URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n629/a01.html

Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jun 2008
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2008 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Clarence Page
Note: Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Merida+Initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Mexico (Mexico)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

THE DRUG WAR JUST ACROSS THE BORDER

As if our military didn't have its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Minuteman Project border security group seems to think Minutemen might make good narcotics cops.

Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist suggested in recent radio interviews that the U.S.  give Mexico 12 months to corral its criminal drug cartels and rising violence, particularly in border towns such as Juarez and Tijuana--or deploy the U.S.  Army to do the job.

That's the Minutemen.  Their remedies for the drug war next door sound simplistic, but at least they're paying attention.

While most of us north of the border have been absorbed with our presidential sweepstakes and other happenings, our southern neighbor has exploded into the full-scale drug violence previously associated with Colombia or Peru.

For now, we're not sending troops, just money.  The Senate last Thursday approved a $1.6 billion, three-year package of anti-drug assistance to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  Known as the "Merida Initiative," it includes $400 million for military equipment and technical assistance for Mexico's anti-drug fight.  The bill was passed earlier by the House and President Bush is expected to sign it.

Mexico's government cheered the bill because it waters down proposed restrictions that would have required Mexico to change the way it handles allegations of human rights abuses by its military.  Mexican leaders threatened to reject the money if there were too many restrictions on their sovereignty.

But the omission brought jeers from Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, such as the Friends of Brad Will, founded in the name of a freelance New York journalist who was shot and killed while shooting video of a teachers strike in Oaxaca two years ago.  A native of Chicago's North Shore, Will was 36.

His final video shows protesters hurling rocks and captures the sounds of gunshots, along with a shout: "Stop taking photos!" A shot is heard whizzing toward Will.  He was struck in the abdomen and once in the right side.

Within days, state authorities took two men into custody, a local town councilor and his security chief.  But they were released less than two months later.  A state judge ruled that they were not close enough to have shot Will.

No further suspects were brought in.  Publicity eventually helped nudge federal authorities into taking the case over, but they have not made much more progress.  Capturing his own killing on video did not save Will from becoming one of thousands of casualties related to drugs or politics in Mexico in recent years.

Twenty-one journalists have been killed in Mexico, seven of them in direct reprisal for their work, since 2000, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, of which I am a board member.  Seven others have disappeared in the last three years.

"Mexico is not at war," said Joel Simon, executive director of CPJ.  "And yet it is one of the world's most dangerous countries for the press."

But that's only a sliver of the thousands of drug-related murders of non-journalists in Mexico.  By various counts, more than 4,000 people--including some 500 local, state and federal police officers--have been killed in the 18 months since President Felipe Calderon launched his campaign against the drug gangs.

Gang wars have escalated in recent years over smuggling routes to the United States and over control of local police forces.  Among other particularly grisly touches, drug gangs in the northern state of Durango recently have left severed heads with warning notes attached in coolers by the side of the road.

Journalists such as Francisco Ortiz Franco, co-editor of the Tijuana newsweekly Zeta, have been killed for aggressively covering corruption and drug trafficking.  At age 50, Franco was fatally shot in front of his children on a downtown Tijuana street.

Cases like his led to a meeting between President Calderon, who has sent federal troops in to bring peace to some towns, and CPJ board members, including me, in Mexico City June 9.  Among other press freedom reforms, Calderon agreed to work toward laws that would protect speech and press freedoms at the federal level, not just the states, where corruption is more rampant.

With hundreds of millions of Washington anti-drug dollars still pending at the time, Calderon had ample reason to speak in glowing terms about human rights reforms.  Now he needs to follow his talk with action--and Americans need to keep an eye on how well our money is being used. 

MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/

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Drug War News Feel free to contribute content by posting to the newswire and selecting the category "drug war". If you would like to help out editing this page contact sfbay-editorial@... Links | Upcoming Events | Photo Gallery Monday Jul 7 7PM Medical Marijuana Documentary "Waiting to Inhale"... More Events... Militarization in Mexico Sat Jun 21 2008 (Updated 06/22/08) Zapatistas Implicated in the "War on Drugs" Under the guise of the "War on Drugs," the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones. While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of Zapatista communities in the “War on Drugs” is equally alarming. Read more on Indybay's International or Americas pages State Limits for Possession and Cultivation of Medical Cannabis Ruled Unconstitutional Thu May 22 2008 (Updated 05/28/08) California Court Says that Since Voters Didn't Determine Limits, Section of Law Not Legal On May 22nd in Los Angeles, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the state limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation that were established under state law SB 420 are unconstitutional. In the case People v. Patrick Kelly, the court overturned the defendant's conviction for possessing 12 ounces of dried marijuana plants on the grounds that the prosecutor had improperly argued that the defendant was guilty because he possessed more than the 8-ounce limit established in Health & Safety Code Section 11362.77 and did not have a doctor's recommendation that authorized more. That section also says that counties and cities can enact medical marijuana guidelines that allow patients or caregivers to exceed the state limits. In its 3-0 decision, the court ruled: "The prosecutor's argument was improper... because the CUA [Compassionate Use Act] can only be amended with voters' approval. Voters, however, did not approve the eight-ounce limit and other caps in section 11362.77; hence, section 11362.77 unconstitutionally amends the CUA." The decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court. Prop. 215 advocates such as California NORML have long believed that the SB 420 limits are unconstitutional. Statement from California NORML Text of Court of Appeals decision in People v. Patrick Kelly | Text of SB 420 | Text of Proposition 215 Blackwater Opens Large Training Facility in San Diego Tue Jun 10 2008 (Updated 06/11/08) The New Bad News for California About Blackwater Worldwide On June 5th, after a federal judge cleared the way, Blackwater Worldwide, the 'World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army', opened a large training facility in San Diego, just three blocks from the border that separates California and Mexico. Blackwater is setting its sights on the so-called "war on drugs" and recently opened its own private CIA, called "Total Intelligence Solutions," marketing "CIA-type services" to Fortune 500 companies. On Wednesday, June 11th, local groups in San Diego are organizing a major protest outside the Blackwater facility at 7685 Siempre Viva Road in Otay Mesa. Read more on Indybay's Police State and Prisons or California pages Santa Cruz City Council to Consider Resolution for an End of US Military Aid to Colombia Mon Jun 9 2008 Santa Cruz May Become Third City with Resolution to End US Military Aid to Colombia Armed with bazookas, instruments and colorful posters, residents of Santa Cruz will show their support on Tuesday, June 10th at 3:30pm in favor of a pending city resolution requesting that all US military aid to Colombia be re-directed to domestic drug prevention and rehabilitation programs, which have been shown to be more effective in the “war on drugs.” Bert Muhly of Tres Americas will speak on the issue, as well as Sandra Alvarez, long time Colombia activist and Ph.D candidate at the University of California Santa Cruz. Read more on Indybay's Government & Elections page Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act Thu May 15 2008 HR 5842 Would Protect Legal Medical Cannabis Patients and Providers Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and a small bi-partisan coalition of Members of Congress introduced H.R. 5842, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act in April. The legislation will help protect individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state law. If it is passed, this legislation would, among other things, reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule II drug according the Controlled Substances Act and provide clearer protections for qualified patients, their caregivers, and safe-access sites authorized by state or local law. Such bills have been introduced in the past, but had not been passed into law. Americans for Safe Access has a Patient Protection Act page on its website from which people can write to their U.S. Representative to support this piece of legislation. HR 5842: Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act | ASA's announcement about contacting Congresspeople | Controlled Substances Act Donna Deiss Describes Her Interaction with SCPD Sergeant Christian LeMoss Wed May 14 2008 Sgt. LeMoss #114 Santa Cruz PD Breaks Arm of 60 Year Old Disabled Woman Without Cause Donna Deiss Yovino writes, "At Santa Cruz parking lot A on West Cliff Drive, on Friday May 9, 2008, Sgt. C LeMoss twisted and broke the right humurus arm bone of a 60 year old disabled woman for entering her RV and attempting to close the door." Read more Bill in Assembly Committee Would End California Law Enforcement Help in DEA Raids Thu May 1 2008 Landmark medical marijuana bill clears California legislative committee On April 29th, California's Assembly Committee on Public Safety passed A.B. 2743. The bill, authored by Assembly Member Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) and spearheaded by the Marijuana Policy Project, or MPP, would direct state and local law enforcement officers to not assist in federal raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The bill will now continue on to the appropriations committee. During the more than ten years in which patients in California have had legal access to medical cannabis, local and state officials have assisted the federal war on patients and providers in more than three-dozen cases, including by calling in federal agents. Some segments of the law enforcement community have reportedly opposed this bill, but the state's ill and injured patients prevailed when the committee voted to move the bill forward. The committee heard testimony from MPP's Aaron Smith; a raided dispensary operator; a disabled former corrections officer; and Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband Dale Schafer, who have been sentenced to five years in federal prison for medical marijuana. Several patients and caregivers from the Sacramento area also attended to show their support for the bill.. Marijuana Policy Project's Statement | ASA's AB 2743 Page Medical Cannabis Employment Rights Bill Faces Upcoming Assembly Vote Mon Apr 21 2008 (Updated 05/20/08) AB 2279 Works Its Way Through California's State Assembly Update: An inconclusive vote was held on the Assembly floor on May 19th. Marijuana Policy Project is calling for supporters of the legislation to contact their Assemblypeople to "thank or spank" them and to encourage their votes in favor of the bill when it is next considered by the full body. A state medical marijuana employment rights bill is working its way through California's state Assembly committees. AB 2279, which would protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients in California from employment discrimination, was introduced in February and was approved April 17th by the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on a 6-2 vote. The bill, which heads to the Assembly floor next, would reverse a January California Supreme Court decision in Ross v. RagingWire, which said that an employer may fire someone solely because they use medical marijuana outside the workplace. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) argued the case in court and is now a sponsor of the bill. The bill leaves intact existing state law prohibiting medical marijuana consumption at the workplace and "protects employers" from liability by carving out an exception for safety-sensitive positions. "The California Supreme Court decision said that an employer may fire someone solely because they use medical marijuana outside the workplace," Mr. Leno said in a previous statement. "AB 2279 is merely an affirmation of the intent of the voters and the legislature that medical marijuana patents need not be unemployed to benefit from their medicine." On January 24th, the California Supreme Court upheld a ruling that denied qualified patients a remedy from employment discrimination, based either on their status as a patient or a positive test for marijuana. The plaintiff from the case, Gary Ross, is a 46-year old disabled veteran who was a systems engineer living Carmichael when he was fired in 2001 from his job at RagingWire Telecommunications-- for testing positive for marijuana. "It's important that we not allow employment discrimination in California," Ross said. "If the court is going to ignore the need for protection, then it's up to the legislature to ensure that productive workers like me are free from discrimination." Text of AB2279 | ASA page on AB2279, including Fact Sheet and Letters of Support | Legal briefs and rulings in the Ross v. RagingWire case | Indybay's Past Coverage: CA Supreme Court Upholds Right of Employers to Fire Medical Marijuana Users Thousands of Students Celebrate 420 in Porter Meadow at UCSC Mon Apr 21 2008 Students Blaze at UC Santa Cruz on Four Twenty, 2008 Thousands of students from around the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Areas participated in a "Four Twenty" celebration in Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz on April 20th, 2008. Four Twenty (420) is a time of day when people, often a group of friends, smoke cannabis together or eat foods cooked with it. For that reason, April 20th has evolved into a counterculture holiday where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Porter Meadow at UCSC has traditionally been the largest 420 gathering place around, and this year was said to be even larger than 2007. Despite the severe measures initiated by the UCSC administration to curtail the unorganized convergence, folks showed they were determined to experience Four Twenty as one large group of people in the Porter Meadow. Read More and View Photos see also: Thousands Celebrate 420 at Porter Meadow | UCSC Reefer Madness! Campus lockdown! | 2007: A Portrait: 420 at UC Santa Cruz Fry and Shafer Released on Bail Pending Appeal Mon Mar 31 2008 Medical Cannabis Doctor Sentenced to 5 Years, But Set Free to Wait for Appeal On March 19th, Dr.. Marion "Mollie" Fry and Dale Schafer walked out of a US Court in Sacramento free on bail pending appeal after being sentenced to a five-year mandatory minimum for conspiracy to cultivate and dispense medical cannabis. US District Judge Frank Damrell deplored the sentence as a "tragedy" that should "never have happened." Supporters were elated by Judge Damrell's decision to grant release the defendants on bail after much of the hearing had resulted in rulings in favor of the prosecution. Defense attorney Tony Serra called it "one of the saddest days I've confronted in a long career" after Damrell turned down all the defense's motions to avoid the mandatory minimums. Dr.. Mollie Fry stirred the courtroom to tears as she related the story of her struggle with breast cancer and subsequent desire to help people with medical cannabis. "We caused no harm to anyone," she said, "There were no victims." Judge Damrell acknowledged the legitimacy of Fry's medical use of marijuana, but said that the couple had "spiraled out of control. ' He concluded that he had "no choice" but to impose the mandatory minimum of 5 years, a sentence dictated by the jury's finding that the couple had grown a total of slightly more than 100 plants over a period of three years. On the final issue of the day, Judge Damrell agreed that the couple had "substantial" grounds for appeal so as to justify their release on bail. Following expert testimony by attorneys J David Nick and Ephraim Margolin, Damrell found substantial appeals issues relating to entrapment, the defendants' state of mind, and the conflict between state and federal laws.. He added that the couple's precarious state of health was further extraordinary grounds for keeping them out of prison. He reprimanded Dr. Fry for her loose standards in recommending marijuana, and stipulated as a strict condition for her release that she desist from further recommendations, to which she assented. Dale Gieringer of California NORML writes, "Judge Damrell effectively declared the bankruptcy of US laws regarding mandatory sentencing and medical marijuana, and rightly referred the matter to higher authorities to decide. There are good grounds to hope that Dale and Mollie will be vindicated by the Ninth Circuit and/or a change in administration." Doctor Fry reportedly sold her practice by the end of March. Reports from the Sentencing | Announcement of the sentencing | 8/22/2007: Medical Cannabis Doctor and Attorney Found Guilty of Growing Cannabis Plants | Doctor Fry's website Friends of Brad Will Release Secret Documents of Proposed US/Mexican Military Aid Sat Mar 29 2008 Murdered Journalist Network Denounces "Plan Mexico" The international network demanding accountability for the murder of US journalist Brad Will released secret documents detailing proposed military support for Mexican security forces implicated in murder, torture and continuing arbitrary detentions. Read more on Indybay's Americas page Tainted/Compassion Medicinal Edibles Owner to Change Plea on March 26th Tue Mar 25 2008 Michael Martin Would Face Years in Prison for Making Medical Cannabis Edibles Michael Martin of Tainted/Compassionate Medicinal Edibles faces a Change of Plea Hearing in Oakland on Wednesday, March 26th. He writes, "I cannot gamble with raising my two children from prison for a decade over principle, so regrettably I will accept the plea offered to me and hope the judge sees the injustice of the situation." As he is unable to speak freely about the medicinal nature of Tainted's products, the alternative would be a jury that could assign him a ten year mandatory minimum sentence. Michael is hoping that the community will go to court to show support for him. He writes, "It is our first appearance in front of Judge Claudia Wilken and I think it is important to let her know that there is a community of patients and providers that demand justice.. She will be responsible for the sentencing in our case and I believe it to be important that she understand that we are one of many being persecuted and denied our rights regarding cannabis as a medicine." The hearing will take place on Wednesday at 2:30pm in Judge Wilken's courtroom at 1301 Clay St. in Oakland. Read more Past Coverage: 1/31: Patient Testimonials Needed. Let Your Vice Be Heard | DEA Targets East Bay Supplier of Edible Medical Cannabis Products | Free Tainted Cannablog Police in California Must Return Medical Marijuana Seized from Legal Patients Mon Mar 24 2008 (Updated 03/27/08) CA Supreme Court Affirms ASA Win in Felix Kha Case On Wednesday, March 19th, the California Supreme Court decided not to review last year’s landmark return of property decision in Garden Grove v. Superior Court. By affirming the appellate court’s decision, the Supreme Court has made protection against seizure of medical marijuana by law enforcement legally binding throughout the state of California. In November of 2007, the California Court of Appeal ruled that state law enforcement could not use federal law as an excuse for not upholding California’s medical cannabis laws – therefore police must return medicine wrongfully seized from legal patients. ASA filed the successful appeal on behalf of Garden Grove patient Felix Kha in hopes of stemming the tide of hundreds of wrongful confiscations of medicine all over California. Kha had sought the return of his 8 grams of medical marijuana that was seized by police in June of 2005. In a ruling that rejects law enforcement's claim that federal law preempts the state's medical marijuana law, the court asserted "we do not believe the federal drug laws supersede or preempt Kha's right to the return of his property." The court further stated that, "it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws..." As a result of hundreds of cases of wrongful medical marijuana confiscation, and careful legal planning and research over the course of two years, ASA’s legal team felt that it built a strong defense for the rights of Felix Kha and others like him. ASA wants to make sure that the more than 250,000 legal patients and thousands of attorneys and public defenders are sufficiently educated about patients’ rights and protection from medicine confiscation to which patients are now entitled. ASA now hopes to educate police officers, prosecutors, and judges, and to use the media to end patient harassment and to ensure that police no longer claim that marijuana is illegal. ASA's page about the Garden Grove case || Past coverage on Indybay: 11/2007: Appellate Court Strongly Vindicates Patients Right to Medical Marijuana Seized by Police | 8/2007: State Appellate Court to Hear Demand for Return of Patients' Medicine SF Board of Supes Passes Medical Cannabis Sanctuary Resolution Fri Feb 8 2008 (Updated 03/03/08) San Francisco is Now a Medical Cannabis Sanctuary On February 26th, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a sanctuary resolution.. This new law re-establishes the city's sanctuary status and calls on the Mayor to take action. On February 12th, the Supervisors had heard and postponed a vote on a resolution that would show the Supes' support for John Conyers Jr., the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of Congress, who called for hearings to investigate the DEA's attempts to undermine California state laws. This resolution is similar to the one that was passed by the Democratic County Central Committee on January 23rd. Patients and supporters spoke out in support of this resolution. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who represents neighborhoods in southwest San Francisco, said he wanted a chance to go on record against the resolution, so he asked that the vote be deferred. He voted against the measure on the 26th. Also on the 26th, the Supervisors voted to allow for dispensaries to stay open after the March 1st deadline, pending an amendment to the current ordinance. Supervisor Allioto-Pier was absent for both votes on that date. At a press conference held on San Francisco City Hall Steps at noon on Monday February 4th, members of the San Francisco medical cannabis community and their supporters gathered in solidarity to call for Mayor Gavin Newsom to end his silence about recent US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)'s scare tactics against medical cannabis facility landlords. Photos and Report The DEA has been sending letters threatening asset forfeiture and imprisonment if landlords continue to rent to medical cannabis dispensaries, even though they are doing so pursuant to City regulations. Speakers including California State Senator Carole Migden; San Francisco Supervisors Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi; representatives of local dispensaries; and other luminaires such as Libertarian presidential candidate Steve Kubby challenged the Mayor to join with Mayor Ron Dellums of Oakland in denouncing the federal government's treachery. On Wednesday, the Mayor's spokesperson Nathan Ballard said, "The mayor is concerned that the DEA's actions will leave patients without their physician-recommended medical marijuana" Some SF Supervisors are concerned that this statement did not demonstrate enough leadership-- many measures would be needed to protect dispensaries from closure, and to assure patients' continued access to their medicine should the DEA's threatening letters lead to many dispensaries closing down. February 11th through 17th Was Medical Marijuana Week Mon Feb 11 2008 (Updated 03/03/08) National and Local Actions During Medical Marijuana Week To celebrate the growing support for medical cannabis and the spread of safe access in medical cannabis states throughout the nation, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) organized Medical Marijuana Week 2008. Medical Marijuana Week has taken place the last five years during the week of February 15th, or 2/15, to commemorate the passage of Proposition 215, California's medical cannabis law. Each day during the week, Americans for Safe Access announced opportunities to advance safe access to medical cannabis, through actions such as educating one's community, meeting with U.S. Senators, writing letters to the editor, and more. They reminded participants that wearing medical marijuana-related t-shirts, stickers, hats, bags, or sweatshirts can serve as icebreakers or ways to start talking about medical cannabis. Local events in the Bay Area included Sunday's Medical Marijuana University, as well as film screenings, a legal training on Tuesday evening in SF, a Valentine's Day seed planting at SF City Hall, and a photo/video shoot of patients' testimonials. On Friday evening, SF Patients' Cooperative hosted a Unity in the Community event to discuss starting a medical marijuana community center. On Saturday, Medical cannabis researcher Jahan Marcu spoke at a Los Angeles ASA meeting, while a civil disobedience training for emergency response was held in Oakland. On Sunday night, SF ASA hosted a party. The national daily actions included: Monday: Joining Americans for Safe Access, which is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Tuesday: "Meet Your Senators" On Tuesday and Wednesday during Medical Marijuana Week activists throughout the country "dropped in" on their U.S. Senators’ district offices to talk about supporting access for FDA-approved medical cannabis research. They hope that senators will sign on to the letter Senators Kennedy and Kerry are circulating to enable FDA-approved research. Wednesday: Put Pens to Paper for Research Participants wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers, calling on their Senators to support access for FDA-approved medical marijuana research. ASA says, "FDA-approved research is key to safe access nationwide." Thursday: Meet Your Match Patients nationwide have joined together to form condition-based unions to further promote medical cannabis research and advocate for safe access to medical cannabis through the Medical Marijuana Unions project. Friday: Meet the Movement and Get Organized On Thursday, ASA released its first ever National Field Report, which paints a comprehensive picture of the local, state, and national campaigns ASA’s chapters and affiliates work on and also highlights the 2007 accomplishments in the field. ASA hoped that on Friday, people would be inspired to found or join a chapter of the organization. Saturday and Sunday: Walk Your Talk On Saturday and Sunday, ASA suggested that participants download and print out a petition calling on their U.S. Senators to support access to materials for FDA-approved medical cannabis research. ASA has an interactive map, so that petitions could be addressed to participants' own U.S. Senators. Medical Marijuana Week announcement | San Francisco ASA's Medical Marijuana Week | Americans for Safe Access older stories >> From the Calendar: 7PM Monday Jul 7 Medical Marijuana Documentary "Waiting to Inhale" Free...

