TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Editorial: Doing Our Part for a Safer World
2. DRCNet Plans for 2002/Year-End Donations Needed
3. Health Canada Announces Legal Medical Marijuana Available January 1, But Actual Delivery Probably Months Away
4. British Government Asks Parliament for Shift in Drug Policy
5. Austin, Texas Drug Raid Tragedy Leads to Another
6. New Mexico's Governor Johnson to Press Drug Reform Package During Special Session
7. Treatment Not Jail Initiative Gets Underway in Michigan, Joins Efforts in Florida and Ohio
8. Alerts: Bolivia, HEA Drug Provision, DEA Hemp Ban, Ecstasy Bill, Mandatory Minimums, Medical Marijuana
9. The Reformer's Calendar

(visit the Week Online archives)

1. Editorial: Doing Our Part for a Safer World

David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected], 12/28/01

As we approach the end of a year scarred by violence, it is good to reflect on what steps can be taken, short-term and long, global and local, to make the world a safer place. There are doubtless many answers to that question, many pieces to that puzzle. All of them should be debated and discussed, and with urgency.

DRCNet has since our outset espoused the seemingly radical, yet in reality purely logical and entirely sensible, idea that ending criminal prohibition of drugs would make a major difference in reducing violence and promoting social well-being. Replacing the dangerous and chaotic illicit street trade in drugs with a regulated, legal market; and stemming the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing every year to the criminal underground and its frequently unsavory, sometimes terroristic participants; these are only two of the many ways that ending prohibition will make the world a safer, healthier place.

A tragic shooting in Austin, Texas last week illustrates a third type of violence engendered by drug prohibition, a violence wrought by the government itself -- unintentionally, in most cases, but utterly expectedly, again and again. Antonio Martinez, age 19, was sleeping on the couch in his friends' trailer home when a 12-person SWAT team stormed the trailer full of adults and children, setting off a flash grenade and battering down the door without warning. The unarmed Martinez woke only momentarily and sat up before a sheriff's deputy shot him in the chest.

Martinez is a victim of our government's drug war. Doubtless the deputy who shot him didn't go there intending to commit murder. But Martinez died just as suddenly as the people working on certain floors of the World Trade Center when the planes hit. And though some drugs were found -- not Martinez's -- there were none of the weapons that police claimed to be present when they obtained their no-knock search warrant to enter the trailer.

Equally important, no net reduction of the drug supply in Austin or anywhere else was achieved. That's just not how markets work. Illicit drug suppliers, like grocery suppliers, anticipate that some of their goods will be lost -- seized in the case of drugs, spoiled in the case of fruits or vegetables -- so they grow or manufacture or ship a quantity equal to their estimated total of consumer demand plus lost product. The drug traffickers, in fact, have better information with which to make such calculations than anyone else can perform about the drug trade. And unlike fruits or vegetables, illegal drugs have an enormous profit margin, and their vendors can afford to absorb their losses without raising prices if doing so would adversely affect their profits.

In the aggregate, then, the modest amount of cocaine and methamphetamine seized from the trailer, along with all other seizures, had been anticipated, and thus effectively neutralized, weeks if not months before the police arrived, by simple business planning. There's no particular shipment or stash that you can point to as its replacement, but rather the certainty that the consumers or middlemen who would have used it have subsequently purchased their drugs from other suppliers. Which means that the government killed Antonio Martinez for nothing, a fate perpetrated upon numerous such drug war victims since our bloody prohibition began early last century.

So what, in the drug policy sphere, can be done in the short- and long-term, globally and locally, to make our neighborhoods, our cities, our world and nation safer? It's too late to expect prohibition to end in 2001 (though one can dream), and obviously the struggle we face is a lengthy one. For the long-term, we must continue to raise awareness of the consequences of prohibition, to advocate this logical, sensible, humane idea that prohibition should be ended, in our communities, in our social and professional circles, with legislators and in the media.

