> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 10:53:09 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Oct. 5, 2007, #519
>
>
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>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
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>
> DrugSense Weekly, Oct. 5, 2007
> #519
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Harper Vows Jail Time For Drug Dealers,
> Producers
> (2) Editorial: Tories' 'New' Strategy To Fight
> Drugs
> (3) A Patient Pleads For Access
> (4) 25 Years See Growth For MAMA Supporters
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) Cocaine Supply Down Sharply, U.S. Officials
> Say
> (6) Expiring Drug-Free Zones End a City Era
> (7) No-Pregnancy Order Voided
> (8) Palm Beach County Denies Help For Alcohol
> And Drug Abuse
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) Former Sheriff Pleads Guilty
> (10) Perjury Charge Against Deputy Dropped
> (11) Getting Away With Murder?
> (12) 14 Drug Task Forces Face Shutdown Over
> Funds
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (13) Australia: Most Arrested In Darwin Stoned
> (14) Feds Take Over Chico Medical Marijuana Case
> (15) No More Mr Nice Guy
> (16) Mountains Of Marijuana
> (17) Touched By A Dope Dealer
>
> International News-
>
> (18) U.S. Wants To Bring Colombia Tactics To
> Afghan Drugs War
> (19) TB Outbreak In Port Alberni Linked To Crack
> (20) Most Gulu Youth Turn To Drugs
> (21) Drug Use Debate Lights Up
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> Drug Czar: Milton Friedman's Drug-War Critique
> 'Demonstrably Untrue'
> Canadian Government Announces Drug War Surge
> 10 Million Americans Busted For Pot: Enough Is
> Enough / By Paul Armentano
> The Success Of Plan Colombia Essentially
> Lies In Its Failure
> Women, Harm Reduction, And HIV
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Cultivating Compassion / By Derek Thaczuk
> Lost Taxes And Other Costs Of Marijuana
> Laws / By Jon Gettman
> The Federalization Of Medicine / By Maia
> Szalavitz
> NYC Has The Most Marijuana Arrests In The World
> / By Ezekiel Edwards
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> NORML's 36Th Annual National Conference
> 250,000 Facebook Users Voice Their Support For
> Ending Pot Prohibition
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> It's Time For State Residents To Actively
> Support Medical
> Marijuana Bill / Gary Storck
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Celebrating The High Price Of Cocaine With The
> Drug Czar / Doug
> Snead and Stephen Young
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> John Stuart Mill
>
> 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) (Top)
>
> There may not be a daily newspaper in Canada today
> that does not have
> a story about the new government war on some
> politically selected
> drugs, but is it really a new war?
>
> Every day we see some California newspaper that
> has editorial page
> content questioning the excesses common under the
> cover of Proposition
> 215.
>
> Hats off to Sandee Burbank for teaching harm
> reduction for a quarter
> of a century.
>
> ===
>
> (1) HARPER VOWS JAIL TIME FOR DRUG DEALERS,
> PRODUCERS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
> Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
> Authors: Meagan Fitzpatrick and Randy Shore
>
> PM Mum on His Plans for Pot Growers
>
> The federal government will introduce legislation
> this fall setting
> out mandatory minimum jail sentences for people
> convicted of "serious"
> drug crimes, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said
> Thursday.
>
> "Currently there are no minimum prison sentences
> for producing and
> trafficking dangerous drugs like methamphetamines
> and cocaine," Harper
> told a news conference.
>
> "But these are serious crimes; those who commit them
> should do serious
> time."
>
> The $63.8-million national anti-drug strategy
> also promises more
> resources for identifying and closing down
> marijuana-growing
> operations, although Harper would not say whether
> marijuana growers
> would face tougher sentences.
>
> About $22 million of the funding would go toward
> enforcement, while
> about $32 million would be directed to treatment
> and $10 million for
> prevention in the form of an awareness campaign.
> The money would be
> spent over two years.
>
> Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan called the
> announcement a good start.
> Noting that enforcement has been well-funded for
> many years, he said
> treatment and prevention will require "a much
> larger investment."
>
> [snip]
>
> Mark Townsend, of Vancouver, called the
> federal announcement
> "depressing" and dismissed it as meant to court
> the tough-on-crime
> vote.
>
> Drug addiction is a devastating problem for the
> individuals and their
> families and the communities that they live in
> too," said Townsend,
> executive director for Insite, the city's
> supervised injection site.
>
> These problems are very complicated. But in
> Vancouver we have a lot of
> consensus about harm reduction and Insite.
>
> [snip]
>
> The federal government this week extended the
> special exemption that
> allows Insite to operate until June 30. The
> facility averages about
> 600 visits a day and has referred almost 2,000
> people to some form of
> addiction treatment or counselling over the
> past four years.
>
> Harper admitted Thursday that he remains
> skeptical about Insite and
> said even if it's effective, it's a "second-best
> strategy at best."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1140/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) EDITORIAL: TORIES' 'NEW' STRATEGY TO FIGHT DRUGS
> JUST POURS MORE
> MONEY INTO SAME OLD FAILED APPROACHES
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
> Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
>
> [snip]
>
> In fact, despite all the rhetoric surrounding
> the strategy, it can
> really be described as more of the same -- the same
> failed,
> enforcement-heavy approach toward illicit drugs that
> the Liberals took
> when they were in power.
>
> Enforcement Is the Priority
>
> Of the $64 million, $22 million will be directed
> toward enforcement,
> $10 million toward prevention programs and $32
> million will be
> earmarked for treatment. The extra money for
> treatment and prevention
> are welcome, but it's clear that enforcement will
> continue to get the
> lion's share of funds, just as it did under the
> Liberals.
>
> That's because the $64 million is only a small
> addition to the money
> already invested in the drug war. For example, in
> the 2004-2005 fiscal
> year, Canada devoted $271 million toward
> enforcement, compared with
> $51 million for treatment and $10 million for
> prevention.
