> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:06:59 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Sept. 21, 2007, #517
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
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>
> DrugSense Weekly, Sept. 21, 2007
> #517
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Full Pardon Begins To Ease Man's Pain
> (2) Mexican Drug Cartels Move North
> (3) ATMs Become Handy Tool For Laundering Dirty
> Cash
> (4) Former Officer's Message Riles Some
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) 5 Firms to Join Anti-Drug Campaign
> (6) City Councilman Pushes to End War on Drugs
> (7) Hawaii BOE May OK School Locker Searches
> (8) ACLU Seeks Participants for School Drug-Test
> Suit
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) New Legislation Means Restrictions For Law
> Enforcement
> (10) Volusia Deputy Charged In Robbery
> Conspiracy
> (11) Friends Rally For Cassell
> (12) Lack of Funds Spells End For Task Force
> (13) U.S. Dismisses Charges vs. Geneva France
> in Botched Drug Probe
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (14) Hemp Activists Get The Joint Jumping
> (15) B.C. Pot Crusader White-Hatted
> (16) Medical Cannabis Supporters Unite
> (17) Editorial: Our Criminal Ignorance Of
> Cannabis
>
> International News-
>
> (18) Seize Drug Addicts' Children, Say Liberals
> (19) Punitive Response No Help On Drugs
> (20) Canadians Want Crime Crackdown, Poll Finds
> (21) MP Tries To Ban Water
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> A 25-Year Quagmire
> Effects Of Ayahuasca On Psychometric
> Measures Of Anxiety
> Members Of Congress Ask DEA To Stop Obstructing
> Medical Marijuana Research
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Should I Tell My Kids About All The Drugs I Used
> To Do?
> NZ Drug Warrior Pwned By Dihydrogen Monoxide
> Hoax
> Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic
> Studies News
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Register For The NORML's 36Th Annual
> National Conference
> The Debate On California's Pot Shops
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> Montoya Stance On Pot Lacks Legs / John Robarge
>
> * Letter Writer Of The Month - August
>
> Stan White
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Political Elites Are Revolting On The Drug War
> / By Stephen Young
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> Woodrow Wilson
>
> 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
>
=======================================================================
>
> COMMENT: (1-4)
>
> Millions suffer needless pain because the laws and
> those who enforce
> them get between doctors and patients. Rarely
> some small belated
> justice points out how serious the issue is.
> Few newspapers have
> given coverage to the GAO report
> http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071018.pdf
>
> On the front page of the Wall Street Journal we
> find out that drug
> cartels find ways to conduct business despite
> any laws. Finally,
> almost every day Law Enforcement Against
> Prohibition speakers
> confront the traditional arguments supporting
> the war on drugs.
>
> ===
>
> (1) FULL PARDON BEGINS TO EASE MAN'S PAIN
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 21 Sep 2007
> Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 St. Petersburg Times
> Author: Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
>
> Governor and Cabinet Rule a Pain Patient
> Shouldn't Be in Prison.
>
> TALLAHASSEE -- Richard Paey wanted to be a lawyer
> and then a cop, but
> the searing pain in his legs robbed him of that. He
> settled for being
> a son, husband and father.
>
> Then the state said he was a drug trafficker.
> After a decade he was
> convicted on the third try and sentenced to 25
> years in prison. But
> the drugs were for Paey's own chronic pain,
> the result of a car
> crash, back surgery and multiple sclerosis.
>
> Appeal after appeal fell through. He found sympathy,
> in the courts of
> law and public opinion, but not relief.
>
> Now, after more than three years in prison, Paey
> can call himself
> something else:
>
> A free man.
>
> Paey, 48, was granted a full pardon Thursday by
> Gov. Charlie Crist
> and the Florida Cabinet in Tallahassee.
>
> "We aim to right a wrong," Crist said. "And to
> do it with grace."
>
> Paey never dared dream of a full pardon. All he
> asked the clemency
> board to do was commute his sentence to time served.
>
> Then the governor stunned Paey's wife, Linda, and
> their three teenage
> children:
>
> "I state he should be released today," Crist said.
>
> Applause broke out in the Cabinet meeting room.
> The Paey family and
> lawyer John Flannery II hugged. It was 9:40 a.m.
>
> Nine hours later, Richard Paey came home to Hudson.
>
> "In the immortal words of Dorothy," he said,
> pausing to kiss his
> wife, "there's no place like home."
>
> The reasons why Paey, who was convicted in 2004,
> ended up in prison
> are still disputed.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1081/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS MOVE NORTH
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 20 Sep 2007
> Source: Washington Post (DC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
> Author: Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post Foreign
> Service
>
> U.S. Effort to Battle Groups Is Flawed, GAO Report
> Says
>
> MEXICO CITY -- Mexican drug cartels now
> operate in almost every
> region of the United States and bring in as much
> as $23 billion a
> year in revenue, according to a Government
> Accountability Office
> report that will be released Thursday.
>
> U.S. assistance has helped Mexico combat cartels,
> the report says,
> but those efforts have been hampered by Mexican
> government corruption
> and by the failure of key players in the United
> States, including the
> White House Office of National Drug Control
> Policy, to coordinate
> better with Mexican law enforcement. The White
> House drug policy
> office, the report says, has prepared a
> counter-narcotics plan but
> has not discussed portions of the initiative
> that require Mexican
> cooperation with authorities in Mexico.
>
> "The Office of National Drug Control Policy has to
> stop dropping the
> ball and doing sloppy work," Sen. Charles E.
> Grassley (R-Iowa), who
> requested the report, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
> "They had plenty
> of time to forge a working relationship with the
> Mexican government,
> but it appears that nothing has been accomplished."
>
> The agency, Grassley added, "needs to realize
> that we're in this
> fight together, and it's foolish to think we
> can implement an
> effective plan to stop the flow of drugs from
> Mexico on our own."
>
> Patrick Ward, assistant deputy director of the
> White House drug
> office, said in an interview Wednesday that
> his office has had
> extensive contact with Mexican authorities about
> counter-narcotics
> plans since the GAO conducted its probe.
>
> "Our cooperation with the Mexican government,
> especially in the last
> eight to 10 months since President [Felipe] Calderon
> took office, has
> been absolutely phenomenal," Ward said.
