Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:06:39 -0700

Subject:Canada: Editorial: Why drugs and terrorism mix Up TOC

Newshawk: Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy (http://www.cfdp.ca/)
Pubdate: Thursday, July 18, 2002
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Address: P.O. Box 5020, 1101 Baxter Rd., Ottawa, ON K2C 3M4
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Webpage: http://www.mapinc.org/cancom/DAA8A4AB-6B8C-43EA-AC2C-27F1CFE470C1

Why drugs and terrorism mix

The Ottawa Citizen

After Sept. 11, drug cops around the world raced to recast themselves as
central players in the war on terrorism. "Narco-terrorism," a hitherto
almost unknown phrase, started popping up everywhere.

For instance, Narco-terrorism and Canada, a confidential RCMP report
produced in November, 2001, said Afghan hashish imported to Canada generates
about $20 million U.S., a portion of which "likely" goes to "terrorist
elements in Afghanistan." The RCMP wants the readers to conclude that "You
can't fight terrorism without fighting drugs," as the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration has become fond of saying.

This conclusion would not protect us from drugs (or terror) any better than
prohibition has in the past 80 years. But it would safeguard the RCMP's
budget, and the jobs of 1,000 Mounties working full-time on drugs.

It is true, as another RCMP report states, that "narcotics have long been
used by organized crime and extremist/terrorist groups as a means to
generate revenues to support armed conflict." But any serious analysis would
ask why. Why do the fanatics of the world zero in on the drug trade, instead
of smuggling liquor or coffee, sugar or chocolate bon-bons?

It's because drugs are illegal. Why smuggle a legal product to get the same
modest profit legal sellers do? Because drugs are illegal, producers,
wholesalers and retailers only get involved if there's a huge "risk premium"
added to the price. So illegal drugs have fantastic profit margins, making
them ideal revenue sources for gangsters, guerrillas or terrorists.

If economic theory is unconvincing, try history. Until drugs were
criminalized in the early 20th century, they were made by major
pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and sold in ordinary stores, with no
criminals or terrorists involved. That changed once drugs were banned.

Gangsters got rich, and killers with political ambitions quickly saw what
uses could be made of the new illicit trade. In the 1920s, Soviet officials
sold drugs in the Far East. In 1931, a secret society of Japanese officers
used drug-smuggling profits to fund an attack on a Japanese-run railway in
Manchuria, as the pretext for the Japanese invasion. In 1933, U.S.
investigators found Honduran citizens diverting European narcotics from the
legal trade and selling them in the U.S. "for arms and ammunition which were
being sent for use in revolution."

Drugs don't enrich thugs; the criminal law does. RCMP bosses know it. They
should look beyond self-interest, and be honest about what is really putting
cash in terrorists' pockets.

 
 


**




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

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:07:51 -0700

Subject:Canada: Pot ruling not high on activist's wish list Up TOC

Newshawk: CannabisLink.ca  http://cannabislink.ca/
Pubdate: Thursday, July 18, 2002
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Website: http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml
Address: 2615 12 Street N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 7W9
Contact: callet@sunpub.com
Author: Licia Corbella

Pot ruling not high on activist's wish list

By LICIA CORBELLA -- Calgary Sun

You would think that Calgary's best-known cannabis crusader, Grant Krieger,
would be thrilled about recent rumblings by the feds about decriminalizing
marijuana.

But no. Krieger is, in fact, furious.

He talks to me as he drives calmly down Hwy. 22X running an errand for his
wife, Marie. The married couple are flat broke as a result of all of the
legal hassles and police raids he's been through -- and all of the sick
people, like himself, he feels compelled to help.

"To hell with all of the recreational smokers. The government should do
something for the sick people -- the medicinal users," says Krieger, who
suffers from multiple sclerosis, and as a result of his use of marijuana no
longer needs a wheelchair and suffers much less pain and spasms than he did
before he discovered "this miracle plant."

"The federal government needs to get its priorities straight. I've been
fighting for the right to access to my medicine for seven years and the
federal government is still just toying with ideas," Krieger complains.

Frankly, Krieger, whom I've known for several years now, is more down than
I've ever seen him.

"I'm just worn out -- they've just ground me down," he says, dejectedly.

The run-down car he has been borrowing from his niece was rear-ended last
week, and he is suffering pain as a result. The 1991 five-speed car has only
three gears that work, and he has $300 in bail money being held by the
courts, and $5,000 worth of marijuana and scales being held by the Calgary
police.

That's on top of $30,000 worth of cultivation equipment the police seized
and that he still owes $20,000 on.

"I'm so close to throwing my hands up in the air and saying, 'I quit,' "
says Krieger, who currently helps more that 125 people suffering from
chronic illnesses, like MS, AIDS, cancer, hepatitis C and Parkinson's by
supplying them with non-profit, organically grown medicinal marijuana.

"I'm just exhausted," Krieger says. "And this news just ticks me off."

The news he's talking about is the announcement by federal Justice Minister
Martin Cauchon, who said Canada is seriously considering decriminalizing
marijuana possession.

The move, if undertaken, would mean handing small-time users a fine akin to
a parking ticket, rather than arresting and charging them with a criminal
offence and pushing them through the court system.

Not a bad idea, but Krieger is right. First things first. Let's provide some
relief to severely sick and dying people first. This is their medicine we're
talking about and not some cheap thrill or high.

This mythically maligned herb provides relief to thousands of Canadians who
have Section 56 exemptions from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act but
have no legal means of procuring marijuana legally.

Krieger has attempted to be that legal outlet for more than 100 Calgarians,
but the police and the courts keep cutting down his court-allowed grow
operations and seizing all of his equipment.

"I just can't take it anymore," Krieger says. But he has a lot more to take.

On Dec. 4. the provincial government is appealing last June's groundbreaking
ruling by 12 Calgary jurors that acquitted Krieger of trafficking on the
grounds of necessity.

The Crown alleges that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Darlene Acton
improperly charged the jury with regard to the defence of necessity.

What's more, all of these seizures of Krieger's medicine and equipment flies
in the face of a Dec. 11, 2000, Court of Queen's Bench decision that gave
Krieger the right to grow and cultivate marijuana. The ruling placed no
limits on how much Krieger could possess or carry and no restrictions on him
providing marijuana to other sick individuals.

So who's breaking the law?

In this case, it's the police.

And now Cauchon is talking about providing relief to partiers and tokers?

Is Krieger mad? He's smokin' mad.

He has every right to be.

 
 


**




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

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:14:55 -0700

Subject:Milton Friedman On Drugs Up TOC

Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)
Copyright: 2002 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
Contact: letters@worldnetdaily.com
Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/655
Author: Joel Miller

MILTON FRIEDMAN ON DRUGS

Shortly before his 90th birthday later this month and in honor of his
lifetime achievements, President Bush invited Nobel Laureate Milton
Friedman to the White House.

Calling him a "hero of freedom," Bush praised the economist's contributions
to American liberty, especially his advancement of "a moral vision: the
vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where
government is not as free to override their decisions."

"Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to substitute
its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually
disastrous."

To prove this right, conservatives must point no further than public
education, burdensome tax policy, bureaucratic red tape, and Social
Security. Few will, however, point to the drug war.

They should.

Ever since Nixon kick-started the war on drugs in 1972, Friedman has been a
vocal opponent of the policy. Yet conservatives, many of whom are
prohibition's biggest supporters, have covered their ears to Friedman's
objections. They fail to understand that the same motivating factors behind
his assaults on taxes and regulatory madness also support his decision to
oppose the drug war.

Friedman's argument against government meddling with pensions and cough
medicine is the same as pot and cocaine - the meddling usually provides
results worse than the problems, while expanding government at the expense
of citizens' freedoms.

How so? While the government may promise great things, it rarely delivers.

"There is a sure-fire way to predict the consequences of a government
social program adopted to achieve worthy ends," he wrote in 1982. "Find out
what the well-meaning, public-interested persons who advocated its adoption
expected it to accomplish. Then reverse those expectations. You will have
an accurate prediction of the actual results."

In his 1984 book, "Tyranny of the Status Quo," he points to alcohol
Prohibition as an example of this in action: "Prohibition undermined
respect for the law, corrupted the minions of the law, and created a
decadent moral climate - and in the end did not stop the consumption of
alcohol."

