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

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 19:31:56 -0700
Subject:California Medical Marijuana Distributors Under Fire Up TOC

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote a scathing letter to the U.S. 
Department of Justice on June 6, [concerning the federal action aginst the 
W. Hollywood Cannabis Resource Center].

"This action makes absolutely no sense. It reflects the moral and 
ideological views of zealots in the [Justice Department], instead of a 
rational and clear-eyed evaluation of our most pressing national priorities,"

Pubdate: Wed, 28 Aug 2002
Source: Los Angeles Daily Journal (CA)
Contact: don_debenedictis@dailyjournal.com
Copyright: 2002 Daily Journals
Website: http://www.dailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1142
Author: Jeffrey Anderson
Note:  Title provided by MAP editor.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISTRIBUTORS UNDER FIRE

Scott Imler decided to starve himself to death this summer to protest
federal drug enforcement action against a cannabis club. After five days,
he decided his death wouldn't provide an answer to his problems. Neither,
so far, have the courts or law enforcement, which are locked in a death
grip over the right of terminally or chronically ill patients to smoke
marijuana, as provided by a state law and prohibited by the federal government.

Federal agents raided the West Hollywood headquarters of the Los Angeles
Cannabis Resource Center on Oct. 25, 2001. They seized the club's
computers, medical files, bank accounts and inventory -- 400 plants and 10
pounds of harvested pot to serve the palliative needs of more than 900
medical patients, 90 percent of who suffer from cancer or AIDS. Imler uses
medical marijuana to diminish his suffering from post-traumatic epileptic
seizures. He had worked closely with city officials to set up the center
and had earned a reputation among advocates as a stickler for detail who
closely adhered to the mandates of local law enforcers.

Within seven months, Imler learned he was under federal investigation for
distribution of drugs. The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue
Service had filed federal forfeiture actions against the center's $1.2
million building and its assets, including $55,000 in employee bank
accounts the feds had seized in the October raid. And, since the October
raid, 19 club members had died and more were slowly dying.

Some were willing to do so in public. On June 5, they began to fast, hold
demonstrations and conduct prayer services and vigils in the parking lot of
the Cannabis Resource Center, at the corner of Gardner Street and Santa
Monica Boulevard. Advocates for the use of medical marijuana hung a banner
on the center that read, "Shame on George Bush for the Los Angeles Cannabis
Resource Center's D.E.A.th."

The hunger strikers demanded that the feds cease the forfeiture action,
relent from prosecuting any of the center's employees and return all
property, confidential medical files and research data to the center. With
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft cracking down on cannabis clubs all
over the country, particularly in California, the strikers also demanded
congressional hearings to address the federal government's efforts to
squelch a movement that has led to legalized marijuana use for medical
purposes in nine states.

The hunger strikers gave speeches and held rallies through the weekend, for
five days, growing weaker by the day.

"I can vomit to death at home, alone, in silence, or stand with my friends
for patients who will come after us," said Roger Moore, an AIDS patient, on
June 7. "It is not a difficult choice to make." Pedro Jimenez, another AIDS
sufferer, stood next to a box full of pills and said that he takes 35
medications a day and injections to numb the painful tingling sensation
that shoots down his arms and legs as a result of a condition called
neuropathy.

The marijuana both alleviates side effects from the medications and
provides relief from his neuropathy, Jimenez said.

"Some days, it feels like razor blades are cutting into my skin," Jimenez
said, squinting into the afternoon sun. "Then, there's the diarrhea and
vomiting from AIDS medications."

Numerous local and state officials turned out to support the hunger
strikers, including state Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, and
guest hunger striker Scott Svonkin, chief of staff for Assemblyman Paul
Koretz, D-Los Angeles.

U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote a scathing letter to the U.S.
Department of Justice on June 6.

"This action makes absolutely no sense. It reflects the moral and
ideological views of zealots in the [Justice Department], instead of a
rational and clear-eyed evaluation of our most pressing national
priorities," Waxman wrote.

On June 9, drained of almost all energy from five days of nothing but
water, Gatorade and fruit juice, Imler and the hunger strikers decided to
break the fast. They felt like they had demonstrated their commitment to
the cause, but more important, they realized the time had come to start
saving their strength for what figured to be a long fight ahead. "If we
kill ourselves, we're just doing what the feds want us to do, and that's go
away," Imler said to the protesters who had gathered that Sunday afternoon.

Medical marijuana users -- mostly people with life-threatening conditions
- -- have reached a point of no return, Imler said, a showdown between the
sovereignty of the state of California to regulate the health of its
citizens and the authority of the federal government to regulate controlled
substances.

Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, was passed by California voters
in 1996. It protects medical patients who use marijuana from state
prosecution if a licensed physician prescribes it. Yet the U.S. Supreme
Court, in 2001, upheld Ashcroft's authority to shut down cannabis clubs on
the basis that the federal Controlled Substances Act, which prohibits
distribution of marijuana, provides no exception for medical necessity.
U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative, 00151 (May 14, 2001).

Rather than definitively resolving a clash between state and federal law,
however, the justices left open a number of statutory and constitutional
issues and remanded the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Meantime, other cases in the federal appeals system have raised significant
constitutional issues that likely will head back to the high court, legal
experts say.