>
> The report, an advance copy of which was obtained
> by The Washington
> Post, is the starkest evidence yet of Mexico's
> emergence as the main
> conduit of illegal drugs into the United States. The
> share of cocaine
> arriving in the United States through Mexico,
> for instance, leapt
> from 66 percent in 2000 to 90 percent in 2005.
> Other transshipment
> points include Haiti, the Dominican Republic
> and Central America.
>
> Combined, Mexican drug cartels generate more revenue
> than at least 40
> percent of Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S.
> government's highest
> estimate of cartel revenue tops that of Merck,
> Deere and Halliburton.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1078/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) ATMS BECOME HANDY TOOL FOR LAUNDERING DIRTY CASH
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 21 Sep 2007
> Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
> Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
> Author: Mark Schoofs
>
> With Small Deposits, Couriers Outwit Banks; Bag
> of Money in Queens
>
> At 8:50 a.m. on March 15, 2006, Luis Saavedra and
> Carlos Roca began
> going from bank to bank in Queens, New York,
> depositing cash into
> accounts held by a network of other people,
> according to
> law-enforcement officials. Their deposits never
> exceeded $2,000. Most
> ranged from $500 to $1,500.
>
> Around lunchtime, they crossed into Manhattan and
> worked their way up
> Third Avenue, then visited two banks on Madison
> Avenue. By 2:52 p.m.,
> they had placed more than $111,000 into 112
> accounts, say the
> officials, who reconstructed their movements from
> seized deposit slips.
>
> Confederates in Colombia used ATM cards to
> withdraw the money in
> pesos, moving quickly from machine to machine
> in a withdrawal
> whirlwind, the officials say. "The organization
> at its height was
> moving about $2 million a month," estimates Bridget
> Brennan, Special
> Narcotics Prosecutor for New York City.
>
> Messrs. Saavedra and Roca were arrested in June
> and charged under
> state money-laundering laws. Officials say they were
> moving money for
> a Colombian drug-trafficking organization that
> sells cocaine and the
> club-drug Ecstasy. Prosecutors say the two men
> engaged in a
> laundering practice called "microstructuring," a
> scheme notable for
> its simplicity. To evade suspicion by banks, they
> always made small
> deposits. In Colombia, getting at that money was
> as easy as pushing
> buttons on an ATM.
>
> Microstructuring has emerged as a vexing challenge
> for
> law-enforcement officials charged with stanching the
> illegal movement
> of money by drug traffickers, terrorists and
> organized-crime rings.
> The deposits and withdrawals are so small they can
> pass for ordinary
> ATM transactions. It's an extreme variation of a
> practice sometimes
> called "smurfing" -- the breaking down of large
> transactions into
> many smaller ones to evade detection by financial
> regulators. That
> activity was criminalized by Congress in 1986.
>
> [snip]
>
> The International Monetary Fund has estimated that
> between 2% and 5%
> of the world's gross domestic product -- between
> $962 billion and
> $2.4 trillion based on 2006 GDP data from the
> IMF -- is laundered
> world-wide every year. Experts say much of it flows
> through the U.S.
> financial system. Law enforcement has been hard
> pressed to keep up
> with money-laundering schemes, which criminals use
> to make proceeds
> from illegal activities appear legitimate.
> Authorities rely heavily
> on banks, which are required to report all cash
> transactions larger
> than $10,000 and to institute "know your
> customer" procedures to
> ferret out money laundering and other suspicious
> activity.
>
> Drug dealers, in particular, have lots of cash
> they want to slip
> surreptitiously into the banking system. Colombian
> traffickers want
> much of their money in Colombian pesos, so the
> cash they collect in
> the U.S. and Europe has to be converted. Many
> money-laundering
> schemes are complex, employing layers of
> transactions to move money
> through multiple countries to obscure the trail.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1082/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) FORMER OFFICER'S MESSAGE RILES SOME
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 21 Sep 2007
> Source: Post-Star, The ( NY)
> Copyright: 2007 Glens Falls Newspapers Inc.
> Author: Nick Reisman, Staff Writer
>
> Retired Drug Officer Says Legalization Is Best
> Choice For U.S.
>
> GLENS FALLS -- Warren County District Attorney
> Kate Hogan and a
> retired police captain got into a heated
> exchange Thursday over
> whether the United States should legalize drugs like
> heroin and marijuana.
>
> "These laws create crime and violence in our society
> that we wouldn't
> have without prohibition (of drugs)," Peter
> Christ, a former
> narcotics officer from western New York, told
> the Rotary Club of
> Glens Falls at the Queensbury Hotel.
>
> Christ (rhymes with "wrist") is the founder
> of Law Enforcement
> Against Prohibition, a Massachusetts-based group
> that includes judges
> and police officers.
>
> In his speech, he drew a parallel with current
> drug policy and the
> national ban on alcohol that lasted from 1920
> to 1933. The 18th
> Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed
> production and
> distribution of alcohol but was later repealed by
> the 21st
> Amendment. During that time, gangsters like Al
> Capone capitalized on
> the law by bootlegging.
>
> "We are in another period of prohibition
> today," said Christ,
> 61. "There's gang violence on the streets.
> Children are seduced by
> mobsters. Nothing has changed."
>
> He added that the government should regulate hard
> drugs like it does
> the lottery and tobacco.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1082/a04.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> American taxpayers, hold on to your wallets: More
> startlingly large
> government contracts are being prepared to
> develop plans for
> battling "narcoterrorism." Last week, this space
> noted a story out
> of Maryland which lauded the big money suddenly
> available to an area
> contractor for a high-tech attack on prohibited
> drugs. This week, a
> new story out of the Washington Post shows that a
> select handful of
> firms from around the country are set to split up
> about $15 billion
> over five years. And we sometimes wonder why the
> drug war goes on.
> At least some politicians have recognized the
> dead end of the drug
> war, as demonstrated by a story about a city
> councilman who has seen
> the light in Baltimore.
>
> The Hawaiian public education system seems to be
> poised on the brink
> of no-holds-barred drug crackdown. The State
> Board of Education is
> pushing to widely broaden the opportunities
> for the searching of
> student lockers, even without cause. And, as
> teachers in the state
> prepare to be pulled out of class for random drug
> tests, the ACLU is
> looking for educators who want to stand up
> against the new policy.
>
> ===
>
> (5) 5 FIRMS TO JOIN ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 17 Sep 2007
> Source: Washington Post (DC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
> Author: Michael Hardy, Special to the Washington
> Post
>
> The Defense Department has picked five companies,
> four of them from
> the Washington area, for a contract to
> support the Pentagon's
> counter-narcoterrorism activities. The government
> may spend as much
> as $15 billion through the five-year contract.