In the short-term, we must chip away at the drug war edifice from all sides. Ending no-knock drug raids in the great majority of cases, as Texan civil liberties advocates are suggesting in the wake of the Martinez tragedy, would be one good reform to drug war policing, and the morality and common sense of such a measure would be clear to many. There are many other partial steps for which to fight:

Reducing the draconian drug sentences; opening up medical use of medical marijuana and rationalizing controls over prescription pain relievers; permitting needle exchange programs and over-the-counter syringes sales; deregulating methadone maintenance and instituting heroin and other drug maintenance; ending the ridiculous and destructive international coca and opium eradication programs; repealing the drug offender financial aid ban; reining in out-of-control zero-tolerance drug policies; limiting asset forfeiture and restoring weakened constitutional rights; ending racial profiling; many more.

And we can keep alive the names and stories of Antonio Martinez -- and Andres Dorismond, and Accelyne Williams, and Peter McWilliams, and countless others -- in the coming year and for years to come, so that they won't have died for naught, but for the lives and safety and freedom of others. And when that time comes, and the world awakens to its foolishness and ends its drug war, we will know that we did our part.

2. DRCNet Plans for 2002/Year-End Donations Needed

As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, we are sending you a short preview, following below, of the work we plan or hope to do in 2002. We are also asking your help in keeping our organization healthy and able to do all this work and do so effectively.

Any donation, large or small, will mean a lot to DRCNet and our ability to effect change. So please take a few minutes and visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ to make an encryption-secured donation by credit card or PayPal -- if you want, sign up to donate monthly and never have to think about it again -- or use our form to generate a printout to mail in with your check or money order, or just send those to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. We are also now set up to accept contributions of stock -- our brokerage is Ameritrade, account #772973012, company name Drug Reform Coordination Network, Inc.

In the legislative arena (Drug Reform Coordination Network, contributions are not tax-deductible):

• We will continue to mobilize students, educators and other concerned citizens nationwide in opposition to the Higher Education Act Drug Provision. Our campaign has sparked a groundswell of opposition to the law, including the endorsements of 82 student governments nationwide, and may be drug reform's first hope for repealing a federal drug law outright.
• We will continue to issue action alerts on the full range of drug policy reform issues. Over 16,000 people have used our write-to-Congress web forms this year alone.

• We will continue to publish The Week Online, our widely- read, in-depth report on drug policy published each Friday -- with over 22,600 subscribers possibly the most widely read drug policy newsletter in the world. To the extent that volunteerism or funding is available, we will publish Spanish translations of selected Week Online articles.
• We will continue our Higher Education Act Educational Campaign, raising awareness of the consequence of the new law stripping students with drug convictions of their federal financial aid. This campaign, in partnership with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, has garnered coverage in major media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ABC News, CNN and more.
• We will complete our work on the 91,000-page New Jersey Racial Profiling Archive, compiling a comprehensive index to the archive's contents and re-releasing the files in a new, content-based format, on our web site and on CD.
• We will make public, by the middle of next year, a comprehensive "Guided Tour of the War on Drugs," providing introductory essays to 25-30 drug policy issues, along with personal stories, news links and archives, lists of organizations and ways to get involved, and more.
• We will launch the "Leave No Student Behind" scholarship clearinghouse program, matching students who have lost financial aid for college because of drug convictions with interested scholarship providers.
• If funding is secured, we will organize an international summit and/or series of meetings or conferences in different regions of the world, to focus on development of the portion of the drug policy reform movement that actively advocates a full end to prohibition, and to discuss relevant issues such as post-legalization regulatory models, organizing against the international prohibition regime and other topics.
• If funding is secured, we will launch an effort in an important but under-explored area of drug policy, the widespread under-availability of narcotics to patients who need them for relief of severe, chronic pain.

Thank you for doing your part to end the failed, destructive war on drugs.

