flawed, said Thomas
> Pietschmann, a researcher who
> authored the UN drug report.
>
> "It's clear: there is a disaster there. Nobody
> can say that it's
> working. It's not working," Pietschmann said
> from his office in
> Vienna, Austria.
>
> [snip]
>
> Pietschmann said it's "extremely logical" that
> there's more Afghan
> heroin on Canadian streets because of a spike in
> the central Asian
> nation's opium poppy production.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n935.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) LEGALISE DRUGS TO BEAT TERRORISTS
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
> Source: Financial Times (UK)
> Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2007
> Author: Willem Buiter
>
> The UK government is considering reclassifying
> cannabis from a class
> C drug to a class B drug, carrying higher
> penalties for using and
> dealing. As an economist with a strong
> commitment to personal
> liberty and responsibility, my preference would
> be to see all
> illegal drugs legalised. The only exception
> would be substances
> whose consumption leads to behaviour likely to
> cause material harm
> to others.
>
> Following legalisation, the production and sale
> of these drugs
> should be regulated to ensure quality and
> purity. They should also
> be taxed, as are tobacco products and alcoholic
> beverages. Greater
> resources should be devoted to educating the
> public, especially
> children and teenagers, about the health hazards
> associated with the
> drugs; more money should be spent on the
> rehabilitation of addicts.
>
> [snip]
>
> The principle-based argument for legalisation is
> that behaviour that
> harms others ought to be criminalised, not
> behaviour that hurts only
> the person engaged in it. It is not the
> government's job to protect
> adults of sound mind from the predictable
> consequences of their
> actions.
>
> [snip]
>
> Parents should be paternalistic, but when it
> comes to mentally
> competent grown-ups the state should not be. It is
> not the
> responsibility of the state to ensure our
> "happiness" - whatever
> that is. That is the road to a Brave New World.
>
> [snip]
>
> The United Nations estimates that opium
> production in Afghanistan
> grew to more than 6,000 metric tonnes last
> year with a value
> exceeding $3bn. It is the origin of more than
> 90 per cent of the
> world's illegally consumed opiates.
>
> A significant portion of the profits flows to
> the Taliban, who act
> as middlemen in the opium business. They
> combine extortion and
> threats of violence towards the poppy farmers
> with the sale of
> protection to these same farmers against those
> who would destroy
> their livelihood, mainly the Nato allies and
> the Afghan central
> government.
>
> Following legalisation, the allies in
> Afghanistan could further
> undermine the financial strength of the
> Taliban and al-Qaeda by
> buying up the entire poppy harvest. If a
> sufficient premium over the
> prevailing market price were offered, the
> Taliban/al-Qaeda
> middle-man could be cut out altogether, and thus
> would lose his tax
> base. Winning the hearts and minds of poppy
> growers and coca growers
> is a lot easier when you are not seen as intent
> on destroying their
> livelihood.
>
> [snip]
>
> So legalise, regulate, tax, educate and
> rehabilitate. Stop a losing
> war, get the government off our backs, beat the
> Taliban and deal a
> blow to al-Qaeda in the process. Not a bad deal!
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n941.a06.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> THEY CAN HEAR YOU NOW
>
> Congress protects America from privacy
>
> By Jacob Sullum, August 8, 2007
>
> http://www.reason.com/news/show/121806.html
>
> ===
>
> AFTER THE WAR ON DRUGS: TOOLS FOR THE DEBATE
>
> Transform's latest publication is now available
> to download in PDF
> format. After the War on Drugs: Tools for the
> debate is a 76 page
> guide to making the case for drug policy reform.
>
>
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2007/08/after-war-on-drugs-tools-for-debate.\
html
>
> ===
>
> STARS AND BARS
>
> By Daniel Lazare
>
> How can you tell when a democracy is dead? When
> concentration camps
> spring up and everyone shivers in fear? Or is it
> when concentration
> camps spring up and no one shivers in fear
> because everyone knows
> they're not for "people like us" (in Woody Allen's
> marvelous phrase)
> but for the others, the troublemakers, the
> ones you can tell are
> guilty merely by the color of their skin, the
> shape of their nose or
> their social class?
>
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070827/lazare
>
> ===
>
> HOUSE OF DEATH CONTINUES TO HAUNT BUSH
> ADMINISTRATION
>
> By Bill Conroy, Aug 6th, 2007
>
>
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/8/6/191324/0505
>
> ===
>
> FBI CHANGES POLICY ON HIRING FORMER DRUG USERS
>
> What if Past Drug Use Barred You From
> Running for President?
>
> By Bill Piper and Tony Newman, August 8, 2007
>
>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-piper-and-tony-newman/
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Tonight: 08/10/07 - Thomas Schweich, State Dept
> Counter-Narcotics
> official's "plan" for Afghanistan.