>
> The local companies are Arinc of Annapolis,
> Lockheed Martin of
> Bethesda, Raytheon Technical Services of Reston
> and Northrop Grumman
> Information Technology of McLean. The fifth
> company is Blackwater
> USA of Moyock, N.C.
>
> The companies will provide equipment, material
> and services to the
> Defense Department's Counter-Narcoterrorism
> Technology Program
> Office ( CNTPO ). The office's mission is to
> attack the narcotics
> trade and the flow of money and support from
> drug traffickers to
> terrorist groups.
>
> Drug trafficking provides money for terror
> organizations in various
> ways. According to a 2002 report that the
> Library of Congress's
> Federal Research Division prepared for the
> Defense Department, the
> drug trade funds guerrilla groups in Latin
> America and Islamic
> fundamentalist organizations -- including Al
> Qaeda -- around the
> world. The funding comes directly, from proceeds
> of drug sales, and
> indirectly, through use of drugs to bartering
> for weapons or other
> supplies.
>
> The contract is broad in scope and could involve
> several divisions
> of the winning companies, said Kerry Beresford,
> senior director of
> advance aviation applications at Arinc. That unit,
> based in Oklahoma
> City, is likely to handle many task orders
> that come through the
> contract, but other Arinc divisions
> specializing in intelligence
> gathering and other disciplines would be
> better suited for other
> demands, he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1069/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) CITY COUNCILMAN PUSHES TO END WAR ON DRUGS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 14 Sep 2007
> Source: Baltimore Examiner (MD)
> Copyright: 2007 Baltimore Examiner
> Author: Stephen Janis, The Examiner
>
> Baltimore City Councilman Jack Young is taking
> his war against the
> "war on drugs" one step farther.
>
> On Monday, Young said he will introduce a
> resolution seeking a
> hearing - -- with testimony from the Baltimore
> Police Department and
> the city Health Department -- to open a dialogue
> on what he said is
> a failed strategy against illegal drugs.
>
> "Like I've said before -- what we've done is not
> working," he said.
>
> "We need to have a dialogue about taking the
> profit motive out of
> drug dealing and ending the so-called war on drugs."
>
> In August, Young floated the idea of
> decriminalizing drugs at a City
> Council meeting, but has now decided to formalize
> his proposal after
> receiving a commitment to testify at the hearing
> from an
> organization called Law Enforcement Officers
> Against prohibition.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1072/a12.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) HAWAII BOE MAY OK SCHOOL LOCKER SEARCHES
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007
> Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
> Copyright: 2007 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division
> of Gannett Co. Inc.
> Author: Loren Moreno
>
> State Board of Education officials expect to
> encounter vocal
> opposition next month when they take up a
> proposal to allow locker
> searches and the use of drug-sniffing dogs on
> school campuses
> statewide.
>
> But even as the American Civil Liberties Union,
> legal experts, some
> principals and students express concern over the
> proposed revisions
> to the schools' disciplinary code, board members
> say they expect the
> proposal will pass when taken up by the full board
> at a
> yet-to-be-scheduled meeting.
>
> At the request of the state attorney general's
> office, the board is
> considering searches "with or without cause"
> and the use of drug
> detection canines on public school campuses, said
> board member Mary
> Cochran, whose committee on Monday gave
> preliminary approval to the
> Chapter 19 disciplinary code changes.
>
> Previously, the panel backed away from "without
> cause" searches. But
> following an executive session discussion with the
> attorney
> general's office, the committee decided in a
> majority vote to
> reinstate the language.
>
> Four members of the 11-member panel voted
> against the change.
>
> "While I don't necessarily have a problem with
> the dogs being on
> campus, when you say we can search a locker
> without cause, I just
> have some concern about that phrase and what it
> could imply," said
> Karen Knudsen, chairwoman of the state BOE.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1076/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) ACLU SEEKS PARTICIPANTS FOR SCHOOL DRUG-TEST
> SUIT
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 15 Sep 2007
> Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
> Copyright: 2007 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division
> of Gannett Co. Inc.
>
> The American Civil Liberties Union plans a legal
> challenge to a new
> contract that allows random drug testing of
> Hawai'i public school
> employees and is actively seeking people who want
> to be part of the
> lawsuit, the group announced yesterday.
>
> ACLU leaders will begin touring the state later
> this month to meet
> with unionized public school employees who are
> subject to the tests
> under the terms of their new collective
> bargaining agreement.
>
> The group is looking for teachers and others who
> want to be
> plaintiffs in the lawsuit that will challenge
> the testing program,
> said Lois Perrin, legal director of the ACLU of
> Hawai'i.
>
> "Our education system is failing students by
> resorting to dragnet
> searches that do little to protect anyone while
> violating the rights
> of everyone," Perrin said.
>
> The Hawai'i State Teachers Association and the
> state earlier this
> year agreed to a contract that would allow
> random drug testing of
> teachers, librarians and administrative workers in
> the public school
> system.
>
> Union members narrowly approved the contract
> with the state. The
> policy is the first of its kind in the
> nation, the ACLU said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1067/a12.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-13)
>
> In Wisconsin, police were shocked by a
> judge's ruling that they
> actually have to get a warrant in order for a
> informant wearing a
> wire during an alleged drug deal. The legislature
> has tried to make
> it easier for police, but they are still
> complaining about being
> handcuffed. More corruption this week, but with a
> couple of twists.
> In Florida, a school resource officer allegedly
> planned to rip off
> drug dealers, while in Virginia, a sheriff is
> sentenced to eight
> months over corruption charges, though some
> supporters say he was
> framed by an informant.
>
> No more bake sales to save a drug task force
> in Texas, the task
> force has officially died from a lack of funding,
> like others in the
> state. And in Ohio, one woman was released
> from prison and many
> other cases are now in question worked by a
> federal agent involved
> in the case.
>
> ===
>
> (9) NEW LEGISLATION MEANS RESTRICTIONS FOR LAW
> ENFORCEMENT
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007
> Source: State Journal, The (WV)
> Copyright: 2007 The State Journal
> Author: J. Turchetta
>
> Agencies Must Not Obtain A Warrant Before
> Putting A Wire On An
> Informant.
