Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:05:04 -0700

Subject:UK: Police Chiefs Set To Extend Lambeth's Soft Line On Drugs Up TOC

Title: Police Chiefs Set To Extend Lambeth's Soft Line On Drugs
Author: Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
Source: Independent
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Pubdate: Friday, June 14, 2002

Police chiefs are drawing up plans to extend the Lambeth experiment on
cannabis to other parts of the country, despite growing criticism of the
scheme.

The move will see several forces in England and Wales warn, rather than
arrest, many people caught with small amounts with the drug.

It is intended to tie in with the Government's decision to relax cannabis
laws, which David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce
next month.

Whitehall sources have confirmed that Mr Blunkett is still "minded" to
reclassify cannabis from a class-B to a class-C drug, making its use a
non-arrestable offence. Fines and jail terms for cannabis offences will be
downgraded.

The nationwide pilot schemes a " which are being drawn up by the
Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and the Metropolitan Police a
" will be similar to the Lambeth project. However, concerns that too many
people were being let off without punishment in the south London borough
will mean that police will continue to prosecute certain groups of
cannabis users, including young teenagers, motorists and disorderly
people.

While chief constables were happy to see some people let off with a
warning, they were critical of the "broad-brush" approach and have backed
the more "graded" response to possession.

The Home Office and police are also expected to use the media and
advertising to emphasise that cannabis remains an illegal drug and dealers
face imprisonment. The campaign is being launched in response to reports
from Lambeth that many schoolchildren believe cannabis has been legalised.

An Acpo spokesman said: "Acpo and the Met are looking at ways to build on
the Lambeth experiment with a view to set up pilots in a number of forces
across the country."

The Lambeth experiment was devised by Commander Brian Paddick, the officer
in charge of the borough, who has since been suspended over accusations
that he used the drug and permitted others to use it at his home.

Since its launch nearly a year ago, the scheme has divided opinion in the
borough, which includes Brixton. A poll found that most residents were in
favour, provided the police used the time saved to deal with other crimes,
which was the scheme's aim. But a recent evaluation of the project by
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, head of the Metropolitan
Police's drugs directorate, was critical of several aspects.

Mr Fuller has warned the Home Secretary that the experiment has resulted
in more schoolchildren smoking cannabis and encouraged drug dealers and
users to visit the area. His criticism has apparently contributed to the
decision to water down the project when it is tested out in other
policeforce areas.

Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Lambeth and a former Home Office minister,
attacked the scheme yesterday.

She said: "It has attracted more drug dealers to the area and children are
now being offered skunk cannabis [a strong form of the drug] and residents
are being continually harassed by dealers.

"There is no reason why one part of London should be picked on for this
experiment, particularly such a poor, deprived area."

She was supported by Dr Clare Gerada, a doctor in Lambeth and director of
drugs training for the Royal College of General Practitioners, who said
that since the experiment was introduced she was having to deal with an
increasing number of young people suffering from breathing problems and
mental health issues caused by cannabis use.

"The dealers are much more visible on the streets now and you can smell
cannabis much more often than before the experiment," Dr Gerada said.

Copyright Independent Newspapers Ltd.



 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:06:33 -0700

Subject:US: Bauman to Forward Pot Plea Up TOC

Title: Bauman to Forward Pot Plea
Author: Matt Hagengruber, correspondent for The Capital Times
Source: The Capital Times
Contact: tctvoice@madison.com
Website: http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
Pubdate: Friday, June 14, 2002

Mayor Sue Bauman plans to circulate a letter in support of medical
marijuana at this weekend's U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting.

The letter's purpose is to get signatures from visiting mayors to present
to Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, who will speak
on Saturday.

The letter was written by Gary Storck, a Madison man with glaucoma and
arthritis. He is communications director for an organization called IMMLY?
(Is My Medicine Legal Yet?).

"Secretary Thompson, we ask your assistance in helping patients obtain
safe and legal access to medicinal marijuana," the letter reads. "We
further ask that the Bush Administration honor the promises made by
President Bush while campaigning for president, when he pledged to respect
states' rights of those states who have adopted medical marijuana laws."

Bauman spokesman Ryan Mulcahy said the mayor is circulating the letter but
"she's not sponsoring it or promoting it; it's at the request of Ben
Masel."

Storck hopes Thompson is receptive to the letter, but he knows Thompson
answers to a higher level in President Bush. Still he hopes many of the
West Coast mayors sign the letter.

"Mayors are like the rest of us," Storck said. "They realize that if
someone gets sick, and cannabis is the only medicine that can help them,
they should get it."

Thompson received a similar letter in support of medical marijuana from
his brother Ed last month when the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate
visited Washington, D.C.

Copyright The Capital Times.



 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:08:01 -0700

Subject:Canada: War On Pot-Growing 'A Failure' Up TOC

Title: War On Pot-Growing 'A Failure'
Author: Kim Pemberton, with files from Brian Morton
Source: Vancouver Sun
Contact: sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Pubdate: Friday, June 14, 2002

Police have devoted significant resources to battling illegal
marijuana-growing operations in B.C., but have yet to produce visible
results, says a study by researchers at the University College of the
Fraser Valley.

"At best, it would seem, they have succeeded in some cases in producing a
slight displacement of the problem from one area to another, or from one
neighborhood to another," says the report, released Thursday.

The project, described as the first comprehensive study of the justice
system's response to marijuana-growing operations and marijuana
trafficking in B.C., involved a review of all cases of alleged marijuana
cultivation coming to police attention between Jan. 1, 1997 and Dec. 31,
2000.

The study found B.C.'s illicit marijuana-growing operations jumped 222 per
cent between 1997 and 2000.