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_081007.mp3
>
> Last: 08/03/07 - Valerie Corral, director of the
> Wo/Men's Alliance for
> Medical Marijuana, plus Bruce Mirken of
> Marijuana Policy Project
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_080307.mp3
>
> ===
>
> TEXAS ARTIST PREACHES FREEDOM PHILOSOPHY
>
> Colleen McCool is a portrait artist, poet and peace
> activist who lives
> deep in the heart of Texas. She recently
> finished her two yearly
> awarded portraits dedicated to the freedom
> philosophy or the American
> dream.This work and many others can be viewed
> on her website:
>
>
http://mccoolportraits.com/2007rebelwithjustcause.htm
>
> ===
>
> SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON
>
> Excellent documentary by Dean Jefferys about the
> Amazonian Shamans and
> their use of the sacred Ayahuasca vine to
> communicate with the Spirits
> of the Forest.
>
> http://www.shamansoftheamazon.com/
>
> Includes footage of peaceful drug-prohibition
> protests, an interview
> with Terence Mckenna, criticism of the so
> called "war on drugs"
> (essentially a form of cultural genocide), the
> corruption within large
> oil companies and governments, many civil
> rights issues, etc.
>
> Video:
>
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=9202586310701634296
>
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> COMMON SENSE FOR DRUG POLICY PUBLIC SERVICE ADS
>
> Common Sense for Drug Policy has just printed up
> another 20,000 tabloids
> containing over 40 of their public service
> advertisements.
>
> See http://www.csdp.org/ads/
>
> CSDP is are offering the tabloids free without
> charge to organizations
> willing to provide a few words about how they
> would put them to use.
> For more information contact CSDP at info@...
>
> ===
>
> APPLY FOR A DRUG POLICY REFORM JOB
>
> The Marijuana Policy Project has one full-time
> job opening in
> Washington, D.C., as well as several contract
> positions around the
> country.
>
>
http://www.mpp.org/site/c.glKZLeMQIsG/b.1086577/k.C059/Jobs.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> AN ERROR HERE
>
> By Francis A. Podrebarac, M.D.
>
> AP medical writer Maria Cheng erroneously reported
> in the The Desert
> Sun that cannabis use "may" increase the risk of
> psychosis ( Study:
> Pot may increase psychosis risk, stoking talk
> of drug's dangers,"
> July 27).
>
> This is reminiscent of previous misleading
> medical reports that
> cannabis "may" increase cancer risk. It is always
> important to look
> for the word "may" in conclusions drawn by
> biased researchers and
> journalists.
>
> The truth is that there is no relevant increased
> risk of psychosis
> or cancer in cannabis use. Epidemiological studies
> consistently show
> no link between marijuana use and an increased
> risk of psychosis.
> Moreover, these large population studies show a
> significant
> decreased risk of cancer as well as tumor load in
> chronic marijuana
> users.
>
> The fifth paragraph of Cheng's article
> contradicts the headline
> given to it by clearly stating, "The researchers
> said they couldn't
> prove that marijuana use itself increases the risk
> of psychosis." So
> why go with a misleading headline?
>
> On the other hand, there is a pronounced
> increased incidents of
> psychosis and liver cancer in people who drink
> alcohol and in people
> who chronically uses narcotics and/or
> over-the-counter pain
> medications.
>
> Let's try to keep the facts straight.
>
> Francis A. Podrebarac, M.D.
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2007
> Author: Francis A. Podrebarac
> Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n000/a166.html
>
>
**********************************************************************
>
> LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - JULY
>
--------------------------------------------------------------
>
> DrugSense recognizes Bruce Mirken of San
> Francisco for his four
> published letters during July, which brings
> his total published
> letters up to 174. Bruce is the Director of
> Communications for the
> Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
>
> You may read his published letters at:
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/writer/Mirken+Bruce
>
> Bruce has also published several OPEDs. You may
> read all his writings
> that we know of at:
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/author/Bruce+Mirken
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> In Search Of A Presidential Candidate Who
> Will "Just Say No"
>
> By Jessica Peck Corry
>
> Hillary or Obama? Mitt or Rudy? The candidates are
> spending millions
> to distinguish themselves from each other.
> Except on the Drug War,
> where they remain united in their silence
> about our country's
> continued flawed approach toward drug treatment
> and prohibition.
>
> On every major presidential candidate's
> campaign Web site, you'll
> find their policy positions on diverse issues
> ranging from the war
> in Iraq to mortgage fraud. You will not find,
> however, a single
> reference to the Drug War by front-runners,
> including U.S. Senators
> Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, former New York
> Mayor Rudy Giuliani
> or former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.
>
> These candidates are merely following a path of
> conformity that has
> historically served both parties well. The GOP
> remains silent in an
> effort to solidify its base with social
> conservatives and Democrats
> are quiet to deflect the perception that they
> are soft on crime.
>
> While their continued silence doesn't hurt their
> electoral chances,
> voters deserve a candidate who can acknowledge
> our failed drug war
> for what it is-a multi-decade failure that
> costs us billions of
> dollars each year.
