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

Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 23:55:55 -0700
Subject: JAMAICA: Man charged $1,600 for five chillum pipes
from Paul Chnang, Jamaica NORML, paul_chang@cwjamaica.com

Jamaica Observer
July 31 2002

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20020730T1900000500
_29705_OBS_MAN_CHARGED________FOR_FIVE_CHILLUM_PIPES.asp

Man charged $1,600 for five chillum pipes (appx. US$32.00 ... Paul)
Observer Reporter
Wednesday, July 31, 2002

A man who was charged with possession of five chillum (ganja) pipes 
benefited from the Court's benevolence Monday when the magistrate slashed 
$400 off his $2,000 fine because he had only $1,700 in his wallet.

Clifton Clarke had pleaded guilty to the charge. However, he told Resident 
Magistrate Jennifer Straw that at the time he was held he had only two 
pipes, but the police said it was five because the pipes were disconnected.

Clarke, of a Grant's Pen address, was arrested by Constable George Roye of 
the Constant Spring police after the chillum pipes were found in his 
bedroom. The incident took place around 6:00 pm on July 24 this year.

After RM Straw fined him $2,000 or 10 days for the offence, Clarke told her 
that he had only $1,700 in his possession.

"I only have $1,700 and no bus fare, your honour," Clarke said.

After a few moments' deliberation, RM Straw said: "OK then, you can pay 
$1,600 and have $100 for bus fare."

"You are very lucky," RM Straw told the man. "You could have been charged 
five times for the chillum pipes."
~~~~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~ ~~~~~

paul chang
st ann, jamaica
Jamaica NORML
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 10:05:50 -0700
Subject:UK: Brixton Blueprint Spurs Liberalization Hopes Up TOC

Newshawk: CannabisLink.ca (http://cannabislink.ca)
Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: Eye Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 Eye Communications Ltd.
Contact: eye@eye.net
Website: http://www.eye.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/147
Author: Abigail Pugh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

BRIXTON BLUEPRINT SPURS LIBERALIZATION HOPES

LONDON -- Brixton, in south London, is inner city in a nutshell. Along with
its street markets, club scene and grand Victorian row houses, the
neighbourhood has long been famous for drug dealing, drug taking and
associated street crimes such as mugging and burglary.

The U.K. media spotlight has been trained on Brixton over the past year due
to dramatically relaxed drug policing strategies there. Those strategies,
including a pilot project started by the local constabulary last year that
gives amnesty to those found in possession of cannabis, have led directly
to the national government revising its classification of the drug and a
sudden flowering of public cannabis consumption throughout the country.

Tim Summers of Cannabis Action London believes the Brixton experiment
"shows that police recognize the need to stop the cat and mouse, to stop
searching school kids' pockets for dope and start focusing on the real
problems of street attacks and violence."

"It's easy now to get away with smoking [cannabis] in bars," says Lisa
Pickering, a student who lives in Brixton. "My boyfriend often has a sly
spliff and nobody's bothered. After 7pm on the main clubbing streets,
you'll get offered drugs -- especially if you're white, because it's
assumed you've come down into the area to score. In central London, you
can't have a joint in a club lineup because the bouncers would stop you:
here, the bouncers are the dealers' friends."

The story of Brixton and drugs goes back to the late '50s. Caribbean
immigrants tended to seek out specific parts of London, with Jamaicans
heading for south London and those from the smaller islands settling in
west London areas such as Notting Hill Gate. The Jamaican influence in
Brixton, combined with high unemployment and poverty rates, meant that
scoring was easier there than anywhere else in London. In 1981, an overtly
racist police crackdown in Brixton intended to drive cannabis off the
streets entirely resulted in riots that spread to many other inner-city
areas of the U.K.

Mainstream attitudes toward cannabis underwent a nationwide softening as
the '90s progressed. Cannabis came out of the closet as the middle class
drug of choice, and in doing so, it came down in price and rose in quality.

According to the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, the average U.K. retail
price for cannabis is about half what it was in the late '80s.

In 1998, the Independent on Sunday -- the ultimate middle-class newspaper
- -- sponsored a campaign to liberalize cannabis legislation. Summers says
Brixton "was the natural centre of the movement." Protest marches through
Brixton in 1999 and 2000 resulted in zero cannabis arrests, despite an
estimated 30,000 participants. "The people took power, and the police stood
back at these events," he says.

Cannabis prohibition has been a massive draw on police and judicial
resources: in 1999, cannabis possession constituted 68 per cent of all
drugs offences in the U.K., with a cost of UKP10,000 to prosecute each
suspect. This expense, coupled with the fact that the London marches showed
overwhelming public support for changes to the law, cued Brixton police to
change the way they handled dope possession.

In June of last year, under Commander Brian Paddick, who took part in the
1981 operation and witnessed its utter failure, police implemented a
radical new plan that became known as the "Brixton experiment."

They changed their response to cannabis possession from arrest and trial to
a simple written warning and confiscation of the drug. This approach has
made cannabis possession, public smoking, and some say casual dealing, very
easy indeed throughout the London borough of Lambeth, of which Brixton is a
part.

The new policy has freed up impressive amounts of police time and money to
fight other crime, halving muggings in the area. It has also focussed extra
punitive efforts on those who deal cocaine and heroin, resulting in
significant increases in arrests for such drugs.

The local force estimates that 2,500 hours of paperwork and the cash
equivalent of two officer salaries were saved during the first six months
of the scheme. Judicial cost savings including legal aid defence,
magistrates and court time have totalled about UKP4 million (or about $9.5
million).

