Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 18:42:15 -0700

Subject:ColinDavies, the UK's first cannabiscafe founder, arrested,

 released and arrested again ! Up TOC

From: Nol van Schaik

Pressrelease.

Stockport, UK, July 2, 2002.

Colin Davies arrested, released and re-arrested, and in severe pain.

Colin Davies, the UK's number one cannabis-activist, has been arrested
twice in two days, following a raid on his flat, where he was not supposed to be,
according to the bailrestrictions, layed upon him by a Judge of the
Manchester Crown Court.
The restrictions, including declaring Colins flat to a no go-zone, were
activated on Colins release, only six weeks ago, on May 17, 2002. Colin was
released after spending a little over six months in Strangeways, for
cannabis offenses, committed for and around the Dutch Experience coffeeshop
in Stockport.
Colin is a medical marihuana-patient himself, he suffers from a broken
spine, wich causes him unbearable pains, cannabis makes him able to cope
with this, to a certain point.
Last Sunday, June 30th, was one of Colins bad days, as he has them once and
a while, wich made his parents take him to the hospital, where a doctor
injected him with a heavy painkiller.
Colin could not make it back to Todmorden, where he HAS to stay, by
courtorder, his condition left him unable to travel, so he spent the night
in his flat, dazed, no doubt.

The Stockport Police raided Colin's flat the next morning, July 1, 2002,=
 and
arrested Colin and a friend, Bart, who was there to help Colin get back on
his feet. There was some cannabis in the flat, meant to distribute amongst
Colins group of patients.
They both spent the night in the Stockport Police Station, awaiting their
turn to face the Magistrates. Bart was released after his appearrance,
charged with possession of cannabis.
Colin was held in, however, for breaking his bailconditions, causing Colins
solicitor and his parents to undertake action, in making statements on
Colins situation the previous day, and by getting a written statement of the
doctor that treated him in the hospital.
That was taken in consideration, Colin was bailed, with the same
restrictions as before, and he was free to leave, after going through the
formalities.
Most of Colins supporters went back to the cannabiscafe, to spread the good
news about Colin making bail, and his upcoming release.

Colin did not make it out of the courthouse, as we found out shortly after,
he was arrested in the courthouse, apperantly for the possession of
cannabis, during or after the raid of the day before. Two of his supporters
were also arrested, by 20 members of a riot-squad, who were on duty for this
=91heavy' case. The solicitor is at it, we do not have any details yet.

All this is happening in a period that the UK is realising that cannabis is
not a harmfull drug, expressed by changing the Law on cannabis possession
and =ADuse, cannabis will be declassified to Class C effectively before the
summer-break of the Parliament.
The Greater Mancheter Police is only great in victimising Colin Davies, as
if he caused the UK's enormous drugproblem, instead of trying to offer a
possible solution, and seem to have a personal grudge against him.
The lack of police-staff in the UK does not seem to occur in Stockport,
there is always time to go after Colin, with loads of PC's and material.=
The bill is adding up.
Colin is the pinball of a failing government and cops with a personal
grudge, nothing more, nothing less, to show the UK population they are in
control, of the biggest drugproblem in Europe ! Colin is also in serious
pain, but he will have to sleep on a concrete bed in the Stockport Police
Station once again, broken spine and all'

Utterly disgusted,

Nol van Schaik,
Co-founder of the Dutch Experience, Stockport, UK.
0031651852545


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Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 18:53:51 -0700

Subject:Marijuana Constituents Dramatically Reduce Sleep Apnea Up TOC

Pot Constituents Dramatically Reduce Sleep Apnea, Study Says

Chicago, IL:  Marijuana-based medicines may someday play a role in
treating sleeping disorders, including sleep apnea, according to the
findings published this month in Sleep, the journal of the American
Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.  Sleep apnea is
a medical disorder characterized by frequent interruptions in breathing
during sleep.  It's associated with numerous serious medical conditions,
including headaches, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, heart
attack and stroke.

Researchers at the Center for Sleep and Ventilatory Disorders at the
University of Illinois in Chicago found that the administration of THC and
the endogenous cannabinoid oleamide dramatically suppressed sleep-related
apnea in rats.  Authors concluded that the findings suggest an "important
role" for cannabinoids in maintaining autonomic stability during sleep.

Marijuana and its constituents have a long history as sleep-inducing
agents, including previous studies linking THC to melatonin production and
the use of the cannabinoid CBD (cannabidiol) to effectively treat
insomnia.