But beyond blasting bureaucratic failures, Friedman also opposes the drug
war for its fetters on individual freedom.

"On ethical grounds, do we have the right to use the machinery of
government to prevent an individual from becoming an alcoholic or a drug
addict?" he questioned in a May 1972 Newsweek column. "For children, almost
everyone would answer at least a qualified yes. But for responsible adults,
I, for one, would answer no. Reason with the potential addict, yes. Tell
him the consequences, yes. Pray for and with him, yes. But I believe that
we have no right to use force, directly or indirectly, to prevent a fellow
man from committing suicide, let alone from drinking alcohol or taking drugs."

Some may pounce on the adjective "responsible" and say a-ha!, as if they
found a sizeable breech through which to smuggle their statism. But they
shouldn't. A free society presumes responsible adults. If they act
responsibly and refrain from harming their fellows, we leave them alone. If
they don't, they're stopped by the state.

But if they're stopped before they act either responsibly or irresponsibly,
then kiss freedom goodbye. The entire concept is scrapped because, instead
of people being free to choose, we now have people in cages.

At bottom, this was Friedman's biggest concern - that the drug war would
eat away at traditional American liberties and land us in the gulag.

"Every friend of freedom," he told drug czar Bill Bennett in 1989, "must be
revolted at the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp,
by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of
enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence."

With an eroded Fourth Amendment and more than 2 million prisoners in the
U.S. - a huge percentage of whom are locked down due to drug violations,
many of them nonviolent offenders - Friedman's concern is more relevant now
than ever. And prescient.

Almost anticipating the 2001 shoot-down of the Bowers family over Peru,
Friedman concluded his letter to Bennett by saying, "A country in which
shooting down unidentified planes 'on suspicion' can be seriously
considered as a drug war tactic is not the kind of United States that
either you or I want to hand on to future generations."

Toasting his accomplishments and the reforms he has inspired around the
globe, Bush said, "the world is finally catching up with Milton Friedman."

I only hope some day we truly do.
__________________________________________________________________________
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/

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:19:08 -0700

Subject:Secret U.S. Biopharms Growing Experimental Drugs  Up TOC

from Preston Peet drugwar.com

<http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-16-05.asp>http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-16-05.asp

Secret U.S. Biopharms Growing Experimental Drugs

WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2002 (ENS) - Experimental plants engineered to
produce pharmaceuticals are being grown at over 300 secret locations
nationwide, a new report has revealed. Biotechnology firms are conducting
experiments with corn, soy, rice and tobacco that are genetically
manipulated to produce drugs designed to act as vaccines, contraceptives,
induce abortions, generate growth hormones, create blood clots, produce
industrial enzymes and propagate allergenic enzymes.

"Just one mistake by a biotech company and we'll be eating other people's
prescription drugs in our corn flakes," said Larry Bohlen, director of
health and environment programs at Friends of the Earth, a member of a
coalition of consumer and environmental groups that produced the report,
released late last week.

The experimental application of biotechnology in which plants are
genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical proteins and chemicals
they do not produce naturally has been termed "biopharming." Companies
engaged in biopharming keep their activities secret, citing the secret
plantings as confidential business information.

The report, entitled "Manufacturing Drugs and Chemicals in Crops:
Biopharming Poses New Threats to Consumers, Farmers, Food Companies and
the Environment," was produced by the Genetically Engineered Food Alert
coalition and presented to Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday.
To date, the secretary has made no public comment on the report.

In a letter to Veneman, the coalition called for an end to open air
cultivation of crops engineered to produce prescription drugs or
industrial chemicals.

"The USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] should prohibit the planting
of food crops engineered with drugs and chemicals to protect the food
supply from contamination," Bohlen said.

The highest number of field trials are taking place in Nebraska, Hawaii,
Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. But other states, including Iowa, Florida,
Illinois, Texas, California, Maryland, Kentucky and Indiana, also have
numerous tests being conducted near food producing farms.

The report details the many threats that biopharm crops pose, the extent
to which crops have been planted across the United States, the failure of
regulatory agencies to regulate the experiments, and a set of
recommendations.

The coalition proposes that the USDA permit limited cultivation of
non-food plants in the same controlled environment as other drug
production.

The USDA has primary authority for experimental biopharm crop
cultivation. Historically, the agency has kept all drug and chemical crop
sites secret from the public and neighboring farmers, and has hidden the
identity of the drugs or chemicals being produced. The agency has
condoned companies' preferred practice of anonymously planting biopharm
crops without identification, security measures or notification of
neighbors, the report claims.
snip-
Peace,
Preston Peet
<mailto:ptpeet@nyc.rr.com>ptpeet@nyc.rr.com
Editor <http://www.drugwar.com>http://www.drugwar.com
Editor at Large High Times mag/.com

 
 


**




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

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 16:43:39 -0700

Subject:Canada: Poco's Power Grow System Hopes For Pot Of Gold Up TOC

Newshawk: How to be a MAP Newshawk (http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm)
Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jul 2002
Source: Coquitlam Now, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002Lower Mainland Publishing Group, Inc.
Contact: editorial@thenownews.com
Website: http://www.thenownews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1340
Author: Angela MacKenzie

POCO'S POWER GROW SYSTEM HOPES FOR POT OF GOLD

Growing high quality marijuana could be as easy as plugging in a toaster,
says Nick Brusatore.

"We just made it real simple," he says.

Brusatore and his business partner Jason Bleuler run Power Grow Systems in
Port Coquitlam - a company which manufactures and sells hydroponic grow
units throughout Canada, the U.S. and England.

His company, Brusatore says, has the solution to the federal government's
quandary over how to grow a quality crop of pot for medicinal users.

Roughly four and a half feet tall, four feet wide and 30 inches deep, the
nondescript, white aluminum units look more like medical storage cabinets
that would be found in a pharmacy or medical office than high-powered grow
machines. They plug into 110-volt outlets.

Power Grow's newest model, Brusatore says, is capable of yielding two
pounds of marijuana every six weeks, using 600-watt HPS (high sodium
pressure) lights which output two million lumens - a regular 60-watt bulb
generates about 800 lumens. Depending on the unit size, the system's energy
consumption (drawing less than six amps) would translate into about $12 to
$35 a month on a person's electric bill.

The units are also made of lightweight, laser-cut aluminum and seal in any
odours. They're made with parts approved by the Canadian Standards
Association and Brusatore believes the system would receive approval from
fire departments as hazard-free.

As the company's brochure states, it's the "fastest, easiest and safest way
to grow."

Marijuana production, he says, would be controlled by restricting the
amount of lumen exposure - the amount of light a plant receives.

By controlling the lumen levels, a person licensed to grow and use
marijuana for medical purposes would be unable to produce more than has
been authorized, Brusatore says.

The lights used by the system are also fitted specifically to the unit and
cannot be replaced with ones that emit higher lumens - further insurance
against producing more marijuana than allowed.

Brusatore says his system would eliminate the need for patients to
experience the hassle of having to set up systems of their own or turn to
unreliable sources. Power Grow, he says, is able to produce the same
variety of marijuana in each unit as long as a patient requires it.

"It would take the crime element off the street," he says.

Brusatore acknowledges the possibility the system could be used illegally,
but says the hydroponic units are legal. The company also tracked its units
using serial numbers.

"There is a system in place," Brusatore says. "All the government has to do
is endorse it."

Health Canada announced last summer that the federal government would allow
marijuana to be grown and used for medical purposes. The change came
following a decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal, which ruled in July
2000 that federal laws preventing access to medical marijuana violated the
Charter rights of a 44-year-old epileptic man, Terrence Parker.

Under the Federal Marijuana Medical Access Regulations and amendments to
Narcotic Control Regulations, which came into effect on July 30, 2001,
patients suffering from serious illnesses can now legally smoke marijuana.
Patients allowed to smoke pot for medicinal purposes include those with
terminal illnesses expected to live less than 12 months and those suffering
from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, cancer, AIDS/HIV,
severe forms of arthritis and epilepsy.

Health Canada awarded a five-year, $5.7-million contract to Prairie Plant
Systems Inc., a Saskatchewan-based company, to produce standardized
marijuana for the government that would be used for medical and research
purposes.

The company was to deliver its first crop, grown in a mine in Flin Flon,
Man., to Health Canada by January 2002.