A recent poll shows 83 per cent of the Brixton community actively approves
of the policing changes. The London-wide Metropolitan Police assessed the
new approach this spring and has officially deemed it a success, allowing
the scheme to continue.

The new confiscatory approach to cannabis has spread to other London
boroughs, in particular, neighbouring Southwark. Police forces in many
other parts of the U.K. are following developments in London with interest
and are likely to implement their own versions of the revised policing
strategy.

The historic, street-level changes in south London quickly took a hold
higher up. In a dramatic loosening of official cannabis policy, which the
Labour government had long been loath to tamper with for fear of upsetting
"middle England" (its conventional conservative voters), that government
started to talk about "our experiment" even though it had initially
distanced itself from events in Brixton.

In October 2001, Home Secretary David Blunkett officially declared his
intention to reclassify cannabis from Class B to Class C, putting it on a
par with anabolic steroids. There is no power of arrest for simple
possession of Class C drugs.

"We need to warn young people that all drugs are dangerous," he said, "but
Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine are the most harmful. We will only
be successful at delivering this message if our policy as a whole is
balanced and credible...." He added, "the majority of police time is
currently spent on handling cannabis offences. It is time for an honest and
common-sense approach focusing effectively on drugs that cause most harm."

The Home Affairs Committee Report, awaited since Blunkett announced his
intentions last fall, was released this May. It states its support for the
change, and also recommends that ecstasy be reclassified as a class B drug,
from Class A.

With the new police and community laid-back attitudes about public cannabis
use have come opportunities activists and entrepreneurs alike could only
have dreamed about five years ago.

Unofficial Amsterdam-style coffee shops have existed in Brixton for years
and have recently sprung up in several other London boroughs. David Crane
plans to push the envelope still further by very publicly opening a
cannabis-based cafe and club called The Hempire this fall.

He is going to invest UKP200,000 in creating a "plush establishment" in
London's hip Hoxton area, just east of the financial district, and has
already started consulting with police, the local council and drug activist
groups on the venture. Dope-smoking will be welcomed, but customers won't
find cannabis for sale. "We're going for a particular kind of smoker," he
says. "Over 25, works hard, has a good career and a good life."

But Crane's venture is risky. The owner of The Dutch Experience coffee shop
in Stockport, Manchester, was recently jailed and, although now out on
bail, is prevented from speaking to the press; Ganjaland in Bournemouth,
Kent, was raided by anti-cannabis local police. Both establishments have
reopened despite their difficulties.

While the situation looks positive for cannabis activists, there are
detractors. The Labour MP for the Brixton area is reportedly lukewarm about
the new policing strategies, and many police officers themselves are
unhappy about it because they see it as giving ground to criminals.
__________________________________________________________________________
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
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 10:41:18 -0700
Subject:UK: Web: 'Softly, Softly' Drugs Experiment Ends Up TOC

Newshawk: JimmyG
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2002 BBC
Contact: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/forum/
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/558
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

'SOFTLY, SOFTLY' DRUGS EXPERIMENT ENDS

The controversial experiment in the south London borough of Lambeth which
saw a "softly, softly" approach to the possession of cannabis ends at
midnight Wednesday.

Police say from Thursday 1 August people openly smoking the drug in public
face arrest.

Scotland Yard says the experiment has been successful with officers' time
being freed to concentrate on the fight against hard drugs.

But critics say it has led to more users and dealers being drawn into
Lambeth from other boroughs.

'Aggravating circumstances'

For the past year, Lambeth police have been employing a policy of seizing
cannabis and issuing formal warnings to people found in possession of small
amounts of it for personal use.

That will continue but police are warning that cannabis is still illegal
and people will be arrested if there are "aggravating circumstances" - in
line with national policy.

It has been argued that there has been public confusion over drugs policy
following Home Secretary David Blunkett's announcement that cannabis will
be reclassified from Class B to Class C.

More than 1,000 people have been warned for possession since the scheme
began last July.

Of those, 52.7% were from outside the borough, a similar proportion to
those caught in possession before the pilot, suggesting people were not
flooding into the area to buy drugs, said police.

The change coincides with a survey which suggests more than half of British
adult voters do not support the relaxation of penalties for cannabis
possession.

A Guardian/ICM poll found only 38% approved of the policy.

But there was a clear age divide, with 54% of those aged 18 to 35 and 55%
of 25 to 30-year-olds saying they approved of the change.

The majority (54%) of people aged 35 to 64 disapproved, with 76% of the
over 65s also opposed.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Tom
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 16:28:32 -0700
Subject:HI: Ice vs. Pot Up TOC

Newshawk: The War on Drugs IS Terrorism
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Honolulu Weekly (HI)
Contact: letters@honoluluweekly.com
Copyright: 2002 Honolulu Weekly Inc
Website: http://www.honoluluweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/197
Author: Chad Blair
Note: For more on medical cannabis and cannabis eradication in Hawaii go to
http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Hawaii

ICE VS. POT

Is the statewide marijuana eradication campaign leading drug users to
crystal methamphetamine? An 8-year-old study supports an ice-pot connection,
and is making headlines on the Big Island, where concerned citizens are
pressing county officials to junk costly Green Harvest raids in favor of
cracking down on ice, aka batu ("Police violations," HW, 7/24).

The ice/pot theory is not new, nor confined to Hawai'i County. The Institute
for scientific Analysis of San Francisco found that crystal meth use in
Honolulu during the 1980s was replacing pot use, most pointedly in
low-income areas where marijuana had become scarce and expensive due to
eradication (Cover Story, "High Anxiety," HW, 10/27/99).

