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Restore-Digest Monday, June 24
2002 Volume 2002 : Number 116
Today's Restore Hemp News UK:
Frontbench Tory backs legalisation of cannabis
NJ: Smokey And The Bandit LET THEM SMOKE DOPE Scots police forces stop arresting cannabis users good editorial from the Atlanta Journal Rolling Stone: Europe Loosens its Pot Laws Canada: Pot Smokers To Share Venue With Christians equal protection- a creative exercise for adult eyes WI: Alcohol Vs Marijuana Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:20:38 -0700 Subject:UK: Frontbench Tory backs legalisation of cannabis Up TOC From Paul Chang paul_chang@cwjamaica.com Source: The Times, UK Pub Date: Tuesday, 18 June 2002 Subj:UK: Frontbench Tory backs legalisation of cannabis Up TOC Authors Tom Baldwin and Andrew Pierce URL: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-10-330334,00.html Frontbench Tory backs legalisation of cannabis TORY wounds on drugs and gay rights are re-opened today with the leak of a letter showing that a member of the Shadow Cabinet backs the repeal of laws against cannabis and the promotion of homosexuality. John Bercow, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that legalisation of cannabis would help the party to "reconnect with millions of people who consider the present law to be an ass". His letter, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, said that allowing people to take cannabis legally would break the link with hard-drug pushers and encourage "freedom and responsibility". Mr Bercow, the first Shadow Cabinet minister to advocate lifting the ban, added: "As long as people are given health warnings, they should be free to choose for themselves. Our approach has seemed shrill, impracticable and eerily detached from the reality of the lives of millions of our fellow citizens. This must change." He also condemned the party for blocking the repeal of Section 28 laws, which are designed to prevent local authorities promoting homosexuality. Those who "fulminate in support" of Section 28 have "only the haziest idea of its meaning in practice", he said. Aspects of the law are "gratuitously offensive", and Tories should be the "foe of all bigots" instead of choosing to "die in the ditch to defend" the policy. The letter's disclosure reflects the growing tension between Tory traditionalists, who resent social liberals such as Mr Bercow, and modernisers, who are frustrated with the slow pace of change. During the Tory leadership election last year Mr Duncan Smith sought to broaden his appeal by promising to review the party's position on cannabis and Section 28. Since then there have been no changes to policy in these areas, even though the Government has promised a softer approach to cannabis and signalled that it will launch another attempt to repeal Section 28 next year. Steven Norris, a leading moderniser, said last night: "How long does it take to review policy on Section 28? It's time to say 'no' to that piece of legislation, and maybe 'yo!' to cannabis." Mr Bercow wrote the letter to Ann Widdecombe last July, before she quit as Shadow Home Secretary, when he was a member of her team. His allies said yesterday that the leak, almost a year after the letter was written, could be an attempt to embarrass him after a series of rows on issues such as the rights of gay couples to adopt to children. Indeed, one leading Tory traditionalist said: "John should stick to his brief and stop stirring up trouble for Iain." Mr Bercow said: "I've no intention of commenting on what was, until now, private correspondence." Asked if he still held the views expressed in the letter, he replied: "I'm a member of the Shadow Cabinet and I am pleased to share responsibility for the party's policies." He has already been slapped down for previous comments on such issues. When he hinted in an interview last year that he did not support an "all-out war" against soft drugs, Mr Bercow was forced to issue an immediate statement saying he did not advocate legalisation of cannabis. Miss Widdecombe, whose hardline stance on cannabis prompted an infamous Shadow Cabinet revolt two years ago when eight of her colleagues admitted having experimented with the drug, also refused to discuss the leaked letter. She made it clear, however, that she remained deeply opposed to Mr Bercow's views. On Section 28, Miss Widdecombe said: "It's the duty of Conservatives to protect the vulnerable and I can think of nothing more vulnerable than the innocent minds of young children." ~~~ ~ ~~~ Paul Chang mail: PO Box 24, Laughlands St. Ann, Jamaica, WI delivery: Chukka Cove Villa Six Chukka Cove Polo Club/Richmond Farms Laughlands, St. Ann, Jamaica, WI paul_chang@cwjamaica.com 876.381-4736 cellular for Paul 876.972-0817 telephone 1 876.794-8086 telephone 2 876.794-8087 facsimile ~~~ ~ ~~~ ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:29:07 -0700 Subject:NJ: Smokey And The Bandit Up TOC Newshawk: The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation www.thc-foundation.org Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002 Source: Philadelphia Weekly (PA) Webpage: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/article.asp?ArtID=2407 Copyright: 2002 Philadelphia Weekly Contact: editmail@philadelphiaweekly.com Website: http://www.phillyweekly.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1091 Author: Jonathan Valania Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) SMOKY AND THE BANDIT Ed Forchion, Aka The New Jersey Weedman, Is Willing To Risk His Freedom To Put Marijuana Laws On Trial Ed Forchion is no saint. If his arrest record were of the musical variety, it would be a double album or a boxed set. And yet in these warped through-the-looking-glass times we live in, where official truth more often than not turns out to be a lie, Ed Forchion, 38, is something of a role model. Forced by circumstance and his own lapse of judgement, this formerly apolitical Rastafarian trucker has become a radicalized constitutional warrior. He has dared to ask out loud, in a court of law no less, the question the estimated 80 million Americans who have tried marijuana have asked themselves in private: Why is it illegal? With neither the money nor the justice it can buy, he has fought the law--in this case, the law that makes it a crime to pluck the leaves off a certain fragrant weed growing in the earth and smoke them for pleasure or medicinal use--and the law has called it a draw. Forchion did not pick this fight--he's sort of the stoner analogue of the drunken underclassmen at a frat party who trips and spills his beer down the blouse of the homecoming queen and gets taken outside by the jocks for a good beat-down--but he did not run from it. And before it was over, he had lost pretty much everything he ever had except his phonebook-thick stack of court transcripts, which he pores over like a biblical scholar hunched over the Dead Sea Scrolls. His name probably doesn't ring a bell, but you may know him by his nickname: New Jersey Weedman. Or maybe by his antics: smoking a joint at the Liberty Bell, or on the floor of the New Jersey State Assembly or in the offices of Congressman Rob Andrews (D-N.J.). Or his quixotic bids for a congressional seat representing the Legalize Marijuana Party, a party of one--him. Or his well-publicized