Publish your news Add an event article photo video audio Local News Global | Breaking Art contest sponsered by Union Of Medical Marijuana Providers James Shaw Thursday Jun 19th 2:48 AM Urgent: Medical marijuana resolution going before Calif. Senate MPP via list Wednesday Jun 18th 7:45 PM Measure K Commission Survivor Speaks Out 6 PM Thursday 6-12 on Free Radio Robert Norse Wednesday Jun 11th 10:06 PM The New Bad News for California About Blackwater repost Monday Jun 9th 4:48 PM ASA CA Weekly Alert 6-6-08 Americans for Safe Access Monday Jun 9th 4:16 PM Santa Cruz City Council Calls for Ending Colombia Military Aid, Support for Treatment Liza Smith (1 comment) Monday Jun 9th 3:53 PM Update on November initiatives repost from CA Sec of State Friday Jun 6th 3:14 PM Update: Mendo Measure B Election Results Not Final!!! No on Measure B (2 comments) Thursday Jun 5th 12:00 PM Mendo: Narrow Victory of Measure B Emboldens Pro-MJ Opponents CA NORML (1 comment) Wednesday Jun 4th 12:00 PM Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act has qualified for the November ballot! via list Tuesday Jun 3rd 1:18 PM Mendocino and the Marijuana Wars Christina Aanestad (3 comments) Friday May 30th 7:39 PM California Assembly Votes to Protect Medical Marijuana Patients' Right to Work Americans for Safe Access (2 comments) Wednesday May 28th 6:23 PM Activist Alert + Assembly Bill 2279 Passes and is on to Senate BPG and ASA Wednesday May 28th 4:12 PM DEA Raids Holistic Solutions in Clearlake, San Mateo, Richmond Statements from NORML and ASA (1 comment) Wednesday May 28th 3:52 PM Calif. medical marijuana vote imminent; call your Assembly member today! Marijuana Policy Project Tuesday May 27th 12:53 PM More Local News... Global News Local | Breaking Panama Supreme Court to Review US-Backed Drug Interdiction Program Okke Ornstein, NarcoNews (reposted) Tuesday Jun 17th 8:19 PM No to Blackwater on Border Gain Allies Peace Resource Center of San Diego Tuesday Jun 10th 11:56 AM Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities StopPlanMexico Sunday Jun 8th 3:05 PM TAKE ACTION: National Call-In to Repeal the Federal Ban on Syringe Exchange HRC via list Wednesday May 28th 6:43 PM Money Laundering & Murder in Colombia: Official Documents Point to DEA Complicity Bill Conroy, NarcoNews (reposted) Sunday May 18th 7:25 PM Act Now to Protect Medical Cannabis Patients: Support Needed for HR 5842 Americans for Safe Access (list) Thursday May 15th 6:06 PM Denied college financial aid for one joint? Marijuana Policy Project Wednesday May 14th 4:19 PM Obama speaks out on medical marijuana Marijuana Policy Project (4 comments) Monday May 12th 4:40 PM Rubin: Marines Stuck Protecting Opium in Helmand Informed Comment Global Affairs (reposted) Friday May 9th 6:24 AM Union of MMJ Providers to appeal rouge eviction ruling Union MMP via list Thursday May 8th 12:47 PM House Judiciary Chair Questions DEA Tactics Americans for Safe Access (1 comment) Monday May 5th 4:34 PM Minnesota medical marijuana bill under attack MPP (1 comment) Thursday May 1st 12:14 PM International Association for Cannabis as Medicine International Association for Cannabis as Med Monday Apr 28th 12:21 PM En defensa de la Hierba (Marijuana, Maconha, Haxixe, Cannabis, Ganja y etc). contranet Tuesday Apr 15th 8:22 PM Rubin: More Misleading Talking Points on Drugs in Afghanistan from UNODC, USG, etc. Informed Comment Global Affairs (reposted) Monday Apr 14th 8:01 AM More Global News... Other/Breaking News Local | Global Mexico's Massive Illegal weapons coming from China and the U.S. Michael Webster Investigative Reporter Sunday Jun 22nd 9:40 PM Colombian coca growth 'shocks' UN Al Jazeera (reposted) Friday Jun 20th 7:30 AM Jerry Brown to challenge court's ruling on medical marijuana LA Times repost Monday Jun 9th 7:46 PM The Grass-Roots Marijuana Wars Time Magazine repost Monday Jun 9th 4:59 PM Del Norte: Medical Marijuana Daily Triplicate repost (1 comment) Monday Jun 9th 1:07 PM Whos to Blame for Mexicos Narcoviolence NAM (reposted) Thursday Jun 5th 6:56 AM Mexico's War on Drugs is a Sham NAM (reposted) Wednesday Jun 4th 7:06 AM Mexican Drug War Rages On NPR (reposted) Tuesday Jun 3rd 6:47 AM ASA Undermines Axis of Love russell kyle (1 comment) Monday Jun 2nd 8:57 PM Mendo: flurry of anti-Measure B action reposts via CA NORML Monday Jun 2nd 7:14 PM Cloud of questions surrounds Mendo's Measure B, which would set new plant limits repost from SR Press Democrat Monday Jun 2nd 12:12 PM Woodland council hopeful is colorful – and committed to marijuana cause SacBee repost Thursday May 29th 11:16 AM Mexican Narcoviolence Spills into U.S. Elections NAM (reposted) Thursday May 29th 6:56 AM Feds conducting big pot raids in Oakland, rest of Bay Area Inside Bay Area repost (1 comment) Wednesday May 28th 2:39 PM Mexico drug-related killings soar BBC (reposted) Saturday May 24th 8:33 AM Open Newswire...

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Morons and rant radio are leading Americans over a cliff. Iraqi casualty photos (graphic). Casualty charts. Mideast peace comes when the USA forces Israel to accept a Palestinian state by temporarily withdrawing its aid and military alliance. See: Israel's apartheid system,  and the chart of Intifada_deaths.

Global Marijuana March.org Photos by year. Reports for all cities. 2008. 2007. 2006. 2005 wiki. Drug War stats, graphs.

New York Times: Length of sentences causes the huge U.S. inmate count that dwarfs other nations. 1920 to 2006.

The cure for fake democracy: Runoff and approval voting. Consecutive term limits. Binding paper ballot backups. Wikipedia: Elections. Don't be right, left, or a fracking moron in the center. Be INDEPENDENT!

Home. Popular pages. Site stats: 2008. 2007. 2006. 2005. Free sites! Forums. Search. Contact. Charts:

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Tools: FlashBlock. On-off button for Firefox. SyncBack. Free incremental backups to external hard drives.

Cheap renewable energy: Wiki. News. Solar: Cheap photovoltaic solar power is here now, when compared to the true cost of fossil fuels (with costs of subsidies, acid rain, pollution, healthcare, global warming). See world charts. U.S. "waste energy" (Cogeneration)  could supply 20% of electricity, but is blocked by Congress and utility companies.--NPR.

$720 million daily cost of Iraq War.

Click the above image for more info, and for simple code that you can cut and paste into the HTML of your website. See also this detailed counter explanation.

Click photo: Rachel Corrie. More photos.

Casualty counters. U.S. deaths. Iraq. U.S. aid to Israel. Moderates in Israel and Palestine could accept each other's right to exist. Or we could accept the self-fulfilling Armageddonist prophecies of fundamentalist meddlers from the USA and Iran. People in the Middle East do not want to be manipulated by evil morons like Bush.

  

U.S. police state: "At midyear 2005, nearly 4.7 percent of black males were in prison or jail, compared to 1.9 percent of Hispanic males, and 0.7 percent of white males. Among males in their late 20s, nearly 12 percent of black males, compared to 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males, were incarcerated" -BJS.

480+ cities: MMM [TopLink]

Latest MMM. More MMM: Wiki MMM. 2005 map. 2004 map. 2003 map. 2002 city list. 2001 city list. 2000 city list. 1999 city list. 480+ cities! MMM links. Cures-not-wars Yahoo Group. MMM contacts. Google MMM. Google 2. 2005 MMM: City list 2. Cities. No links. Detailed cities.

MMM images: By year. Photo gallery. Image links. Photo forum. 2004 Rosario. Leipzig photos. Google images. Google pics 2. Yahoo images. Yahoo pics 2. More posters. Freeware: Image editor. Web editors.

MMM reports: 2004. 165. 2003. 235. 2002. 199. 2002. More.

MMM forums. Cannabis Action Forums. World. Spanish events.

MMM cities. London, UK. Nimbin Australia Slovenia photos Japan 2001-4. 2004 MMM: Cape Town, SA San Francisco. Toronto Canada Warsaw Poland 2003 MMM: Buenos Aires. New Zealand.

Canada events: 2004 MMM. 2003 MMM. German MMM: English info: Swiss, Austria, Germany, etc. Leipzig 2003. German info: 2000-4 cities. 2003 cities. 2003 reports. 2003 reports 2.

[TopLink] Site Pages:

Images. Events. Hemp fairs. News. Translate. Driving and marijuana. Witch burning. Free submission of URLs to many search engines at once.

 

The majority of U.S. prisoners are there due to the drug war!

Jonathan Magbie. The brutal U.S. prison state continues via the institutional racism of both the drug war and cannabis/drug reformers. Universal healthcare and harm reduction are preferable. Holland's safe cannabis cafes. Also; safe prescription heroin/cocaine using the Swiss bureaucratic model of addict registration, counseling, and paperwork. It takes the attractive gangster glamour out of addictive hard drug use. People live long enough to quit on their own. Swiss property crime rates have plummeted where implemented. Healthcare, welfare,  workfare, and higher minimum wages cost less than prisons, courts, and police to control neighborhoods ruined by the drug trade. Many cops are against the drug war. Support LEAP.