>
> BUCKHANNON -- The State Supreme Court earlier
> this year ruled that
> law enforcement agencies would have to obtain
> a warrant before
> placing a wire on informants.
>
> After a recent special legislative session,
> Governor Joe Manchin
> signed a bill that eased some of those
> restrictions but it is still
> keeping many departments hand-cuffed when it
> comes to surveillance.
>
> When the court made its ruling, it said that if
> you wanted to place
> a wire on an informant and send him into a
> suspect's home, you first
> had to get a warrant to do so. But only five
> circuit court judges in
> the state were authorized to grant those warrants.
>
> The bill signed by the Governor allows any circuit
> judge or
> magistrate to sign those warrants. But many
> departments, including
> the Upshur County Sheriff's Department, said
> it still is a major
> road block.
>
> If a department has a tip that a drug deal is
> going down, they would
> first have to get their warrant approved
> before allowing their
> informant to enter into a buy.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1056/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) VOLUSIA DEPUTY CHARGED IN ROBBERY CONSPIRACY
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007
> Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 News-Journal Corporation
> Author: Patricio G. Balona, Staff Writer
>
> DELAND -- The plan was to make a traffic stop
> on the outskirts of
> Daytona Beach and with the help of an accomplice
> rob a street-level
> drug dealer of money.
>
> But the Volusia County sheriff's deputy
> accused of plotting the
> robbery did not carry out his plan as agents
> from the Florida
> Department of Law Enforcement arrested him
> Tuesday afternoon.
>
> Eugene Walton, a school resource deputy at
> Campbell Middle School in
> Daytona Beach, was charged with one count of
> unlawful compensation
> and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery,
> said Susie Murphy,
> FDLE spokeswoman.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1055/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) FRIENDS RALLY FOR CASSELL
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007
> Source: Martinsville Bulletin (VA)
> Copyright: 2007 Martinsville Bulletin
> Author: Amanda Buck, Bulletin, Staff Writer
>
> ROANOKE -- About a dozen family members and at
> least 40 friends,
> neighbors and church members packed into a
> crowded courtroom here
> Tuesday to show their support for former Henry
> County sheriff H.
> Frank Cassell.
>
> After U.S. District Judge James C. Turk
> sentenced Cassell to eight
> months in prison and a $15,000 fine for making a
> false statement to
> a federal agent, supporters crowded around him and
> his wife
> Margaret, offering hugs and handshakes. Outside
> the courtroom,
> several wiped away tears as they discussed the
> judge's decision.
>
> Olaf Hurd of Ridgeway, who has known Cassell
> since the 1960s, said
> the sentence, which fell within the government's
> guidelines, would
> have been more lenient if Turk knew the Cassell he
> knows.
>
> "The judge didn't know Frank," Hurd said. "His men
> let him down. The
> only thing he's guilty of is being too good to his
> men."
>
> It was a statement that echoed what Cassell's
> attorney, John
> Lichtenstein, said in court. He depicted Cassell,
> 69, as a
> compassionate man who was all but trapped by
> James Vaught, a former
> deputy who came to him for help. Vaught, who
> was working as a
> government informant, persuaded Cassell to help
> him secure a loan so
> Vaught could launder thousands of dollars in
> what he said was drug
> money, Lichtenstein said.
>
> Cassell later lied to an FBI agent when he denied
> knowing how Vaught
> got the money.
>
> Although what Cassell did was wrong, he did it not
> for personal gain
> but because he wanted to help a man who had
> fallen on hard times,
> Lichtenstein argued.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1056/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) LACK OF FUNDS SPELLS END FOR TASK FORCE
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 13 Sep 2007
> Source: Times Record News (Wichita Falls, TX)
> Copyright: 2007 The E.W. Scripps Co.
> Author: Jessica Langdon, Times Record News
>
> Wichita Falls City Manager Darron Leiker went
> into the budget
> process for 2007-08 knowing that part of the
> undertaking would have
> to include salaries to fold six employees into
> the Wichita Falls
> Police Department.
>
> Those six had been part of the North Texas
> Regional Drug Enforcement
> Task Force, which appears set to shut down at
> the end of September
> as the interagency agreement funding it ends.
>
> The reality started to sink in several months
> ago as the Texas
> Legislature wrapped up its session without
> bolstering the task
> force, Leiker said. The city and surrounding
> areas had hoped some
> dollars would come through.
>
> The task force has been operating for the past
> year and a half on
> funds scraped together through forfeitures and
> contributions from
> the entities that use the task force's services.
>
> That's been putting a Band-Aid on the situation
> for a while to keep
> it going, and the goal was to work with the
> state toward new
> funding, Leiker said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1078/a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (13) U.S. DISMISSES CHARGES VS. GENEVA FRANCE IN
> BOTCHED DRUG PROBE
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 11 Sep 2007
> Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
> Copyright: 2007 The Plain Dealer
> Author: John Caniglia
>
> Federal prosecutors on Monday dismissed their
> charges against a
> woman who served 16 months in prison after being
> snared in a botched
> drug investigation.
>
> Prosecutors said the allegations against Geneva
> France, a Mansfield
> mother of three, would have been impossible to
> prove and cited an
> informant who recanted his testimony against her.
>
> It marks the first time prosecutors tossed out a
> conviction in the
> case that snagged 26 people and accused them of
> peddling cocaine and
> marijuana in Mansfield. Twenty people were
> convicted, and four were
> acquitted. One had charges dropped after
> spending months in jail.
>
> France's case is a focus of a Justice Department
> task force that is
> examining the work of Lee Lucas, the federal drug
> agent who handled
> the case, and Lucas' informant, Jerrell Bray.
> The unit will meet
> with more attorneys and witnesses in Cleveland this
> week.
>
> Defense attorneys said the task force, headed
> by Assistant U.S.
> Attorney Bruce Teitelbaum from Pittsburgh, also
> is looking at other
> cases that Lucas worked.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1059/a03.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (14-17)
>
> Two veterans of the cannabis community were among
> those detained at
> the annual Boston Freedom Rally. As Keith
> Stroup, attorney and
> founder of NORML explained, "We forgot that it
> is still illegal;
> that's my defense and I'm sticking with it!"
>
> Speaking of memory loss, DSW readers may
> recall former Attorney
> General Alberto Gonzales anointing Marc Emery
> "the number one drug
> trafficking kingpin in Canada, one of the 51
> top kingpins in the
> world." Now Canada's "Prince of Pot" can add
> "Cowboy of Cannabis" to
> his list of titles, or should it be "Good Guy of
> Ganja?"