>
> The additional funds will therefore do little to
> tilt the emphasis
> away from the failed war-on-drugs approach. And
> while the
> Conservatives have painted the Liberals as having
> been soft on drug
> crime, it's clear that they were anything but. As
> just one example,
> the City of Vancouver noted that between 1992 and
> 2002, the marijuana
> offence rate rose nearly 80 per cent, due mainly
> to an increase in
> possession offences.
>
> But while the Liberals were enthusiastic foot
> soldiers in the war on
> drugs, the Conservatives clearly want to lead the
> charge. Making good
> on a previous promise, Harper said the
> Conservatives will introduce
> legislation with mandatory sentences for those
> convicted of
> trafficking in drugs like methamphetamine and
> cocaine.
>
> [snip]
>
> But not content to learn from U.S. failures, the
> Conservatives forge
> ahead. Their entire strategy is based on the
> myth that there is a
> sharp distinction between drug dealers and
> drug users. Yet many
> addicts become (low-level) dealers because it
> provides them with a
> steady source of income and a steady supply
> of drugs. The most
> severely addicted are the ones most likely to
> take up dealing.
>
> It is these people who are most likely to be
> subject to mandatory
> sentences since high level dealers are good at
> insulating themselves
> from the police. Also, when large-scale
> traffickers are caught, they
> are often able to provide valuable information
> to prosecutors in
> exchange for lighter sentences.
>
> [snip]
>
> In reality, though, we're on the same road that
> we've been on for
> decades. We're merely going a little faster,
> which is unfortunate
> since it's a dead end.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1141/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) A PATIENT PLEADS FOR ACCESS
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
> Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
> Column: Viewpoint
> Author: Tom Hennessy
>
> "My husband has terminal lung cancer," said the
> woman on the phone.
>
> That was her introduction to a complicated,
> sometimes harrowing story
> about trying to obtain the only medicine that
> gives her husband
> relief.
>
> The medicine is marijuana.
>
> She called a day after Tracy Manzer's Sunday
> story listing 11 Long
> Beach locations where, police say, marijuana is
> sold to people in
> medical need, and perhaps to people pretending to
> be in medical need.
>
> [snip]
>
> The man and wife cited above are Long Beach
> residents. She has given
> me permission to use her name. However, I will not
> do so because the
> federal Drug Enforcement Agency has a history
> of making raids on
> people using marijuana for medical relief.
>
> [snip]
>
> For all her troubles and those of her
> husband, Mrs. X says she
> understands the city's position: even if medical
> marijuana sales were
> sanctioned by the federal government, it would be
> difficult to prevent
> ineligible marijuana users from abusing the system.
>
> "I agree there are people who are getting
> marijuana and are not
> eligible for it," she says. "How do we stop that?
> How do we get that
> under control?"
>
> [snip]
>
> Please do not interpret this column as an
> argument to legalize
> marijuana. That is a different debate.
>
> The column is actually a plea on behalf of one
> cancer patient, and
> thousands of others who, like him, are seriously
> ill.
>
> Are they to suffer because the government
> cannot devise a system
> whereby those in pain can be helped, and those
> seeking to get high can
> be turned away?
>
> Not even the government can be that stupid
> and that lacking in
> compassion. Or can it?
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1142/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) 25 YEARS SEE GROWTH FOR MAMA SUPPORTERS
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
> Source: Dalles Chronicle, The (OR)
> Copyright: 2007 Eagle Newspapers Inc.
> Author: Ed Cox, of The Chronicle
>
> After 25 years, Sandee Burbank's controversial
> views on drugs haven't
> changed, but she's become more comfortable -- and
> better at -- backing
> them up.
>
> [snip]
>
> It's a testament to how Burbank and her
> organization, founded in 1982
> by seven women at a mountain cabin near
> Mosier, have grown up.
>
> That maturity includes Burbank's 1997 recognition
> by the Drug Policy
> Foundation with the Robert C. Randall Award for
> Achievement in the
> Field of Citizen Action.
>
> It also includes the 2005 opening of an office and
> clinic in Portland
> that now helps patients register for the Oregon
> Medical Marijuana
> Program and use the drug to effectively to deal
> with severe pain and
> other qualifying conditions.
>
> That state program fits right in with the
> philosophy of MAMA, which,
> while not a strictly pro-cannabis group, asks that
> all drugs -- legal
> and illegal -- be judged on a level playing field.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1139/a11.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> After years of failure, federal drug warriors
> are crowing over
> alleged success. A new report claims that the
> cocaine supply in the
> U.S. has been reduced to the point that prices
> are going up in some
> American cities. Never mind that there could be
> alternate
> explanations for the situation (see the
> DrugSense Weekly feature
> article below for more on that subject), or
> that if the shortages
> are indeed occurring, it will lead to more
> violence in the market.
>
> Elsewhere, the drug war is not going as
> usual. In Oregon, a
> controversial drug-free zone policy has been
> ended, while in New
> York a judge's order for a drug-using couple
> not to have children
> has been deemed unconstitutional. And, some
> officials in Palm Beach
> do not want to be known as the rehab capital of the
> world.
>
> ===
>
> (5) COCAINE SUPPLY DOWN SHARPLY, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff
> Writer
>
> Drug Policy Critics Say It's Too Soon to
> Tell Whether the Data
> Signal Success in the Drug War.
>
> SAN DIEGO -- Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels and
> U.S.
> authorities' seizures at sea have helped to
> sharply reduce the
> availability of cocaine in 37 American cities,
> according to a report
> released Tuesday by federal anti-narcotics
> officials.
>
> The shortage has driven up prices to their
> highest levels in nearly
> two decades, with the cost of cocaine increasing
> 24%, from $95.89 to
> $118.70 per gram over the six-month period ending
> in June, according
> to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
>
> Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Washington
> and New York are
> among the cities reportedly experiencing shortages.
>
> Critics of U.S. drug policy remain skeptical,
> saying it's too early
> to determine whether the statistics signal an
> important milestone in
> the war on drugs.
