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(renamed "Drug War Chronicle" effective issue #300, August 2003) Issue #249, 8/9/02
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
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1. Nevada Marijuana Initiative Endorsed by State's Largest Police Group Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement (http://www.nrle.org), the group spearheading the effort to end the criminal prosecution of marijuana users through a constitutional amendment this November, won a significant political victory this week when Nevada's largest police organization endorsed the effort. The amendment would block the arrest or prosecutions of adults found in possession of three ounces or less of marijuana. Driving dangerously under the influence would still be unlawful, as would smoking in public places, and marijuana would be lawful only for persons 21 or older. The amendment would also order the state government to "implement a system whereby adults could obtain marijuana through a legally regulated market, rather than from the criminal market," setting up a potential court battle between state and federal authorities. The amendment further orders the state to find a way to provide cheap marijuana to medical patients. The police endorsement came amidst signs of a rapidly mobilizing opposition, led by DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson and drug czar John Walters, both of whom have spoken out against the measure in recent days. Clark County (Las Vegas) chief deputy district attorney in charge of vehicular crimes Gary Booker had told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he is about to form a coalition of drunk driving and victims' groups to oppose the measure. The group thinks it has another attack opening with the amendment's language barring driving dangerously while under the influence of marijuana. The amendment's language does not make driving while high a crime in itself. But all the week's political skirmishes were overshadowed by the stunning announcement that the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs (NCOPS) had endorsed the measure. The NCOPS board of directors voted 9-0 Tuesday to support the amendment, now known as Question 9 on the November ballot. Police should focus on more serious crimes, said NCOPS. "We're not endorsing marijuana, we're not saying marijuana is good. We're saying we should be spending our time protecting and serving the public," NCOPS president Andy Anderson told the Review-Journal. "It's not cops for pot," he added. "The bottom line is, we think we can use our resources better than making simple marijuana arrests," Anderson said. NCOPS is an umbrella organization for police unions and other police groups around the state, with more than 3,000 members, more than 2,100 of whom are Las Vegas police belonging to the Police Protective Association. There has been grumbling about the move from PPA, whose leader, David Kallas, told the Review-Journal that PPA would only support the section of the amendment dealing with medical marijuana. Still, NRLE, a project of the Washington, DC-based Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org), hailed the endorsement in a Tuesday press release. "The historic endorsement of the marijuana initiative by Nevada's largest law-enforcement organization is good news for Nevadans, because it means that we're one step closer to ensuring that law-enforcement officers will have more time to go after murderers, rapists, kidnappers and other violent criminals," said NRLE spokesperson Billy Rogers, who then added a blast at federal drug warriors for good measure. "Last month federal politicians paraded through Nevada urging local law-enforcement officers to oppose the marijuana initiative," Rogers said. "The federal Drug Czar and DEA chief should have been listening to Nevada's law-enforcement officers instead of telling Nevadans how to vote." It may also prove to be a key endorsement in what is shaping up to be a very close contest. A poll conducted two weeks ago for the Review-Journal found the amendment narrowly losing, 44% to 46%, with 10% undecided. Another poll, for the Reno Gazette-Journal and KRNV-TV in Reno, released Monday, showed a dead heat, with 48% of likely voters supporting the amendment, 48% opposing it, and a measly 4% undecided. With both polls having a 4% margin of error, the race is literally too close to call at this point. Rogers told the Review-Journal that NRLE has raised about $150,000 so far for the campaign and that the NCOPS endorsement would play prominently in advertising for the amendment. But the campaign to make Nevada part of the vanguard in ending marijuana prohibition could use more help -- a visit to the NRLE web site will show you what to do. If the amendment passes in November, under Nevada law voters must again approve it in 2004. But you can't win then unless you win now.
