Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 21:14:03 -0700
Subject:VoteHEMP2002 So.Dak. online Up TOC

The South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council has just posted its voter
information magazine, "VoteHEMP2002 South Dakota" to the web.

We believe that "VoteHEMP2002 South Dakota" is the most concise, yet
complete, explication of the actuality, potential, and politics of
industrial hemp ever printed or posted.

We invite your critique.

http://www.sodakhemp.org/votehemp/vote1.htm

If you live in South Dakota and would like to distribute the print
version of "VoteHEMP2002 South Dakota", email us
mailto:newland@rapidcity.com
(If that one should bounce, because of my ISP's spam filter, try 
mailto:rjnewland@yahoo.com)

We have tested several of the links, but not all, so if you find a
non-working or misdirected link, please llet us know.

Posted by
Bob Newland
http://www.SoDakHEMP.org/
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:50:51 -0700
Subject:Canada: The Flin Flon flip-flop Up TOC

"Today America tolerates, like a cancer on its heart, a cult of armed
hypocrites who pretend to believe marijuana is a dangerous drug like
heroin, PCP or crack, and who on the basis of that outrageous lie have
imprisoned not tens, but hundreds of thousands of decent people for
possession of a plant that causes laughter . . . and incidentally assured
themselves steady income and low-risk thrills. In God's name, why are we
enabling these foreign parasites -- at the cost of torturing our own
citizens? "

Pubdate: Mon, 02 Sep 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Page: A13
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Spider Robinson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

THE FLIN FLON FLIP-FLOP

Anne McLellan's Reversal on Support for Medicinal Marijuana Should Make
Canadians Sick

Recently I went in hospital for a test that required injecting me with a
radioactive drug. I told them, as I always do, that drugs invariably hit me
harder than most people, and they nodded and shot me up with the standard
dose, as always, and I vomited nonstop for the next eight hours. One of
these days I'll write a column exploring why donning a white uniform
induces deafness -- but not today.

This column's about what they did for my nausea that day -- which was
nothing. They shot me up with four successive drugs, starting with Gravol
(a standard dose) and working up to the mightiest antinausea drug in the
pharmacopoeia, without effect. I retched continuously until it was simply
not possible for my stomach to clench any more; then, thank God, I was able
to persuade them to stop helping me, and let me go. My problem soon
vanished. The impulse to vomit uncontrollably only returned today, when I
sniffed the latest mound of media manure from Health Minister Anne McLellan.

There's a memorable moment in Casablanca when Claude Rains, as Captain
Reynaud, calls down a raid on Rick's Place, announcing, "I'm shocked --
shocked! -- to find that gambling is going on here." What makes the line
immortal is that, as it leaves his lips, he's accepting his winnings.
Total, bald hypocrisy, naked as a kick in the groin.

In that precise spirit, I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to discover that Ms.
McLellan is a typical contemporary Canadian politician. That is, a protean
pile of adjustable principles prepared to call excrement strawberry jam, if
the alternative is to risk offending a trigger-happy Texan.

Her bashful confession that the Manitoba Marijuana Mine she's been
overseeing in Flim Flam . . . excuse me, Flin Flon, has really been a
$6-million dribble-glass joke, and the recent police persecutions of
Compassion Clubs in Ontario, demonstrate that her government has sold out
every suffering citizen who believed they could look to it for relief from
nausea, pain, or other debilitating symptoms.

If you believed two years of promises that medical marijuana would soon be
made available to sick people who need it desperately . . . what have you
been smoking? The cowboy bootlickers we allow to pick our pockets have
already made it clear they feel little obligation to provide more than
Third World medical care for any of us, so why would they make an exception
for troublemakers antisocial enough to acquire diseases that require Ottawa
to grow a conscience?

What they meant by the best possible medicine was, the best medicine Dubya
says we can have.

You'll also be stunned to learn Ms. McLellan's been able to find a few
doctors either shameless enough to pretend to believe, or perhaps dimwitted
enough to actually believe, her "further clinical trials are needed"
nonsense -- just as if marijuana's safety and efficacy have not been known
for over a century, established repeatedly in every reputable study from
the LaGuardia commission in the United States and the LeDain report in
Canada to the most recent reports on the subject from World Health
Organization or Harvard.

Dr. Raju Hajela of Kingston, for instance, told The Globe and Mail "a
single joint is as harmful as 10 cigarettes," which is preposterous.
Fortunately, for anyone with interest, Internet access can find the true
facts effortlessly, as former health minister Allan Rock did. (Try it
yourself -- please!)

The Globe has also reported on Alison Myrden of Burlington, Ont., one of
806 registered sufferers who've been jerked around by their alleged
representatives for the last two years. She now knows "bureaucratic
compassion" is an oxymoron, like "ministerial honour." For the rest of her
life, according to Dr. Hajela and Ms. McLellan, she'll be much healthier
downing 32 pills and 600 milligrams of morphine a day for her MS than she
would have been if she'd been able to use a few natural flowers without
fear of arrest.

There was a time when this country had the guts to tell America to go to
hell when it was dead wrong. Back in the 1960s, we were led by a man who
actually had the stones to tell the United States that any of its children
who had a problem with being forced to murder strangers in Asia were
welcome here. Canada gained immeasurably thereby: in prestige, in pride,
and in immigrants who've made a powerful positive contribution ever since.

Today America tolerates, like a cancer on its heart, a cult of armed
hypocrites who pretend to believe marijuana is a dangerous drug like
heroin, PCP or crack, and who on the basis of that outrageous lie have
imprisoned not tens, but hundreds of thousands of decent people for
possession of a plant that causes laughter . . . and incidentally assured
themselves steady income and low-risk thrills. In God's name, why are we
enabling these foreign parasites -- at the cost of torturing our own
citizens? Why not align ourselves with societies with rational marijuana
policies, such as the Netherlands, England, or Portugal?

