> Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 12:26:55 -0700
> From: webmaster@... (Drug Sense)
> Subject: DrugSense Weekly, Nov. 2, 2007, #523
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DrugSense Weekly, Nov. 2, 2007
> #523
>
> Read This Publication On-line at:
> http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
>
> ------------------
>
> TABLE OF CONTENTS:
>
> * This Just In
>
> (1) Editorial: Marijuana And College Aid
> (2) Oped: Revisit Crack Sentences
> (3) Medical Marijuana Business Opens In
> Livingston
> (4) Dan Rather Here To Show Ugly Side Of
> Vancouver
>
> * Weekly News in Review
>
> Drug Policy-
>
> (5) Meth Labs Continue To Be Problem
> (6) Justices Say Drugs In Home May Not Endanger
> Kids
> (7) Medical Marijuana Advocate Kills Herself
> (8) Company Dumps Anti-Drug Bracelet
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons-
>
> (9) Western Addition Drug Prosecutions Hobbled
> by DEA Informant Program
> (10) 'Wrong House' Raid Costs County $325K
> (11) NHPD Narcotics Cop Pleads Guilty
> (12) Sheriff's Office Narcotics Officers Fired
> (13) Flip To Drug Trade Gets Narcotics Task
> Force Deputy Eight Years
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
>
> (14) Federal Agents Raid Marijuana Dispensary
> (15) Target 'Marijuana McMansions'
> (16) Cannabis Laws Are A No-Man's Land
> (17) Government: Hemp Lawsuit Arguments Are Weak
>
> International News-
>
> (18) Indonesia Upholds Death In Drug Cases
> (19) Ex-Painter Sent To Gallows
> (20) Police To Begin Drug Testing Motorists
> (21) AIDS Threat Increasing With Drug Injections
>
> * Hot Off The 'Net
>
> Cultural Baggage Radio Show
> Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana
> Unnecessary Evil
> Plan Mexico
> The Murder Of Robin Prosser
> Democratic Presidential Candidates Reject Call
> To Decriminalize Pot
> On The Legalization - Or Not - Of Marijuana
> Injecting Drug Use And The Right To Health In
> Sweden
> Messages From Rainbow Farm
>
> * What You Can Do This Week
>
> Donate Your Car
> Register For The 2007 International Drug Policy
> Reform Conference
>
> * Letter Of The Week
>
> The Folly Of Drug Prohibition / Peter
> Christopher
>
> * Feature Article
>
> Arnold's Marijuana Fig Leaf / Debra J. Saunders
>
> * Quote of the Week
>
> Donald Rumsfeld
>
> DrugSense needs your support to continue this
> newsletter and many
> other important projects - see how you can help at
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> THIS JUST IN
>
=======================================================================
>
> (1) EDITORIAL: MARIJUANA AND COLLEGE AID
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
> Source: New York Times (NY)
> Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
>
> Anything that keeps ex-offenders from attending
> college makes it more
> likely that they will be caught in the revolving
> door that leads to
> prison. Tens of thousands of people have been
> pushed in that
> direction since the 1990s when Congress passed a law
> that barred even
> minor drug offenders from receiving federal
> education aid. The law
> applies even to offenses so minor that they are
> normally punished by
> probation, a small fine or community service.
>
> Congress softened the law last year, eliminating
> a provision that
> denied assistance to people with even petty drug
> offenses more than a
> decade old. Now it's time to repeal the remaining
> part of the law,
> which affects students who commit crimes while
> actually receiving aid.
>
> The law is wrong-headed on several counts. It
> primarily affects
> low-income students and exempts the wealthy, who
> don't need aid to
> attend college. It targets young people of color,
> who are
> disproportionately prosecuted for drug offenses
> and already less
> likely to complete college. It does not deter
> drug use, especially
> among addicts who need treatment to break their
> habits.
>
> Beyond that, young people who commit errors in
> judgment, as young
> people can be counted on to do, are penalized
> twice -- once by the
> courts and once by the student aid system. They
> are also placed at
> risk of never getting an education at all.
>
> Federal college aid was never intended to be
> used as a weapon of
> enforcement. Any attempt to employ it that way
> inevitably results in
> perverse and unintended results.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1265/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (2) OPED: REVISIT CRACK SENTENCES
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
> Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
> Author: Harlan Protass
>
> Congress Nixed Outrageous Prison Terms for Crack
> Offenders, but the
> Decision Should Be Applied Retroactively.
>
> [snip]
>
> This week, Congress finally tacitly conceded
> that crack-related
> penalties are too harsh. On Thursday, lawmakers let
> pass into law new
> guidelines proposed by the Sentencing Commission
> that will cut crack
> prison terms by an average of just over two years,
> with the amount of
> narcotics involved still playing the determining
> factor in the length
> of sentences.
>
> Now the commission needs to finish the job. On Nov.
> 13, it will hold
> a public hearing to consider whether the new scheme
> should be applied
> retroactively -- a move that could potentially
> reduce the sentences
> of nearly 20,000 men and women currently
> incarcerated for crimes
> involving crack. Backed by Congress' silent
> support, retroactive
> application is the right thing to do for the
> following reasons:
>
> First, myths about crack, on which the 1980s laws
> were based, have
> been debunked. When those laws were introduced,
> Congress believed
> that crack was instantly addicting. Lawmakers
> feared that a
> generation of "crack babies" would plague the
> nation for years to
> come and believed there was a direct link between
> crack use and the
> commission of violent crimes.
>
> It turns out that lawmakers were wrong. Relying on a
> finding detailed
> in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.,
> the Sentencing
> Commission recently reported to Congress that crack
> is
> pharmacologically indistinguishable from, and
> produces harms no more
> severe than, powder cocaine, even to the unborn.
> The commission's
> research also showed that crack's use never
> reached the epidemic
> proportions that so many expected and that its
> consumption bears no
> higher correlation to violent crime than does
> that of other drugs.
>
> What's more, the laws' objective of targeting
> high-level drug
> traffickers largely failed. The majority of
> crack offenders doing
> time today were street dealers, couriers and
> lookouts.
>
> [snip]
>
> Second, the 1980s' crack laws disproportionately
> affect minorities.
> About 80% of the 25,000 federal defendants jailed
> for crack offenses
> during the last five years have been black.
> This has created the
> perception that federal drug laws intentionally
> discriminate against
> minorities. If the new sentencing scheme is not
> applied
> retroactively, this perception will be
> perpetuated, further eroding
> confidence in the judicial system and respect for
> the law.