Now, a three-year study published in 1994 by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA) that interviewed 450 ice users in Honolulu, San Fran and San
Diego is providing fresh fodder for the debate. "Residents were both pushed
away from pakal=F6l=F6, their staple drug of choice, and pulled toward ice=
 by a
well-organized marketing campaign by Asian distributors," the report stated.
Green Harvest, which began in the late 1970s, "left locals without their
customary, and many would say, relatively benign, smoke."

The report further states that Honolulu users consumed more ice per capita
than California users, and were more violent and more prone to commit
crimes. They were also far more likely than California users to smoke the
drug rather than inject or inhale it.

The Hawai'i Tribune-Herald reported July 25 that the study's principal
investigator, Patricia Morgan of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, met
with Mayor Harry Kim's executive assistant, Bill Kenoi, last week. Kenoi
told the Weekly that he had yet to read Morgan's report but acknowledged
that county officials are well-aware of the Big Isle's ice "epidemic
crisis," as he put it. Arrests for ice distribution increased 431 percent
there from 1997 to 2000.

Back on O'ahu, the U.S. Department of Justice reported recently that
Honolulu now has the highest percentage of male ice arrestees out of 30
metropolitan areas surveyed, including New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.
The arrest numbers dovetail with recent reports of increased crime and drug
treatment for ice use on O'ahu and Hawai'i, and Child Protective Services'
removal of children from ice-using homes on Hawai'i.

"I can't confirm that we're the No. 1 ice-using state, but we remain one of
the top states since the ice wave first hit in the late 1980s and early
1990s," said Elaine Wilson, chief of the Department of Health's Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Division (ADAD). "But it's not the case that eradication has led
to this."

Kenoi said that the '94 NIDA report may be "on the table" as part of the
Hawai'i Island Methamphetamine Summit on Aug 27. Sponsored by the Drug
Enforcement Agency and the nonprofit National Crime Prevention Council, the
summit is spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, who is pushing for a $4
million appropriation from Congress to combat ice manufacturing and use on
Hawai'i.

Some think the ice summit will amount to little more than public posturing.

"Is it gonna be facts or farce?" asked Roger Christie of the Hawai'i
Cannabis Ministry, who has tried thus far unsuccessfully to get invited to
the ice summit. "Based on past experience, I think this summit is rigged to
come up with results that will only support continued eradication of pot.
Tons of federal money have already been dumped into the Big Island for this.
If cops get the same bad results with ice eradication as they've had with
pot, I'm afraid we're in for more trouble."

For more on the ice summit, which will be held at the Outrigger Waikoloa,
call (808) 961-8316.
__________________________________________________________________________
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
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:16:45 -0700
Subject:Canada: Say No to the "American Inquisition" Up TOC

Newshawk: The CannabisLink.ca (http://cannabislink.ca/)
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Goldstream Gazette (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Goldstream Gazette
Contact: goldedit@vinewsgroup.com
Website: http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1398/a03.html

SAY NO TO THE "AMERICAN INQUISITION"

Your July 24th editorial was right on target.

Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. However, there is no
evidence that punitive marijuana laws do anything other than burden
otherwise law-abiding Canadians with criminal records.

Consider the experience of the United States, the former land of the free
and current record holder in citizens incarcerated.

Based on finding that criminal records are inappropriate as health
interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union
countries have decriminalized marijuana.

Despite draconian penalties and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal,
lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

The latest drug war fiasco to come out of the U.S. is "compassionate
coercion".

This expansion of zero tolerance does not distinguish between occasional use
and chronic abuse.  Jail sentences and open-ended drug testing are applied
exclusively to consumers of non-traditional drugs like marijuana.

Alcoholics and nicotine addicts need not fear President George W. Bush's
legendary "compassion'.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death,
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Unfortunately,
marijuana represents the counterculture to misguided reactionaries intent on
legislating their version of morality. Canada should follow the lead of
Europe and Just Say No to the American Inquisition.

Robert Sharpe, Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:17:20 -0700
Subject:UK: Cannabis Relaxation Opposed By Majority Up TOC

Newshawk: JimmyG
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alan Travis

CANNABIS RELAXATION OPPOSED BY MAJORITY

Britain Divides Along Age, Political And Social Faultlines Over 'Softly,
Softly' Move, While Fears Grow Of Confusion With Tobacco And Alcohol

The majority of British voters disapprove of the home secretary David
Blunkett's decision to relax the penalties for possession of cannabis,
according to this month's Guardian/ICM opinion poll.

Some 53% of adult voters say they do not support the reclassification of
cannabis as a less harmful drug. Only 38% say they support the move.

But as ever when it comes to questions about drugs, the nation divides
strictly according to age.

A clear majority of the younger generation, those under 35, back the new
"softly, softly" approach to cannabis. Some 54% of those aged 18 to 24
approve of the change as do 55% of 25- to 34-year-olds.

But the older generation remains firmly opposed with 54% of the 35- to
64-year-olds disapproving of the change. Opposition is strongest among the
over 65s, 76% of whom say they do not like the new policy which will see
the police adopt a "seize and warn" policy towards those they find in
possession of small amounts of cannabis.

The ICM poll coincides with the modification of the Lambeth experiment in
south London under which cannabis users were cautioned but not arrested, to
free police officers to concentrate on class A drugs such as heroin and
crack cocaine.

The modified Lambeth experiment, which comes into force today, will see it
come into line with the policy announced by Mr Blunkett earlier this month.