The most basic issue to be resolved begins with the First Amendment,
according to proponents of medical marijuana. In their minds, as medical
patients, they are just exercising their constitutional right to associate
freely in their cultivation and use of a drug that enables them to keep
down the mess of pills they must swallow each day. If smoking a joint or
two a day stimulates their appetite when they are undergoing chemotherapy
or wasting away from AIDS, they say, then consider it an exercise of their
due process right to be free from suffering and prolong life in a humane way.

And, advocates of compassionate use ask, just what is the federal
government doing sticking its nose in the state's regulation of medical
marijuana anyway?

It seems to them that the principles of federalism apply squarely to
medical marijuana as an issue of health care and public safety. The case
against the Cannabis Resource Center could raise any or all of these
issues, experts say.

Federal law enforcers don't see any merit to these arguments. Mere mention
of "medical cannabis" prompted a DEA agent based in Los Angeles to say
recently, "There is no such thing as medical cannabis. It's called
marijuana, and it is a Schedule 1 narcotic classified by Congress as an
illegal substance with no currently accepted medical use." Tens of
thousands of medical marijuana users and the California Medical Association
say the medical benefits are obvious, however. To the users, federal
enforcement actions targeting cannabis clubs are a heavy-handed exercise of
power by President Bush and Ashcroft that show the less compassionate side
of the conservative administration. "This is like an organizational death
penalty," Imler said of the federal forfeiture action, his voice cracking
slightly as he turned from the podium after calling off the hunger strike
June 9. "I don't know why we have to go through this. We are not criminals."

It is two months later, mid-August, and Imler, 44, a former special
education teacher from Santa Cruz, is sitting in his office at the Cannabis
Resource Center, which has been reduced to a telephone and a mailing list,
unless somehow he defeats the forfeiture action. He says he has gained a
little weight recently, but he remains rail-thin, an imposing figure at 6
feet 4 inches tall. Imler joined the medical marijuana movement after
sustaining a head injury in a ski accident in marijuana activist Dennis
Peron and attorney William Panzer.

It began as a buyer's club, he says, which supplied medical users with a
daily menu of pot, sometimes having to acquire it on the black market. But
he and his co-founders knew from the start that the risk of being shut down
was high. They wanted their club to be above scrutiny, particularly from
detractors who feared the influx of other drugs or infiltration by street
dealers.

So Imler consulted with lawyers, West Hollywood officials and former Los
Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, who supported the cannabis club.
Richard Odenthal, the former captain of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department in West Hollywood and the director of public safety for the city
says, "We told them, as long as their operation was quiet, we were fine
with it. In the four years I was working with the Cannabis Resource Center,
we never had a single incident."

When he took office, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca supported the
center but wanted it to remain free of any black market dealings, Odenthal
says. To satisfy Baca's wishes, the center learned to grow its own plants,
and with the help of the Osburns, it soon became totally self-sufficient.

Baca would not comment for this story. In 2000, after Imler and several
founding members forked over a down payment of $150,000, the city of West
Hollywood co-signed a bank loan that allowed the center to purchase for
$1.2 million the building they had been leasing.

When the DEA shut it down last October, Imler says, the center had 10
full-time employees and 24 volunteers. It had generated $1.2 million in
revenue the previous year, which was put back into operating costs,
inventory and employee salaries, he says.

The center's only requirement for membership had been a doctor's
prescription, Imler says. After verifying that a prospective member had a
valid prescription from a licensed physician, the center would invite
applicants in for an "eye-to-eye" assessment, he says. The purpose of the
assessment was to weed out potential drug addicts or troublemakers, he says.

"We'd explain the rules and make sure they weren't tweekers," Imler says.
The center has a database with the names of 450 physicians who have
prescribed marijuana for their patients, Imler says. It eventually grew to
960 members, he says, and became a visible force in the community of West
Hollywood as well as a nationally recognized clinic, turning away almost as
many people as it accepted. "We didn't want to get too big and have a
volume of pot that would drive us back into the black market," Imler says.
"We rejected a lot of people." He laughs as he describes a live chat on The
New York Times' online Drug Policy Forum, in which a participant
characterized the center as "fastidious to the point of being persnickety."

"We developed a reputation as the strictest center in the country," he
says, "which was to the dismay of many in the advocacy movement. They
thought we were too engaged with law enforcement. They never trusted us.
"Well, now they do."

At its peak, the center had access to a total of 1,000 plants, Imler says.
"That's about one plant for each member," he says. "Lots of clubs operate
with a bigger inventory than that."

Before the raid, he says, whenever the center ran out of marijuana, they
would call the Osburns, who would drive down from Ventura with a fresh
supply, usually about twice a month.

"The cost initially was $3,200 per pound, but eventually, we negotiated a
reduced rate of $2,800 per pound based on the volume the members consumed,"
Imler says.

A single plant, depending on growing conditions, can yield between 8 ounces
and a pound, he says.

"We went through about 5 pounds per week, for 960 people," he says. Members
purchased the weed on a sliding scale, he says, because 30 percent were on
insurance disability and couldn't afford to pay. Others made contributions
as they drew pot from the system. The going rate was usually $50 for an
eighth of an ounce, Imler says. Observers say that Imler and the center are
squeaky clean and that criminal charges are unlikely.