efforts to legally make his name and his web site (www.NJweedman.com) one and the same--a desperate prison-house bid to bring attention to the collateral damage of the War on Drugs. While most people probably mistook these acts of civil disobedience for giggle-worthy outtakes from a Cheech and Chong movie when they showed up on the evening news, they were in fact all part of kamikaze legal defense strategy that was, by all conventional standards of jurisprudence, crazy--but in the end proved to be crazy like a fox. In 1997, Ed Forchion was arrested for receiving 40 pounds of marijuana and was looking at 20 years in prison. For the next three years, serving as his own counsel, he attempted to put the marijuana laws on trial. Fearing a public debate about the fairness of these laws--and the legitimacy of the scientific evidence behind them--or maybe just tired of Forchion's media circus act, the prosecution offered him a deal that was too good to turn down: three to six months in prison and two years of parole. If his story ended there, this article probably would not have been written. Having served 18 months in prison, Forchion is today a semi-free man. As part of his plea bargain, he has been given Intensive Supervised Parole, and if he keeps his nose clean for the next 20 months he walks away free and clear from this whole nightmare. But Forchion is appealing for a new trial, another chance to put the marijuana laws on trial by using a semi-obscure legal technique known as jury nullification, wherein the jury can agree to acquit on the grounds that the law in question is illegitimate or unfairly applied. There's just one catch: If he does get a new trial and is found guilty, Forchion could go to prison for 20 years. (The following account of the events leading up to and resulting from Forchion's arrest are told from his perspective and backed up wherever possible by court records and newspaper accounts. Neither Forchion's court-appointed attorney, the Camden County public defender's office nor the prosecutor's office would speak on the record for this story.) Ed Forchion has, by his own admission, done some dumb things in his life. He got busted for smoking dope while in the Army. He once lost $13,000 at the blackjack table at Trump Taj Mahal, and in a drunken stupor grabbed $6,000 worth of chips off the table and ran out the door. He got away with it until the day he got pulled over by the police and they found an unregistered double barrel shotgun and a bag of pot. But the dumbest thing he ever did was drive to Bellmawr, N.J., around Thanksgiving 1997 to pick up a FedEx package containing 40 pounds of marijuana even though he had a pretty good hunch that the cops had set a trap for him. Forchion first tried marijuana when he was 15 years old. "I instantly enjoyed it," he says. "I instantly knew it wasn't dangerous." By the time he was 19, he was a daily user, bogarting upwards of five joints a day. A longtime sufferer of asthma--an ailment that would one day get him thrown out of the Army--Forchion found that marijuana opened up his chest to the point that he could throw away his inhaler. In the early '90s, Forchion became a long-haul trucker, and before long bought his own $70,000 rig. During a trip to Arizona, he met up with a cousin who, in between hits off a shared joint, told him that the same marijuana that cost $1,000 a pound in New Jersey could be purchased in Phoenix for just $300. Forchion bought three pounds, buried it deep inside the load he was carrying and snuck it back to New Jersey. Without having to resort to street dealing, he managed to get rid of most of it through friends and associates--including his brother, Russell--turning a tidy profit and holding onto enough to keep himself stoned off his tits. He returned to Arizona frequently, and eventually fell in with some Mexican drug dealers who offered him bigger and better deals. It was the Mexicans who dubbed him "New Jersey Weedman." He got an apartment in Tucson that he used as a base of operations, and five times a year he would smuggle upwards of three hundred pounds to places like Cleveland and New York as well as New Jersey, earning as much as $20,000 per run. "They offered me coke and heroin, but I always turned them down," says Forchion. "To me pot wasn't a drug, those were drugs. Besides, I am the exact opposite of a coke person, there is absolutely nothing about me that wants to go fast." Forchion was extremely cautious on those pot runs, driving only at night when the interstates were largely free of traffic and state troopers. He invested in pricey, highly detailed maps that pinpointed where all the weigh stations and agricultural checkpoints were, and plotted out alternative routes. He estimates that these smuggling runs earned him $100,000 a year, which nearly doubled his trucker's salary. It was a fat and happy time. But one day in Texarkana, his luck nearly ran out. "I got pulled over at an inspection station and when they saw I was coming from Arizona they wanted to search the truck because that's where all the pot from Mexico comes through," says Forchion. "I remember thinking 'I'm a black man in Arkansas with 120 pounds of pot. I am going to jail.'" At the time, Forchion owned a Rottweiler named Buster. The inspector took a shine to Buster, telling Forchion he used to raise Rottweilers. Just as the inspector was opening the back doors of Forchion's rig, Buster ran off to pee and was run over by a passing truck. "I was crying, but I think the inspector was even more upset," says Forchion. "He put Buster in a bag and handed it to me and sent me on my way." He was not quite aware of it at the time, but Ed Forchion had just cashed his last get-out-of-jail-free card. One afternoon in November 1997, Forchion noticed a van parked across the street from his house in Chislehurst, N.J. He asked all around the neighborhood and nobody knew who owned it. He set up a camcorder in his house and recorded himself walking over to the van and knocking on the tinted black windows. When he got no response, he went back to his house and retrieved a can of shaving cream, which he proceeded to smear over all the windows of the van. As he walked away, chuckling to himself, the van suddenly started up and drove away. Not willing to let well enough alone, Forchion pursued the van in his own car, camcorder in hand. A few blocks later, he pulled up alongside the van, honking his horn and aiming the camcorder at the driver. The driver looked over, and when he recognized Forchion and saw the camcorder, he turned his head the other way, speeding off. On the tape, you can hear Forchion guffawing loudly. As he sits contritely on the sofa of his wife's modest ranch home tucked away in the leafy hollows of Bells Mill, N.J., Forchion shakes his head and tells PW, "I guess I got a little arrogant there towards the end. Two weeks later I was arrested." In between trucking runs, both legit and otherwise, Forchion and his brother would occasionally use FedEx to send pot from Arizona to New Jersey. They would wrap the weed in industrial shrink-wrap, cover it in Vaseline to disguise the smell, shrink-wrap it again, put it inside an airtight cooler and glue the lid shut, then double-box the cooler. Russell Forchion had a friend named Eric Poole who worked as the shipping clerk at Berg Labs in