>
> The report, they say, comes as the Bush
> administration prepares to
> ask Congress for an aid package of nearly $1
> billion to help Mexico
> fight traffickers.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1131/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) EXPIRING DRUG-FREE ZONES END A CITY ERA
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
> Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
> Copyright: 2007 The Oregonian
> Author:Andy Dworkin, the Oregonian Staff
>
> Neighborhoods - Residents Have Mixed Feelings
> About the Demise of
> the Controversial Exclusion Policy
>
> Albert Johnson cuts through an alley near
> Northeast Simpson and MLK.
> Police say the area is a waiting room for
> junkies, though just
> blocks from the police precinct and in the heart of
> one of
> Portland's expiring "drug-free zones."
>
> Johnson pleaded guilty a year ago to possessing
> heroin. He became
> one of the hundreds of Portlanders to get
> banned from the city's
> drug-free zones. That meant he could only travel
> his neighborhood to
> get to work, home or necessary social
> services, not to visit
> friends, buy socks or grab a beer.
>
> Officer Mark Zylawy stops his cruiser. Johnson
> says he's just
> walking home. Zylawy tells him the drug
> exclusion laws are ending.
>
> "They're going away? Cool," says Johnson, 63.
>
> The exclusion made it hard to move around,
> Johnson says. On the
> other hand, he used less heroin after his
> exclusion, though he still
> uses "now and then." And he tells Zylawy the
> neighborhood may be
> safer for the law: "I'm for it."
>
> Johnson's split feelings mirror a city divided
> on its 15-year
> experiment to bar people arrested for open
> drug and prostitution
> crimes from wandering through big parts of the
> city for 90 days
> (one year after a conviction).
>
> Neighborhood activists pushed the exclusion
> ideas, tired of seeing
> drugs dealt on downtown and inner eastside
> streets. Business groups
> and cops praised the law, and other cities
> copied it. Civil rights
> advocates attacked it as racist and
> unconstitutional, since no
> conviction was needed to exclude someone.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1116/a10.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) NO-PREGNANCY ORDER VOIDED
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
> Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY)
> Copyright: 2007 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
> Author: Michael Zeigler, Staff writer
>
> Monroe Judge's Unprecedented Ruling in Error,
> Says Appeals Court
>
> An appeals court has overturned a controversial,
> first-of-its-kind
> ruling that ordered a homeless and drug-addicted
> Rochester couple to
> have no more children.
>
> The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court
> said Friday that
> Monroe County Family Court Judge Marilyn L.
> O'Connor overstepped her
> bounds in 2004 when she banned Stephanie
> Pendleton and Rodney Evers
> Sr. from having more children until they could
> redeem the four they
> lost to foster care.
>
> "We conclude that the court had no authority to
> prohibit (Pendleton)
> from procreating," a five-judge panel of the
> appellate court said
> in a written decision.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1120/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) PALM BEACH COUNTY DENIES HELP FOR ALCOHOL AND
> DRUG TREATMENT
> CENTER
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
> Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company
> Author: Mark Hollis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
>
> Caron Foundation Won't Receive Tax-Exempt Bonds
>
> With Web sites decorated with images of sunsets
> at the beach, sea
> gulls and big ocean waves, at least 40
> substance-abuse treatment
> centers in south Palm Beach County attract
> thousands from around the
> globe for help with their addictions.
>
> Now, some local officials say the drug and
> alcohol abuse treatments
> are an economic enterprise that the community
> doesn't desire.
>
> On Tuesday, after hearing Delray Beach Mayor
> Rita Ellis complain
> that clients at many treatment centers have become
> a burden on local
> law enforcement, Palm Beach County
> commissioners rejected one
> center's request for financial help.
>
> The commission voted 6-1 to deny granting
> tax-exempt bonds to help
> the Caron Foundation of Florida, a nonprofit
> substance abuse center,
> expand its facilities. The bond was sought to
> assist the foundation
> in paying for the construction and furnishing
> of an addiction
> treatment facility at 8051 Congress Ave. in
> Delray Beach and to
> refurbish its residential facilities in Boca Raton.
>
> "I want to be known for quality care, but I
> don't want to be known
> as the drug rehab capital of the world," said
> Commissioner Mary
> McCarty, who led the opposition to the request
> and who represents a
> south county district.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1131/a06.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-12)
>
> In North Carolina, a sheriff who took federal
> anti-drug money and
> then used it to pay deputies to do menial or
> political work has pled
> guilty to perjury and conspiracy. So one
> crooked one gets caught,
> but in Florida, an officer accused of lying in a
> drug case appears
> ready to get off the hook, as witnesses involved
> in the case can't
> be found.
>
> Also last week, a disturbing story out of
> Wisconsin and another way
> the drug war impedes justice; and in Mississippi,
> who's going to pay
> for the anti-drug task forces, and when?
>
> ===
>
> (9) FORMER SHERIFF PLEADS GUILTY
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2007
> Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
> Copyright: 2007 Fayetteville Observer
> Author: Greg Barnes
>
> RALEIGH -- Former Robeson County Sheriff Glenn
> Maynor pleaded guilty
> Wednesday to perjury and conspiring to
> misapply federal money.
> Maynor, who is 61, declined to comment after
> the hearing in U.S.
> District Court in Raleigh.
>
> He was charged two weeks ago in a two-count
> bill of criminal
> information. Each count carries a sentence of
> no more than five
> years and a $250,000 fine. Maynor's sentencing has
> not been
> scheduled.
>
> "North Carolinians must have confidence in the
> integrity of our
> peace officers. Prosecuting corrupt law
> enforcement officials is a
> top priority," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding
> said in a
> statement. Maynor becomes the highest ranking of
> 20 former Robeson
> County law enforcement officers to plead guilty
> since a state and
> federal investigation called Operation Tarnished
> Badge began nearly
> five years ago. The investigation continues.
>
> Wes Camden, an assistant U.S. attorney, said
> the Robeson County
> Sheriff's Office received more than $10,000 in
> federal money meant
> for law enforcement programs between September
> 2002 and September
> 2003.