Police officers will no longer routinely arrest those they find in
possession of cannabis but will instead adopt a "seize and warn" policy in
most cases. They will only use their power of arrest for cannabis
possession if there are "aggravating factors" such as the involvement of
children, public order implications or "flagrant disregard of the law" such
as smoking a joint in front of an officer.

It is expected that the Metropolitan police will adopt the modified Lambeth
policy across London this autumn in advance of parliamentary regulations
which will implement the change nationwide next July.

The details of the Guardian/ ICM poll show that attitudes towards cannabis
possession also vary sharply according to social class and voting
intention. Conservative voters are most hostile with 70% opposing the
change and only 26% backing it. Labour voters are split down the middle,
with 46% supporting Mr Blunkett and 45% against. There is a similar divide
among Liberal Democrat voters despite their party's official policy of
decriminalisation, with 46% against and 43% in favour.

Views about cannabis also vary with social class. Generally approval
ratings for the reform of the cannabis laws rises to 45% among the more
affluent and middle class voters. Among working class and poorer voters the
level of approval falls to 26% with 63% of social class DE voters - the
unskilled and unemployed - opposed to any decision to relax the penalties
for possessing cannabis.

Crime figures show more than 100,000 people were charged with possessing a
controlled drug in 2001-02. The overwhelming majority were for cannabis
possession.

The British crime survey recently found that 44% of people under 30 said
they had tried cannabis.

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,002 voters aged over 18 by telephone
between July 26 and 28 2002. Interviews were conducted across the country
and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:20:22 -0700
Subject:NV: District Attorney Claims Marijuana Drive Would Derail Up TOC

Newshawk: Krissy www.mpp.org
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Webpage: www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2002/jul/31/513788667.html
Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact: letters@lasvegassun.com
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/234
Author: Ed Koch
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?162 (Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement)

DISTRICT ATTORNEY CLAIMS MARIJUANA DRIVE WOULD DERAIL DUI ENFORCEMENT

A Clark County prosecutor says the marijuana initiative is so poorly
written "it is a gigantic step backward in public safety and DUI enforcement."

Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson, who prosecutes under the influence
cases, said the proposed amendment to the Nevada constitution that would
decriminalize possession of up to three ounces marijuana, would require a
person to be caught "driving dangerously" before they even can be charged.

That, Nelson said, would severely weaken existing state law, where a person
can be convicted of just being impaired while driving or simply have the
drug in their system without actually being under the influence.

"I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that it was not intentional but
rather just poor draftsmanship," said Nelson, noting he read the November
ballot question thoroughly for the first time just last week.

"When you are writing a constitutional amendment every word has to be
carefully written" or it opens the door to challenges and loopholes.

The measure would have to pass in November and again in 2004 to become law.
It is too late to rewrite it, Nelson said.

"The message is if you support tougher DUI laws, you won't support this
ballot question because it is a gigantic step backward in public safety and
DUI enforcement," Nelson said.

Attempts to reach a spokesman for the Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement, which supports the measure that was put on the ballot by the
Marijuana Policy Project, were unsuccessful.

However, supporters have said since its inception that the ballot question
is designed to help law enforcement by eliminating thousands of small pot
possession cases that clog the courts.

NRLE officials have said there are safeguards in place because the
marijuana measure calls for strict penalties for people who smoke marijuana
in public, sell pot to minors or drive under the influence and kill people.

Nevada changed its marijuana laws last year, making it a misdemeanor for
possession of less than one ounce, instead of a felony.
__________________________________________________________________________
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
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:20:51 -0700
Subject:AZ: De-Fang Marijuana Up TOC

Newshawk: Plylar - Colorado Congress (http://www.plylar.org)
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2002 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@azstarnet.com
Website: http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Rich Lowry
Note: Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review

DE-FANG MARIJUANA

So thoroughgoing is the unofficial ban on debate of the nation's drug laws
that American politicians prefer smoking pot to talking about it.

They typically try marijuana as teen-agers or young adults, suffer no
consequences, then go on to maintain as elected officials that anyone with
the temerity to do what they did should be arrested and maybe even jailed.

Once and probably future presidential candidate Al Gore, for instance,
spent much of his post-adolescence smoking dope and skipping through fields
of clover, according to biographer Bill Turque.

He somehow still managed to become one of the most notoriously uptight and
ambitious politicians in the country. But Gore, like nearly everyone else,
thinks smoking pot should be a criminal offense.

Not everywhere in the world is there such conformity on drug issues. Much
of Europe is reconsidering its drug laws - in Britain, the Labor Party
recently proposed downgrading the possession of marijuana to a
wrist-slapping offense. Meanwhile, in the United States "the war on drugs"
grinds pointlessly on.

At least there is some fresh air in the media. John Stossel took an ax to
drug-war cliches in a special report on ABC this week.

Drug Enforcement Agency Director Asa Hutchinson had to insist wanly on air
that, despite all the billions of dollars spent and countless thousands
arrested, the war just hadn't yet been fought hard enough.

He sounded like one of those diehards who argued during the Cold War that
socialism hadn't failed, it just had never been truly tried.

When it comes to marijuana, it's unclear why anyone would try to stamp out
its use in the first place.

Alcohol and tobacco kill hundreds of thousands of people a year. In
contrast, there is no such thing as a lethal overdose of marijuana.

Yet federal law makes possessing a single joint punishable by up to a year
in prison, and many states have similar penalties. There are about 700,000
marijuana arrests in the United States every year, roughly 80 percent for
possession.