3. Health Canada Announces Legal Medical Marijuana Available January 1, But Actual Delivery Probably Months Away

Under pressure from impatient medical marijuana patients, the Canadian government's health agency, Health Canada, announced on December 21 that the first batch of marijuana grown under government contract to supply licensed medical marijuana patients will be available as of January 1. But confusion within Health Canada about how to package, label, price and distribute it means that actually getting medical marijuana into the hands of patients could be months away.

The Canadian government last year awarded a $4 million contract to grow medical marijuana to Prairie Plant Systems, which grew the 250 kilogram crop in an underground mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Currently, medical marijuana patients must grow marijuana themselves or have someone grow it for them. The Prairie Plant contract would provide a third source of supply for the 680 Canadians so far licensed as medical marijuana patients.

"Marijuana from Prairie Plant Systems will be made available to researchers and patients who have received licenses to possess," said a Health Canada spokesman. He also reported that the marijuana had been tested and been found to have THC levels of up to 12%, well above the 5-7% minimum mandated by Health Canada. "This has been accomplished and quality testing is complete," the official said.

But medical marijuana will not be getting to patients as soon as Health Canada implied. "As far as any distribution plan is concerned, it will have to ensure three things: privacy of the patients, security, and reliability," he told the Montreal Gazette. "Price is something that is yet to be determined. The marijuana will be affordable, but it will depend on the demand and the distribution mechanism."

Brent Zettl, president of Prairie Plant Systems, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that with many issues unresolved, he estimated that delivery could still be three to four months away. "Unless by some stroke of ingenuity they can expedite the process, my expectation is that it could be that long before we have it in the hands of exemptees," he said, "but this is the first time anyone in the world is doing this, and there has to be due process."

Part of the delay is due to Health Canada's eagerness to get feedback from patients, part to bureaucratic caution. Cindy Cripps-Prawak, director of the government's Office of Cannabis Medical Access, told the Globe and Mail that the agency would move carefully because it was dealing with a medicine more commonly known as an illegal street drug. "I think we're moving as quickly as is safe," she said. "We want to make a pharmaceutical-grade product available."

Health Canada will be contacting licensed medical marijuana patients in coming days to get their input on how the herb should be distributed, the Globe and Mail reported. And the agency has altered its original plan to have the product delivered in pre-rolled joints after receiving feedback from patients indicating they preferred to roll their own. The agency is also considering whether to make it available from neighborhood pharmacists or by special courier, as well as pondering the details of labeling for the drug's active ingredients.

While Health Canada may be faulted for moving too slowly to address such issues, the fact that Canada is discussing the details of how to implement a medical marijuana regime instead of whether to do so is in itself a sign of continued progress on our northern border.

4. British Government Asks Parliament for Shift in Drug Policy

Adding further momentum to the ongoing reversal of Britain's US-style drug polices, the Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair has told Parliament it wants to adopt a Dutch-style drug policy with prescription heroin for addicts and an end to prosecution of people growing cannabis for their personal use.

Ministers from the Home Office told Parliament last week that the government had reversed its hard-line stance toward prosecuting drug users, and Minister Bob Ainsworth said the new policy would include:

• Adopting a harm reduction approach to drugs that would emphasize drug treatment rather than prosecution of drug users. The London Observer noted on Sunday that the move could be a prelude to "effectively decriminalizing the possession of drugs."
• Advising high police officials to concentrate on drug trafficking, not drug users, and asking them to "pay the highest regard to the more serious crimes of trafficking and possession with intent to supply."
• New measures to prescribe heroin to addicts.

These remarkable statements by government ministers have drawn the praise of some drug reformers. The British charity DrugScope (http://www.drugscope.org.uk) called the new emphasis on harm reduction "a pragmatic and sensible step. The government has recognized that a crime-led response to drug use has not been effective and that other options must be explored," said DrugScope director Roger Howard. "If this includes lesser punishments for the cultivation of cannabis for personal use, thereby diverting trade away from organized crime, so much the better."

