> Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:08:41 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 17, 2007, #512
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DrugSense Weekly, Aug. 17, 2007
> #512
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Couple Found Guilty In Pot Case
> (2) Painful Drug War Victory
> (3) OPED: Drug Legalisation Is Playing Russian
> Roulette
> (4) 950 Organized Crime Groups In Canada: Report
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) Positive Cocaine Tests Fall In S. Fla
> (6) Column: A Less-Dangerous Intoxicant
> (7) Oregon Subpoenas Worry Medical Marijuana
> Advocates
> (8) Pasco Man Doing 25 Years For Drug
> Trafficking Seeks Clemency
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) 'Inquiry' Is Not A 'Criminal Investigation'
> (10) Cocaine Use Spurs Review Of Navy Drug-Test
> Program
> (11) Aspen Cocaine Case Might Not Hold Up In
> Court
> (12) Stars and Bars
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (13) Toke Like A Girl
> (14) LAPD Will Continue To Help With Federal Pot
> Store Raids
> (15) Legal Fears Hack Away At State's Pot Plan
> (16) Former A.G. To Push For Medical Marijuana
> (17) Long Arm Of Law May Someday Wear Hemp
>
> International News-
>
> (18) It's Our Drug War, Too
> (19) Increase In Overdose Deaths 'An Argument
> For More Safe
> Injection Sites'
> (20) Canada's Drug War Faces Growing 'Risks'
> (21) Magic Mushrooms May Be Banned In
> Netherlands
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> Smoking Pot Won't Make You Crazy / By
> Armentano And Earlywine
> U.S. AG Coughs Up Money To House Of Death
> Whistleblower / Bill Conroy
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> CASA Will Not Tolerate Infestation / By Jacob
> Sullum
> McCain Says 'No Similarity' Between Alcohol And
> Drug Prohibition
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> MPP Seeks Outreach Coordinator
> Write A Letter
> Attend 6th Annual Lakota Hemp Days
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> Marijuana Prohibition Is Immoral, Destructive /
> Ivan Smason, Ph.D., J.D.
>
> * Feature Article
>
> The Responsibility Of States To Their People
> / By Pete Guither
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> John Adams
>
> 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) COUPLE FOUND GUILTY IN POT CASE
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 17 Aug 2007
> Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Sacramento Bee
> Author: Denny Walsh, Bee Staff Writer
>
> El Dorado Doctor and Husband Insist Their
> Plants Are Medicinal.
>
> An El Dorado County couple who insist they treat
> marijuana only as a
> medicine, but who ran afoul of the federal
> government's zero tolerance
> for the drug, were found guilty Thursday by a
> Sacramento jury of
> conspiring to grow and distribute marijuana.
>
> It took the jury less than three hours on the
> 10th day of trial to
> convict Marion P. "Mollie" Fry, a physician, and her
> attorney husband,
> Dale C. Schafer, of a conspiracy to distribute and
> grow at least 100
> plants.
>
> The jury also found them guilty of
> manufacturing marijuana. In
> Schafer's case, the panel found he had
> manufactured at least 100
> plants.
>
> Fry, 51, and Schafer, 53, are scheduled to be
> sentenced Nov. 26. They
> each face a minimum of five years in prison.
>
> A grand jury indictment, returned more than two
> years ago, says the
> conspiracy continued from Aug. 1, 1999, to the day
> narcotics officers
> raided the couples' Greenwood home and Cool offices
> -- Sept. 28, 2001.
>
> In his closing argument, Schafer's attorney, J. Tony
> Serra,
> acknowledged his client grew marijuana on his
> property, but not with
> Fry and not 100 plants. The five-year mandatory
> minimum was triggered
> for both defendants by the 100-plant finding.
>
> "He admits he grew," Serra said of his client. "He
> doesn't expect to
> walk out of here without a conviction."
>
> Even though medical necessity is not a defense to
> federal marijuana
> charges, U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr.
> allowed Schafer to
> tell the jury much of the back story of the
> couple's involvement with
> the drug.
>
> "He has a right to explain why he did what he
> did," the judge ruled.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n966.a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) PAINFUL DRUG WAR VICTORY
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Source: Washington Times (DC)
> Copyright: 2007 News World Communications, Inc.
> Author: Zachary David Skaggs
>
> Since 2000, the Drug Enforcement Administration
> has embarked on a
> muscular campaign against prescription
> painkiller abuse. It has
> utilized undercover investigations, SWAT raids,
> asset forfeiture, and
> high profile trials against "kingpin" doctors. These
> tactics should be
> familiar to anyone who has studied the drug war, but
> the results are a
> shocker. Prescription opioids have actually grown
> scarce.
>
> To put it bluntly, the DEA has finally found a
> drug war it can win.
>
> "Opiophobia" is a term that describes doctors'
> increasing
> unwillingness to prescribe opioid painkillers - a
> class of drugs that
> includes Vicodin and OxyContin - and especially
> high-dose opioids, to
> those in pain. This fear is rooted in the DEA's
> practice of jailing
> those doctors it deems are prescribing outside
> "legitimate medical
> standards."
>
> Because pain doesn't show up on an MRI, doctors
> work together with
> their patients to achieve proper dosage. And,
> thanks to individual
> chemistry, pain level, drug tolerance, or
> typically, all three,
> patients vary tremendously in the number of
> milligrams they require.
> But when the only thing doctors know for certain
> is that prescribing
> large amounts of opioids endanger them, it is
> those suffering the
> worst who go undermedicated.
>
> Call it "opiophobia," call it a "chilling effect,"
> or simply, doctors
> behaving rationally, the result is the same: massive
> underprescription
> of opioids and radical undertreatment of pain. A
> Stanford study puts
> the number of undermedicated chronic pain
> patients at about 50
> percent. According to the American Pain Society,
> fewer than 50 percent
> of cancer patients receive sufficient pain relief.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n964.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) DRUG LEGALISATION IS PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Source: Financial Times (UK)
> Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2007
> Author: Joseph Califano
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n941/a06.html
>
> Willem Buiter's proposal on these pages last
> week for the European
> Union (and the world) to legalise all drugs,
> including heroin and
> cocaine, is a one-way ticket to destroying
> millions of children,
> increasing violent crime and pushing up healthcare
> costs.