"If our objective so far was to reduce the availability of marijuana in
the province, we are not succeeding," said UCFV professor Yvon Dandurand.

"In spite of the fact that we are devoting more law enforcement and other
resources each year to address the problem, there is more marijuana grown
and available in British Columbia from year to year.

"It is perhaps time to try a different response."

Vancouver police Inspector Kash Heed agreed there has been an increase in
marijuana growing operationss in B.C., but he noted that since 2000,
police have been targeting the problem much more aggressively. He said
they have been "highly successful" in removing growing operations from the
city.

"In Vancouver we investigated 23 grow-ops in 1991, resulting in 36
charges. In 2001, we investigated 609 grow-ops, resulting in 375 charges,
with a value of $150 million," he said.

"The reports we're getting is the number of grow-ops in Vancouver have
decreased. . . . Given our economical division of labour, we've had a lot
of success."

The study lists the 10 top communities that accounted for 60 per cent of
all cases that came to the attention of police in 2000.

On average, each community dealt with 290 cases and all had experienced
"huge increases" in the number of cases since 1997 -- on average more than
four times what it was in 1996.

In total, there were 2,901 cases investigated in B.C. in 2000.

Vancouver had the largest number of cases, with 663 growing operations
investigated in 2000, while Delta and Coquitlam experienced the most
dramatic increases between 1997 and 2000. Delta had 209 cases in 2000, up
1,293 per cent from 1997 and Coquitlam had 353 cases, up 700 per cent from
the previous four years.

The seven other top marijuana growing communities are Burnaby with 454
cases in 2000; Surrey with 317 cases: Nanaimo with 199 cases; Richmond
with 188 cases; Abbotsford with 181; Chilliwack with 177 and Langley with
160.

The study found that as illicit marijuana growing operations become larger
and more sophisticated in B.C., the risks to communities also increase
because of the potential for fires.

"Indoor marijuana operations were sometimes discovered because the
property involved had caught on fire, usually as a result of tampering
with the building's electrical installations to bypass the B.C. Hydro
meter and divert electricity," states the report.

It found that during the period of the study, 3.5 per cent of all indoor
cultivation operations resulted in a building fire.

As well, another 2.1 per cent of buildings where marijuana growing
operations were discovered had other dangers, such as explosives,
dangerous chemical products and even booby traps.

"The evidence indicates that, over the period studied, marijuana grow
operations became larger and increasingly sophisticated, often involving
greater technological enhancements. This, in turn, has led to greater
risks to the communities in which these illicit operations took place due
to the increased risk of fire," the report states.

The study was conducted by faculty and students in the department of
criminology and criminal justice of the University College of the Fraser
Valley in partnership with the International Centre for Criminal Law
Reform and Criminal Justice.

Copyright The Vancouver Sun 2000.



 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:15:50 -0700

Subject:Canada: Pot Policy Scandalizes Drug Czar Up TOC

Canada: Pot Policy Scandalizes Drug Czar
June 16, 2002 at 08:13:22 PT
By Mindelle Jacobs -- Edmonton Sun
Source: <http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml>Edmonton Sun

The U.S. drug czar, John Walters, got on his soapbox last week at a 
Montreal conference and railed on about the dangers of marijuana. He's an 
embarrassment south of the border to everyone who supports a rational 
approach to drug abuse. Now Canadians know he's a wingnut as well.

It must drive Washington crazy that Canada liberalized its drug laws to 
allow patients with certain conditions to smoke pot. It must scandalize 
Uncle Sam that Ottawa is a - gasp - drug dealer growing official marijuana 
in a heavily fortified underground bunker in Manitoba.

American officials are probably breaking out in hives at the thought that 
Canada might decriminalize - or even legalize - pot.

Walters attempted to set the record straight at the international meeting 
of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.

It's time to crank up the war against marijuana, he told delegates. Pot is 
dangerous, he warned. Of the 4.3 million Americans suffering drug 
addiction, 65% are dependent on marijuana, he declared.

Health experts, however, will tell you that pot isn't particularly 
addictive. And there's a big difference between true clinical dependence 
and sporadic drug-related problems.

Pot dangerous? I anxiously await the statistics that show smoking marijuana 
kills people. Why, let's see, the two drugs that kill the most people are 
the legal ones - tobacco and alcohol.

Marijuana a gateway to hard drugs? That myth was debunked by medical 
experts long ago. But since when do government ideologues listen to! 
scientists?

Walters must be just apoplectic over Canada's open-minded approach to 
medical marijuana. "We have the most sophisticated and capable medical 
system in the history of humankind," he told the conference crowd.

"Smoked marijuana is not likely to be a modern medicine."

For some seriously ill people, however, pot prolongs life and alleviates pain.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine of the respected U.S. National Academy 
of Sciences reported that for patients who don't respond to other 
medications, marijuana is effective in treating pain, nausea and the 
wasting syndrome caused by AIDS.

Oh, those pesky scientists. How dare they hamper U.S. government efforts to 
convince an increasingly skeptical world that pot really is the demon weed!

Walters was gracious enough to say that Canada can formulate its own drug 
control strategy. "We respect that," he said.

I may be cynical but I wouldn't put it past Uncle Sam to lean on Ottawa in 
a bid to scuttle any ! attempts at liberalization of our drug laws. Others 
share my concern, including Bruce Mirken, of the Marijuana Policy Project, 
a U.S. group that wants pot decriminalized and made available for the sick. 
"I think (the U.S.) is scared to death that not just Canada but other 
countries are going to make some serious changes in their policies ... that 
will leave the U.S. even more nakedly alone and isolated in our 
demonization of marijuana," says Mirken.

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, which is pressing for reform of 
U.S. drug laws, also suspects that Washington is trying to influence 
Canada's drug policies.