The U.S. trains, equips, and finances racist drug-war death squads, as against the Akha in Thailand.

Abu Ghraib = racist Phoenix Program terror.

World sanctions against bigoted, U.S.-aided, Israeli occupation terror and apartheid will end the world war. No justice, no peace!

 

Stop corporatist Republicrat EVIL! The Texas Big Oil, Petrochemical-Pharmaceutical Complex! Racist Texas leads the world with 4.6% of Texas adults in prison or jail, or on probation or parole! "Nearly half a million people are now behind bars [in USA] for non-violent drug law violations -- that's more than all of Western Europe, with a larger population, incarcerates for everything!" - Drug Policy Alliance. Sept. 2003 mail. "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." ~ An anonymous analysis of Benito Mussolini's fascism in Italy. Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816: "I hope we shall.... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." - Corporatism quotes.

 

Most of the world's problems could be solved by lowering the Earth's population over time. One child per woman would achieve this. Nations with high population density (as in China, India, South Korea, Japan, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England) are experiencing severe problems.

In the meantime the citizens of most nations would do better, and be happier, if they had sustainable, livable economies with universal single-payer healthcare (which costs less due to preventive medicine), higher minimum wages (which lessens boom/bust cycles), and graduated taxation and lower overall taxes (recycles wealth without over-taxation).

Save U.S. soldiers' lives by withdrawing to a few big bases in Kurdistan and Kuwait where U.S. protection is welcome. This will also protect the world's oil supplies, and lower tensions greatly. Let Iraqis run Iraq.

"The most recent evidence comes from autopsies of 44 prisoners who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in U.S. custody. Most died under circumstances that suggest torture. The reports use words like 'strangulation,' 'asphyxiation' and 'blunt force injuries.' ...  A few months before the [Abu Ghraib] scandal broke [spring 2004], Coalition Provisional Authority polls showed Iraqi support at 63 percent. A month after Abu Ghraib, the number was 9 percent. Polls showed that 71 percent of Iraqis were surprised by the revelations." -Newsweek, Nov. 14, 2005, page 36.

Axis of EVIL: USA, Israel, and Iran are wannabe theocracies. U.S. drug-war ads say drugs fund terrorism. The truth is that people like EVIL Texan, Armageddonist, George W. Bush support the funding and arming of EVIL fundamentalist Israeli settler expansion, terrorism, land theft, and murder of people like American Rachel Corrie (photo higher up) in Gaza and the West Bank in occupied Palestine. It is an EVIL Bush-led, fundamentalist, U.S. Death Cult of Big Oil! Working with hate radio, hate TV, and the disinfo of EVIL moron pundits at Fox News and much of corporatist Big Media.

 

With less than 5% of world population; USA has over 2.3 million of 9 million world prisoners!

Greens worldwide against Drug War. News, platforms, charts. Also, Ralph Nader news. Stopping the Racist-Republicrat prison state. Green Party drug reform candidates, positions, etc. worldwide. Cannabis, marijuana, drugs, harm reduction. Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products." -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.

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*Table of Contents. After text loads, click topics below to find page info. Click TopLink, back button, or HomeKey to return here fast. *Intro and electoral systems worldwide. *Latest links to be found. Worldwide. *More links. Worldwide. *November 2000 election in USA. Ralph Nader on drug war, hemp, corporate prison industry. Mendocino County. *Green drug war platforms worldwide. *Universal healthcare, harm reduction, drug reform. *DrugNews search shortcuts. For Green Party, cannabis, drug war, etc.. *Drug War CHART Example. And links to more.

Search: This site. Site mirror. The web. Marijuana Policy Project. Indymedia.org sites, cities. Cops versus Drug War. LEAPDeutsche Welle. Akha.org ~ Thailand drug war. Der Spiegel. NarcoNews. Latin America. NarcoSphere. Subdomain. The Guardian (UK). TruthOut.org news archive. CommonDreams.org archive. Pot-TV.net CannabisCulture.com Drug War Chronicle. DRCNet. CannabisNews.com MAP. Also, DrugNews.org DrugLibrary.org DrugText.org Erowid.org ~ Psychoactives. Lycaeum.org ~ Entheogens. MAPS. Psychedelic Studies. Psychedelic-Library.org Yahooka.com directory. for:

 

Intro. Electoral systems worldwide. [TopLink]

For info on John Kerry, election 2004, and voting strategies in 2004:
http://corporatism.tripod.com/kerry.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/kerry.htm


*Electoral systems worldwide, and drug reform. Voting systems. Majoritarian systems. Single transferable vote (preference or choice voting). Instant Runoff Voting. Ranking candidates. Approval voting. Cumulative voting. Multiple run-offs. Electoral college. Plurality representation (first past the post). Majority representation (two round system). Block vote. Alternative vote. Parallel (semi-proportional) representation. List proportional representation. Mixed member proportional representation. Single transferable vote (preference or choice voting). Voting equipment, machines. Direct democracy. Consensus. Modified consensus. For info on all of this:
http://corporatism.tripod.com/voting.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/voting.htm

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Latest links to be found. Worldwide. [TopLink]

*Green Parties Worldwide.
http://www.greens.org

*alt.politics.greens is a Usenet newsgroup about the Greens. Worldwide. PUBLIC archive and latest messages:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=alt.politics.greens

*2004 NORML and MPP.org voter guides and report cards for presidential candidates.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5895 and
http://www.mpp.org/candidates/guide

*2004. October 24. Nader Urges Bush to Grant Clemency for Non-Violent Drug Offenders.
http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=317

*2004. War on Drugs -- Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights - Nader for President 2004. [Emphasis added].
"An End to the War on Drugs — Responsible & Rehabilitation Focused Drug Policy. The drug war has failed – we spend nearly $50 billion annually on the drug war and problems related to drug abuse continue to worsen. We need to acknowledge that drug abuse is a health problem with social and economic consequences. Therefore, the solutions are – public health, social services and economic development and tender supportive time with addicts in our depersonalized society. Law enforcement should be at the edges of drug control not at the center. It is time to bring some illegal drugs within the law by regulating, taxing and controlling them. Ending the drug war will dramatically reduce street crime, violence and homicides related to underground drug dealing."
A DRCnet interview with Ralph Nader in 2004 goes into great detail on all the above:
http://www.votenader.org/issues/index.php?cid=21

*2004. Hemp Issues -- Environment - Nader for President 2004.
http://www.votenader.org/issues/index.php?cid=30

*10-2001. 500 hear Ralph Nader speak at Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) convention during weekend of November 10-11, 2001 in Washington DC. 
http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/11965/ and
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/211/newgeneration.shtml and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drugwarnews/message/774

Quote from article on SSDP convention begins [Emphasis added]:
And, demonstrating that interest in drug policy reform transcends traditional ideological lines, the conference's other big attraction was Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who urged students to have stamina and resiliency in what could be a long, hard battle. "We need to develop new words and new language to describe what's happening," said Nader. "Can you say institutionalized insanity?"

"It was incredibly cool that Nader came," said SSDP member Jennifer Landis. "He lends legitimacy to the movement." He also drew a crowd. According to Heller, some 500 people paid $5 (student) or $10 (general admission) to hear Nader's address at the downtown Marriott Hotel. [Quote ends.]

*2000. Ralph Nader on Drugs. From an election 2000 page:
http://www.issues2000.org/Ralph_Nader_Drugs.htm

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MORE LINKS. Worldwide. [TopLink]

*DRUG WAR. GreenInformation.com
http://www.greeninformation.com/DRUGWAR.htm

*4-1999. US CA: A Big Green Upset. Audie Bock, the first Green to win a state legislature seat in the USA. "even though this will probably get me into trouble," she wants marijuana legalized. She won a state office seat from the Bay Area in California. April 1999.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n395/a09.html

*7-2000. Germany. Greens, Social Democrats, Socialists. For medical cannabis in Bundestag. IACM-Bulletin of 9 July 2000.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27752

*12-1999. The Greening Of NEW ZEALAND. Jeanette Fitzsimons's victory. "Drug abuse is a social and public health problem, not a legal one... possession and cultivation of small amounts of cannabis for personal use should be decriminalised."
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1332/a01.html?397

*8-1999. Stalking Rudy and Hillary: Al 'Grandpa Munster' Lewis Interview. He's a Green Party candidate for Senate. "Over two million people are in gulags ...write to Al Lewis, WBAI, 120 Wall Street, NY, NY 10005. These people are being buried alive." WORLDWIDE loco-weed travels!!
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/new/9908/grandpa.html

*MAP/DrugNews press archives search SHORTCUT for Green cannabis press worldwide. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top. Most of the press is from outside the USA, since "cannabis" is the term for marijuana in many nations outside the USA.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis&YY1=1997

*4-2000. A16. Over 600 arrests of A16 activists at the 2-million-inmates, prison-industrial-complex rally April 15, 2000 in Washington D.C. 600 arrests of A16 activists at the 2-million-inmates, prison-industrial-complex rally April 15, 2000 in Washington D.C. Many Greens involved. A section of the web page below. CLICK!
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/links.htm#16

*World drug reform. POWER LINKS. INTERNATIONAL. Saner Cannabis and Drug Policies worldwide. Harm reduction examples. Universal healthcare is available in many of these nations that use a public health and harm reduction approach to drugs. Compilation of many world press articles. In chronological order. Many with Green Party info, too.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/power.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/power.htm

-------------------------------------------

Greens and NOVEMBER 2000 ELECTION in USA. [TopLink]

Feel free to copy and distribute this section, or the whole web page.

RALPH NADER on drug war, cannabis, hemp, corporate prison industry, etc.. Mendocino County ballot initiative, etc.. LATEST LINKS ON TOP. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/greens.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm

If you are viewing this from somewhere (forum, message board, email list archive, IndyMedia site, etc..) other than a source web page, and can't see the photos, then click the source links just above. The source web page shows the photos, and the latest revisions..

*11-2000. Nader still against drug war after the election. Remarks at the National Press Club November 8, 2000, the day after the U.S. presidential election. "We believe that there are many people in both parties who agree with us that the drug war is a colossal costly failure that has filled our jails with non-violent crimes."
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x31650 and
http://www.egroups.com/message/drugwarnews/571

*11-2000. EarthFilms.org - Striptease To Save The Trees! Chanting poetry which exhorted them to respect the "naked, sacred" body of the earth, Mendocino performance artist "La Tigresa" (aka Dona Nieto) performed excerpts from her one-woman show "Who Says A Stripper Can't Save The World?" before startled eyes, and halted bulldozers of a Fortuna -based logging crew on Branscomb Road. La Tigresa is part of the "Goddess Squadess", a nonviolent art attack consisting of "Nude Guerilla Poetry" and "Strip Tease To Save The Trees!" and other surprises to come. Such as the "Bare Witch Project."
http://earthfilms.org/strip.html

*11-2000. Mendocino County First in US To Decriminalize Marijuana.. "By a 58-42 margin Tuesday, Mendocino County voters approved a measure to decriminalize personal use of marijuana, a first in the United States. The Green Party-sponsored Measure G ran strong in every area of the county, ... The marijuana measure, which has attracted national attention, would allow individuals to grow and harvest up to 25 plants. Sale and transportation of marijuana still would be illegal."
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7593.shtml

*11-2000. Mendocino Measure G: marijuana initiative. Text of ballot initiative that voters passed November 7, 2000 in Mendocino County, in northern California.
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/lawlibrary/measureg.htm

*11-2000. Life As Usual in Emerald Triangle. "Mendocino County, home to 86,000 people and part of the state's fabled 'Emerald Triangle,' is linked to the controversial plant as surely as its vineyards yield world-class wines. ... voters here last week heartily embraced a measure that allows anyone in the county to grow as many as 25 full-grown marijuana plants or possess the dried equivalent. The first law of its kind nationwide, ...'This is a powerful political statement on marijuana by a Northern California county,' said Hamburg, 52, who lives in Ukiah and is a member of the Green Party committee that put Measure G on the ballot. Hamburg, a former Democratic congressman and the state's Green Party gubernatorial candidate two years ago, said he expects similar measures on other county ballots and possibly even a statewide initiative."
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7643.shtml

*MAP/DrugNews press archives search SHORTCUT for Mendocino. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=mendocino&YY1=1997

*CannabisNews.com press archives search SHORTCUT for Mendocino.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=mendocino

*MAP/DrugNews press archives search SHORTCUT for Ralph Nader. The press articles are pulled up in chronological order with the latest articles on top.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader&YY1=1997

*CannabisNews.com press archives search SHORTCUT for Ralph Nader.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=nader

*10-2000. 15,000 Help Nader 'Rock the Garden.' "Tim Robbins, came out draped in an American flag in a wheelchair playing Bob Roberts, a fictional right-wing politician from his movie of the same name, and sang a satirical song called 'Drugs Stink.' ... Singer Ani DiFranco played what she called 'a little ditty about the drug war.' "
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9933 and
http://www.workingforchange.com/news/article.cfm?ItemId=8294

*10-2000. About 13,500 supporters pack a sold-out Madison Square Garden at a rally for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in New York on Friday, Oct. 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Ed Betz). - Oct 13 10:53 PM ET.

*10-2000. MTV.com. Vedder, DiFranco, More Play For Nader In NYC. Madison Square Garden, Friday, October 13, 2000. Article with photos and music video-clips of Eddie Vedder (of musical group Pearl Jam), Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper. Click photos to start RealVideo clips. "In his speech, Nader condemned the concentration of corporate power, advocated ending the war against drugs, ... Actor Tim Robbins brought a touch of humor to the event, taking the stage in the guise of the arch-conservative, folk-singing title character of his 1992 film 'Bob Roberts.' 'It's my honor to be at this rally to support George W. Bush,' Robbins said, taking in the crowd's boos before launching earnestly into anti-drug and pro-Wall Street folk songs."

*10-2000. Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, left, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, right, laugh as they listen to Phil Donahue speak at a press conference before a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Friday, Oct. 13, 2000. (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin). - Oct 13 8:12 PM ET.

*10-2000. Salon.com Politics | Nader packs 'em in at the Garden. "He [Phil Donahue] brought up a few of the central issues of the night: the need for universal healthcare, the evils of corporate mergers and the failed war on drugs. 'If you fall while ice skating, you're covered in Canada because you're Canadian. Ask Canadians if they want to swap with us,' he said. ... And, he said, 'Ralph Nader wants to end the rootin' tootin' Wild West of the war on drugs.' "
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/14/nader/index.html

*10-2000. CNN.com - Loyal Nader fans pack Madison Square Garden. Friday, October 13, 2000. "Speakers assailed Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore as ideologically similar candidates in the pocket of corporate America. They said the two have similar views on trade, foreign policy and the war on drugs." Article with photos.
http://www..cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/10/14/nader.ap/index.html

*10-2000. NYC-IMC radio > Keepin' it real on the streets and in the studio since 2000. Go to the section called "Ralph Nader 'Super-Rally' at Madison Square Garden, New York City - October 13, 2000." Many audio clips of music and speeches archived at New York City Independent Media Center.
http://www.nyc.indymedia.org

*10-2000. New York City IndyMedia site. Lots of articles, audio, and photos of the October 13, 2000, Ralph Nader, Super-Rally at Madison Square Garden. Also some video. Here is a Google search shortcut:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:nyc.indymedia.org+nader+madison+square+garden

10-2000. Rob Lowe, left, host of "Saturday Night Live," rehearses a sketch with Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the show's set Saturday, Oct. 7, 2000, in New York. In the sketch, Nader is asking why he wasn't allowed to be in the "debate sketch," a sketch which preceded this sketch. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Nader has not been allowed to participate in debates with presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. Photo by NBC, Mary Ellen Matthews (AP).