How long will we go on like this, spending money we can't afford to pay
armed bullies to persecute our own young people for giggling too much, and
our infirm and elderly for seeking relief from chronic misery? It's not the
money I mind so much -- it's the minutes. Horrid minutes of churning
awfulness, that will seem to last a million years each, to every poor
nauseous patient who has to rely on the current government for compassion.
Every day that it remains illegal here to supply pot to sick people legally
entitled to smoke it, this nation is in disgrace.

There's nothing nobler than alleviating suffering. And nothing wickeder
than failing to, out of cowardice or ignorance or expediency.



------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:52:08 -0700
Subject:White House and DEA Work to Defeat Michigan Drug Initiative Up TOC

Pubdate: Mon, 2 Sep 2002
Source: DrugWar (US Web)
Webpage: http://www.drugwar.com/pforbesdea1.shtm
Copyright: 2002 Kalyx com
Contact: ptpeet@drugwar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2410
Website: http://www.drugwar.com/
Author: Daniel Forbes, Special to Drugwar com
Links: The dozens of internal links to this web posted investigative report
are best viewed by clicking on them at the webpage above.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/forbes.htm (Forbes, Daniel)

WHITE HOUSE AND DEA WORK TO DEFEAT MICHIGAN DRUG INITIATIVE

ONDCP'S NEW POT ADS PLAY A ROLE

Drug initiative backers with the contumacy to flank a laggard government by
appealing directly to the people are met yet again with a covert,
multi-state gathering of government officials planning partisan
electioneering on the public dime. And, given the presentation by the Bush
Administration's drug policy second-in-command - a job senior enough to
require Senate confirmation - the White House-backed effort will apparently
include government propaganda to sway the vote of those who pay for it.

That's the unmistakable conclusion drawn from Office of National Drug
Control Policy Deputy Director Mary Ann Solberg's disquisition on the
government's new anti-drug ads. She spoke last Monday (8/26/02) at a forum
at Detroit's Drug Enforcement Administration office to some fifty-odd
sheriffs, judges, prosecutors, DEA agents, state cops, the drug czar of
Michigan and private drug policy professionals, the group as a whole
representing Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and
perhaps even Nevada.

November's election looming, Solberg's discourse came as the Midwest's
political struggle over ballot initiatives mandating treatment rather than
jail for low-level drug possession offenders heats up. The enormously
wealthy trio of Peter Lewis, John Sperling and George Soros - who've backed
reform initiatives throughout the country, primarily medical marijuana
measures out west - has now brought treatment rather than jail initiatives
to the eastern half of the country.

Based loosely on California's Proposition 36, which passed overwhelmingly
in 2000, their effort in Florida has been postponed, stymied by a balky
Florida Supreme Court. Ohioans will vote on their version, the Ohio Drug
Treatment Initiative, come November. And Michigan backers and opponents
sweat out this three-day weekend awaiting Tuesday's (9/3/02) procedural
ruling by the state Board of Canvassers as to whether Michigan's rather
different initiative, the Michigan Drug Reform Initiative, qualifies for
the ballot.

(Watch this space for my Labor Day analysis of the Michigan Board of
Canvassers' decision, including my interview with board member Stephen
Borrello detailing what he's looking for in arguments from both sides on
Tuesday as he decides his vote.)

Doubtless dozens of high-powered state control types, men with overwhelming
jobs - heck, men with guns, some of them, who face down, or prosecute or
judge criminals - didn't travel to Detroit last Monday to hear, among other
topics, some abstract treatise from Solberg for the heck of it. This
gathering was proactive in the extreme. But her topic makes sense if you
meld Solberg's discussion of the White House's soon-aborning
marijuana-scare ads with the DEA meeting's stated goal that attendees
"share their ideas and strategies and possibly combine resouces in
combating drug legalization [sic] proposals."

Given Solberg's talk at "a forum ... to discuss the drug legalization [sic]
efforts that are being proposed throughout the United States, specifically
in Michigan", it seems clear that this senior White House official feels
the new ads will contribute to the government's anti-initiative effort.
Otherwise, why waste these topflight folks' time discussing the ads at
meeting geared to "provide insight on successful strategies to combat
legalization," a meeting that promised to "provide presentations on how the
DEA can assist state leaders in this battle."

The passages quoted above come from a formal invitation printed on DEA/U.S.
Department of Justice letterhead. Date-stamped 8/2/02 and signed by DEA
Special Agent in Charge Michael A. Braun - who runs federal drug
enforcement in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky - it was sent to a prominent
Michigan initiative opponent, James Halushka, an Oakland County, Michigan
Deputy Prosecutor.

Referring to the ads, meeting participant Judge Brian W. MacKenzie,
District Judge in Michigan's 52nd District, said that a fellow-attendee
asked Solberg about the possibility of the new ad campaign targeting or
emphasizing Michigan and Ohio, but she replied that wasn't possible. The
two states will instead have to settle for their standard share of the
White House ad buy, including the spots that air nationally in every state.

Judge MacKenzie said Solberg "talked of the federal government's new
initiative with regard to marijuana." He added that she described it as a
new nationwide ad campaign geared to educate the public about pot's
dangers, including the controversial - many would say, discounted - notion
that it serves as a gateway drug to abuse of more pernicious substances.
The ad campaign was pretty much her entire focus, according to MacKenzie.

Goodness knows the paroxysms that will grace the ads that should debut in a
week or two. Solberg's boss, Drug Czar John P. Walters has been preparing
the ground with his release last Thursday in Miami of a federal study
purporting to show that youthful marijuana use is associated with adult
hard drug use. According to the Associated Press, Walters said, "Marijuana
is not the soft drug."

And just yesterday, in the San Francisco Chronicle, Walters railed against
pot -- which he declared is up to 30-times more powerful than that of "the
Woodstock era" -- as producing, at high doses, "paranoia or even violence."
As to medical marijuana, that is: "smoking an intoxicating weed," he said
the very notion is "medieval. It is, in fact, absurd."