2. DC Board of Elections Rejects Medical Marijuana Petitions -- Admits One of Seven Valid Signatures Ignored but Refuses to Correct Error (press release from the Marijuana Policy Project) The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is considering its legal options after the Washington, DC, Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) refused to correct its erroneous omission of thousands of valid signatures for Initiative 63, the Medical Marijuana Initiative of 2002. "The Board has acted capriciously and unfairly," said MPP Executive Director Robert Kampia. "We presented clear evidence of massive errors by the Board's staff, but the Board refused to use its discretion to uphold the will of DC voters." Initiative petitions must contain valid signatures from five percent of the District's registered voters, and that total must include five percent of voters from at least five of the city's eight wards. There is no dispute that the more than 18,000 signatures accepted by the Board met the citywide requirement, but the BOEE claimed that MPP had presented enough valid signatures from only four of eight wards. In Ward 4, the board claimed MPP fell approximately 100 signatures short. But MPP's review of the Board's work found that massive numbers of valid signatures had been falsely ruled invalid. An analysis of nearly 4,000 allegedly bad signatures found that at least 15 percent were clearly valid. Kampia and MPP Director of Government Relations Steve Fox met with Registrar Kathy Fairley prior to the Board's deliberations and presented her with the results of the MPP's analysis. After reviewing a sample of petitions, Fairley agreed that a large number of perfectly good signatures had been erroneously disallowed -- and reported that finding to the board. But rather than owning up to the massive errors and extrapolating the results of MPP's analysis, BOEE Chairman Benjamin F. Wilson insisted that MPP must either verify each and every falsely invalidated signature -- a project that would cost the nonprofit group approximately 400 person-hours of staff time, on top of the 100 hours already spent identifying and correcting the Board's mistakes -- or trust the same staff that made the errors in the first place to recheck their work. "This is outrageous," Kampia said. "Whether out of malice or simple incompetence, the Board screwed up, and now they insist that our staff and members must shoulder the burden of fixing their mistakes. That's not acceptable. The Board of Elections and Ethics fraudulently disenfranchised thousands of District voters and then refused to take responsibility for its actions. We didn't pick this fight, but we will win it."
3. Democratic Governor Candidate Calls for Repeal of NY Rockefeller Laws Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, called Sunday for the outright repeal of the state's draconian Rockefeller drug laws. He also ripped into his rivals, Democratic primary opponent H. Carl McCall and incumbent Republican Gov. George Pataki, for failing to do more to roll back the Rockefeller laws. While both Pataki and the Democratic-led legislature have postured about changing the laws for years, they have yet to pass a Rockefeller reform bill. Cuomo went further than his rivals, calling not for reform but repeal of the laws, which have led to thousands of New Yorkers spending decades behind bars for relatively minor drug transactions. Cuomo, hoping to win support among black and Hispanic voters, first presented his alternative plan at a campaign event in East Harlem, where he attacked Pataki and McCall for failing to change the state's "antiquated criminal justice system." Blacks and Hispanics make up more than 90% of the state's 19,000 drug war prisoners. "Governor Pataki has said that he wants to reform the Rockefeller drug laws, but he has failed to get it done," Cuomo said in a press release the next day. "The Assembly has put forth a thoughtful reform package to make the sentences fit the crime, increase drug treatment and restore limited judicial discretion. But neither has proposed comprehensively reforming the way we approach punishing drug crimes, and neither has sufficiently addressed violent crime in our society," Cuomo said. "We need real reform that restores judicial discretion, while basing sentences not just on the weight of the drugs involved, but also on the role played by the defendant in the crime. And we need to ensure that our criminal statutes punish violent crimes fully and rationally," Cuomo continued. "Repeal of mandatory minimum sentences, coupled with renewed emphasis on treatment, will restore rationality to our State's drug policies," Cuomo said. "We need comprehensive reform now to restore true fairness and uniformity to criminal sentencing, and to make the punishment truly fit the crime. Only by repealing the Rockefeller drug laws, restoring judicial discretion and reemphasizing treatment can we accomplish this goal," Cuomo concluded. Both Pataki and McCall, who supports the legislature's watered down reform