>
> Third, Congress, in establishing the Sentencing
> Commission and
> enacting federal sentencing guidelines in 1987,
> specifically sought
> to eliminate incongruent penalties imposed on
> similarly situated
> defendants. If the commission does not apply the
> new crack penalty
> structure to those convicted before Nov. 1, it will
> undermine its own
> cause. Moreover, retroactive application is
> consistent with past
> modifications to other drug penalties, such as
> those for LSD,
> marijuana and oxycodone.
>
> Finally, retroactive application would place no
> extraordinary burden
> on the courts. The primary fact necessary to
> recalculate prison time
> - -- the amount of crack involved -- already
> would have been
> determined in connection with offenders' original
> cases. Thus, while
> the courts likely would be flooded with
> requests for changed
> sentences, they wouldn't have to hold new
> hearings. Most motions
> could be dealt with on paper. Experience with other
> recent changes to
> federal sentencing laws has shown that the
> system is capable of
> revisiting many thousands of cases when
> justice so requires.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1267/a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (3) MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESS OPENS IN LIVINGSTON
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
> Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle (MT)
> Copyright: 2007 The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
> Author: Scott McMillion, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> Three years ago, Montana voters decided by a 62
> percent margin that
> marijuana should be available for medical purposes.
>
> No issue or candidate had received that sort of
> statewide endorsement
> for 25 years.
>
> Since then, a network of suppliers and users has
> been created around
> the state, working under new laws that limit the
> amount of marijuana
> that can be grown and sold and who can do it.
>
> Mostly, it's been done quietly, under the
> radar, in part because
> providing marijuana remains a federal crime.
>
> Now, two Livingston residents have opened a medical
> marijuana service
> and are doing so openly.
>
> [snip]
>
> The Montana Department of Public Health and Human
> Services has issued
> what users call "green cards" to 468 people
> whose doctors have
> decided that cannabis can help them. It also has
> issued "caregiver"
> cards to 167 people who can grow up to six plants
> for each patient.
>
> However, most of those people provide marijuana for
> only one person,
> usually a spouse, relative or close friend,
> according to Roy Kemp,
> who runs the medical marijuana registry program for
> the state health
> department.
>
> Minnick and Rusio are among the 23 "caregivers," who
> legally grow and
> sell medical marijuana to multiple patients.
> Minnick said he started
> his medical marijuana business four months ago
> for two reasons: to
> help sick people and to make some money.
>
> [snip]
>
> Kemp said 135 medical doctors and osteopaths work
> with the program,
> but he isn't allowed to give their names to
> anybody. Nor can he
> provide names or discuss any specific patients
> or caregivers.
>
> [snip]
>
> "As long as he's operating in compliance with the
> law, he's legal,
> and I guess we'll act accordingly," Livingston
> Police Chief Darren
> Raney said of Minnick's marijuana business.
>
> The federal government could be another issue.
> Officials have cracked
> down on medical marijuana operations in California
> and on a patient
> in Missoula who obtained marijuana through the
> mail, but so far
> haven't busted any Montana caregivers.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1266/a07.html
>
> ===
>
> (4) DAN RATHER HERE TO SHOW UGLY SIDE OF VANCOUVER
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
> Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
> Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
> Author: Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun
>
> The Downtown Eastside, the poorest neighbourhood in
> Canada, has long
> been a time-bomb this city has never bothered to
> defuse. Now it's
> about to explode on the international stage. Dan
> Rather, one of the
> best and most famous U.S. TV journalists of his
> generation, is in
> Vancouver for the next few days with a news crew.
>
> His subject is the drug- and crime-infested
> neighbourhood in
> Vancouver's heart, our very own made-in-Canada
> ghetto that could hold
> its own with any in Rather's home country.
>
> This is not going to be the sort of report the board
> of trade will be touting.
>
> Some unflattering international attention became
> inevitable the day
> Vancouver won the competition to host the 2010
> Winter Olympics, of course.
>
> [snip]
>
> When Rather sat down with Mayor Sam Sullivan
> Thursday, the newsman
> asked whether the world would see the
> "Dickensian" underbelly of
> Vancouver in 2010.
>
> He zeroed in on the mayor's drug policy and the
> Insite project, which
> helps addicts to inject illegally obtained
> heroin. Isn't the mayor
> "mollycoddling" drug users, prostitutes and
> ne'er-do-wells in the
> Downtown Eastside? the Texan asked. And what of
> U.S. officials who
> contend it is tantamount to "state-assisted
> suicide?"
>
> Sullivan likened addiction to his life as a
> quadriplegic: a
> disability people need help with. "I need help
> managing my
> disability, just like they need help managing
> their disability."
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1267/a02.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
>
=======================================================================
>
> Domestic News- Policy
> ----------------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (5-8)
>
> Despite the state and federal crackdown on meth
> (and users of common
> cold medicine as we head into flu season)
> through limitations on
> precursors, meth labs continue to sprout up in
> certain areas. In
> other news, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that
> the mere presence of
> drugs in house does not necessarily constitute
> child endangerment;
> an outspoken and persecuted medical marijuana
> activist ended her
> life; and sometimes evil pro-drug messages
> lurkeverywhere, even in
> anti-drug bracelets.
>
> ===
>
> (5) METH LABS CONTINUE TO BE PROBLEM
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2007
> Source: Missourian (MO)
> Copyright: Washington Missourian 2007
> Author: Ed Pruneau, Missourian Managing Editor
>
> The Head Of Franklin County's Drug Task Force
> Said Missouri Is On
> Track To Being No. 1 Again This Year In Meth Labs
> Seizures.
>
> "Missouri will lead the nation again in meth
> labs," predicted
> Detective Sgt. Jason Grellner, commander of
> the Franklin County
> Narcotics Enforcement Unit ( FCNEU ).
>
> Grellner said Missouri authorities expect the
> number of meth lab
> seizures to reach between 1,000 and 1,200 by
> the end of the year.
> Nearly 50 percent of those will be in the St.
> Louis region which
> includes Franklin County and other nearby counties.
>
> While Missouri will remain at the top, the
> actual number of labs
> seized will be down from last year, Grellner said.
>
> Despite passage of new state and federal laws that
> restrict the sale
> of pseudoephedrine, "labs continue to be a
> problem," Grellner said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1241/a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (6) JUSTICES SAY DRUGS IN HOME MAY NOT ENDANGER KIDS
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 27 Oct 2007
> Source: Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, UT)
> Copyright: 2007 Deseret News Publishing Corp.
> Author: Geoffrey Fattah, Deseret Morning News
>
> The Utah Supreme Court has ruled a child must
> have "reasonable"
> access to drugs in order for a parent to be
> charged under the
> child-endangerment statute. Prosecutors say the
> ruling narrows their
> ability to charge drug-dealing parents under the
> statute, but they
> have already worked on a remedy to amend the
> law during the next
> legislative session.