>
> Like most legalisation buffs, Professor Buiter
> suggests a regulated
> system where access to drugs would be
> prohibited for minors. Our
> experience with laws restricting access by children
> and adolescents to
> tobacco and alcohol makes it clear that keeping
> legal drugs away from
> minors would be an impossible dream. Teen smoking
> and drinking are at
> epidemic levels in the US and across much of the
> European continent.
> In Great Britain, keeping bars open has led
> to an explosion of
> drunkenness among teens so widespread that the
> government is likely to
> return to limited hours for pubs.
>
> Today, the US has some 60m regular smokers, up to
> 20m alcoholics and
> alcohol abusers and about 6m illegal drug
> addicts. Experts such as
> Columbia University's Herbert Kleber believe that,
> with legalisation,
> the number of cocaine addicts alone could leapfrog
> beyond the number
> of alcoholics. The experience of European
> nations that have tried
> various shades of legalisation bears him out.
>
> Switzerland's "Needle Park", touted as a way to
> restrict a few hundred
> heroin users to a small area, turned into a
> grotesque tourist
> attraction of 20,000 heroin addicts and junkies.
> It had to be closed
> before it infected the entire city of Zurich.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
>
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6190a922-4b91-11dc-861a-0000779fd2ac.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) 950 ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS IN CANADA: REPORT
>
> Pubdate: Fri, Aug 17, 2007
> Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada
> Web)
> Copyright: 2007 CBC
>
> Police identified 950 organized crime groups
> operating in Canada in
> 2007, up from 800 the year before, according to
> a report released
> Friday.
>
> The report, prepared by Canada's Criminal
> Intelligence Service,
> provides a picture of organized crime in the
> country based on
> information provided by police forces and law
> enforcement agencies
> across the country.
>
> But RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, who
> chaired the report, said
> the findings do not necessarily mean there are
> more crime groups
> operating in Canada - it may just mean that police
> are getting better
> at working together to identify the groups.
>
> "We're encouraged because we know that this year
> we're in a position
> to know more about the number of groups, their
> activities, and that is
> very much helping our enforcement efforts," Elliott
> told reporters at
> a press conference in Calgary.
>
> The report notes that 80 per cent of
> organized crime groups are
> involved in the illegal drug trade, with the most
> popular drug being
> marijuana and the biggest grow operations found in
> British Columbia,
> Ontario and Quebec.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
>
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/17/crime-report.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> Great news! A drug testing company reports that
> positive results for
> cocaine tests have dropped dramatically this year
> in Miami, leading
> the federal drug czar to say that such
> numbers prove all those
> billions spent in Colombia are going to good
> use. Interesting how
> the drug-testing industry, which needs the drug
> war to survive, is
> stepping up for the drug czar right as details
> about a new anti-drug
> agreement between Mexico and the U.S. are
> being negotiated.
>
> And since the drug testing industry depends
> on cannabis being
> illegal, it's not surprising that it still
> is, despite clear
> evidence that cannabis is less risky than
> some legal drugs. The
> feds, still targeting state-approved medical
> cannabis operations,
> have subpoenaed information about medical
> marijuana users in Oregon.
> And, a disabled Florida man imprisoned for
> 25 years on dubious
> charges, hopes the governor has some compassion.
>
> ===
>
> (5) POSITIVE COCAINE TESTS FALL IN S. FLA
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Miami Herald (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
> Author: Evan S. Benn And Frank Greve
>
> Workplace Drug Tests Showed A Big Decline In
> Cocaine Use Across The
> Country And Especially In South Florida.
>
> Cocaine use in South Florida's workforce has
> experienced a sharp
> decline this year compared to 2006, mirroring a
> national trend that
> shows the drug's use at a 10-year low, a leading
> U.S. testing firm
> reports.
>
> "The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area saw a dramatic
> decline of
> approximately 18.1 percent in cocaine
> positivity rates among
> workers," said Barry Sample, the director of
> science and technology
> for employee testing at Quest Diagnostics.
> "This drop may suggest
> that employees in the area either are choosing not
> to use cocaine or
> lack access to the drug."
>
> Nationwide, there was a 16 percent drop in
> positive workplace drug
> tests for cocaine in the first six months of
> the year, Quest
> announced Thursday.
>
> The Lyndhurst, N.J.,-based company compiled its
> report on 4.4
> million drug tests conducted from January through
> June. The
> nationwide rate - -- about one test in every
> 172 was positive for
> cocaine -- is the lowest in the 10 years since
> Quest began reporting
> cocaine in its testing index, a widely used
> benchmark.
>
> In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area, about one
> in every 147 drug
> tests came back positive for cocaine, based on
> Quest's data for the
> first six months of the year. In 2006, it
> was one in every 120
> tests.
>
> Those tested included people from the general
> work force as well as
> those with jobs that require federally
> mandated drug tests, like
> pilots, truck and bus drivers and nuclear
> power plant employees.
>
> White House drug czar John Walters cheered
> the Quest report's
> findings.
>
> Walters, director of the Office of National
> Drug Control Policy,
> said cocaine has become harder to find and more
> expensive in many
> cities, although Miami and Fort Lauderdale were
> not included in a
> list of cities he said were experiencing that
> trend. Cocaine
> scarcity and price spikes have been reported in New
> York,
> Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta and
> Washington, Walters said.
>
> Emergency-room visits for cocaine-related
> problems also are down,
> Walters said, adding that he has never seen so
> many cocaine-use
> trends "pointing in the same direction."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n959/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) COLUMN: A LESS-DANGEROUS INTOXICANT
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2007
> Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Orange County Register
> Author: Konrad Moore
>
> Alcohol Spawns Violence, Death and Economic Harm;
> Marijuana Doesn't.
>
> There is a saying in criminal law: Those who sin
> while drunk will be
> punished while sober. The expression reflects
> the reality that
> alcohol commonly underlies criminal conduct.
> Approximately 40
> percent of fatal traffic crashes involve alcohol,
> and more than half
> of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence
> are
> alcohol-related.
>
> Both liberal and conservative values embrace
> public safety. But,
> notwithstanding our nation's brief experiment with
> Prohibition, both
> groups seem content to continue with the
> status quo regarding
> alcohol. Use of the nation's leading legal
> intoxicant is at once a
> chief contributor to crime and social destruction,
> and is
> simultaneously and routinely glorified as
> essential to a good time.