A Home Office spokesman said the measures were in line with the posture announced last month by Home Secretary David Blunkett, but they are the latest step in a surprisingly rapid turnaround from the Blair government's rejection of drug policy reform.

Still, the Home Office is drawing the line at cannabis cafes. The Home Office "does not want to encourage people to smoke cannabis," a spokesman told the Observer. "We recognize that people will always want to take drugs. We want to make sure they have the information and help to ensure their safety."

But with the forces of drug prohibition in full retreat in Britain, it remains to be seen whether Blair and Blunkett can blunt the drive for the cafes.

5. Austin, Texas Drug Raid Tragedy Leads to Another

Travis County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Ruiz died in a botched drug raid in February. Antonio Martinez, a 19-year-old civilian, died in a botched drug raid last week. Although months apart, the two deaths are eerily linked through the inexorable logic of a militarized war by state and federal authorities against their own citizens.

On Thursday, December 20, a Travis County Sheriff's SWAT team accompanied by members of the Capital Area Drug Task Force burst into a mobile home in Del Valle, a largely Hispanic neighborhood on Austin's far east side, to execute a narcotics warrant. Within minutes, Martinez was dead, shot by a so-far unnamed deputy. Martinez was not the target of the raid and was not armed, but happened to be spending the night on the trailer's couch. The deputy may be unnamed, but he has been identified as having accompanied murdered Deputy Ruiz during a similar drug raid in which Ruiz lost his life.

It now appears that a deputy traumatized by the death of his partner in a paramilitary-style drug raid responded with lethal force to a sudden movement by a startled Martinez, allowing an earlier preventable tragedy to lead to the most recent one.

"To me, it was either an accident or a situation where the officer felt he was in danger," Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier told the Austin American-Statesman. "I'm not sure which it was. At this point, there is a possibility that a mistake was made."

The killing of an innocent person wasn't the only mistake, according to the American-Statesman. According to warrants filed by sheriff's deputies, the house to be raided was supposed to be full of automatic weapons, as well as cocaine and methamphetamines, but no weapons of any sort were found, only a single bullet.

The deaths of Ruiz and Martinez have led at least one police watchdog group calling for an end to paramilitarized night-time drug raids on homes. "It doesn't make sense that law enforcement can't make the drug case unless they find the person at the home with the drugs at the moment," said Ann de Llano, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union's Texas Police Accountability Project. "They can arrest the person and then execute a search warrant in a safe circumstance, while the person is not barred up in his home ready to shoot," she told the American-Statesman. "The sad part is you're not only risking the citizen's life but the officer's life, too. We don't need any more dead officers in Austin."

Local law enforcement officials continued to defend the raids, however. "We'd love to call them [drug suspects] up and say 'C'mon down here and bring your dope,'" Travis County sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade told the American-Statesman. "But that's not realistic or logical. We need to keep doing what we're doing."

Here's what they were doing: Twelve SWAT officers gathered in the pre-dawn hours and set off a flash bomb as a distraction in the yard of the trailer occupied by three adults and four children. Then deputies used a battering ram to burst through the trailer's door, and nine deputies burst into the residence yelling that they were police with a warrant. As one of the deputies headed toward the master bedroom, where police believed the drugs and guns were kept, he encountered Martinez sleeping on a couch.

"He was asleep on the couch and raised up," explained Sheriff Frasier. The deputy fired once, hitting Martinez in the chest. But according to the American-Statesman's account, deputies let Martinez lie there bleeding while they rounded up the rest of the trailer's frightened residents. "Once the home was secured," wrote the Austin newspaper, "Martinez was given immediate attention and airlifted to an emergency room." He was dead before the helicopter landed.

Deputies found 540 grams of cocaine and 222 grams of methamphetamine, Frasier said.