*10-2000. Hey eco! Nader did a skit on SNL & mentioned Pot. Saturday Night Live season premiere October 7, 2000. "Ralph Nader did a skit with Rob Lowe and he said in his mind that maybe I should tell him I want to legalize pot when I become president." -as reported by FoM of CannabisNews.com fame.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x30496

*10-2000. Nader Alert on drug war, death penalty, prison industrial complex. October 2, 2000 Action Alert from the Nader 2000 Campaign email list.
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/nader.htm

*9-2000. Nader Tells Corporations to Get Out of the Prison Industry. September 27, 2000 at rally in Youngstown, Ohio. Nader on the prison industrial complex.
http://www.egroups..com/message/drugwarnews/529

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews SEARCH SHORTCUT for many press articles about RALPH NADER's September 8, 2000 press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he called for legalizing cannabis/marijuana, and for harm reduction drug reform. Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products. " -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+johnson+santa&YY1=1997

*9-2000. US: Nader Says Decriminalize Marijuana. Long article. "Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, joining Republican Gov. Gary Johnson in criticizing the nation's war on drugs, called Friday for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Johnson has made waves politically for more than a year by advocating the legalization of marijuana and heroin. However, he has since dropped his support for making it legal to use heroin because it proved too controversial. He is the nation's highest-ranking elected official to publicly support drug legalization. ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products." -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread6977.shtml and
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a06.html

*9-2000. Nader favors legalizing marijuana. "Nader on Friday [September 8, 2000] advocated the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... 'Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem,' Nader said at a news conference where he was flanked by the GOP governor. 'We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. We do not send nicotine users to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are non-violent drug users.' Nader -- like Johnson -- supports lifting criminal sanctions for marijuana possession. For other drugs, such as heroin, he advocated 'harm reduction' programs, ..." Short AP story was posted in various newspapers. For example:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a02.html?34290 -AP
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1339/a02.html?34296 -press
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1343/a01.html?34296 -press

*9-2000. Johnson Joins Nader In Decrying Drug Laws. Long article. "... criticizing the nation's war on drugs, calling for the legalization of marijuana and reform of what Nader calls 'self-defeating and antiquated' drug laws. 'Addiction, no matter what kind of addiction, should not be criminalized,' Nader said at a news conference [on September 8, 2000]." -Santa Fe New Mexican, September 9, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1345/a05.html

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader and Nader 2000 campaign staff member Stacy Malkan, talk during a news conference in Washington, Tuesday Sept. 5, 2000, where Nader criticized a Drug Enforcement Administration plan to ban hemp foods. Photo by Rick Bowmer (AP).

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews SEARCH SHORTCUT for press articles about RALPH NADER's September 5, 2000 press conference about HEMP.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+hemp+dakota&YY1=1997

*8-2000. August 2, 2000. Philadelphia Youth Conference, Question and Answer with Ralph Nader. Drugs section excerpted after the link URL.
http://votenader.org/press/000802PhillyYouthTranscript.htm [URL no longer works]

Drugs

The cost of imprisoning one person each year totals $23,000, whereas the cost for treatment in a methadone rehabilitation clinic totals only $4000. Yet, most alarming is the percentage of minorities in prison. The US is comprised of 75% Caucasian, nearly 75% of the prison population may be categorized as minority. Mr. Nader, our goal is to help facilitate people with drug abuse problems to take control become a positive part of the community. Funding must be reallocated to rehabilitation centers across the country. Our first solution is to recall the laws governing mandatory minimum drug sentencing that wastes monetary resources and destroys communities. How do you feel about this, Mr. Nader?

Nader: Agreed. You have to treat individual's injustices as individuals. Our second solution is to decrease prison funding and increase funding for drug rehabilitation. You don't treat nicotine addicts as criminals; you don't treat alcoholics in this country as criminals. Why are you treating drug addicts as criminals instead of treating them as patients bringing all the problems up to the surface so we can treat them? Instead, we are criminalizing the problem, we are militarizing the problem and we are wasting tens of billions of dollars on policies that are failing. The war on drugs has got no standard of failure attached to it. There is no way of telling that their policies are failing. And by the way, always distinguish between pharmaceutical drugs and street drugs. There are a lot of young people in this country that are over medicated and over drugged. [end of drugs section excerpt]

*6-2000. In his June 25 2000 acceptance speech, Ralph Nader elaborated beyond the written statement. On the drug issue, Nader asked of the Drug Enforcement Agency: "What standard of failure would you apply before we can go back to the table (to discuss drug policy)?"
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread6549.shtml

*6-2000. Ralph Nader acceptance statement. Drug war quotes pulled to the top. Hemp, too. June 25, 2000 Green Party presidential nomination acceptance statement. Nader condemns drug war, corporate prison industry, racist criminal justice system, and hemp prohibition.
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27673 and
http://www.egroups.com/message/drugwarnews/382

"At home our criminal justice system, being increasingly driven by the corporate prison industry that wants ever more customers, grossly discriminates against minorities and is greatly distorted by the extremely expensive and failed war on drugs." ...

"In Hawaii, we visited one of the only two plots in the United States (the other is on the Pine Ridge Reservation) legally permitted to grow industrial hemp, that 5000 year old, versatile plant with thousands of uses, including textiles, fuel, food and paper. A fraction of an acre was surrounded by barbed wire fence, saturation night lights inside a larger fenced area. This medieval experience brought home once again that for the sake of farmers, the environment, consumers and energy independence, it is necessary to free industrial hemp from the proscribed list of U.S. Drug and Enforcement Agency."

*C-SPAN. Campaign 2000. RALPH NADER. Speeches and interviews. VIDEOS. Green Party presidential nominee. One needs to install RealPlayer first. Using RealPlayer one can move forward or backward in the videos almost instantly. C-SPAN also has a search engine available for the whole site, including the video transcripts.
http://www.c-span.org/campaign2000/naderspeeches.asp

*6-2000. TODAY Nader on CSPAN 930PM ET. Drug war, hemp, Greens. etc.. Today's Healing Herb Show: Special Update. Vivian McPeak: "he's talking about the drug war, hemp, etc." Renee Boje: "Tom Ballanco, the lawyer for Peter McWilliams, BE Smith, Woody Harrelson & Julia Butterfly Hill will also be joining us tonight on the Healing Herb Hour..."
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/message.shtml?1x27214

*Greens. Drug War Platforms Worldwide. Also some info from Usenet messages by a web page compiler of Green Party platform links. Links, processes, history, and sources for Green platform positions on drug war, drug reform, harm reduction, hemp, cannabis, marijuana, legalization, decriminalization, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/platforms.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/platforms.htm

*Green Party platforms.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Green+Party+platforms

*Association of State Green Parties. This is Ralph Nader's 2000 platform.
http://www.gp.org/platform_index.html

Question: Do you think that cigarettes should be illegal?
Ralph Nader: No. You never prohibit an addiction because what you do is you drive it underground and a huge black market occurs. What you do with an addiction is expose the addicters to massive information, protect them from deceptive advertising, protect the young from being sold such [things] as tobacco products. Keep the research up to make whatever tobacco is consumed less lethal in terms of nicotine and other levels and increasingly make it socially stigmatized so that people often will stop smoking or won't smoke, not because it's bad for their health, but because it's no longer the thing to do. When I was in college, non-smokers were on the defensive. The smokers would blow smoke derisively in non-smokers faces. You'd never see that today.
--Source: David Frost interview Oct 21, 1994.

-----------------------------------

Green Party PLATFORMS. Links. Excerpts on cannabis, drug war, prisons, etc.. [TopLink]

*Greens. Drug War Platforms Worldwide. Also some info from Usenet messages by a web page compiler of Green Party platform links. Links, processes, history, and sources for Green platform positions on drug war, drug reform, harm reduction, hemp, cannabis, marijuana, legalization, decriminalization, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/platforms.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/platforms.htm

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Universal healthcare, harm reduction, drug reform. [TopLink]

The insane worldwide drug war, the prison-industrial complex, and the CIA's (and others') far-right, drug-funded, covert operation, death squad network worldwide is being dismantled outside the USA mainly through HARM REDUCTION drug reform, often led by Greens. This has been occurring mainly in Western Europe and is spreading to other Western industrialized nations such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

*Universal healthcare. CHARTS. It is very helpful to a harm reduction drug policy. Cheaper, more effective, public health alternatives to expensive, oppressive, insane U.S.-style, drug wars worldwide. Sanity versus public hysteria, prisons, propaganda, and death squads. Healthcare costs by nation, per person, as a percentage of GDP, etc..
http://corporatism.tripod.com/universal.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm

Fighting the separate and growing power of the corporate prison industrial complex. I pledge allegiance to Wackenhut. Republicans actually like the idea of privatizing prisons.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling power. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."
-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (One Thousand Americans, George Seldes, page 5.)
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas3.htm

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." ~ An anonymous analysis of Benito Mussolini's fascism in Italy.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/texas.htm Texas is an evil fundamentalist example today. ;)

"The only difference between Bush and Gore is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock at the door."
--Ralph Nader (Green Party presidential candidate. Election year 2000 quote).

Prison is being less and less used, especially for soft drugs. Drug maintenance, voluntary treatment, and/or mandatory treatment outside prison is being implemented for hard drugs. Prison is used less and less for all drug users, or not at all. Crime due to drugs is much lowered in the regions affected. Drunk driving, deaths due to driving while intoxicated, domestic violence due to alcohol, etc. are all drug harms that are being lowered through more targeted education and laws. Germany has drastically reduced drunk driving and driving-while-intoxicated deaths. By much lower blood alcohol limits, and loss of driver's license for a period of time depending on the level of blood alcohol.

Europe is exposing death squad groups in Latin America (some are drug-funded) and death squad leaders new and old (such as Chile's U.S.-supported ex-president and mass-murderer Augusto Pinochet). The latest "Plan Colombia" military and death-squad approach to the drug war has been strongly opposed by European governments.

*9-2000. Europe Leading The Way To Smarter Drug Laws. One of the most thorough and understandable histories of harm reduction drug reform in one article. (Canadian newspaper article from the Ottawa Citizen).
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread7039.shtml

Nearly all Western nations other than the USA have universal healthcare. It allows much more comprehensive care of drug users who desire help. It is essential for in-depth harm reduction drug reform, since many drug users can't afford the healthcare help they desire and/or need.

The USA ranks badly when compared against other Western industrialized nations concerning infant mortality rates, life expectancy, child poverty rates, etc.. Yet the USA spends far more yearly per capita per person for total, combined, private and public, healthcare expenditures. Much money in the USA is wasted on paperwork, overly priced drugs, and for care that is given far too late and when it is most expensive. Over 70,000 (mostly untested and unsafe) chemicals saturate the air, food, water, workplace, homes, etc. in the USA.
 

Total taxes. By nation. International comparisons. Americans pay more per person for healthcare and taxes than people in many other nations. The USA prefers to imprison its population rather than provide universal healthcare and a safety net.
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/taxes.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/taxes.htm

*Nader Calls for Single-Payer Health Care System. July 29, 2000. "Ralph Nader today called for a universal health care system in the U. S. which would be similar to the single-payer system in Canada. Nader noted that in the U. S. 24 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to administrative costs compared to 11 cents in Canada. He said the difference could go a long way in covering the 47 million Americans who now have no health insurance."
http://www.votenader.org/press/000729SinglePay.html and
http://www.votenader.org/press/000827healthcare.html

In the USA: Centrist, leftist, Green, European, and other harm reduction voices for drug reform are mostly kept out of the censored U.S. news.

Discussion of drug policy in the US mainstream corporate media has been (until recently) dominated for the most part by fanatical Republicans. Rabidly-rightist Republicans (supported by the far-right National Rifle Association), "law-and-order," drug warriors want ever-longer prison sentences. 

Harm reduction drug reform is a cheaper 'THIRD WAY" alternative that is working NOW. Republicans fanatically opposes such compromise, gradualism, harm reduction based on universal healthcare, the safety net, etc.. 

Major stockholders of most big mainstream news corporations are rich. Therefore most of them are Republican or on the far-right.

STATEMENT OF RALPH NADER ON MEDIA CONCENTRATION AND BIAS.
http://dc.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=4206

The government wastes an incredible amount money. Agreed. It wastes it in the areas Republicans approve of. 
What is important are spending PRIORITIES, and keeping total taxes as a percent of the economy lower than it is now. Priorities such as the safety net and universal healthcare-based harm reduction drug reform.

The USA spends ONE-HALF of ALL the world's military spending. NATO nations other than the USA should be taking on MUCH more of the West's share of military spending.
Charity will never cover the needs of the safety net and universal healthcare-based harm reduction drug reform. So this is an obvious area where government needs to do what people can't do for themselves. This happens to be the exact logic used by Republican ideologues for military and police spending. They are areas where doing it via the private sector just wouldn't be practical or feasible.

Police and court and prison money have become the new safety net. "3 hots and a cot" in a prison cell. With free (unwanted) sex via regular prison rape.
Universal healthcare is cheaper than healthcare for the few. Amazing but true. A real safety net is cheaper than prisons and courts and police. Amazing but true.
Green Harm reduction drug reform is cheaper than prisons and courts and police. Amazing but true.

To explore working alternatives to this rightist drug policy insanity in the USA media, see:

*Politics 101. Big Tent Revival of Harm Reduction, Drug Reform. Comparison of cannabis, marijuana, and drug war views of Greens, Libertarians, NRA, Democrats, Republicans, Republicrats, socialists, liberals, conservatives, fundamentalists, racists, etc.. Worldwide. Ideology, electoral systems, platforms, banners, charts, and more.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/politics101.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/politics101.htm

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MAP/DrugNews press archive. SEARCH SHORTCUTS. [TopLink]

This section is from this web page:

*Search Drug War and more. Shortcuts. Search engines. Directories. Press archives. Search forms.
http://corporatism.tripod.com/search.htm and
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/search.htm

-----------------------------------

SEARCH SHORTCUTS. For Green Party, cannabis, etc.. Some custom MAP search shortcuts.

*9-2000. MAP/DrugNews SEARCH SHORTCUT for many press articles about RALPH NADER's September 8, 2000 press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he called for legalizing cannabis/marijuana, and for harm reduction drug reform. Ralph Nader "called for the legalization of marijuana as part of an overhaul of the nation's 'self-defeating and antiquated drug laws.' ... Legalizing marijuana, Nader said, would allow the government to regulate and potentially tax its use like tobacco products. " -Albuquerque Journal, September 8, 2000.
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=nader+johnson+santa&YY1=2000

http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader and
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis

http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=ralph+nader&YY1=1997 and
http://www.mapinc.org/find?BK=green+party+cannabis&YY1=1997

http://www.mapinc.org/author/ralph+nader and
http://www.mapinc.org/author/ralph+nader&YY1=1997 and

--------------------------------------------

A Drug War CHART. And links to more. [TopLink]

*Charts. Drug war and more. Incarceration, murder rates, poverty, healthcare costs worldwide, minimum wages, drug arrests, drug use, overdose deaths, prison costs, ethnic breakdowns, total taxes, average sentences, total inmates, etc.. New and old chart pages. All chart pages on this website. Plus links to charts offsite. Chart formats and their uses explained. The latest chart versions are usually found by going to the "mirror" links listed with a chart. Quick links to many charts. With short descriptions. Mirror pages: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/chartsfocus.htm and http://corporatism.tripod.com/chartsfocus.htm

[TopLink]

USA. Almost 7.1 million adults were under correctional supervision (jail, prison, parole, probation) at yearend 2005. That's 1 in 32 adults, or almost 3.2% of the USA's total adult population. At yearend 2003 TEXAS led with 4.6% of its adults. See end of chart.