>
> Camden said Maynor conspired with his deputies to
> use $5,000 or more
> of that money to benefit the former sheriff
> personally and
> politically. Maynor solicited employees to
> clear trees and other
> debris from his property, to collect contributions
> for his political
> campaigns and to work fundraisers for his
> campaigns, including his
> annual golf tournament, Camden said. The
> deputies were paid for
> their time.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1117/a06.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) PERJURY CHARGE AGAINST DEPUTY DROPPED
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
> Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Orlando Sentinel
> Author: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer
>
> Prosecutors cite the loss of 2 witnesses. The
> Orange cop says he did
> nothing wrong in the drug case.
>
> The State Attorney's Office decided Friday not
> to pursue a perjury
> charge against an Orange County deputy sheriff
> accused of lying to a
> jury in a drug case.
>
> Kevin Carter, 46, was arrested in May because
> he told a jury in
> January 2005 that an anonymous stranger at a bus
> stop tipped him off
> to drug-dealing behind a Pine Hills liquor
> store. A sheriff's
> investigation determined that the tipster was
> actually a suspected
> prostitute Carter threatened with arrest if she
> failed to cooperate.
>
> Prosecutors decided to take the case off the
> docket because two key
> witnesses disappeared, said Randy Means,
> executive director of the
> Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. If the
> witnesses in Carter's
> case surface, his office may file charges again.
>
> Carter is one of three former undercover
> drug-squad members arrested
> on perjury charges. The cases against deputies
> Jeffrey Lane and
> Nicholas Ortiz are ongoing.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1118/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2007
> Source: Isthmus (WI)
> Copyright: 2007 Isthmus
> Author: Jason Shepard
>
> Police Identified Suspect, But No Charges Were
> Ever Filed In Amos
> Mortier Case
>
> In the front room of her small east side home,
> Margie Milutinovich
> skims computer records she's compiled over the
> nearly three years of
> searching for her son, Amos Mortier. "Missing"
> posters hang on the
> walls. Notes, timelines and piles of court
> records are scattered on
> a desk.
>
> "Should I put on the coffee?" Milutinovich asks
> a reporter. "Once
> you get started, it's hard to keep anything
> straight."
>
> Indeed, trying to figure out what happened to
> her son in November
> 2004 has eluded both Milutinovich and the
> authorities. But this
> summer, dozens of new clues emerged after a judge
> unsealed 18 search
> warrants executed more than two years ago.
>
> "Reading the search warrants has diminished a lot
> of the hope I had
> that Amos is still alive," says Mortier's friend
> Martin Frank. "They
> suggest something bad happened to Amos. I
> have a million more
> questions than I did before."
>
> The documents ( see this story at
> TheDailyPage.com ) identify a
> central suspect, Jacob Stadfeld, a 31-year-old
> Madison resident who
> works for a pub on Park Street. Stadfeld
> purportedly owed Mortier
> $90,000 for marijuana Mortier fronted him to
> sell. The search
> warrants show police sought evidence of "kidnapping,
> false
> imprisonment [and] homicide" in searches of
> Stadfeld's home, office,
> truck and property rented by his mother.
>
> Among the evidence cited to justify these
> warrants: a verbal
> argument between Stadfeld and Mortier days before
> Mortier vanished;
> Stadfeld's presence near Mortier's home hours
> after Mortier was last
> seen; and two phone calls placed by Stadfeld
> to a gun shop days
> earlier. Stadfeld has previous convictions for
> possessing and
> selling marijuana. Earlier this month, he lost
> his Madison home
> after defaulting on his mortgage.
>
> Mortier, 27 at the time of his disappearance on
> Nov. 8, 2004, was a
> quiet but friendly man who worked at State Street
> shops, hung out at
> the Inferno, shopped at the Willy Street Co-op,
> and had an interest
> in organic farming. He took classes at MATC
> and supplemented his
> income, it's now clear, by selling large
> quantities of marijuana.
>
> The Fitchburg police, Dane County Sheriff's and
> District Attorney's
> Offices, FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have
> all been involved in
> investigating Mortier's disappearance. Sources
> also say the case has
> come before a federal grand jury and been the
> subject of a rare
> state "John Doe" probe. No arrests have been made
> nor charges filed
> in what authorities have long considered a
> homicide investigation.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1109/a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) 14 DRUG TASK FORCES FACE SHUTDOWN OVER FUNDS
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
> Source: Clarion-Ledger, The (Jackson, MS)
> Copyright: 2007 The Clarion-Ledger
> Author: Jimmie E. Gates
>
> State's Units Investigate Street-Level
> Trafficking, Homicides And
> Burglaries
>
> The future of the state's 14
> multijurisdictional narcotics task
> forces was left in limbo Friday with
> uncertainty over funding for
> the new fiscal year that begins Monday.
>
> A committee appointed by Mississippi Department
> of Public Safety
> Commissioner George Phillips has not approved
> funding for the task
> forces, said Claiborne County Sheriff Frank Davis,
> whose county is a
> member of the North Central Narcotics Task Force.
>
> The task forces attack street-level drug
> trafficking and also
> investigate major crimes such as homicides and
> burglaries.
>
> "We went through this same thing last year,"
> Davis said of the task
> force that serves his county. "As it stands
> right now, we have not
> been funded." Other counties in the
> eight-member North Central
> Narcotics Task Force are Tunica, Coahoma, Grenada,
> Holmes,
> Humphreys, Leflore and Yazoo.
>
> Four employees of the North Central Task Force,
> the state's largest,
> will be out of work beginning Monday if no money
> is appropriated by
> then, said Holmes County Sheriff Willie March.
> He questioned why
> task force members must wait to learn if they
> will receive money
> from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant. About
> $1 million of the
> nearly $3 million grant is to go to the
> task forces, he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1120/a05.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (13-17)
>
> Last week saw a refreshingly realistic
> interpretation of the
> relationship between cannabis, alcohol and
> crime by Australian
> police.
>
> The DEA continued their campaign against
> California's medicinal
> cannabis patients, growers and dispensaries,
> pressing federal
> charges to deprive selected defendants of a
> medical defense under
> state law.
>
> The British press trumpeted Howard Marks'
> admission that cannabis
> may not be completely harmless as an
> endorsement of the proposed
> re-rescheduling of the herb from Class C back to B.
>
> It's harvest time again in the green hills of
> Kentucky.