Bellmawr, and the Forchion brothers would have FedEx deliver the packages there. Such was the case on Thanksgiving 1997 when Forchion arranged for 40 pounds of decent-grade Mexican cannabis to be sent to his brother back in New Jersey. Forchion had planned to spend the Thanksgiving holiday in Arizona with his girlfriend, but he got a call from his brother telling him that the package never showed up on Saturday as expected. FedEx told Russell that the package had missed the plane and would arrive on Monday. "Looking back now I don't know why but I decided to fly back and find out what was going on--I couldn't help myself," says Forchion. "I guess curiosity got the best of me." Come Monday morning, the Forchion brothers headed over to Berg labs in separate cars to await the FedEx man. Russell went inside while Forchion circled the block, where he noticed a car containing Jerome Kee, an acquaintance from his days growing up in Sicklerville. Everybody knew that Kee now worked as an undercover narcotics investigator for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Just then the FedEx man--actually another undercover cop--arrived and dropped off the package. Forchion called his brother on his cell phone and told him Kee was waiting outside--it was a set-up. Russell panicked, threw the package in his car and sped off. As Kee began to pursue, Forchion pulled in front to block him. A few blocks later, a contingent of 20 law enforcement officers--uniformed state troopers and Bellmawr patrolmen, a couple DEA agents and a bunch of plainclothes cops--pounced on their prey. At Bellmawr police headquarters, Poole and the Forchion brothers were congratulated for being the first people to be tried under New Jersey's just-passed Omnibus Crime Act, which made possession of more than 20 pounds of marijuana a first degree offense, punishable by 20 years in prison. Russell, Forchion and Poole cooperated with authorities, naming names, and eventually got off with light sentences. But the Weedman vowed that he wasn't going out like that. "I knew that laws could be challenged, especially new laws," says Forchion. "I saw how Megan's law had been effectively gutted by legal challenges. Besides, they charged me with conspiracy and possession, but I never even touched the package. How can they charge me with possession?" Forchion talked to a number of defense attorneys about his case and the median legal fee estimate he came away with was $50,000. The day Forchion was arrested, he had $46,000 to his name. To make matters worse his truck was repossessed while he was in jail awaiting bail, effectively ending his only legitimate source of income. And then the Weedman started reading--about the history of marijuana and its relatively recent and questionable criminalization, about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, about society and its discontents. Reading about William Penn, he discovered a legal strategy called jury nullification. By using jury nullification, a defendant essentially argues that he isn't guilty of any wrongdoing, but that the law is. Searching on the Internet, Forchion found a book called Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine by a Houston attorney named Clay Conrad. "One of the earliest applications of jury nullification was the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it illegal to assist slaves to escape," writes Conrad. "As far South as Georgia, jurors refused to convict. It was used again around the turn of the last century when the conspiracy laws made it illegal for people to conspire to start labor unions. During prohibition, almost 60 percent of East Coast jurors refused to convict for possession or sale of alcohol. After a few years of that acquittal rate, the law was deemed unenforceable, which led to the end of prohibition. I think the same thing could happen with the marijuana laws, to the point where prosecutors lose interest in trying those cases and the marijuana laws dissolve." Michael Friedman, head of the Camden County Public Defender's Office, didn't see it that way. "When I told him I wanted to use jury nullification as my defense, he told me 'That's anarchy,'" says Forchion. "I told them that I knew that in Farretta v. California in 1974 the Supreme Court ruled that a defendant has a right to choose his own defense and if they wouldn't help me I would defend myself. I knew that the Miranda laws worked both ways: anything you say can be used against you in the court of law, but it can also be used for you. That's when I decided to run for office, because the press would have to cover me." Forchion formed his own political party--the Legalize Marijuana Party--and got himself on the ballot for Burlington County Freeholder. He found out he could run for more than one office at once, so he also got himself on the ballot for First District congressional seat. Nearly every day he would load up his van--emblazoned with the Legalize Marijuana Party logo--with pro-pot literature and drive around the county handing out information and collecting signatures. He needed only 200 signatures to get on the ballot, but he made sure he had 500 just in case. He didn't have much luck generating press attention, though, so he decided to take more drastic measures. "I started to figure out how the press worked," says Forchion. "I couldn't just talk about marijuana as a religion. Nobody would write about that. I had to do these crazy things. If I smoked a joint at the Liberty Bell, then the press would write about me." He smoked protest joints in a dozen public places altogether, often in the company of the media, which may explain why he was arrested only half the time. "I knew that potential jury members would hear about me and they might agree with me," he says. "I could cross-examine the arresting officers and ask them if they read me my Miranda rights and did I make any statements, and of course they would have to say 'Yeah, he made all kinds of statements in the paper,' and then I could get them read into the record and heard by the jury." Forchion had no money for TV ads, but he was convinced that the public acts of civil disobedience and the resulting media coverage was getting his message out to voters. But two weeks before the election, Forchion was indicted on the FedEx bust, nearly a year after the fact. Come Election Day, the groundswell of public support Forchion expected from the tens of thousands of voters he was convinced were private tokers never materialized. He got 3,500 votes, coming in fourth behind the libertarian candidate but ahead of the Conservative party candidate and the Green Party candidate--which when you think about it is not bad for dope-smoking single-issue third party candidate with zero fundraising dollars or matching funds. A few days after the election, the prosecutor's office offered him a deal: eight years if he went out to Arizona and fingered his connections. "I was depressed. I started thinking my plan wasn't working and maybe people were right when they said I was just talking myself into prison," says Forchion. He flew out to Arizona and made a few phone calls to prove he knew certain drug dealers, but the next day he had a change of heart and told the police that he couldn't go through with it, and on the third day they sent him back home. Kicking himself for this moment of weakness, he was more determined than ever to put the marijuana laws on trial. He would present his arguments to the jury and back up his statements by putting his own forensic experts on the witness stand: Dr. John P. Morgan, a Professor of Pharmacology at the City University of New York Medical School and co-author of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence, a book that attempted to debunk the hysteria and pseudoscientific baggage that had attached itself to pot over the years; Dr. Julian Heiklen, a Penn State chemistry professor and a libertarian activist, who got himself arrested weekly by lighting up a joint at the front gates of the university until the judge got tired of seeing him and told the police to stop arresting him; and Dr. Steve Fenichel, an Absecon, N.J.