"Federal prosecutors don't want to face a jury on this," one drug law
expert says.

U.S. Attorney Deborah Yang of the Central District did not return calls for
comment.

"They made sure they did everything right," says a lawyer familiar with the
group who requested anonymity. "They were doing what they were told to do
by the highest civilian law authorities in the state. They couldn't have
done a better job of setting it up."

Unfortunately, other cases may reach the U.S. Supreme Court before his,
Imler says. In his view, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, with its
solid reputation, is the best case to test a number of significant
constitutional issues before the high court, he says.

In January 1998, undercover DEA agents posed as medical marijuana patients
in a sting operation against the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative.

Although the cooperative required the agents to show a doctor's
prescription -- which turned out to be phony -- the feds busted the
cooperative on the grounds that it violated the Controlled Substances Act,
which prohibits distribution of drugs classified by Congress as Schedule 1
narcotics.

The act classifies heroin, LSD and marijuana as Schedule 1 narcotics that
have a high degree of potential for abuse, lack an accepted medical use and
cannot be used for anything other than government-approved research. At
trial, the cooperative argued that marijuana is the only drug that can
alleviate severe pain and debilitating symptoms of patients who suffer from
cancer, AIDS and other illnesses that require intense medication with
numerous side effects and therefore is medically necessary for those patients.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California
rejected the defense of medical necessity and ordered the club to cease
supplying its members with marijuana.

After the cooperative continued distributing marijuana for medical
purposes, the 9th Circuit ordered the District Court to modify its order by
recognizing that medical necessity was a "legally cognizant defense."
Because the case raised significant questions as to the ability of the
federal government to enforce the nation's drug law, the U.S. Supreme Court
took up the issue and ruled, on May 14, 2001, that medical necessity is no
exception to the federal law.

Imler says that the center, not the Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative,
would have been better off arguing the medical necessity argument to the
Supreme Court because the center never got busted selling pot to undercover
DEA agents. Their record was clean, he says. "That's baloney," says Santa
Clara University Law professor Gerald Uelman, a drug law expert and one of
the cooperative's lawyers. "The problem wasn't with the facts, it was with
the U.S. Supreme Court." Having burned up the medical necessity defense, on
remand to the 9th Circuit, Uelman says the cooperative intends to rely on a
provision in the Controlled Substances Act that confers immunity on state
law officers engaged in the enforcement of any law related to a controlled
substance. Because the cooperative had the Oakland City Council and local
law enforcers behind it, he says, and because it was operating in
compliance with state law, the cooperative should be immune from
prosecution under federal law as state agents.

The cooperative has a number of other arguments it intends to raise, Uelman
says.

Some of the arguments are the same ones that Imler's lawyers will be trying
in federal District Court, Imler says. He is frustrated by the possibility
that higher courts may rule on these issues before his case gets the chance
to make new law.

"There are a number of constitutional issues that have never been addressed
by the Supreme Court or the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals," Robert Raich,
Uelman's co-counsel and the attorney who argued for the Oakland cooperative
before the high court in 2001, says. Raich, an Oakland attorney, points to
constitutional issues related to the Due Process Clause, the Commerce
Clause and the 10th Amendment, which leaves to the states all powers not
reserved by the federal government.

"Under the Due Process Clause, you have the sanctity of the
physician-patient relationship and the right to be free from pain, to
prolong life and to ameliorate suffering," Raich says. "Then, under the
Commerce Clause, the federal government cannot regulate anything that is
not interstate commerce. Medical cannabis is not commerce, but even if it
is, it is sold intrastate.

"And then, under our system of dual sovereignty, there's the state's right
to regulate health care. And the voters of California have indicated that
they want patients to have access to cannabis for medical purposes."
Because the 9th Circuit could rule on issues of law that Imler and the
Cannabis Resource Center could be raising in U.S. District Court, legal
experts see the center's case as problematic for federal prosecutors and
for Real. "This is an unusual case," one expert says. "It's unique in a
meaningful way. This is a case that could come back to haunt the [District
Court]. The facts are like a professor drew them to bring this thing to a
clash on constitutional grounds.

"But there may be alternative remedies rather than a head-on clash over
state-federal law."

The possibility of alternative remedies arises from the Supreme Court
opinion in Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperative, Uelman says. In that case,
the high court ruled that the only exception to the Controlled Substances
Act is for clinical trials by a federally approved medical research body.

Imler says the center would gladly apply to become a subject for medical
research related to marijuana use and life-threatening illnesses. "We'd be
happy to participate in federally approved research," Imler says. "Let the
academics come in and crunch data. We've proven that we can keep complete
records for the last five years. I can account for every flake of pot that
has come through this place." Until such a day comes, however, Imler and
his fellow members of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center are walking
a fine line between state and federal law while trying to keep down their
food or keep from seizing up in public.

Once in a while, a member stops by to see how the case is progressing,
Imler says.

"I saw Pedro [Jimenez] the other day, he's still hanging in there," Imler says.