By selective quotation, he baldly misrepresents the Institute of Medicine
report that Barry McCaffrey commissioned then ignored. He also cites
sky-rocketing adolescent marijuana treatment admissions without mentioning
the percentage of kids admitted against their will, either at the hands of
the criminal justice system or their guardians. There's much more --
fire-and-brimstone sulfur of the highest order.

Though she's one of the nation's top experts on anti-drug coalitions, it's
curious that Solberg apparently failed to address such topics as coalition
building or drug courts or the need for those present to have their
opposition heard.

In fact, her presentation presents the intriguing conundrum of why the
upcoming marijuana ads were considered on-topic at a meeting strategizing
on "combating drug legalization proposals" - i.e., treatment in lieu of
incarceration ballot initiatives. In the absence of any ONDCP response to
numerous phone calls, it's useful to note the White House media campaign's
political genesis and intent.

As disclosed in Salon (7/27/00) in, Fighting "Cheech & Chong" Medicine --
the phrase is Clinton Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey's -- the initial five-year,
White House media campaign was engendered at a meeting McCaffrey convened
in Washington nine days after medical marijuana initiatives passed in
Arizona and California in 1996.

Minutes of the meeting reveal that some forty officials and private sector
executives met to discuss the need for taxpayer-funded messages to thwart
any potential medical marijuana initiatives in the other 48 states and
perhaps even roll back the two that had just passed. They included two
policy advisors from the Clinton White House, the head of the DEA,
representatives of the FBI, Departments of Justice, Health and Human
Services, Treasury and Education, along with state law enforcement
personnel. One private participant was quoted in the meeting's minutes as
saying, "We'll work with Arizona and California to undo it and stop the
spread of legalization to [the] other 48 states."

Initiative Backers' Line in the Sand

Hubris or not, Dave Fratello, Legal Affairs Director for the national
Campaign for New Drug Policies which launched the Michigan initiative,
declared CNDP ready to keep the ads from running: "If we have reason to
believe that the government is running PSAs [public service announcements]
designed to thwart the campaign, we'll stop them by telling station
managers that the ads are of a political nature - not a public service -
and are an in-kind contribution to the anti-initiative political campaign."
He warned broadcasters of myriad and expensive legal entanglements
attending such in-kind, political contributions.

Pondering the anti-marijuana ad campaign's likely effect on Michigan voters
should the ballot measure qualify, Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense
for Drug Policy, said, "No doubt these sorts of ads lay a foundation of
fear that can be used by the initiative's opponents. Ads that seek to
create fear about marijuana lead to the sort of fear and ignorance that
drive the drug laws and work against reform, work for just sending people
to jail."

The ONDCP anti-marijuana ads Solberg touted are part of a second, five-year
ad campaign that July, 2002 press reports indicate Congress has refunded
for $762 million over the next five years.

This despite the fact that, according to a 7/3/02 AP story, Drug Czar John
Walters, "has repeatedly criticized the ad campaign, saying teenagers were
ignoring the ads. In May, he said the office would cancel the campaign if
it was not effective." The AP cited a survey released in May that "found no
evidence the ads were discouraging drug use."

According to USA Today, (7/8/02) of the $762-million that federal taxpayers
will pony up over the next five years, some $130-million annually - or
approximately $650-million total - will go to purchase advertising, along
with a very small amount for media planning. ($112-million over five years
is a heck of a chunk for expenses, ancillary or otherwise, but no matter.)

Should the next five years mirror the campaign's first five, then, by
design, half the ad budget will go to ad buys targeting adults - that is
voters. And, if past remains prologue, that $650 million is only the half
of it since Congress requires the media to sell its ad time and space to
ONDCP for half-price. That is, broadcasters and publishers, etc. cough up
two ad slots for the price of one.

So, (minus those relatively tiny media planning fees) approximately $1.3
billion over the next five years will be available for anti-drug
advertising. Half will be directed at adult voters, and all of it will tend
- - however indirectly - to poison the drug-reform well.

Along with maintaining the drug-war status quo, the ads also work to
support blanket drug tests at school and work, massive law enforcement
expenditures, the shredding of the Bill of Rights - the whole delightful
interdict-and-incarceration noose around the country's neck. Alarmist? Well
- - citizens, attend: Drug Use = Terrorism! as the only new ads yet released
under Walters/Bush, the ones that engendered such ridicule and disgust,
would have voters believe.

Rather implausibly, President Clinton's then deputy press secretary Jake
Siewert, informed me back in 2000 that, "The ONDCP is prohibited from
involving itself in political causes in its advertising." Talk is cheap.

Parsing Clues on Participants

Though the DEA raised the moat, it is possible to glean some notion of the
meeting's participants. Braun's invitation promised "state leaders from
Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio at this forum."

Oakland County Deputy Prosecutor James Halushka confirmed his participation
along with that of various law enforcement personnel, the DEA's public
affairs and congressional liaison director, Christopher Battle, and by
"some CADCA people too, a couple of representatives from Lansing and Battle
Creek who continue to spread the word." CADCA refers to the Community
Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, whose board Solberg graced prior to
joining ONDCP.

(In December, 2001, Bush announced re-authorization of a Department of
Justice program that will distribute $450-million over the next five years
to community anti-drug groups. Approximately one-fifth of that money is
available for what is termed voter education.)

MacKenzie, who attended only part of the morning session of what he termed
a 9-to-3 meeting, was particularly interested in the presentation by Judge
Harvey Hoffman, the president of a Michigan drug court advocacy group, the
Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals. He said Hoffman discussed
the impact of California's Prop. 36.

MacKenzie also noted the presence of Oakland County Sheriff Michael
Bouchard, a co-chair of the Committee to Protect Our Kids, a "registered
ballot question committee formed to oppose" the treatment initiative,
according to an 8/9/02 letter sent to Christopher Thomas, director of the
Michigan state Bureau of Elections, by the committee's counsel, the
powerhouse Michigan law firm of Dykema Gossett.