_______________________________________________________ ______Probation__Jail_______Prison___Parole___Total____ _______________________________________________________ 1975_________________________________143,164___________ 1976_________________________________147,539___________ 1977____816,525_____________285,486__173,632___________ 1978____899,305__158,394____294,396__177,847__1,529,900 1979__1,080,385_____________301,470__217,697___________ 1980__1,118,097__183,988____319,598__220,438__1,842,100 1981__1,225,934__196,785____360,029__225,539__2,008,300 1982__1,357,264__209,582____402,914__224,604__2,194,400 1983__1,582,947__223,551____423,898__246,440__2,476,800 1984__1,740,948__234,500____448,264__266,992__2,690,700 1985__1,968,712__256,615____487,593__300,203__3,013,100 1986__2,114,621__274,444____526,436__325,638__3,241,100 1987__2,247,158__295,873____562,814__355,505__3,461,400 1988__2, 356,483__343,569____607,766__407,977__3,715,800 1989__2,522,125__395,553____683,367__456,803__4,057,800 1990__2,670,234__405,320____743,382__531,407__4,350,300 1991__2,728,472__426,479____792,535__590,442__4,537,900 1992__2,811,611__444,584____850,566__658,601__4,765,400 1993__2,903,061__459,804____909,381__676,100__4,948,300 1994__2,981,022__486,474____990,147__690,371__5,148,000 1995__3,077,861__507,044__1,078,542__679,421__5,342,900 1996__3,164,996__518,492__1,127,528__679,733__5,490,700 1997__3,296,513__567,079__1,176,564__694,787__5,734,900 1998__3,670,441__592,462__1,224,469__696,385__6,134,200 1999__3,779,922__605,943__1,287,172__714,457__6,340,800 2000__3,826,209__621,149__1,316,333__723,898__6,445,100 2001__3,931,731__631,240__1,330,007__732,333__6,581,700 2002__4,024,067__665,475__1,367,547__750,934__6,758,800 2003__4,120,012__691,301__1,390,279__769,925__6,924,500 2004__4,143,466__713,990__1,421 ,911__771,852__6,995,300 2005__4,162,536__747,529__1,446,269__784,408__7,056,000 _______________________________________________________ ______Probation__Jail_____Prison_____Parole___Total____ _______________________________________________________ The_Courier_New_font_lines_up_the_columns._____________

Yearly totals are rounded off to nearest hundred. There are state and federal prisons. Jails are local and county lockups.

http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/correct.htm mirror page. http://corporatism.tripod.com/correct.htm mirror page. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/corr2.htm and http://corporatism.tripod.com/rates.htm and http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/ratesusa.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ppus05.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/pripropr.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ppus05.pdf and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pjim05.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/pjim05pr.htm and http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbprint.html Population. Adult: http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/latestpopcounts.htm http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/ppus03pr.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ppus03.htm -2003 state rates. http://www.ojp..usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/sheets/ppus03.zip -Spreadsheets. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ppus03.pdf -See Table 8. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/ppus03.txt ___

Use the free Adobe Reader for the pdf files. Unzip the spreadsheets and then use MS Excel, etc.. Quote from the 2 links just above. Emphasis added: "Texas led the Nation at yearend 2003 with 4,609 adults under correctional supervision per 100,000 adult State residents, followed by Washington  State (4,350), and Delaware (4,235) (table 8)." That's 4.6% of Texas adults imprisoned, on probation, or on parole! Calculations from Table 8 show that 1337 Texas adults out of 100,000 are in prison or jail. That's 1.34% of Texas adults imprisoned!

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[TopLink]
 

Public Domain. Copy freely. Any parts, or all parts, of the pages, messages, charts, or images. Whether for commercial or non-commercial use. Use anywhere. No permission needed. Not copyrighted. It is free to email, forward, use, alter, copy, edit, incorporate, change, paste, or distribute in any way. Create free web pages, too. There are free web page hosts, free text and email editors, free easy-to-use HTML web page editors, free image editors, free tutorials, and free how-to forums, etc.. There is cheap internet access. There are cheap PCs. For much info on creating free web pages, blogs, etc., click: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/webpages.htm and http://corporatism.tripod.com/webpages.htm

This page was last revised Thursday, February 14, 2008 08:28 AM -0500. This page is at
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm and
http://corporatism.tripod.com/greens.htm

David Hadorn, M.D., Ph.D., wrote in his July 17, document "Use of Cannabis Medicines in Clinical Practice":

"As a physician, I am concerned that a very large number of patients with chronic pain are receiving inadequate treatment, in part because physician's therapeutic options have largely been limited to opiate-based analgesics and a handful of ancillary drugs, such as anti-epileptics and anti-depressants.

Scientists have known for many years that cannabinoids (the major active ingredients in cannabis medicines) are potent pain relievers, and that they act synergistically with opiates to increase the degree of pain relief. The addition of cannabis medicines to therapeutic regimens can reduce the need for opiates by 50 percent or more in many patients (while also reducing side effects such as constipation that opiates commonly produce)."
July 17, 2003 David Hadorn

Denis Petro, M.D. wrote in his 1997 paper "Spasticity and Chronic Pain" published in the 1997 book Cannabis in Medical Practice - A Legal, Historical and Pharmacological Overview of the Therapeutic Use of Marijuana:

"The evidence in support of cannabis as a treatment for pain exists both in preclinical animal studies and in a small number of clinical trials. Since cannabis contains many active cannabinoids in varying amounts in differing plants, a coherent recommendation concerning use against pain symptoms is lacking....

Considering the alternative of addicting drugs such as the opiate analgesics, patients may opt for the relative safety of cannabis.

Fatal overdose continues to be a significant problem with opiates. The absence of any fatalities associated with cannabis remains an astonishing fact. The safety profile of cannabis is such as to allow the clinician to consider this treatment option in selected cases, such as cancer and severe chronic pain with manifestations such as depression, weight loss, or intolerance of opiates."
1997 Denis Petro

 

Rheumatology reported in a January 2006 article "Preliminary Assessment of The Efficacy, Tolerability and Safety of A Cannabis-based Medicine (Sativex) in The Treatment of Pain Caused By Rheumatoid Arthritis," (Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 50-52) by D.R. Blake et al.:

"In comparison with placebo, the CBM [cannabis-based medicine] produced statistically significant improvements in pain on movement, pain at rest, quality of sleep....

In the first ever controlled trial of a CBM in RA [rheumatoid arthritis], a significant analgesic effect was observed and disease activity was significantly suppressed following Sativex treatment."
(January 2006) Rheumatology

---

The Journal of Neuroimmunology states in their September 2005 article "Cannabinoids and the Immune System: Potential For The Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases?" by J. Ludovic and Takashi Yamamura (Vol. 166, Issues 1-2, pp. 3-18):

"Studies from chronic cannabis smokers have provided much of the evidence for immunomodulatory [modifying or regulating the immune system] effects of cannabis in humans...

Cannabinoids can modulate both the function and secretion of cytokines [regulatory proteins] from immune cells.

Therefore, cannabinoids may be considered for treatment of inflammatory disease."
(September 2005) Journal of Neuroimmunology

---

Ethan Russo, M.D., states in the 2005 brochure "Arthritis and Medical Marijuana" by Americans for Safe Access:

"Patients have long told us that cannabis has been helpful to them in the treatment of their arthritic conditions.

Science has now demonstrated that the THC component of cannabis is a very effective analgesic (pain killer), and that the CBD (cannabidiol) component has unique immunomodulatory benefits as an antagonist of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, supporting benefits in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis."
(2005) Ethan Russo

---

Tod Mikuriya, M.D., states in 2002 article, "Medicinal Uses of Cannabis" published on his website:

"Clinical interviews of over 6500 members at cannabis buyers clubs and patients in my office practice lead to this generalization: Many illnesses or conditions present with both inflammation and muscle spasm. Cannabis is both an antispasmodic and anti inflammatory....

Chronic inflammatory conditions like arthritis and lumbosacral disease responds well to cannabis compared with other analgesics..
(2002) Tod Mikuriya

---

J. Michael Walker, Ph.D., states in the December 2000 Arthritis Today:

"The spinal cord is loaded with cannabinoid receptors. These cannabinoid compounds [from marijuana] apparently reduce swelling from inflammation [a major symptom of arthritis]. But more than that, they kill the pain from inflammation specifically. They work on the peripheral nerves that carry pain from your joint into the spinal cord."
(December 2000) J. Michael Walker

---

Americans for Safe Access states in their 2005 brochure "Arthritis and Medical Marijuana":

"Cannabis has a demonstrated ability to improve mobility and reduce morning stiffness and inflammation.

Research has also shown that patients are able to reduce their usage of potentially harmful Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) when using cannabis as an adjunct therapy."
(2005) Americans for Safe Access

 

Movement Disorders stated in a 2004 article "Survey on Cannabis Use in Parkinson's Disease" (Vol. 19, No. 9, pp. 1102-1106, Sept. 2004) by researchers from the Movement Disorders Centre, Dept. of Neurology at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic:

"An anonymous questionnaire sent to all patients attending the Prague Movement Disorder Centre revealed that 25% of 339 respondents had taken cannabis and 45.9% of these described some form of benefit....

The late onset of cannabis action is noteworthy. Because most patients reported that improvement occurred approximately two months after the first use of cannabis, it is very unlikely that it could be attributed to a placebo reaction."
(9/04) Movement Disorders

---

The Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics (JCT) reported in an 2001 article by researchers at GW Pharmaceuticals (Vol. 1, No. 3/4, 2001, pp. 183-205):

"Some patients with multiple sclerosis who smoke cannabis [marijuana] report relief of spasm and pain after the second or third puff of a cannabis cigarette. This implies very rapid transit to, and absorption into the central nervous system. The time involved is seconds rather than minutes."
(2001) Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics

---

Americans For Safe Access (ASA), a patient advocacy non-profit group, states in their booklet "Medical Marijuana and Multiple Sclerosis," available on their website as of 12/20/05:

"Many MS patients report that cannabis has a startling and profound effect on muscle spasms, tremors, balance, bladder control, speech and eyesight. Many wheel-chair-bound patients report that they can walk unaided when they have smoked cannabis....

Numerous case studies, surveys and double-blind studies have reported improvement in patients treated with cannabinoids for symptoms including spasticity...

Cannabinoids have been shown in animal models to measurably lessen MS symptoms and may also halt the progression of the disease."
(2005) ASA

---

Britain's House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee (HOLC), published the November 1998 report Cannabis: The Scientific and Medical Evidence, which stated:

"We have received enough anecdotal evidence to convince us that cannabis almost certainly does have genuine medical applications, especially in treating the painful muscular spasms and other symptoms of MS and in the control of other forms of pain...

We therefore recommend that the Government should take steps to transfer cannabis and cannabis resin from Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations to Schedule 2, so as to allow doctors to prescribe an appropriate preparation of cannabis, albeit as an unlicensed medicine and on the named-patient basis, and to allow doctors and pharmacists to supply the drug prescribed."
(11/1998) HOLC

---

Montel Williams, national talk show host and writer, wrote in his 2004 book Climbing Higher about his support for medical marijuana:

"I spent 22 years in the service supporting, defending our Constitution of the United States, I fought in the war against drugs. I want to tell you right now in this country, we need to start thinking about compassion.

How dare someone tell me they can prescribe morphine, vicodin, percocet. Make the drugs most addictive, name the most addictive drug, they can give me and I can be a walking member of the society by taking that garbage, but my doctor, who has prescribed it for me, can’t prescribe medicinal marijuana? Why? Because we have an idea everybody who does it sits around smoking.

There are 50 different ways to utilize it. You can eat it; you can process it into a liquid; or you can turn it into a pill form. The willow tree was taken apart about 200 years ago and turned into aspirin. And we all take it.”
(2004) Montel Williams

God the Master Physician

Exodus 15:26

He said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you."

God's Healing Words

Proverbs 4:20-22

My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

God's Healing Love

Psalm 107:19-21

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

God Removes Sickness

Exodus 23:25

You shall worship the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you.

A Promise of Healing

Isaiah 53:4-5

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are whole.

FIRE CAPTAINS PRAYER

Dear God,
Please guide me in my plight.
Help me think quickly, but safely.
Guild my hand to help those who are seeking knowledge.
Give me the wisdom to help the injured and the weak.
To help those who have no thrive for life.
Grant me the strength to fight the fire with assertive skill.
And God please grant me the ability to return home, to my family.
And, if in your wisdom I may give my life,
protect them from harm, no matter what the foe.
Amen

Mikel Zorn - Illinois

Bill Gates bids farewell with tears

Gates reminisces about Microsoft on his final day

REDMOND, Wash. - On his final full day at Microsoft Corp., Bill Gates went on stage to reminisce with his longtime friend Steve Ballmer, and neither man could hold back tears as Ballmer handed Gates a large scrapbook as a farewell present.

Gates, who is stepping back to focus on his philanthropy, sat with CEO Ballmer in a Microsoft conference room and meandered through moments in Microsoft's history. They stopped to get in a few good digs at IBM Corp., whose first personal computers were loaded with Microsoft's DOS operating system before IBM adopted its own operating software and their relations strained.

"They went off with OS 2, we were left with good old Windows, and sure enough the David versus Goliath story came out with the right ending," said Gates, eliciting laughter from the crowd of 830 Microsoft employees.

Gates, who founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975, admitted that Microsoft has faltered along the way, and certainly isn't perfect today.

"When we miss a big change, when we don't get great people on it, that is the most dangerous thing for us," Gates said. "It has happened many times. It's OK, but the less the better."

Gates, who will remain Microsoft's chairman on a part-time basis, said he would still take on Microsoft projects picked by Ballmer and two other executives who have assumed most of his day-to-day tasks, Craig Mundie and Ray Ozzie.

One of those will be Web search, where Microsoft lags far behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in market share. With an acquisition of Yahoo now again apparently off the table, Gates threw his weight Friday behind a strategy of assembling a team of smart people and combining Microsoft's own breakthroughs with what competitors are already doing.

"Search is the place where people probably really think, will Microsoft ever do anything there? We'll be the very best," Gates said. "That is in full motion."

Gates also reinforced his intent to stay out of the company's day-to-day affairs.