In May, however, it emerged that Health Canada had been forced to use seeds
confiscated by police after U.S. authorities refused to provide Canada with
reliable, tested seeds.

The crop that was grown produced 185 different varieties of pot, ranging
widely in quality. As a result, Health Minister Anne McLellan said the
timeline for providing marijuana to patients would be delayed.

That same month, patients granted permission to smoke pot for medical
reasons announced they were launching a lawsuit against the federal
government to allow them access to the federal crop and to rule existing
laws against marijuana as unconstitutional.

"I don't want to appear that we are marijuana crusaders - we're not,"
Brusatore says, adding that he does not want to get into the legalization
debate and is looking at the situation from a business perspective.

Brusatore spoke about his company at a public hearing held by the Senate
Special Committee on Illegal Drugs in Richmond in mid-May, but he says he
is still waiting to hear back from the federal government.

The federal committee, which is reviewing Canada's anti-drug legislation
and policies on cannabis, is expected to present its final report to the
Senate next month.

Brusatore says it's a "slap in the face" that his own government is not
taking his offer seriously.

Power Grow, he says, is about to sign an international contract with the
health ministry of a foreign country (which he asked not be named)
interested in launching a pilot program that would allow pharmacists to use
Power Grow systems to supply patients.

A large part of Power Grow's sales are generated through the U.S. market
with a branch office located in New York, Brusatore says.

The company also has locations in Kelowna, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal,
and Brusatore says Power Grow has done about $1.8 million in sales to date.

"We've probably got one of the hottest products," he says.

Each unit retails for about $4,200 and the company has sold roughly 500 in
the past year.

Although the company is targeting the medicinal marijuana market, Brusatore
believes the uses for the system are infinite. Scientists working in
extreme climates, for example, could use it to grow their own food.

Power Grow also has plans to develop a unit that would function much like a
microwave, allowing people to grow herbicide-free, organic vegetables and
herbs in their homes.
__________________________________________________________________________
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

 
 


**




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

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 04:47:27 -0700

Subject:HI: Kona Police Return Medical Marijuana To Patients Up TOC

Newshawk: Nick Thimmesch
Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Hawaii Tribune Herald (HI)
Copyright: 2002 Hawaii Tribune Herald
Contact: htrib@hawaiitribune-herald.com
Website: http://www.hilohawaiitribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/185
Author: Dave Smith, Tribune-Herald; the Associated Press contributed
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

KONA POLICE RETURN MEDICAL MARIJUANA TO PATIENTS

Kona police have returned 1 1/2 ounces of processed marijuana to three
people who hold state permits to possess marijuana for medical purposes.

Honolulu attorney Jack Schweigert, who represents the three, says this is
the first instance in Hawaii of police returning marijuana to users or
growers.

But 20 marijuana plants that were seized July 8 from the trio at a home in
Kalaoa, North Kona, were not returned. Police said 11 of the plants were
mature - two more than allowed for three people under the medical marijuana
law.

The investigation was continuing and police say charges are still possible
against John and Rhonda Robison and their house guest, Kealoha Wells.

The Robisons and Wells were arrested and held for eight hours earlier this
month before they were released without charges. John Robison and Wells have
leukemia and Rhonda Robison has a form of muscular dystrophy.

Police Lt. Robert Hickcox said the marijuana was returned after
consultations with the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the state
Department of Public Safety and the Hawaii County prosecutor's office.

The medical marijuana law allows individuals to possess one ounce of
processed marijuana and seven marijuana plants, including no more than three
mature plants.

Hickcox said the dried marijuana was returned because it was under the three
ounces total the three were allowed.

However, 11 of the plants showed signs of flowering, which under the law
constitutes "mature" plants, he said.

Rhonda Robison told the Tribune - Herald that one of the 11 plants would
have been ready for harvesting within two weeks. The other 10 were in the
"very early flowering stage" and therefore had significantly less potency,
she said.

The remaining plants seized were seedlings, she said.

Hickcox said the law makes no distinction between degrees of ripeness.

"We're going according to the definition," he said. "It doesn't say ready
for harvesting."

Robison said the marijuana was returned to them in a brown paper bag at the
Kona police station. She said the three appreciated the return of the dried
marijuana.

"It was very nice of them to do that for us - it's something we need," she
said. But the loss of the plants was hard, she said, because the three were
trying to establish a steady source of pot. She said a friend has since
donated three more plants to them.

Robison said the law needs to be amended to accurately reflect the "botany"
of marijuana plants.

Hickcox declined to comment on that aspect of the law.

"It's not for me to say," he said.

"I understand where they're coming from," he said. "We're not against their
growing marijuana per se, they just need to stay within the guidelines."

According to Rhonda Robison, police told them at the time of their arrest
that there would have been no arrests if each person's supply had been
separated from the others or if each plant had been labeled with the owner's
name.

State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai, however, said earlier there is no
requirement for separate storage or labeling of plants when more than one
medical user lives in a house.

Hickcox said Wednesday that while the three were advised to keep the plants
marked or separate, it's not a legal requirement.

"It's not written into the law," he said.

He said the raid on the Kalaoa home was the result of a "citizen complaint."
He said police officers following up on the complaint observed a number of
plants that appeared to exceed the quantity allowed.

Hickcox said the plants will be kept as evidence. He said it will be up to
county prosecutors to decide if the three will be charged with any crimes.

Hickcox said he believes this is the first test of its kind in the state of
the medical marijuana law approved in 2000.

Hawaii was the first state to establish such a law legislatively; eight
other states have approved medical marijuana laws through voter initiatives,
according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like 
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore 
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 12:57:36 -0700
From: webmaster@drugsense.org (DrugSense)
Subject: DrugSense Weekly, July 19, 2002, #259

**********************************************************************

DRUGSENSE WEEKLY

**********************************************************************

DrugSense Weekly,             July 19, 2002                       #259

Read This Publication On-line at: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm 

Listen On-line at: http://www.drugsense.org/radio/

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

* This Just In

     (1) This Is Your Brain On The Drug War
     (2) Don't Legalize Drugs
     (3) US CA: State High Court Backs Pot Law
     (4) Ravers Against The Machine

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

     (5) Drug Policy Chief Looks To The Root Of Addiction
     (6) Drug Enforcement Agency Offers Consulting Services To Hollywood
     (7) Column: Juvenile Homicides Expose Kids' Vulnerability - And Ours
     (8) 'I Felt Like I Wanted To Hurt People'
     (9) Editorial: Going To Pot
     (10) Editorial: Good Sense In England

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

     (11) All Cheek Road Drug Raid Charges Dropped
     (12) Drug Bust Falls Apart
     (13) No-Warrant Drug Raid Thrown Out
     (14) Editorial: Cons-Tented?
     (15) Drug Case Informants Make Deal

Cannabis & Hemp-

     (16) Canada Considers Easing Marijuana Laws
     (17) Would Softer Canadian Pot Law Stir Wrath Of U.S.?
     (18) DEA Boss Says Nevada's Pot Measure Will Attract Wrong Element
     (19) Medical Marijuana Users Claim Police Harassing Them
     (20) How The Law Will Work

International News-

     (21) Bolivia's Leftwing Candidate Alarms Washington
     (22) Jamaican Police To Get Base At Yard
     (23) Beattie Softens Drugs Stance
     (24) Mounties Make Huge Coke Bust
     (25) One In Two Students Takes Drugs

* Hot Off The 'Net

     USA Today Gives Hutchinson Free Ride In Netherlands 
     Britain  Goes  Soft  On  Pot  -  Should  U.S.  Laws  Change  Too?
     Judge James P. Gray Guests On Cultural Baggage
     Initiative  To  End  The  War  On  All  Marijuana Users In Nevada

* Letter Of The Week

     Ending  Prohibition  On  Hemp  Plant  Would  Hurt  Big  Business 
     / By Tim Handley

* Feature Article

     Interview with Marc-Boris St. Maurice - Part 2 / By Philippe Lucas

* Quote of the Week

     Arianna Huffington

***********************************************************************

THIS JUST IN
=======================================================================

(1) THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON THE DRUG WAR

Good  morning.  I  want to talk to all of you, but especially parents,
about the dangers of marijuana.  I don't mean smoking it; that's pretty
much  harmless  although you shouldn't then operate machinery or motor
vehicles.  I mean the serious negative effects the drug war can have on
your IQ and even your morals.