6. New Mexico's Governor Johnson to Press Drug Reform Package During Special Session

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican with libertarian leanings, will press for passage of his drug reform package again during a special session of the state legislature beginning in mid-January, he told reporters at a New Mexico press conference last week. The Johnson drug reform package includes eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana, legalizing medical marijuana, and allowing judges to send some drug offenders to treatment instead of prison. He introduced the eight-part package during the 2001 legislative session, but the bulk of the Johnson package died when the session ran out of time.

The session beginning January 15 is a constitutionally mandated 30-day affair devoted to budgetary and financial matters. Under New Mexico law, however, the governor can also add other items to the agenda. At a December 17 press conference in Santa Fe, Johnson said he would again introduce bills to get his reforms enacted, and he expressed optimism despite their fate in this year's legislative session.

"From all I hear, these drug reform bills might actually fly," Johnson told the press conference, citing pragmatic concerns on the part of his Democratic opponents. "There seems to be a realization that if they [the Democratic legislative majority] don't pass these bills now, they may never get passed, and it is something they believe in," the governor said. "So, couple those Democrats with the Republicans that also go along with the legislation, and my understanding is they might actually get passed."

But enmity between the fiscally conservative Johnson and legislative Democrats has hampered the governor's ability to move his agenda -- not just drug reform, but budget issues, school vouchers and tax cuts -- in the past. In last week's press conference, which was primarily devoted to Johnson's plans for the budget session, the Republican governor signaled that he will take the same aggressive approach to his Democratic opponents that he has in the past and predicted that the Democrats would be as hard-nosed as ever in their opposition to more tax cuts and the governor's school voucher plan. He is also certain to arouse Democratic ire with his plan to cut back on the state's Medicaid program while increasing funding for the Department of Corrections.

In the 2001 legislative session, the governor's drug reform package was not defeated in committee or floor votes, but died for lack of action as the governor and the legislature fought over perennial budgetary priority differences and other issues. Three pieces of the governor's package did manage to squeak through, however: Anti-Opioid Administration Liability Limits, allowing health care and law enforcement workers to apply the anti-overdose drug naltroxone without fear of civil or criminal procedure; Pharmacy Syringe Sales, which removing the potential for criminal liability for pharmacists who sell syringes to possible drug users; and Creation of Women's Reentry Drug Court, allowing for women serving the last 18 months of their sentences to opt for treatment in the drug court program instead of continued incarceration.

Under pressure from civil rights and prison reform activists led by the Committee on Prison Accountability (COPA), the legislature also restored ex-felons' right to vote. The latter measure, while not formally part of the governor's drug reform package, is viewed as a victory by drug reformers because ex-drug offenders make up a substantial portion of the people affected by it.

Visit http://governor.state.nm.us/drug_policy/ for more information on Gov. Johnson's drug policy platform. Visit http://www.newmexicodrugpolicy.org to learn about the New Mexico Drug Policy Foundation. Visit http://www.drugpolicy.org and search on "New Mexico Drug Policy Project" to learn about The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation's New Mexico program.

7. Treatment Not Jail Initiative Gets Underway in Michigan, Joins Efforts in Florida and Ohio

The Campaign for New Drug Policies (CNDP), the well-heeled group that spearheaded California's pioneering Proposition 36 to send nonviolent drug possessors to treatment instead of prison, has begun gathering signatures to put a similar measure on the Michigan ballot in November 2002. Michigan is the third state to be targeted for a major CNDP "treatment not jail" initiative aimed at next year's elections. It joins Ohio, where state officials have been accused of illegal lobbying against the initiative (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/216.html#ohio), and Florida, where state officials are mounting an early counterattack.

A petition drive to put the measure on the ballot began last weekend, according to the Detroit Free Press. A locally-inspired, shoe-string effort to legalize marijuana through the initiative process, the Personal Responsibility Amendment (http://www.prayes.com), was twice unable to get the more than 300,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the ballot. A crucial difference for the Michigan CNDP and the Michigan Drug Reform Initiative (http://www.drugreform.org/michigan/) is the deep pockets of financier George Soros, Cleveland insurance magnate Peter Lewis, and educational entrepreneur John Sperling, the wealthy trio who have funded numerous successful CNDP medical marijuana, asset forfeiture, and "treatment not jail" initiatives. While the PRA had to rely on a network of volunteer signature gatherers, the Michigan CNDP will be able to hire signature gatherers, vastly increasing the likelihood of actually getting on the November ballot.