package, reacted defensively to Cuomo's campaign assault, but even after Cuomo's attack, McCall aimed most of his fire at Pataki. "Let's be clear," he told a group of trade unionists at a Sunday campaign event. "The reason the Rockefeller drug laws are still in effect is George Pataki for the last eight years has been governor. And during that period, he has not provided the leadership to change them." A Pataki spokeswoman defended his record to the New York Times: "This is the first governor in 30 years who has advanced a comprehensive plan for reform of the Rockefeller drug laws, said Jennifer Farina. "We're working hard with the legislature, and hopefully, the legislature is ready to work with us." But that hasn't been the case. The governor and legislative Democrats have been unable to come to agreement on such key issues as judicial sentencing discretion, prosecutorial power and ending mandatory minimum sentences. Despite what many drug reformers consider excessive concessions to prosecutors in the Democratic proposal, it still remained unpalatable to the governor. Cuomo's proposal moves beyond squabbling over partial reforms and includes the following elements, not all of which will prove popular with reformers:
4. Switzerland Defends Cannabis Decrim, Tells UN Narcocrats to Buzz Off As Switzerland moves forward with its plans to decriminalize the possession and some sales of cannabis, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is in a snit. But the independent-minded Swiss have told the global prohibition enforcers to take a hike. Under the decrim plan, supported by the Swiss government and already passed by the Swiss Senate, possession and growing of cannabis for personal use will be permitted, as will limited sales of the drug. But cannabis imports and exports will be banned, as will advertising. The INCB (http://www.incb.org) is an independent, quasi-judicial body set up under the UN Single Convention of 1961 to enforce the global prohibition regime whose backbone is the Single Convention and two later treaties. In its latest annual report, the INCB called the Swiss move to treat cannabis like alcohol or tobacco "a historic mistake" and warned that it would "amount to an unprecedented move towards legalization of the consumption, cultivation, manufacture, possession, purchase and sale of cannabis for non-medical purposes." Worse yet in the INCB's eyes, such a move would contravene the UN Single Convention. "Allowing people to sell cannabis to anybody for non-medical reasons is simply not in line with the conventions," INCB secretary Herbert Schaepe told Swiss Radio International. "If this is the case, it goes against the 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It would not be acceptable, since Switzerland's neighbors don't seem to be going down the same road," Schaepe added -- seemingly unaware of the wave of drug reform sweeping the continent. The Swiss aren't buying it. "I've heard more people say it was a historic mistake to put cannabis on the list of substances that are totally prohibited," said Ueli Locher, deputy director of the Federal Office for Public Health. "We have to adapt to the changes in our society. We know more about how harmful -- or harmless -- cannabis is," he told Swiss Radio. "We cannot continue to treat it like heroin and cocaine." The Swiss government has also had four independent legal assessments of the proposed cannabis law, and it said all four found the law to be consistent with the conventions. Under the law, cultivation and sale would technically remain illegal, but prosecutions would be few and far between. Sellers would be arrested only for selling to minors, selling hard drugs at the same time, or creating a public nuisance. The proposed law would only codify what is a de facto -- if differentially enforced -- decriminalization now. With an estimated half-million Swiss smoking cannabis, the herb is currently available under a variety of transparent guises, such as cannabis "potpourri" or aromatic cannabis pillows filled with kind bud. The assumption is that most pillow purchasers are smoking the contents rather than resting their heads on them. INCB secretary Schaepe warned that it is the obligation of governments to uphold the conventions, but also added some words that indicate the global drug warriors may be beginning to see the handwriting on the wall. "The conventions are not cast in stone. They can be amended," he conceded. "Ultimately, it is in the hands of governments to decide future drug policies." But, global prohibition bureaucrat that he is, Schaepe added, "there is a procedure that has to be followed. We cannot have a lawless situation at the international level." For the health office's Locher, the move is pragmatic response to Swiss social reality. "We are trying to deal with the reality -- to have and honest and consistent approach to a problem -- and not continue to have laws which are not applied," he said. "Time will tell whether cannabis is also reconsidered at the level of international conventions."