"There are certainly people in the U.S. government who would be happy to 
try to bully Canada," says foundation president Eric Sterling. "The issue 
of drugs is so beguiling to American politicians ... that their good 
judgment of how to deal with their neighbour has been lost."

The war on drugs has been lost on all fronts, he says. Drug prices are 
down, purity ! is up and the battle against pot is squandering resources 
that could be used to help millions of people addicted to heroin and 
cocaine, he says.

Unfortunately, he adds, the more "loopy things" Walters says, the less 
likelihood kids will heed credible anti-drug education.

Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Author: Mindelle Jacobs -- Edmonton Sun
Published: June 16, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: <mailto:sun.letters@ccinet.ab.ca>sun.letters@ccinet.ab.ca
Website: 
<http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml>http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml




 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:16:56 -0700

Subject:CA: Federal Judge Overrules Guilty Verdict in Pot Case Up TOC

CA: Federal Judge Overrules Guilty Verdict in Pot Case
June 15, 2002 at 14:47:33 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: <http://www.ap.org/>Associated Press

A federal judge has ordered a new trial for two undocumented Mexican 
immigrants convicted of growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants in 
northern California. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr.'s ruling 
overturned jury verdicts that could have sent Miguel Navarro Viayra, 25, 
and Manuel Alvarez Guerra, 22, to prison for 10 years.

Both were arrested two years ago at a remote Mendocino National Forest camp 
and charged with conspiracy, manufacturing marijuana plants and possessing 
firearms to facilitate drug trafficking.

A jury found the two guilty of conspiracy and manufacturing, but deadlocked 
on the gun charges.

The judge's ruling bolsters a popular defense argument that undocumented 
immigrants, believing themselves recruited for honest work, become hostage 
laborers for major marijuana growers. Federal prosecutors had portrayed the 
pair as opportunists trying to make fast money growing pot.

Viayra and Guerra told jurors they had no access to weapons and faced armed 
guards who promised to shoot them if they tried to leave. Viayra said he 
was hired in Fresno for a Sacramento construction job. Guerra said, while 
in Mexico, he was offered a job cutting wood in northern California. The 
two were stripping marijuana leaves the day before their arrest.

In Damrell's 21-page ruling issued Wednesday, he noted "the lack of direct 
evidence connecting these defendants to the weapons and ammunition, and 
circumstances of these two young, virtually penniless, likely i! lliterate, 
and illegal (immigrants) who were found abandoned in a remote camp in the 
wilderness with apparently no idea where they were."

The two were sleeping when 10 law enforcement officers raided the site. 
Nearly 20 others, including the growers, fled without being caught, court 
testimony indicated.

Damrell's ruling also questioned contentions that the two could have freely 
left the camp. If they had left, he wrote, "where could they have gone?"

Prosecutors offered no comment on the ruling. Their options include 
appealing Damrell's decision, retrying the case or dismissing charges.

Complete Title: Federal Judge Overrules Jury's Guilty Verdict in Pot Case

Source: Associated Press
Published: Saturday, June 15, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press




 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 10:50:22 -0700

Subject:UK: Drugs - It's All In The Price Up TOC

Pubdate: Thu, 06 Jun 2002
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Webpage: www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1168010
Copyright: 2002 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact: letters@economist.com
Website: http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132

DRUGS: IT'S ALL IN THE PRICE

The street price of illegal drugs in Britain has never been lower. The
message should be clear--prohibition has failed

IF THE government is looking for evidence about how it is faring in the
battle to stop illegal drugs flooding Britain's streets, it need look no
further than what is happening to prices. When Home Office officials and
police chiefs meet next month for crisis talks about the exploding use of
crack cocaine, they will have to confront the fact that the drugs they most
fear have never been cheaper or more plentiful.

The threat of crack, the most dangerous and unpredictable of illegal drugs,
has been fuelled by the easy availability of cocaine. During the past ten
years, the street prices of both hard and soft drugs have fallen sharply.
Cocaine and heroin have declined by nearly a third, while ecstasy has
dropped by more than half (see chart).

In real terms, the figures, compiled by the National Criminal Intelligence
Service (NCIS), represent an even sharper fall. While whisky and beer
prices have doubled and cigarettes almost tripled in price over the decade,
illegal drugs are now often cheaper than a night out in a pub. The cost of
LSD, a hallucinogenic drug, is less than a packet of cigarettes.

These figures confirm that the increasing resources employed to disrupt the
illegal drugs trade are having little impact. Over the past five years,
heroin seizures have more than doubled and cocaine seizures have increased
five-fold. But Customs and Excise officials accept that they are
intercepting only a fraction, probably less than 10%, of the drugs coming
into the country. Terry Byrne, director of law enforcement at Customs and
Excise, acknowledges that the street prices of drugs have never been lower.
He also admits there is no evidence that the efforts of his and other
agencies are "reducing availability or increasing the price of illegal drugs".

Neither Customs and Excise nor NCIS are willing to discuss the forces
driving the market. But Home Office officials say that events in
Afghanistan have had a key role in boosting heroin supply. The increasing
use of cocaine appears linked to the West Indies. Large amounts are being
brought in by West Indian "drug mules", often women who agree to swallow
packets of cocaine and smuggle them in at high risk for a couple of
thousand dollars.

Given that the streets are awash and that buying of both hard and soft
drugs has never been easier, the government's national anti-drugs strategy
set out four years ago looks increasingly like a work of fantasy. One of
the government's main targets, to reduce the availability of Class A drugs
by 25% by 2005 and by 50% by 2008, is so far adrift that an increase in
availability is more likely to be recorded than a fall.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says bleakly that if existing
drugs policy is to be judged "by measurable reductions of people who use
drugs and the amount of crime committed to get money to buy drugs", then it
is failing.