For the vast majority of its users, marijuana is nearly harmless and
represents a temporary enthusiasm.

Most marijuana users are between the ages of 18 and 25, and use plummets
after age 34, by which time children and mortgages blunt the appeal of
rolling papers and bongs.

Since drug warriors have a hard time arguing that marijuana itself is
dangerous, they instead rely on a bank shot: Marijuana's danger is that it
leads to the use of drugs that are actually dangerous - it is a so-called
"gateway drug."

Not so. According to a report by the Institute of Medicine, "Of 34- to
35-year-old men who had used marijuana 10-99 times by the age 24 to 25, 75
percent never used any other illicit drug."

And users simply don't get addicted to marijuana the way they do harder
drugs. One key indicator of the addictiveness of other drugs is that lab
rats will self-administer them. Rats won't self-administer THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana.

Two researchers in 1991 studied the addictiveness of caffeine, nicotine,
alcohol, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Both ranked caffeine and marijuana
as the least addictive.

Despite the heated rhetoric of the drug war, on marijuana there is a de
facto consensus: Legalizers think marijuana laws shouldn't be on the books;
prohibitionists think, in effect, that they shouldn't be enforced.

A compromise would be a version of the Dutch model of decriminalization,
removing criminal penalties for personal use of marijuana, but keeping the
prohibition on street-trafficking and mass cultivation.

That, of course, would require that politicians apply some of the energy
they once devoted to enjoying marijuana to discussing forthrightly its
legal status. But they prefer to smoke, then keep forever mum.
__________________________________________________________________________
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
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:23:26 -0700
Subject: NV: 4 PUB LTE: Readers Weigh In On Pot Legalization Plan

Newshawk: Plylar - Colorado Congress (http://www.plylar.org)
Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Webpage: www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2002/07/31/20557.php?sp1=&sp2=&sp3=
Copyright: 2002 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: rgjmail@nevadanet.com
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Authors: Tom Seiler, William E. Hall, Christopher Bellecy, and Ann Larson

READERS WEIGH IN ON POT LEGALIZATION PLAN

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick has stated that the current
initiative to legalize marijuana is just the beginning of an effort to
legalize all drugs. Where does he get this inside information? I have been
involved in the medical marijuana movement for a long time and I can't ever
remember anyone saying anything about legalizing anything other than
marijuana. In 1996, California passed Proposition 215 the first medical
marijuana bill in this country. The opponents like Barry McCaffery and Dan
Lungren used the same argument, that this was just the beginning of an
effort to legalize all drugs.

Well, Proposition 215 passed six years ago and since that time there has
not been one bill or one proposition or one piece of legislation to
legalize any other drug proposed in California or anywhere else in this
world. It just is not happening, but yet Mr. Gammick claims that legalizing
all drugs is the real goal. I wish he would tell us where he gets this
information.

Tom Seiler

Reno
- ------------------------------------
"Officials slam marijuana ballot question," July 21 RGJ: Just as marijuana
has been erroneously branded a "gateway" drug for decades (the real
"gateway" drugs are alcohol and tobacco), marijuana decriminalization is
now being touted by drug war addicted law enforcement officials as the
"gateway" to a comprehensive legalization of all illicit drugs. With more
than 62,000 arrests every month, marijuana is the backbone of the drug war
skeleton. Never in American history, and seldom in world history, has there
been such massive persecution and prosecution. Lose the marijuana bogeyman
and the drug war deflates overnight.

It is supremely ironic and a thing of beauty that Nevada, once the most
marijuana intolerant of states, is now poised on the threshold of a cutting
edge tolerance that will inevitably be imitated by all the other states.
One of histories most futile, costly and ridiculous prohibitions is finally
coming to an end in Nevada.

William E. Hall

Sparks
- -------------------------------------
Now that our esteemed federal officials have had their say about the
initiative to decriminalize cannabis, I'd like to offer another view. The
feds are concerned about Nevada turning into another Amsterdam. As someone
who has actually visited that fair city, I can truthfully say that I felt
safer walking the streets of Amsterdam at 1 a.m. looking for a hotel room
than I feel walking the streets of my hometown at dusk. But that's
subjective, so let's look at some facts. Dutch teenagers smoke cannabis at
about half the rate of U.S. teens. The Dutch have fewer drug-related
deaths. Crack and methamphetamine are virtually nonexistent, and there are
no drug gangs killing innocents in drive-by shootings.

The Dutch model shows that separating cannabis from the so-called "hard"
drugs discourages the use of those drugs. The state initiative conflicts
with federal law, but that's the point. We have to send a message to our
representatives in Washington that we're tired of the police state and we
want to look at other ways of dealing with the issue.

Christopher Bellecy

Carson City
- ---------------------------------------------
Naturally, District Attorney Richard Gammick would oppose legalizing three
ounces or less of marijuana. He comes from law enforcement, and any
diminishment of policing power troubles such people. The United States
spends billions of dollars each year on drug interdiction, while the
problems of drug experimentation, use and addiction worsen, and only a tiny
portion of the money goes toward treatment for those who want to stop
using. Marijuana is far less addictive than the very- legal Budweiser most
law enforcement officers have now in their refrigerators. Wasting Nevada's
scarce money on arresting, booking and jailing harmless marijuana users is
a travesty, and if most criminals incur a marijuana charge only after
they're picked up for something else, then that just means more money to
fully prosecute the other crime. Remember folks, Prohibition didn't work.