5. Which War Am I In? DEA Meth Offensive Continues as US Pilots in Afghanistan Gobble Speed In one of America's current great crusades, the war on drugs, amphetamines and their users are key enemies. In our other great crusade, the war on terrorism, amphetamines are our friends. DEA head Asa Hutchinson is in the middle of a month's long, 30-state "Meth Tour 2002," where he regularly portrays amphetamines as a substance akin to a radioactive material -- something inherently dangerous and deadly -- and stumps for ever more laws and ever more funding to fight the "meth menace." But even as Hutchinson is mounting the stump to rail against the evils of speed, US fighter pilots are tweaking their brains out in the skies over Afghanistan -- and you better believe you didn't read about it in the US press. No, it was the Canadians, understandably upset after those American fighter pilots blasted four Canadian soldiers to smithereens back in April. In an August 1st story, the Toronto Star reported the details on amphetamine use in the US Air Force. US fighter pilots, who have been involved in at least 10 other "friendly fire" or mistaken attack incidents, are regularly given the amphetamine Dexedrine (or "go-pills," as the pilots call them) to fly longer hours, the Star reported. When they return from their missions, Air Force doctors give them sedatives, such as Ambien (zolpidem) and Restoril (temazepam). The pilots call these "no-go pills," the Star reported. And when it's time to roll again, it's time for more "go pills." The Star obtained a copy of a document produced by the Top Gun fighter school and the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory in Pensacola, FL, that outlines the drugs pilots are given and how they are administered. According to the document, "Performance Maintenance During Continuous Flight Operations," the pilots are given Dexedrine in 10 milligram doses and are allowed to carry their own supplies with them in the cockpit. An Air Force spokeswoman, Betty Ann Mauger, confirmed to the Star that the Air Force is feeding speed to its pilots. "When fatigue could be expected to degrade air crew performance, they are given Dexedrine in 10 milligram doses," she said. It is unclear if Harry Schmidt, the Illinois Air National Guard pilot who fired the missile that killed the Canadian soldiers, was on speed, but the thought certainly occurred to defense analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, DC, defense think-tank. "Better bombing through chemistry," Pike told the Star. "This was certainly one of my first thoughts after the Canadian friendly fire incident. The initial depiction made it seem as if the pilot was behaving in an unusually aggressive fashion." Schmidt's lawyer, Charles Gittins, told the Star he wasn't sure if Schmidt was taking Dexedrine the night of the incident. "I don't know the answer," he said. "I've never asked my pilot if he was medicated, but it is quite common. I'll check with him," Gittins told the Star. While tweaked-out fighter pilots may not make the news in the US, the use of amphetamines in the US military has a long if not glorious history. "I don't think anyone even knows about this," Pike told the Star. "The aviation community and the Air Force community certainly don't like to talk about so-called 'performance enhancing' drugs." But that doesn't mean the armed forces don't make liberal use of them. According to the Top Gun document obtained by the Star, an anonymous survey of Desert Storm fighter pilots found that 60% used Dexedrine, with that figure climbing to 95% among the most active units. And retired Col. Richard Graham of Plano, TX, who logged over 200 combat missions in Vietnam, told the Star that Dexedrine use was "routine" among pilots in that war. The Star also reported that pilots are coerced into using amphetamines. Pilots are tested for drug tolerance, then asked to sign a consent form. "It has been explained to me and I understand that the US FDA had not approved the use of Dexedrine to manage fatigue... and I further understand that the decision to take the medication is mine alone." But later on in the same consent form, pilots are informed that there are serious consequences to not taking the drug. "Should I choose not to take it under circumstances where its use appears indicated... my commander, upon advice of the flight surgeon, may determine whether or not I should be considered unfit to fly a mission." Let's see if we can get this straight: In one war, American fighting men and women are punished for not taking amphetamines, while in another holy war, American citizens are imprisoned for taking amphetamines. Hutchinson and his boys are busy kicking down doors looking for meth labs across the land, but don't hold your breath waiting for the DEA to declare war on the Air Force tweakers. Apparently, some amphetamines are more equal than others.
6. Libertarian Party Launches TV Ad Campaign Targeting Rep. Bob Barr on Medical Marijuana Issue (press release from the Libertarian Party's Drug War Task Force) The Libertarian candidate running against Georgia Rep. Bob Barr has kicked off a television ad campaign featuring a multiple sclerosis victim who lashes out against the Congressman for his crusade against medical marijuana. "The ads are designed to put a human face on the cruel and destructive war on medical marijuana victims," says Carole Ann Rand. "Bob Barr has staked out a fanatical, extreme position on this issue, and I'm going to make sure that voters know that." The ads started running in Barr's district on Tuesday night on Fox News, CNN, TNT, Comedy Central and MSNBC. The initial purchase of 1,000 30-second spots will run in Forsyth and Cherokee counties, and a second buy is scheduled for the rest of the district later this week, Rand says. The 30-second ad opens with a shot of multiple sclerosis sufferer Cheryl Miller lying on a stretcher as an announcer asks: "Why does Bob Barr want this woman in jail?" Miller introduces herself as a medical marijuana user and says, "Bob Barr thinks I should be in jail for using my medicine. Why would you do that to me, Bob?" The ad concludes: "When the Drug War turns on our own sick and dying, it's just gone too far -- and so has Bob Barr." Rand is running the ads, which were produced by the national Libertarian Party, in an attempt to cause Barr to lose in the August 20 primary election against fellow Republican John Linder. "We've targeted Barr for defeat because he is the most rabid drug warrior in Congress," Rand said. "While terrorists plot more attacks on our country, Barr is urging federal agents to spend their time -- and your money -- arresting medical marijuana patients in California. "Barr's cruel war on the sick and dying isn't just immoral, it also makes Americans more vulnerable to real, violent criminals and terrorists because police can't be in two places at once." A recent Gallup poll shows that 73 percent of Americans support medical marijuana, Rand pointed out -- indicating that Barr is far out of the mainstream on the issue. The TV ads are part of the Libertarian Party's "Incumbent Killer Strategy," which targets for defeat the worst drug warriors in Congress, whether Republican or Democrat. The ad can be viewed at http://www.randforcongress.com online.