>
> Finally, a poignant reminder from the fragrant
> streets of Vancouver
> that cannabis dealers are people too.
>
> ===
>
> (13) AUSTRALIA: MOST ARRESTED IN DARWIN STONED
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 01 Oct 2007
> Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
> Copyright: 2007 Queensland Newspapers
> Author: Matt Cunningham
>
> Three out of four people arrested and detained
> by police in Darwin
> are under the influence of illicit drugs, research
> shows.
>
> Australian Institute of Criminology data
> reveals 73 per cent of
> Darwin detainees tested positive to cannabis
> in July and August,
> steadily increasing from 46 per cent in January last
> year.
>
> [snip]
>
> Drug Free Australia executive officer Jo
> Baxter said there was a
> common misconception that cannabis was a "soft"
> drug.
>
> "Research now shows just how complex and
> dangerous this drug is,"
> she said.
>
> She said Australian Governments needed to be
> tougher on illicit
> drugs.
>
> "Then, and only then, will we begin to get the
> results similar to
> those countries that have been successful
> reducing illicit drug
> use," she said.
>
> But NT police say alcohol is a far bigger
> problem than any illicit
> drug when it comes to crime.
>
> [snip]
>
> "It's that really high level of drinking and
> offending that's the
> problem," said Sgt Mitchell.
>
> "People when they get drunk do dumb things. They
> get into cars and
> drive. We know they shot someone because they
> looked at their
> girlfriend.
>
> "Cannabis users, by and large, are fairly mellow."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1123.a05.html
>
> ===
>
> (14) FEDS TAKE OVER CHICO MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
> Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record
> Author: Terry Vau Dell
>
> OROVILLE -- In a surprise move, federal
> prosecutors Tuesday took
> over a Chico pot cultivation case, effectively
> depriving the suspect
> of a medical marijuana defense in court, his
> attorney objected.
>
> At the request of the U.S. Attorney in
> Sacramento, the Butte County
> District Attorney's Office moved in court
> Tuesday to dismiss local
> charges against Robert Gordon Rasmussen, 23.
>
> Federal prosecutors intend to seek an
> indictment on new marijuana
> cultivation charges, which could carry up to
> 20 years in prison.
>
> The Chico man is accused of growing about 210
> marijuana plants at
> his Bennington Drive home earlier this year.
>
> He claimed through his lawyer he was growing
> the pot as part of a
> lawful seven-person medical marijuana patient
> collective.
>
> The U.S. government takes the position that
> federal drug laws that
> prohibit growing marijuana trump Proposition
> 215, the 1996 voter-
> approved initiative that permits smoking pot
> with a doctor's
> recommendation in California.
>
> Rasmussen's attorney, Omar Figueroa, contends
> Tuesday's development
> is an effort by federal prosecutors to
> "subvert the will of the
> voters" by depriving defendants like Rasmussen of
> his right to raise
> a medical marijuana defense in court.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1133.a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) NO MORE MR NICE GUY
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
> Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
> Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
> Author: David Connett
>
> Howard Marks, Poster Boy for Cannabis, Doubts
> Safety of Drug
>
> The man who made a career, in and out of prison,
> from cannabis has
> for the first time expressed concern about
> its links to mental
> illness in the light of reports in The
> Independent on Sunday. David
> Connett reports
>
> Howard Marks, the one-time "King of Dope", is
> a living icon for
> campaigners for the legalisation of cannabis.
> But yesterday he
> admitted for the first time that he is concerned
> about links between
> cannabis use and schizophrenia. Marks, better
> known as Mr Nice - one
> of 43 aliases he used when running his worldwide
> drug empire and the
> title of his best-selling autobiography - said
> more medical research
> into the issue is vital. Marks admitted he was
> uneasy over growing
> evidence which suggested that being "stoned and
> being off your head"
> may be connected. By that, he meant the temporary
> high from the drug
> and long-term mental health illness.
>
> Marks, speaking in a TV interview, said: "I think
> it is difficult to
> establish whether these two states are similar.
> If, as a result of
> smoking a lot of dope, one becomes schizophrenic,
> that's reason for
> concern. If being slightly schizophrenic makes
> you want to smoke
> some dope to ease you through the day, I don't
> think that's a cause
> for concern.
>
> "To find out which of these is true will require
> research. One has
> to look into the action [of cannabis] on the
> brain and what
> happens."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1129.a09.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) MOUNTAINS OF MARIJUANA
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
> Source: Courier-Journal, The (Louisville, KY)
> Copyright: 2007 The Courier-Journal
> Author: Chris Kenning
>
> BARBOURVILLE, Ky. - Deep in the Appalachian woods
> near the Knox-Bell
> county line, Kentucky State Police Trooper
> Dewayne Holden's Humvee
> belched smoke and roared as it struggled up
> what once was an old
> logging trail.
>
> As his three-truck convoy stopped at a clearing
> atop a 3,000-foot
> ridge, Holden grabbed a machete and joined
> eight other armed
> troopers and National Guardsmen, hiking toward
> a hill under some
> power lines.
>
> Keeping an eye out for nail pits, pipe bombs and
> poison-snake booby
> traps, they found fresh ATV tracks.
>
> [snip]
>
> Welcome to the battle police and marijuana growers
> wage each fall in
> Kentucky's remote Appalachian counties, where
> 75 percent of the
> state's top cash crop is grown.
>
> Kentucky produces more marijuana than any
> other state except
> California, making it home to one of the
> nation's more intensive
> eradication efforts -- a yearly game of
> harvest-time cat and mouse
> in national forests, abandoned farms, shady
> hollows, backyards and
> mountainsides.
>
> More than 100 state police, guardsmen, DEA
> agents, U.S. Forest
> Service spotters and others are part of a
> strike force based in
> London that works dawn to dark, sometimes roping
> into remote patches
> from Blackhawk helicopters.
>
> With a budget of $1.5 million and help from a
> $6 million federal
> anti- drug effort in the region, last year the
> state seized 557,628
> marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.3 billion.
