Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 22:13:31 -0700

Subject:Nevada DAs Oppose Legalizing Marijuana Up TOC

Newshawk: http://www.lp.org/issues/drug-war-task-force.html
Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact: letters@lasvegassun.com
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/234
Author: Cy Ryan

NEVADA DAS OPPOSE LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada District Attorney's Association has voted to
oppose a proposed constitutional amendment to permit the possession of
small amounts of marijuana by adults.

Churchill County District Attorney Arthur Mallory, president of the
association, said the prosecutors feel marijuana is a "gateway drug" and
people who use it go on to try more serious narcotics.

The proposed amendment, he said, would also conflict with federal law,
which holds that marijuana is a controlled substance.

"We would be tilting at windmills," Mallory said today.

Billy Rogers of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington said he doubts
the amendment would cause major problems with federal authorities.

Mallory said the federal government closed a business that dispensed
marijuana in California. Rogers, however, said the California law was vague
and did not set any standards.

The secretary of state's office said this week the backers of the marijuana
petition have gained sufficient signatures to put the issue on the ballot
in November. It would have to be passed this year and again in 2004 to
become law.

"The success of our petition drive provides solid evidence that most
Nevadans think it's a waste of their tax dollars to arrest people for small
amounts of marijuana," Rogers said.

"Nevadans support this initiative because it allows law enforcement to
spend its time and resources tracking down terrorists, murderers, rapists
and other violent criminals.

"It also puts strict controls on those who use marijuana, banning its use
in public and penalizing those who drive dangerously under the influence."

The petition would allow anyone 21 or older to possess three ounces or less
of marijuana without being charged with a crime. It would permit the
Legislature to set up "pot shops" to sell the drug. Marijuana would be
taxed like cigarettes.

The proposal also calls for low-cost medical marijuana to be available to
seriously ill Nevadans.

The amendment would prohibit the shipping of marijuana into or out of the
state unless the federal law was changed.

Mallory also said the district attorneys agreed to support the recent
decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court on the death penalty regarding mentally
retarded people and three-judge panels.

He said Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell was attending a
national conference, so the votes by the Nevada association may not reflect
his views.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart

 
 


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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:21:32 -0700

Subject:NV: DEA Director Criticizes Marijuana Ballot Measure Up TOC

Newshawk: http://www.lp.org/issues/drug-war-task-force.html
Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2002 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: rgjmail@nevadanet.com
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Author: Elaine Goodman

DEA DIRECTOR CRITICIZES MARIJUANA BALLOT MEASURE

The director of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration denounced
Thursday a Nevada ballot measure that would legalize the possession of
small amounts of marijuana, saying it would bring the wrong type of
tourists to the state.

Director Asa Hutchinson said the initiative, if passed by voters, would
encourage teens to experiment with drugs and put Nevada in conflict with
federal law.

"That would leave Nevada with one of the most liberal policies on drugs. -
What kind of tourism will Nevada attract?" Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson said the initiative is the work of a national group that wants
to see marijuana completely legalized - not a grassroots effort of Nevadans.

Hutchinson was at the Reno Convention Center as part of a 30-state tour
called "Meth in America: Not in Our Town." He addressed the national Elks
convention, receiving a standing ovation from thousands of conventioneers.

In another speech to local, state and federal officials, Hutchinson said
methamphetamine is different from other illegal drugs because much of it is
produced in the United States.

"We can't blame methamphetamine on our South American neighbors,"
Hutchinson said.

Meth labs leave behind toxic byproducts that are costly to clean up,
according to the DEA.

And many meth labs are in homes with children, who not only witness the
illegal activity, but often end up with drugs in their system, Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson praised Nevada lawmakers for tightening controls on
pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine recipes.

Hutchinson called for more drug testing in the workplace, and employee
assistance programs for workers found to be using drugs. About 75 percent
of drug users are employed, he said.

Although Hutchinson's talk focused on methamphetamine, reporters who met
with him afterward wanted to know his views on the marijuana initiative.

The measure, which qualified Tuesday for the Nov. 5 ballot, would legalize
adult possession or use of 3 ounces or less of marijuana.

In 2001, state legislators relaxed marijuana laws by making possession of
less than an ounce a misdemeanor. Nevadans approved the use of medical
marijuana in 2000.

Hutchinson said although he opposes Nevada's marijuana initiative, his
office won't campaign against it. But if opposition forms against the
ballot measure, Hutchinson said his office would be willing to help by
providing information.