7. Drug Czar Picks Beer-Promoting NASCAR Hot Rodder to Carry Anti- Drug Message The drug czar's new slogan must be "Kids Should Drink Buds, Not Smoke 'Em." As noted in the Office of National Drug Control Policy's latest Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign update (Summer 2002), the drug czar's office has now teamed up with NASCAR and NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer to spread its anti-drug message. But the pairing may turn out to be just the latest in a long series of missteps for the misbegotten propaganda campaign. The NASCAR collaboration has just been slammed hard by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit health advocacy group concerned with pro-health alcohol policies. In a Monday press release and open letter to drug czar John Walters, CSPI strongly criticized the collaboration because NASCAR and Spencer are soaked in beer. "This partnership sends the wrong message to America's young people," CSPI wrote. "NASCAR has a $7.5 million sponsorship deal with Busch beer and many drivers have their own lucrative sponsorship deals with brewers. For example, Rusty Wallace partners with Miller Brewing Company, and Sterling Martin plugs Coors. Brewers also advertise heavily on televised NASCAR events. Ironically, a photo of Jimmy Spencer's car, featured in ONDCP's Campaign Update, sports a Budweiser decal." (At Spencer's web site, his anti-drug link is just two clicks away from his online store, where he offers shot glasses and beer cooler cups for sale. Check out http://www.jimmyspencer.net/images/yellow_richmond_2lr.jpg for a photo of the new anti-drug spokesman wearing a Budweiser cap and standing behind cases of Busch beer.) In their same-day press release, CSPI hammered the point home. "As beer promoters, Jimmy Spencer and NASCAR are the wrong messengers," said CSPI Alcohol Policy Project director George Hacker. "They're no better than the Budweiser frogs when it comes to anti-drug spokesmen. It really shows that the drug czar has a blind spot when it comes to booze." That blind spot is institutional and deliberate. In its annual drug strategy reports, the ONDCP had until this year identified its principal goal as "educating America's youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco." The highlighted language was dropped from the 2002 drug strategy. Hacker wrote that the NASCAR/Spencer beer deals compromise ONDCP's anti-drug goals. Even NASCAR merchandise aimed at young children, such as caps and toy cars, are covered in beer logos, he noted. "When we tried to get alcohol included in the ONDCP's campaign, this wasn't exactly what we had in mind," said Hacker. Can someone explain the meaning of the word "ironic" to the drug czar? How about the word "hypocrisy"?
8. School Anti-Drug Programs Get Failing Grade, Study Says The top three anti-drug programs used by schools are either ineffective or unproven despite the millions of dollars thrown at them and their wide use in schools across the country, according to a meta-analysis of existing research on the programs conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina. The announcement marked yet another blow to the nation's most widely used school anti-drug program, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which has been pummeled by research in recent years showing it to be ineffective or even counterproductive. Despite its proven failures, DARE has been used in 80% of the nation's schools. Notorious for using uniformed police officers as classroom instructors and tacitly encouraging children to turn in their parents, DARE is already embarked on a five-year study to reevaluate its curriculum. Now it has yet another reason to get at it. DARE was criticized by name by the researchers, along with McGruff's Crime Prevention and the Here's Looking at You 2000 program. In the study, published Saturday in Health Education Reports (available online only if you have $310 to subscribe to the journal), the researchers wrote that the three programs haven't shown the kind of results schools expected despite years of use. "It's not a very good use of taxpayer money," substance abuse prevention researcher Denise Hallfors told the Associated Press. According to the study, although the federal government has tried for the past decade to promote anti-drug programs with a proven track record, many school districts use "heavily marketed curricula that have not been evaluated, have been evaluated inadequately or have been shown to be ineffective in reducing substance abuse." The study, which also surveyed 104 school districts in 11 states and the District of Columbia, reported that even schools that use proven programs fail to provide adequate financial support for them, fail to train teachers properly, and fail to use all the available materials. Only one out of three districts that used research-based anti-drug programs used them effectively, the study found. Hallfors also noted that federal funding for school drug prevention programs -- about $5 per child per year -- is too low to have much effect. Schools with anti-drug programs need to hire full-time coordinators, Hallfors said. "If you're getting $4,000 a year, you're not able to hire that person." DARE, meanwhile, has changed mascots. The DARE bear is being replaced by Daren-the-Lion because of licensing problems, according to the DARE Training Center in Alexandria, VA. "Daren is a proud and brave symbol who also is kid-friendly," a DARE employee there said. "The Disney people designed him to appeal to youngsters and help DARE get its message across." DARE hopes to profit from sales of Daren-the-Lion toys and action figures. Maybe that money can help DARE create an effective, non-propagandistic drug prevention program -- but probably not.