Click for related content

From: Drug Sense <webmaster@...>
Subject: DrugSense Weekly, June 27, 2008, #555
Date: Friday, June 27, 2008, 1:35 PM

***********************************************************************
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***********************************************************************
DrugSense Weekly, June 27, 2008 #555
Read This Publication On-line at: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* This Just In
(1) Raids Target Vast Pot-Growing Network in Northern California
(2) Police Official and Guard Are Killed in Mexico
(3) Tobacco Ban Wafts Into Amsterdam Pot Shops - But Joints Still Legal
(4) Suspected High Drivers Face Mandatory Body-Fluid Tests
* Weekly News in Review
Drug Policy-
(5) Webb Urges Fresh Look At The War On Drugs
(6) Local Legislators Know Little About 'Magic Mint'
(7) Family Meals Turn Girls Away From Drugs
(8) Analyzing a City's Sewage Can Put a Number on Its Vices
Law Enforcement & Prisons-
(9) DEA: Border Hit List Not Yet Verified
(10) Testimony Begins In Fatal Marijuana Shoot-Out At Motel
(11) FBI: Officer May Have Failed To Report Money From Drug
(12) Ex-Sheriff Gets 6-year Sentence
Cannabis & Hemp-
(13) Group Wants Pot In Airport Lounges
(14) Feds Launch Massive Pot Sting
(15) Growers Breeding New Hemp
(16) Marijuana's Rising Potency Sparks Debate
International News-
(17) Mixed Messages On Drugs Pulped
(18) Jump In Coca Cultivation In Colombia Shocks U.N.
(19) NDLEA Gets X-Ray Scanning Machine From US
(20) War On Drugs Intensifies- As America's DEA sets Up Accra Office
(21) No Plans For New Prisons Despite Election Promises
* Hot Off The 'Net
Reefer Madness: Revisited
Ecstasy Is The Key To Treating PTSD / By Amy Turner
Decriminalization Of Cannabis / Wim Van Den Brink
Drug Truth Network
Time To Get Rid Of The Good-People-Vs.-Bad-People View Of Drug Use
Unplugged: Should Drugs Be Legalised?
* What You Can Do This Week
Write A Letter
* Letter Of The Week
Tax Dollars Being Used to Defy Law / Jon Plamer
* Feature Article
Taking A Trip Through Time / Mark Greer
* Quote of the Week
George Carlin
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) RAIDS TARGET VAST POT-GROWING NETWORK IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jun 2008
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times
Author: Tim Reiterman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Searches Continue in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties After
Authorities Seize $60 Million in Plants and $160,000 in Cash.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Raids this week on a massive commercial marijuana
operation with indoor growing facilities and thousands of acres in
Northern California's pot belt have netted 10,000 plants worth up to
$60 million, $160,000 in cash and 30 firearms, authorities reported
Wednesday.
A force of 450 officers from numerous agencies Tuesday served dozens
of search warrants. Officials said Wednesday they still were
searching almost 2,000 acres in Humboldt and Mendocino counties that
belonged to the targets of the 2-year-old investigation.
Authorities arrested one man who allegedly assaulted a federal agent
serving a warrant.
The state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement began the probe in early
2006, officials said, after a California-based organization bought a
large parcel of mountainous land. Authorities suspected that people
associated with the group were growing marijuana in buildings and
greenhouses and then selling it.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n617/a02.html
===
(2) POLICE OFFICIAL AND GUARD ARE KILLED IN MEXICO
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jun 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company
Author: James C. McKinley Jr.
MEXICO CITY -- A gunman killed a high-ranking commander in the
federal police and a bodyguard as they ate lunch at a busy
restaurant here on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest
attack on law enforcement officials who are waging a campaign
against drug traffickers, the authorities said.
Cmdr. Igor Labastida Calderon, who oversaw a division that monitors
smuggling, had stopped for a bite with three bodyguards and an aide,
a police spokesman, Eduardo Cano, said at a news conference.
At 12:50 p.m., a man walked in and opened fire on their table with a
pistol. Commander Labastida died at the scene. One bodyguard was
also killed, while the others and the aide were seriously wounded.
The gunman sprinted out, jumped into a waiting sedan and escaped,
Mr. Cano said.
No one had been arrested in the attack by the evening. The police
commander often stopped at the small restaurant for lunch.
Commander Labastida was the fourth high-ranking federal police
official to be killed since January. An additional seven federal
agents have been killed in reprisals for antinarcotics operations,
while a dozen more have fallen in gun battles with drug dealers.
[snip]
The United States is trying to help Mexico battle the cartels. Late
Thursday, the Senate passed a bill, the "Merida Initiative,"
to
provide Mexico with $400 million this year for aircraft, equipment
and training to fight the drug trade. President Bush is expected to
sign the bill, which also gives Central American countries $65
million.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n620.a04.html
===
(3) TOBACCO BAN WAFTS INTO AMSTERDAM POT SHOPS - BUT JOINTS STILL
LEGAL
Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jun 2008
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Author: Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY
AMSTERDAM - Starting next week, you'll still be able to legally
smoke a joint in the famously relaxed coffee shops of Amsterdam -
but for a cigarette, you'll have to step outside.
A tobacco ban that goes into effect Tuesday in the Netherlands has
both tourists and shop owners, like, totally confused, man.
"It's crazy," says Jon Foster, 36, an American who owns the
popular
Grey Area coffee shop in the gentrified Jordaan area of central
Amsterdam. "It seems totally illogical to have a business that
specializes in smoking and you ban tobacco."
The new law prohibits smoking in bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs
to protect people from secondhand tobacco smoke.
[snip]
===
(4) SUSPECTED HIGH DRIVERS FACE MANDATORY BODY-FLUID TESTS
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist
Author: Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA -- Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will
face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine,
blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial
new law that takes effect one week from today.
Drivers who refuse to comply will be subject to a minimum $1,000
fine - -- the same penalty for refusing the breathalyzer.
Police will be given their new powers to nab drug-impaired drivers
after almost five years of intense debate in the federal Parliament.
The law, passed this year after three failed attempts, has been
lauded by law enforcement and groups who say drug-induced drivers
are escaping unpunished at a time when their numbers are climbing.
[continues: 21 lines]
***********************************************************************
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
=======================================================================
Domestic News- Policy
----------------------------------
COMMENT: (5-8)
Our first story shows how difficult it is to untangle the web of
prohibition-based damage, while the second story shows that trying
to prohibit a certain drug can be accomplished with little effort,
even if you've only got one idiot who is just competent enough to
use a phone making that effort.
Another strange survey purporting to show that participation in
family meals impacts teen drug use was released, but this one
suggest it just doesn't matter for one gender. And, more progress in
the drug war: drug researchers have graduated from analyzing
individual samples of human waste to analyzing huge quantities of
mixed human waste.
===
(5) WEBB URGES FRESH LOOK AT THE WAR ON DRUGS
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008
Source: Daily Press (Newport News,VA)
Copyright: 2008 The Daily Press
Author: David Lerman
The Senator Says Billions Spent On Locking People Up Hasn't Reduced
The Flow Of Drugs.
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb began building a public case Thursday to
change the nation's drug laws to stress treatment over incarceration
for nonviolent offenders.
The freshman Democrat held a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee
to solicit testimony from prosecutors and scholars who argued that
the decades-long emphasis on incarceration has been costly and
ineffective.
Armed with statistics showing soaring incarceration rates and drug
seizures, Webb argued -- and his witnesses agreed -- that
authorities have failed to reduce the supply of drugs appreciably.
"Despite the number of people we have arrested, the illegal drug
industry and the flow of drugs to our citizens remain undiminished,"
Webb said.
While much of his work in the Senate has focused on the Iraq war and
a new GI bill for veterans, Webb has sought to stir a public debate
on an issue he acknowledged could be politically perilous.
Advocating reductions in prison time, of course, can trigger charges
of being "soft on crime."
But with more than 2 million Americans now behind bars and drug
offenders swamping the prisons, Webb argued, it may be more cost
effective to consider treatment options for nonviolent offenders.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n604/a05.html
===
(6) LOCAL LEGISLATORS KNOW LITTLE ABOUT 'MAGIC MINT'
Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jun 2008
Source: Cullman Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2008 The Cullman Times
Author: Patrick McCreless
The hallucinogen salvia divinorum is legal and available in Alabama,
but that may soon change.
Deborah Soule, executive director for the Huntsville-based
Partnership for a Drug Free Community, said efforts are currently
under way to outlaw the drug once and for all. Since 2007, Soule has
personally contacted many of Alabama's legislators and Gov. Bob
Riley to bring attention to the drug.
She had limited success during the last legislative session, when
Sen. Roger Bedford Jr. sponsored a bill to make salvia a controlled
substance. However, the bill never made it made it out of committee.
"It just got caught up in a log jam of a Republican
filibuster,"
Bedford said.
To Soule, the real problem with the bill was the lack of education
about salvia.
"The biggest problem in the Alabama Legislature is a lot of people
didn't know about it," Soule said.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ),
salvia - also referred to as Maria Pastora, Sage of the Seers and
Magic Mint - is a perennial herb in the mint family native to
certain areas of the Sierra Mazateca regions of Oaxaca, Mexico. The
substance has been employed by the Mazatec Indians for its
hallucinogen effects for ritual divination and healing.
In the United States, however, teenagers and college students are
the ones who reportedly take advantage of the drug.
"Unfortunately it has become a designer drug for young
people,"
Bedford said.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n608/a08.html
===
(7) FAMILY MEALS TURN GIRLS AWAY FROM DRUGS
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Author: Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service
Not So With Boys, Study Reveals. Discrepancy Might Have To Do With
The Way Sons And Daughters Engage With Parents
Adolescent girls who sit down for frequent meals with their families
are half as likely to smoke, drink and use marijuana as those who
share family meals less often, according to a new study.
"Part of it is just parents being more in touch with their kids,
being able to see earlier on if their kids are veering down a path
that might not be filled with healthy choices," said Marla
Eisenberg, lead author of the paper and a professor of pediatrics in
the University of Minnesota's medical school.
Family meals may also offer protection simply because they increase
the amount of time teens spend at home instead of out with their
friends, she said - the environment where they are most likely to
experiment with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.
Interestingly, teen boys do not enjoy the same benefit, with
frequent family meals having no bearing on their substance use down
the road.
"It's really not as clear for boys; we've had a hard time
pinning
down what's going on with boys," Eisenberg said.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n610/a13.html
===
(8) ANALYZING A CITY'S SEWAGE CAN PUT A NUMBER ON ITS VICES
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times
Author: Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
One Big Drug Test
Experts Are Examining the Outflow in Several U.S. and European
Cities, and the Data Can Be Surprising.
Which city uses more cocaine: Los Angeles or London? Is heroin a big
problem in San Diego? And has Ecstasy emerged in rural America?
Environmental scientists are beginning to use an unsavory new tool
-- raw sewage -- to paint an accurate portrait of drug abuse in
communities. Like one big, citywide urinalysis, tests at municipal
sewage plants in many areas of the United States and Europe,
including Los Angeles County, have detected illicit drugs such as
cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.
Law enforcement officials have long sought a way to come up with
reliable and verifiable calculations of narcotics use, to identify
new trends and formulate policies. Surveys, the backbone of drug-use
estimates, are only as reliable as the people who answer them. But
sewage does not lie.
Since people excrete chemicals in urine and flush it down toilets,
measuring raw sewage for street drugs can provide quick, fairly
precise snapshots of drug use in communities, even on a particular
day.
The results have been intriguing: Methamphetamine levels in sewage
are much higher in Las Vegas than in Omaha and Oklahoma City, Okla.
Los Angeles County has more cocaine in its sewage than several major
European cities. And Londoners apparently are heavier users of
heroin than people in cities in Italy and Switzerland.
"Every sample has one illicit drug or another, regardless of
location," said Jennifer Field, an environmental chemist at Oregon
State University who has tested sewage in many U.S. cities. "You may
see differences from place to place, but there's always something."
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n609/a07.html
=======================================================================
Law Enforcement & Prisons
-------------------------
COMMENT: (9-12)
Our stories have a common theme this week: prohibition making law
enforcement more dangerous and corrupt at the same time.
===
(9) DEA: BORDER HIT LIST NOT YET VERIFIED
Pubdate: Tue, 24 Jun 2008
Source: Las Cruces Sun-News (NM)
Copyright: 2008 Las Cruces Sun-News
Author: Jose L. Medina
LAS CRUCES - The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
for the El Paso sector - which includes New Mexico - said Monday
that a purported Mexican drug cartel hit list that may name more
than a dozen Americans has not been confirmed as credible since its
existence became public late last week.
"Nobody has substantiated it. In other words, if it does exist, it
hasn't gotten to us yet," said John "Jack" Riley,
special agent in
charge for the El Paso DEA office.
Riley said this is the first, but not likely the last, time a
potential hit list has surfaced that names individuals living on
this side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Our guys and our analysts and agents have not personally seen
it,"
Riley said. "... That's not to say we won't be looking at it.
And I
would imagine, if the trend continues, if this is accurate, it
probably won't be the last."
The possible existence of a list naming Americans or residents of
the U.S. became public Thursday evening when an El Paso television
station aired an interview with the family member of one of the 15
to 20 people reportedly on the list.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n613/a10.html
===
(10) TESTIMONY BEGINS IN FATAL MARIJUANA SHOOT-OUT AT MOTEL
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jun 2008
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Chico Enterprise-Record
Author: Terry VAU Dell, Staff Writer
OROVILLE -- A Vallejo man went on trial Wednesday, charged with the
murders of two of three men killed in a gun battle during a
marijuana buy at an Oroville motel in 2006.
Though there is no evidence Deandre Tyrone Lowe, now 39, was ever
armed, prosecutors are charging him with murder under the so-called
"felony murder rule," which holds accomplices liable for deaths
that
occur during certain serious crimes.
According to police reports, during the Oct. 22, 2006, transaction
at the Best Value Inn in Oroville, one of four would-be buyers,
Dejuan Dean, 34, of Vallejo, pulled a gun and ordered the other two
men with him -- including Lowe -- to scoop up the money and drugs,
from three Concow area pot sellers.
Thomas Kile, 37, of Concow, pulled his own gun at that point. In the
ensuing gun battle, Kile, Dean and a second drug buyer, Lee Miles
Nixon, 33, were killed.
Lowe's Oakland attorney, Mario Andrews told Lowe's jury Wednesday
the government reasoned, "Three men are dead and someone has to
pay."
The defense attorney pointed out all three of the surviving white
marijuana sellers involved in the deal were allowed to plead guilty
to "simple drug charges" and a fourth man, who rode with them to
the
motel, was not charged at all because he had no criminal record and
would make a "perfect witness" for the prosecution.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n600/a02.html
===
(11) FBI: OFFICER MAY HAVE FAILED TO REPORT MONEY FROM DRUG BUST
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2008 The Charlotte Observer
Author: Gary L. Wright
The case against two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers accused
of helping a drug dealer may also involve unreported money from a
drug bust and arsons at two houses - including one that was
mistakenly burned, court documents show.
Officer Jason Ross seized cocaine, drug scales, and a pistol from
alleged drug dealer David Lockhart last July during a search of a
business on Tuckaseegee Road, court records show.
Officer Ross did not report finding any money, records show. But a
confidential source has told investigators that Lockhart had $6,000
in cash at the time of the search, court documents show. The source
says he had helped count the money.
Lockhart told investigators that he had at least $2,500 at the time,
and that the two police officers allowed him to keep the money,
according to an FBI affidavit.
Officers Ross and Gerald Holas resigned last week and were charged
with conspiring to distribute crack cocaine. Lockhart is also
charged in the conspiracy. All three made brief appearances in court
Thursday but their bond hearings were postponed.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n604/a09.html
===
(12) EX-SHERIFF GETS 6-YEAR SENTENCE
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2008 Fayetteville Observer
Author: John Fuquay
RALEIGH -- As the top law enforcement officer taking over a
scandal-plagued bureaucracy in 1994, Sheriff Glenn Maynor gave
Robeson County hope for a fresh start.
But an end to the corruption never came, and on Thursday a federal
judge gave the now disgraced former sheriff six years in prison. "I
dropped the ball. I should have kept up with it, and I didn't,"
Maynor told the court, his voice cracking and trailing off. Although
evidence failed to prove Maynor knew the full extent of corruption
around him, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle held Maynor
responsible for running a dirty Sheriff's Office with a history of
scandal that preceded him.
Boyle had already sentenced 20 of Maynor's deputies, including
almost the entire command staff and all of the drug enforcement
deputies. "If you were a broom to sweep clean, why didn't you fire
these deputies, arrest them, get rid of them?" Boyle asked.
"The
only implication is you either turned a blind eye or were part of
it." Maynor, who turns 62 next week, has until Aug. 1 to report to
prison.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n616/a08.html
=======================================================================
Cannabis & Hemp-
---------------------------
COMMENT: (13-16)
Mason Tvert and SAFER of Colorado made another media splash last
week by suggesting that the Denver International Airport open a cannabis lounge to reduce alcohol-fueled flight rage. The media used the story to give their audiences a chuckle, but nevertheless, Tvert once again got his message out that cannabis is safer than alcohol.
Last week the U.S. government went deeper into debt to launch
"Operation Southern Sweep," deploying about 450 agents and a
motorcade of SUVs to tear up cannabis plants and damage homes in
California.
Industrial hemp breeders in Manitoba are reportedly developing new strains from 18th century genetics. In an effort to appear fair and balanced, the Boston Globe
mischaracterized cannabis law reform activists as the ideological
mirror image of fundamentalist prohibitionists, accusing reformers of failing to acknowledge cannabis-related harm, while criticizing prohibitionists for ignoring prohibition-related harm.
===
(13) GROUP WANTS POT IN AIRPORT LOUNGES
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2008 The Denver Post Corp
Author: Felisa Cardona
Video: http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=1355
Marijuana proponents want to know why federal officials continue to
allow people to use alcohol on airplanes, but won't allow pot smoking
in the lounges at Denver International Airport.
"Does it make sense to allow adults to use a drug that causes problems
on airplanes and not allow them to use one that does not cause
problems on airplanes?" asked Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer
Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation.
SAFER held a press conference on Tuesday outside the offices of the
Federal Aviation Administration in Denver to propose a solution to the
rash of in-flight disturbances on airplanes over the last year.
Last week, a New York woman, Christina Szele, was arrested after she
started smoking in her JetBlue airline seat and punched a flight
attendant who stepped in to stop her. Her plane, enroute to San
Francisco from New York, was diverted to Denver because of the
situation.
And in the last few months, DIA has been a hot spot for arrests of
drunken, unruly airplane passengers.
Tvert argues that marijuana alleviates anxiety for people who are
afraid to fly and that passengers could use pot in the smoking lounges
at the airport as a safer alternative to alcohol.
DIA spokesman Chuck Cannon said he does not foresee marijuana smoking
in the airport.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n616.a03.html ===
(14) FEDS LAUNCH MASSIVE POT STING
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2008 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Author: Sean Garmire