The Michigan initiative, which would amend the state constitution, will target the state's tough drug sentences, which require judges to require mandatory minimum sentences of up to life for some drug offenses. Dave Fratello, CNDP national political director, told the Free Press on Saturday that the initiative will be "a complete overhaul of drug policies in Michigan." Although the exact wording of the initiative is not yet available on the web, the CNDP web site says the initiative will "provide treatment instead of jail time for non-violent drug possession offenders; and devise sentences for lower-level and middle-level dealers that fit the crime and are proportionate to the offender's role."

The initiative is already drawing criticism from the usual suspects. Eaton County Prosecutor Jeff Sauter, immediate past president of the state prosecuting attorneys' association, told the Free Press he had not seen the initiative, but "if it's anything like California, it's a bad idea."

But reaction in Michigan has so far been muted compared to Ohio and Florida. As DRCNet reported last week, Ohio Gov. Robert Taft and other state officials are under fire from state initiative organizers for misusing state funds and employees to lobby against the initiative. In Florida, state officials have been more discreet, if not more quiet, in their opposition. Both Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida drug czar James McDonough publicly criticized the proposed Florida initiative as early as August. "To suggest there should be no penalties for continued drug use is to stick our heads in the sand," Bush told a drug treatment meeting on August 24. (Rather than "no penalties," the Florida initiative would allow judges to order first- and second-time drug and drug paraphernalia offenders into drug treatment programs.)

Drug czar McDonough called the initiative an "absolute hoax" a day earlier, while Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary called the amendment "bunk" and attacked proponents. "I would urge my supporters not to support this and better yet to tell these people to stay the hell out of Florida," Beary told the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida officials have so far avoided the trap that snared Ohio officials -- using state funds or employees to lobby against the initiative -- and with a zealous private sector drug war advocacy apparatus in place with Betty Sembler's Drug Free America Foundation in St. Petersburg, they will be able to let the private sector do the heavy lifting for them.

8. Alerts: Bolivia, HEA Drug Provision, DEA Hemp Ban, Ecstasy Bill, Mandatory Minimums, Medical Marijuana

Click on the links below for information on these issues and web forms to help you contact Congress:

Repeal the Higher Education Act Drug Provision
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com

US Drug Policy Driving Bolivia to Civil War
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com

Oppose DEA's Illegal Hemp Ban
http://www.votehemp.org

Oppose New Anti-Ecstasy Bill
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ecstasywar/

Repeal Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/justice/

Support Medical Marijuana
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/

9. The Reformer's Calendar

(Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and related topics to [email protected].)

January 2, 7:00-10:00pm, Washington, DC, "Hemp Seed Cafe," monthly gathering with the Fourth of July Hemp Coalition, featuring guitar and violin duet Johnny Bonneville & Fiddlin Phil Swaby and special guests G-13. At the Metro Cafe, 1522 14th St. NW, $5 donation. Call (202) 887-5770 or visit http://www.fourthofjuly.org for info.

January 21, Albany, NY, Drop the Rock press conference opposing the Rockefeller Drug Laws, marking Martin Luther King Day. Near the Empire State Convention Center, followed by speakers, awards presentations, entertainment and a march on the capitol. Visit http://www.droptherock.org for information.

January 24, 7:30pm, Melbourne, FL, "Express Yourself: A Guide to the First Amendment," role-playing workshop dealing with direct action, petition gathering and tabling for nonprofits. At the Melbourne Community Center, 703 East New Haven Avenue, call Kevin at (321) 726-6656 for further information.