>
> We simply cannot have an honest debate about
> America's social ills
> without first acknowledging our serious drug
> problems. According to
> the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health
> Services Administration,
> more than 22 million Americans suffer from drug
> or alcohol abuse.
> Department of Justice statistics demonstrate that
> 55 percent of all
> federal prison inmates are there because of drugs.
>
> And too often, it's our own government that
> serves as the source of
> our problems. Want drugs? Find your nearest agent
> from Drug
> Enforcement Agency and you may just learn how
> to whip up a nice
> batch of the illegal stuff.
>
> At a DEA-hosted event earlier this summer in
> Denver, invited
> residents were treated to a behind-the-scenes
> look at just how the
> federal government fights drugs. As part of the
> day, agents taught
> participants how to make methamphetamine. One
> can only hope that
> participants were screened for past or present
> drug addiction.
>
> Agents defended this flawed public relations
> effort, saying that
> meth recipes can be found easily on the Internet.
> I looked, and sure
> enough, more than 44,000 sites popped up. An
> important question
> remains, however: How do you and I benefit
> from the government
> giving meth cooking classes?
>
> The answer: We don't. History has proven the
> government wrong time
> and again in its hands-on anti-drug efforts.
> When the government
> says, "Just Say No," the public response is all
> too often to just
> say "yes." As a child during Nancy Reagan's
> anti-drug campaign of
> the 1980's, I lived this reality.
>
> I first learned about alcohol, marijuana,
> hallucinogens, and
> cigarettes from law enforcement officials when
> whey came to my
> school representing D.A.R.E.-an acronym standing
> for "Drug Abuse
> Resistance Education" pledging "To Keep Our
> Kids Off Drugs."
>
> In seventh grade, my classmates and I giggled as
> we learned that it
> took three times as much beer than hard alcohol
> to get drunk. Wine
> was somewhere in the middle. Too much of any
> of it and you might
> start spinning in circles. Also, if you put
> special stickers called
> LSD on your tongue, you could start to see
> all kinds of strange
> things.
>
> The program was little more than an advertisement
> for bad behavior.
> Students joked as they signed their sobriety
> pledges. Students are
> still having the last laugh today. According to
> D.A.R.E.'s Web page,
> more than 75 percent of the nation's school
> districts still
> participate in the program. Meanwhile,
> according to government
> reports, more than 6,000 Americans try marijuana
> for the first time
> every day.
>
> By the time I made it to ninth grade in a new
> suburban junior high,
> local law enforcement sat us down for a more
> serious anti-drug
> speech. I sat in shocked awe as I held the
> marijuana pipe and bong
> the officer had passed around. What would my
> parents think? This was
> the first time I'd ever seen illegal drug
> paraphernalia. For the
> officer, however, the demonstration ended
> abruptly when one of the
> students secretly made off with the pipe. So
> much for keeping kids
> off drugs.
>
> From a fiscal perspective, the government
> simply cannot justify
> spending money on teaching people how to most
> effectively make or
> use illegal drugs. The federal government
> continues to drive us into
> debt with its irresponsible spending and our
> leaders at the state
> and local level have made a full time job out of
> convincing us they
> need more of our hard-earned money.
>
> In Denver alone, taxpayers have approved 13
> new tax increases in
> just the last four years totaling more than $280
> million. One such
> increase was for a new prison-sold to voters
> based on the idea that
> more space was needed to house our exploding
> drug-using inmate
> population.
>
> According to a report compiled by the non-partisan
> Colorado
> Legislative Council, the number of Colorado
> residents sent to prison
> because of drug-related offenses has skyrocketed
> nearly 500 percent
> in the last decade. Likewise, a recent study by
> the National Center
> for Alcohol and Substance Abuse found that
> Colorado has the lowest
> per capita spending on substance abuse
> prevention, treatment, and
> research out of 46 reporting states. While we
> don't have the money
> to treat drug addiction, we do have the
> money to send users to
> prison. Meanwhile, if you listen to the DEA, we
> definitely have the
> cash to teach presumed non-users how to mix
> their own illegal drug
> cocktails.
>
> It's time for a presidential candidate who will
> have the courage to
> "Just Say No" to our failed Drug War. Stop
> wasting our tax dollars.
> At minimum, and as a mother, I respectfully
> request that the
> government refrain from putting a bong in the
> hands of my children.
>
> Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of
> a new feature on
> NewWest.Net/Politics (
> http://www.newwest.net/politics ) called
> "Diary of a Mad Voter," a group blog where this
> piece first appeared
> on Aug. 9.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "If government were a product, selling it
> would be illegal."
> - P.J. O'Rourke
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DS Weekly is one of the many free educational
> services DrugSense
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>
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> selection and analysis by
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> Become a NewsHawk See
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>
> ===
>
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>
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
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