Ann Larson

Reno
__________________________________________________________________________
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
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:24:07 -0700
Subject: US: Wasted Resources

Newshawk: Plylar - Colorado Congress (http://www.plylar.org)
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jul 2002
Source: National Review (US)
Copyright: 2002 National Review
Contact: letters@nationalreview.com
Website: http://www.nationalreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/287
Author: Deroy Murdock
Note: Mr. Murdock is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service.

WASTED RESOURCES

John Stossel Takes On The Drug War.

ABC News correspondent John Stossel once again exposes the cost, folly, and
failure of big government. He somehow always manages to do that. This time,
his fat and lumbering target is the War on Drugs, a 30- year-old project
that can show amazingly little for the billions of taxpayer dollars it has
incinerated and the millions of nonviolent offenders it has incarcerated.

Airing tonight at 10:00 P.M. Eastern, 9:00 P.M. Central time, War on Drugs,
A War On Ourselves spends an hour asking if government efforts to stamp out
drug use are even worse than the drugs themselves. Stossel largely avoids
the libertarian argument (which I embrace) that adults should have the
cognitive liberty to alter their minds in whatever way they choose, so long
as they do not infringe on the rights of others or endanger them by, say,
driving while stoned.

In fact, Stossel repeatedly says, "There's no question that drugs hurt
people." He also shows highly unglamorous footage of sketchy-looking
addicts injecting heroin between the tattoos on their arms and smoking
crack in venues that clearly are not Malibu beach houses.

Still, Stossel's question remains: "Doesn't the drug war hurt far more?"
Apparently so.

For starters, consider the highly visible hands that police use to fight
this war. Stossel presents numerous shots of SWAT teams in Kevlar suits
screaming as they batter down front doors in residential drug raids. He
shows Detroit police seizing a drug suspect's house. Before putting it on
the market and enjoying the revenues from its sale, cops hurl the home's TV
set into a Dumpster and splinter its furniture with sledgehammers. Treating
such private property with respect, apparently, is simply too much trouble.

Stossel shows us 50 Detroit cops who arrest several dozen people in a sting
operation. Most of the police's victims tried to purchase less than $25
worth of pot each.

In 2000, according to the FBI, there were 734,498 marijuana-related
arrests, 88 percent of them for mere possession. Stossel reports that
drug-related arrests and federal antidrug spending both have increased
nearly 50 percent in the last ten years while the number of users has
remained the same. "We have flatlined," admits Drug Enforcement Agency
director Asa Hutchinson.

Stossel nicely juxtaposes two pieces of footage. In one, Academy
Award-nominated actor, Robert Downey Jr., is sentenced to prison for
illegal drug abuse. Meanwhile, Betty Ford goes home after undergoing
medical rehabilitation for alcohol abuse. Why no jail time for the former
First Lady? Was she any less self-destructive than Downey appeared to be?

Detroit police chief Jerry Oliver bravely goes on camera to explain how all
of this handcuffing and imprisonment diverts law-enforcement resources from
worthier pursuits. "Up to three quarters of our budget somehow can be
traced back to fighting this War on Drugs," he says.

"If we did not have this drug war going on, we could spend more time going
after robbers and rapists and burglars and murderers. That's what we really
should be geared up to do."

Of course, some cops have cashed in on this war. We see an April 24, 1999
surveillance tape of a crooked San Antonio police officer collecting a
$3,000 bribe for delivering what he thought was 20 pounds of cocaine. One
dealer says he made $20,000 per week with police assistance. "The cops are
just another gang," he says.

Overseas, the War on Drugs has so elevated profits that new cocaine labs
arise more quickly than U.S. and South American forces can destroy them.
Coca plantations that have been shuttered in Bolivia simply shift to
Colombia. When Colombian police killed cocaine bigwig Pablo Escobar on
December 2, 1993, his death was supposed to drain the coke vial once and
for all. Then the Cali cartel took over. Yet others stepped forward when
their leaders were arrested. The local FARC narco-terrorists, meanwhile,
are so fond of kidnapping and homicide that Colombia's president-elect has
chosen to relax in Europe until his August inauguration.

Searching for a better way, Stossel travels to Europe where governments
across the continent are relaxing drug laws. England, Spain, and
Switzerland have decreased penalties for possession of small amounts of
marijuana. Portugal has decriminalized all drugs.

Holland, most famously, allows so-called "coffee shops" to offer consumers
marijuana buds, joints, clumps of hashish, cannabis-laced baked goods and
even psychoactive chocolates. These establishments - - as I discovered on
an early June visit to clean, scenic, and friendly Amsterdam - are not
sequestered in nasty parts of town. On the contrary, coffee shops thrive
beside elegant restaurants and exclusive boutiques. One coffee shop on a
fashionable thoroughfare called Nieuwezijds Voorburgwalsits just two blocks
from the Royal Palace and directly across the street from a local police
precinct. As its smiling patrons inhale and listen to electronic music, no
one outside seems to care, or even notice.

Stossel missed Amsterdam's new "smart shops" that sell high-energy
nutritional supplements, "herbal ecstasy" and crush-proof plastic boxes
that contain individual servings of fresh, moist-to-the-touch psilocybin
cubensisor "magic mushrooms." These attractive, brightly- lit
establishments also operate legally and in the open.

By bringing soft drugs, at least, into the sunshine, the Netherlands
apparently has made such substances boring to their youth. While 38 percent
of American adolescents have tried marijuana, Stossel says, just 20 percent
of Dutch teens have done so.

One only can hope that Stossel's tough journalism finally will knock some
sense into federal officials. Since the Constitution does not delegate to
Washington the power to control psychoactive substances, the 10th Amendment
holds that such powers should be "reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people." Why not let all 50 states experiment with a variety of drug
policies, ranging from the status quo in some places to the Dutch
decriminalization model in others and even Portuguese-style legalization in
yet others?