>
> [snip]
>
> Authorities say their efforts keep drugs off the
> streets and illicit
> profits out of criminal hands. But critics call
> it a waste of time
> and money that has failed to curb availability or
> demand.
>
> "Trying to eradicate marijuana is like taking a
> teaspoon and saying
> you're going to empty the Atlantic Ocean,"
> said Gary Potter, an
> Eastern Kentucky University professor of
> criminal justice who has
> researched the issue for decades.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1136.a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) TOUCHED BY A DOPE DEALER
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
> Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
> Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company
> Author: Pam Chandler
>
> By The Time Our Transaction Was Complete, I
> Had Seen The Person
> Behind The Occupation
>
> One night this year, I met a man whom I
> frequently think about,
> although not romantically. This man, who told me
> his name was Jay,
> was by no means an angel; in fact he was, and
> very likely still is,
> a drug dealer.
>
> I met Jay at a very low point in my life. I had
> separated from my
> husband, my birth mother was in the hospital
> dying and I had a
> fractured jaw due to a hellish extraction of wisdom
> teeth.
>
> My friend and I met Jay after a day of hard
> drinking in downtown
> Vancouver. We were trying very hard to forget.
> We were two middle-
> aged women who had not smoked a joint since high
> school, more than
> 20 years ago, but for some reason we decided we
> would try it again.
> Because I recalled someone saying that
> whenever he walked down
> Granville Street he was offered drugs, we
> decided to try our luck
> there.
>
> En route, we discussed the fact that we had no
> idea how you "score
> dope." Our only experience with dope was being
> passed a joint at a
> party.
>
> I first saw Jay with another man loitering at a
> payphone on a street
> corner. My first thought was these guys look
> like pretty shifty
> characters. I don't remember any details about
> the other young man;
> only Jay stands out in my mind. The way he was
> dressed led me to
> believe he was a drug dealer. He had on clothes
> that were worn and
> torn, he wore a black bandana as though he were
> from the 'hood, and
> wraparound sunglasses even though it was nighttime.
>
> I approached him and asked him very loudly for
> "weed." He seemed
> stunned by the request. He said, "You want dope?"
>
> I said yes. I remember fumbling in my pocket for
> change and asking
> him how much you could get for $2.50. His
> friend and my friend
> started laughing; he simply said, "Nothing."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1137.a11.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (18-21)
>
> While U.S. aerial spraying of glyphosate on
> Colombia hasn't done
> much but spread out coca plots and create
> hardier hybrids, the
> central planners of prohibition in Washington
> D.C. know best. They
> know that doing the same thing in Afghanistan
> must be the key to
> forcing farmers not to grow opium. Even Hamid
> Karzai (the
> U.S.-installed satrap there) has been "resisting
> American pressure"
> to spray. But this is bound to change as
> pressure increases, year
> after year, and bumper opium crop after bumper
> crop. The split (to
> spray or not to spray) cuts across the
> alliance, with the British
> said to oppose the idea. The U.S. denies that
> spraying "causes harm
> to people or cattle."
>
> Officials in the Western Canadian city of
> Port Alberni say an
> outbreak of tuberculosis there is "linked" to
> crack. "There is a
> close connection with crack cocaine use"
> stated Vancouver Island
> Health Authority spokesman Janice Jesperson.
> Health officials have
> reportedly identified over thirty cases of TB
> there since the spring
> of 2007. The nearby city of Nanaimo only
> recently stopped a
> crack-pipe exchange program last summer. The
> purpose of the program
> was to reduce the spread of disease from used
> crack-pipes.
>
> "Most" of the youth in the Gulu district of Uganda
> are using illicit
> drugs, says a Gulu mental health specialist
> quoted in the Ugandan
> New Vision newspaper. Many of the children in
> Gulu have "witnessed
> atrocities during the insurgency in the region"
> and were suffering
> from post-traumatic stress disorder. Police in
> Gulu "arrest four
> teenage drug abusers every week, including girls."
>
> And in the Czech Republic, lawmakers look to
> loosening drug laws,
> after their "get tough" approach backfired. It
> sounds much like the
> Dutch approach. The "idea behind the
> amendment is to separate
> recreational drug users from 'the black
> market'," said Justice
> Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncova. The
> proposal seeks to also
> separate "light" drugs like cannabis from meth
> and heroin by making
> penalties for cannabis less severe. In 1999, the
> Czech legislature
> made possession of drugs illegal. "But far from
> lowering the amount
> of marijuana found on the streets, the tougher
> approach seemed to
> make things worse, according to a government study
> on the effects of
> the new policy conducted one year later."
> Expect the little Czech
> Republic to come under intense pressure from the
> U.S. to recant such
> heresy.
>
> ===
>
> (18) U.S. WANTS TO BRING COLOMBIA TACTICS TO AFGHAN
> DRUGS WAR
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
> Source: Independent (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
> Author: Kim Sengupta
>
> The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is resisting
> American pressure
> to authorise a major programme of crop
> spraying to eradicate the
> country's massive opium crop amid warnings that
> it would lead to a
> rise in support for the Taliban.
>
> The plan has been strongly opposed by the
> British, who hold that it
> will make the task of the military in Helmand,
> the province which
> produces 50 per cent of the opium crop, much
> harder. Spraying from
> the air, critics say, carries with it the danger
> of destroying other
> crops, causing long-term ecological damage, and
> affecting the health
> of livestock.
>
> But according to senior Western and Afghan
> officials, the American
> position has been significantly strengthened
> following the latest
> poppy harvest, which shows a jump of 34 per
> cent from last year,
> which was already a world record.
>
> [snip]
>
> The policy in Colombia came under severe
> criticism with claims that
> it damaged legitimate crops and ultimately
> failed in its aims of
> destroying the coca crop. However, during his
> confirmation hearing
> before Congress, Mr Wood said the Colombian
> option may be repeated
> in Afghanistan and General Peter Pace, chairman
> of the U.S. joint
> chiefs of staff, has also voiced the opinion
> that it could be a
> template for Afghanistan. Members of the
> Colombian security forces
> are already training Afghan police in
> counter-narcotics.