Hutchinson said some mistakenly believe that marijuana is not harmful. But
more teen-agers seek treatment for marijuana abuse than for any other drug,
including alcohol, he said.

DEA agents seized 42 kilograms of methamphetamine in Nevada last year, up
from 24 kilograms in 2000 and 31 kilograms in 1999. Fifty-two percent of
the DEA's drug investigations in Nevada are methamphetamine cases,
officials said.

Federal, state and local officials shut down 255 meth labs in Nevada last year.

Despite the seizures, methamphetamine still is readily available locally,
said Theresa Lemus, executive director of Northstar Treatment and Recovery
Center in Reno.

Northstar treated more than 3,000 patients last year, and more than 75
percent of those were meth abusers, Lemus said.

The effects of methamphetamine addiction are devastating, Lemus said,
ranging from medical and dental problems, trouble with the law and families
that fall apart. And methamphetamine use cuts across age groups and
economic levels, she said.

"This is not confined to lower-class populations in any way, shape or
form," Lemus 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: Beth

 
 


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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:24:14 -0700

Subject:UK: Wire: Media Smoked Up As Britain Goes Soft On Cannabis Up TOC

Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Reuters Limited
Author: Jeremy Lovell

MEDIA SMOKED UP AS BRITAIN GOES SOFT ON CANNABIS

LONDON - British media took a dim view on Thursday of the government's
decision to ease penalties on cannabis users in the face of a dramatic rise
in the drug's use.

Home Secretary David Blunkett, confirming months of speculation, told
parliament Wednesday cannabis would be downgraded to a Class C drug,
putting it in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones.

Britons, among the heaviest users of weed in Europe, will soon be able to
own and smoke small quantities in private without fear of prosecution as a
result of the law change.

"Blunkett gambles with our children," thundered the Sun tabloid across its
front page. "The Home Secretary is taking one of the biggest risks of his
career," it added in an editorial.

Opposition politicians accused the Labor government of sending mixed
messages to the young, making it unclear whether the government believed
smoking dope was good or bad.

The government was downgrading but not decriminalizing possession or usage.
At the same time it was doubling to 10 years the possible jail term for
dealing in cannabis, they noted.

The Times took a somewhat calmer but nonetheless damning view of the
announcement that follows a trial of softened police approach to the drug
in the crime-ridden south London suburb of Brixton.

"The Blunkett formula is not entirely inconsistent, merely hypocritical,"
it said in an editorial. "It is very unlikely to be dangerous, but it is
quite unnecessarily muddled."

The right-leaning Daily Telegraph simply wrote off the government
initiative as "Dopey policy."

"Blunkett is trying to get the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, he seems
much more likely to end up with the worst," it added.

A report published late last year showed cannabis is the most commonly used
illegal drug in the 15-nation European Union, with at least 1 in 10 adults
in the bloc having used it. Some 5 million people in Britain regularly use
cannabis, and government data shows its use has risen sharply over the past
two decades.

"Spliffing!" observed the Daily Mirror tabloid.

"It is hard to over-estimate the magnitude of this error, the lethal threat
it poses to our children, and the depth of ignorance and sheer willful
irresponsibility that it represents on the part of the government," the
Daily Mail said.

But the left-leaning Guardian rode to the rescue of Blunkett, praising his
foresight and courage in bowing to the inevitable.

"Blunkett the brave," it headlined its editorial. "The minister has
declined to downgrade Ecstasy from categories A to B, as reformers wanted,
but Blunkett has made a good start."
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:25:16 -0700

Subject:Canada: Pot Jail Terms To Go Up in Smoke? Up TOC?

Newshawk: Join CMAP (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/lists.htm)
Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jul 2002
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: oped@ott.sunpub.com
Website: http://www.fyiottawa.com/ottsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

Sun Flashes

POT JAIL TERMS TO GO UP IN SMOKE?

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is considering relaxing Canada's
marijuana laws to make possession punishable by a fine instead of a
prison sentence, the Canadian Press has learned. But Cauchon's plans
do not include making the drug legal, said highly placed sources in
the Justice Department. Trafficking would continue to draw harsher
punishments, the sources 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: Jackl

 
 


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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:28:32 -0700

Subject:MI: Drug Initiative Almost On Ballot Up TOC

from Ben Livingstone  hemp.net

Title: Drug Initiative Almost On Ballot
Author: John Wisely
Source: The Oakland Press
Contact: john.cusumano@oakpress.com
Website: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.asp?brd=982
Pubdate: Thursday, July 11, 2002

An amendment to the Michigan Constitution that would overhaul state drug
laws is one step closer to appearing on the November ballot.