9. Drug Dog Terrorizes Native American Kindergartners in South Dakota, Lawsuit Filed As if urine screenings in schools were not humiliating enough, Wagner Community Schools in southeast South Dakota is accused of allowing a suspicionless drug search by a canine that resulted in crying, trembling students, one of whom, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, involuntarily urinated in his pants. The search was conducted by a police officer with a German Shepherd, accompanied by a school official. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of 17 Native American students, ages 6 to 17, who accused their school board and local police department of terrorizing them and violating their rights during two separate "lockdowns" in May. The ACLU lawsuit alleges that at one point the dog was running around the classroom uncontrolled, and six-year-old students, who were informed not to make any sudden moves that could provoke the dog to attack, became terrified enough to try running away. One 11-year old girl, Kayedee De Verney, who had been injured by dogs twice before, begged her mother every day for two weeks not to send her back to school, terrified that the dog could return, the lawsuit alleges. Her mother tried to convince school officials to let her know when the dog would return, but was refused and told by the school principal that the dog may return in the future. The already frightened students were subjected to personal searches in which the dog sniffed them closely and occasionally touched them; one student, though he was instructed not to touch or even look at the dog, panicked and kicked the dog, according to the complaint. During the lock down, students missed at least 45 minutes of class time that was never made up and were not allowed to go to the bathroom for over two hours. "This incident could only occur in an environment that places the war on drugs over common sense," said Graham Boyd lead counsel for the ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project. Speaking to DRCNet, Boyd criticized this type of search for lacking focus, violating rights and being ineffective. He pointed out that locker searches are legal, much less intrusive and more likely to uncover drugs, which were not found in this search. Ken Cotton, legal counsel for the Wagner schools, told DRCNet personal searches were necessary because the administration had received complaints that a third grader and a sixth grader were aware of the presence of drugs on the playground, which would indicate that the drugs were kept on their person not in their lockers. He also cited a recent survey of Wagner students which found that 33% of all children in seventh grade and above and 40% of all children up through 6th grade felt that drugs were a problem at the school. Jennifer Ring, Executive Director of the Dakotas chapter of the ACLU, questioned the motivation for the search, telling DRCNet it was unreasonable to "expect drugs to be in the possession of kids this young." Ring said the search would not have occurred in an area without a large Native American presence in a school system with only white authorities. Though 40% of students in Wagner are Native American, the school board is completely white. Ring said she believed unfounded prejudice toward Native Americans fueled drug-related fears that provoked the search. Boyd said that the searches were probably symbolic, to show that the school was hard on drugs. Cotton vehemently denied any allegations of prejudice. When asked if racial bias may have played a role in the searches, he replied that its role was "absolutely none." Upon mention of the racial disparity in representation on the school board, Cotton asked unresponsively, "How come the 17 plaintiffs are all Native American if all students had the same search?" Cotton contested many of the allegations in the ACLU suit. According to Cotton, dogs were not allowed into classrooms with students in kindergarten, first or second grades. The first four plaintiffs were in those grades and these students made many of the more pointed allegations, including that of the dog running around the classroom unrestrained. He also claims that two of the listed plaintiffs were not present for the searches. Denying the incident in which one child soiled himself, Cotton says that no teachers were able to substantiate the claim. According to Ring, though, the search was intrusive and would have been unconstitutional even if carried out only on high school students. Darrell Rogers, National Outreach Coordinator for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, slammed the drug dog searches. "SSDP condemns the action of Wagner's school board and police department for turning places of education and trust into those of fear and embarrassment. SSDP believes that the best roads to decreasing the harms of drug use would be to build a sense of trust between teachers, students, parents and administrators," said Rogers. The ACLU's "primary goal" in the lawsuit is to ensure that this type of search is not repeated in the school, though damages may also be sought, said Boyd. Cotton said that "an agreement has been reached in principle not [to] utilize the dogs in occupied classrooms until litigation is settled."