>
> [snip]
>
> A U.S. diplomatic source said: "There is
> absolutely no evidence that
> spraying causes harm to people or cattle. Everyone
> has seen the rise
> in the poppy harvest, and obviously the
> current policy is not
> working."
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1137.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (19) TB OUTBREAK IN PORT ALBERNI LINKED TO CRACK
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
> Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
> Author: CanWest News Service
>
> PORT ALBERNI -- Vancouver Island health
> officials have linked the
> current tuberculosis outbreak in Port Alberni to
> the use and abuse
> of crack cocaine.
>
> "There is a close connection with crack cocaine use
> [in the
> outbreak]," Janice Jespersen, public health nurse
> with the Vancouver
> Island Health Authority, told Port Alberni
> city councillors this
> week.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1136.a08.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) MOST GULU YOUTH TURN TO DRUGS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
> Source: New Vision (Uganda)
> Author: Caroline Ayugi
>
> Most youth in Gulu district have resorted to
> use of drugs as an
> assumed remedy to depression and post-traumatic
> stress disorder, a
> psychiatrist at the Gulu mental health unit has
> revealed.
>
> Dr. Thomas Oyok said the abuse of drugs had
> resulted into increased
> cases of mental illness and poor performance at
> school.
>
> [snip]
>
> "Teachers might think a student is a slow
> learner but when you dig
> deep, you find that he might have lost both
> parents, was abducted
> and witnessed atrocities during the insurgency
> in the region."
>
> [snip]
>
> The community liaison officer at the Gulu
> central Police station,
> Johnson Kilama, said the Police on average arrest
> four teenage drug
> abusers every week, including girls.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1123.a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (21) DRUG USE DEBATE LIGHTS UP
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
> Source: Prague Post (Czech Republic)
> Author: Eva Munkova
>
> Penalties for Marijuana and Magic Mushroom Growers
> May
> Drop
>
> The Idea Behind the Changes Is to Separate Users
> From
> Dealers.
>
> Lawmakers are considering lower penalties for
> small-scale recreational
> drug growers under a Criminal Code change
> that decriminalizes
> recreational drug use.
>
> If the new Criminal Code passes, marijuana
> growers would face six
> months in jail if they produce more than an
> amount deemed to be for
> their own use. Anyone who makes drugs or
> possesses them in certain
> quantities can go to jail for one to five years
> if caught under the
> current law.
>
> The idea behind the amendment is to separate
> recreational drug users
> from "the black market," says Justice Ministry
> spokeswoman Zuzana
> Kuncova.
>
> Police officers will still have the same abilities
> to arrest dealers
> if the new rules pass, Kuncova says, because
> the rules related to
> the criminal manufacture or sale of drugs are
> essentially unaltered
> by the code.
>
> Under the proposed new rules, penalties would
> be more lenient for
> possession or cultivation of "light" drugs
> such as marijuana for
> individual use, but remain strict for
> possession or sale of hard
> drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin.
>
> [snip]
>
> Lawmakers first made cultivation and possession
> of any amount of
> drugs a criminal offense in 1999, said Josef
> Radimecky, a former
> member of the government commission that
> penned the original
> amendment.
>
> [snip]
>
> But far from lowering the amount of marijuana
> found on the streets,
> the tougher approach seemed to make things
> worse, according to a
> government study on the effects of the new policy
> conducted one year
> later.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1138.a05.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> DRUG CZAR: MILTON FRIEDMAN'S DRUG-WAR CRITIQUE
> 'DEMONSTRABLY UNTRUE'
>
> I've looked forward to interviewing the U.S. drug
> czar for years, and
> Tuesday afternoon I finally got the chance when
> current czar John
> Walters visited with the U-T editorial board.
>
>
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/afb/archives/015076.html
>
> ===
>
> CANADIAN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES SURGE IN THE WAR ON
> DRUGS
>
> Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a
> two-pronged anti-drug
> campaign, focusing on prevention for users and
> harsher penalties for
> producers. At the heart of the announcement was
> the introduction of
> mandatory sentences for people convicted of
> serious drug charges.
>
> Video: http://tinyurl.com/yt4ljn
>
> ===
>
> 10 MILLION AMERICANS BUSTED FOR POT: ENOUGH IS
> ENOUGH
>
> By Paul Armentano
>
> Since 1990, over 10.4 million Americans have been
> busted for pot. When
> will we recognize it's time to stand up to the
> war on harmless pot
> smoking?
>
> http://alternet.org/drugreporter/63988/
>
> ===
>
> THE SUCCESS OF PLAN COLOMBIA ESSENTIALLY LIES
> IN ITS FAILURE
>
>
http://www.colectivodeabogados.org/article.php3?id_article=1140
>
> ===
>
> WOMEN, HARM REDUCTION, AND HIV
>
> For women who inject drugs, the stigma of injection
> drug use is added
> to gendered discrimination; these factors combined
> can push women into
> behaviors that increase their risk of HIV,
> according to this report
> published by OSI's International Harm Reduction
> Development Program.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/34vx7k
>
> ===
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> 10/03/07: Dr. Joel Hochman Dir Natl. Foundation for
> Treatment of Pain
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_100307.mp3
>
> 09/28/07: Sanho Tree on the situation in Colombia
> plus Bruce Mirken
> of the Marijuana Policy Project
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_092807.mp3
>
> Listen Live Tuesdays 12.30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT,
> 10:30 MT & 9:30 AM PT
> at www.KPFT.org
>
> ===
>
> CULTIVATING COMPASSION
>
> Operating in a legal no-man's-land and facing
> criminal action at any
> time, dedicated activists at compassion clubs
> across Canada are
> working to make medicinal marijuana available to any
> PHA who needs it.
> Derek Thaczuk explores how they work and why they
> are so important.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yvk2hq
>
> ===
>
> LOST TAXES AND OTHER COSTS OF MARIJUANA LAWS
>
> by Jon Gettman
>
> http://www.drugscience.org/bcr/index.html
>
> ===
>
> THE FEDERALIZATION OF MEDICINE
>
> The pain issue shows why medical policy should be
> left to the states.