(This letter, according to Board of Canvassers member Stephen Borrello,
contributed greatly to the board postponing for a week its decision
regarding the initiative. See my Drugwar.com article tomorrow in this space
on the postponement, including the influence wielded by Dykema Gossett
partner and head of its Government Policy & Practice Group, Richard
McLellan. A hand-in-glove ally of rabid initiative foe, Michigan Gov. John
Engler - in 1990 he served as director of the governor-elect's transition
team - McLellan has also chaired a committee helping Engler and President
George W. Bush pick federal appeals court judges. He's served as Michigan's
drug czar and as an advisor to President Gerald Ford. According to a filing
with the Michigan secretary of state, the committee's treasurer is Richard
M. Gabrys, an executive with the accounting and consulting firm, Deloitte &
Touche. He and McLellan both refused comment.)

Referring to this committee and to initiative opponents in general,
Halushka said they hope to mount a "massive public education campaign ...
to expose [proponents'] myths in a sound-bite world." Though decrying the
impossibility of matching the rich backers' potential ad budget, he added,
"We are raising money, going [nationally] to big-name donors."

Additional meeting participants, said MacKenzie, included members of the
state police; one or more representatives of Detroit anti-drug coalitions;
both a "police commander" and a prosecutor from Ohio; as well as someone
from Kentucky. Altogether, he estimated there were "fifty or sixty people
in a big conference room."

Additional clues regarding attendance come from the fact that prior to the
meeting, the office of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), ranking minority member of
the House Judiciary Committee, obtained a copy of Braun's invitation,
according to Deanna Maher, a special projects coordinator on Conyers'
staff. Wearing two hats, Maher works part-time for Conyers and part-time
for the initiative's sponsor, the Michigan Campaign for New Drug Policies,
CNDP's state affiliate. CNDP's Fratello stated that Maher segregates her
time religiously - a common practice, he said, of congressional staffers
with outside political pursuits.

The letter at hand, the week before the meeting Maher called both Braun and
DEA Special Agent Rich Isaacson (whose name and number were also on the
invite) to inquire whether the lack of an invitation to Conyers' office was
inadvertent. After all, a Conyers staffer's participation would be fueled
by propinquity, the two offices across the street from each other in
downtown Detroit.

The DEA agent responsible for demand reduction throughout Michigan, Ohio
and Kentucky (or so he told me last winter), Isaacson extended an
invitation, which Maher declined. While doing so, he told her that Craig
Yaldoo, the Director of Michigan's Office of Drug Control Policy, four
judges, representatives from the anti-initiative Committee to Protect Our
Kids and "regional" officials would be among those assembling the following
Monday.

Taxpayers Bought Rusche's Flight?

Last winter, Isaacson told me the Ohio meeting in October was "merely to
determine what is happening in these states regarding possible legalization
efforts." Evaluate his statement in light of the numerous political tactics
participants agreed were necessary in a five-page "Outcomes" memo
summarizing the day's conclusions.

It features such overt exhortations as: "Have a seamless, collaborative
effort of organizations involved, mobilized and working hard to oppose the
Initiative." To quote a second, one of many outcomes: "Beat the Initiative
back in the entire country, not just in each state." At meeting's end, the
Ohio, Michigan and Florida officials present that day in October, 2001
pledged to work together and stay in touch through e-mail, conference calls
and possible future meetings.

Despite all that - and this is the sketchiest of summaries of the IPS
material - Isaacson told me months ago that this Governor's mansion meeting
was for informational purposes.

Public Billions Fuel Private Juggernaut, Yet Voters Sneer

Solberg's activities in Michigan prior to her April, 2002 Senate
confirmation shed light on the state and federally funded private apparatus
that defends the drug-war status quo, as my IPS report makes clear.

Her base was the Troy Community Coalition for the Prevention of Drug and
Alcohol Abuse, which, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, was
formed with federal money in 1991. (Philanthropic Research, Inc. notes that
for the FY ending in June, 1999, the Troy coalition had total revenues of
$254,000, with government grants providing $163,000.)

The next calendar year, in September, 2000, it received a $100,000 Dept. of
Justice grant, the money to be spent in part for the group to act,
according to the DOJ, "as a catalyst for collaboration among all segments
of the community, thereby building ... awareness that will lead to an
increase in the perception of the health risks involved [with drugs] and
growing social disapproval within the community." [Emphasis added.] Not
incidentally, the DOJ requires that grantees include "at least one" media
representative.

The year before, the Coalition of Healthy Communities (CHC), an umbrella
group for seven community coalitions located north of Detroit that Solberg
also directed, received $99,209 in DOJ money. According to the DOJ website,
CHC used some of the $99,209 to "implement a public awareness campaign."
Referring to this social marketing, Mary Louise Embrey of the DOJ Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs told me last winter, "The way they were
going about it is multi-faceted: They've hooked in with the Ad Council and
the national ONDCP anti-drug media campaign - they use print materials from
ONDCP. And they used the local media to make connections. They have people
[appear] on the local news or they feed them different stories."

My work in Salon proved that the White House used taxpayer funds to reward
broadcasters and publishers who inserted government-approved anti-drug
content. But according to Embrey of the DOJ, public funds were also used to
help local coalitions propagandize citizens through local media north of
Detroit.

(See the IPS report for full proof of the Partnership for a Drug-Free
America's manifest willingness to create ads to try to influence the Ohio
election. The partnership inaugurated its effort by sending its four top
executives to that July, 2001 planning session hosted by a U.S. Senate
staffer and held in the U.S. Capitol - what one of them termed a
"counter-legalization brainstorm session.")