Consider Wednesday's warning by U.S.  drug czar Asa Hutchinson that if
Canada  and Britain "start shifting policies with regards to marijuana
it  simply  increases  the  rumblings in this country that we ought to
re-examine our policy.  It is a distraction from a firm policy on drug
use."  So  basically if we question the policy we might realize it's a
bad  idea  and  abandon it and that mustn't be allowed to happen.  How
many bong hits would it take before you'd say something (a) that silly
and  (b)  that contrary to the principle of rational inquiry in a free
society?

 [snip]

Pubdate: Friday, July 19, 2002
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Author: John Robson, Senior Editorial Writer and Columnist
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/cancom/7FA788EF-DBD5-486B-9F3B-68D7C6221924

===

(2) DON'T LEGALIZE DRUGS

The charge that "nothing works" in the fight against illegal drugs has
led some people to grasp at an apparent solution: legalize drugs . They
will have taken false heart from news from Britain last week, where the
government acted to downgrade the possession of cannabis to the status
of a non-arrestable offense.

According  to the logic of the legalizers, it's laws against drug use,
not the drugs themselves, that do the greatest harm. The real problem,
according  them,  is  not that the young use drugs  but that drug laws
distort supply and demand. Violent cartels arise, consumers overpay for
a  product  of  unknown  quality,  and  society  suffers  when the law
restrains those who "harm no one but themselves."

 [snip]

Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2002
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: John P. Walters, National Office of Drug-Control Policy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1350.a08.html

===

(3) US CA: STATE HIGH COURT BACKS POT LAW

The California Supreme Court decided Thursday that the state's medical
marijuana  law  can  be used as a defense against criminal charges but
does not insulate people from prosecution.

The ruling, which left substantial areas unclear, left law enforcement
officials  free  to arrest patients or caregivers who they believe are
growing more pot than required for specified medical needs.

But the court's ruling said defendants are likewise free to invoke the
Compassionate Use Act both before and during trial.

 [snip]

Thursday's  ruling marks the first time California's highest court has
addressed  Proposition  215,  the  controversial  initiative that runs
counter to the federal government's zero-tolerance policy.

The  case overturns the 1997 felony conviction of blind diabetic Myron
Mower of Twain Harte, in Tuolumne County, who was arrested after police
spotted 31 marijuana plants growing in his front yard. Mower was using
the marijuana after his doctor suggested it to treat nausea and weight
loss.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2002
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Sacramento Bee
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Authors: Denny Walsh, Claire Cooper -- Bee Staff Writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Continues: http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/3635387p-4661236c.html

===

(4) RAVERS AGAINST THE MACHINE

Partiers And ACLU Take On 'Ecstasy' Legislation

Two  young women on an urgent mission have been lugging boxes into the
offices of U.S. senators this week. The boxes contain petitions an inch
thick,  one  for each senator. Nearly 10,000 signatures were collected
over the Internet in five days.

The  petitions  declare:  "This  bill  is  a  serious  threat to civil
liberties, freedom of speech and the right to dance."

Look out, Congress: The ravers are coming.

"We're  offended  by  the  fact they're blackballing an entire musical
genre," said Amanda Huie, checking senators' names off her list Tuesday
afternoon.

The  genre  in question is electronic dance music, which fans enjoy at
all-night  parties  called  raves.  Legislation in Congress could hold
promoters responsible if people attending the events use illegal drugs
such  as  Ecstasy,  the  party  drug frequently associated with raves.

The Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002 -- or the
RAVE  Act  -- has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and is on the
consent  calendar,  meaning  it could receive final approval without a
roll  call vote at any time. When he introduced the bill in June, Sen.
Joe Biden (D-Del.) said "most raves are havens for illicit drugs," and
congressional  findings  submitted  with  the  bill  label  as  drug
paraphernalia  such rave mainstays as bottled water, "chill rooms" and
glow sticks.

The bill would expand the existing federal crack house law, which makes
it a felony to provide a space for the purpose of illegal drug use, to
cover promoters of raves and other events.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: David Montgomery, Washington Post Staff Writer
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1347.a09.html

***********************************************************************

WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW

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

Domestic News- Policy
- ----------------------------------

COMMENT: (5-10)

 A  rather  slow  week  for  drug  policy  news,  but  one  that again
 demonstrated  the  gap between prohibitionists and reality. U.S. drug
 czar  John  Walters boldly called on the scientific community to find
 new  ways to fight addiction - who says there are no new ideas in the
 drug  war?  Meanwhile,  DEA  propaganda  was  welcomed  as legitimate
 information by Hollywood. Directors, writers and producers
 reportedly  accepted  a  presentation  by  DEA head Asa Hutcinson and
 colleagues  as  gospel. And what choice did the creative-types have -
 certainly  no  one in the film industry would have their own personal
 experience  with  illegal drugs. These public relations efforts won't
 do  anything  to  stop  the  damage  of  drug  prohibition  -  as the
 residents  of  Baltimore  can  plainly  see.  Despite  a  city-wide,
 feel-good,  anti-drug  campaign, juvenile homicides continue to rise,
 and most are related to the illicit drug trade.

 Another  failure  of  prohibition  can be seen in an alleged comeback
 for  the  drug PCP. As reported by Newsweek, users aren't seeking out
 the  drug, but sellers eager to enhance the effects of less dangerous
 drugs  like  marijuana  are  returning  PCP to the black market as an
 unadvertised additive.

 It  was interesting to watch how U.S. editorialists responded to news
 of  diminishing  marijuana  enforcement  in  Britain. Some entrenched
 prohibitionists,  like  the  Wall  Street Journal, ridiculed the move
 (though even WSJ hardliners now acknowledge that arguments for
 decriminalization  are  "not  without  appeal"). Other small American
 papers,  like  Ohio's  Lima  News,  took a more commonsense approach,
 suggesting the British move does not go far enough.

===

(5) DRUG POLICY CHIEF LOOKS TO THE ROOT OF ADDICTION

White House drug policy director John P. Walters called on
scientists  yesterday  to  develop  new  tools  for  diagnosing  and
treating  drug  addiction,  saying that major advances in genetics and
neuroscience  could  help devise medicines that attack the root causes
of substance abuse.

Speaking  at  a  substance  abuse  conference  in  Cambridge, Walters,
director  of  the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said science
must  play  a  key  role  in  meeting  President  Bush's  goal of a 10
percent  reduction  in  drug  abuse  within two years and a 25 percent
cut over five years.

He  said  the  administration  has  doubled  federal  spending on drug
abuse  research  to  $933  million,  financing  work  at  10 locations
nationwide,  including  at  Massachusetts  General Hospital and McLean
Hospital in Belmont.

''Drug  addiction  is  a  disease  of  the  brain,''  said Walters. He
challenged  geneticists,  neuroscientists,  and  magnetic  resonance
imaging,  or  MRI,  specialists to work cooperatively to find a better
understanding of addiction.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2002
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2002 Globe Newspaper Company
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Quynh-Giang Tran
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1282/a11.html

===

(6) DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY OFFERS CONSULTING SERVICES TO HOLLYWOOD

The people waging the war on drugs have gone Hollywood.

Officials  with  the  U.S.  Drug  Enforcement  Administration  briefed
producers,  directors  and  writers  on  the  connection  between drug
trafficking  and  terrorism  and  to  offer  to  consult on movies and
television programs.

About  40  people,  including  film  directors  like  Michael Mann and
Arthur  Hiller  and  people behind TV series such as "Third Watch" and
"E.R."  gathered  at  the  Beverly  Hills  Hotel Wednesday for several
hours  to  hear  DEA  Director  Asa Hutchinson as well as the agency's
intelligence chief and a former undercover agent.

"I  was  stunned,"  said Anne Sweeney, president of ABC Cable Networks
Group,  a  unit  of  The  Walt  Disney  Co. "It helped deepen people's
understanding  of  the  challenges  our  country  faces  in the war on
drugs."