Jimenez has been HIV-positive since 1986 and has AIDS. One time, after he
could not hold down solid food for 44 days, the disease began to attack his
gall bladder, and he almost died, he said. "The side effects from the drugs
are so fierce that I need cannabis as much as I need the other
medications," Jimenez says. "People see these new drugs for HIV on the
glossy pages of magazines and think we can climb a hill.

"Maybe in a wheelchair."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 10:20:56 -0700
Subject:Boston's Annual Marijuana Freedom Rally September 14 Up TOC

Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition\NORML
A State Affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws
P.O. Box 0266, Georgetown, MA 01833-0366
781-944-2266 - http://www.masscann.org/ - information@masscann.org
"We shall by and by want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
John Adams as Humphrey Ploughjogger, 1763
***********************************

Please forward to all you know!

For Immediate Release
For more information contact: Bill Downing (781) 944-2266 or Steven
Epstein 978-685-9696

Annual Freedom Rally "Let Freedom Grow"

The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (http://www.masscann.org/) in
conjunction with WBCN and High Times will hold its Annual Freedom Rally
in support of legalizing marijuana on Saturday, September 14, from noon
to 6:00 p.m., on the Boston Common's Carty Parade Grounds.

The MASS CANN/NORML Freedom Rally is the biggest annual political event
in the state and one of the largest events of its kind in the world,
attracting crowds of 50,000 to 100,000, and garnering national and
international media attention.

The Rally demonstrates the massive public support for ending marijuana
prohibition and permitting the use of marijuana as a medicine.  Support
further evidenced by votes on Public Policy Questions in 2000 (see
below), the survival of House No. 1223, House No. 1170 and House No. 2124
in the 2001=972002 session of the state legislature, and outside section
152 of the state budget (Pols Ease Rap For Pot, Sex - Judges May Get OK
To Issue), vetoed by lame duck acting Governor, Jane Swift, that would
have permitted judges to treat marijuana possession as a civil violation
subject only to a fine.

This year MASS CANN invited all candidates for Governor to address the
scores of thousands expected to attend.  Green Party candidate Jill Stein
and Libertarian Party candidate Carla Howell accepted the invitation to
speak.  Libertarian candidate Michael Cloud, candidate for U.S. Senate,
accepted his invitation to speak, while John Kerry, like the Democratic
and Republican candidates for governor, ignored the invitation.

Eleven members of the Board of Directors of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML, http://www.norml.org/),
headquartered in Washington, D.C. will be appearing at this year's rally
and will be available for interviews throughout the afternoon.  See list
with links below.

Musical acts include: WBCN Rumble winner The Gentlemen, the Felix Brown
Band, Three Day Threshold, Bonescrew, Rainshine, Joint Chiefs and Xavier.

The stage presentation will also feature a hemp fashion show.

Press passes will be available at the Media Tent, backstage at the Rally.




=



**




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

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:07:22 -0700
Subject:CA: Federal MJ Charges Sought Against Lepp et al. Up TOC

from Dale Gieringer

UPPER LAKE

Santa Rosa Press Democrat 8-31-02
Federal drug charges possible

Lake County authorities are seeking federal charges against eight people
suspected of growing marijuana and supplying it to medical marijuana clubs
and users.

Agents from the Lake County Narcotic Task Force and the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration raided a marijuana garden in Upper Lake on
Tuesday and arrested six men who worked on the property. Agents also
confiscated 266 pot plants.

The six men were released from custody Thursday because authorities are
waiting for the U.S. attorney to decide whether federal charges should be
filed against them, task force chief Richard Russell said Friday. By state
law, people who are arrested and in custody must be formally charged within
48 hours of their arrest.

Federal charges of marijuana possession and cultivation for sale also are
being sought against the property owners, Charles Lepp and his wife, Linda
Senti. Lepp was acquitted of Lake County's first medical marijuana case four
years ago.

- -- Ucilia Wang
- -- 
- ----
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858  // canorml@igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:10:47 -0700
Subject: SC: What Does Marijuana Look Like? A Green, Brown, or...

Newshawk: Chip
Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2002
Source: Sun News (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Sun Publishing Co.
Contact: opinions@thesunnews.com
Website: http://web.thesunnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/987
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

WHAT DOES MARIJUANA LOOK LIKE? A BROWN, GREEN, OR...

What does marijuana look like? A green, brown or gray mixture of dried,
shredded leaves, stems, seeds and flowers of the hemp plant. Other forms,
less common in the United States, are hashish and hashish oil.

What are some consequences of marijuana use?

May cause frequent respiratory infections, impaired memory and learning,
increased heart rate, anxiety, panic attacks, tolerance and physical
dependence.

Use of marijuana during the first month of breast-feeding can impair infant
motor development.

Chronic smokers may have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco
smokers including daily cough and phlegm, chronic bronchitis symptoms,
frequent chest colds; chronic abuse can also lead to abnormal functioning of
lung tissues.

A study of college students has shown that skills related to attention,
memory and learning are impaired among people who use marijuana heavily,
even after discontinuing its use for at least 24 hours.

Who uses marijuana?

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. At least one-third of
Americans have used marijuana sometime in their lives.