Representatives of the Michigan Drug Reform Initiative said they submitted
454,584 signatures to the Secretary of State Bureau of Elections on
Friday. The group needs about 302,000 valid signatures to qualify for the
ballot.

"We're very confident," said Dave Fratello, a spokesman for the
initiative. "We do (signature) validation checks along the way, and it was
very high in Michigan, about 75 percent. With these signatures, we would
be with a 65 percent rate."

Signatures can be invalidated for a variety of reasons. Petition drives
typically turn in additional signatures to make up for any that are found
to be invalid.

Elizabeth Boyd, spokeswoman for Michigan Secretary of State Candice Miller
said the Bureau of Elections will review the signatures to validate them.

"They'll make a recommendation to the state Board of Canvassers, who will
decide if it goes on the ballot," Boyd said.

The proposal would:

* Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences in drug crimes, except for people
convicted of making a net profit of $500,000 selling drugs.

* Establish an independent commission to set sentencing guidelines for
users and low-level dealers.

* Allow resentencing for convicts serving mandatory sentences.

* Require drug treatment for anyone caught with drugs for personal use and
allow the defendant to choose treatment over prosecution.

* Require the state to spend at least $18 million per year on drug
treatment. (Michigan currently spends about $150 million per year on
treatment, according to state drug czar Craig Yaldoo.)

Fratello said the measure shifts the focus of the drug war away from
incarceration and toward drug treatment.

Opponents call it a Trojan horse that decriminalizes drugs. They say it
eliminates penalties for drug possession and gives drug dealers a pass.

Prosecutors say it is impossible to prove how much net profit a drug
dealer makes because they don't keep financial statements and they could
deduct expenses like hitmen and bribes. The $500,000 limit is indexed for
inflation, under the proposal.

"How do you prove that someone made a net profit of $500,000 or more?"
asked Novi district Judge Brian McKenzie, an outspoken opponent of the
measure. "Why do drug dealers get their crimes indexed for inflation. No
other financial crime in Michigan is indexed for inflation."

Fratello acknowledges his organization paid workers to collect the
signatures and will spend more on a statewide campaign in the fall to get
the measure approved. But he said polling conducted by backers of the
proposal show Michigan voters approve its goals.

McKenzie said he worries that an advertising blitz paid for by wealthy
backers of the initiative could prove successful.

"I think 30-second commercials can overwhelm the truth," McKenzie said.
"They tell people that it will increase penalties for drug dealers and
provide treatment. It does neither. They don't tell people that possession
of heroin, crack and ecstasy will now be 60-day misdemeanors."

McKenzie said if the measure is approved, teens caught with crack cocaine
will face a lighter penalty than those caught with tobacco.

"What kind of message does that send to kids?" McKenzie asked.

Fratello said polling conducted in November showed Michigan residents
approve the goals of the measure.

"We don't even start a campaign if the poll numbers aren't above 60
percent," he said.



 
 


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Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:33:25 -0700

Subject:Alternet: Fleeing North  Up TOC

Source: AlterNet
Author: Ross Crockford, AlterNet
Published: July 11, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Independent Media Institute
Contact: info@alternet.org
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
DL: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13578


FLEEING NORTH
By Ross Crockford, AlterNet

It's a different war, but it's having the same old consequences. In the
1960s, Americans fled to Canada to avoid fighting in Vietnam. Four decades
later, American medical marijuana patients are crossing the border again,
claiming they're political refugees from the U.S. government's war on drugs.

"I'm a member of a class of society they're trying to oppress-or wipe out
completely," says Renee Boje, from her home in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Boje, 32, is probably the most famous American fugitive in Canada: the U.S.
is currently trying to extradite her to face charges for conspiracy to
cultivate hundreds of cannabis plants at the Los Angeles home of Todd
McCormick, a cancer patient and medical marijuana activist.

If convicted, Boje faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years-a penalty
so severe that she's become the poster child for the increasing numbers of
U.S. citizens heading north to take advantage of Canada's liberal pot laws.
"There are hundreds of Americans here," she says, "because they're being
persecuted by their own government."

Many of the refugees are quietly growing and using their own weed-the
Vancouver-based B.C. Compassion Club, one of a dozen operating across
British Columbia, alone estimates that over 100 of its 2,000 clients are
Americans. But others, like Boje, haven't kept such a low profile. Over the
past couple of months, several prominent U.S. activists have fled to British
Columbia as well-including Steve Kubby, 56, the Libertarian Party's 1998
candidate for governor of California, and Ken Hayes, 34, who operated the
6th Street Harm Reduction Center in San Francisco.