As to the Ad Council's role, according to a 8/12/02 ONDCP release, it will
team with the Ad Council to "launch new ads next month to promote awareness
of - and involvement with - community drug-prevention coalitions...." This
new campaign - separate from the ONDCP anti-marijuana ads - will feature,
says the White House, a Web site and toll-free number and "TV, radio,
print, outdoor and Web banner ads" designed to help people "get involved
with or start a coalition and locate a coalition in their community." From
2000-to-2001, this "campaign has received more than $120-million in donated
[sic] media support through the Ad Council's media outreach and ONDCP's"
fifty-cents-on-the-dollar deals with the media. Prior to her ONDCP deputy
directorship, Solberg helped advise the Ad Council's Community Anti-Drug
Campaign.

Local anti-drug coalitions receive government funding nationwide. One Dept.
of Justice program, authorized at $144-million for its first five years,
was reauthorized this past December for another five years for a staggering
$450-million. (Approximately two-thirds of the first $144-million's 464
total grants went to CADCA member coalitions; the rest went to other local
groups.)

Since ONDCP ultimately decides where these Justice Dept. grants end up,
depending on John Walters' degree of micro-management, Solberg may have
more say than anyone in the country as to this $450-million's ultimate
destination and purpose.

Twenty Percent for Voter 'Education'

But what possible objection could there be to using this money for
community-based prevention and treatment?

Consider that this past January, CADCA spokeswoman Betsy Glick told The
Detroit Free Press, "Under federal law, the nonprofit coalitions generally
can spend up to 20 percent of their budgets 'to educate voters.' "
According to the article: "Solberg said she is determined to see more
coalitions spawned and strengthened. And ... she is expected to help them
play a key role in opposing any easing of drug laws" - i.e., any
initiatives. The paper added, quoting one of Solberg's Michigan coalition
colleagues: "Behind the scenes, Solberg is 'spearheading the campaign
against this initiative.' "

With last December's huge reauthorization, 20% of $450 million - that is,
up to $90-million - will be available over the next five years for publicly
funded voter education to try to influence elections, whether on a state
initiative, or just a contest for county sheriff between a hard-liner and a
reformer.

As to any 'spawning,' on September 9th, Solberg will address the annual
Michigan Substance Abuse Conference, speaking on "Successful Strategies for
Coalition Building." Sponsored by state and federal health agencies, the
sold-out, two-day seminar offers professional continuing education credits,
and attendees' expenses are tax-deductible.

Solberg's a self-acknowledged pro at publicly funded electioneering. In
2000, after that medical marijuana measure failed to gain the Michigan
ballot as she ran numerous coalitions north of Detroit, Solberg told the
Detroit News, "A good offense is the best defense." The article noted that
in May that year, as part of that offense, one of her coalitions had
"hosted a two-day conference in Lansing about the perils of pot." It added
that the seminar was controversial since the coalition receives state,
county and federal grants. Both Michigan's drug czar and the head of its
state police participated, as did, for some reason, Northwest Airlines.

According to DRCNet, the conference was entitled, "Training the Trainers:
Putting the Brakes on the Drug Legalization Movement." DRCNet cited Greg
Schmid's charge that Michigan promised state criminal justice training
funds to facilitate police attendance at the meeting. A main backer of the
Personal Responsibility Amendment (as it was known), Schmid told DRCNet,
"It looks like a public fund is being used for electioneering training of
law enforcement personnel." A Saginaw lone-wolf at Schmid Law Office, he
told me his formal complaint to the State Bureau of Elections was referred
to the state Attorney General, who dismissed it.

So, no doubt the poll-beleaguered local officials in Detroit welcomed the
presence of the ex-school teacher who's now found her way to the White
House. Keith Stroup, head of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, said, "Her presence gives enormous empowerment to the local
partisans - to know that the federal government, the White House in
particular, is supporting their efforts. Sitting in Detroit, when the White
House shows up, it may not be illegal, but it sure as hell is improper."

Numerous phone calls to ONDCP and the DEA, including to ONDCP PR chief Tom
Reilly and to DEA Special Agents Battle and Braun were not returned.
Reaching Solberg's personal voice-mail, I outlined my understanding of her
Detroit discourse on the new ads, hoping to prompt a response. Without much
of a leg to stand on, the White House and the DEA refused to teeter on the
precipice of actually discussing their active opposition to state ballot
measures - Bush administration rhetoric about devolution of power to the
states be blowed.

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

Daniel Forbes (ddanforbes@aol.com) writes on social policy. His recent
report on state and federal political malfeasance geared to defeat
treatment rather than incarceration ballot initiatives was published by the
Institute for Policy Studies. Much of his work, including his series in
Salon that led to his testimony before both the Senate and the House, is
archived at www.mapinc.org

See http://www.drugwar.com/pforbesdea1.shtm with it's dozens of associated 
links about the above report.
__________________________________________________________________________
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

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:54:06 -0700
Subject: MI: Effort Pushes Hopes Of Marijuana Legalization Up TOC

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Tue, 03 Sep 2002
Source: South Bend Tribune (IN)
Copyright: 2002 South Bend Tribune
Contact: vop@sbtinfo.com
Website: http://www.southbendtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/621
Author: Lou Mumford

EFFORT PUSHES HOPES OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

CASSOPOLIS -- Rainbow Farm Campground may be gone, but it's not forgotten.

With signs waving and music playing in the background, friends of the late
campground owner Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Crosslin's companion, Rolland
"Rollie" Rohm, gathered in front of the Cass County Courthouse on Monday
night to show their support for the pair's efforts to decriminalize marijuana.

The two died a year ago during a five-day siege with police and the FBI.
Crosslin, 46, was killed on Sept. 3, when he allegedly raised a rifle to
fire at an FBI agent and instead was shot in the head by the agent.

The 28-year-old Rohm died the next day when he, too, was shot after he
allegedly set fire to the farmhouse and ran outside brandishing a rifle.

Supporters of the pair said that Crosslin and Rohm essentially died because
of their strong belief that adults should be able to smoke small quantities
of marijuana in the privacy of their own homes. That cause was a major
theme of the Hemp Aid and Roachfest events Crosslin sponsored at the
campground over Memorial and Labor day weekends, they said.