Sources: Office of National Drug Control Policy, Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration, Drug Enforcement Administration
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:12:03 -0700
Subject:US Reports Fewer First-Time Pot Users Up TOC

Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 2002
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The Miami Herald
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Website: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Tal Abbady

U.S. REPORTS FEWER FIRST-TIME POT USERS

Fewer adolescents are first-time marijuana users than in previous years,
but those that are risk succumbing to long-term drug addiction, according
to a federal report released Wednesday.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, released the report after touring The Village, a drug treatment
center in Miami.

The study, based on the 1999 and 2000 National Household Surveys on Drug
Abuse, indicates that first-time marijuana use among the young is often a
pathway to marijuana addiction or addiction to more potent drugs such as
cocaine or heroin, Walters said.

"Marijuana is not the soft drug," Walters said.

He said government, community agencies and parents must marshal their
powers to prevent and treat marijuana abuse.

According to the study, 62 percent of cocaine users age 26 or older were
first-time marijuana users by the age of 14.

But advocates of legalizing marijuana call Walters' gateway theory one of
the oldest myths in drug policy.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,
based in Washington, D.C., only one out of every 104 first-time marijuana
users ever uses heroin or cocaine.

The research is based on numbers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"The theory that once you use marijuana your brain craves harder drugs is
the perpetuation of a long tortured myth," said Allen St. Pierre, the
group's executive director.

St. Pierre said Walters was manipulating federally funded research to
preserve the status quo.

"If you want good drug war coverage," St. Pierre added, "you go to Miami."

But Matthew Gissen, founder of The Village, said all of the adults at his
center grappling with drug addiction first used marijuana.

"At one time or another everyone we've treated here has used marijuana and
progressed onto other drugs that eventually brought them to our doorstep,"
Gissen said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:13:52 -0700
Subject: Canada: Where There's Smoke

Newshawk: CannabisLink.ca (http://cannabislink.ca)
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 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: Karen Bridson-Boyczuk

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE

Has the Federal Government Just Done a Complete About-Face on Weed
Liberalization?

Following two major setbacks in the fight for access to medicinal
marijuana, some fear the federal government has swung from offering to
supply cannabis and rethinking possession laws to declaring a war on the drug.

Health minister Anne McLellan backed off of the government's medicinal
marijuana program in a speech to the Canadian Medical Association on Aug.
19, just days after police stormed the Toronto Compassion Centre (TCC). The
confluence of those events has raised suspicions that the feds ordered the
raid.

"Something stinks in Canada," says Alan Young, the lawyer representing the
four people arrested at the centre Aug. 13. "We want to find out who gave
the marching orders. We can't have politics interfering in police decisions."

Young suspects the federal government is bowing to anti-marijuana pressures
from south of the border and is not only stalling its own pot project, but
is now cracking down on those helping sick people get the drug. "I know
when the police arrived, to deflect criticism, they said not to get mad at
them and that the orders came from high above," he says. "I want to find
out how high that is."

The Bathurst and St. Clair-area centre distributed medicinal marijuana to
more than 1,300 sick people regularly for more than three years, making it
one of the largest centres of its kind in this part of the world, Young says.

McLellan told the Canadian Medical Association she had "a certain degree of
discomfort" with distributing the pot grown for the experimental government
program in an abandoned copper mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba.

She said she wants to wait until scientific trials prove pot is safe before
giving the green light to the project, something pot advocates say could
take years.

McLellan's position stands in contrast to previous positions taken by her
cabinet colleagues, justice minister Martin Cauchon and Allan Rock, who as
a former health minister, enacted regulations in 2001 to allow qualified
patients, -- known as federal exemptees -- to use marijuana. Those
regulations were required by a landmark 2000 court ruling recognizing the
right to access medicinal marijuana, but Rock insists he intended to supply
the drug even while clinical trials were taking place.

It was just over a month ago, on July 15, that Cauchon said Canada may
follow Britain's lead and decriminalize marijuana by making simple
possession of small amounts of the drug punishable by tickets and fines,
rather than jail time and a criminal record. Cauchon also told the press
that he "of course" smoked the drug in his youth.

Cauchon repeated those indications as recently as Aug. 12, when he told an
annual meeting of the Canadian Bar Association that the country needs to
rethink crime and punishment, particularly with respect to prosecuting
minor crimes like marijuana possession: "For example, as a society we must
question our motivation when we devote so many of our precious legal
resources to the prosecution of cannabis offences," he said.

However, pot advocates have also been aware of U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) unhappiness with marijuana-liberalization talk in
Canada. In June, U.S. drug czar John Walters warned that it's time to step
up the war on marijuana, not to decriminalize it or move further along the
road to facilitating its use for medicinal purposes.

"[McLellan is] being intimidated by American authorities," says Young. "The
message has been very clear: 'Do not go down this path.' If Canada begins
distributing this marijuana they will implement very stringent controls at
the border, which could be devastating for our trucking industry."

Det. Courtland Booth, of the Toronto Police Service's major drugs unit,
says the police act independently of government and that he's not aware of
any direction coming from outside the police department on the TCC bust.
"We continue to do what we do, nothing really has changed for us," he says.
"The marijuana issue has pretty much been the same since the CDSA
(Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) and the Ministry of Health issued the
exemptions [for some medicinal marijuana users]."