-based M.D. and vocal medicinal marijuana advocate. Fenichel first became aware of marijuana's medical value back in 1979 when he was a resident at J.F.K. Medical Center in Edison, N.J., treating a patient with testicular cancer. "The chemo was making him violently ill," recalls Fenichel. "To the point where he said he would rather die than take another chemo treatment. I tried every anti-nausea drug available and nothing worked. I asked him to give me one more chance, and I went up to New York and procured two marijuana cigarettes. He smoked them and it killed the nausea. In fact he had an appetite. I was then called into the head of the program's office and asked if I knew anything about the funny smell in the hallway. I told him what had happened and he told me never to do that again, and if I did he would see to it that I would lose my license. I'm ashamed to say I caved in--I remember the patient asking for me before his next chemo. I vowed then that I would never again put the law above a patient's care." They say a man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client, and Forchion played to type, routinely showing up in court dressed in a T-shirt emblazoned with a King Kong-sized middle finger and the slogan "F* THE LAW SMOKE MARIJUANA ANYWAY." Forchion was swimming upstream against the justice system and he would soon find out how strong the official currents were. He was denied his expert witnesses. At a pretrial hearing, Forchion filed a motion to suppress evidence on the grounds that the FedEx package had been opened without a search warrant, and this, too, was denied. It would take two years, 15 hearings and three judges until he was even allowed to represent himself. The judge assigned Jamie Kaigh, a private defense attorney who was part of the Public Defender's pool of lawyers assigned to cover overflow cases, as his assistant counsel. From the beginning, Forchion and Kaigh bickered like an old married couple; Kaigh wanted no part of the jury nullification defense, but agreed to advise Forchion on procedural matters. The judge set a trial date for Aug. 28 2000, to which Kaigh responded that he would be away taking a vacation, which didn't exactly ingratiate the defense with the judge. And it just got worse. On Sept. 1, Forchion was arrested at a Dunkin' Donuts in Cherry Hill for possession of a quarter-ounce of pot. He couldn't make the $10,000 bail, so he sat in jail for nearly two weeks until his mother bailed him out just days before his trial was scheduled to begin. And then, at the last minute, the judge, who was fairly sympathetic to Forchion's plight, was removed from the case without explanation and replaced with another judge, who made it clear that this case had dragged on long enough. At a Sept. 11 hearing, Forchion argued that he should be allowed to use jury nullification, and Kaigh asked to be removed from the case. Both requests were denied. "That left me without a defense and an attorney that didn't want to represent me," says Forchion. The first day of the trial, Sept. 18, Kaigh didn't even bother to show up. A court officer called his law firm and a few hours later Kami Hockfield--daughter of Kaigh's partner, fresh out of law school and having never tried a case before--showed up and announced that she would be representing Forchion. "I told the judge that this woman is not my attorney," says Forchion. The judge summoned the defense and the prosecution into his chambers, wherein prosecutor John Wynne offered Forchion a deal: 33 months in exchange for a guilty plea. Forchion declined. After the jury was seated and Forchion made his opening arguments, one of the jurors broke down crying, saying she couldn't be responsible for sending this man to jail. "I'm thinking, 'It's working'," says Forchion. Two days later Wynne offered another deal: six months in jail and 27 months on Intensive Supervised Parole. "I thought to myself, 'Six months? I could do that standing on my head'," says Forchion. He told the judge he would accept the plea bargain as long as he could still appeal and would be given a chance to address the jury one last time. "I asked how many of them were feeling my argument, that marijuana should be legal, and five people raised their hands," says Forchion, who unsuccessfully tried to get out of the plea bargain agreement a week later. Sentencing was set for Dec. 1, 2000. Two months after the trial Forchion took a bus up to Ontario, where he applied for political asylum at the Swiss, Dutch and Cuban embassies. "I wanted to force a new trial," he says. "The Swiss basically laughed at me. The Dutch were nicer about it, but they said no, too. The Cuban embassy thought about for a while. The woman there suggested that I just get on a plane and fly to Cuba, but I didn't have a passport." So he got on a bus and came home in time for his sentencing. On Jan. 12, 2001, Forchion reported to Riverfront Prison in Camden. It took prison guards less than five minutes to find the 10 joints hidden in the sole of his shoe. On Feb. 6, Forchion received a letter from the director of the state's Intensive Supervised Parole program informing him that he was not eligible due to his extensive criminal history. "Classic bait and switch," says Forchion. Ultimately, Forchion served 15 months before his release on April 3 of this year. Before entering prison Forchion began preparing his appeal, a process that requires him to secure a copy of his trial transcripts. Nobody at the court reporter's office seemed to be in much of a hurry to make this happen, as it would take nearly 16 months--plus a lawsuit, a threatened hunger strike and Dr. Fenichel plunking down the $380 fee--for Forchion to get his transcripts. Oddly enough, there are key passages missing from several of the transcripts. A reconstruction hearing is set for next month where all parties involved in the proceedings will attempt to recreate the missing dialogue. Ed Forchion is now awaiting a decision on his request for a new trial. Attorney- author Clay Conrad has agreed to advise Forchion in the event the appellate court sides with him. "I have warned him that if he takes it to a new trial and he loses, he could go to jail for a long time," says Conrad. "But I have no doubt he is up to the task--what lawyers do is not magic. He's only got one case to figure out and only one law to master and all the time in the world to figure it out." And Forchion seems to have a kindred spirit in John Vincent Saykanic, his new court-appointed attorney. "We just want to say some