"I really think somebody recognized we had a little heaven on earth (at the
campground), and they didn't like it. One pocket of freedom got squashed,
but other pockets are opening up all over," said a barefoot Adam Wright of
Cass City, Mich. "Corruption busted Rainbow Farms."

Wright carried a sign depicting a cannabis plant and the words "God doesn't
make mistakes."

Other signs carried such messages as "Tom and Rollie. We will never
forget," "Don't sell Robert's Rainbow" and "Robert wants his farm, not the
money."

The latter signs were in reference to Rohm's now 14-year-old son, Robert,
who stands to benefit from the sale of the farm property at auction. Now a
ward of the state, Robert would receive the proceeds when he turns 18.

But Doug Leimbach, who managed Rainbow Farm Campground from 1996 to 2000,
claimed he has received e-mail messages from Robert stating he doesn't want
the farm to be sold.

"He says it's the only thing he has to remember his father," Leimbach said.

Leimbach said he had known Crosslin for 30 years, and he doesn't believe he
was the type of person to "commit suicide by cop," as some have said. What
pushed him over the edge, he said, was the state's attempt to confiscate
his land, the prospect of spending 30 years in prison on drug charges and
Robert's removal by court order from the home where he had been raised
since the age of 4.

"He (Crosslin) decided to stand up for what's right," Leimbach said.

Will Dwyer of Charlotte, Mich., Morel "Moses" Yonkers of Elkhart and Melody
Karr of Mesick, Mich., all express the hopes some good will come from the
Rainbow Farm tragedy should the end result be the decriminalization of
marijuana.

"We're not going to quit. We're going to legalize this," Yonkers said.

Whether marijuana laws are changed or not, she said there's one thing she
knows for certain.

"I know none of us will ever look at Labor Day weekend the same way," she said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:55:44 -0700
Subject: MI: Siege Recalled By Neighbor Up TOC

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Tue, 03 Sep 2002
Source: South Bend Tribune (IN)
Copyright: 2002 South Bend Tribune
Contact: vop@sbtinfo.com
Website: http://www.southbendtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/621
Author: Lou Mumford

SIEGE RECALLED BY NEIGHBOR

Family, Friends Gather At Campground

Rainbow Farm Revisited

VANDALIA -- The irony of the violent deaths a year ago of marijuana- rights
activists Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland Rohm on the Rainbow Farm
Campground where peace was the reigning theme hasn't been lost on
supporters of Crosslin and Rohm.

At an impromptu gathering Monday of supporters and family members at the
burned-out campground, Three Rivers area resident Robert Blivin recalled
the peaceful atmosphere that prevailed at the campground's popular Memorial
Day and Labor Day weekend festivals.

Buggy Brown, a neighbor of Crosslin's former farm and campground at 59896
Pemberton Road, said the concerts, featuring such entertainers as Tommy
Chong and the late Merle Haggard, would attract thousands but there was
seldom any trouble.

"You wouldn't have as much trouble as you would at a bar," he said.

Crosslin sponsored the concerts, in part to promote his strong belief that
marijuana should be decriminalized. The functions drew many who were quick
to sign petitions seeking to get Michigan lawyer Greg Schmid's Personal
Responsibility Amendment on the state ballot.

Brown said he believes Crosslin and Rohm would be alive today had police
and the FBI backed off instead of surrounding the farmhouse.

"I always said they (authorities) didn't need to be out here," Brown
recalled. "Tom and Rollie weren't going anywhere. This was their home. They
weren't going to flee."

The two died on the fourth and fifth days of a five-day siege that began on
Aug. 31, 2001, when Crosslin and Rohm allegedly set fire to some of the
campground's buildings.

Surrounded by police, Crosslin was killed on Sept. 3 when he was spotted
outside the farmhouse raising his gun to shoot at an FBI agent, said Cass
County Prosecutor Scott Teter. A single round from a marksman ended
Crosslin's life.

Rohm died the next day after he allegedly set fire to the farmhouse and ran
outside, carrying a gun. He was shot when he raised the weapon to fire at
an approaching armored vehicle, Teter said.

As the intermediary that carried messages between Crosslin and Rohm and the
authorities, Brown played a key role in the standoff. He said Monday he
didn't believe initially the siege would end in tragedy.

"I felt that if the cops took their time, that it would have a peaceful
ending," he said.

He said he had lived in the area just two years and had only a casual
relationship with Crosslin and Rohm.

Yet he said he knew Crosslin well enough to recognize his close
relationship with Rohm's then 12-year-old son, Robert.

Robert, raised by the two since the age of 4, had been removed from the
property by a court order a short time before the standoff began.

Brown said Crosslin was probably more troubled by Robert's removal than the
drug charges he was facing and the notice he had received that the state
had initiated the process of confiscating his farm.

"Robert was probably one of the hardest things," Brown said. "When you come
to take a man's child ... based on total speculation. Then he (Crosslin)
danced through all the hoops to get him back and they still denied him."

While the siege was going on, Brown said he was struck by Crosslin's
relatively calm demeanor.

"He had his position he was standing for. He wasn't yelling or raving or
anything like that. Our conversations were normal," he said.

As for Rohm, Brown said he, too, appeared unconcerned by the police
presence outside the farmhouse.

"Rollie was just as mellow. He'd be watching soccer on TV, between the news
footage (coverage of the standoff), and he'd talk about the soccer games,"
Brown said.