Kubby, who has adrenal cancer, faces a 120-day jail term for drug possession
in California, which he says would kill him; in February, even though he was
already in Canada, Hayes was charged with conspiracy to grow more than 1,000
plants and could be sentenced to at least 10 years. Both have formally
claimed refugee status under United Nations conventions, arguing that they
have a "well-founded fear of persecution" in the United States. Canadian
immigration officials have decided there's enough substance to the claims
that Kubby, Hayes, and their families may remain in the country until a
final hearing a year from now.

"U.S. officials have violated the law and intentionally targeted the leaders
of the medical marijuana movement by using conspiracy charges," says Kubby,
from his home on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast-just before he's due to read the
daily news on pot-tv.net, an internet TV channel. "I'm being threatened with
a death sentence. How can anyone justify that and say it's not an attempt to
persecute me?"

Understandably, comments like this have already won the refugees plenty of
attention from Canadian news media -- and American officials as well.
"Providing sanctuary to some of these people who see Canada as an easy place
to escape the long leash of U.S. law enforcement is dangerous," said Robert
Maginnis, a White House drug policy advisor, in a recent interview on
Canada's Global TV network. "I would hope that the Canadian government would
see fit to send them back to the U.S. so they can face charges, because we
have, just like you do, a sovereign right over our citizens to enforce the
laws of our land."

The vast difference between how medical marijuana laws are applied in Canada
and the U.S., however, partly explains the exodus. Although California
voters passed Proposition 215, creating a Compassionate Use Act, in 1996,
over the past two years the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has used federal
law to raid and prosecute medical marijuana clubs across the state. In May
last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the DEA's actions, ruling that
"marijuana has no medical benefits", and this June the U.S. government
obtained an injunction shutting down the few remaining California clubs for
good.

The Canadian federal government, on the other hand, has granted permits to
possess or grow marijuana to more than 800 Canadians who suffer from AIDS,
cancer or multiple sclerosis. And Canadian courts, which aren't bound by
mandatory minimums, are generally lenient on those who don't have permits:
last month the B.C. Supreme Court stayed cultivation charges against a
Vancouver man caught with 96 plants because he has AIDS and hepatitis; a few
days later the same court gave an "absolute discharge" (i.e. no jail, fine,
or criminal record) to the director of a compassion club who pleaded guilty
to possession of five pounds of marijuana.

Alex Stojicevic, the Vancouver lawyer representing Hayes, Kubby and several
other American refugee claimants, says it's "nothing new" for U.S. citizens
to flee to Canada to avoid drug charges-what's new is the U.S. crackdown on
medical marijuana that accelerated after the Bush administration took
office. His clients' argument, he says, is that they're being persecuted for
holding a political opinion shared by a majority of California voters, but
not by the feds. "Since Mr. Ashcroft became attorney-general and Mr. Bush
the president, the view is that things are going to get worse," says
Stojicevic. That's what's fueling this."

Stojicevic admits it's unlikely many of his clients will ultimately win
refugee status, because Canadian courts have consistently held that "the
United States is still a country where the rule of law applies, and the real
forum for complaining about these things is there, not here." However, a few
Americans might be allowed to stay for compassionate reasons--earlier this
year, Renee Boje married a Canadian, and they now have a four-month-old son.
Stojicevic also notes that Boje's case is unique: while the other Americans
will simply be ordered to leave Canada if their claims of persecution fail,
the final decision to extradite Boje is up to Canada's minister of justice,
who may consider (according to Canadian law) how "unjust and oppressive" it
would be to send a young mother to 10 years in prison for watering some
plants.

Unfortunately, the U.S. activists have made a difficult situation even
harder for themselves: in April, after one of them showed reporters a grow
operation he'd started, neighbors complained and the Mounties arrested
Kubby, Hayes and several others. (Hayes also says he was visited by a DEA
agent based in Vancouver, who tried to intimidate him into returning
"voluntarily" to the U.S.) They were released only after Marc Emery, the
leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party and the owner of pot-tv.net and a giant
marijuana seed bank, put up $5,000 bail. If convicted of cultivation and
possession charges, each of the Americans could be ordered to leave Canada
before the final hearings of their refugee claims.

The refugees are unrepentant. "I don't want to go back to the United
States," says Ken Hayes. "The people who are still there fighting are doing
a noble thing ... but it's inevitable that wherever there's liberty, that's
where people will seek to be."

 
 


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End of Restore-Digest V2002 #134
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