 [snip]

Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Star-Ledger (NJ)
Copyright: 2002 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Author: Gary Gentile

===

(7) COLUMN: JUVENILE HOMICIDES EXPOSE KIDS' VULNERABILITY - AND OURS

 [snip]

The  previous  day,  Wednesday,  [Baltimore Mayor Martin] O'Malley was
talking  about  a  recent spike in juvenile homicides: 16 in the first
six  months  of  this  year,  vs.  nine in the first six months a year
ago.  "I  don't  want us to continue to the end of the year and be the
capital  of  juvenile  murder in America," the mayor said. But he also
noted,  hopefully,  a  drop in nonfatal juvenile shootings, from 60 to
39.

Most  of  these  shootings,  it is believed, are tied to the narcotics
trade.  This  is  a  bulletin  to  absolutely  no  one. But in a study
released  by  Dr.  Peter Beilenson, the city health commissioner, this
additional  background  emerged  on  34  recent  juvenile  shooting
victims:

They  averaged  16  years old, and all were black. Twenty-eight of the
34  were  males,  and  26 of them had criminal records. Average age of
their  first  arrest:  12  1/2 . Average number of arrests since then:
five.

Ponder  that  for  a  moment:  12-year olds getting arrested, and then
arrested  over  and  over  until  it  becomes  just  another  piece of
routine  business  in  their  lives,  and the grownups around them are
watching  this  happen, and letting it happen, and it ceases only when
the guns come out.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jul 2002
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Michael Olesker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1316/a02.html

===

(8) 'I FELT LIKE I WANTED TO HURT PEOPLE'

Emergency  Rooms  Report  Uptick  In  Use Of Disco-Era Drug, PCP; Drug
Being Mixed With Marijuana, Ecstasy

 [snip]

Police cracked down, and eventually the drug got such a bad
reputation  that  even  junkies  wouldn't  touch it. But now there are
signs  that  the  disco-era scourge is quietly gaining a new following
- -  often  among unwitting users like Mike. PCP is cheap and relatively
easy  to  make  in the lab, and boosts the effects of other drugs. PCP
seizures  by  the  Drug  Enforcement Administration shot up 24 percent
from  2000  to  2001  (not  counting  a  big Texas bust that drove the
numbers  through  the  roof).  Nationally,  PCP-related  visits to the
emergency  room  jumped 48 percent from 1999 to 2000 and were still on
the  rise  in  the  first  half  of  2001,  the  latest year for which
figures  are  available.  To be sure, PCP is still a small part of the
nation's  drug  problem:  the  2000  National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse  found  that  264,000  Americans  fessed  up  to  PCP use in the
previous  year  -  a  fraction  of  the  million who said they'd tried
methamphetamines.  But  given  PCP's nasty history, drug experts worry
about the smallest uptick.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jul 2002
Source: Newsweek (US)
Issue: July 22, 2002
Webpage: http://www.msnbc.com/news/780078.asp?0dm=-16AK
Copyright: 2002 Newsweek, Inc.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/309
Author: Suzanne Smalley and Debra Rosenberg
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1313/a03.html

===

(9) EDITORIAL: GOING TO POT

Tony  Blair's  new soft-on-marijuana policy has naturally been getting
applause  from  U.S.  legalizers.  They  like  the British decision to
make  possession  of  marijuana  a  ticketing  offense,  in  the  same
category  as  illegal  possession  of  steroids  or  anti-depressants.

Meanwhile  --  though  getting  much  less U.S. media attention -- the
Dutch  are  having  second  thoughts  about their own famously liberal
marijuana  laws.  Last  week the Netherlands announced a plan to crack
down  on  the  legal  "coffee" houses where you can buy cannabis along
with your cappuccino.

The  arguments  for  decriminalizing  marijuana are well known and not
without appeal.

 [snip]

For  the  U.S.,  the  lesson  would  appear to be to beware legalizers
bearing  British  gifts.  Mr.  Blair's  proposal  may sail through the
House  of  Commons, but we're willing to wager that like the Dutch the
British  will  regret  the  decision once they notice the rise in drug
use. The U.S. is better off just saying no.

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1331/a10.html

===

(10) EDITORIAL: GOOD SENSE IN ENGLAND

The  decision  in  Great  Britain  to  change the laws on cannabis, or
marijuana,  almost  to  the point of decriminalizing simple possession
of  the  plant by an adult is not as drastic as some news stories have
suggested  -  and may, in fact, be so modest as not to achieve some of
the hoped-for benefits of decriminalization.

Nonetheless  it  is  an  important step that will create a record U.S.
officials should study.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Lima News (OH)
Copyright: 2002 Freedom Newspapers Inc.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/990
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1325/a01.html

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

Law Enforcement & Prisons
- -------------------------

COMMENT: (11-15)

 Aggressive  police and prosecutor tactics employed in the name of the
 drug  war  were  rejected  by  courts around the nation last week. In
 North  Carolina, charges were dropped against all defendants arrested
 during  a  massive  and  oppressive  sweep  throughout  an  apartment
 complex.  Charges  were  also  dropped  in  a  two  year  old case in
 Tennessee,  after  prosecutors  tried to withhold a crucial memo from
 defense  lawyers.  A Michigan judge threw out evidence in a marijuana
 seizure  case because police didn't bother to get a warrant to raid a
 house after spotting plants from a helicopter.

 The  lock  'em  up philosophy showed holes as well. In Alabama, state
 prison  crowding  might  lead to an outdoor tent city for inmates - a
 move  that  may keep a prison commissioner out of prison himself. The
 commissioner  was  ordered  by  a  judge  to  reduce crowding or face
 contempt of court charges.

 And  the  "sheetrock  scandal"  in  Dallas,  in which fake drugs were
 planted  on  several  suspects,  moves  forward. A pair of undercover
 informants  involved  in the scheme are cooperating with prosecutors.
 The informants are expected to further implicate police.

===

(11) ALL CHEEK ROAD DRUG RAID CHARGES DROPPED

DURHAM  --  Criminal  charges  are  being dropped in a Cheek Road drug
raid  that  was  found by a judge to be unconstitutional and partially
illegal, court officials confirmed Friday.

For  defendants  who  already  have  pleaded  guilty,  the  district
attorney  will  not  oppose  a  reversal of the convictions, officials
said.

"This  sounds  like  good news to me," said Public Defender Bob Brown,
whose  office  represents  six  of the suspects. "It's more than I had
hoped  for.  In  fact,  it's  much  more than I hoped for. I certainly
appreciate the DA's willingness to pursue justice."

On  Wednesday,  Superior  Court  Judge  Orlando  F.  Hudson  said  the
February  police  raid  at  Cheek Road Apartments was unconstitutional
because  officers  improperly  "seized"  the  entire  neighborhood and
conducted "unreasonable" searches and seizures.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jul 2002
Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
Copyright: 2002 The Herald-Sun
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: John Stevenson
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1308/a07.html

===

(12) DRUG BUST FALLS APART

Charges Dropped Against 28 Of 43 Arrested

In  a  blow  to  Clarksville  police and to the family of an informant
who  helped  them  put  the  case  together, charges have been dropped
against  28  men arrested in a massive February 2000 drug bust because
of  a  dispute  over  a memo at the U.S. Attorney's Office. The office
had  barred  one  of  its  prosecutors  from  discussing  with defense
lawyers  a  memo he wrote about the investigation. A judge ordered the
prosecutor  to  testify,  and to prevent that from happening, the U.S.
Attorney's Office has dropped all charges.

"We  would  be  in  a  position  where  we  couldn't  comply with that
order,"  said  First  Assistant  U.S.  Attorney Bob Watson. "We didn't
want  to  put  ourselves on a course where we would be put in a corner
and have to tell the court we couldn't comply."

He  said  it  would  be against their standards for a U.S. attorney to
discuss the memo with defense lawyers.

 [snip]

Police  records  show  the  assistant  U.S.  attorney  prosecuting the
Southside  Organization  said  in  his  memo  he  did not want to levy
charges  on  conspiracy  because  the  defense  might  be  able to use
arguments  regarding  entrapment,  selective  prosecution  and  the
continued availability of confidential informants.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Leaf-Chronicle, The (US TN)
Copyright: 2002, The Leaf-Chronicle
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1601
Author: Todd Defeo
Note: Leaf-Chronicle staff writer Brian Dunn contributed to this report.
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n461/a08.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1298/a03.html

===

(13) NO-WARRANT DRUG RAID THROWN OUT

Helicopter  Patrol  That  Led  To  Arrest  Ignored Rights, Judge Rules

PUTNAM TOWNSHIP -- A recent decision by Livingston County Circuit Judge
Daniel Burress could affect the way law enforcement officers conduct raids.