"With Tom, it couldn't have been anything else ... but a shoot-to-kill
order," he said. "In a hostile situation, you go for the sergeant."
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:56:06 -0700
Subject: MI: Rainbow Farm Going Up For Auction Up TOC

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Sep 2002
Source: South Bend Tribune (IN)
Copyright: 2002 South Bend Tribune
Contact: vop@sbtinfo.com
Website: http://www.southbendtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/621
Author: Adam Jackson
Note: Staff writer Lou Mumford contributed to this report

RAINBOW FARM GOING UP FOR AUCTION

Conditions Applied To Land Use; Money To Be Held In Trust For Slain Man's Son

VANDALIA -- Since it opened in the mid-1990s, the owner of Rainbow Farm
Campground touted it as a place where visitors could gather, relax and
enjoy the peace of rural Cass County.

Last Labor Day weekend, all of that changed.

During a fateful five-day standoff, campground owner Grover "Tom" Crosslin,
46, and Rolland Rohm, 28, were both fatally shot by law- enforcement
officers after the two reportedly burned down most of the buildings at the
campground and shot at a news helicopter from South Bend's WNDU-TV, Channel 16.

Since that time, the campground that once played host to throngs of
revelers has remained quiet and overgrown, as authorities pondered its fate.

Nearly a year later, it appears those officials have made a decision: The
43 acres of rolling fields and woods will be divided into parcels and
auctioned to the highest bidder.

"I think it is a win-win situation," Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter
said last week. "We are very pleased with the agreement."

In the wills of Rohm and Crosslin, all of their possessions -- which mostly
amounted to the campground, a historical brick home at the intersection of
Calvin Center Road and Michigan 60, and some property in Elkhart -- were
left to Robert Rohm, who is Rolland Rohm's son.

Robert, who is now 14, had been raised by the two men since he was 4 years old.

Now in state foster care, he has been represented by court-appointed estate
overseer John Gore and guardian ad litem Peter Smith in matters concerning
his inheritance.

Together, Smith, Gore and Teter devised the plan to divide and auction the
campground, with the proceeds from the auction to be placed in trust for
Robert until he turns 18.

However, the deal is not without conditions.

"Basically, we did not want the campground to be reopened under any
circumstances," Teter said. "We didn't want a repeat of what happened there
before."

To that end, there are a number of provisions in the agreement designed to
keep the land from ever being used for its former purpose again.

First of all, Teter said that the deed to each parcel will include a
restrictive covenant that the land may never be used for either a
campground or an entertainment venue again. And any successful bidder on
any of the parcels will be subject to the scrutiny of county officials, who
may veto the sale if the buyer does not pass muster.

"This way, we can conduct background checks" on the buyer if necessary,
Teter said.

In exchange for the conditions, Teter agreed to drop an action seeking
civil forfeiture of the campground under a law that allows property
involved in drug trafficking to be seized.

The action was initiated after an investigation conducted between 1996 and
2001 allegedly found that the property was being used to conduct festivals
that allowed rampant drug use and sales, and other illegal activities by
campground guests.

Friends and family members of the two slain men, however, have maintained
that the investigations were just a ruse to seize the land for profit.
Rolland Rohm's stepfather, John Livermore, said the plan to auction off the
land is further proof of that.

The land is worth "several million dollars," he claimed during a telephone
interview from his Rogersville, Tenn., home. The auction will bring only
"pennies on the dollar."

Regardless, Livermore said that the auction won't bring what the land is
worth, making Robert Rohm the ultimate loser.
__________________________________________________________________________
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: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 10:57:19 -0700
Subject: Australia: Group Wants Cannabis For Pain Up TOC

Newshawk: JimmyG
Pubdate: Tue, 03 Sep 2002
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2002 The Age Company Ltd
Contact: letters@theage.fairfax.com.au
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Australian Associated Press

GROUP WANTS CANNABIS FOR PAIN

SYDNEY - Cancer sufferers and AIDS victims were among protesters at NSW
parliament calling for the government to support cannabis for medical use.

The protesters gathered on Macquarie Street to urge the Carr government to
accept a working party's recommendations for the use of cannabis as medicine.

Dr Andrew Katelaris, medical consultant to protest organisers NSW
Compassion Club, said the state government had granted a licence for
research looking at the ingredients of various strains of cannabis and
their effects.

"Our licence specifically stops short of allowing human trials even though
30 per cent of Australian adults have actually used cannabis," he said
outside parliament.

"We're not allowed to give them safe, medically standardised cannabis ...
they have to go and buy it from the crooks.

"What we want is to be allowed to set up a medical grow room, enrol people
in clinical trials and start the proper scientific evaluation of the
clinical uses of cannabis in its various forms of extraction."

Club co-founder Andrew Kavasilas said cannabis made a major difference in
sick people's lives.

"For AIDS sufferers it can just be a matter of being able to eat more, keep
food down, and feel pleasant about life ... for cancer patients who are
going through chemo it's very good for allaying the feeling of nausea ...
and for other patients like MS, the muscle relaxant properties of cannabis
are well known and well documented," he said.

Coogee MS sufferer Ed Mycak said he was there to support cannabis as a
therapeutic agent for his own use, as it helped ease his symptoms.

"I have tried the other available agents ... but that has not been useful
for me and I have had to discontinue use after a year," he said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 11:16:28 -0700
Subject: SD: Federal court stops sale of White Plume Hemp Up TOC

Federal court stops sale of White Plume Hemp
Legalization of industrial hemp on ballot in South Dakota

Lakota Nation Journal
By Hazel Bonner

RAPID CITY SD AUGUST 14 2002 -- For the third year in a row the federal 
government has prevented the White Plume Tiyospaye from earning any money 
from its hemp crop. Federal Judge William Battey granted a temporary 
injunction against Alex and Percy White Plume On August 13 that prevents 
them from selling the harvested product.

The crop was harvested earlier in August and was to be transferred to the 
Madison Hemp and Flax Co. of Lexington, Kentucky on August 14. The 
harvesting of the crop gained national and worldwide attention. The North 
American Hemp Council on their website billed the harvesting as the first 
industrial hemp crop in the United States since 1958 .