Only people with exemptions are legally allowed to possess, grow and
distribute marijuana, he says. Booth says he's also not aware of any
Toronto police projects aimed at cracking down on medicinal marijuana
clinics. "We're not doing anything more than we normally do."

Patrick Charette, spokesperson for the justice department, says that while
the department's federal prosecutors do work closely with police on drug
cases, he's "not aware" of a special mandate coming down in this case.

"There's a big debate going on right now and there are two parliamentary
committees looking into [marijuana]," he says. "The minister is undertaking
to wait and see the results of these reports."

But Charette could not rule out the possibility that federal prosecutors
were consulted on the TCC bust before it occurred. "They could have been
involved, but the police are the ones enforcing the legislation, we're the
ones doing the prosecution," he says. "I'm not aware of any communication
between the two. It's always their decision to bust."

Warren Hitzig, founder of the TCC and one of the four charged, says his
former clients have been suffering since the bust.

"Now, instead of these people being able to have a clean, reliable source,
they are having to go back to the street," he says.

While Hitzig says the health minister has some "very, very good points"
about smoking not being healthy, he says she has to remember many of those
asking for access are AIDS and cancer patients. "They're extremely
frustrated and frantic," he says. "This impacts on the quality of their lives."

Young says the minister's concerns about smoking are an insult to
terminally ill patients, and notes that while scientists in England are in
the third stage of trials with a marijuana aerosol spray, Health Canada has
shown no interest in exploring the product.

Suffering the many side effects of full-blown AIDS, including nausea and
severe weight loss, Jim Bridges says he doesn't know what he's going to do
without the TCC.

"I am a federal exemptee, and now the government is not supporting this,"
says the 38-year-old. "And now they are also stopping me from having the
access I had at the Toronto Compassion Centre." Bridges said another AIDS
victim he knows lost 15 pounds in the days following the bust at the
centre. "This may be one of the last fights I've got," he says. "It just
makes me want to cry."

Venturing out to the streets at night in hopes of scoring some pot,
meanwhile, has Bridges terrified. "I'm an obviously homosexual man and I'm
scared," he says.

Bridges says, given his situation, he's offended by the health minister's
comments. "Being in a terminal situation [as I am], she would have little
knowledge of the sense of despair," he says. "I understand her concern
because of the carcinogens; however, there must be a way around this."

He says he'd be willing to sign a legal document absolving the government
of any guilt if the pot smoking caused him further health problems.

Bridges is also suspicious about the timing of the health minister's
comments and the Compassion Centre bust. "It's an interesting coincidence,"
he says. "I think there's been pressure from the DEA.... We're so close to
Buffalo and on a Great Lake."

Meanwhile, a second Toronto centre, called CALM (Cannabis as a Living
Medicine), continues to help the people they can, Hitzig says. "I hope they
won't be shut down too," he says.

Philippe Lucas, director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, says
he was dismayed to hear about the Toronto raid. But he says he's not
worried about his society being the next target. "We were busted 20 months
ago," he says. "We were charged with three counts of trafficking and the
judge gave us an absolute discharge. He said what we were doing was helpful
to society and urged Health Canada to act in good speed to make marijuana
available to those that need it."

Lucas hopes these kinds of forward-thinking verdicts in the courts will
help medicinal marijuana supporters in their fight against the government.
As for the Toronto bust being a result of decisions made at the federal
level, Lucas says he doubts it. "I think it's more linked to an
overreaction to the whole cannabis issue in Ontario," he says.

But he too was offended by McLellan's comments. "It irks me to hear her
talk about her 'discomfort' when I see the discomfort of patients with AIDS
and cancer and other things. I don't think her discomfort measures up."

Ottawa's current regulations spelling out the conditions under which the
use of medicinal marijuana is allowed are impossible to fulfill, says
Young, because doctors have been warned by their insurers not to sign
required medical forms for people wanting the drug.

Young says he will be in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Sept. 19
representing a group of seven people who are suing the federal government
over its medicinal marijuana regulatory regime.

"We're seeking to compel the government to distribute what they've
cultivated," Young says.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:16:11 -0700
Subject: CA: It's Harvest Time For Pot Thieves As Well

Newshawk: Online Voter Registration - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Aug 2002
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Webpage:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20020829-9999_1m29harvest.html
Copyright: 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Jeff Mcdonald, Union-Tribune Staff Writer

IT'S HARVEST TIME FOR POT THIEVES AS WELL

Medical-Marijuana Growers On The Lookout

These past few nights, Steve McWilliams hasn't rested very comfortably.

In this most sensitive time of the season, McWilliams has taken to sleeping
in his garden, next to thousands of dollars' worth of maturing marijuana
plants he smokes to ease chronic pain from a motorcycle crash.

Twice this week, and too many times in the past to count, thieves tried to
climb into his yard and steal his crop. Last year, he was beaten and kicked
in the head by someone who was after his plants.

"We're basically held hostage on our own property," said McWilliams, a
longtime medical-marijuana activist who lives in Normal Heights. "We're in
danger of losing our medicine."