Even better, why not follow the Ninth Amendment's instruction that "The
enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people?" Just because the
Constitution does not explicitly recognize a right for adults to get baked
(just as there is no specific right to eat high- fat potato chips), that
alone does not obviate such a freedom. Government should bear the burden of
proving that a compelling public purpose trumps the basic human liberty to
get inebriated.

John Stossel interviews someone who makes this case in a way that should
confound any drug warrior: "There is no risk to the population when a
person sits in their living room at the end of a long day's work and lights
up a joint," says a professional, 30-something woman in a black suit, and
pressed, white blouse.

"But it makes you stupid," Stossel replies. "It makes you lazy."

"I don't think I'm stupid, and I don't think I'm lazy," she confidently
continues. "I'm a responsible adult. I'm an attorney. I pay my taxes. I
live a good, clean life. And if I feel like smoking a joint when I feel
like it, that's my business."
__________________________________________________________________________
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

------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:24:35 -0700
Subject: ALERT: Please Counter the Attack on Stossel's 'War on Drugs: A War on Ourselves'

Please Counter the Attack on Stossel's 'War on Drugs: A War on Ourselvess'

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 248 July 31, 2002

Tuesday evening ABC TV broadcast a superb documentary by John Stossel, "War 
on Drugs: A War on Ourselves."  A webpage summary is at 
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/stossel_drugs_020730.html

If you missed the show, we recommend listening to it via the low bandwidth 
audio feed at http://highwire.stanford.edu/~straffin/dp/

That the documentary really hit the mark can be seen by the outrage, along 
with the usual twisting of facts, in  press releases by the Community 
Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) 
http://www.cadca.org/PressGallery/PressReleases/ABCNewsProgram.htm and by 
former White House Drug spokesman Bob Weiner 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n000/a096.html

These folks and others have launched an organized letter writing campaign 
directed at David Westin, the President of ABC News, to tell him how wrong 
ABC was to present this documentary -- that they were not given the time to 
present their views, that the facts were wrong, and so on.

They are asking folks to send letters by regular mail. Can we do any less? 
Please write your own letter to Mr. Westin at:

David Westin, President, ABC News, 47 W. 66th Street, New York, NY 10023

Thanks for your effort and support.

              It's not what others do it's what YOU do

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
( Letter, email messages, etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter 
list (sentlte@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy 
directly to MGreer@mapinc.org if you are not subscribed. Your letter will 
then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts 
and be motivated to follow suit.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list (sentlte@mapinc.org) will help you to 
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as 
well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm
and/or
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

This is Very Important as it is one very effective way of gauging our 
impact and effectiveness.

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

Extra Credit: While taking any of the following actions is not as important 
as writing and mailing a letter as suggested above, the following actions 
will help:

Use this webform, and the dropdown to 'Other' to send a note to ABC

http://abcnews.go.com/service/Help/abcmail.html

Use this webform to send John Stossel a note

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/2020/stossel_mailform.html

Please send a note to your local ABC station thanking them for carrying the 
documentary, and asking them to contact the network about having it 
rebroadcast.  The fast way to find the station is to do a search. For 
example, using http://www.google.com/advanced_search and asking it to find 
all the words 'ABC TV Marquette Michigan' brought that station to the top 
of the links list.

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

LETTER example (MAILED AT THE POST OFFICE)

David Westin
President
ABC News
47 W. 66th Street
New York, NY 10023

Dear Mr. Westin,

Thank you for airing the John Stossel documentary, "War on Drugs: A War on 
Ourselves."

While I was on active duty I saw many scenes like those shown, but never 
thought about the impact, the maximizing of harm, being caused by the drug 
war. After I retired I started to see columns and editorials which 
questioned aspects of the war. TV seemed to be avoiding the hard hitting 
analysis I see in my newspaper.

But nothing pulled it all together for me so well is this documentary! TV 
seems to be avoiding the hard hitting analysis I see in my newspaper. I 
learned much that I did not know.

I hope you will rerun it, and provide us with regular updates based on it. 
I will be taking notes next time it is on.

If it is available, could you please have someone send me a note about how 
I may purchase a video tape copy of the documentary.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Richard Lake
Chief Warrant Officer
United States Army (retired)

NOTE: Please write your own letter. It is not likely that Mr. Westin would 
be impressed if yours looked exactly like mine.

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

Writer's Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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

Prepared by Richard Lake http://www.mapinc.org/rlake/ Focus Alert Specialist

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


===

Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to editor@mapinc.org

See http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for details

===

NOW YOU CAN DONATE TO DRUGSENSE ONLINE AND IT'S TAX DEDUCTIBLE

DrugSense provides many services to at no charge BUT THEY ARE NOT FREE
TO PRODUCE.

We incur many costs in creating our many and varied services. If you
are able to help by contributing to the DrugSense effort visit our
convenient donation web site at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm

********************* Just DO It!! **********************************

Mark Greer
Executive Director
DrugSense
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.drugsense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org/

------------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 21:31:09 -0700
Subject: Pot-like chemical helps beat fear

Pot-like chemical helps beat fear
By Lidia Wasowicz
UPI Senior Science Writer
 From the Science & Technology Desk
Published 7/31/2002 2:05 PM

Natural molecules that act like the primary active ingredient in marijuana
apparently play a key part in helping the brain wipe away fearful memories,
perhaps averting undue anxiety and panic attacks, researchers report.