10. Newsbrief: South Dakota Lakota Successfully Harvest Hemp Crop For the past three years, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation resident Alex White Plume and family members have planted industrial hemp crops on the windy South Dakota plains near Manderson. Last year and the year before, federal drug agents confiscated their crops before they could be harvested, but not this year. Learning from the feds, White Plume and friends moved early, harvesting most of their 3.5 acre crop on the night of July 30. "They weren't that tall, but they were done pollinating," White Plume told the Rapid City Journal. "So we took it out, we cut it, and it's dried." And soon the evidence will be long gone. The crop has already been sold to Madison Hemp and Flax Company of Lexington, Kentucky and will be picked up on August 14, when a public thanksgiving and symbolic harvesting of a small hemp plot will occur. Madison Hemp had joined with the Kentucky Hemp Growers Association to ship a truckload full of hemp to the Pine Ridge after the feds confiscated White Plume's crop in 2000. While federal law currently prohibits hemp cultivation, the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Tribal Council voted in 1998 to legalize it. The tribe argues that it is a sovereign nation with the ability to apply its own laws on its own land. Whether from fatigue or because White Plume outfoxed them, this year the feds have failed to mount a counteroffensive, and a hemp crop has been harvested in the US. Or at least in the Lakota Nation.
11. Newsbrief: Peru Backs Off on Coca Eradication, Again It's tough times for the Empire in South America these days. Argentina and Uruguay are in economic crisis, with Brazil teetering on the brink and threatening to elect a leftist president. Hundreds of thousands of Bolivians just voted for a radical coca farmer for president there, and while Evo Morales failed to attain the presidency, he and his supporters now form one of the strongest political blocs in the country. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, long an irritant to Washington, retains power despite a US-encouraged coup attempt. In Colombia, the US is knee-deep in a brutal civil war and getting in deeper by the day. And now, for the second time since June, our Peruvian drug war allies have put the kibosh on a coca eradication program. Peruvian authorities announced Tuesday that they would "ease up" on ongoing eradication efforts in the Ene-Apurimac Valley, one of the country's major coca producing regions. The announcement came after a three-day sit-in by more than 7,000 coca farmers in the provincial city of Ayacucho, the Associated Press reported. The farmers had marched more than 90 miles from their farms to protest eradiation efforts and had threatened to march on to Lima, some 200 miles to the northwest. While precisely what Peruvian officials intend to do to "ease up" remains unclear, what is clear is that coca production in Peru is on the rise again. Under now-fugitive former President Alberto Fujimori, Peru undertook a ruthless eradication campaign that succeeded in driving production down from 285,000 acres in 1995 to 84,000 in 2000, but that figure has climbed rapidly in the last two years according to Peruvian researchers. The Huallaga River Valley, where eradication was halted in June, and the Ene-Apurimac region constitute about two-thirds of all Peruvian production, according to the United Nations. US drug czar John Walters, who just happened to be in the region trying to put out fires next door in Bolivia, told the Associated Press that halting the eradication programs was a "serious concern" to the US and threatened Peru with the eventual loss of its trade preferences with the US if the halt continued. But Walters might want to talk to US Ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha about making heavy-handed threats. After Rocha warned Bolivians they could lose aid if they voted for Morales, Morales' popularity skyrocketed. Now, US-supported eradication programs in Bolivia may be history.