It's harvest time in San Diego County, and McWilliams and others like him
who grow medical marijuana are keeping 24-hour watch over their gardens.

They have spent hundreds of dollars to beef up security, installing locks
and alarm systems or building taller fences, but the worry over potential
thieves has not receded.

In May, John Barrymore III underwent six hours of brain surgery after being
attacked by teen-agers who stole more than 100 medical-marijuana plants
from his Bay Area home. Barrymore is the grandson of the early film star,
John Barrymore, and the stepbrother of actress Drew Barrymore.

A few days before that assault, a grower in the College Area of San Diego
was confronted at his front door by a man with a gun. Two accomplices ran
into his back yard with knives and cut down his plants while the victim had
a gun held to his head.

The man never told police. "We were too afraid," said the patient, who did
not want his name published for fear he might get robbed again.

Phil Hansen, an AIDS patient from Ocean Beach, uses marijuana to reduce the
side effects from his medication. He has grown his own plants for several
years, and has had more than one run-in with thieves.

"It's something to deal with," said Hansen, 52. "I keep the fence really
well secured now. I put some nailboards across the top . . . I haven't had
any trouble this year."

When thieves do come - they seem to show up every year - growers often
complain that police are slow to investigate - in part, the growers say,
because police disagree with the state law that allows patients to
cultivate marijuana.

With a street value of $400 or more an ounce for some varieties, marijuana
buds can be more valuable than gold.

Without better protection from police, the growers say, patients will not
benefit from the law that entitles them to grow and use the drug, and their
pain and suffering will be worsened.

"If you can't do it, and do it safely, then it's not going to happen," said
McWilliams, who recently completed three years of probation after pleading
guilty in 1999 to misdemeanor cultivation. McWilliams also runs the Shelter
from the Storm cannabis club in Normal Heights, the only place south of Los
Angeles that dispenses medical marijuana.

San Diego police deny they treat reports of medical-marijuana thefts
differently.

"Burglaries where property is taken are all treated the same, whether it's
a potted plant or a marijuana plant," department spokesman Bill Robinson said.

"Normally if there's no suspect information, the reports may be taken over
the phone, but they're treated equally."

McWilliams said police need to be more responsive to the plight of
medical-marijuana patients. If police actively investigated the thefts or
attempted thefts, culprits would know they might get caught, he said.

McWilliams said that because San Diego officers have declined to follow up
leads provided by him and his partner, Barbara MacKenzie, the would-be
thieves persist.

"They told me not to advertise," McWilliams said. "But we're activists -
that's what we do."

Proposition 215, approved in 1996 by California voters, grants chronically
ill patients the right to use and grow marijuana if they have a doctor's
letter of recommendation.

The state law clashes with federal drug policies, however. Federal courts
have yet to fully decide the legality of using marijuana for medicinal
purposes; the California Supreme Court last month granted medical users
limited immunity from prosecution.

The murky legal standing of medical marijuana has left city and county
governments in the difficult position of having to enforce conflicting laws.

After years of debate, the city of San Diego plans to begin issuing
identification cards to some 1,500 medical-marijuana patients later this
year as a means of keeping track of who is eligible to use and cultivate
the drug.

But questions remain over how large a garden or how many plants patients
may be allowed to grow. Across the state, other jurisdictions have opted
for allowing as few as three and as many as 99 plants.

The San Diego City Council likely will take up the pending recommendations
of the medical marijuana task force late this year or early next year.

Until then, "It's important for the police to come here and say what we're
doing is legal," said MacKenzie, who shares guard duty with McWilliams.
"What the thieves are doing is illegal. This is an important message."
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:17:46 -0700
Subject: Globe and Mail (Canada): Health Canada Lets American Grow, Use Pot

from Steve Kubby

Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Published: Saturday, August 31, 2002 =AD Print Edition, Page A12
Copyright: 2002 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/


HEALTH CANADA LETS AMERICAN GROW, USE POT

Vancouver -- An American prospective pot refugee has won the right to smoke
medicinal marijuana in Canada.

"I'm thrilled. This is all I've ever wanted," said Steve Kubby yesterday,
after receiving two Health Canada cards by courier giving him the legal
right to grow and possess marijuana -- a lot of marijuana.

Mr. Kubby, one of a growing number of Americans who have sought political
asylum here from the alleged persecution of medical marijuana users in the
United States, smokes a dozen joints a day.

His new, official exemption allows him to possess 360 grams of marijuana at
any one time, enough for a 30-day supply.

Mr. Kubby, a 55-year-old marijuana activist with a contract to produce news
for the Pot-TV Web site, has been smoking dope every day for the past 20
years.

He claims his daily usage of cannabis is a "life-and-death medical
necessity" for his adrenal cancer.