of the drug laws are ridiculous," he says. "The government is wrong when it comes to the marijuana issue." __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:29:32 -0700 Subject:LET THEM SMOKE DOPE Scots police forces stop arresting cannabis users Up TOC From Paul Chang paul_chang@cwjamaica.com http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=11973687&method=full&siteid=86024 LET THEM SMOKE DOPE Scots police forces stop arresting cannabis users Derek Alexander Exclusive POLICE officers have been told not to arrest anyone caught with cannabis for personal use, the Sunday Mail can reveal. All eight Scottish forces adopted the secret policy because they were wasting time arresting suspects with small amounts of the drug. Last night a source close to Justice Minister Jim Wallace confirmed cannabis has effectively been decriminalised in secret. Police have become frustrated after prosecutors binned 45,000 drug cases last year - one in five of all reported. The source said: "There might not be a formal signed policy document from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland but that doesn't mean the policy is not in place. "In an ideal world, every crime would be properly investigated and prosecuted. But we have to live in the real world where the possession of cannabis is no longer seen as a law enforcement priority. "It means that if you don't have a record and there are no other offences involved you would be incredibly unlucky to be prosecuted for possession of cannabis." Last July, police in London adopted a "softly, softly" approach to cannabis possession, in an initiative sanctioned by the Home Office. Officers in Lambeth were instructed not to arrest cannabis users with small amounts for personal use. Local Metropolitan Police commander Brian Paddick was later suspended amid allegations that he had smoked cannabis, which he claimed were part of a smear campaign against him. Cannabis is due to be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug by Home Secretary David Blunkett this summer. That would reduce the penalties for cannabis offences but police officers will still be required to send a report to the procurator fiscal when someone is caught in possession of the drug, even if it is a small amount. Yesterday, David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said: "Officers in urban areas are changing their attitudes to the use of cannabis. "This could be because of the overworked legal system, but also because they want to focus on drugs like heroin and cocaine. "Perhaps officers in rural areas will still adopt a hardline to cannabis use, but we've certainly been told that officers in urban areas are more tolerant." One senior police officer said: "As long as there's a public desire for us to prosecute people in possession of controlled substances - heroin, speed, ecstasy or cannabis - then the courts will be under huge pressure from the sheer volume of cases. "The fact of the matter is that these cases are regularly being binned for administrative convenience because the courts can't handle the level of work being put to them." Last year, Strathclyde Police, which covers around half the country, reported around 12,000 people to the fiscal for alleged possession of cannabis. The total number of drugs-related cases, ranging from possession to trafficking of Class A drugs, to reach court in 2000 was 6500 - down a fifth from the peak of 8200 in 1997. Joe Grant, general secretary of the Strathclyde Police Federation, said: "We're are frequently hearing from officers that they're concerned and frustrated that the procurator fiscal is marking case no proceedings to expedite their workload." Tory Justice spokesman, Bill Aitken, said: "The use of cannabis is illegal. I find it deeply distressing that there should be, on the face of it, a back door approach to decriminalising drugs." - -- Phil Stovell South Hampshire, UK ~~~ ~ ~~~ Paul Chang mail: PO Box 24, Laughlands St. Ann, Jamaica, WI delivery: Chukka Cove Villa Six Chukka Cove Polo Club/Richmond Farms Laughlands, St. Ann, Jamaica, WI paul_chang@cwjamaica.com 876.381-4736 cellular for Paul 876.972-0817 telephone 1 876.794-8086 telephone 2 876.794-8087 facsimile ~~~ ~ ~~~ ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:31:16 -0700 Subject:good editorial from the Atlanta Journal Up TOC From Paul Chang paul_chang@cwjamaica.com via Keith Stroup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Newshawk: Rick D. Day Date: Sunday, June 23, 2002 Publication: Atlanta Journal Constitution Author: Cynthia Tucker Title: Drug war's end could provide anti-terror ammo URL: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/tucker/2002/062302.html (Newshawk note: This is a biggie. The head of the editorial board of a major paper sounding like an informed libertarian. Please send email to her with your thoughts on her position) Drug war's end could provide anti-terror ammo There is little good news from the anti-terror front these days.The whereabouts of Osama bin Laden are still unknown; the entrenched Washington bureaucracy is fighting the new proposal for a Cabinet-level homeland defense department; and al-Qaida has regrouped to foment jihad in Kashmir, the area hotly contested by two new nuclear powers, India and Pakistan. In other words, world affairs remain depressing.Still, there was this small notice mixed in with recent news about reorganizing and retooling the FBI: The agency will scale back its efforts in the so-called war on drugs. It comes as a relief -- a bit of good news -- that the FBI has shifted its priorities away from corner crackheads and petty methamphetamine dealers. With terrorists threatening to explode dirty bombs, spread smallpox and put cyanide in the water supply, it seems silly for a major law enforcement agency to expend its precious resources hunting down drug offenders.The so-called war on drugs, which always amounted to a war on drug users, has long been a form of official terrorism -- an overzealous but unimaginative effort to stop irresponsible Americans from abusing their own bodies. Much like Prohibition, the war on drugs has created more problems than it has solved, incarcerating hundreds of thousands of nonviolent Americans and guaranteeing a black market, which, in turn, has sparked an epidemic of violence.Had there not been hefty profits in selling banned substances, drug gangs would not have sprung up to sell them and to war with each other as they fought over turf. Similarly, there would be no South American cocaine cartels, which have earned enough profits from narco-trafficking to purchase armies to destabilize their native lands.This seems as good a time as any for the White House and Congress to quietly end the war on drugs. There is no great enthusiasm for it among average American voters. Why not go ahead and quietly ease back from a 40-year "war" that the nation has no chance of winning? While it would be politically risky for any formal announcement of retrenchment -- and even riskier to legalize banned substances -- the war on terror provides plenty of cover for scaling back. For one thing, billions more will be needed to safeguard American soil from terrorists. What better place to get it than from the money set aside for punitive anti-drug efforts -- from police raids to prison beds? The entire budget