A complaint was filed by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Vargo on 
August 9 seeking to prevent the White Plumes from disposing of the 
harvested product. People had gathered from across the United States for a 
harvest celebration that was scheduled on the White Plume land near 
Manderson, on the Pine Ridge Reservation the day of the transfer.

No criminal charges were filed even though the justification for the 
temporary injunction was based on the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) found 
at 21 USC 891 et. seq. That act makes it a crime to import, manufacture, 
distribute, possess or improperly use controlled substances having a 
substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the 
American people.

Throughout the complaint the US Attorney referred to the drug marijuana and 
never used the words industrial hemp. The two plants are both members of 
the cannabis family. However marijuana has a high level of THC, the 
psychoactive chemical that alters the functioning of the brain. Industrial 
hemp has such a low THC content that it has no effect on the functioning of 
the brain.

South Dakotans will get a chance to vote on whether industrial hemp should 
be allowed to be grown legally in South Dakota at the general election in 
November. Industrial hemp can be used for thousands of products. The most 
common uses are in rope, twine, oils, building materials, insulation, 
cosmetics and food products.

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance under the CSA. In order 
to be a schedule I substance the drug must have a high potential for abuse 
according to the CSA and the complaint filed by Vargo.

"There is no known detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of 
any person using any industrial hemp product," says Bob Newland of the 
South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council.

There is no distinction made between the psychoactive marijuana plant and 
the non-psychoactive industrial hemp plant. Based on this lack of 
distinction in the federal code, Vargo treats industrial hemp as though it 
is the same as marijuana in the complaint filed in District Court.

As quoted in the federal complaint, marijuana is defined in the CSA as 
follows: "All parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or 
not; the seeds thereof and therein extracted from any part of such plant; 
and every compound, manufacture, salt derivative, mixture or preparation of 
such plant."

The definition, however, does go on to say, "Such term does not include the 
mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil, or cake 
made from the seeds of such plant, and other compound, manufacture, 
derivative mixture or preparation of such mature stalks (except the resin 
extracted therefrom) fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of such 
plant which is incapable of germination." (21 USC Sec. 802(16))

The order issued by Battey temporarily restrains the White Plumes from 
transferring the harvested crop, referred to in the order as marijuana. A 
hearing for a permanent injunction is scheduled for October 1-2. No answer 
was filed to the complaint in the federal file. White Plumes have been 
represented by local attorney Bruce Ellison. A call to him was not returned.

The complaint and supporting documents gave a history of the White Plume 
Tiyospaye's (extended family's) attempt to raise industrial hemp as a 
product that could save agriculture and have a major economic impact on the 
reservation.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe passed an ordinance legalizing the growing of 
Industrial Hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Following the passage of 
that Ordinance Alex White Plume and relatives who own land near Manderson 
announced their plans to use some of the land to grow industrial hemp.

The crops in 1999 and 2000 were destroyed by the DEA. The destruction 
gained world-wide attention and the White Plumes received support and a new 
supply of hemp seeds from the Madison Hemp and Flax Company.

Growing industrial hemp remains illegal according to federal law. However 
the use of imported industrial hemp in products had been legal in this 
country. The DEA proposed new rules that would make the use of hemp in any 
food product illegal.

Possession or consumption of any food products containing any THC, even at 
non-psychoactive levels would be considered use of a controlled substance. 
The rule was to go into effect in March.

An article in Time Magazine, February 18, 2002, discussed the effect of the 
pending new rule on businesses in Kentucky. The article said "Economically 
speaking, a ban could ruin the 20 or so companies that make or sell more 
than five million dollars worth of hemp waffles, salad oils, and other foods."

Seven Kentucky hemp companies asked the Ninth Circuit court of appeals to 
block the implementation of the new DEA rule. On March 9 the court issued a 
temporary stay blocking the ban on hemp in food products.

In 1998, Canada re-legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp. A year 
later 35,000 acres of hemp were being grown in Canada. A Canadian hemp firm 
joined with the Kentucky hemp businesses in challenging the DEA rule. They 
claimed that "the DEA is violating NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act) by 
failing to provide scientific justification for a rule that will be nothing 
short of an absolute ban on trade in hemp food." Britain has also 
re-legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp, without incident.

In the 1940's the U.S. government was the biggest consumer of hemp 
products. During World War II the government issued permits to grow 
industrial hemp, including permits to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The permits were issued because imports of other fibers had dried up and 
the hemp was needed for rope for wartime use. The United States Department 
of Agriculture even produced a video promoting hemp cultivation entitled 
Hemp for Victory.

Support for cultivation of industrial hemp has grown beyond young left wing 
liberals. Former Kentucky Governor Louie Nunn, who turned 78 in March, has 
supported the cultivation of industrial hemp. Nunn promoted the use of hemp 
in parts in the 1.2 million cars produced in Kentucky each year. Nunn is a 
lifelong Republican who considers himself conservative.

Environmentalists support the use of hemp as a replacement of deforestation 
for building material and paper. They say it is a renewable energy resource 
that requires little or no herbicide.

Nutritionists and vegetarians found that hemp products contain an unusually 
good ratio of beneficial fats ("good fats") compared to other vegetarian 
products.

Members of the North American and the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Councils 
see hemp as the answer to agricultural, environmental and health problems. 
In spite of this, farmers who grow a crop that, according to an 
advertisement on the South Dakota industrial hemp website, could save 
agriculture, are called criminals in this country.

According to farmers in Kentucky quoted by Time Magazine "You could roll 
and smoke every leaf on a 15 foot hemp plant and gain little more than a 
hacking cough." Former Governor Nunn and other advocates see the DEA's 
fight against industrial hemp as misplaced.

That, however does not change the situation for the White Plumes on the 
Pine Ridge Reservation. The joyful harvest celebration and transfer of the 
harvested hemp to the Kentucky company that helped them was cancelled. They 
now wait for a final decision of the court in October.

Re-legalization of cultivation of industrial hemp will be on the ballot in 
South Dakota on November 5.

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 #183
********************************