>
> By Maia Szalavitz
>
> http://reason.com/news/show/122800.html
>
> ===
>
> NYC HAS THE MOST MARIJUANA ARRESTS IN THE WORLD
>
> (But Don't Worry, White People, It Won't Be You)
>
> By Ezekiel Edwards
>
> One has to wonder, what on earth are the police and
> the Mayor smoking?
>
> http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/edwards/64438/
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> NORML'S 36TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE
>
> Cannabis, Creativity and Commerce
>
> Los Angeles, California, October 12-13, 2007
>
> http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7250
>
> ===
>
> 250,000 FACEBOOK USERS VOICE THEIR SUPPORT FOR
> ENDING POT PROHIBITION
>
> Nearly 250,000 online subscribers to the online
> social networking
> website Facebook have voiced their support for
> marijuana law reform by
> joining NORML's newly launched `Cause' group.
>
> http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7381
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> IT'S TIME FOR STATE RESIDENTS TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT
> MEDICAL MARIJUANA
> BILL
>
> By Gary Storck
>
> Dear Editor: Ten years ago The Capital Times
> published the first
> letter to the editor I ever wrote about medical
> marijuana. I wrote
> it days after meeting the medical marijuana
> "Journey for Justice" at
> the Capitol on Sept. 18, 1997.
>
> The journey was a 15-patient, 210-mile,
> seven-day, 4 mph wheelchair
> march from Mondovi, just south of Eau Claire, to
> the Capitol. It was
> led by a very determined woman named Jacki
> Rickert. We first met
> that day and have been friends ever since, trying
> to build awareness
> of what a difference this simple herb,
> cannabis, can make in
> seriously and chronically ill patients' lives.
>
> This year on Sept. 18, Jacki and a number of
> patients in wheelchairs
> and on foot, accompanied by more than a dozen
> supporters and press,
> rolled up State Street to the Capitol in a
> "last mile" tribute to
> fallen patients.
>
> Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, was waiting to greet
> Jacki. At a press
> conference, Boyle and Rep. Mark Pocan,
> D-Madison, announced they
> were introducing new state medical marijuana
> legislation
> appropriately titled "the Jacki Rickert Medical
> Marijuana Act."
>
> I report this because readers may be unaware of
> these developments
> as the briefing lacked a Capital Times reporter.
>
> In the last 10 years there have been dozens
> of drug recalls,
> widespread and growing painkiller addiction,
> and indications that
> excreted drugs enter our water supplies.
> Meanwhile, nontoxic herbal
> cannabis remains illegal for medicinal use.
>
> Although polling has found that upward of 80 percent
> of
> Wisconsinites support legal access, most citizens
> seem to be content
> to leave it at that and allow frail, seriously
> ill patients like
> Jacki to carry the load.
>
> As special interest bills get the fast track
> to passage, lack of
> legal access to medical cannabis puts patients on
> the fast track to
> an early grave.
>
> Call and write your legislators early and often.
> Until people learn
> to exercise their support for medical marijuana
> by not just calling
> and writing, but also voting out those who find
> ways to justify this
> cruelty, the frail, the sick, the dying will
> be on their own.
>
> As Jacki would say, "Just do something!"
>
> Gary Storck, Is My Medicine Legal YET?, Madison
>
> Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2007
> Source: Capital Times, The (WI)
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> CELEBRATING THE HIGH PRICE OF COCAINE WITH THE DRUG
> CZAR
>
> By Doug Snead and Stephen Young
>
> Federal drug czar John Walters got rather excited
> last week after a
> new report suggested the price of cocaine is
> increasing in many
> American cities.
>
> The czar read the report as happy proof that
> prohibitionists can
> indeed make one of their policies work sort of the
> way it's supposed
> to work (as long as they've got several billion
> dollars and several
> years to help the project along).
>
> But, as usual, there could be other
> explanations. First, it's
> curious that this report comes in just as
> drug war contractors
> salivate over plans to partner with Mexico in the
> drug war. After so
> many years of dismal failure in the stated goals
> of Plan Colombia,
> isn't it interesting that a little alleged
> success comes as the
> strategy is being sold to another country?
>
> Of course there could be a simple economic
> explanation too, given
> the drug czar's troubled relationship with
> economic facts, we
> wouldn't be surprised if he just didn't get it (or
> just doesn't want
> to get it).
>
> The value of the U.S. dollar is sinking like a
> stone against, well,
> most currencies. The dollar buys less gold,
> buys less oil, buys
> fewer Pesos or Loonies than it did before.
>
> So why do these "Victory Over Drugs" articles
> fail to mention
> that?
>
> The U.S. dollar is inflating fast. It is buying
> less stuff then it
> used to. So when the U.S. dollar also buys
> marginally less cocaine
> than it did before, U.S. Prohibitionists now take
> credit?
>
> "That's right, it's our drug war that made
> cocaine prices rise ten
> whole percent!"
>
> Yeah, just like that there drug war "Victory" just
> made the price of
> oil, gold, copper, and imports (etc, etc) all get
> more expensive (in
> U.S. dollars), too.
>
> It is not the "drug war" that is making cocaine
> prices rise, it is
> the debasing and inflation of the U.S. dollar
> that takes care of
> that.
>
> Most prohibitionists seem to unwilling to
> consider the most basic
> law of economics when it comes to their
> crusade; this specific
> instance doesn't seem unusual.
>
> This perceived victory may bring little short-term
> excitement to the
> prohibitionists, but if the price of cocaine
> really is rising,
> there's another group who's going to be
> celebrating even harder:
> methamphetamine cartels looking for market
> share in the illicit
> stimulant trade.
>
> Doug Snead and Stephen Young are editors with
> DrugSense Weekly
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of
> an opinion is, that
> it is robbing the human race; posterity as
> well as the existing
> generation; those who dissent from the opinion,
> still more than those
> who hold it. If the opinion is right, they
> are deprived of the
> opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if
> wrong, they lose, what
> is almost as great a benefit, the clearer
> perception and livelier
> impression of truth, produced by its collision with
> error."
> - John Stuart Mill
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
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> Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content
> selection and analysis by
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> In selection by
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