>
> Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the
> "Journey for Justice,"
> a 210-mile wheel-chair trip across Wisconsin to
> the state capital,
> organized by IMMLY, or "Is My Medicine Legal
> Yet?" Ten years later,
> the sad answer is still "no," but Jacki Rickert
> won't take "no" for
> an answer.
>
> The Independent on Sunday has been seduced by
> the dark side since
> they eloquently editorialized in favour of
> cannabis law reform a few
> years ago, now putting one of the many costs of
> prohibition on the
> wrong side of the ledger, in addition to
> citing potential health
> risks as cause to keep the British market
> unregulated.
>
> ===
>
> (14) HEMP ACTIVISTS GET THE JOINT JUMPING
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 16 Sep 2007
> Source: Boston Herald (MA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Boston Herald, Inc
> Author: O'Ryan Johnson
> Cited: Boston Freedom Rally
> http://www.masscann.org/freedomrally01.shtml
>
> Two of the nation's leading advocates for
> legalized marijuana were
> arrested on Boston Common yesterday for lighting
> up a joint during
> the Boston Freedom Rally, a pro-hemp event that
> promotes
> decriminalizing the drug.
>
> R. Keith Stroup, 63, founder of the National
> Organization for the
> Reform of Marijuana Laws, and Rick Cusick, 53,
> an editor at High
> Times magazine, were charged with possession
> of marijuana, a
> misdemeanor. "We were smoking a joint behind the
> booth here," Stroup
> said. "I'm sure the police would rather be
> chasing real criminals.
> We're both productive, hard-working taxpayers."
>
> High Times and NORML are co-sponsors of the
> annual rally that
> celebrates pot culture and traditionally
> results in dozens of
> arrests of addle-brained youths who mistakenly
> believe it is legal
> to toke up for just that day.
>
> "A lot of them said they thought it was an
> amnesty," said one of the
> cops at the makeshift booking area where
> plainclothes police led the
> shame-faced youths who were caught smoking
> reefer. The 60-plus
> arrested found it was not only not legal for that
> day but would cost
> them a day in court.
>
> [snip]
>
> Stroup, who was arrested once before 24 years
> ago, said he and
> Cusick were relaxing and smoking a joint in the
> park, an activity he
> said was no harm to anyone.
>
> Both men said police treated them well and
> professionally during the
> booking process.
>
> "I've been waiting 33 years to get arrested," said
> Cusick,
> chuckling. "When it happened I was calm, like a
> monk. I told them
> I'd call my lawyer, but he got arrested with me."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1067.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) B.C. POT CRUSADER WHITE-HATTED
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 16 Sep 2007
> Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
> Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald
> Author: Paula Beauchamp and Colette Derworitz
>
> Canada's "Prince of Pot" has joined the ranks
> of Dolly Parton,
> Prince Philip and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean.
>
> Arriving at the Calgary airport for a two-day
> visit Saturday,
> Canada's best-known marijuana activist, Marc
> Emery, was white-hatted
> by the Calgary airport's official White Hat
> Volunteers.
>
> "I'm the Prince of Pot," he said.
>
> "That's a royalty, a monarchy of sorts, so I
> guess it fits."
>
> Saturday's warm welcome, arranged by Emery's
> supporters, comes in
> stark contrast to his visit to Calgary in
> 2003 when Emery was
> arrested for marijuana possession.
>
> Emery is in Calgary to show his support for
> medical marijuana
> crusader Grant Krieger, and to raise both awareness
> of his
> extradition proceedings and money for looming
> court battles.
>
> Emery has been arrested 22 times on
> marijuana-related offences, and
> jailed 17 times.
>
> He now faces a U.S. extradition hearing on
> Nov. 5. for selling
> thousands of marijuana seeds to Americans
> through his Internet
> business.
>
> Emery's business partners, Gregory Keith
> Williams and Michelle
> Rainey- Fenkarek, were also charged.
>
> [snip]
>
> "He truly deserves that hat. He is a freedom
> fighter," Krieger said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Lorn Sheehan, chairman of the board of directors
> of Calgary Tourism,
> said Calgary should show hospitality to a
> broad range of people.
>
> "If you white-hat absolutely terrible people, it
> could devalue (the
> practice)," he said.
>
> "But if this man is walking the streets, he can't
> be that terrible."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1065.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) MEDICAL CANNABIS SUPPORTERS UNITE
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 19 Sep 2007
> Source: Badger Herald (U of WI, Madison, WI Edu)
> Copyright: 2007 Badger Herald
> Author: Cara Harshman
> Cited: Is My Medicine Legal Yet?
> http://www.immly.org
>
> Is your medicine legal?
>
> Jacki Rickert's isn't. The Wisconsin mother
> suffers from several
> incurable medical conditions and says the only
> effective treatment
> is marijuana.
>
> Rickert joined two state legislators and other
> medical marijuana
> supporters Tuesday for a press conference to
> announce the
> introduction of new medical marijuana legislation.
>
> Tuesday was a symbolic day for Rickert, as it
> marks the 10-year
> anniversary of the "Journey-for-Justice," a
> 210-mile trek across the
> state Rickert and an entourage of medical
> marijuana supporters made
> in their wheelchairs that ended at the Capitol.
>
> In honor of Rickert, Rep. Frank Boyle,
> D-Superior, and Rep. Mark
> Pocan, D-Madison, named the new legislation
> the "Jacki Rickert
> Medical Marijuana Act".
>
> "I'm real proud that for the first time we are
> giving the bill a
> real name," Boyle said. "This bill will
> forever be known as the
> Jacki Rickert Bill."
>
> [snip]
>
> "Please, we have to make this legal," Rickert
> said. "I beg all of
> you."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1077/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) EDITORIAL: OUR CRIMINAL IGNORANCE OF CANNABIS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 16 Sep 2007
> Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
> Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
>
> When The Independent on Sunday campaigned for the
> decriminalisation
> of cannabis, we reflected the common view
> among informed opinion
> that the drug was less dangerous than either
> tobacco or alcohol. So
> widespread did that view become that our editorial
> line was followed
> within a few years by The Daily Telegraph. No
> wonder people were
> confused.
>
> Now that confusion, which was perhaps
> inevitable as changes in
> public opinion, government policy and scientific
> research
> interacted, has become a real problem.