>
> Alcohol costs the U.S. economy an estimated $134
> billion per year in
> lost productivity and earnings through
> alcohol-related illness,
> premature death and crime. Scientific
> literature suggests that in
> approximately 10 percent of the population
> alcohol use leads to
> alcoholism.
>
> How, then, does alcohol continue to escape
> the country's often
> puritanical view of drugs, and does it make
> sense to consider
> reforming drug laws based on an assessment of
> their dangerousness?
> The answer to the first question is a matter
> of historical and
> sociological debate, the answer to the second
> is clearly yes.
>
> Certainly, there are drugs more dangerous and
> addictive than
> alcohol, including methamphetamine, cocaine and
> heroin. By the same
> measure, it is appropriate to recognize marijuana
> as falling on the
> other side of the proverbial ledger. Although
> it may well be ad
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n957/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) OREGON SUBPOENAS WORRY MEDICAL MARIJUANA
> ADVOCATES
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2007
> Source: Argus Observer (OR)
> Copyright: 2007 Ontario Argus Observer
>
> Federal subpoenas seeking medical records of
> 17 Oregon medical
> marijuana patients have growers and users upset
> and nervous even as
> a federal judge considers whether to throw
> the subpoenas out.
>
> "It's crazy. It's really scary. If they can get my
> records, they can
> get Gov. ( Ted ) Kulongoski's, they can get
> yours," said Donald
> DuPay, a former Portland police officer and
> 2006 candidate for
> Multnomah County sheriff.
>
> DuPay says his records are among those subpoenaed.
>
> A federal grand jury in Yakima, Wash., issued the
> subpoenas in April
> as part of an investigation of some growers in
> Oregon and
> Washington.
>
> The patients are not targets of the grand jury.
>
> A Seattle spokesman for the Drug Enforcement
> Administration declined
> comment.
>
> The subpoenas were served on the Oregon Medical
> Marijuana Program,
> which issues permits to patients and their
> authorized growers.
>
> A second subpoena went to The Hemp and
> Cannabis Foundation, a
> private Portland clinic where doctors determine
> whether a patient's
> condition would be eased by marijuana.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n958/a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) PASCO MAN DOING 25 YEARS FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING
> SEEKS CLEMENCY
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Miami Herald (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald
> Author: The Associated Press
>
> TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Pasco County man with
> multiple sclerosis who
> was convicted of drug trafficking for having
> a large stash of
> prescription drugs he said were for pain should
> receive clemency,
> his family said Thursday.
>
> Richard Paey has served four years of a 25-year
> minimum mandatory
> sentence for drug trafficking. The former lawyer
> and father of three
> injured his back in a 1985 car crash and has
> said he has pain from
> that in addition to his multiple sclerosis. He
> argued in court that
> only large amounts of strong narcotics eased that
> pain.
>
> Prosecutors alleged that using forged
> prescriptions to obtain so
> many pills meant he had to be selling them. Paey
> said he got undated
> prescription forms from a New Jersey doctor because
> Florida
> physicians were reluctant to prescribe drugs
> in the amounts he
> needs.
>
> In a hearing before clemency staff, Paey's wife
> and children said
> the four years he's already served are enough.
>
> "I would like to have him home, so we don't have
> to spend another 21
> and a half years without him," his daughter,
> Katherine Paey said.
> "Because he's already missing ... us growing
> up. And he's missed
> birthdays. And, you know, just us being
> without him is painful."
>
> Richard Paey, who is now wheelchair-bound,
> appealed his conviction,
> but the Florida Supreme Court in March declined
> to hear the case.
>
> The clemency staff can recommend his case to Gov.
> Charlie Crist and
> the clemency board, which could then take it up
> and has the power to
> order him released early. A final decision isn't
> likely for months.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n959/a09.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-12)
>
> The fight over federal drug money is getting nasty
> in Indiana, where
> the ONDCP is investigating a local High
> Intensity Drug Trafficking
> Area program that decided to hold on to the
> interest accumulated
> from federal drug funds. The ONDCP is kind of
> funny, they don't care
> how the police enforce the laws, there's never
> any criticism about
> corruption, but try to keep their compound
> interest, and watch out!
>
> Also last week: A story out of Canada show's that
> country's military
> does not seem to be immune to drug corruption;
> a rookie cop makes
> all the wrong moves in a drug bust; and serious
> questions about the
> state of democracy in a country which has the
> highest incarceration
> rate in the world.
>
> ===
>
> (9) 'INQUIRY' IS NOT A 'CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION'
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 10 Aug 2007
> Source: Post-Tribune (Merrillville, IN)
> Copyright: 2007 Post-Tribune
> Author: John Byrne, Post-Tribune staff writer
>
> The state police lieutenant looking into
> federal criticisms about
> finances at the Lake County High Intensity
> Drug Trafficking Area
> program is challenging federal drug officials'
> assertions he has
> begun a "criminal investigation" into the agency.
>
> In a letter this week to Lake County HIDTA
> chairman and acting U.S.
> Attorney David Capp, Scott Burns, deputy
> director of the Office of
> National Drug Control Policy, said he had "been
> informed, since our
> meeting, that the Indiana State Police have
> commenced a criminal
> investigation related to HIDTA funds."
>
> State Police Lt. David Kirkham insisted Friday
> no state police
> investigation into HIDTA has commenced,
> criminal or otherwise.
>
> Kirkham said he has begun an "inquiry," at the
> behest of the HIDTA
> board of directors, to look into ONDCP
> complaints about alleged
> financial irregularities at the federally funded
> regional drug and
> gang task force.
>
> "I was asked by the HIDTA board to look into a
> few things that the
> ONDCP brought up, some concerns they had about
> how the HIDTA was
> being run," the lieutenant said.
>
> Kirkham said he was chosen to address the federal
> criticisms because
> he was sitting at the HIDTA board meeting
> when law enforcement
> officials decided to appoint somebody to
> respond to the ONDCP
> complaints.
>
> "They looked around the table and said, 'Do you
> want to do it?' and
> I said 'sure,'" Kirkham said.