Abstracts of the Sleep report are available online at:
http://www.journalsleep.org/citation/sleepdata.asp?citationid=2104.

 
 


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Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2002 22:17:05 -0700

Subject:UK: Police Chief Scorns Cannabis Pilot Critics Up TOC

Newshawk: JimmyG
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jul 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Author: Nick Hopkins, Vikram Dodd

POLICE CHIEF SCORNS CANNABIS PILOT CRITICS

As Blunkett Decides Whether To Reclassify Drug, Pioneer At Centre Of
Lambeth Row Disputes Opponents' Evidence

The controversial police commander who pioneered the cannabis pilot project
in Lambeth today condemns his critics, saying they have consistently failed
to tell the truth about what is really happening in the borough by relying
on anecdote rather than facts.

Writing exclusively in the Guardian to mark the first anniversary of the
launch of the project, Mr Paddick says there is no evidence to show that
children are at more risk of being drawn into a drug culture, or that
Lambeth has become a destination for drug tourists - two of the main
concerns raised by opponents to the initiative.

"Children at risk may be a perception rather than a reality ... if there
seems to be more children smoking, perhaps they are being more blatant
about it, or maybe people are more aware now of what has been happening in
Lambeth for years?

Of drug tourism, he says: "The fact is cannabis and other drugs are so
easily available in all parts of London, and in other parts of the country,
who would want to come to Brixton for them?

"Particularly when you consider the way Brixton is portrayed in the media
as some kind of dangerous, lawless, wasteland (another gross exaggeration).
Drug tourism appears to be the expectation rather than the reality."

Mr Paddick accepts that there is considerable confusion about the project,
but believes that a relentless media campaign against him and the
experiment is at least partly to blame for the mixed messages.

He does, however, have the support of some senior officers. Last week the
deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Ian Blair, told the police
authority that the experiment was "undoubtedly a success - in statistical
terms".

At the same meeting Sir John Stevens, the Met commissioner, made a point of
saying that it was his decision to endorse the initiative, which was
launched a year ago today. In the same week, the deputy assistant
commissioner Mike Fuller, the Met officer in charge of drugs strategy,
described the time that had been saved since the project started as "a
godsend".

Publicity

Brian Paddick was hardly a household name in Lambeth, let alone the rest of
the country, when, as borough commander, he told his overworked officers to
caution rather than arrest people caught in possession of cannabis, so they
could concentrate on tackling hardnut crack and heroin dealers.

Now Lambeth is the battleground for the future of policing cannabis, the
last stand for campaigners who want to persuade the home secretary, David
Blunkett, not to reclassify the drug from class B to class C, a move that
would effectively roll out the Lambeth experiment nationwide; at the moment
there is no automatic power of arrest for this class of narcotic.

Mr Paddick, now widely known as the most senior openly gay police officer
in the country, has already become a victim of the row. He has been moved
to other duties pending an inquiry into allegations about his personal life
made by a former lover, who was paid ?100,000 for his story by two Sunday
tabloid newspapers.

But the experiment has endured. And the Met appears to have been emboldened
into a qualified defence of the pilot in the face of some vociferous local
opposition because of research that challenges those two main criticisms:
that more children are smoking cannabis and that the borough has become a
venue for drugs tourism.

A questionnaire was sent to all the borough's secondary and primary schools
asking headteachers if they had noticed any evidence to suggest that more
pupils were using cannabis. Seven of the 10 secondary schools replied, and
50 of the 66 primary schools.

Feedback

"The feedback is very clear," said Brian Moore, Lambeth's acting borough
commander. "So far there has been no escalation, which is a reassuring
response to some of those concerns."

Only one school in the borough was prepared to talk about this yesterday.
Leslie Morrison, headteacher of the St Martin's in the Fields high school
for girls, said the pilot had had no effect on her 675 pupils. "Cannabis
use is not an issue inside the school."

On drugs tourism, analysis of police data of the 1,190 cautions for
possession since last year suggests that there has been no increase in the
number of people coming into the borough to buy drugs. The proportions are
roughly the same as they were last year.

Has the experiment caused a crime wave? Street robbery in Lambeth has been
halved since October last year. In that month, there were 916. In May,
there were 438. And between January and May last year, police in the
borough arrested 249 people for possession of cannabis. In the same period
this year, 740 warnings were issued. More than 1,200 people have been
stopped and searched for drugs in the last year.