The Home Affairs select committee said in a report, published last month,
that the government should concentrate its efforts in treating the
estimated 250,000 hard-core addicts rather than pursuing criminal
penalties. It called for "safe injecting houses" for addicts to be set up
together with a large-scale trial of heroin prescribing. It also wants
ecstasy to be downgraded to a Class B drug.

Predictably, this is all too radical for the government. But the home
secretary, David Blunkett, has moved a long way from the policy of his
predecessor who, two years ago, dismissed a demand by a distinguished
committee of medical, legal, police and drug specialists for reform of
Britain's archaic drug laws. A revised national drugs strategy is to be
published next month which is likely to back many of the committee's
recommendations. Mr Blunkett has already announced that he plans to
downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug, which means the penalties for
possession becoming nominal. He is also sympathetic to strictly monitored
trials of heroin prescribing. The new strategy is likely to focus on
treatment rather than enforcement.

A new approach is badly needed but whether this shift towards treatment
will work is uncertain. One problem is cost. Prescribing heroin to
hard-core addicts could cost more than ?250m ($363m) a year. But Transform,
a pressure group in favour of legalisation, claims that the current regime
costs at least ?10 billion a year, if the burden of dealing with
drug-related crime and prisons are included in the calculation. Almost
two-thirds of those who are arrested test positive for drugs. Doing nothing
may be politically safe but it is not a cheap option.

The Background: Illegal Drugs

With retail sales of around $150 billion, the trade in illegal drugs is in
the same league as consumer spending on legal drugs like tobacco and
alcohol. Cannabis is produced in both rich and poor countries. Opium
cultivation continues to spread in Asia, while coca is a major export of
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. A growing sideline is in drugs such as
methamphetamine and ecstasy, which are made from simple chemicals.

Governments haven't always cracked down on these substances. Indeed, some
countries tolerate them today. But most governments invest in costly
anti-drugs policies, none more so than America. Supporters of such policies
highlight the harm drugs cause to individuals and society.

Yet the resulting drugs war is being waged (and lost in Britain) at perhaps
an even greater cost. Not only are lives lost, but corruption and misguided
drugs policies are encroaching on civil liberties. Legalising the
possession of and trade in drugs would probably increase the number of
users. But it might also reduce crime and poverty, and solve many other
problems.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth



 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 19:32:03 -0700

Subject:Morocco: Harboring Hashish Up TOC

Newshawk: Our Mission Statement http://www.drugsense.org/mission.htm
Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jun 2002
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Webpage:
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/06/17/Worldandnation/Harboring_hashish.shtml
Copyright: 2002 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: letters@sptimes.com
Website: http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent

HARBORING HASHISH

Morocco Does Little to Weed Out a Drug That Brings in $3-Billion a Year

KETAMA, Morocco -- High in the Rif Mountains, a work crew busily
repairs a roadside water main. Around the bend, another group of men
just as busily diverts water from the main to irrigate an illegal but
healthy stand of plants. Here, within full view of a mosque, several
houses and the occasional passing cop, the men are growing cannabis
sativa. Or, as it is more commonly known, marijuana.

Morocco ranks among the world's largest producers of marijuana, much
of which is processed into a potent substance called hashish and
smuggled into Europe. So much Moroccan hashish is exported -- 1,500
tons a year -- that the country gets most of its hard currency from
the illegal hash trade. That's why it surprised everyone when the
Moroccan government announced in 2001 that it planned to eliminate all
hashish production within seven years.

It was a stunningly ambitious goal for a country whose citizens fondly
refer to hashish as "the green petrol." And now, as Britain and other
European nations relax their own marijuana laws, Morocco's war on
drugs already seems to be losing whatever momentum it might briefly
have had.

"There's $3-billion every year coming in from drugs," notes Aboubakr
Jamai, director of publication for Le Journal, a weekly Moroccan
investigative newspaper. "I can't imagine all that takes place without
the authorization of officials."

The Moroccan government, which is a party to several international
drug control treaties, denies any official complicity in the hashish
trade. It cites many efforts to halt the flow of drugs, among them
increasing the maximum penalty for narcotics violations to 30 years in
jail and an $80,000 fine.

A 35-Year-Old Tour Guide in Casablanca

But the typical sentence for major drug trafficking remains only 10
years. And many of those arrested have been foreigners, not the
Moroccan drug barons who "have a great deal of influence and power" in
the northern part of the country, where most of the marijuana is
grown, according to a U.S. State Department global narcotics report.

Moreover, the report says, Morocco's estimates of the amount of land
under cannabis cultivation are "increasingly questionable."

The Moroccan government now says that about 160,500 acres are used to
grow cannabis, about three times what it estimated several years ago.
The European Union contends the real figure is closer to 210,000 acres.

Most Moroccan hashish comes from the Rif Mountains, to the north and
east of the country's major cities. It is an area of spectacular
beauty but poor soil that is unfit for raising olives or other cash
crops.

As a result, the steep slopes are covered with cannabis plants that
grow right up to the narrow, bumpy road that snakes precariously along
the Rif's spine. Despite chilly temperatures and a thickening fog,
men, women and even children were working on several hashish
"plantations" one recent afternoon.

One man, typical of those on the lowest rung of the hash trade, said
he earns $50 a day, a princely sum in a country where the per capita
income is less than $4 per day. Among his jobs is weeding out an
invasive flowering plant whose fragrance can destroy the nearby
cannabis, he said.

When the marijuana is harvested in another two weeks, it will be dried
and culled of seeds and stems. Some of the resulting product will be
sold as what Americans call "grass," "weed" or "pot," and what
Moroccans know as "kif."