Related Articles & Web Sites:

Pot-TV
http://www.pot-tv.net

Steve Kubby Gains Permit To Grow
http://www.pot-tv.net/ram/pottvshowse1497.ram

Medical Pot Case Adjourns Again
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13864.shtml

'Life and Death=B9 Medical Marijuana Case Delayed
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13681.shtml

Fleeing North - AlterNet
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13400.shtml

Drug Refugees - Report Newsmagazine
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13224.shtml

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like=20
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore=
=20
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/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:19:36 -0700
Subject: Canada: 1 Million in Marijuana Seized

Newshawk: Join CMAP (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/lists.htm)
Pubdate: Fri, 30 Aug 2002
Source: Observer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The Sarnia Observer
Contact: editorial@observer-sarnia.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/sarnia/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1676
Author: Scott Stephenson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

1 MILLION IN MARIJUANA SEIZED

Almost 2,000 marijuana plants with a street value of about $1 million were
seized from Sarnia-Lambton corn-fields this week by law enforcement and
armed forces personnel.

Using a Canadian Forces Gryphon helicopter, authorities were able to spot
marijuana growing in rural areas before swooping in with troops, RCMP, OPP,
Sarnia Police and Lambton County Drug Unit officers.

In another marijuana eradication program development, Crime Stoppers has
announced it will double its cash rewards during the next two months for
tips leading to drug-related arrests.

Program co-ordinator, OPP Const. Murray Finch, said September and October
are traditionally the months when drug growers are busy harvesting and
packaging their outdoor crops for sale. It's also the time when more people
have information about such activities.

"We're trying to encourage more calls from people who have knowledge about
drug growers in Sarnia-Lambton," Finch said. "The incentive is the cash
reward. If we can create a better incentive for people to call in, we'll
take more drugs off the street."

Normally, Crime Stoppers pays out cash rewards of up to $1,000 for
information about a crime that leads to an arrest. Under the increased
rewards program the maximum reward being offered for the next two months is
$2,000.

Finch said callers to Crime Stoppers do not have to disclose their identity
and Crime Stoppers does not subscribe to caller display or call trace.

Last September and October, local police seized more than $850,000 in
marijuana as a direct result of information received through Crime Stoppers.

As for the increased rewards, Finch says, "it seems to work in taking drugs
off the street. The grow season is over and basically they tend to harvest
the drugs in September and October, and of course the packaging and drying
takes place then as well."

Finch said it is during this period when growers have picked their crop and
are stashing it in barns and in sheds for drying and packaging.

"When it's in movement like that, more people are privy to that information
and it's a better time to grab them," he said.

Prior to this week's developments, police had already taken approximately
$1.7 million in marijuana off the streets of Sarnia-Lambton so far this
year. That's nearly double the $977,000 worth of cannabis seized all of last
year.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:21:16 -0700
Subject: US: Freedom Fighter of the Year: Shawn Heller

Newshawk: Richard Lake
Pubdate: Tue, 1 Oct 2002
Source: High Times (US)
Page: 36
Copyright: 2002 Trans-High Corporation - reprinted by permission
Contact: letters@hightimes.com
Website: http://www.hightimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/191
Author: Preston Peet
Cited: Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://www.ssdp.org/
Note: SSDP has an excellent discussion list with a sign up form at
http://www.ssdp.org/getactive.htm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Shawn+Heller

FREEDOM FIGHTER OF THE YEAR: SHAWN HELLER

Shawn Heller, national director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy,
is disgusted with the entire War on Drugs. "Drug laws as a whole are
not only un-American, they violate the essence of the Constitution.
Marijuana certainly shouldn't be Schedule I, but the idea that
Schedule I even exists, that the Department of Justice is determining
what the legal status is for possessing a plant or chemical either in
your body or on your person, this is just a crazy idea."

Heller co-founded SSDP in 1998, while he was studying political
science and criminal justice at George Washington University in
Washington. He'd come there in 1997, after graduating from the
Maritime Academy of Science and Technology in his hometown of Miami.
In his first year at GWU, Heller worked in the White House Office of
Political Affairs and for the Clinton advance team, writing weekly
political and trip briefs for the President on over 30 different states.

"Towards the end of working at the White House and over that following
summer, I spent my time researching drug policy pretty much day and
night," says Heller, who that fall was an intern with the reform
organization DRCNet and a volunteer for the DC Initiative 59
medical-marijuana campaign. "For me, never having been a drug user or
even considered using drugs, looking at the situation from a real
policy-focus angle, I had always felt that the War on Drugs was wrong.
When I found out that SSDP wasn't going to be only a marijuana-focused
organization, but still would deal with marijuana policy, I felt it a
perfect fit for what I was looking for."

Since Heller, Chris Lotlikar and other student activists founded SSDP
at five schools in 1998, the organization has grown to include over
200 chapters nationwide. New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson joined its board
of advisors in 1999. That November, SSDP had their first national
conference, and the next year Heller was elected national director.
One of the group's main issues has been the Higher Education Act, the
1998 law that bans federal loans to students convicted of drug
charges-but not of rape or murder. And last June 6, he and some
friends locked themselves to the front doors of the Department of
Justice, demanding an end to the war on medical marijuana.

"I definitely feel that little steps are important, that small
victories here and there are definitely helpful, and spur growth of
the movement," he says. "The only way we're going to end the War on
Drugs is for our movement to increase, for the things that we do to
get increased attention and notoriety, increased publicity, increased
awareness and discussion so that the discussions are actually
happening versus being laughed at. We want to take it to the next
step, where most everyone is saying 'no', this is wrong and it needs
to end."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

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 #180
********************************