of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which has grown from $65 million in 1972 to $1.8 billion this year, could be shifted to homeland defense.With the nation's federal law enforcement agencies concentrating on terrorism, the abuse of illegal narcotics could be confronted logically -- as a public health problem. If America made a serious commitment to drug treatment and rehabilitation, rather than incarceration, our streets might actually be safer. The violence of the drug war has largely been an unintended consequence of the law enforcement effort to squelch drug sales. (Again, see Prohibition.)That's not to say that major drug cartels would disappear if police stopped going after petty drug dealers. As long as there is money to be made from illegal drugs, criminal enterprises will hang around to reap the profits. The biggest and most dangerous of those criminal enterprises should always be in the gun sights of law enforcement officials. But shifting money from the drug war to the war on terror will also interrupt some of those drug cartels. As the U.S. Customs Service tightens borders to stop Islamist terrorists, inspecting packages, trucks, trains and container ships, it will inevitably stop more shipments of illegal drugs. So why not beef up Customs with money from the DEA? After more than 40 years of trying to stop Americans from using illegal narcotics -- wasting billions of dollars and countless lives in the process -- U.S. politicians and policy-makers ought to be ready for a new strategy. The war on terror has brought precious few blessings, but the opportunity to back away from the war on drugs is one. Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays [ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 6/23/02 ] ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:56:08 -0700 Subject:Rolling Stone: Europe Loosens its Pot Laws Up TOC Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 Source: Rolling Stone (US) Section: National Affairs Pages: 55-57 Copyright: 2002 Straight Arrow Publishers Company, L.P. Contact: letters@rollingstone.com Website: http://www.rollingstone.com/ Authors: Gregory Katz, Rob Story, Jason Cohn EUROPE LOOSENS ITS POT LAWS From England To Italy, Politicians And Cops Are Getting More Tolerant Of Marijuana Users At the end of May, the Senior Judge of England's highest court, Lord Bingham, publicly declared his country's marijuana prohibition "stupid" and said he "absolutely" supported legalization. This sent a shock wave through the nation's political establishment. While many leaders have recently called for relaxing England's pot laws, including the chief prison inspector and several prominent police chiefs, Bingham, known as a modernizer of England's tradition-bound judiciary, is one of the country's most influential judges. With so many officials calling for reform, England's politicians are scrambling to respond. Prime Minister Tony Blair has refused to take a stand, except to say that the War on Drugs is not working. But Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced plans to reclassify marijuana so that casual users will not face prison. Bucking the American pot-prohibition orthodoxy has become a trend in advanced, industrialized nations (see "New Pot World Order," below). Portugal has moved closest to outright decriminalization, with Switzerland close behind. In Portugal, criminal penalties have been removed for the use of small amounts of all formerly illicit drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy and marijuana. Only three European nations -- Sweden, Finland and Norway -- still strictly hew to the U.S., model of strong police action against small-time drug users. "There has been a revolution in the laws throughout Europe because there is a widespread recognition that drug prohibition is not working," says British Parliament member Paul Flynn. "The most dangerous way to treat marijuana is to prohibit it and leave its marketing to a dangerous criminal. There has been a stream of misinformaton from America about this." In England, the move toward decriminalizing marijuana has been led by several crusading police chiefs and commanders, such as Brian Paddick. For a trial period, Paddick instructed his officers in the London neighborhood of Brixton to warn, rather than arrest, those caught with small amounts of pot. Scotland Yard then issued a report that determined that the project had saved 2,500 police hours over six months. Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller concludes, "Initial findings have shown that officers' time saved in completeing arrest formalities and preparing court papers can be put to more crime-fighting use." One of the first officials to call for decriminalization was north Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, who says, "Recent research shows that cannabis is much less harmful than nicotine, so it's impossible to defend banning cannabis and allowing tobacco -- the law becomes, in British parlance, an ass." The movement has received support form politicians of all stripes, including Conservative Party lawmakers. Marijuana-law reformers would like to go even further and legalize cannabis, which would then be regulated and taxed much as alcohol is. "Obviously we feel with reclassification people will get less punishment, whch is a good thing," says Alun Buffry, national coordinator of Britain's Legalize Cannabis Alliance, "but it's a long way from satisfactory. There will be more people selling bad-quality stuff, some of it not cannabis at all." A series of United Nations treaties that require member nations to ban the drug block drastic change; nonetheless the Swiss government -- which has not signed these treaties -- is at least studying the idea of legalizing marijuana. In the United States, advocates of marijuana-law reform are extremely pleased by the developments in Europe, but pessimistic about a potential domino effect. "The pivotal thing to understand," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, "is that in the United States there is a radical anti-drug element for whom marijuana is a complete bugaboo. There are fanatical anti-drug organizations that are trying to reinforce the demonization of marijuana." Indeed, George W. Bush's White House equates marijuana with hard drugs. Tom Riley, a spokesman for Bush's Office of National Drug Control Policy says pointedly that the European trend does not mesh with the U.S. approach. "There's a widespread misunderstanding that marijuana is the harmless drug," says Riley, "but the number of people with clinically defined dependence on marijuana is going up in the U.S. -- you're talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people." According to Riley, up to 2 million Americans are effectively addicted to marijuana. (An estimated 50 million are addicted to cigarettes.) The hard-line American approach is viewed as ridiculous by many European health officials, who say it is not backed up by any scientific evidence. "If you look at the figures, you will see that cannabis consumption in Holland is lower than in the U.S.A., even after the U.S.A. has had this famous War on Drugs for twenty-five years, and we've had a liberal policy for twenty-five years," says Bob Keizer, senior drug-policy adviser to the Dutch minister of health. "And if you