January 25-27, New York, NY, "Maternal-State Conflicts: Claims of Fetal Rights & the Well-Being of Women & Families." Conference sponsored by National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the Mt. Sinai Hospital-Based Clinical Education Initiative. For further information, call (212) 475-4218, visit http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org or e-mail [email protected].

January 26, 9:30pm-3:00am, Miami, FL, Benefit Concert for the medical marijuana petition drive. At the Tobacco Road Night Club, 626 South Miami Avenue, call Flash at (305) 579-0069 for info.

January 29, Tallahassee, FL, Florida State University NORML weekly chapter meeting, featuring guest speaker Kris Krane, national chapter coordinator for NORML. Contact Ricky at (850) 386-5628 for further information.

February 5, Tallahassee, FL, Florida State University NORML weekly chapter meeting, featuring guest speaker Jodi James, director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. Contact Ricky at (850) 386-5628 for further information.

February 16, Albany, NY, Drop The Rock Upstate-Downstate Coalition Organizers Conference, at the Schuyler Inn, 575 Broadway. Call (518) 463-1121 or visit http://www.droptherock.org for information.

February 21-23, Washington, DC, National Families Against Mandatory Minimums Workshop. At the Washington Plaza Hotel, call (202) 822-6700 or visit http://www.famm.org for information.

February 23, noon, Tampa, FL, "Washington’s Birthday Hemp Festival." Sponsored by FORML, featuring music, vendors, speakers and more. At Lowry Park, contact Mike at (813) 779-2551 for further information.

February 28, 7:30pm, Melbourne, FL, "Marijuana: Medical Effects and Legal Consequences." At the Melbourne Community Center, 703 East New Haven Avenue, contact Jodi at (321) 253-3673 for info.

February 28-March 1, New York, NY, "Problem Solving Courts: From Adversarial Litigation to Innovative Jurisprudence." Panelists include former Attorney General Janet Reno, Rev. Al Sharpton and Mary Barr, Executive Director of Conextions. At Fordham University Law School, take the A, B, C, D, 1, and 9 subway trains to 59th Street/Columbus Circle and walk one block west. For further information, call (656) 345-5352 or e-mail [email protected].

March 3-7, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 13th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm and 2nd International Harm Reduction Congress on Women and Drugs. Sponsored by the International Harm Reduction Association, visit http://www.ihrc2002.net or e-mail [email protected] for further information.

March 14, 7:30pm, Court Watch Project Training Meeting. At the Melbourne Community Center, 703 East New Haven Avenue, with the Florida Cannabis Action Network, call Kevin at (321) 726-6656 for further information.

March 24-27, Rimini, Italy, "Club Health 2002: The Second International Conference on Night-Life, Substance Use and Related Health Issues." Visit http://www.clubhealth.org.uk for info.

March 26, Albany, NY, "Drop The Rock Day," march and demonstration against the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Visit http://www.droptherock.org for information.

April 8-13, Gainesville, FL, "Drug Education Week," series of presentations on different topics in the drug war, including daily keynote, followed by Saturday free concert. Hosted by University of Florida Students for Sensible Drug Policy, visit http://grove.ufl.edu/~ssdp/ or e-mail [email protected] for further information.

April 18-20, San Francisco, CA, 2002 NORML Conference. At the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Union Square, registration $150, call (202) 483-5500 for further information. Online registration will be available at http://www.norml.org in the near future.

April 20, noon, Jacksonville, FL, Jacksonville Hemp Festival. Contact Scott at (904) 732-4785 for further information.

May 3-4, Portland, OR, Second National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, focus on Analgesia and Other Indications. Sponsored by Patients Out of Time and Legacy Emmanuel Hospital, for further information visit http://www.medicalcannabis.com or call (804) 263-4484.

December 1-4, Seattle, WA, Fourth National Harm Reduction Conference. Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, at the Sheraton Seattle. For further information, visit http://www.harmreduction.org or call (212) 213-6376.

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Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

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