>
> The ruling stems from two separate drug cases
> in which two women
> were arrested on drug and drug paraphernalia
> possession charges
> while children were in the homes. Both defendants
> were charged with
> child endangerment.
>
> In one case, parole officers visited a home to
> conduct an
> inspection. During the inspection, officers
> noticed that four
> children were in the home, a 2-year-old asleep
> on a sofa and three
> in an upstairs bedroom, including an infant.
> Upon entering the
> adults' bedroom, they noticed an open purse
> sitting on top of a
> dresser with a plastic bag containing what
> appeared to be drugs. The
> parolee's girlfriend claimed that the bag
> belonged to her, and she
> was arrested along with her boyfriend. Further
> investigation turned
> up another bag with two rocks of cocaine.
>
> In a second case, Salt Lake County sheriff's
> deputies searched a
> woman's home on a tip there was a meth lab. When
> deputies arrived,
> the woman appeared to be moving out of the home. One
> deputy
> testified that he "could smell the odor of a
> methamphetamine lab
> from the curb." In a detached garage officers
> found items indicating
> a meth lab. In the home's basement, officers
> found a glass pipe
> wrapped in tissue paper on a closet shelf. In
> another downstairs
> bedroom, methamphetamine was found. During the
> investigation, the
> woman's 13-year-old daughter was in the living room.
>
> In both cases, the women were charged with
> possession of either
> drugs or drug paraphernalia and child
> endangerment. Both then argued
> in court that the state failed to establish
> enough probable cause.
> The court, however, bound them over on the charges.
>
> In Friday's ruling, the justices said that a
> case needs more than
> just the presence of drugs in a home in order for
> child endangerment
> to apply. The law "requires a real, physical
> risk of harm to a
> child; the child must have the reasonable
> capacity to access the
> substance or paraphernalia or to be subject to
> its harmful effects,
> such as by inhalation," the justices wrote in a
> unanimous opinion.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1246/a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (7) MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE KILLS HERSELF
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 27 Oct 2007
> Source: Missoulian (MT)
> Copyright: 2007 Missoulian
> Author: Michael Moore, of the Missoulian
>
> Robin Prosser, a Missoula woman who struggled for
> a quarter century
> to live with the pain of an immunosuppressive
> disorder, tried years
> ago to kill herself. Last week, she tried
> again. This time, she
> succeeded.
>
> After her earlier attempt failed, Proser wound
> up in even more
> trouble after investigating police found
> marijuana in her home. She
> used the marijuana to help cope with pain.
>
> That marijuana charge was eventually dropped in
> an agreement with
> the city of Missoula, and Prosser had reason to
> rejoice in 2004 when
> Montanans passed a law allowing medical use of the
> drug.
>
> She was a high-profile campaigner for the Montana
> Medical Marijuana
> Act, and like others, she was dismayed when the
> U.S. Supreme Court
> ruled that drug agents could still arrest sick
> people using
> marijuana, even in states that legalized its use.
>
> The ruling came to haunt Prosser in late
> March, when DEA agents
> seized less than a half ounce of marijuana
> sent to her by her
> registered caregiver in Flathead County.
>
> At the time, the DEA special agent in charge of
> the Rocky Mountain
> Field Division said federal agents were
> "protecting people from
> their own state laws" by seizing such shipments.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1242/a15.html
>
> ===
>
> (8) COMPANY DUMPS ANTI-DRUG BRACELET
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2007
> Source: Hawk Eye, The (Burlington, IA)
> Copyright: 2007 The Hawk Eye
> Author: Craig T. Neises
>
> Unintended Message Not the One Business Wants to
> Convey.
>
> WAYLAND -- Acknowledging that design got in the
> way of meaning, a
> New York state promotional products company will
> stop producing and
> discard the remaining inventory of Red Ribbon
> Week bracelets that
> were provided to students here this week.
>
> The bracelet, which carried the slogan "I've Got
> BETTER Things To DO
> Than DRUGS," was called into question by some
> parents of WACO
> Junior/Senior High School students because of the
> unintended message
> suggested by the all-uppercase words: Better do
> drugs.
>
> Mark Taxel, executive vice president of
> Hauppauge, N.Y.-based
> Positive Promotions, said the bracelet was
> among the top-selling
> items in the company's merchandise catalog, but no
> one there noticed
> how the words looked on the bracelet and could
> impede the message.
>
> "( Overall ) it's a good message," he said by
> telephone Thursday.
>
> Taxel said his company received just two concerned
> phone calls about
> the bracelet. But whether it is two or a
> million, he said the
> company doesn't want to put out a product
> whose message could be
> misconstrued.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1248/a03.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Law Enforcement & Prisons
> -------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (9-13)
>
> At least one jury in California has started to
> wonder if some DEA
> informants aren't more trouble than good. In
> Hawaii, impatience and
> poor police work by a narcotics squad left
> one innocent family
> terrorized and the county short of $325,000. And,
> the drug
> corruption within law enforcement, and its
> aftermath, continues to
> play out around the nation.
>
> ===
>
> (9) WESTERN ADDITION DRUG PROSECUTIONS HOBBLED BY
> DEA INFORMANT
> PROGRAM
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 28 Oct 2007
> Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
> Author: Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
> Last year, San Francisco Police Chief Heather
> Fong asked for help
> from federal authorities to fight drug-fueled
> violence in the city's
> crime-plagued Western Addition.
>
> The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
> responded in June by
> deploying its Mobile Enforcement Team - which
> relied on a paid
> federal informant who lived among and reported
> on drug dealers.
>
> The four-month operation that followed netted
> arrests of more than
> two dozen alleged members of the Chopper City
> and Knockout Posse (
> KOP ) street gangs, DEA officials proudly
> announced last fall.
>
> "Mobile Enforcement Teams were designed to hit
> hard, fast and
> accurately," Javier Pena, the special agent in
> charge of the agency
> in San Francisco, said in a news release at the
> time. "The results
> of this collaborative crackdown speak for
> themselves."
>
> But now that the first trials of one of the
> Western Addition
> defendants have played out at San Francisco's Hall
> of Justice, juror
> reviews of the touted Mobile Enforcement Team
> leave plenty to be
> desired.
>
> The defendant, a 28-year-old alleged gang member
> named Sala Thorn,
> also known as Sly, was acquitted on two
> counts of felony drug
> trafficking over the course of two trials in which
> the key
> informant's credibility was all but demolished.
>
> As if that weren't bad enough for local law
> enforcement authorities
> - they had to watch Thorn, who had previously
> been acquitted of
> murder and robbery, returned to the street.