look at hard-drug addicts, our rate is stable, considerably lower than other countries. And so, all of the countries surrounding us are gradually following our example." [SIDEBAR] New Pot World Order While the U.S. continues to arrest more than 700,000 pot users per year, many of our allies in the Western coalition have sharply reduced penalties for marijuana use. Here's a country-by-country survey: CANADA -- Pot possession remains illegal, but there's substantial regional variation in prosecutors' zest for punishing those found with small amounts. British Columbia, and Vancouver in particular, is perceived by many to be more tolerant. AUSTRALIA -- Possession remains illegal, but in some states and territories, possession of small quantities may be treated as a civil, not criminal, offense. GREAT BRITAIN -- The government has announced plans to downgrade marijuana so that it's not classified with drugs such as Ecstacy. Possession for small quantities will no longer be grounds for arrest. PORTUGAL -- Possession of small amounts of marijuana, defined as ten daily doses or less, has been decriminalized. People found with the drug may face fines, but not criminal prosecution. THE NETHERLANDS -- Marijuana can be purchased in government-licensed "coffee shops" and smoked on the premises. SPAIN, ITALY -- Penalties for marijuana use have been sharply lowered. SWITZERLAND -- Cannabis cafes and stores operate openly, without government interference, and the government is studying proposals to legalize marijuana. FRANCE -- Pot remains illegal and arrests are common, but some prosecutors and judges have declined to go forward with cases against individuals using small amounts. GERMANY -- Pot is still illegal, but police and prosecutors in many regions have become more tolerant of small-quantity users. [SIDEBAR The High Peaks of Europe On The Ground In The New Stoned Switzerland At Growland, a two-story marijuana emporium in the up-scale shopping arcades of Bern, Switzerland, the product is remarkably inexpensive. Growland is one of fifteen stores here in the nation's capital that openly sell marijuana, and one of 250 nationwide. While it is technically not legal to deal pot in Switzerland, it is also not illegal. Store manager Peter Zysset has been in business for nine years and has only been visited by the cops once. Whatever the Deadhead on your gift list wants, Growland sells, including ten sticky strains of marijuana -- all grown in Switzerland, according to Zysett. "The product is 100 percent Swiss, mostly grown outdoors," he says. "Already some former vineyards here have turned to growing pot." The pragmatic Swiss clearly recognize the senselessness of banning a naturally occurring plant that has never killed anyone. In 1999, the Swiss Federal Commission for Drug Issues put out a report proposing a formal policy of cannabis decriminalization. And Department of Health Director Thomas Zeltner has said that "the consumption of cannabis can't be avoided through prohibition" and admitted that "cannabis does relatively little damage to health." In 2001, the States Council (Switzerland's version of the U.S. Senate) unanimously passed a revision of the Narcotics Law, calling for cannabis possession to be decriminalized. The lower house of Switzerland's congress still must ratify the revision; in the meantime, many of the country's twenty-six states (called cantons) have effectively decriminalized weed for anyone over eighteen. Buyers are legally required to supply Swiss ID, but vendors only sporadically ask for it, and sometimes accept long-range train passes as proof of residency. Switzerland's leniency has turned legendary ski towns like Verbier -- located about 100 miles south of Bern -- into magnets for the international burnout set. Verbier reports that in the last two years, the number of young North Americans streaming to its slopes has picked up by about five percent. Perhaps Steve Klassen, a Mammoth Lake, California, snowboarder who traveled to Verbier in April for a competition, says it best: "Verbier is the best venue in the world for extreme snowboarding. I go right from kind-bud Cali to Sativa Switzerland -- do not go to jail, do not pay $200." [SIDEBAR] The LAPD Guts D.A.R.E. In Los Angeles, the city where the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program began in 1983, the civilian Police Commission and the Los Angeles Police Department have agreed to slash the budgeted number of D.A.R.E. officers from 119 to 44 for the 722,000-student L.A. school district. Says Police Commission President Rick Caruso, "I don't think anybody can point to any studies and say that D.A.R.E. is preventing young kids from either violence or drugs." The LAPD fought to keep the program intact in part for its value as a recruitment tool. "What we want to do is recruit good people for the community and help cultivate them, and we do that through the D.A.R.E. program," says Commanding Officer Mark R. Perez, who heads LAPD's D.A.R.E. division. But Perez concedes that police departments are closely monitoring what happens there, noting, "They know that if we fold it up, then a lot of other folks will, too." __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:59:07 -0700 Subject:Canada: Pot Smokers To Share Venue With Christians Up TOC Newshawk: Join CMAP (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/lists.htm) Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 Source: Daily News, The (CN NS) Webpage: http://www.mapinc.org/cancom/4E50D595-204B-4038-AE4B-68F126590DD5 Copyright: 2002 The Daily News Contact: letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca Website: http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/179 Author: Richard Dooley POT SMOKERS TO SHARE VENUE WITH CHRISTIANS Two groups sharing the Dartmouth Commons during this year's Canada Day celebrations won't be actively trying to convert each other to their causes, but if pot smokers venture down the hill, they may find a Christian message and a hot dog waiting for them. For the second year in a row, a group of pot smokers celebrating "Cannabis Day" will be sharing the downtown Dartmouth park with Christian churches from around metro. The pot smokers will be in the gazebo at the top of the hill overlooking Halifax Harbour; the preachers in the rock garden at the foot of the hill. Pastor George Campbell of the the New Life Church in Dartmouth believes the Commons are big enough for everyone to use, without fear of conflicts. "As long as the wind is blowing in the right direction, I mean off the harbour and away from us, it will be all right," he said. Campbell said the two groups left each other alone last year, but the presence of the dope-smoking group sparked a potentially profitable idea. This year, the church group will be selling hot dogs and cold drinks as a fund-raiser for a new youth centre. Having a hundred or so dope-smokers just up the hill from their concession stand isn't a such a bad idea, said Campbell. "We could make a fortune once they get the munchies," he said. Campbell said some of the weed-smokers complained about the loud hymns and gospel music last year. The Cannabis Day group used to have their annual rally calling for the decriminalization of marijuana every Canada Day on the Halifax Commons, but decided last year to move the event to the