>
> HIDTA fiscal officer Linda James, wife of
> Post-Tribune Editorial
> Page Editor Rich James, was transferred Thursday
> from HIDTA to a job
> with the Lake County Sheriff's Department amid
> mounting criticism
> from the ONDCP.
>
> Federal officials reportedly are upset Lake
> County's HIDTA has made
> it a policy to keep interest money raised
> from federal funds, a
> deviation from federal policy.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n959/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) COCAINE USE SPURS REVIEW OF NAVY DRUG-TEST
> PROGRAM
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 14 Aug 2007
> Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
> Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company
> Author: Justine Hunter
>
> VICTORIA -- The Canadian navy is reviewing its
> drug-testing program
> after evidence of widespread cocaine use and
> trafficking aboard
> armed military patrol ship HMCS Saskatoon -
> allegedly involving as
> many as a third of the crew - has come to
> light in a series of
> military trials.
>
> Four sailors have been dismissed from the
> Canadian Forces and three
> so far have been convicted of cocaine
> trafficking, following an
> undercover investigation by the Forces.
>
> "There's a goodly level of concern with regard to
> the circumstances
> and a lot of smart people are putting their
> heads toward whether
> there needs to be changes to the random
> drug-testing program,"
> Lieutenant-Commander Gerry Pash, a spokesman
> for Maritime Forces
> Pacific, said yesterday.
>
> Chief Petty Officer Leonard Hearns, who was
> brought aboard the ship
> to try to bring the drug problem under control
> in January of 2006,
> testified that discipline aboard the Saskatoon
> was non-existent.
>
> "In my 38-year-long career, I have never seen
> such an appalling
> sight," CPO Hearns told the court. "The ship was
> disorganized, there
> was no discipline and no trust among the
> crew," he said in an
> account reported by CBC News and confirmed by a
> military
> spokesperson.
>
> Jason Ennis, 24, was convicted last week in a
> military court of
> trafficking, and has been fined $2,000. Mr.
> Ennis told the court
> between 10 and 12 members of the 31-member
> crew used cocaine
> regularly during the time of the investigation,
> in January, 2006.
>
> However, he testified he did not use drugs while
> on the ship, which
> is armed with a 40 mm rapid-firing cannon
> and two .50 calibre
> machine guns.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n959/a12.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) ASPEN COCAINE CASE MIGHT NOT HOLD UP IN COURT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2007
> Source: Summit Daily News (CO)
> Copyright: 2007 Summit Daily News
> Author: Joel Stonington, Pitkin County Correspondent
>
> Constitutional Issue Looms Over Charges Of
> Cocaine Possession
>
> ASPEN - The fate of Moses Greengrass is in the
> hands of District
> Judge James Boyd, who will decide whether his
> arrest in March was
> constitutional.
>
> Greengrass, 26, faces charges of felony
> possession of more than 25
> grams of cocaine and possession with intent to
> sell. If Boyd deems
> the arrest unconstitutional, the prosecution will
> have no case, and
> Greengrass will go free.
>
> Greengrass remains in the Pitkin County Jail for
> allegedly violating
> his parole. Greengrass was released from
> prison in January after
> serving seven years for his role in a 1999
> crime spree in Aspen,
> which involved local teenagers committing a string
> of armed
> robberies in the upper valley; he would not be
> released from jail on
> the current charges even if he could pay the $25,000
> bond.
>
> Boyd heard evidence during a seven-hour hearing
> Monday on whether to
> allow evidence. Boyd said he will issue a
> written ruling before
> Greengrass's arraignment, scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
> Monday, Sept. 10.
>
> At issue is the first few contacts that rookie
> Aspen police officer
> Jeff Fain made with Greengrass on the night of
> March 22. Though Fain
> was in training at the time, he was the one
> who allegedly saw
> Greengrass make a deal and was the arresting
> officer.
>
> [snip]
>
> During Monday's hearing, Fain admitted making
> mistakes during the
> arrest, such as telling Greengrass, "Sucks to
> be you," just after
> the arrest. Fain said his training officer
> reprimanded him after the
> incident was over.
>
> Fain was still in training at the time of
> Greengrass' arrest; his
> training was extended because he failed some
> tests, such as knowing
> every Aspen street name.
>
> McCarty also brought up Fain's recent car wreck
> while on the job, in
> which Fain was at fault, and said it shows Fain
> is willing to put
> the public at risk to make a bust.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n944/a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) STARS AND BARS
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2007
> Source: Nation, The (US)
> Copyright: 2007 The Nation Company
> Author: 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?
>
> Questions like these are unavoidable in the
> face of America's
> homegrown gulag archipelago, a vast network of
> jails, prisons and
> "supermax" tombs for the living dead that,
> without anyone quite
> noticing, has metastasized into the largest
> detention system in the
> advanced industrial world.
>
> The proportion of the U.S. population languishing
> in such facilities
> now stands at 737 per 100,000, the highest rate
> on earth and some
> five to twelve times that of Britain, France
> and other Western
> European countries or Japan. With 5 percent of the
> world's
> population, the United States has close to a
> quarter of the world's
> prisoners, which, curiously enough, is the
> same as its annual
> contribution to global warming.
>
> With 2.2 million people behind bars and
> another 5 million on
> probation or parole, it has approximately 3.2
> percent of the adult
> population under some form of criminal-justice
> supervision, which is
> to say one person in thirty-two. For
> African-Americans, the numbers
> are even more astonishing. By the mid-1990s,
> 7 percent of black
> males were behind bars, while the rate of
> imprisonment for black
> males between the ages of 25 and 29 now
> stands at one in eight.
>
> While conservatives have spent the past three
> or four decades
> bemoaning the growth of single-parent families,
> there is a very
> simple reason some 1.5 million American children
> are fatherless or (
> less often ) motherless: Their parents are
> locked up. Because they
> are confined for the most part in distant rural
> prisons, moreover,
> only about one child in five gets to visit them
> as often as once a
> month.
>
> What's that you say? Who cares whether a bunch of
> "rapists,
> murderers, robbers, and even terrorists and
> spies," as Republican
> Senator Mitch McConnell once characterized America's
> prison
> population, get to see their kids? In fact,
> surprisingly few
> denizens of the American gulag have been sent
> away for violent
> crimes.