> Several other defendants
> arrested on evidence provided by the same
> informant are headed to
> trial in San Francisco - and prosecutors are
> starting to feel the
> reverberations as far as Stockton, where the same
> informant was key
> to making dozens of arrests in an operation
> that ended in July.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1247/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (10) 'WRONG HOUSE' RAID COSTS COUNTY $325K
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 24 Oct 2007
> Source: Garden Island (Lihue, HI)
> Copyright: 2007 Kauai Publishing Co.
> Author: Amanda C. Gregg
>
> The couple baby-sitting their grandchildren
> when police mistook
> their home for a drug dealer's residence has been
> awarded a $325,000
> settlement, their attorney said yesterday.
>
> Police had been tracking a package that
> allegedly contained 11
> pounds of marijuana that had been picked up at the
> Koloa post office
> by a man who was driving a Toyota truck on March
> 15, 2005, according
> to court documents.
>
> Though police followed the car onto Kaumuali'i
> Highway and onto a
> private road with seven houses, when the
> transmitter inside the box
> went off indicating the package had been
> opened, police had lost
> visual contact with the vehicle.
>
> That's when, without a warrant authorizing
> entrance into the home of
> William and Sharon McCulley, but rather with an
> "anticipatory search
> warrant" that authorized them to search any
> property where the
> marijuana was transported, police entered their
> home.
>
> Though the Toyota truck they had been following
> and the transported
> box wasn't at the McCulley's home, police then
> threw Sharon McCulley
> on the ground next to her grandchild and
> handcuffed her, pressing a
> gun so hard into her head it left a circular
> mark, according to the
> complaint.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1250/a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (11) NHPD NARCOTICS COP PLEADS GUILTY
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 29 Oct 2007
> Source: Yale Daily News (CT Edu)
> Copyright: 2007 Yale Daily News
> Author: Patrick Lee
>
> Former Lt. White Changes Original Plea
>
> Former New Haven Police Department Lt. William
> "Billy" White, who
> headed the department's narcotics unit for
> more than a decade,
> pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit
> bribery and theft of
> government property.
>
> White's change of plea status -- he pleaded not
> guilty shortly after
> his arrest last March -- may result in a lesser
> sentence than if had
> he not changed his plea and had then been
> found guilty. White's
> decision follows close on the heels of guilty
> pleas by former NHPD
> Detectives Jose Silva and Justen Kasperzyk, two
> other subjects of
> the federal investigation.
>
> Following White and Kasperzyk's arrest, the
> NHPD disbanded the
> narcotics unit and the city hired the Police
> Executive Research
> Forum to evaluate the NHPD. At forums since the
> original arrests,
> some city residents expressed frustration with
> a department they
> said has lost sight of community policing.
>
> City Hall spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the
> three former police
> officers do not represent the general conduct
> of the rest of New
> Haven's police force.
>
> "It's important for the community to understand
> that this is three
> officers who did despicable things," Mayorga
> said. "These ...
> officers do not represent the hard work of those 400
> other
> officers."
>
> White has been charged with one count of bribery
> conspiracy -- for
> which he faces up to five years imprisonment and
> a $250,000 fine --
> and two counts of government property theft,
> which could lead to 10
> years and $250,000 in penalties. White must also
> pay restitution for
> the stolen federal and local funds and forfeit
> the money he gained
> from the bribery conspiracy, which will total over
> $25,000.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1256/a02.html
>
> ===
>
> (12) SHERIFF'S OFFICE NARCOTICS OFFICERS FIRED
>
> Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2007
> Source: Aiken Standard (SC)
> Copyright: 2007sAiken Standard
>
> Visibly shaken, Aiken County Sheriff's Office
> Chief Deputy Dwayne
> Courtney choked back tears last Thursday, saying
> his agency has been
> "knocked to its knees" by revelations of
> betrayal and misconduct
> within the ranks.
>
> The allegations center on four narcotics officers
> who spent a night
> bar-hopping and picking up women in the Augusta
> and North Augusta
> areas. At least one illicit sex act in an
> unmarked county vehicle
> was alleged in a press release issued by the
> Sheriff's Office.
>
> The four narcotic investigators have been fired
> and another has been
> suspended, wiping out the entire narcotics team
> at the agency and
> calling into question the status of a number of
> previous, ongoing
> and pending drug cases in and around Aiken County.
>
> Sheriff Michael Hunt has called on the South
> Carolina Law
> Enforcement Division to conduct a full
> criminal investigation.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1249/a04.html
>
> ===
>
> (13) FLIP TO DRUG TRADE GETS NARCOTICS TASK FORCE
> DEPUTY EIGHT YEARS
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 27 Oct 2007
> Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
> Copyright: 2007 San Antonio Express-News
> Author: Lynn Brezosky
>
> A former narcotics task force deputy who admitted
> using his position
> to squeeze money from drug dealers was
> sentenced Friday to eight
> years and four months in federal prison
> followed by 200 hours of
> community service after his release.
>
> Julio Alfonso Lopez, 46, of Zapata, pleaded
> guilty in July 2006 to
> extorting $44,500 from drug traffickers to
> "protect" drug loads
> coming through Zapata County on the Mexican border.
>
> Meliton Valadez, 33, who pleaded guilty to acting
> as the middle man
> between drug traffickers and Lopez, was
> sentenced to six years and
> six months in federal prison followed by 150
> hours of community
> service. Valadez also is from Zapata.
>
> FBI investigators in Laredo showed Valadez
> took cash from drug
> dealers on four occasions between July 2005 and
> April 2006.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1244/a09.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> Cannabis & Hemp-
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (14-17)
>
> Americans for Safe Access reports that cannabis
> dispensary raids are
> escalating in California. It appears that the
> DEA is working with
> the IRS to target and seize the assets of
> the most affluent
> caregivers.
>
> Florida's AG Bill McCollum grossly exaggerated
> the unintended
> consequences of cannabis prohibition to lobby for
> more.
>
> British police are reportedly frustrated by the
> discretion afforded
> them by the downgrading of cannabis from class
> B to class C, but
> clairvoyants say that could change. "Gordon
> Brown announced a two-
> year study which should reverse David
> Blunkett's 2004 decision."
>
> North Dakota farmers struggling in the courts
> for their right to
> grow industrial hemp are facing a challenge
> new to this Canadian
> annotator, the concern that "there are ways
> to make plants with
> lower THC concentrations produce a high."
>
> ===
>
> (14) FEDERAL AGENTS RAID MARIJUANA DISPENSARY
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2007
> Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG
> Newspapers
> Author: Jason Sweeney, Staff Writer
> Cited: http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/
>
> Activists Protest Arrests of Two Alameda
> County Business Owners
>
> CHERRYLAND -- Federal agents raided a medical
> marijuana dispensary
> in Cherryland early Tuesday, prompting activists
> to converge on the
> location in protest.