Most of the marijuana, though, will be further processed and converted
into hashish oil or resin. This is the famous "kif of the Rif," as
Moroccans call it. While it sells locally for $2 a gram, it will be
worth $30 a gram by the time it reaches Amsterdam, where cannabis use
has been decriminalized for years. One variety, named King Hassan
Supreme after the popular Moroccan monarch who died in 1999, is
considered of such high quality that it won Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup
for the best imported hashish.

Scientific studies are mixed as to whether cannabis use causes lasting
physical or mental harm, although most experts consider it far safer
than cocaine and heroin. Users say marijuana makes them relaxed and
sociable, while hashish sometimes causes unpleasant but short-lived
episodes of paranoia, especially in inexperienced users.

Both marijuana and hashish can also produce ravenous
appetites.

"I only smoke at night," says Kaseem, a 35-year-old tour guide in
Casablanca, "because in the day I need to be up, and I'd be very
hungry all day. Also, when you smoke you have red eyes -- you can't
work with red eyes."

Kaseem, who did not want his last name used, is sitting in a
nondescript cafe in the old part of Casablanca, Morocco's biggest
city. Downstairs, kids play video games; upstairs, Kaseem and a few
friends meet almost every evening after work to talk, drink mint tea
and smoke hashish.

Among the regulars is a 27-year-old undercover policeman for
Casablanca's large seaport. He has arrested people for major amounts
of drugs, he says, but as a hashish user himself, "I don't mess with
the little stuff."

Although not obvious to the casual eye, there are countless hash dens
like this throughout Casablanca and the rest of Morocco. Drugs and
alcohol are taboo in many Muslim countries, but hash is so tolerated
here that, by some estimates, at least 25 percent of adults regularly
smoke.

Unlike the United States, Morocco does not actively discourage the use
of cannabis or other drugs. Glue-sniffing is considered a bigger
problem among young people; authorities say 90 percent of Morocco's
homeless street kids sniff glue, which is even cheaper and more
readily available than hashish.)

Kaseem and his friends get their hashish from local dealers, who in
turn get it from suppliers 300 miles away in Ketama, the "hash
capital" of Morocco. A charmless town in the Rif Mountains, Ketama
probably has more hash dealers per capita than any other place on earth.

Law enforcement is slack, even non-existent, and competition for
customers is fierce. When a rental car with a couple of foreigners
drove through town recently, more than a dozen dealers descended on it
like a plague of locusts.

"At your service," one rough-looking man said.

"Come with me," pleaded another, offering a small nugget of hash as an
inducement.

The dealers do not take no for an answer. As the rental car started to
pull away, several of them jumped in their own vehicles. Thus began a
Hollywood-style chase, with hash dealers pulling alongside the rental
at 60 mph, passing on blind curves and gesticulating wildly in a vain
attempt to get the foreigners to stop.

Not even a police checkpoint deterred them. Each dealer simply pressed
some dirhams, the Moroccan currency, into the cop's hand and continued
on.

And so it went down the mountain, dealers dropping out one by one as
it became apparent the foreigners had no intention of buying.

The most persistent was a man in a tan Peugeot -- he gave chase for
more than an hour and got nearly 50 miles from home.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

 
 


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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 21:30:09 -0700

Subject:message from Jack Herer Up TOC

 From Jack &Jeannie Herer  <hempjack@earthlink.com>

Hi. The following message will be included in Jack's updated version of
"The Emperor Wears No Clothes." Please let us know what you think of it,
and feel free to distribute it to everyone you know.

If you have gotten on this list by mistake, or would like to be removed,
please let us know. Also, we are sorry if you have received this message
more than once.

Thank you.
Jeannie Herer

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

Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
And we hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper
and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the
greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known
annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the
overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the
world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while
simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the
atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one
that has done it before... Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana!

CANNABIS HEMP is the only known plant that can be grown from the Equator
to the Arctic Circle and to the Antarctic Circle; from the mountains to
the valleys, from the oceans to the plains, including arid lands and
everywhere in between. CANNABIS HEMP is the healthiest plant for the
ground out of the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, because it has a root
system that grows 10-12 inches in 30 days compared to one inch for rye
or barley grass. The roots penetrate up to 16 feet deep and after
harvest it leaves a root system that is mulched into the ground. It is
the King Kong of King Kongs of all plant life.

All of my information about CANNABIS HEMP has been taken from Federal
and State Department of Agriculture reports, articles from Popular
Mechanics, Popular Science, Pulp & Paper Magazine, Scientific American,
entries from encyclopedias and pharmacoepias, and studies from all over
the world during the last 200 years. This is all public information. The
United States government is hiding the fact that 125 years ago, and even
as far back as 4000 BC, 80 percent of our economy was based on the use
of CANNABIS HEMP for paper, fiber and fuel. Ten to 20 percent  of our
economy was based on CANNABIS HEMP medicines, 125 years ago.

CANNABIS HEMP was part of our everyday life. Every farm had a hemp patch
growing. This cover-up outrages me and it should outrage you, too. I
have been studying about CANNABIS HEMP for over 30 years, and I can't
believe how the U.S. government, in 90 seconds in Congress, could outlaw
"MARIJUANA" in 1937, without the people realizing they were outlawing
CANNABIS HEMP, the most perfect plant for the planet! They even got
other countries to outlaw it, too, after the Second World War.  From
1840 to 1940, 80 percent of all the world's hemp was grown in, and
imported from, Russia.

With the technology of the decorticator, CANNABIS HEMP would have taken
over the cotton market, as it is far superior to cotton. I will again
reiterate a few of the facts about CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA, which you
already know.

CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA was the number ONE annually renewable natural
resource for 80 percent of all paper, fiber and fuel.  From 6000 years
ago to 125 years ago, it was used for food, light, land and soil
reclamation, and even 20 percent of all medicine. Everyone, from the
educated to the uneducated, the farmer to the townsperson, the doctors
and the scientists used hemp products and depended on them until about
125 years ago.

Seventy-five to 90 percent of all paper used from at least 100 AD to
1883 was made of CANNABIS HEMP. Books, including Bibles, money and
newspapers all over the world have been mainly printed on CANNABIS HEMP
for as long as these things have existed in human history. They were
printed on hemp exclusively!

Seventy to 90 percent of all rope, twine, cordage and ship sails, 125
years ago, were made out of CANNABIS HEMP fiber, until it was replaced
by petrochemical fibers in 1937 and 1938. By comparison, CANNABIS HEMP
is four times softer than cotton, four times warmer, four times more
water absorbent, has three times the strength of cotton, is many times
more durable and doesn't use pesticides like cotton, and is flame
retardant. Fifty percent of all pesticides are used on cotton, and
cotton uses only one percent of the farmland.

Of all the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, no other plant source can
compare with the nutritional value of CANNABIS HEMP seeds. It is the
only plant on Earth that has essential amino acids, essential fatty
acids and protein and essential oils combined. It is the healthiest
plant for human consumption.

Prior to the 1800s, HEMPSEED oil was the number ONE source for lighting
oil throughout the world. As late as 1937, even paints and varnishes
were 80 percent HEMPSEED oil. CANNABIS HEMP is non-toxic and has been
used to make high-grade diesel fuel, oil, aircraft and precision oil and
even the number ONE vegetable oil. HEMP is the best sustainable source
of plant pulp for biomass fuel to make charcoal, gas, methanol, gasoline
and electricity in a natural way.

As a medicine, the use of MARIJUANA goes back 6000 years. It has been
found to be healthy and effective in the treatment of chronic pain,
cancer, strokes, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, AIDS
wasting and many other illnesses, including simple nausea, appetite
stimulant and anxiety. On September 6, 1988, the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young,
ruled:  "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man," and asked the Drug
Enforcement Agency to reschedule it. The DEA refused, keeping it as a
Schedule I drug, which they say "has no known medical use" ? from 1937
to 2002!  Nobody has ever died from marijuana in 6000 years... unless
they were shot by a cop!

CANNABIS HEMP was used for land reclamation until 1915. HEMP was planted
or left to grow feral as ground cover and not intended for harvest. It
is the number ONE plant to prevent mudslides and loss of watershed, and
river and soil erosion.

What disgusts me the most is how the government, as well as the people,
knew about HEMP and praised its value and then what happened? In
literally 90 seconds, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 passed in Congress.
By using the unknown name "marijuana" instead of the familiar name
"cannabis hemp", Congress was able to accomplish this because no one
knew what plant they were talking about. HEMP became illegal and was
replaced by petrochemical products. They made it such a banned and
forbidden plant that the word "hemp" was not even taught in schools in
the 1940s, 50s and thereafter. In 1850, 80 percent of all paper, fibers
and fuel were made out of CANNABIS in America and the rest of the world.

The role of HEMP was erased from America's history (as well as most of
the rest of the world's) after 1945 and 1950. To prove it, think...what
did you learn about HEMP in school? Nothing! The continuing suppression
of this information by the government places us all in mortal jeopardy.
Here we have a plant that, in conjunction with wind, solar, tidal and
hydroelectric power, can save the planet by providing all of our energy,
fuel, paper, fiber and medical needs naturally, all while reducing acid
rain, chemical pollution and rebuilding the soil, while reversing the
greenhouse effect (no other plant can do this!), and our government
wants to eradicate this seed, out of the 3 1/2 million seeds on Earth.
HEMP was used to make over 25,000 products before it was outlawed in
1937. They want to kill the most perfect plant on the planet. You should
get mad at your government for doing this and for leaving it out of our
schools.

Eighty percent of our economy depended on HEMP for paper, fiber and
fuel, 125 years ago. At that time, it took 300 man hours to harvest an
acre of HEMP, but with the invention of the brand new decorticator in
1930, it only took one-and-a-half to two hours. This is equivalent to
reducing the labor burden from $6,000 down to $40 per acre in today's
money. Keep in mind that the cotton gin, in 1793, reduced the man-hours
from 300 hours down to two hours to harvest an acre of cotton. The role
of CANNABIS should be determined by market supply and demand and not by
undue influence of prohibition laws, federal subsidies and huge tariffs
that keep the natural from replacing the synthetic. MARIJUANA is the
KING KONG of the King Kongs of all plants.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, DEA head Asa Hutchison, and White House
Drug Czar John Walters have been given all of these proven facts and yet
are still set against the legalization of marijuana and recognition of
HEMP knowledge. For whatever personal reasons, they refuse to believe
the facts and are willing to sacrifice the future of our planet and the
health of our people by keeping it illegal. The ban of CANNABIS HEMP is
so extreme and its intention is to hide the truth, and the truth is that
out of the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, HEMP is the number ONE plant
for our survival and quality of life here on Earth. The government calls
Marijuana users "terrorists" and yet the government of the United States
has been  "terrorizing" us for the last 67 years!

No one has taken the $100,000 challenge to prove me wrong. Why? Because
I am right. The U.S. government has been lying to us since the early
1900s. Do economic interests have more to say than the people about the
future of our planet?

Jack Herer
June 2002
www.jackherer.com

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 21:31:04 -0700

Subject:Hemp Certified for So.Dak. ballot Up TOC

GOOD NEWS FROM SOUTH DAKOTA!