The discovery, detailed in the British journal Nature, could lead to the
development of psychiatric drugs for the treatment of such fear-based
conditions as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder, they said.

The results of the mouse studies provide clues to the influence on human
behavior of so-called "endocannabinoids," naturally occurring molecules
related to the psychoactive ingredient in cannabinoids such as pot and
hashish that have been used for medicinal and recreational purposes for some
3,000 years.

The ingredient, called delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol or delta9-THC, affects
the nerve cells in the brain, producing its signature mind-altering effects
by attaching itself to a protein on the surface of each cell. The protein,
called the CB1 receptor, also provides a critical hook-up point for the
endogenous cannabinoids -- the cannabinoids naturally produced by the body.
Without it, the chemicals cannot do their prescribed job.

The five-year study, by Beat Lutz of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry
in Munich, Germany, and his German and Italian colleagues, revealed a
previously unknown component of that job -- snuffing out terrifying memories
as part of the body's fear-coping mechanism.

"Our work shows an involvement of the endogenous cannabinoid system in
extinction of fear memory for the first time," Lutz told United Press
International.

"We really had no idea before that this system might be involved in erasing
of particular types of memories," neuroscientist Pankaj Sah of Australian
National University in Canberra, Australia, who wrote an accompanying
commentary, told UPI.

"Although we understand how fearful memories are stored in the brain, how
they are extinguished remains a mystery. The answers may lie with the
cannabinoid compounds our bodies produce," he added. "The finding might have
implications for treating anxiety disorders in humans."

Anxiety disorders are the most common of all mental health diseases, costing
the United States some $46 billion a year in direct and indirect health-care
expenses. Social phobia, the No. 1 anxiety disorder, affects some 5.3
million Americans annually. The persistent, irrational fear of social
interactions leads to a compelling desire to avoid them at any cost.
Specific phobias, of animals, objects or situations, touch more than one out
of every 10 persons in the United States.

Another 5.2 million Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder,
characterized by emotional numbness and denial in the wake of extreme
psychological stress brought on by war, violence, childhood abuse, sexual
attack or serious accident, followed by months or years of recurring
nightmares, "flashbacks," short-term memory problems, insomnia or heightened
sensitivity to sudden noises.

Estimated cases of panic disorder -- sudden, repeated, intense feelings of
terror and impending doom -- range between 3 million and 6 million a year.
Twice as many women as men suffer the disorder that renders them sweaty,
weak, faint, dizzy, trembling, numb and believing they are losing their mind
or facing imminent death.

Such exaggerated reaction to a perceived threat -- be it a social engagement
or an animal encounter -- is a legacy left humans by their earliest
ancestors. This evolutionary inheritance includes instincts to stay alert in
potentially dangerous situations, including binding or boundless spaces,
lofty heights or impending confrontations with creatures perceived as
repulsive or threatening, such as spiders or snakes.

Guarding against possible hazards is as important as recognizing false
alarms. When the prospect of danger fails to materialize, most humans sigh
with relief and relax. But there are those, termed phobics, who cannot adapt
and remain on high alert even in the absence of any threat. Examples include
the uncontrollable over-reaction that leads to panic attacks or the
emotional scars from accidents, war experiences or other traumatic
experiences that fail to heal with time. The new findings point to the
endogenous cannabinoid system of the brain as a key prop in this delicate
balancing act.

In the experiments, normal mice and those lacking the cannabinoid receptor
CB1 heard a tone, then felt an electric shock to the foot. Over the next few
days, the researchers sounded the tone without administering the shock. The
normal rodents soon started to regard the sound as benign and stopped
responding by freezing in fear. The mutants, on the other hand, continued
for a much longer time to react to the tone as if it portended terrible
things to come.

"All animals showed a remarkable fear reaction during the first re-exposure
to the tone," Lutz explained. "With repeated tone presentations, control
mice quickly recovered from this fear reaction. CB1-deficient mice, in
contrast, showed only a weak reduction of fear."

To wipe away frightful recollections, endocannabinoids flood the amygdala --
the brain's almond-shaped center of threat recognition, fear and
aggression -- where they dampen the action of its nerve cells, helping to
dismantle terrifying associations.

Drugs that boost the chemicals' activity in this region of the brain might
help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, panic attacks and
certain forms of chronic pain, scientists told UPI.

"The finding that the endocannabinoids contribute to extinction raises the
possibility that drugs that target these molecules and their receptors could
be useful new treatments for anxiety disorders," Sah said.

Once thought of as character flaws, these conditions are now recognized as
having biological and psychological components. Treatment often combines
medication with psychotherapy.

"To my mind (the study) raises issues about why people use cannabis in the
first place," Sah told UPI. "We all take aspirin for headaches and
toothaches -- of course, aspirin does not have the same gamut of cognitive
actions as cannabis. But it's worth considering that people (who) constantly
use cannabis may be doing it for other reasons than just to 'get high' --
perhaps they are experiencing some emotional problems which taking cannabis
alleviates. Much the same way as some people drink alcohol to relieve
anxiety."

Sah concluded, "This work tells us that the cannabinoid system is very old
and plays roles in evolutionarily quite old behaviors. This, I suppose, fits
with the very long history of use of cannabis in human society. It tells us
that trying to work out how cannabinoids act is a very useful exercise whose
outcome could have important medical benefits in the future."



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.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail:     CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email:   crrh@crrh.org
phone:  (503) 235-4606
fax:       (503) 235-0120
web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #152
********************************