>
> The Compassionate Collective of Alameda County,
> at 21222 Mission
> Blvd. near Blossom Way, just north of Hayward, was
> invaded at 6 a.m.
> by employees of the Drug Enforcement
> Administration and the Internal
> Revenue Service. The Alameda County Sheriff's
> Office provided
> security and traffic control during the raid.
>
> Sites in Oakland, Berkeley, Lafayette and Albany
> also were raided in
> connection with the dispensary bust, officials said.
>
> [snip]
>
> In the raid, agents reportedly seized several
> hundred pounds of
> marijuana, packaging materials and about
> $200,000 in cash. Several
> vehicles including two late-model Mercedes cars
> and a Ford F-250
> pickup, three motorcycles, two bank accounts,
> two IRAs, a home in
> Lafayette and a commercial building in Albany
> also were seized.
>
> The DEA and IRS began investigating the Nortons'
> dispensary about a
> year ago. The dispensary generated sales of
> more than $74,000 in
> 2004, $1.3 million in 2005, $21.5 million in 2006
> and $26.3 million
> through June 2007, according to the Department of
> Justice.
>
> The drug conspiracy count has a statutory maximum
> term of
> imprisonment of 40 years and a minimum of five
> years, along with a
> $2 million fine and at least five years of
> supervised release.
>
> Bob Swanson, constituent liaison to Alameda
> County Supervisor Nate
> Miley, said he was on the scene observing the
> raid and would be
> reporting back to the county Board of Supervisors.
>
> "This is a federal raid based on federal law. It's
> truly unfortunate
> that the DEA feels they have to come in and
> waste taxpayer dollars
> to keep medical marijuana from patients.
>
> "As far as we know, (Winslow and Abraham
> Norton) were operating
> within the (county) ordinance and within state
> law," Swanson said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Americans For Safe Access spokesman Kris Hermes said
> his
> organization has tracked 46 DEA raids of medical
> marijuana
> dispensaries this year. He said there were 20
> raids last year.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1261.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (15) TARGET 'MARIJUANA MCMANSIONS'
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2007
> Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
> Copyright: 2007 Orlando Sentinel
> Author: Bill McCollum, Special to the Sentinel
> Note: Bill McCollum is Florida's attorney general.
> He wrote this
> commentary for the Orlando Sentinel.
>
> Apparently California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
> was only joking
> when he recently said marijuana "is not a
> drug. It's a leaf." I
> certainly hope so. Statistics show marijuana
> is the most popular
> illegal drug in America, with more than half
> of our young adults
> between the ages of 19 to 28 saying they have
> used it. But today's
> marijuana is no Woodstock rerun; it's potent and
> dangerous.
>
> The most alarming aspect of marijuana's
> resurgence is the much
> greater potency of today's plant, particularly
> the hydroponic
> variety. In the 1960s and '70s, the average
> THC content (THC
> produces the high and causes physiological
> problems) in marijuana
> was approximately 4 percent. The THC level in
> the hydroponic
> marijuana grown today in Florida has tested up
> to 30 percent, and
> the level continues to rise through plant
> cloning by growers. This
> increase in potency has not only increased the
> dangerous physical
> effects of the drug, but also the addictive nature
> of marijuana use.
> Experts believe that the rate of addiction
> among daily marijuana
> users is now higher than that among daily alcohol
> drinkers.
>
> The increase in the drug's potency has also
> caused marijuana's
> market value to skyrocket. Hydroponic marijuana
> in some areas
> actually trades ounce for ounce with cocaine.
> The drug is so
> lucrative that grow houses are popping up in
> some of the most
> affluent neighborhoods in the state. These
> "Marijuana McMansions"
> are home to multimillion- dollar growing
> operations. Grow houses
> primarily specializing in hydroponic marijuana
> have been detected in
> 41 of Florida's 67 counties, and Florida had
> the second-highest
> number of grow-house seizures in the country in
> 2006.
>
> [snip]
>
> As the profit incentives increase for
> trafficking hydroponic
> marijuana, the risks to our children and
> fellow citizens also
> increase. Grow houses are often the targets of
> other violent crimes,
> including home invasions and robberies carried out
> by rival criminal
> groups, as the plants alone are worth tens of
> thousands of dollars.
> Marijuana is no longer grown and traded by
> amateurs -- it is being
> trafficked by organized and dangerous rings of
> criminals who are
> intent upon bringing this poison into our
> communities and
> neighborhoods.
>
> Taking this threat seriously, our state must
> pass tougher laws to
> crack down on these sophisticated growing
> operations. I am
> supporting legislation sponsored by Sen. Steve
> Oelrich of
> Gainesville and Rep. Nick Thompson of Fort
> Myers that would lower
> from 300 plants to 25 plants the standard for
> creating a presumption
> that a person is intending to distribute for
> profit. The bill also
> would create a new penalty for growers who
> own a house for the
> purpose of cultivating marijuana, as well as
> a new penalty for
> people who live in or are the caretakers of
> marijuana grow houses.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1257.a03.html
>
> ===
>
> (16) CANNABIS LAWS ARE A NO-MAN'S LAND
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2007
> Source: Argus, The (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Newsquest Media Group
> Author: Miles Godfrey
>
> Government figures reveal that police have
> opened a new front
> against drugs.
>
> But one senior officer admits police are thinking
> the unthinkable -
> moving those who smoke pot in their own homes
> way down the list of
> priorities.
>
> Imagine a discretionary law which police
> sometimes enforce but at
> other times don't bother. Picture a crime in
> which you will get
> thrown in jail for up to two years on occasions
> but get let off with
> a caution on others. Welcome to modern Britain, a
> country
> characterised by an increasingly confused
> attitude to cannabis.
>
> Ever since the drug was downgraded from class B
> to class C in 2004,
> we have been caught in a no-man's land of
> legislation which police
> officers are feeling increasingly unsure, nervous
> even, about how to
> negotiate.
>
> Recent figures show that cannabis use has once again
> fallen
> significantly, particularly among young people.
> This is an extremely
> encouraging sign that the Government's decision to
> downgrade has had
> positive benefits.
>
> However, we are increasingly being caught in the
> entirely ludicrous
> situation where our police officers are unsure
> whether to arrest
> people for possession of the drug.
>
> [snip]
>
> Chief Inspector Lawrence Hobbs, district
> commander for Adur,
> conceded few resources were devoted to
> tackling those who smoke
> cannabis in small quantities in their own homes.
>
> [snip]
>
> Mr Hobbs would not be drawn on his personal
> opinion as to whether he
> would like to see cannabis upgraded to class B.