>
> In 2002 just 19 percent of the felony sentences
> handed down at the
> state level were for violent offenses, and of
> those only about 5
> percent were for murder.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n950/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (13-17)
>
> The Stranger article reminds us that this is
> the weekend of the
> world's largest hempfest. It is nice to see
> so many DrugSense
> supporters on the speaker's list - to include
> board members Don
> Wirtshafter, Chairman of the Board, and Nora
> Callahan, Financial
> Officer, as well as staff member Philippe
> Lucas, Director of
> Communications. However, the overall premise of
> the article reads
> more like a personal opinion rather than
> anything based on real
> studies.
>
> It is amazing that a decade after voters
> created California law
> police officers within the state still get away
> with violating their
> oath of office and Article 3, Section 3.5
> of the California
> Constitution
> http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_3
>
> While the New Mexico medicinal marijuana law
> runs into some
> difficulties it is good to see efforts in another
> state, Kansas, to
> protect patients.
>
> Finally, the DEA claims that it is the
> fault of Congress that
> industrial hemp is not legal for farmers to
> grow in the United
> States. But perhaps it is really the willful
> misinterpretation of
> the law by DEA bureaucrats and agents. After
> all, they think they
> are smarter than medical doctors, too.
>
> ===
>
> (13) TOKE LIKE A GIRL
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Stranger
> Author: Ari Spool
>
> [snip]
>
> With all this social pressure on women not to be
> stoners, the gender
> divide is not surprising. Every aspect of
> getting stoned is banned
> from women's psyches--relaxing, eating, and
> feeling pleasure. It's
> reminiscent of old-school ideas about female
> sexuality--orgasms
> aren't ladylike so why would women want to have
> them?
>
> But women should ignore that sexist Hempfest
> poster, and, like
> Fiona, hit Hempfest this weekend. (It's August
> 18 and 19 at Myrtle
> Edwards Park with five stages of music and
> speakers and brownie
> vendors galore.) They should also feel free to
> upend stereotypes all
> year long and, like Fiona, put their feet up
> after work and take a
> long toke from a gravity bong.
>
> For more information about Seattle Hempfest and
> a full schedule of
> musicians and speakers go to www.hempfest.org.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n964/a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (14) LAPD WILL CONTINUE TO HELP WITH FEDERAL POT
> STORE RAIDS
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Steve Hymon
>
> Some on the Council Say the Action Undermines a
> State Law Allowing
> the Medical Marijuana Sales.
>
> Los Angeles police said Wednesday that they
> will continue to
> participate in federal raids on local medical
> marijuana dispensaries
> against the wishes of some members of the City
> Council.
>
> A continuing conflict between federal and
> state drug laws, they
> said, has created a stalemate that doesn't
> appear likely to soon
> end.
>
> Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department
> contend that it's
> their job to help enforce the federal law.
> Council members argue
> that police raids, at best, send a mixed
> message about the city's
> support for the state law passed in 1996 to
> permit the use of
> marijuana for prescribed medical purposes.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n962/a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) LEGAL FEARS HACK AWAY AT STATE'S POT PLAN
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 15 Aug 2007
> Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
> Copyright: 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
> Author: Diana Del Mauro, The New Mexican
>
> Patients Have Few Options to Find Pain-Relieving
> Drug
>
> New Mexico could have been the first state in the
> nation to build a
> centralized production and distribution system for
> medical
> marijuana, but the Health Department doesn't
> want to take the risk
> of butting up against federal law.
>
> Upon advice from Attorney General Gary King,
> Health Secretary Dr.
> Alfredo Vigil said the second phase of the new
> state law that would
> have made that happen won't be pursued.
>
> "The Department of Health will not subject its
> employees to
> potential federal prosecution, and therefore will
> not distribute or
> produce medical marijuana," Vigil said in a
> written statement
> Wednesday.
>
> That decision appears to leave patients who
> participate in the
> state's Medical Cannabis Program with three
> options: grow their own
> marijuana plants; purchase bags of pot on the
> black market; or get a
> prescription for the legal, synthetic form of
> tetrahydrocannabinol,
> one of 400 chemicals in the marijuana plant.
>
> But Reena Szczepanski, director of Drug Policy
> Alliance New Mexico -
> a group that lobbied for the law - insists there are
> other
> solutions, if only King would provide "more
> meaningful" legal
> direction.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n965/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) FORMER A.G. TO PUSH FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 15 Aug 2007
> Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
> Copyright: 2007 The Topeka Capital-Journal
> Author: Tim Carpenter, The Capital-Journal
>
> Stephan Wants Patients Protected
>
> Former Attorney General Robert Stephan plans
> to speak out Friday
> about what he believes is the need to legalize the
> medical
> consumption of marijuana in Kansas.
>
> The state's chief law enforcement officer from
> 1979 to 1995 will
> participate in a news conference in the
> Statehouse hosted by Kansas
> Compassionate Care Coalition, which seeks legal
> protection for
> patients who use marijuana as part of a
> treatment program and for
> physicians who recommend the drug to patients.
>
> Laura Green, director of the coalition, said in an
> interview Tuesday
> that laws relating to medicinal use of marijuana
> are on the books in
> more than 30 states. A dozen states rigidly
> shield patients from
> prosecution when consuming cannabis for medical
> purposes.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n964/a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) LONG ARM OF LAW MAY SOMEDAY WEAR HEMP
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Source: Beaverton Valley Times, The (Portland, OR)
> Copyright: 2007 Pamplin Media Group
> Author: Anne Marie DiStefano
>
> [snip]
>
> DEA Blames It On Congress
>
> The DEA's position on hemp is pretty clear: "The
> law is the law is
> the law," says Garrison Courtney, who is the lead
> spokesman for the
> DEA's public information office. "To get hemp,
> you have to grow
> marijuana."
>
> Don't blame the DEA, he says, if the law
> seems contradictory:
> "That's something that Congress put together,
> and really, the beef
> should be with them, not us."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n964/a04.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (18-21)
>
> Where has it been found that prohibition "can
> defeat the cartels,"
> and when has prohibition won "the battle"?