Election Supervisor Chris Nelson (SD Sec. of State's office) notified
the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council today that there were
apparently sufficient signatures, valid for style and form, of South
Dakota voters to "certify" the issue for the November 5 general election.

see http://www.SoDakHEMP.org/petition.htm for details on the So. Dak.
Industrial Hemp Act 2002.

Posted by Bob Newland
http://www.SoDakHEMP.org/

Hello everyone;

What we've been told is that there appear to be plenty of signatures to
put theSouth Dakota Industrial Hemp Act on the ballot. If anyone wants
to challenge the petition on the basis of invalid signatures, they must
present evidence within five days that there is at least a probability
of more than 20% of the signatures we submitted being invalid. We know
what we're doing with petitions. We're on the ballot, and now the whole
state will know it.

On Saturday, June 15, the delegates to the So. Dak. Libertarian Party
Convention in Mitchell (SD), formally endorsed the Industrial Hemp Act
(which will be officially known as "Initiated Measure 1"). The
8000-member South Dakota Farmers Union formally endorsed the Hemp Act
last December.

The SDLP also endorsed "Initiated Constitutional Amendment A", the
Common Sense Justice Amendment.
see http://www.CommonSenseJustice.Us/

Among other party business, including nominationof some candidates for
constitutional offices, the SDLP also nominated Bob Newland for the
office of Attorney General. Newland said his priority in the campaign
would be to illustrate to the voters how allowing accused persons to
make common sense arguments in court would make things better for all
South Dakotans. "Virtually everything I would want to do as Attorney
General will be accomplished by passage of the Common Sense Justice Amendment."

Newland said his campaign slogans would be, "No victim, no crime." and "
I'm not a lawyer. My opponents are. Who created this mess? Lawyers,
right? Any questions?"

But don't you have to be a lawyer to be Attorney General?

"I can't read that requirement in the law," Newland said. "However,
learned people argue about the law 'til hell won't have it. So I'm sure
there are those who think one must be a lawyer. As of  today, I'm the
Libertarian nominee for Attorney General of South Dakota."

Newland, 54, is a founder of the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council,
and directed the petition drives which put Amendment A and Initiated
Measure 1 on the 2002 ballot. He lives near Hermosa, in the Black Hills.

END OF NEWS RELEASE


The rest of this is to let you folks know some of what we're doing here
to promote these issues, and to let you know how you can help.

For the hemp issue, we're starting to put together a 32-page tabloid,
which we'll publish in July. We'll print 10000 copies, and sell half the
space for advertising. We'll distribute it free to South Dakotans at
fairs and craft shows and farm shows, etc.

We need you to buy an ad. Call Bob Newland at 877-687-5297 (toll free).
Ads run from $30 for a business card reproduction to $460 for a full
page 11x14 inches.

Of course, you could just send a check or a federal reserve note and
tell us to make good use of it.

If you try to REPLY to this message and the REPLY bounces, it's my ISP's
spam filter. Please try to get to me at
<rjnewland@yahoo.com> if that happens.

Take a look at
http://www.sodakhemp.org/  and
http://www.sodaknorml.org/ and
http://www.commonsensejustice.org/
for updates on what we've covered in this message . . .

And finally, below is amessage from Jack Herer Up TOC, whom I had the pleasure
and honor of meeting in San Francisco in April. Jack is the principal
reason I have devoted a significant portion of my life to trying to
figure out why the government lies to us so much about an herb, and
trying to get it to stop. No matter who you are, you need to get a copy
of the new edition of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." Keep reading . . .


==============================================

Hi. The following message will be included in Jack's updated version of
"The Emperor Wears No Clothes." Please let us know what you think of it,
and feel free to distribute it to everyone you know.

If you have gotten on this list by mistake, or would like to be removed,
please let us know. Also, we are sorry if you have received this message
more than once.

Thank you.
Jeannie Herer

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

Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
And we hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper
and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the
greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known
annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the
overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the
world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while
simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the
atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one
that has done it before... Cannabis/Hemp/Marijuana!

CANNABIS HEMP is the only known plant that can be grown from the Equator
to the Arctic Circle and to the Antarctic Circle; from the mountains to
the valleys, from the oceans to the plains, including arid lands and
everywhere in between. CANNABIS HEMP is the healthiest plant for the
ground out of the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, because it has a root
system that grows 10-12 inches in 30 days compared to one inch for rye
or barley grass. The roots penetrate up to 16 feet deep and after
harvest it leaves a root system that is mulched into the ground. It is
the King Kong of King Kongs of all plant life.

All of my information about CANNABIS HEMP has been taken from Federal
and State Department of Agriculture reports, articles from Popular
Mechanics, Popular Science, Pulp & Paper Magazine, Scientific American,
entries from encyclopedias and pharmacoepias, and studies from all over
the world during the last 200 years. This is all public information. The
United States government is hiding the fact that 125 years ago, and even
as far back as 4000 BC, 80 percent of our economy was based on the use
of CANNABIS HEMP for paper, fiber and fuel. Ten to 20 percent  of our
economy was based on CANNABIS HEMP medicines, 125 years ago.

CANNABIS HEMP was part of our everyday life. Every farm had a hemp patch
growing. This cover-up outrages me and it should outrage you, too. I
have been studying about CANNABIS HEMP for over 30 years, and I can't
believe how the U.S. government, in 90 seconds in Congress, could outlaw
"MARIJUANA" in 1937, without the people realizing they were outlawing
CANNABIS HEMP, the most perfect plant for the planet! They even got
other countries to outlaw it, too, after the Second World War.  From
1840 to 1940, 80 percent of all the world's hemp was grown in, and
imported from, Russia.