Burress threw out the evidence -- three marijuana plants --
collected  by  officers  last  year  at  a  raid  of  a Pinckney home.
Officers  from  the  region's  Livingston  and  Washtenaw  Narcotics
Enforcement  Team  (LAWNET)  task  force spotted the marijuana growing
near  a  barn by the Pinckney home during a helicopter patrol Aug. 17.
Other  officers  on  the ground then searched the area and confiscated
the plants.

But  the  officers  went  in  without  a warrant -- a violation of the
Fourth  Amendment  of  the  Constitution,  which  protects individuals
from  unreasonable  searches  and  seizures,  said  Chuck  Kronzek,  a
defense  attorney  with  the  Lansing  firm of Kronzek and Cronkright.

"They  flew  over,  saw  what they believed to be pot and they go in,"
Kronzek  said.  "They  skipped  the  constitutional  protection.  They
didn't care about the search warrant."

 [snip]

Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jul 2002
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2002, The Detroit News
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Steve Pardo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1328/a06.html

===

(14) EDITORIAL: CONS-TENTED?

Tent City Should Only Be Short-Term, Last Resort

Alabama  prisons  are  in crisis. There's not enough space. Not enough
guards. Not enough money. Not enough time.

Despite  an  expensive court case aimed at making the state live up to
its  obligation  to  relieve  crowded county jails of state prisoners,
the  state  is  nowhere close to a remedy. In fact, the state has been
hit  with  $2.16  million  in  fines  and  missed a Sunday deadline to
remove  more  than  1,200 prisoners from jail, which would have sliced
$500,000 from the fine.

The bottom line: Something needs to happen, and soon.

It's no surprise then that desperate prison officials are
considering  a  desperate,  makeshift  solution  housing  inmates  in
tents.  As  a  last  resort, a tent city could be set up at the prison
system's  central  intake  unit  at  Kilby  Correctional Facility near
Montgomery,  according  to  Ted  Hosp,  legal  adviser  to  Gov.  Don
Siegelman.

A  tent  city  may  keep  Prison  Commissioner Mike Haley out of jail;
Montgomery  Circuit  Judge William Shashy has threatened to jail Haley
for  contempt  of  court  if  the  state does not remove the prisoners
within  90  days of his June 14 order. But it's no long-term solution.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Birmingham News, The (AL)
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45

===

(15) DRUG CASE INFORMANTS MAKE DEAL

They'll  Testify  Of  Police  Link;  Officer's  Lawyer  Doubts  Story

A  confidential  police  informant  who  pleaded  guilty  Wednesday to
framing  innocent  people on drug charges will testify that his Dallas
police  handlers  pocketed  payments by forging vouchers. Another will
say that police falsified reports, their attorneys say.

Jose  Ruiz-Serrano  and  Reyes  Roberto Rodriguez each accepted a deal
under  which  they  could plead guilty to a single civil-rights charge
in  exchange  for  cooperating  with  an  FBI  investigation into drug
cases that were prosecuted with fake evidence.

Mr.  Ruiz-Serrano  and  Mr.  Rodriguez  worked  as  subcontractors for
Enrique  Alonso,  who  was  indicted Wednesday for allegedly violating
the civil rights of 13 people arrested in the drug cases.

Mr.  Alonso,  the  primary  informant in the cases, had not accepted a
plea offer by Wednesday, his attorney said

Documents  made  public  thus  far  do not implicate any officers, but
attorneys  for  the  two  informants  who  agreed to plead guilty said
their clients would link police to the fake drugs.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Webpage:
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/071102dnmetdrugbusts.3ae3a.html
Copyright: 2002 The Dallas Morning News
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Todd Bensman, The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?118 (Perjury)

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

Cannabis & Hemp-
- ---------------------------

COMMENT: (16-20)

 Good  news  from  Canada  this week. Just as the press was just dying
 down  about  the  reclassification  of cannabis in the U.K., Canadian
 Justice  Minister  Cauchon  has  announced  that  he  is  currently
 considering  decriminalizing  the  possession  of cannabis by adults,
 replacing  possible  jail terms with a system of fines. How might the
 U.S.  react  if  Canada  follows  through  with  this  loosening  of
 restrictions?  Our  second  article,  by  the  Globe  and Mail's Erin
 Anderssen, attempts to answer this very question.

 In  the  U.S.,  DEA  boss  Asa  Hutchinson has spoken out against the
 Nevada  decriminalization  bill  that  will  appear  on  the November
 election  ballot.  Hutchinson reflected fears that a loosening of pot
 laws  would  attract  the  wrong  kind  of tourism to Nevada. Yeah, I
 suppose  that  you'd  hate  to offend the sensibilities of the classy
 folk  who come to the state for the gambling and brothels. Also a sad
 story  of  police  harassment  from Hawaii, where three legal medical
 users  have  lost  their  small amount of medicine due to the callous
 raids of local authorities.

 And  finally,  for  those  who  might be heading to the U.K. over the
 summer  holidays,  a  practical  guide  to  the British cannabis laws
 post-reclassification. Happy travels, my friends.

===

(16) CANADA CONSIDERS EASING MARIJUANA LAWS

Just  days  after  Britain  announced  plans  to  soften  its  laws on
possession  of  marijuana,  officials  with  the  office  of  Canadian
Justice  Minister  Martin Cauchon said Canada might follow the British
lead.

 [snip]

A  few  months  ago,  the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal
Drugs  issued  a  preliminary  report  criticizing  the  government's
current drug policy.

According  to  the  report, an estimated 30 to 50 percent of Canadians
age  15  to  24  have  used marijuana despite efforts to eradicate its
use,  and  nearly  30,000  people  a  year  face  criminal charges for
simple  possession.  This  amounts  to  half  of  all  drug charges in
Canada,  and  while  25 percent of those are typically discharged, the
rest face criminal records.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Mon, 15 Jul 2002
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The Buffalo News
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Barry Brown, News Toronto Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1319.a04.html

===

(17) WOULD SOFTER CANADIAN POT LAW STIR WRATH OF U.S.?

In  the  pot-perfumed  haze  of  an  Amsterdam  coffee house, MP Randy
White,  crime  critic  for  the  Canadian  Alliance,  hauled  out  his
business card and sat down to chat with two toking patrons.

 [snip]

Mr.  White  later  recalled: "We had a great discussion, a few laughs.
It  was  a  nice  place.  It  didn't even smell as much as I thought."

Two  weeks  earlier,  on  Washington's  Capitol  Hill  and in far less
mellow  conversation,  the  committee  had heard a different view. The
man  sitting  across  the  table  on  that  June  day  was  Republican
Congressman  Mark  Souder,  chairman  of  the  U.S.  equivalent of the
Commons  committee  on  drug  policy, and the originator of a law that
bans  student  loans  for  Americans  convicted  of pot possession. He
knew  all  about  Canada pondering the decriminalization of marijuana,
and he wasn't happy about it.

 [snip]

Mr.  Souder's  message  was  clear, committee members say: Proceed and
we'll  crack  down even more on your borders. B.C. bud, he pronounced,
is as dangerous as cocaine.

"I thought, 'My God, what is this man talking about?'" said
Vancouver  MP  Libby  Davies, a New Democrat. "We can't be subservient
to  the  ridiculous  rhetoric  coming  out  of  the  United  States."

 [snip]

Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jul 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Erin Anderssen
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1309.a08.html

===

(18) DEA BOSS SAYS NEVADA'S POT MEASURE WILL ATTRACT WRONG ELEMENT

The  head  of  the  federal  Drug  Enforcement  Administration warns a
ballot  measure  that  would  legalize  small  amounts of marijuana in
Nevada would attract the wrong element to the state heavily
dependent on tourism.

"What  kind  of  tourism  will  Nevada  attract?"  DEA  Director  Asa
Hutchinson  asked  after a speech in Reno Thursday urging a crack down
on methamphetamine labs.

 [snip]

Backers  of  the Nevada measure, organized as Nevadans for Responsible
Law  Enforcement,  collected well over the 60,000 signatures necessary
to  get  it  on  the  ballot  in November. They argue it is a waste of
taxpayer dollars to prosecute minor pot offenders.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1316.a01.html

===

(19) MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS CLAIM POLICE HARASSING THEM

Three  Kona  residents  say  Big  Island police are blocking them from
legally using marijuana for medical purposes.