> Apparently, politicians
> have discovered, that place is the U.S. and
> Mexico. There, launching
> a "courageous new offensive" (that can really
> "fight drug sales")
> one may hope to rescue a country "from a
> criminal drug machine" --
> "the deadly cartels Mexico is fighting." On
> the heels of Plan
> Colombia (a multi-billion dollar boondoggle to
> prop up a right-wing
> Colombian regime and spray plant killer on
> rainforests in hopes of
> killing coca), which oversaw a fall in cocaine
> prices, a new "Plan
> Mexico" is set to repeat Plan Colombia's dubious
> results. A piece in
> the Washington Post this week ("It's Our Drug
> War, Too"), lays out
> official visions of battle, offensive, and defeat
> of the
> cartel-enemy dancing in the head of former
> Bush administration
> functionary Roger F. Noriega.
>
> In Vancouver, Canada, official statistics this
> week were published
> which say that drug overdose deaths are increasing
> there. What might
> help lower that number? More supervised
> injection sites. "If
> anything, it's an argument for more supervised
> injection places,"
> said Donald MacPherson, a drug policy coordinator
> in the city. Mayor
> Alan Lowe of Victoria, Canada, suggests that
> Vancouver could use
> another five supervised injection centers over
> the current one
> center, to handle the load. Lowe will ask Health
> Canada for approval
> for three sites in the city of Victoria.
>
> If you're a bureaucrat, your biggest "risk" is that
> your
> department's budget will be cut next fiscal year.
> Likewise, when the
> Canadian government asked a private firm to
> conduct a review of drug
> policy, answers that must be music to a
> bureaucrats's ears came
> forth. You see (said the report) what the
> government needs is...
> more. More government, that is. With more
> government ("hire, train
> and maintain sufficient staff") and less of
> course, of that
> "insufficient funding" stuff, Canada's war on
> drugs can correctly
> face illicit-drug challenges. Predictably, the
> report led at least
> one "formal department request for more money."
>
> And from Holland this week, there's talk of
> tightening up magic
> mushroom sales after a 17-year-old tourist from
> France supposedly
> ate some and fell to her death. To provide
> political cover for
> banning the mushrooms, Dutch Health Minister
> Ab Klink ordered a
> study on the risks of the psychedelic fungi,
> which are currently
> sold over-the-counter with few restrictions in
> the Netherlands.
>
> ===
>
> (18) IT'S OUR DRUG WAR, TOO
>
> Source: Washington Post (DC)
> Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
> Author: Roger F. Noriega
>
> How America and Mexico Can Defeat the Cartels
>
> U.S. and Mexican authorities are nearing agreement
> on an aid package
> to support Mexico's courageous new offensive
> against the deadly drug
> syndicates that threaten both our nations. The
> stakes are high for the
> United States: We depend on Mexico as a cooperative
> neighbor and trade
> partner, and most of the marijuana and as much as
> 90 percent of the
> cocaine consumed in this country pours over our
> southern border. If
> Mexico cannot make significant headway against
> the bloodthirsty
> cartels, our security and our people will suffer
> the consequences.
>
> [snip]
>
> Conceding the corruption or weakness of some
> local police forces,
> Calderon has deployed 20,000 Mexican soldiers
> to help match the
> firepower of murderous drug gangs.
>
> [snip]
>
> Certain elements of such a partnership are
> uncontroversial and are
> likely to win universal support. Surveillance
> and eavesdropping
> equipment, radar for aerial interdiction, aircraft
> for drug-tracking
> teams and assorted special training are reportedly
> already part of the
> agreement. Under the administration of Vicente Fox
> the two governments
> began working together, with U.S. aid directed at
> database
> improvements, law enforcement training and
> material support for
> border-crossing posts. Increased coordination in
> these areas should be
> part of the new agreement.
>
> [snip]
>
> Felipe Calderon has already demonstrated his
> commitment to rescuing
> his country from a criminal drug machine, and he
> welcomes increased
> U.S. support. There are few challenges more grave
> than those posed by
> the deadly cartels Mexico is fighting. And there are
> few opportunities
> more precious than helping our Mexican friends win
> the battle on our
> doorstep.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n962.a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (19) INCREASE IN OVERDOSE DEATHS 'AN ARGUMENT FOR
> MORE SAFE
> INJECTION SITES'
>
> Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
> Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Vancouver Courier
> Author: Mike Howell
>
> 36 people dead in first six months of 2007
> compared to 26 for same
> period last year
>
> Drug overdose deaths in Vancouver and the rest of
> the province have
> increased over last year, according to
> preliminary statistics from
> the B.C. Coroners Service.
>
> [snip]
>
> The statistics suggested to the city's drug
> policy coordinator,
> Donald MacPherson, that an increase in deaths is
> alarming and that
> more than one supervised injection site is
> needed in Vancouver.
>
> "For a city our size, we should be much
> lower than [the recent
> statistics]," MacPherson told the Courier. "If
> anything, it's an
> argument for more supervised injection places."
>
> Insite on East Hastings is North America's
> only legal supervised
> injection site. It opened in September 2003. No
> one has died of an
> overdose at the site.
>
> [snip]
>
> Several studies conducted by the B.C. Centre
> for Excellence in
> HIV/AIDS indicate that users of Insite contact
> drug counsellors and
> are referred to treatment.
>
> The facility has also helped reduce the incidents
> of needle sharing
> among addicts, reducing the spread of diseases.
> The injection site
> averages more than 600 injections per day.
>
> [snip]
>
> Two weeks ago, Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe told
> the Courier that
> Vancouver could use another five supervised
> injection sites.
> Victoria will apply this year to Health Canada
> to get approval for
> three sites.
>
> Lowe said having Sullivan as an ally would be an
> asset when Victoria
> sends its proposal to Health Canada. Sullivan has
> called the city's
> injection site a temporary measure, although
> he said he supports
> extending its operating agreement with the
> federal government.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n955.a11.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) CANADA'S DRUG WAR FACES GROWING 'RISKS'
>
> Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
> Pubdate: Sun, 12 Aug 2007
> Copyright: 2007 The London Free Press
> Author: Alan Findlay, Sun Media
>
> Insufficient Funding And Concerns About The
> Harper Government's
> Commitment Top The List Of Issues.
>
> OTTAWA -- Canada's war on drugs is facing a
> number of challenges,
> including insufficient funding and concerns
> about a Conservative
> government's commitment to some aspects of the
> national program, a
> government-commissioned evaluation reports.