With the technology of the decorticator, CANNABIS HEMP would have taken
over the cotton market, as it is far superior to cotton. I will again
reiterate a few of the facts about CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA, which you
already know.

CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA was the number ONE annually renewable natural
resource for 80 percent of all paper, fiber and fuel.  From 6000 years
ago to 125 years ago, it was used for food, light, land and soil
reclamation, and even 20 percent of all medicine. Everyone, from the
educated to the uneducated, the farmer to the townsperson, the doctors
and the scientists used hemp products and depended on them until about
125 years ago.

Seventy-five to 90 percent of all paper used from at least 100 AD to
1883 was made of CANNABIS HEMP. Books, including Bibles, money and
newspapers all over the world have been mainly printed on CANNABIS HEMP
for as long as these things have existed in human history. They were
printed on hemp exclusively!

Seventy to 90 percent of all rope, twine, cordage and ship sails, 125
years ago, were made out of CANNABIS HEMP fiber, until it was replaced
by petrochemical fibers in 1937 and 1938. By comparison, CANNABIS HEMP
is four times softer than cotton, four times warmer, four times more
water absorbent, has three times the strength of cotton, is many times
more durable and doesn't use pesticides like cotton, and is flame
retardant. Fifty percent of all pesticides are used on cotton, and
cotton uses only one percent of the farmland.

Of all the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, no other plant source can
compare with the nutritional value of CANNABIS HEMP seeds. It is the
only plant on Earth that has essential amino acids, essential fatty
acids and protein and essential oils combined. It is the healthiest
plant for human consumption.

Prior to the 1800s, HEMPSEED oil was the number ONE source for lighting
oil throughout the world. As late as 1937, even paints and varnishes
were 80 percent HEMPSEED oil. CANNABIS HEMP is non-toxic and has been
used to make high-grade diesel fuel, oil, aircraft and precision oil and
even the number ONE vegetable oil. HEMP is the best sustainable source
of plant pulp for biomass fuel to make charcoal, gas, methanol, gasoline
and electricity in a natural way.

As a medicine, the use of MARIJUANA goes back 6000 years. It has been
found to be healthy and effective in the treatment of chronic pain,
cancer, strokes, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, AIDS
wasting and many other illnesses, including simple nausea, appetite
stimulant and anxiety. On September 6, 1988, the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis L. Young,
ruled:  "Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man," and asked the Drug
Enforcement Agency to reschedule it. The DEA refused, keeping it as a
Schedule I drug, which they say "has no known medical use" ? from 1937
to 2002!  Nobody has ever died from marijuana in 6000 years... unless
they were shot by a cop!

CANNABIS HEMP was used for land reclamation until 1915. HEMP was planted
or left to grow feral as ground cover and not intended for harvest. It
is the number ONE plant to prevent mudslides and loss of watershed, and
river and soil erosion.

What disgusts me the most is how the government, as well as the people,
knew about HEMP and praised its value and then what happened? In
literally 90 seconds, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 passed in Congress.
By using the unknown name "marijuana" instead of the familiar name
"cannabis hemp", Congress was able to accomplish this because no one
knew what plant they were talking about. HEMP became illegal and was
replaced by petrochemical products. They made it such a banned and
forbidden plant that the word "hemp" was not even taught in schools in
the 1940s, 50s and thereafter. In 1850, 80 percent of all paper, fibers
and fuel were made out of CANNABIS in America and the rest of the world.

The role of HEMP was erased from America's history (as well as most of
the rest of the world's) after 1945 and 1950. To prove it, think...what
did you learn about HEMP in school? Nothing! The continuing suppression
of this information by the government places us all in mortal jeopardy.
Here we have a plant that, in conjunction with wind, solar, tidal and
hydroelectric power, can save the planet by providing all of our energy,
fuel, paper, fiber and medical needs naturally, all while reducing acid
rain, chemical pollution and rebuilding the soil, while reversing the
greenhouse effect (no other plant can do this!), and our government
wants to eradicate this seed, out of the 3 1/2 million seeds on Earth.
HEMP was used to make over 25,000 products before it was outlawed in
1937. They want to kill the most perfect plant on the planet. You should
get mad at your government for doing this and for leaving it out of our
schools.

Eighty percent of our economy depended on HEMP for paper, fiber and
fuel, 125 years ago. At that time, it took 300 man hours to harvest an
acre of HEMP, but with the invention of the brand new decorticator in
1930, it only took one-and-a-half to two hours. This is equivalent to
reducing the labor burden from $6,000 down to $40 per acre in today's
money. Keep in mind that the cotton gin, in 1793, reduced the man-hours
from 300 hours down to two hours to harvest an acre of cotton. The role
of CANNABIS should be determined by market supply and demand and not by
undue influence of prohibition laws, federal subsidies and huge tariffs
that keep the natural from replacing the synthetic. MARIJUANA is the
KING KONG of the King Kongs of all plants.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, DEA head Asa Hutchison, and White House
Drug Czar John Walters have been given all of these proven facts and yet
are still set against the legalization of marijuana and recognition of
HEMP knowledge. For whatever personal reasons, they refuse to believe
the facts and are willing to sacrifice the future of our planet and the
health of our people by keeping it illegal. The ban of CANNABIS HEMP is
so extreme and its intention is to hide the truth, and the truth is that
out of the 3 1/2 million plants on Earth, HEMP is the number ONE plant
for our survival and quality of life here on Earth. The government calls
Marijuana users "terrorists" and yet the government of the United States
has been  "terrorizing" us for the last 67 years!

No one has taken the $100,000 challenge to prove me wrong. Why? Because
I am right. The U.S. government has been lying to us since the early
1900s. Do economic interests have more to say than the people about the
future of our planet?

Jack Herer
June 2002
www.jackherer.com

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #111
********************************