>
> But all the signs are that it soon will be. Almost
> immediately after
> taking power, Gordon Brown announced a two-year
> study which should
> reverse David Blunkett's 2004 decision.
>
> This would, at the very least, give police more
> confidence to act
> decisively. At the moment, cannabis laws state
> that punishment for
> having the drug largely depends on what age you are.
>
> [snip]
>
> Many believe police officers should not be forced
> to work like this
> and Britain needs to take a firm line on cannabis
> once and for all.
> Either fully legalise it or criminalise it,
> in other words. The
> middle ground, they say, is doing nobody any
> favours.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1263.a12.html
>
> ===
>
> (17) GOVERNMENT: HEMP LAWSUIT ARGUMENTS ARE WEAK
>
> Pubdate: Sat, 27 Oct 2007
> Source: Jamestown Sun (ND)
> Copyright: 2007 The Associated Press
> Author: Blake Nicholson
> Cited: Vote Hemp http://www.votehemp.com/
>
> BISMARCK - Arguments by two North Dakota farmers
> who say they have a
> right to grow industrial hemp cannot change
> "unambiguous" federal
> law prohibiting commercial cultivation of the
> plant, Justice
> Department lawyers say.
>
> Farmers Dave Monson and Wayne Hauge also have
> no more standing to
> sue than someone who wants to use drugs
> recreationally, the lawyers
> said in their response to the farmers' request
> that a judge rule in
> their favor without a trial.
>
> Unless the federal Drug Enforcement
> Administration takes action
> against the farmers, the government lawyers
> say, Monson and Hauge
> "are in the same position as any hypothetical
> plaintiff who seeks to
> change federal drug law so that he can grow,
> smoke and/or sell
> marijuana free from DEA oversight."
>
> Tim Purdon, the attorney for the farmers, said in
> an interview that
> there is a difference between the farmers'
> rights to grow hemp and
> those of pot smokers.
>
> "The North Dakota Legislature has specifically
> passed a law allowing
> farmers in this state to grow industrial hemp,"
> he said Friday. "So
> the farmers in this state who wish to do that
> are very different
> from some hypothetical plaintiff who wants to
> grow marijuana."
>
> Monson, a state legislator who farms near
> Osnabrock, and Hauge, a
> farmer from Ray, want a federal judge to rule
> that they cannot be
> criminally prosecuted for growing industrial
> hemp under the North
> Dakota regulations.
>
> [snip]
>
> Government lawyers argue that there are ways
> to make plants with
> lower THC concentrations produce a high. The
> farmers dispute that,
> and say in court documents that "such hemp
> simply has no practical
> potential to be used as an illicit drug."
>
> [snip]
>
> "NDSU's experience demonstrates that applying to DEA
> for a
> registration to cultivate industrial hemp
> clearly involves an
> 'unreasonable or indefinite timeframe for
> administrative action,'"
> the brief says.
>
> The farmers' lawsuit, filed in June, is being funded
> by the
> nonprofit Vote Hemp group. The Justice
> Department has asked that
> U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck
> dismiss it. Oral
> arguments are scheduled Nov. 14 on that motion
> and on the farmers'
> request that Hovland rule in their favor.
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1259.a02.html
>
>
=======================================================================
>
> International News
> ---------------------------
>
> COMMENT: (18-21)
>
> Indonesia's "Constitutional Court" this week
> dashed the hopes of
> three Australians who are about to be executed for
> drug trafficking.
> The three were part of a drug ring that attempted
> to smuggle 18 pounds
> of heroin out of Bali in 2005. At the same time in
> Malaysia, near to
> Indonesia in both location and culture, a
> "painter" was this week
> sentenced to hang for possessing about 1/2 pound of
> cannabis in 2001.
>
> Police in the Australian state of Queensland
> are to begin testing
> drivers for "illicit substances" (read:
> cannabis) next month. The
> Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, attempted to
> milk the invasive
> police fishing expeditions for as much
> political mileage as
> possible. "I don't want my family on the road
> with people who are
> using drugs and getting into vehicles."
>
> Authorities in Sri Lanka report the number of
> people with HIV there
> is increasing as a result of intravenous drug
> use. Ironically, the
> very drug prohibition laws - meant to protect
> people - are making
> the problem worse. "As there is a shortage of
> heroin [in Sri Lanka]
> drug addicts seem to opt for injecting drugs,"
> said Health Ministry
> STD/AIDS Control Programme National Director Dr.
> Nimal Edirisinghe.
> Prohibition maximizes harm in other ways, too:
> "the same needle is
> being used a few times," making transmission of
> diseases like HIV
> possible.
>
> ===
>
> (18) INDONESIA UPHOLDS DEATH IN DRUG CASES
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2007
> Source: New York Times (NY)
> Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
> Author: Peter Gelling
>
> JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The Constitutional Court
> of Indonesia upheld
> the death penalty for serious drug offenses
> on Tuesday, dimming
> hopes of a reprieve for three Australians
> facing execution for
> trying to smuggle heroin off the resort island of
> Bali.
>
> Lawyers for the three men, members of a
> group of Australians
> convicted of drug offenses who have become known
> as the Bali Nine,
> had hoped a successful constitutional challenge
> would add weight to
> their final appeal to the Supreme Court. Should
> that appeal fail,
> their last avenue would be a direct plea to
> Indonesia's president.
>
> The Constitutional Court ruled 6 to 3 that a
> 2000 constitutional
> amendment upholding the right to life did not
> apply to capital
> punishment. The court added that the right to
> life had to be
> balanced against the rights of the victims of
> drug trafficking.
>
> [snip]
>
> The nine Australian men were arrested in 2005 for
> trying to smuggle
> 18 pounds of heroin out of Bali. They ranged in
> age from 18 to 28 at
> the time.
>
> [snip]
>
> At the beginning of this year 134 people,
> including 34 foreigners,
> were on death row in Indonesia, a vast
> majority for drug-related
> crimes, according to government statistics.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1264.a04.htm
>
> ===
>
> (19) EX-PAINTER SENT TO GALLOWS
>
> Pubdate: Mon, 29 Oct 2007
> Source: Star, The (Malaysia)
> Copyright: 2007 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd.
> Author: K. Kasturi Dewi
>
> PENANG: Former painter Chuah Kok Eng was
> sentenced to death by a
> High Court for trafficking 271.9g of cannabis.