shady Dartmouth Commons, said co-organizer Nick Oliver. "It's better there because there is more shade," said Oliver. "Stoned people don't know when to get out of the sun." Sharing the park with the Christian groups is no big deal, he said. "It's total peaceful co-existence," he said. Oliver doesn't anticipate any trouble, and doubts the two groups will mingle at all. "It will be interesting to see who has the better turnout," he said. __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 18:09:13 -0700 Subject:equal protection- a creative exercise for adult eyes Up TOC HI all, Sitting here with most of my current assignments finished and finally turned in, I decided to write out an idea, a parable if you will, that popped into my head nearly whole this afternoon, which you can read at the following link. I hope that you will pass it on to whomever you feel may find it entertaining, or educational. Peace, Preston Peet editor <http://www.drugwar.com>http://www.drugwar.com <mailto:ptpeet@nyc.rr.com>ptpeet@nyc.rr.com Equal Protection Under the Law- a modern day parable <http://www.drugwar.com/pequalprotection.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/pequalprotection.shtm by Preston Peet June 24, 2002 Thomas sits on the hard wood bench surrounded by piles of steaming, stinking shit in Tompkins Square at 10th and Ave. A. It's impossible to tell if it's human or other, but it sure as hell doesn't slow him down. Middle of the hot summer afternoon in NYC, it has taken Thomas hours to scam up enough money to score both coke and dope. His morning third of a bag wakeup shot has long worn off, leaving him feeling drained and sore, ready to throw up on his shoes if he doesn't get another shot into himself quickly. The afternoon inline skating hockey game hasn't begun, and there's no annoying groups of kids playing baseball, so there shouldn't be any trouble. He whips out his accoutrements and quickly mixes up a big fat 40 mil shot, stirring in a bag of each drug, sucking up the greasy yellow liquid into his rig. It takes just seconds for him to deftly register the vein he's been hitting the last few days now, on the right side of his left wrist. It's a perfect vein that he doesn't even have to tie off to hit, making it easy to bang no matter his locale, unlike his preferred spot in the elbow. snip- ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 18:14:47 -0700 Subject:WI: Alcohol Vs Marijuana Up TOC Newshawk: Is My Medicine Legal Yet? www.immly.org Pubdate: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 Source: Fond du Lac Reporter, The (WI) Copyright: 2002 Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers Contact: tguenther@smgpo.gannett.com Website: http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/index.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2271 Author: Lee Reinsch Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) ALCOHOL VS. MARIJUANA Different Attitudes Mark Debate For Casual Users In most parts of mainstream American society, the social drinker is perfectly acceptable. Most people don't see anything wrong with responsible adults having some wine over dinner if they don't drive or put others in danger. But mainstream America is not as ready to accept a person smoking pot, even in moderation. Why is it that any amount of pot is viewed as bad? Granted, it's illegal. Even minor misdemeanor incidents mar a person's record. According to National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a person caught with one joint can lose his or her driver's license for six months. If the person is a college student, federal loan monies are instantly revoked. But how'd it get that way? What's the difference between the buzz from a couple of legal beers and the buzz from a few drags on a pot pipe? "The Food and Drug Administration has taken the position over the years that drugs need to be regulated in terms of safety and effectiveness, but Treasury Department has taken the view that use is bad and users are bad people," said Dr. Jonathan Nicoud, professor of psychology at Marian College. Nicoud said he thinks marijuana got a bad reputation in the 1930s, when it was associated in the media with violence among blacks and Mexicans. Nicoud said drugs should be looked at on a case-by-case basis and not automatically categorized as bad or illegal. He said drugs are not the problem. People with addictive tendencies are the problem. But not everyone is prone to addictions. "If alcohol was the reason for alcoholism, it would stand to reason that all people who drank would have a problem," Nicoud said. "Drug use, in many ways, is like sexual behavior; it's not good or bad by itself, but you have to take into consideration who is doing it and when, why, how often and where they are doing it." The question of moderate marijuana use is one that St. Agnes Behavioral Outpatient Services psychotherapist Mary Arndt gets asked often. She said many people ask her if there is such a thing as a "social marijuana smoker," just as there are "social drinkers." She said she doesn't have an answer to that question. "A person who is addicted can no longer safely predict how much they will use, when they use, or what will happen when they do," she said. On the other hand, she said, "A social drinker is able to predict when they drink, how much they will consume and what happens when they do. "An addict will continue to use despite repeated negative consequences, whether they be physical, social, emotional or financial." She said addiction tends to run in families and that, with any mind-altering substance, there's a potential for addiction. "But even a social user is going to experience the physical and psychological effects (of marijuana). There are occasions when social users get picked up for driving under the influence. Not every one of them is an addict, but when they are referred to me, I am able to determine the severity. Based on the severity, I recommend a level of care that meets their needs." Nicoud believes there can be such a thing as a moderate drug user. "Most people are moderate drug users. There is always some fraction of people which is immoderate," he said. "The difficulty is, if drugs can take over your life, it can become the focus of your life. That is a problem. Any time we focus on one thing that leaves other things undone. A lot of people in Fond du Lac can play softball, and that becomes the focus of their lives. Is softball a good thing or a bad thing? I know some people who like to compulsively clean, and that is their whole focus in life. Anytime anything becomes a focus, to the exclusion of everything else, it is a problem. Drugs can be a problem when it becomes such a focus in life that everything else gets thrown out the window." Nicoud said he thinks kids should grow up drug-free. "They (drugs) are not a good solution for solving problems and developing good people-skills and coping skills," he said. More information on the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws may be found at www.norml.org. __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel ** web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ End of Restore-Digest V2002 #116 ******************************** Today's Restore Hemp News Visit our sister site crrh.org
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