Rhonda  Robison,  her  husband,  John,  and  their house guest Kealoha
Wells  were  arrested  Monday  at  their  Kalaoa, North Kona, home for
allegedly  promoting  a  detrimental  drug. Police seized 20 marijuana
plants  and  1.5  ounces  of processed marijuana, Rhonda Robison said.

John  Robison  and  Wells have leukemia, and Rhonda Robison has a form
of  muscular  dystrophy.  They have permits to use marijuana under the
state  law  that  allows  medical marijuana users to have seven plants
each,  plus  one  ounce  of  processed  marijuana  each, Robison said.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/196
Author: Rod Thompson
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1296.a04.html

===

(20) HOW THE LAW WILL WORK

Where are we exactly with this cannabis thing?

The  drug  will  be downgraded from Class B to a Class C by July 2003.
The  police  are  to  expand  Brixton's controversial "seize and warn"
policy across London by the autumn.

Does  that  mean  I can sit on the steps of Brixton police station and
skin up?

 [snip]

Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jul 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Andrew Johnson
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1322.a02.html

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

International News
- ---------------------------

COMMENT: (21-25)

 Raising  the  specter  of  "leaders  somehow  connected  with  drug
 trafficking  and  terrorism,"  U.S.  assistant secretary of state for
 western hemisphere affairs, Otto Reich, threatened to cut American aid
 to Bolivia if Evo Morales is elected president next month. Morales is
 head  of  Bolivian  coca  growers and opposes the U.S.-sponsored coca
 eradication program.

 Metropolitan  Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens disclosed plans to
 base  Jamaican  police  at Scotland Yard in the UK, to strike against
 Jamaican drug gangs. Stevens announced the move while on a
 "fact-finding" trip to Jamaica.

 In  Australia,  the  Queensland  State  cabinet (led by Premier Peter
 Beattie)  last  week  announced  that  users  of heroin, cocaine, and
 amphetamines  should  no  longer  face jail time if caught with small
 quantities of those drugs. To participate in the program, users would
 have  to  admit  guilt,  and  have  committed  no  violent  offenses.

 Canadian  narcotics  police  claim  they took nearly 600 kilograms of
 cocaine  this month in a single seizure. Three men were arrested with
 the  cache,  which  police  say  had a estimated value of 160 million
 Canadian dollars.

 Irish  prohibition  officials  are wringing their hands over a recent
 survey that shows half of all Irish schoolchildren have taken "drugs"
 (mostly cannabis). In the face of the recent UK announcement
 downgrading cannabis to a non-arrestable offense, Irish officials take
 the  line  that "there is no such thing as a soft drug and we need to
 get ruthless."

===

(21) BOLIVIA'S LEFTWING CANDIDATE ALARMS WASHINGTON

Threat To Cut Aid If Coca Growers' Leader Becomes President

The  United  States  government  is  actively intervening in Bolivia's
choice  of  new  president  next  month,  warning  that US aid will be
withdrawn if the socialist Evo Morales is elected.

It  is  the  latest  in  a series of recent interventions by the US in
Latin  American  elections  in an attempt to keep leftwing politicians
from power.

Congress  will  elect the president from the two leading candidates in
the  elections  earlier  this  month:  Mr  Morales  and  the rightwing
ex-president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

Otto  Reich,  the Cuban-American appointed by President George Bush as
his  assistant  secretary  of  state  for  western hemisphere affairs,
warned  that  American  aid  to  the  country would be in danger if Mr
Morales was chosen on August 3.

Mr  Morales  is  the  leader  of  the  country's  coca  growers and is
opposed  to  the  coca  eradication programme sponsored by the U.S. as
part of the "war on drugs" on the continent.

 [snip]

The  U.S.  ambassador  to  Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, had already issued a
similar  warning,  suggesting  that  if  Mr Morales was elected US aid
would  be  cut  off.  "The  Bolivian  electorate  must  consider  the
consequences  of  choosing  leaders  somehow  connected  with  drug
trafficking  and  terrorism,"  Mr  Rocha  said in a speech last month.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jul 2002
Source: Guardian Weekly, The (UK)
Copyright: Guardian Publications 2002
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/633
Author: Duncan Campbell
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1339/a05.html

===

(22) JAMAICAN POLICE TO GET BASE AT YARD

Detectives  from  Jamaica are set to be based at Scotland Yard to help
combat violent Yardie drug gangs.

In an unprecedented move the specialist officers would work
alongside  the  Met  in  an all-out drive against the gangs, which are
behind rocketing gun crime figures.

Metropolitan  Police  Commissioner Sir John Stevens today revealed the
plan  as  he  visited  Jamaica  on a two-day fact-finding trip to help
bolster the war on drug trafficking and gun crime.

 [snip]

The  vast  majority  of  the  murders and gunfights are over drugs, in
particular  the  massive  cocaine  trafficking business. Sir John said
he  was  due  to  meet Jamaican security minister Dr Peter Phillips to
discuss  ways  of  combating  the gangs who hire "drug mules" to ferry
cocaine into Britain on airline flights.

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Evening Standard (London, UK)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/914
Author: Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1330/a07.html

===

(23) BEATTIE SOFTENS DRUGS STANCE

SMALL-time  drug  users  caught  with heroin, cocaine and amphetamines
will  escape  conviction  under a State Government plan to divert them
to  treatment  programs.  State  Cabinet  yesterday approved extending
the  existing  cannabis  diversion  program  to  hard  drugs  and  won
immediate  support  from  drug  agencies  and other political parties.

Under  a  12-month  trial  set  to begin in November, magistrates will
have  the  power  to  send people caught with small quantities of hard
drugs to education and treatment programs.

A  conviction  will be recorded only if a person fails to complete the
program.

To  qualify  for  the trial, an offender must admit guilt, be assessed
as  suitable  for  drug  intervention and have no prior convictions or
charges for serious or violent offences.

Premier  Peter  Beattie  yesterday  said  critics  who  suggested  the
Government had gone soft on drugs were wrong and called on
Queenslanders  to  support the program. He said the trial was aimed at
reducing  drug-related  crime  through  early  intervention,  a  claim
supported  by  community  drug  agencies.  "This  is  a  sensible  and
rational  approach  to  get  people  off  drugs  and reduce crime," Mr
Beattie  said.  "We  know  there will be a political downside but this
is the right policy.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2002 News Limited
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/98
Author: Rosemary Odgers, Craig Spann
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1331/a06.html

===

(24) MOUNTIES MAKE HUGE COKE BUST

RCMP  Seize  $160-million  Shipment  From  Boat  Off Cape Breton Coast

Arichat  -  RCMP say they stopped a $160-million cocaine shipment from
reaching shore near Arichat this month.

Four  Quebec  men  were  arrested  onshore  at  about 4 a.m. on July 4
after  police  intercepted a sailing ship that had made its way up the
eastern  seaboard  to  a  remote  island  beach  off  Richmond County.

 [snip]

The  stash  -  595  kilograms of cocaine - is in RCMP hands in Ontario
where  the  suspects  are  in  jail awaiting trial. The force wouldn't
say where the drugs were intercepted or how.

 [snip]

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002
Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Tera Camus
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1327/a04.html

===

(25) ONE IN TWO STUDENTS TAKES DRUGS

HALF of the country's 122,000 students use drugs regularly,
according  to  a  survey  by  the  Union  of  Students  of Ireland. As
Britain  moved  to relax the laws in relation to cannabis use, the USI
poll  showed  that  one  in  four  Irish students started taking drugs
before  they  were  16,  with  14% saying they were dependent and felt
they needed help to stop.

The  most  common  drug  used was cannabis, followed by ecstasy, acid,
magic mushrooms, speed and cocaine.

 [snip]

National  Parents  Council  president  Michael O'Regan said the supply
chain  must  be  cut off and courts have to come down a lot heavier on
suppliers and dealers.

"Our  health  boards  have tried everything. Our message is that there
is  no  such thing as a soft drug and we need to get ruthless and show
people  the  reality feature addicts in advertising campaigns and show
these students how drugs ruin lives."