>
> [snip]
>
> Chuah was found guilty at the end of the defence
> case of committing
> the offence at a house in Jalan Jelutong at
> 12.45am on Nov 3, 2001.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1255.a01.html
>
> ===
>
> (20) POLICE TO BEGIN DRUG TESTING MOTORISTS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 28 Oct 2007
> Source: Sunday Herald, The (UK)
> Copyright: 2007 Sunday Herald
>
> Queensland police will begin drug testing
> motorists in the next
> month in a crackdown on drivers who get behind the
> wheel after using
> illicit substances.
>
> Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said on Sunday
> she was putting
> drug-drivers on notice, and warned them
> roadside drug tests would
> soon be carried out alongside random alcohol breath
> tests.
>
> She said officers would take swabs of saliva from
> motorists and test
> for drugs such as speed, ecstasy and cannabis
> at mobile testing
> stations.
>
> "Those drivers who use drugs and then get behind
> the wheel of a car
> put themselves at risk, put their passengers at
> risk and, worst of
> all, put those drivers in other vehicles at risk,"
> she told
> reporters in Brisbane.
>
> "I don't want my family on the road with people
> who are using drugs
> and getting into vehicles."
>
> Ms Bligh admitted the tests, which take three to
> five minutes, could
> cause some irritation for motorists but
> appealed for patience.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1253.a04.htm
>
> ===
>
> (21) AIDS THREAT INCREASING WITH DRUG INJECTIONS
>
> Pubdate: Sun, 28 Oct 2007
> Source: Sunday Times, The (Sri Lanka)
> Copyright: 2007 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.
> Author: Nadia Fazlulhaq
>
> Around 3500 Sri Lankans are living with HIV
> and the number is
> increasing rapidly as a newest trend of injecting
> drugs is becoming
> popular among many parties. Health Ministry
> STD/AIDS Control
> Programme National Director Dr. Nimal
> Edirisinghe told The Sunday
> Times that although there was a popular belief
> that injecting drugs
> was uncommon in Sri Lanka, at present it has been a
> major
> contributor to enhance the number of AIDS patients.
>
> "There is a popular fashion among youth going
> to nightclubs and
> parties to inject drugs, which creates a high
> risk. As there is a
> shortage of heroin drug addicts seem to opt for
> injecting drugs. We
> also got to know that some prisoners too are
> getting injected with
> drugs and in most of these cases the same needle
> is being used a few
> times," he said.
>
> [snip]
>
> Continues:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1251.a07.htm
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> HOT OFF THE 'NET
> -------------------------------
>
> CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW
>
> Last: 10/31/07 - Eric Sterling of Criminal Justice
> Policy Foundation,
> Dr. Rick Doblin of MAPS and Drug War Facts
>
> Audio:
> http://drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_103107.mp3
>
> Listen Live Tuesdays 12.30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT,
> 10:30 MT & 9:30 AM PT
> at www.KPFT.org
>
> ===
>
> DREW CAREY DEFENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA
>
> In Episode 2 of Reason.tv's Drew Carey Project,
> Drew takes a look at
> patients who need and use medical marijuana in
> California, and how the
> federal government is making their lives even worse.
>
> http://reason.tv/video/show/57.html
>
> ===
>
> UNNECESSARY EVIL
>
> Blind Trust and Unchecked Abuse In America's
> Informant System
>
> http://www.aclu.org/unnecessaryevil
>
> ===
>
> PLAN MEXICO
>
> Characteristic of the "war on drugs" model,
> Plan Mexico takes a
> serious transnational problem and casts it in such a
> way as to promote
> the specific interests of the U.S. and Mexican
> rightwing governments.
>
> By Laura Carlsen, October 30, 2007
>
> http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4684
>
> ===
>
> THE MURDER OF ROBIN PROSSER
>
> Analysis by Richard Cowan
>
> An Indictment of Karen Tandy and Motorola By
> Their Own Words and
> Standards.
>
> http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=917
>
> ===
>
> DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES REJECT CALL TO
> DECRIMINALIZE POT
>
> http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7411
>
> ===
>
> ON THE LEGALIZATION - OR NOT - OF MARIJUANA
>
> By Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics
>
> The alcohol vs. marijuana question is so
> speculative as to be nearly
> useless beyond a thought experiment. So we
> assembled a group of folks
> with expertise in this area and asked them a much
> more targeted pair
> of questions:
>
> Should marijuana be legalized in the U.S.? Why or
> why not?
>
> Grinspoon and St. Pierre v. Dupont and Murray
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2wfagu
>
> ===
>
> INJECTING DRUG USE AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN SWEDEN
>
> The International Harm Reduction Association's new
> HR2 Harm Reduction
> & Human Rights programme, in conjunction with the
> Swedish drug users
> union, has published a report examining the issues
> around the state's
> response to the growing health problems
> (specifically blood borne
> diseases) relating to injecting drug use in Sweden,
> and the inadequate
> provision of harm reduction services for Sweden's
> growing population
> of drug injectors.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/32glq5
>
> ===
>
> MESSAGES FROM RAINBOW FARM
>
> Memorial Day Weekend 1997 Featuring speeches from
> Gatewood Galbraith,
> (The Last Free Man In America), Jack Herer
> (Godfather of The Hemp ...
> all ¯ Movement), Chris Conrad, (Hemp Guru), & Elvy
> Musikka, (Federal
> Medical Marijuana Patient & advocate)& Master of
> Ceremonies Derrik
> DeCrane.
>
>
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-4143909010054104519
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> DONATE YOUR CAR
>
> If your automobile (car, truck, boat, motorcycle,
> RV, or aircraft) is
> no longer of use to you, it can still go a long way
> towards supporting
> our work to end marijuana prohibition. MPP will
> get money from the
> sale of your used vehicle at auction, and
> you will get a tax
> deduction.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2vemem
>
> ===
>
> REGISTER FOR THE 2007 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY
> REFORM CONFERENCE
>
> With about a month to go until the 2007
> International Drug Policy
> Reform Conference, things are coming together at a
> very fast pace.
> This looks to be our biggest and best conference
> yet! Early-bird
> registration ends november 5th, so if you
> haven't yet registered
> yet, please do.
>
> http://kessjones.com/conf07/
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> LETTER OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> THE FOLLY OF DRUG PROHIBITION
>
> Peter Christopher
>
> I read with interest Ms. Lisa Kaiser's reporting on
> how the
> Milwaukee County district attorney views the
> pot scene in "Want
> Saner Marijuana Laws?" ( Oct. 18). Ultimate
> reform must come from
> Washington, and like most huge issues, it will
> one day have its day
> at the polls. America is ever-so-slowly waking
> up to the folly of
> drug prohibition, especially marijuana, and may
> one day come to know
> they have been propagandized into a $42 billion a
> year "Blackwater"
> operation that is never supposed to end,
> complete with asset
> forfeiture, corruption, expanding prisons and drug
> testing. It tears
> us apart as a country and we must fix it. The
> internecine
> relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide
> can only be reined
> in through regulation and treatment. The talking
> points of the drug
> war industrial complex are based on fear, gutter
> science and racism
> thrown in when necessary, like any war--but
> this one is against
> ourselves. I ask District Attorney John
> Chisholm to contact LEAP,
> Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
> www.leap.cc, and have a visit
> with his colleagues to discuss prohibition as
> law enforcement
> professionals and not drug war sycophants.