Agents Sweep SoHum Commercial Grows
Motorcades of government SUVs poured through Humboldt County
communities Tuesday as hundreds of federal and state agents began
their search for commercial marijuana growing operations in a multi-
day investigation the FBI has dubbed "Operation Southern
Sweep."
The bureau's spokesman Joseph Schadler reported 450 agents with
several federal agencies would be serving search warrants and
collecting evidence on properties where "corporate marijuana growing
operations" were suspected.
On Tuesday morning, at the operation's command center in Fortuna's
River Lodge parking lot, Schadler said 27 search warrants would be
executed over the course of the day, and two more are expected later
this week.
He said he could not discuss what properties agents raided Tuesday, or
which they had yet to investigate.
Medical marijuana dispensaries and 215 patients would not be targeted
by the investigation, Schadler said. The Humboldt Cooperative, a
medical marijuana dispensary in Arcata, said Tuesday evening that
federal agents had not interfered with business.
"We're not here to set policy or interfere with California's
compassionate use laws," Schadler said. The FBI is investigating "for-profit and corporate grow operations beyond the scope of
215."
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n614.a05.html
===
(15) GROWERS BREEDING NEW HEMP
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jun 2008
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2008 Winnipeg Free Press
Author: Martin Cash
Cited: http://www.pihg.net/
Hemp growers in the Dauphin region are going back to some of the
original hemp breeds in the area from the 18th century to come up with
new varieties.
Unlike more commercially acceptable grains like wheat and barley,
commercial hemp growers must register and certify the seed they use
every crop year. That is largely a result of regulatory pressures,
mostly from the United States, about concerns over the control of
marijuana which is another type of hemp.
Joe Federowich, chairman of Parkland Prairie Hemp Growers Co-Op, said
it takes several years to certify and register new varieties of hemp
seeds. If the region is ever to be successful in developing an
industrial hemp processing plant, it is going to need a much larger
supply of seeds to feed the plant with fibre, he said.
"We've been breeding since 2001," he said. "You can't
use seed from
the bin. You need high pedigree seeds."
That's why the Dauphin group is now using some of the seeds from the
original 18th century plants to cross breed with other hemp seeds that
have proven to be successful in Manitoba to create new and better
varieties. Over the years, it has been able to register several new
varieties.
Federowich said he believes the tight regulatory controls might relax
over time, but plant breeding is still a long-term process.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n615.a06.html
===
(16) MARIJUANA'S RISING POTENCY SPARKS DEBATE
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2008 Globe Newspaper Company
Author: Neil Munshi, Globe Correspondent
Photo: http://www.mapinc.org/images/marijuanaplants.jpg
It's a dangerous, highly addictive drug whose skyrocketing potency has
only increased its stranglehold on our nation's youth. Or it's mostly
harmless, a substance not much worse than caffeine - with medicinal
value to boot.
It's marijuana. And the polarized debate about its safety has been
rekindled by two reports released separately this month by the federal
government and a leading drug prohibition group. Both studies conclude
that marijuana's potency has increased, which they link to reports of
more addiction, mental health problems, and emergency room admissions
related to marijuana use among teenagers.
Advocates of less punitive marijuana laws immediately decried the
reports as alarmist, saying there's no evidence linking greater
potency to a rise in health problems among pot smokers.
Academics say both sides are guilty of selectively presenting data to
bolster their positions.
In a field with limited research, partisans tend to create paper thin
arguments, as easily made as they are countered, said Roger Roffman,
professor of sociology at the University of Washington.
"I think [both sides] do a disservice to the general public,"
said
Roffman, who has written papers and edited books on marijuana use and
dependence. On websites of drug policy reform advocates, "you'll find
lots of information about the very adverse consequences of
criminalizing marijuana and very little mention of the very real harm
associated with marijuana among some people in some circumstances," he
said.
Meanwhile, on government and prohibitionist websites, he said, "you'll
find plenty of information on the harmful consequences of marijuana
abuse and very little information, perhaps, on the harmful
consequences of criminalizing marijuana."
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n609.a06.html
=======================================================================
International News
---------------------------
COMMENT: (17-21)
Prohibition, censorship and book burning (or rather book
"pulping")
coincided this week in Australia as a controversial government
pamphlet was destroyed - by the government. According to livid
prohibitions in Australia, the pamphlet sent "mixed messages"
about
drug use to children. Regardless of facts, children must learn only
one thing: drugs declared illegal by politicians are "never safe to
take".
Reports this week confirmed that coca cultivation hasn't declined in
Colombia, despite billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars generously
heaped on aerial spraying contractors, and propping up right-wing
strongmen there. True, a hardier coca hybrid has survived the
spraying to propagate. And true, also, spraying caused coca
cultivation to eat ever-farther into the precious rainforest. Still,
coca production soared to a staggering "994 metric tons in 2007 from
984 metric tons the year before." Exclaimed top UN prohibitionist
Antonio Maria Costa: "The increase in coca cultivation in Colombia
is a surprise and shock." Did he really expect prohibition would
work?
In Africa, U.S. prohibitionists are on the move. In Nigeria, the
U.S. government ordered that a body scanning X-ray machine should be
installed, to augment Nigeria's crack National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency (NDLEA) airport scanning capabilities. And in Accra, Ghana,
U.S. government prohibitionists have erected a multitude of new DEA
offices, and sent there swarms of officers to harass their people,
and eat out their substance. Or, as a Ghanaian newspaper cheerfully
puts it, "The office.. will increase DEA's effort in fighting the
drug menace."
The right-wing Harper regime in Canada hinted this week there are no
"plans" for new prisons - they simply want to sardine many
more
people into existing prisons, possibly expanding them. The whole
prison pipeline (police, prosecutors, prisons) is gearing up for a
major increase in drug (cannabis) arrests. By making non-violent pot
offences (which rarely result in jail time now) draw mandatory
minimum jail time, "an increase in the offender population may
result", admitted the Correctional Service of Canada.
===
(17) MIXED MESSAGES ON DRUGS PULPED
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: South Coast Register (Australia)
Copyright: 2008 Rural Press Ltd
THE pulping of a Iemma Government pamphlet that sent mixed messages
to school children about drug use is a victory for families, claims
shadow minister for health Jillian Skinner.
"The pulping of this offensive document was the only option Health
Minister Reba Meagher could take," Mrs Skinner said.
"The decision of the Health Minister's department to produce this
document in the first place casts fresh doubts about Reba Meagher's
judgment."
She called on Mrs Meagher to confirm how many pamphlets were
produced, and how much it cost taxpayers.
"Drug education must carry the simple message that it is never safe
to take illegal drugs," said Mrs Skinner.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n611.a11.html ===
(18) JUMP IN COCA CULTIVATION IN COLOMBIA SHOCKS U.N.
Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jun 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2008 The Associated Press
Author: Toby Muse, Associated Press
Bogota, Colombia -- Colombian peasants devoted 27 percent more land
to growing coca last year, the United Nations reported Wednesday,
calling the increase "a surprise and a shock" given intense
efforts
to eradicate cocaine's raw ingredient.
Estimated cocaine production, however, increased only slightly in
Colombia and other Andean nations - to about 994 metric tons in 2007
from 984 metric tons the year before, according to the U.N. - as
cultivation shifted to smaller, less-productive plots in more remote
locations.
The net increase in coca farmland came despite record U.S.-backed
eradication efforts that disrupted the growing cycle, said Gen.
Oscar Naranjo, the chief of Colombia's police.
"These young crops, the new ones, are less productive, both in the
number of leaves and in terms of the potency of the leaf," Naranjo
said, and coca farmers in remote locations can't get chemicals
needed to process the leaves as easily.
Still, coca farmers are aggressively tearing down forests to make
way for crops and laboratories, and the young plants will eventually
produce much more coca if eradication efforts don't keep up.
"The increase in coca cultivation in Colombia is a surprise and
shock: a surprise because it comes at a time when the Colombian
government is trying so hard to eradicate coca; a shock because of
the magnitude of cultivation," said Antonio Maria Costa, director of
the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n601.a02.html ===
(19) NDLEA GETS X-RAY SCANNING MACHINE FROM US
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jun 2008
Source: Tide, The (Nigeria)
Copyright: 2008 The Tide
Author: Ike Wigodo
The United States Government last week donated a body scanning X-ray
machine to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The x-ray scanner machine was inaugurated at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Ikeja by the United States Ambassador to
Nigeria, Ms Robin Renee Sanders.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n597.a04.html ===
(20) WAR ON DRUGS INTENSIFIES- AS AMERICA'S DEA SETS UP ACCRA OFFICE
Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008
Source: Statesman, The (Ghana)
Copyright: 2008 The Statesman
Author: Kwame Addo-Kufuor
Government has intensified efforts to fight the drug menace which is
giving the nation a bad image in the international world.
The establishment of an office in Accra by America's Drug
Enforcement Administration is expected to provide greater impetus
for the fight.
The office, which would be established between July and August will
increase DEA's effort in fighting the drug menace in the West Coast
Region, as more personnel are expected to be recruited to beef up
the fight.
This came to light when a 5-member delegation from the Drug
Enforcement Administration for Europe and Africa met the Interior
Minister, Kwame Addo-Kufuor, to develop appropriate linkages to
tackle the drug problem that has engulfed the country.
According to Dr Addo Kufuor, the provision of an X-ray machine at
the Kotoka International Airport, speed boats to patrol the
coastline, as well as the intensive and effective training of
personnel at the Narcotics Control Board, Navy, Police and other
stakeholders could make a positive impact on the campaign against
drugs.
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n603.a06.html ===
(21) NO PLANS FOR NEW PRISONS DESPITE ELECTION PROMISES
Pubdate: Mon, 23 Jun 2008
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 The Vancouver Sun
Author: Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Government To Renovate, Upgrade The Existing Facilities
OTTAWA -- The Harper government has no long-term plans to build new
prisons to house an anticipated influx of offenders convicted under
the Conservatives' tough-on-crime initiatives, despite setting aside
up to $245 million for at least one extra penitentiary immediately
after coming to power two years ago.
According to a Correctional Service of Canada capital plan, existing
prisons, which are aging and already full, would be renovated and
expanded to meet increasing demands over the next decade if need be,
but "at this time there are no major prisons envisaged."
The Correctional Service acknowledges, however, that "with the
implementation for various government initiatives in tackling crime,
an increase in the offender population may result."
[snip]
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n611.a07.html ***********************************************************************
HOT OFF THE 'NET
-------------------------------
REEFER MADNESS: REVISITED
A New Book By Doug Snead
What made people think that using a little marijuana would turn good
boys into murderous fiends? Where did folks get the notion that
smoking some cannabis would turn nice girls into tramps?
Reefer Madness: Revisited is a retrospective look at the propaganda
that gave police and politicians excuse to jail people for growing
or using the cannabis plant. http://www.cafepress.com/reeferrevisited ===
ECSTASY IS THE KEY TO TREATING PTSD
By Amy Turner
At last the incurably traumatized may be seeing the light at the end
of the tunnel. And controversially, ecstasy may be key to taming their
demons.
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/89625/
===
DECRIMINALIZATION OF CANNABIS
Wim van den Brink, Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research
This paper discusses the case for decriminalization of cannabis use,
based on a careful weighing of the currently available evidence
regarding advantages and risks of such a policy.
http://drugsense.org/url/3p2Ordkd
===
DRUG TRUTH NETWORK
Century of Lies- 06/24/08 - Richard Watkins
Richard Watkins a former Texas warden and current member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition + Eugene Fields, reporter with Orange County Register
http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=node/1943
Cultural Baggage Radio Show- 06/25/08 - Mary Lynn Mathre
Nurse Mary Lynn Mathre of Patients Out of Time discusses medical cannabis + Terry Nelson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=node/1942
===
IT'S TIME TO GET RID OF THE GOOD-PEOPLE-VS.-BAD-PEOPLE VIEW OF DRUG USE
By Maggie Mahar and Niko Karvounis, Health Beat
When discussing treatments for drug addiction, instead of arguing about ideology, let's look at science. http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/88348/
===
UNPLUGGED: SHOULD DRUGS BE LEGALISED?
The curse of illegal drugs has blighted communities and destroyed lives but some believe the radical solution is to end prohibition. Unplugged's Martin Stanford debates the issue with a panel of experts.
http://drugsense.org/url/Ksotwmtt
***********************************************************************
WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
--------------------------------------------------
WRITE A LETTER
CALIFORNIA PATIENT CAUGHT IN THE WAR ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA
A DrugSense Focus Alert
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0368.html
***********************************************************************
LETTER OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------
TAX DOLLARS BEING USED TO DEFY LAW
By Jon Palmer
My health and my ability to lead a normal life are in danger - from
my local police. Worse, they've disregarded state law in order to do
it.
Allow me to explain:
Living in constant pain has become a way of life for me. I was born
with a rare genetic blood disorder called Factor V Leiden
thrombophilia. The condition is life-threatening and causes
spontaneous blood clotting throughout every blood vessel in my body.
The clots lead to acute and severe pain in my extremities.
The agony is so unbearable that at times I can't walk.
In order to manage this disease, I take 245 prescription pills each
week - including morphine to ease the pain. The side effects of my
pain-management regimen made living a semi-normal life impossible.
Besides the mental haze the high-dose morphine had me in, it caused
constant nausea - until one of my physicians suggested I try medical
marijuana.
The medical marijuana eased my pain without any adverse side effects
and allowed me to significantly reduce my morphine dosage.
Fortunately, California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, and
10 years later, Kern County enacted an ordinance allowing regulated
medical-marijuana facilities just outside my hometown of
Bakersfield.
I came to rely on Nature's Medicinal - one of the local
medical-marijuana collectives - as a clean, legitimate source for my
medicine. Most importantly, I felt safe there. After all, these
facilities were legal under state law, regulated by the county and
licensed by the Sheriff's Department.
I have always been aware that federal law treats medical-marijuana
patients like common criminals, but assumed that local law
enforcement officials would respect the state laws that allow me to
treat my pain in accordance with my doctor's advice. Sadly, I was
mistaken.
Last May, Bakersfield police officers and Kern County sheriff's
deputies participated in a federal Drug Enforcement Administration
raid on Nature's Medicinal. They arrested my caregivers for
violations of federal drug laws, disregarding the fact that they
were operating in compliance with state and local law.
Shortly after the raid, other caregivers in the area ceased
operations for fear that they too would suffer the same fate. Faced
with the prospect of having to immediately double my morphine dosage
and take to the streets to find my medicine, I was devastated.
The most outrageous part of the ordeal is that local officials used
state and municipal tax dollars to arrest these individuals who were
in full compliance with state and municipal laws.
Perhaps the local officers were not sure whether their job was to
enforce state or federal law. If that was the case, fortunately the
Fourth District Court of Appeals has provided some pretty specific
guidance. Last November, the court unanimously ruled, "it is not the
job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws."
But federal officials seemingly don't like the fact that the voters
and the Legislature have decided to protect medical-marijuana
patients and caregivers from state prosecution and want to
circumvent those laws. Whatever the reason for their actions, it is
clear that voters in California never intended to pass a
medical-marijuana law and then allow their tax dollars to be used to
undermine it.
Fortunately, there is a bill pending in the state Assembly that
would provide clear direction to state and local law enforcement in
this matter. AB 2743, by Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego,
would make it official policy that state and local law enforcement
are not to willfully assist in federal attempts to lock up patients
and providers who are acting in accordance with state law.
Hopefully the Legislature will approve this sensible legislation
before more patients like me are forced into the streets to obtain
their medicine. Our votes don't count for much if our tax dollars
can be used to thwart the very laws we enact.
Jon Palmer
Jon Palmer writes from Bakersfield.
Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jun 2008
Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
***********************************************************************
FEATURE ARTICLE -------------------------------
TAKING A TRIP THROUGH TIME
By Mark Greer
If DrugSense and the Media Awareness Project (MAP) are known for one
thing, it must certainly be our DrugNews Archive. This incredibly
important information resource now holds over 195,000 clippings on
all aspects of drug policy, regardless of spin. We have been
collecting articles on this topic since 1995 and have some stories
dating back as far as 1991.
Here is a sample of some of landmark articles that have become the
foundation of this unique and dynamic resource:
-- 1990 -- "Test Negative," Scientific American. Thursday, March
1,
1990. This was the very first full-text article in the archive, and
it covers a topic that is still controversial: drug testing.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v90/n000/a01.html
-- 1994 -- "Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber," Sacramento
Bee.
Thursday, April 7, 1994, by Jay Bergstrom. This is the first Letter-
to-the-Editor (PUB LTE) favorable to drug policy reform in the
archive. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v94/n000/a001.html
-- 1995 -- "Say 'No' to Legalization of Marijuana,"
Wall Street
Journal. Friday, August 18, 1995, by Donna Shalala. By the Secretary
of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, this
prohibition-focused Op-ed is the first opinion piece in the archive.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v95/n000/a04.html
-- 1996 -- "Misfire on Drug Policy," National Review. Monday,
February 26, 1996, by William F. Buckley, Jr. This is
ground-breaking editorial calling the drug war a failure kicked off
the first of many intensive MAP letter-writing campaigns in support
of ending prohibition.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v96/n000/a08.html
-- 1996 -- "Stopping Drug Traffickers," Warsaw Voice (Poland).
Sunday, March 10, 1996, by Konrad Niklewicz. This first clipping
from outside of North America. Unfortunately, it took a decidedly
pro-drug war stance.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v96/n000/a09.html
-- 1999 -- "Officer Tells of Undercover Work," Amarillo Globe
News.
Sunday, August 8, 1998, by Greg Cunningham. A "puff piece"
about
undercover cop, Tom Coleman, and the drug arrests he made in the
small Texas town of Tulia.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n000/a18.html
-- 2000 -- "The Race to Racism," Amarillo Globe News.
Friday,
September 15, 2000, by Redford Givens. Online media activism matures
as MAP letter writers condemn the racism that led to the Tulia
arrests. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1585/a01.html
-- 2002 -- "Drug Charges Dropped after Tulia Case Collapses,"
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Sunday, April 14, 2002, by Linda Kane.
The Tulia case collapses after undercover cop Tom Coleman was found
to be lying and becomes discredited.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n721/a06.html
As you can see, this robust archive tracks the twists and turns of
our substance use policies, allowing us to identify challenges and
to measure progress over time.
And, all of this incredible information is available for FREE!
However, it isn't free to produce; this valuable resource costs time
and money to maintain. Please consider making a donation today. To
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------
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not
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MGreer@...