>
> The review of Canada's Drug Strategy highlights a
> number of "risks"
> since the program was renewed in 2003, beginning
> with an inability
> to hire, train and maintain sufficient staff
> amidst a proliferation
> of clandestine labs and grow-ops and other
> pressures.
>
> According to the report, completed last October
> but only recently
> made public, the challenges led to at least one
> formal department
> request for more money.
>
> [snip]
>
> "Conservative governments are sometimes associated
> with a preference
> for enforcement-based measures rather than, for
> example, treatment
> and harm reduction," the evaluation states.
>
> "There had been proposed reforms to cannabis
> legislation
> (decriminalization), but these have since fallen by
> the wayside
> since the new government took over."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n955.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (21) MAGIC MUSHROOMS MAY BE BANNED IN NETHERLANDS
>
> Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
> Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
> Copyright: 2007 Detroit Free Press
> Author: Toby Sterling, Associated Press
>
> AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- The famously liberal
> Netherlands has been
> swinging toward the right, cracking down on
> immigration, religious
> freedoms and the freewheeling red light district.
> The next possible
> target? Magic mushrooms.
>
> The death of a 17-year-old French girl, who
> jumped from a building
> after eating psychedelic mushrooms while on a
> school visit, has
> ignited a campaign to ban the fungi -- sold
> legally at smartshops as
> long as they're fresh.
>
> Regulation of mushrooms is even less stringent
> than Holland's
> famously loose laws on marijuana, which is
> illegal but tolerated in
> "coffee shops" that are a major tourist attraction.
>
> Gaelle Caroff's parents blamed their daughter's
> death in March on
> hallucinations brought on by the mushrooms,
> although the teenager
> had suffered from psychiatric problems in the
> past. Photographs of
> her beautiful, youthful face have been splashed
> across newspapers
> around the country.
>
> In May, Health Minister Ab Klink ordered the
> national health
> institute to perform a new study on the risks of
> mushrooms.
> Depending on the conclusions, which are due next
> month, he said he
> would either recommend that mushroom sales be
> limited to those over
> 18 or impose a total ban.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dutch government data suggest most mushrooms sold
> in smartshops are
> eaten by tourists. Since Caroff's death, other
> dramatic stories
> involving foreigners have been reported in the Dutch
> press:
>
> [snip]
>
> A majority of parties in parliament ranging
> from centrist to far
> right have demanded the hallucinogenic
> mushrooms be outlawed.
>
> If the government does ban mushrooms, it will
> be in keeping with
> conservative trends that have been sweeping the
> country in recent
> years. Since 2001, Muslim immigrants have been
> under pressure to
> learn Dutch and integrate, and there have been
> calls by some to ban
> Islamic schools and radical mosques.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n942.a02.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> SMOKING POT WON'T MAKE YOU CRAZY
>
> But Dealing with the Lies about It Will
>
> By Paul Armentano and Mitch Earlywine, August 13,
> 2007
>
> A new attempt to scare pot smokers in Britain
> alleges that smoking pot
> can increase the risk of becoming "psychotic." A
> quick glance at the
> data cited reveals no such correlation.
>
> http://alternet.org/drugreporter/59500/
>
> ===
>
> U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL COUGHS UP MONEY TO HOUSE OF
> DEATH WHISTLEBLOWER
>
> By Bill Conroy,
>
> The U.S. government is going to pay,
> literally, for its shameful
> efforts to silence Sandalio Gonzalez, the DEA
> field-office chief who
> exposed the House of Death cover-up.
>
>
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/8/13/205412/174
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Tonight: 08/17/07 - LEAP members: Charles Rowland &
> Tim Datig plus Pat
> McCann on jail "virtual visits" + Willie
> Nelson Joins LEAP!
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_081707.mp3
>
> Last: 08/10/07 - Thomas Schweich, State Dept
> Counter-Narcotics
> official's "plan" for Afghanistan.
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_081007.mp3
>
> ===
>
> CASA WILL NOT TOLERATE INFESTATION
>
> By Jacob Sullum, August 16, 2007
>
> http://www.reason.com/blog/show/121988.html
>
> ===
>
> MCCAIN SAYS 'NO SIMILARITY' BETWEEN ALCOHOL
> AND DRUG PROHIBITION
>
> By Matt Simon, sendtherightmessage.com
>
> I decided presidential candidates should have
> to answer difficult
> questions about the War on Drugs, and somebody has
> to do the asking.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/22qlgj
>
> ===
>
> DAYDREAMING ABOUT OUR UPCOMING CONFERENCE
>
> Have you registered yet for the 2007 International
> Drug Policy Reform
> conference? To get a better idea about what
> your experience might
> really be like, we offer this imagined "day
> at the conference."
>
> http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/081607conf.cfm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> MPP SEEKS OUTREACH COORDINATOR
>
> The Outreach Coordinator assists with online
> outreach, including
> utilizing blogs, online social networking sites, and
> online
> advertising. Candidates should be skilled in
> effectively exploiting
> all forms of digital technology and media to
> attract new supporters
> and should have knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies
> and trends (blogs,
> RSS, video sharing technology, tags, etc.) and
> familiarity with
> online social networking.
>
> For a full job description, as well as
> application instructions,
> please visit http://www.mpp.org/jobs
>
> ===
>
> WRITE A LETTER
>
> Just Say No To "Plan Mexico" - A DrugSense Focus
> Alert
>
> http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0352.html
>
> ===
>
> ATTEND 6TH ANNUAL LAKOTA HEMP DAYS
>
> August 21-23 2007 in Kiza Park, Manderson, South
> Dakota.
>
> Enjoy first-hand the making of finished hemp
> products, from paper
> and insulation, to concrete and skin lotion,
> camping, music and much
> more. Details available at http://www.kizapark.com/
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> MARIJUANA PROHIBITION IS IMMORAL, DESTRUCTIVE
>
> By Ivan Smason, Ph.D., J.D.
>
> Re: Medipot Harassment Lets Illicit Use Thrive,
> August 2-8, 2007
>
> In the final paragraph of his featured
> opinion essay, Tom Elias
> essentially said that "if marijuana is truly
> destructive," why not
> focus anti-marijuana police and adjudication
> monies and forces
> against large-scale commercial growers of cannabis
> "whose sales have
> truly destructive potential." Respectfully
> however, the problem with
> what he said is that marijuana is NOT truly
> destructive. On the
> other hand, the federal anti-marijuana laws are
> destructive, immoral
> and in violation of the supreme law of the
> land that is the U.S.