>
> Peter Christopher
> Hurdle Mills, N.C.
>
> Pubdate: Wed, 24 Oct 2007
> Source: Shepherd Express (Milwaukee, WI)
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1198/a07.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> FEATURE ARTICLE
> -------------------------------
>
> ARNOLD'S MARIJUANA FIG LEAF
>
> By Debra J. Saunders
>
> When the Associated Press released a story that
> reported Gov. Arnold
> Schwarzenegger said marijuana is "not a drug,"
> press secretary Aaron
> McLear was quick to announce that Schwarzenegger
> was joking. During
> an interview with Piers Morgan, a judge of
> "America's Got Talent,"
> the governator had said that he had never taken
> drugs, even though
> he has admitted to smoking marijuana and the 1977
> documentary film,
> "Pumping Iron," showed him inhaling.
>
> So Schwarzenegger quipped, "That is not a drug.
> It's a leaf. My drug
> was pumping iron, trust me."
>
> McLear told me that just as Schwarzenegger is
> more playful when
> appearing on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," with
> some TV
> personalities, Schwarzenegger "says things that
> are a bit more
> shocking because he's playing to the audience."
> And: "The governor
> was not taking marijuana off the drug list. This
> was a light-hearted
> interview."
>
> Too bad. I was hoping that Schwarzenegger was
> signaling a more sane
> drug policy for California - one that would
> direct the state not to
> waste money on marijuana enforcement, so that
> police can concentrate
> on violent crime or drugs that, unlike
> marijuana, kill people.
>
> "The thing about Gov. Schwarzenegger is, we all
> know that he smoked
> marijuana," noted Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana
> Policy Project. "He
> is one of a great many accomplished people who
> smoked marijuana and
> have gone on to lead a successful life."
>
> Mayor Gavin Newsom is the rare politician to
> take on the war on
> drugs. As CBS5's Hank Plante reported earlier
> this month, Newsom
> said, "If you want to get serious, if you want to
> reduce crime by 70
> percent in this country overnight, end this war on
> drugs."
>
> I called Police Officers Association President
> Gary Delagnes to
> discuss Newsom's remarks - and figured Delagnes,
> who spent more than
> a decade on the drug beat - would take me on when
> I told him I think
> marijuana should be legal.
>
> Instead, Delagnes said, "So do I." Delagnes
> added that unlike
> methamphetamine and heroin, "You can't really
> die from marijuana;
> all it can do is fry your brain." ( Be it noted:
> Frying your brain
> is not a good thing. )
>
> "Ask any cop if they'd rather arrest somebody
> who is drunk or
> somebody who is stoned," Mirken had asked
> rhetorically. For
> Delagnes, the answer was easy. Tell a man who is
> stoned to put his
> hands against the wall, "he'll probably say that's
> cool."
>
> But a drunk might just react violently.
>
> Legalize all drugs? Newsom said he wasn't calling
> for that, but one
> certainly could infer that Newsom was toying
> with the idea. After
> all, some drug-war critics argue that if all
> drugs were legal, then
> drug crime would not pay.
>
> Delagnes believes that more than 80 percent of
> San Francisco drug
> arrests are for serious drugs, such as heroin
> and crack cocaine -
> drugs that destroy whole communities. In Ess Eff,
> marijuana arrests
> are rare - and almost always in response to a
> citizen complaint.
>
> "I don't believe that users belong in prison. But
> I do believe that
> police departments and cities do have to address
> the qualify-of-life
> issues," Delagnes noted. Law-abiding folk "have
> every right to go
> home and not have to walk over two whacked out
> homeless people" on
> the way to the front door. And in his professional
> opinion,
> marijuana is not related to the city's homeless
> problem.
>
> Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper is a
> board member of LEAP (
> Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ). Former San
> Jose Police Chief
> Joe McNamara wrote a Letter to the Editor to
> The Chronicle in
> support of Newsom's drug remark. McNamara
> called the drug war "a
> total failure." Yet even an iconoclastic
> politician like Arnold
> Schwarzenegger is positively timid when
> treading drug-war turf.
>
> Newsom criticized fellow Democrats for being
> afraid to call for
> drug-war reform, lest they seem weak on
> crime. He lamented "a
> failure of the imagination." More than that,
> there is a failure of
> political courage.
>
> Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2007
> Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
> Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
> Cited: http://www.mpp.org/
> Cited: http://www.copssaylegalizedrugs.org/
> Referenced:
> http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1176/a11.html
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> QUOTE OF THE WEEK
> ------------------------------------
>
> "Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often
> focus on how much
> money or effort is spent, rather than whether
> the money or effort
> actually achieves the announced goal." -- Donald
> Rumsfeld
>
>
***********************************************************************
>
> DS Weekly is one of the many free educational
> services DrugSense
> offers our members. Watch this feature to
> learn more about what
> DrugSense can do for you.
>
> TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL
> ADDRESS:
>
> Please utilize the following URLs
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm
>
> CREDITS:
>
> Policy and Law Enforcement/Prison content
> selection and analysis by
> Stephen Young (steve@...), This Just
> In selection by
> Richard Lake (rlake@...), International
> content selection
> and analysis by Doug Snead
> (doug@...), Cannabis/Hemp
> content selection and analysis, Hot Off The Net
> selection and Layout
> by Matt Elrod (webmaster@...). Analysis
> comments represent
> the personal views of editors, not necessarily the
> views of
> DrugSense.
>
> We wish to thank all our contributors, editors,
> NewsHawks and letter
> writing activists. Please help us help reform.
> Become a NewsHawk See
> http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for info on
> contributing clippings.
>
> ===
>
> NOTICE:
>
> In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section
> 107, this material is
> distributed without profit to those who have
> expressed a prior
> interest in receiving the included information
> for research and
> educational purposes.
>
> ===
>
> MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO DRUGSENSE ON-LINE
>
> http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
>
> -OR-
>
> Mail in your contribution. Make checks payable to
> MAP Inc. send your
> contribution to:
>
> The Media Awareness Project (MAP) Inc.
> D/B/a DrugSense
> 14252 Culver Drive #328
> Irvine, CA, 92604-0326
> (800) 266 5759
> MGreer@...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com