Senior Met officers insist it is not true to suggest that police have given
up on policing cannabis; more is being done now than ever before. Yet Mr
Blair has admitted that the "perception [in the borough] is different", and
there is an acceptance within Scotland Yard that a failure to properly
explain what the experiment was aiming to achieve has led to confusion and
mixed messages over legality.

Critics such as the Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey say the amount of police time the
pilot has saved - the equivalent of two extra officers on the beat - is
pitiful compared with the harm that it has caused.

The questionnaire from the schools is not valid evidence, she said
yesterday. "This is what infuriates me. It's absolute nonsense to rely on
the questionnaire because it's not the children in school who are at
greatest risk. It is those who are truanting, the children who are not part
of the mainstream that teachers are not in touch with."

Ms Hoey is due to meet the home secretary tomorrow and will urge him not to
reclassify cannabis. She believes the borough "has more drug dealers than
ever before", and that children are being given the message that "cannabis
is no worse for you than sweets".

Ms Hoey's position has been supported by other leading members of the
Lambeth community and local councillors.

Dr Clare Gerada, a member of the Consultancy Liaison Addiction Service,
told reporters that she knew of children who were smoking cannabis for
breakfast, and that the drug's popularity seemed to have soared in recent
months

The Rev Chris Andre-Watson, from Brixton Baptist church, has said he knew
of children as young as 12 arriving at school stoned.

Paul Amdell, of the Lambeth police consultative group, is a supporter of
the experiment, but even he concedes that the Met has not got its central
message across. "We need to develop the pilot to ensure young people know
cannabis is still illegal."

Crack cocaine

Drug workers insist, though, that cannabis use is the least of the
borough's drug problems. With crack cocaine and heroin use on the rise -
not to mention speedballs, a potent mix of crack and heroin - they do not
want officers wasting time rounding up cannabis users.

Justina Bennis, who works for Mainliners, an HIV and hepatitis C prevention
charity covering Lambeth, said: "We are pleased to see the police
concentrating on these and not cannabis. There is no more cannabis use on
the streets. Police are concentrating resources on class A drugs, which is
the real problem."

Another drug worker with 10 years experience in the borough also backs the
experiments. He did not wish to be named.

"It's like the media are saying we never had a crack problem before the
experiment. We've had crack for years. The experiment has made absolutely
no difference to the amount of people presenting themselves at the centre
where I work.

"Our biggest problem is heroin and crack, and over the last few years there
has been a huge explosion in crack. Cannabis is an irrelevancy when it
comes to people suffering from drug problems."

The Met says it cannot police cannabis in any practical sense in an area
such as Lambeth; its opponents say it has abandoned a principle that has
made a harmful drug appear legal. Mr Blunkett will show which argument he
is persuaded by within a fortnight.

Mr Paddick believes it is essential that the truth of what is happening in
Lambeth is made public. "People need to see the whole picture. In recent
months, all they have heard is one side of the argument."
__________________________________________________________________________
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

 
 


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Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 12:58:42 -0700

Subject:To our friends from Lynn &  Judy Osburn Up TOC

>From  openi420@starband.net

Dear friends and allies,

Yesterday afternoon Lynn and I received notice by certified mail that the 
federal government has initiated forfeiture proceedings against our ranch 
and home that we built 25 years ago. They allege that our home was used to 
"facilitate" cannabis production and distribution for the Los Angeles 
Cannabis Resource Cooperative. Like the complaint against the co-op's W. 
Hollywood building, they used our complete disclosures, including tax 
returns and DEA application procedures, against us in the forfeiture 
complaint against our home. They added "proceeds" allegations that we used 
reimbursement from LACRC to make our mortgage payments over the past four 
years, thus further subjecting our home to forfeiture. And lastly, they 
added RICO violations, presumably for depositing funds in the bank and 
paying state and federal taxes on all monies received. "Racketeer 
Influenced Corrupt Organization"--what an insulting bold faced lie about 
our cooperative that the DEA was unable to infiltrate with their fraudulent 
IDs, doctor's notes and misrepresentations.

We are not issuing any press releases at this time. Rather, we prefer to 
stay low key while we explore all options in the defense of our home. 
However, we want to inform our friends of this emergency situation. We 
fully expect that in the end the Truth will prevail and Ashcroft will see 
the light of Justice unveiled, and we will continue to age in place on the 
old farm. However, the road before us is certainly daunting.