 [snip]

Pubdate: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 
Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland) 
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2002 
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/144 
Author: Neans McSweeney 
Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1325/a09.html

***********************************************************************

HOT OFF THE 'NET
- -------------------------------

USA TODAY GIVES HUTCHINSON FREE RIDE IN NETHERLANDS

A DrugSense focus alert.

http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0244.html

===

BRITAIN GOES SOFT ON POT. SHOULD U.S. LAWS CHANGE TOO?

A  transcript  of  softballs  lobbed  from the right and right at drug
czar Asa Hutchinson on Crossfire.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1280/a04.html

===

Judge James P. Gray guests on Cultural Baggage radio show

Friday, July 19th at 12 midnite CT

Author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed  and What We Can Do About It - A 
judicial indictment of the war on drugs," http://www.judgejimgray.com/
Judge Gray will also discuss the upcoming ABC special on John Stossels' 
Primetime,  featuring  both  he  and  last  weeks  guest  Sanho  Tree.

Please listen live at 90.1 FM in Houston or online at http://www.kpft.org

If you would like to call in, the number is 713-526-5738

Prior shows featuring Kevin Zeese, Daniel Forbes and (soon) Sanho Tree are 
stored online at:

http://www.cultural-baggage.com/kpft.htm

===

Initiative to end the war on all marijuana users in Nevada

On  November  5,  our  initiative  to end marijuana prohibition in the
first  state  in  the  nation  will  either  pass or fail. In order to
achieve  victory  on  Election  Day,  we will need to receive monetary
support  from  many thousands of allies and supporters from all across
the country.

Will  you  please  visit http://www.nrle.org/ to donate $10 or more to
this  historic  campaign?  Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is
our  PAC  in  Nevada.  Please  play  a part in this dramatic, landmark
campaign by donating $10 or more today.

***********************************************************************

LETTER OF THE WEEK
- ------------------------------------

Ending Prohibition On Hemp Plant Would Hurt Big Business

By Tim Handley

The  movement  to  end  the  prohibition  of  a  plant  called hemp is
turning  a  blind  eye  to  the  negative consequences. An end to this
prohibition would hurt big business!

The  timber  industry would be hurt because you get 4.1 times the wood
pulp  from  an  acre  of  hemp compared to an acre of timber. It takes
one-sixth  the  chemicals  to  process  hemp into paper as compared to
timber.

The  fossil  fuel industry could vanish. Because the hemp plant is one
of  the  most  efficient  with  photosynthesis,  it  produces  potent
biomass  products  (methanol  for  fuel  cells) which would reduce our
need for petroleum.

If  Americans  could  grow their own medication so they didn`t need to
buy  drugs  for  pain,  anxiety,  blood  pressure, glaucoma, etc., the
drug companies would lose sales.

Next  is  the  correctional  business. Hundreds of thousands each year
are  incarcerated  because  of possession of this outlawed plant. What
would we do with all that excess prison space?

Hardest  hit  would  be  the funeral industry. Countless Americans die
early  from  alcohol-related  mishaps,  and  if  Americans  could  be
inebriated in another, less dangerous fashion, they would.

Keep  prohibition!  It`s America, we answer to a higher authority: big
business.

Tim Handley,

CEO/Chairman, Advantage Companies,

Gulf Breeze

Pubdate: 07/10/2002
Source: Pensacola News Journal (FL)

***********************************************************************

FEATURE ARTICLE
- -------------------------------

Interview with Marc-Boris St. Maurice - Part 2

Boris  St.  Maurice  is  a man of many hempen hats. The Montreal-based
uber-activist and founder of Bloc Pot is currently the Editor-in-Chief  
of  Heads  Magazine,  leader  of the federal Canadian Marijuana Party,  
founder  of a  new cannabis reform french-language internet list known 
as PAMF, and a generally nice, well-informed guy. This week,  DSW Hemp 
& Cannabis Issues Editor Philippe Lucas continues his conversation with 
Boris.

Boris: Let 'er rip.

 DSW: Good  to hear from you, my friend; let's start with the basics:
 Age?

Boris: Age: 33

 DSW: where are you from originally?

Boris: Born in Toronto, only because my dad was working there for 2 years. 
Grew up in Montreal from the age of 1 till now. Ma famille vient tout du 
Quebec... quebecois de souche.

 DSW: Tell me about your involvement with marijuana? Were you always a
 pot smoker?

Boris: I don't really like discussing my own personal habits, but I have 
been known to use pot; first tried it back in 1984. I got involved in the 
movement because of a bust 10 years ago. I spent 24 hours in a jail cell, 
and vowed to do everything in my power to change the law. Ironically, 
within 6 hours of being in jail, as I was the only one there with rolling 
paper (for my tobacco) I hooked up with two guys that had some hash oil in 
jail, and in exchange for some papers, was treated to their goods... lying 
there, stoned, yet in jail for pot, I smiled to myself as I realized how 
insane prohibition is.

 DSW: What can you tell me about the origins of Bloc Pot?

Boris: The Bloc Pot was started in 1997. We announced it at our September 
smoke in. At that time, we were still collecting the 1000 signatures to 
create the party. The idea came from my defense lawyer, who gave me a bum 
deal by the way. When I pressed him for info about demonstrations (back in 
1993) he blew me off by saying "you want to change the law, get elected and 
change it". The idea kicked around my mind for several years before I 
called a friend, asked about the forms to start a party, and he happened to 
have a complete set at his place... so off we went.

 DSW:  And  what changes have you seen in Quebec since the founding of
 Bloc Pot?

Boris: It's hard to tell for sure. Certainly it has gotten people talking 
about prohibition. When I got started as an activist in 1992 there was 
nothing concerning pot as an organization here in Quebec. The difference 
now is that people who are interested in getting active have an outlet for 
that desire. But I think the biggest impact came from the federal party; 
that got Ottawa's attention.

 DSW:  How  did  Bloc  Pot  evolve  into the national Marijuana Party?

Boris: Actually, a good friend of mine alerted me to the upcoming changes 
in the federal elections act. A court case was coming to a close that would 
result in the elimination of the minimum vote requirements to get the 1000$ 
deposit refunded. Once that was confirmed, the idea of getting at least 50 
candidates  became  more  feasible,  but quite a challenge. The first 
announcement introducing the newly formed party took place in February 2000 
in le Journal de Montreal.

 DSW: And what kind of impact did the party have on the last elections?

Boris: I toured Canada most pf 2000 back and forth to muster support for 
the party and we succeeded in running 73 people in the elections. I think 
the federal party forced people in Ottawa to get familiar with the idea of 
marijuana.

 DSW: Where did you have the greatest successes?

Boris: Quebec is where we have the greatest support, followed by Ontario. 
With the medical marijuana issue getting to the point it had, and my arrest 
at the Montreal Compassion Club 6 months before the (Terry) Parker ruling 
from the Ontario Court of Appeals... as Allan Young put it, my timing was 
"bang on".

Editor's  Note:  To read Philippe's complete interview with Boris, see 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1286/a06.html

***********************************************************************

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
- ------------------------------------

"In  2000  alone,  646,042  people were arrested in America for simple
possession of marijuana. And while the Drug Enforcement Administration  
has  a  budget  of  $1.8  billion,  even with  the extra $100  million  
Bush wants to toss its way,  the SEC  will  have to  make do with $513 
million."

Arianna  Huffington,  from  column  on  corporate crime published last
week  -  see  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1343/a02.html

***********************************************************************

DS  Weekly  is  one  of  the  many free educational services DrugSense
offers  our  members.  Watch  this  feature  to  learn more about what
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CREDITS:

Policy  and  Law  Enforcement/Prison content selection and analysis by
Stephen  Young  (maxharm@maximizingharm.com),  Cannabis/Hemp  content
selection  and  analysis  by  Philippe  Lucas  (phil@drugsense.org),
International content selection and analysis by Doug Snead
(doug@drugsense.org), Layout by Matt Elrod (webmaster@drugsense.org)

We  wish  to thank all our contributors, editors, NewsHawks and letter
writing  activists.  Please help us help reform. Become a NewsHawk See
http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm  for  info  on  contributing clippings.

===

NOTICE:

In  accordance  with  Title  17  U.S.C.  Section 107, this material is
distributed  without  profit  to  those  who  have  expressed  a prior
interest  in  receiving  the  included  information  for  research and
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===

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------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #140
********************************