> http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-290.pdf
> Held:
> 1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a
> firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for
> traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
> Pp. 2–53.

My, my. I have most carefully read the 2nd and nowhere in it do I find
the word 'firearm' or 'gun'. What I find is the word 'arms'. That is
an all-inclusive term. It means anything from a rock in hand to.....
whatever. Any weapon. ANY weapon. ALL weapons. I will point out that
the redcoats of General Gage in Boston were seeking CREW SERVED
WEAPONS-- cannon-- when they made their foray to Concord on April 19,
1775.

> (a) The Amendment's prefatory clause announces a purpose, but
> does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative
> clause. The operative clause's text and history demonstrate that it
> connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms. Pp. 2–22.

...being necessary to the security of a free state-- and what
interferes with a 'free state'? A meddlesome government...

Kindly notice that for all the lawyer talk, all the barnyard byproduct
legalese, the wording used in the 2nd is all positive and 'mandatory'
and inclusive for the citizenry, and precisely the opposite for
government. Government is utterly forbidden any ability to meddle,
while the citizenry is utterly empowered and made free of government
interference.

NECESSARY to the security of a free state....

... the RIGHT of the people--. inherent personal prerogative immune to
government meddling

...to keep and bear ARMS-- no restriction; any and all weaponry

SHALL NOT be infringed-- plain, positive, inclusive. Government, thou shalt not

> (b) The prefatory clause comports with the Court's interpretation
> of the operative clause. The "militia" comprised all males physically
> capable of acting in concert for the common defense. The Antifederal-
> ists feared that the Federal Government would disarm the people in
> order to disable this citizens' militia, enabling a politicized standing
> army or a select militia to rule. The response was to deny Congress
> power to abridge the ancient right of individuals to keep and bear
> arms, so that the ideal of a citizens' militia would be preserved.
> Pp. 22–28.

I suppose they hope that no one notices that this completely
invalidates most of the other 'findings' of the 'opinion'. That is,
(b) above points out that GOVERNMENT is the likely enemy and likely
target of any true employment of the purpose, the 'prefatory clause',
of the Amendment. Now, like a cat having defecated on linoleum, the
'honorable justices' set out to cover that 'inconvenient fact'.

> (c) The Court's interpretation is confirmed by analogous arms-
> bearing rights in state constitutions that preceded and immediately
> followed the Second Amendment. Pp. 28–30.
> (d) The Second Amendment's drafting history, while of dubious
> interpretive worth, reveals three state Second Amendment proposals
> that unequivocally referred to an individual right to bear arms.
> Pp. 30–32.

'Dubious interpretative worth'? They mean, the part where the Founders
clearly meant for the citizens to be armed and capable of overthrowing
the government when necessary?

> (e) Interpretation of the Second Amendment by scholars, courts
> and legislators, from immediately after its ratification through the
> late 19th century also supports the Court's conclusion. Pp. 32–47.

Once upon a time, in the lifetime of my father and grandfather, if you
wanted a weapon-- ANY weapon, ALL weapons, you simply went and bought
it. Artillery, explosives, auto weapons, short barreled anything, it
mattered not. If you wanted it and had the cash (gold and silver
coin), you found a willing seller and bought it. And who gives a bit
of care to what 'scholars, courts, and legislators' think about
something which is declared out of bounds to any restriction? The 2nd,
as written, precludes any and all effort to restrict weaponry or the
citizens' access to weaponry of their choice.

> (f) None of the Court's precedents forecloses the Court's interpre-
> tation. Neither United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 553, nor
> Presser v. Illinois, 116 U. S. 252, 264–265, refutes the individual-
> rights interpretation. United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174, does not
> limit the right to keep and bear arms to militia purposes, but rather
> limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by
> the militia, i.e., those in common use for lawful purposes. Pp. 47–54.

Here comes the barnyard byproduct. Here is the effort to remove and
hide the actual purpose of the 2nd-- that is, to hold a weapon at the
head of government. Here is the effort to 'allow' the criminals of
government to 'define' what 'type' of weapon the criminals are going
to 'allow'. And further, to declare 'for lawful purposes'-- that is,
what government SAYS is 'lawful'... and shooting politicians and their
'enforcers' for attempting to infringe on the 'security' of our 'free
state' will certainly not be considered a 'lawful purpose'. And
certainly not after having 70-odd years to freely restrict citizens'
access and employment of arms of the CITIZENS' choice.

I would ask-- what 'lawful purpose' did the armed citizenry of
Lexington and Concord Massachusetts and their environs pursue? Please
note that the 'lawful government' which would have been providing the
definition of 'lawful purpose' was the object of the exercise-- that
is, the redcoat enforcers of King George III.

> 2. Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.
> It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any
> manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, con-
> cealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment
> or state analogues. The Court's opinion should not be taken to cast
> doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by
> felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of fire-
> arms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or
> laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of
> arms. Miller's holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those
> "in common use at the time" finds support in the historical tradition
> of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.
> Pp. 54–56.

So now they bless and allow 70-odd years of meddling to stand. Piss on
the Court. Whether or not the 'average gun owner' can read their
jumbled up and contradictory statements with comprehension, _I_ can.
And I see this as an unqualified victory for the tyrant. Government
infringement upon our RIGHT is clearly blessed by this 'honorable
court'.

> 3. The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to
> self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District's total ban
> on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an
> entire class of "arms" that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the
> lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scru-
> tiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this
> prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense
> of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional
> muster.

Do please note that the discussion has wheeled about and now the TRUE
purpose of the 2nd, to guarantee the citizenry the ability to resist
tyranny, is swept under the judicial floor covering of barnyard
byproduct. '(L)awful defense of self, family, and property'
conveniently conceals the fact that the citizens' weaponry is to
RESIST GOVERNMENT TYRANNY.

> Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the

'lawful firearm'? How does 'right to keep and bear arms' get morphed
into the concept of 'lawful firearm'? The intended target of the
weapons is now given the ability to DEFINE what is a 'lawful weapon'?

They can line up and kiss my unreconstructed rebel ass.

> home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible
> for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and

'Core purpose of self defense'? Only when viewed in the larger sense
of 'self protection against GOVERNMENT'.

> is hence unconstitutional. Because Heller conceded at oral argument
> that the D. C. licensing law is permissible if it is not enforced arbi-
> trarily and capriciously, the Court assumes that a license will satisfy
> his prayer for relief and does not address the licensing requirement.

Oh, how sweet for Unca Sham. They hereby explicitly bless licensing.
And somehow 'shall not be infringed' is made moot. In many, many other
decisions, it is explicitly stated that a right cannot be made subject
to taxation nor licensing IN ANY FORM.

Nice try, black robed whores. Go try to peddle your barnyard byproduct
to someone who cannot see through your legal legerdemain.

> Assuming he is not disqualified from exercising Second Amendment
> rights, the District must permit Heller to register his handgun and
> must issue him a license to carry it in the home. Pp. 56–64.
> 478 F. 3d 370, affirmed.

So THIS is a 'victory' for the RIGHT to KEEP AND BEAR ARMS?

Sorry, folks, I can read plain English, and I know what was just done
to us. And that is, precisely what I have been predicting would
happen, all along.

William Michael Kemp
Liberty, Mississippi


> SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,
> C. J., and KENNEDY, THOMAS, and ALITO, JJ., joined. STEVENS, J., filed a
> dissenting opinion, in which SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ.,
> joined. BREYER, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which STEVENS,
> SOUTER, and GINSBURG, JJ., joined.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

Right on brother Kemp! It seems as the Nazi's tried among other communist countries to only allow their brainwashed followers to have weapons as it helped them control the people. Notice I SAID CONTROL THE PEOPLE? Gee how stupid do they thing we are stupid enough to SMOKE THEIR JOINT? I will bear arms any time needed and they can kiss my peacekeeping patriot ass too! ~ Mike Zorn ~ Patriot ~ AMSL GROUPS

His church was bombed, and now he protests funerals of the war dead
Kansas preacher says he's coming to Idaho

By CHUCK OXLEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOISE, Idaho -- A Kansas preacher and gay rights foe whose congregation is protesting military funerals around the country said he's coming to Idaho tomorrow to picket the memorial for an Idaho National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.

A flier on the Web site of Pastor Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church claims God killed Cpl. Carrie French with an improvised explosive device in retaliation against the United States for a bombing at Phelps' church six years ago.

"We're coming," Phelps said yesterday.

Westboro Baptist either has protested or is planning protests of other public funerals of soldiers from Michigan, Alabama, Minnesota, Virginia and Colorado. A protest is planned for July 11 at Dover Air Force Base, the military base where war dead are transported before being sent on to their home states.

Phelps gained national notoriety in 1998 when he picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student beaten to death in Wyoming.

Since then, Phelps said his church has been the target of hateful words and actions, including a bomb attack six years ago.

Phelps' church has picketed the funerals of AIDS victims for more than a decade.

French, 19, was a Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in the northern city of Kirkuk. French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.

Phelps said the fact that French led an all-American life gives him all the more reason to picket her final public tribute.

"An all-American girl from a society of all-American heretics," he said.

"Our attitude toward what's happening with the war is the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime," Phelps said.

Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba said he cannot bar Phelps from going to the public funeral, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Albertson College of Idaho in that city.

"While we respect Mr. Phelps' right to protest, we would hope that he would respect the family and friends of this young person by not disrupting the memorial," Sobba said.

Idaho Air National Guard Lt. Tony Vincelli, acting as spokesman for French's family, said there were no plans to change the funeral arrangements.

The Rev. Brian Fischer, pastor of Boise's Community Church of the Valley, and himself a past target of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, decried Phelps' plan.

"What Phelps is doing is a reprehensible thing, to take a funeral and turn it into a photo op for his hate cause," Fischer said.

"We hope everyone will ignore Phelps' group."

In 2003, Phelps demanded that he be allowed to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise public park. To avoid a lawsuit from his group, city officials voted in 2004 that a Ten Commandments monument be moved out of the park

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is in part why I am now a member of the Patriot Guard. How this so called minister can justify his actions and deeds is a mystery to this peacekeeper. We don't want you in our town phelps! PHELPS NEEDS GOD HE'S A MORON. This kinda crap really pisses me off! Respect our veterans!!!!!!

Mike Zorn ~ Bloomington Illinois

Drugnews-Digest       

Thursday, June 26 2008       

Volume 08 : Number 617

1.) CN BC: Editorial: Avoid The High Road

2.) CN BC: That Little Joint Could Kill Your Child, MD Says

3.) US NC: Prosecutors Begin Drug Case Reviews

4.) CN ON: Biker Turf War Feared

5.) New Zealand: Drink Takes Snort at Red Bull

6.) US CA: Raids Target Vast Pot-Growing Network in Northern

7.) US CA: These Days, Higher Education Has a Different Meaning

8.) Australia: Suspect 'Bomb' Shakes Nimbin

9.) CN BC: Medical Pot User Faces Charges

Read this digest online at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n617/

http://www.patriotguard.org/

These fine folks have given their ALL to help secure our country and make it a safe place to live so give in any way you can to them and/or our country or both. Do whatever you can when you can to make our world a better place to live. We need everyone and thank you's go a long long way. God bless you all and have a nice day ~ Mike Zorn ~ Patriot

We need to be very cautious and objective when reading Obama smear campaigns such as the tactics of hempman in the yippies group. Like hempman many will try to get one to believe things that are not true or provable by taking things out of context and not revealing the WHOLE STORY behind why Obama has voted or not voted on an issue ect... ect...

They will also tell out and out lies as well based on partial truths or other smears they have read themselves. Many of these people like hempman do not vote as well therefore deserve little respect or attention on the issues at hand. Smear tactics on both sides are a cancer to our society and these people need to be snuffed out by simply not paying any attention to them and their misguided notions. The fact is you will never find a perfect candidate and should vote your conscience. I don't debate politics because it is wrong if the candidate is not there to defend themselves as the Lord has revealed to me. Be cautious and vote your conscience please. I am voting Obama period respect it! I have green party values as well respect it! I am a veteran of this movement respect it!

MR WEED 1

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/

http://www..legalize-usa.org/

http://www.november.org

http://www.mikuriya.com

http://www.rxmarijuana.com

They cannot touch us in debate so they run speaking of the prohibitionists assholes.

They act like NAZI'S they smell like shit and it's time to flush the toilet.

We need to exterminate prohibition and terminate the supporters of the drugwar period.

ACTION! ACTION!  We must exterminate Nazi Commie Mentality to WIN THIS WAR!

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD ALTHOUGH THE SWORD NEEDS TO BE EXPRESSED TO WIN THE WAR SO WE NEED BOTH. REMEMBER THE SWORD

 IS KNOWLEDGE

Mike Zorn ~ MR WEED 1