>
> The Government responded slowly to the
> liberalisation of attitudes,
> in which our campaign played a part. In 2001
> David Blunkett, then
> Home Secretary, asked the Advisory Council on
> the Misuse of Drugs
> whether cannabis should be downgraded from
> class B to the least
> serious category of illegal drugs, class C.
> The council said it
> should, although the change did not take place
> until January 2004.
> The delay in implementing the change meant that
> for some time the
> formal legal position was out of line with police
> practice.
>
> [snip]
>
> Meanwhile, the evidence of a link between
> cannabis and psychosis
> among a minority of users was growing stronger.
> That meant that no
> sooner had cannabis been downgraded in the eyes of
> the law than most
> credible authorities began to warn it was
> considerably more
> dangerous than previously thought. That evidence
> led this newspaper,
> in March, to renounce its campaign to
> decriminalise cannabis. We
> felt the evidence forced us to choose between
> our campaigns for
> better understanding of mental health issues
> and our liberal
> instinct.
>
> [snip]
>
> Today, we report a further complication. One of
> the arguments for
> reclassifying cannabis as less serious was that
> users did not tend
> to steal to pay for their habit. But
> disturbing new research
> suggests otherwise. Our own investigations
> suggest cannabis use is
> high and rising among young offenders, and an
> academic study in
> Sheffield suggests one in four young offenders has
> stolen to pay for
> cannabis.
>
> [snip]
>
> In July, Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary,
> began the third big
> review of government policy towards illegal
> drugs in recent years.
> Let us hope she achieves the clarity, the
> effective policing and the
> priority for treatment that eluded her predecessors.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1065.a01.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (18-21)
>
> An Australian House inquest into "illicit drug
> use" turned into a
> field day for demagogues after liberal MPs
> called for seizing the
> children of "drug-using parents" (including
> cannabis users). The
> committee also recommended scrapping any "harm
> minimisation policy",
> replacing it with additional punishments. Labour
> MPs, shut out from
> the inquiry, complained of "outright hostility
> because their expert
> views did not accord with the personal beliefs or
> political aims of"
> the Liberal MPs leading the bandwagon. A
> rather lucid editorial
> appeared in the Canberra Times last week
> ("Punitive Response No Help
> On Drugs"), which cut through the rhetoric.
> Concluded the Times, the
> "demand for a rethink on drug rehabilitation is
> recognised for what
> it is - an unreasonably harsh and punitive
> approach that is more
> likely to drive drug-users underground."
>
> Canadian Prime Minister Harper's right-wing
> government conducted a
> poll to see if their plans to do what
> authoritarian governments
> always do (expand police and prisons) was
> supported by the common
> people. The results of the government poll
> are in, and the poll
> results tell us (says the government), that
> the people want more
> government police and they don't really mind if
> the police commit
> crimes, if they are fighting drug
> "trafficking". Civil liberties
> experts "wondered if the Conservative
> government was preparing
> legislation giving police greater powers and was
> using the survey to
> create the need for new laws."
>
> And from New Zealand this week, the MP who
> wanted to ban the drug
> dihydrogen monoxide. It isn't the first time a
> sitting New Zealand
> MP set their sights on the substance. True,
> dihydrogen monoxide can
> be abused. Some succumb to crystal dihydrogen
> monoxide's
> life-stopping power. Seeking thrills, children can
> and do lose their
> lives to a literal sea of dihydrogen monoxide.
> What can government
> do? When an Auckland resident demanded answers
> from Otago MP Jacqui
> Dean, she knew what to do: ban it. But what was to
> be the Triumph of
> Government instead turned out to be an
> embarrassment for the sitting
> MP, when it was revealed that the "drug"
> called "dihydrogen
> monoxide" was really just another name for water.
> Ms Dean had fallen
> for an old hoax: renaming water, while
> accurately describing its
> dangers.
>
> ===
>
> (18) SEIZE DRUG ADDICTS' CHILDREN, SAY LIBERALS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 14 Sep 2007
> Source: Advertiser, The (Australia)
> Copyright: 2007 Advertiser Newspapers Ltd
> Author: Laura Anderson
>
> CHILDREN of drug-addicted parents should be
> adopted out if their
> parents can't "sort themselves out", a
> parliamentary committee has
> recommended.
>
> Liberal MPs on a House of Representatives
> committee inquiry into
> illicit drug use have called for a hardline
> approach to drug policy,
> including dumping the Government's "harm
> minimisation policy".
>
> [snip]
>
> Ms Bishop said the tough approach to child
> protection had resulted
> from stories of "appalling neglect and abuse"
> of children of
> drug-using parents. The committee recommends
> adoption be established
> as the "default" care option for children aged
> five and under, where
> child protection authorities had identified
> illicit drug use by the
> parents.
>
> [snip]
>
> Labor MPs on the committee, in a dissenting
> report, raised concerns
> about how the inquiry had been conducted.
>
> Some witnesses had experienced "outright
> hostility because their
> expert views did not accord with the personal
> beliefs or political
> aims of those questioning them", they said.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1066.a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (19) PUNITIVE RESPONSE NO HELP ON DRUGS
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 15 Sep 2007
> Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
> Copyright: 2007 Canberra Times
>
> Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop is well known for
> her
> conservative social views and the forthright
> manner in which she
> expresses them. In August 2005, she called
> for a ban on Muslim
> headscarves in public schools, and last year
> she told a federal
> Young Liberal convention that burning or
> violating the Australian
> flag should be made a federal offence.
>
> She is also well-known as a strident anti-drugs
> campaigner.
>
> [snip]
>
> Among the most controversial of the
> recommendations is that the
> infant children of illicit drug-users be put up
> for adoption, that
> Centrelink direct drug-using parents to spend
> their welfare payments
> only on food and essentials, and that what are
> disparagingly called
> "drug industry elites" that is, treatment
> services, counsellors and
> research organisations should only receive
> taxpayer funding if they
> abandon the philosophy of harm minimisation in
> favour of zero
> tolerance.
>
> [snip]
>
> During its deliberations, the House of
> Representatives committee
> heard similarly harrowing stories of the
> accidental death and
> ill-treatment of children whose parents were
> drug-users, and while
> forcing parents to give up custody of their
> children might seem like
> a justifiable response to such neglect, there
> are many people who
> fear that implementing such a regime will only
> discourage parents
> from seeking treatment.