> Constitution.
>
> The marijuana prohibition is immoral and
> destructive because
> destructive punishments initiated by police for
> its use almost never
> bear a relation to a crime itself. That is to
> say that the act of
> consuming cannabis is not an immoral,
> dangerous or a destructive
> act. Conversely, consuming natural cannabis is
> much safer and
> healthier than consuming alcohol, tobacco, many
> foods and drinks and
> many-to-most pharmaceutical "drugs." Poisonous
> house-cleaning
> products are available for purchase every day by
> the endless gallon,
> but mostly healthy cannabis is banned from
> purchase, or even
> cultivation. Tellingly, while marijuana use is
> not destructive, the
> fines, torments, adulterations,
> disenfranchisements and murders
> meted out for its acquisition are immoral and
> highly destructive.
>
> The marijuana prohibition is, technically,
> unconstitutional. The
> reason for this is that the Constitution
> enumerates the limits it
> places on the federal government in relation
> to the individual
> states and the citizenry. The U.S. Constitution
> does not give the
> federal government the right or power to
> prohibit the personal
> consumption of anything at all. That the
> so-called "Supreme Court"
> has collectively enabled this
> unconstitutionality and immorality,
> says much more about a lack of wisdom or humanity
> among its
> "justices" than it does about the utility of
> cannabis. By extending
> federal authority onto matters of state and
> personal sovereignty,
> both Congress and the Supreme Court have,
> technically, broken our
> peoples' supreme law.
>
> Moral democracies such as ours are supposed
> to have tolerant
> governments that are responsive to the will of
> the people, and the
> people have made it clear that we do not want
> cannabis prohibition
> as a matter of law or policy, unconstitutional or
> labeled otherwise.
>
> Ivan Smason, Ph.D., J.D.
> Santa Monica
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 09 Aug 2007
> Author: Ivan Smason
> Source: Santa Monica Mirror (CA)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n925/a09.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES TO THEIR PEOPLE
>
> By Pete Guither
>
> When New Mexico passed their medical marijuana law
> that required the
> state to supply patients with marijuana, that
> turned some heads --
> surely this was an interesting end run around
> the approach of
> busting medical marijuana dispensaries that the DEA
> uses in
> California. How would the DEA bust a state?
>
> The problem, unfortunately, is that folks
> figured out that the DEA
> might just go after the individual state employees
> who are complying
> with state law and, in the process, violating
> federal law.
>
> So the state of New Mexico has decided not to
> comply with state law
> ( see http://tinyurl.com/yoj84u ) [thanks, Wayne] so
> as not to force
> state employees to be put at risk. And to an
> extent, I can understand
> the stated sentiment (although it certainly would
> be an interesting
> court case).
>
> What I can't help wondering, however, is how
> hard the state is
> trying. Have they merely come up with an excuse
> to give up? Don't
> they have a responsibility to continue to
> attempt to find a way to
> make state law work?
>
> And this got me thinking about a fascinating
> post by Alex at Drug
> Law Blog: "Daily News on LAPD Involvement in
> Dispensary Raids" ( see
>
http://druglaw.typepad.com/drug_law_blog/2007/08/daily-news-on-l.html
> ). The question there is whether members of the
> LAPD are actually
> helping the DEA bust dispensaries that are
> legal under state law,
> and what that says about the LAPD. They claim
> to just be there to
> maintain order, but what about their
> responsibility to the law?
>
> I'm not saying that the LAPD should defy the
> DEA. No gunfights in
> the street between state and federal cops
> just yet. Federal law
> supersedes state law. But that doesn't mean
> that the LAPD needs
> to... assist.
>
> As a Superior Court Judge recently noted: "It is
> up to the federal
> government to enforce its laws. Indeed, the
> Tenth Amendment to the
> United States Constitution prohibits the
> federal government from
> impressing 'into its service -- and at no
> cost to itself -- the
> police officers of the 50 States." ( see
>
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2007/07/10.html#a2349)
>
> So what should the LAPD do? If they really
> believed in their
> responsibility to the people, the law, and
> the state, then they
> would protect those all the way up to the point
> where federal law
> specifically took over, and then merely step out
> of the way. I would
> position police officers to protect marijuana
> dispensaries in the
> state, with instructions to step aside for the
> DEA only if and when
> the police and California attorney general were
> completely satisfied
> with the legal paperwork spelling out the DEA's
> jurisdiction in that
> particular raid and the specific provisions of
> federal law that
> trumped state law (and the DEA might have to wait
> for an hour or two
> while the proper state officials were brought
> in to inspect such
> documents).
>
> Now that would be something to see. And the
> people of California
> should demand that of their police departments.
>
> Pete Guither is the author of Drug WarRant -
> www.drugwarrant.com - a
> weblog at the front lines of the drug war,
> where this piece was
> first presented.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud,
> is the only maxim
> which can ever preserve the liberties of any
> people. " - John Adams
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DS Weekly is one of the many free educational
> services DrugSense
> offers our members. Watch this feature to
> learn more about what
> DrugSense can do for you.
>
> TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL
> ADDRESS:
>
> Please utilize the following URLs
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
>
> CREDITS:
>
> Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content
> selection and analysis by
> Stephen Young (steve@...), Cannabis/Hemp
> content selection
> and analysis by Richard Lake
> (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
> comments represent the
> personal views of editors, not necessarily the
> views of DrugSense.
>
> We wish to thank all our contributors, editors,
> NewsHawks and letter
> writing activists. Please help us help reform.
> Become a NewsHawk See
> http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on
> contributing clippings.
>
> ===
>
> NOTICE:
>
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
> 107, this material is
> distributed without profit to those who have
> expressed a prior
> interest in receiving the included information
> for research and
> educational purposes.
>
> ===
>
> MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
> -OR-
>
> Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to
> MAP Inc. send your
> contribution to:
>
> The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
> D/B/a DrugSense
> 14252 Culver Drive #328
> Irvine, CA, 92604-0326
> (800) 266 5759
> MGreer@...



________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and
lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7