In Solidarity,
Judy Osburn

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://www.drugsense.org/temp/part533.html

 
 


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Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 20:05:30 -0700

Subject:Canada: Problems with Ottawa's pot crop Up TOC

Newshawk: Canadian Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/)
Pubdate: May 27, 2002
Source: Report Magazine (BC Edition)
Copyright: 2002 Report Magazine, United Western Communications Ltd
Website: http://www.report.ca
Contact: ar@incentre.net
Address: 17327 106A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5S 1M7
Fax: 780-486-1690
Author: Marnie Ko

                     Problems with Ottawa's pot crop

Bad news for medical users, but decriminalization gets closer all the time

PRAIRIE Plant Systems Inc., a Saskatoon company, has grown more than 250
kilograms of unharvested marijuana since it got a $5.7-million contract with
Health Canada. The pot is for research and for pain relief for those with
incurable multiple sclerosis, cancer, severe arthritis and epilepsy, and
anyone in pain with less than a year to live. However, an indefinite
government delay now means patients who want the drug must supply it
themselves or name someone else to grow it for them.

Prairie Plant's first harvest of government marijuana had been scheduled for
delivery in January. But last month it was disclosed that distribution of
the plants, under cultivation in an abandoned copper mine near Flin Flon,
400 miles northwest of Winnipeg, has been delayed.

Federal Health Minister Anne McLellan admitted May 7 that the government's
pot is substandard. The Flin Flon crop of 2,000 plants contains a rainbow of
pot varieties, 185 in all, using seeds from police busts. The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency uses a standardized seed, but Ms. McLellan said U.S.
authorities would not share, so Canada was left with crops of various
potency and quality. It must now test seeds and create a standardized
variety for subsequent crops.

A few hundred Canadians are not waiting. Since July 2001, when the
government passed new legislation, 255 ill Canadians have been licensed to
possess the plant. As of May 3, 164 people had obtained licences to produce
the plant, and 11 individuals were authorized to grow the plants for others.
An additional 658 Canadians were granted permission to use marijuana for
medicinal purposes and 501 of those users remain active.

Despite appearances, none of this means marijuana has actually been approved
as a therapeutic substance by the federal government. Following a government
report released May 1, however, debate on decriminalizing cannabis entirely
is expected to reach an all-time high. After 14 months of study and
consideration, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the Senate Special
Committee on Illegal Drugs, told reporters marijuana is used by about 30% of
people aged 15 to 24. Still, contrary to common assumptions, he concluded
that it is not a "gateway drug" leading to cocaine, heroine and other hard
drug use. Indeed, Mr. Nolin noted it might be appropriate to treat marijuana
"more like alcohol or tobacco."

Six public hearings will be held between now and August, and Canadians in
five cities will be asked whether marijuana should be made legal before the
committee prepares a final report. Meanwhile, although a large amount of
anecdotal evidence and personal stories extol the virtues of marijuana,
almost no studies exist on its medicinal properties, if any.

One University of California-San Francisco study, in preliminary stages and
still ongoing, found that patients who smoked marijuana gained significantly
more weight than those receiving a placebo, and had slightly lower viral
levels. This could offer significant benefit to those patients using
marijuana for chronic (catabolic) wasting, which includes nausea, vomiting,
lack of appetite and severe weight loss.

An Institute of Medicine study commissioned by the White House also found
that cannabinoid drugs such as marijuana reduce anxiety, stimulate appetite,
reduce nausea, and offer pain relief, and suggested pot was suitable for
chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and HIV wasting. Animal studies
have also found cannabis products a mild to moderate analgesic, with more
benefits than opiates, which can be inconsistent for chronic pain, and
result in nausea and sedation.

One small study, with only three human subjects, found that marijuana
smoking ended migraine headache attacks. Researchers theorized marijuana
suppresses pain by feeding the periaqueductral gray (PAG) region of the
brain, part of the neural system with an abundance of existing cannabinoid
receptors, and the part of the brain where migraines are believed to
originate. Indeed, marijuana was a popular treatment for headache from 1874
to 1942. Then it was criminalized, and other drugs took its place.

Still, some North Americans swear by pot. Last year, AIDS activist and
freelance writer Phillip Alden of San Francisco told reporters he suffers
constant nausea on anti-HIV medication, and has chronic wasting syndrome. A
lungful of pot before dinner makes him hungry. He must eat enormous
quantities of food to maintain his weight. "I start cooking dinner and take
a couple hits off my pipe. Then I eat dinner, dessert, snacks, and keep
eating right up until bedtime."



 
 


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End of Restore-Digest V2002 #123
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