>
> Many experts who made submissions or were called
> before the
> committee are unhappy with its methods and findings.
>
> [snip]
>
> It is to be hoped that Bishop's demand for
> a rethink on drug
> rehabilitation is recognised for what it is an
> unreasonably harsh
> and punitive approach that is more likely to
> drive drug-users
> underground than to Naltrexone clinics and
> that the minister for
> Families and Community Services, Mal Brough,
> gives it the response
> it deserves.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1068.a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) CANADIANS WANT CRIME CRACKDOWN, POLL FINDS
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 19 Sep 2007
> Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
> Author: Jack Aubry, CanWest News Service
>
> Civil Libertarian Wonders If Ottawa Is Using The
> Survey To Justify
> Its Plans
>
> OTTAWA -- Canadians want a crackdown on organized
> crime and
> overwhelmingly support police officers breaking the
> law to
> infiltrate gangs, a new federal government poll
> indicates.
>
> The national survey, conducted for the Department
> of Public Safety,
> also reveals that a majority of Canadians believe
> organized crime is
> "as serious" a threat to Canada as terrorism,
> with seven of 10
> wanting improvements in the federal
> government's current level of
> effort to combat it.
>
> A remarkable 48 per cent of Canadians responded
> that organized crime
> had an impact on them personally and identified
> drug trafficking as
> the crime with the highest level of
> correlation to the criminal
> activity. And more than half (54 per cent)
> agree that members of
> motorcycle gangs should be prosecuted based on
> participation alone,
> regardless of whether they have committed a crime.
>
> [snip]
>
> But Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the
> Canadian Civil Liberties
> Association, wondered if the Conservative
> government was preparing
> legislation giving police greater powers and was
> using the survey to
> create the need for new laws. He warned that
> the issue is not as
> black and white as presented by the survey, and
> that police already
> have sweeping powers to battle crime.
>
> [snip]
>
> "In the past, they've argued for these powers
> at a time when you
> were reading in the newspapers about police
> conducting busts here
> and busts there, and busting up that ring and
> this ring, and you
> start to wonder, if they are doing so well with
> all these powers,
> where is the argument for anything new?" said
> Borovoy.
>
> "So they may want to legislate and they have
> a survey now that
> demands that they legislate. This is a
> marvellous way to run a
> country."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1078.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (21) MP TRIES TO BAN WATER
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 16 Sep 2007
> Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
> Copyright: 2007 New Zealand Herald
>
> Otago MP Jacqui Dean felt like a bit of a
> "wally" yesterday, after
> it was revealed she tried to ban North
> Otago's most precious
> commodity - water.
>
> Mrs Dean has confirmed she was caught in a hoax by
> an online blogger
> asking for her help in banning dihydrogen monoxide
> - which, it turns
> out, is the chemical name for ordinary H20.
>
> [snip]
>
> A letter, signed by Mrs Dean, was sent to
> Associate Health Minister
> Jim Anderton last month, asking if the Expert
> Advisory Committee on
> Drugs had a view on banning the "drug".
>
> A Blogspot.com blogger, Michael Earley, of
> Auckland, published the
> original letter to Mrs Dean yesterday.
>
> On Tuesday's first reading of the Misuse of Drugs
> (Classification of
> BZP) Amendment Bill, Mr Anderton took the
> opportunity to rub Mrs
> Dean's nose in it.
>
> Mrs Dean responded with a note across the house
> that said "touchi -
> you got me".
>
> [snip]
>
> Mr Anderton said he would not be banning
> dihydrogen monoxide or
> asking for the experts to consider it.
>
> He responded saying: "Thank you for your letter
> of 23 August, 2007
> about your constituent call for the ban on
> dihydrogen monoxide,
> (but) dihydrogen monoxide is water," he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> It is not the first time MPs have had a
> brush with the hoax.
>
> In 2001, a staff member in Green MP Sue
> Kedgley's office responded
> to a request for support saying she would be
> "absolutely supportive
> of the campaign to ban this toxic substance".
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1067.a04.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> A 25-YEAR QUAGMIRE
>
> The War on Drugs and Its Impact on American Society
>
> This report, recently released by The Sentencing
> Project, documents
> how the drug war has produced a record expansion
> of prison and jail
> systems and highlights additional indicators of
> the war's impact on
> the criminal justice system and communities.
>
>
http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/dp_25yearquagmire.pdf
>
> ===
>
> EFFECTS OF AYAHUASCA ON PSYCHOMETRIC MEASURES OF
> ANXIETY
>
> Effects of Ayahuasca on Psychometric Measures of
> Anxiety, Panic-like and
> Hopelessness in Santo Daime Members
>
> A study recently published in the Journal of
> Ethnopharmacology has
> demonstrated that the South American psychedelic
> plant brew ayahuasca
> can alleviate signs of anxiety, panic, and
> hopelessness.
>
> http://www.maps.org/media/ayahuasca-jep.pdf
>
> ===
>
> MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ASK DEA TO STOP OBSTRUCTING
> MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH
>
> Washington, D.C. - A letter signed by 45 members of
> the U.S. House of
> Representatives will be delivered today to the U.S.
> Drug Enforcement
> Administration (DEA) demanding an end to the
> obstruction of scientific
> research aimed at developing marijuana as a legal
> prescription medicine.
>
>
http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/medmarijuana/31863prs20070918.html
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Last: 09/14/07 - Dr. Stanton Peele author
> "Addiction-Proof Your
> Child" + Drug War Facts
>
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_091407.mp3
>
> ===
>
> SHOULD I TELL MY KIDS ABOUT ALL THE DRUGS I USED TO
> DO?
>
> I've been honest with them about everything, but I'm
> not sure about this.
>
> By Cary Tennis
>
>
http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2007/09/21/kids_and_drugs/
>
> ===
>
> NZ DRUG WARRIOR PWNED BY DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE HOAX
>
> One of the chief cheerleaders for bringing BZP
> within the ineffectual
> clutches of criminal law is New Zealand National
> Party politician (and
> former Play School presenter) Jacqui Dean. New
> Zealand blogger Micheal
> Earley (and friends) thought they'd see how
> much Dean really knew
> about drugs by deploying the Di-hydrogen Monoxide
> hoax - seeing if he
> could get her to call for the prohibition on water
> on the basis that
> it was a dangerous drug.
>
>
http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2007/09/nz-drug-warrior-caught-out-by.html
>
> ===
>
> MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHEDELIC
> STUDIES NEWS
>
> The September 2007 MAPS news update is now
> available.
>
> http://www.maps.org/news/
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> REGISTER FOR THE NORML'S 36TH ANNUAL NATIONAL
> CONFERENCE
>
> Cannabis, Creativity and Commerce
>
> Los Angeles, California
> October 12-13, 2007
>
> http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7250
>
> ===
>
> THE DEBATE ON CALIFORNIA'S POT SHOPS
>
> Sept. 20, 2007(CBS) The idea was a noble one:
> pass a law to make
> marijuana legal for cancer and AIDS sufferers
> whose pain and nausea
> the drug is known to relieve. But the law the
> Rev. Scott Imler
> thought would one day put the drug in pharmacies
> has instead created
> "pot dealers in storefronts" who sell to anyone
> with doctors' notes
> that are fairly easy to obtain.
>
> 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer speaks to
> Imler and others for a
> report on medical marijuana, this Sunday, Sept. 23,
> at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
>
>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/60minutes/main3281715.shtml
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> MONTOYA STANCE ON POT LACKS LEGS
>
> By John Robarge
>
> I am writing in response to Santa Fe County
> Commissioner Harry
> Montoya's stance on the use of medicinal
> marijuana. I was severely
> injured in a car accident in 1995, and again
> in a job-related
> accident in 2005. As a consequence, I feel I
> was used as a guinea
> pig by various doctors and pharmaceutical
> companies for pain
> management primarily involving opiates in one
> form or another.
>
> Anyone who has gone through a prolonged period
> involving the use of
> opiates for pain relief knows the results: mood
> swings, anger and
> depression, nausea, constipation, irritable bowel
> syndrome,
> addiction, etc.
>
> While living in Oregon, a state that allows
> the use of medical
> marijuana, my doctor recommended that I try pot
> as a substitute for
> the Vicodin, Demerol, Loritab, codeine and
> other pain killers I'd
> been prescribed. It worked, not only as an
> analgesic for pain
> relief, but it helped considerably with the
> cramping and spasms I
> was subject to, without the annoying side effects of
> the
> pharmaceutical cures. It didn't cost me
> anything, as I was allowed
> to grow it.
>
> Since the year 2000, there have been an estimated
> 2,000
> alcohol-related deaths and an appalling 15,000
> tobacco-related
> deaths in New Mexico alone. Both are drugs, both
> are legal, both are
> taxed, hence providing a profit to our
> government, which pays our
> politicians salaries. I could not find one
> marijuana-related death
> nationwide.
>
> Please, Commissioner Montoya, let's send the
> proper message to our
> children. Tell the truth! And end the madness.
> The money spent on
> incarcerating people for the use of marijuana,
> either prescribed or
> otherwise, would be much better spent on
> rehabilitation and
> education about the much more dangerous -- and
> legal -- drugs that
> are out there.
>
> John Robarge John Robarge lives in Santa Cruz,
> where he works as a
> carpenter.
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 08 Sep 2007
> Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1009.a09.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - AUGUST
>
> DrugSense recognizes Stan White of Dillon,
> Colorado for his eight
> letters published during August, bringing his
> career total that we
> know of to 419. You may read Stan's published
> letters by clicking
> this link: http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Stan+White
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> Political Elites Are Revolting On The Drug War
>
> By Stephen Young
>
> The title above can be read two ways,
> depending on the meaning
> assigned to the word "revolting." Up until
> recently, if I saw such a
> phrase, I would think of revolting in the sense of
> disgusting or repulsive.
>
> Most politicians above the local level have
> supported the drug war
> without reservation for decades. There have been
> notable exceptions,
> like New Mexico's former governor Gary Johnson, but
> he only spoke out
> after he decided he wasn't going to run for office
> again.
>
> However, there may be cause to interpret the
> word "revolting"
> differently, as in the sense of refusing to accept
> something. Earlier
> this week, Florida's Republican Governor
> Charlie Crist offered a
> complete and surprising pardon for pain victim
> Richard Paey, who had
> been imprisoned on a drug conviction for more than
> three years. Crist
> declined to criticize the whole drug war, but he
> did recognize that
> in this case it was pushed to absurd proportions.
>
> To many it would appear to be common sense, but
> measured by drug war
> standards, this is a big step. Even extreme
> cases like this are
> routinely winked at by elected officials afraid of
> appearing soft on
> drugs.
>
> Crist wasn't the only one to express some shock.
> Even former hard
> core drug warrior congressman, now the Florida's
> attorney general,
> Bill McCollum expressed his dismay.
>
> Maybe if Crist and McCollum took a close look at
> other drug cases
> they might be even more disturbed. But, these guys
> are Republicans,
> they allowed themselves some justified apprehension
> over one drug war
> excess, and they used their power to correct it.
>
> My hat is off to them.
>
> As the season of U.S. presidential politics is
> already well underway,
> it's hard not to notice some other dissension
> from drug war
> orthodoxy. Outsiders in the race from both sides
> of the mainstream
> parties (Republican Ron Paul and Democrat
> Dennis Kucinich) have
> criticized multiple aspects of the drug war and have
> sponsored and/or
> signed on to legislation that challenges some
> drug war policies.
>
> All of the Democratic candidates have now somewhat
> famously agreed if
> elected to stop federal raids on medical marijuana
> clinics in places
> where they are allowed by state law. Current New
> Mexico Governor Bill
> Richardson is pushing to implement his state's
> medical marijuana
> program, even as he runs for president.
>
> Sadly, there's still more prohibitionist
> rhetoric flowing in the
> campaign - John McCain has said the drug war
> should be stepped up,
> and I'm awaiting new anti-drug pronouncements by
> the law and order
> wing of the Republicans with a cringe.
>
> But, politicians say lots of things while they
> are campaigning.
> Candidate George W. Bush said medical marijuana
> issues should be left
> to the states.
>
> So listen to the talk with a grain of salt, but pay
> attention to the
> actions. The occasional good deed can slightly
> reduce the nausea
> inspired by typical drug war politics, while
> demonstrating the
> perceived need for ideological purity on drug issues
> may be going out
> of political fashion.
>
> Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly.
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Liberty has never come from the government.
> Liberty has always come
> from the subjects of it. The history of
> liberty is a history of
> resistance." - Woodrow Wilson
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
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