12. Newsbrief: Radical Party Moscow Activists Go to Trial for Marijuana Legalization Rally -- Free Speech at Heart of Case The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) is giving Russian authorities fits as it agitates against that country's onerous drug laws. Just two weeks ago, the Radicals held a sidewalk poll on cannabis legalization, prompting howls of protest from Russian anti-drug officials (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/247.html#moscow). This week, the Radicals began an internet petition drive to legalize cannabis and provoked Moscow authorities into banning a planned cannabis legalization rally, transmuting their drug reform effort into a broader struggle over free speech in the former Communist heartland. On Monday, the Russian Radicals kicked off their petition drive with a rally at Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow -- despite local authorities' earlier orders that the rally not be held. As the Radicals noted in a press release from Moscow: "As was promised earlier, the Radicals decided not to obey the illegal prohibition by the [local authorities] of the anti-prohibitionist rally demanding to legalize hemp and its derivatives. For the first time, the authorities prohibited a rally of Radicals on openly political grounds, having violated the basic constitutional right to freedom of demonstrations and expression of one's opinion." According to the Radicals, the press conference went off despite the presence of several burly Moscow special militia. Radical leader Nikolaj Khramov told the cops and assembled bystanders that the order to bar the rally violated numerous sections of Russian law. But when the press conference was finished and the participants tried to unroll a banner saying "To legalize marijuana," they were placed under arrest by the militiamen. Russian Radical Party members Khramov, Anna Zaytseva, Alyona Asayeva, Ilya Malkov and Leonid Positselsky were detained in the Tverskoy militia station before being released later Monday evening. They were charged with violating Russian laws regulating assemblies, rallies, demonstrations and similar events. The Moscow Five faced trials Thursday. (This article went to press before DRCNet could confirm the results of the trials.) Read the text of the Russian cannabis legalization petition at http://www.radikaly.ru/news/?text=1035 on the Russian Radical Party web site, and visit http://www.radicalparty.org to learn more about the TRP.
13. Newsbrief: Federal Judge Deems Utah Asset Forfeiture Initiative Constitutional A federal district court judge has knocked down a legal challenge to Utah's Property Protection Act, the asset forfeiture reform measure passed by a 69%-31% margin in the 2000 elections. In an August 2 ruling, District Judge Dee V. Benson ruled that the act does not violate the supremacy clause of the US Constitution and that the state may continue to direct all asset forfeiture proceeds to public education instead of law enforcement. Disgruntled police officers had filed a lawsuit in March 2001 asking Benson to void the law on the grounds that it conflicted with federal asset forfeiture law. Under federal law, local and federal law enforcement agencies share the booty they seize. But Benson ruled that the state law did not conflict with federal law. In a press release cheering the decision, Andrew Stavros, coauthor of the initiative, said: "Finally, the police will no longer be dependent on forfeitures to finance their operations. With the Utah Property Protection Act intact, forfeiture proceeds will now go to public education, as was the case before 1988. My biggest concern is that the law enforcement lobby will strong-arm the legislature into overruling the will of the people."
14. Newsbrief: Canadian NAFTA Suit Over Hemp Restrictions Enters Arbitration Kenex, Ltd., the Canadian hemp exporter that sued the US under NAFTA over the DEA's effort to ban hemp seed foods, filed its NAFTA Notice of Arbitration with the US State Department August 2. Kenex is seeking at least $20 million in compensation from the US government for losses suffered because of US Customs and DEA actions to hinder hemp seed food imports. Following NAFTA procedures, the company and the US will now select a three-member arbitration panel to attempt to settle the suit. "We met with the US government in March in the hope of avoiding a protracted trade dispute, but the Bush administration failed to recognize that Kenex's products are legal under current law," said Joe Sandler, a Kenex attorney, in a press release this week. "Our client has no choice but to seek compensation under NAFTA." In 1999, the DEA seized a Kenex shipment and threatened the company with $500,000 in fines, arguing that the foods violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) because they contained traces of naturally occurring THC. The DEA argued that hemp seed foods could trigger positive results in drug tests, a proposition refuted by numerous international studies. After Kenex successfully argued that that hemp products were exempt from the CSA, the DEA backed off, but by then Kenex had already suffered damages in the form of lost customers. Under NAFTA, companies from a member company can sue the governments of other member countries for damages due to unfair or discriminatory trade policies. Visit http://www.votehemp.com for further information.
15. Newsbrief: More than One Million in Drug Treatment in US, SAMHSA Says The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported on July 31 that on any given day approximately a million people in the US are undergoing drug or alcohol treatment. The findings are based on the 2000 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, which SAMSHA released at the same time. The survey also found that 48% of treatment clients were being treated for both alcohol and drug abuse, 29% were being treated for drugs alone, and 23% were being treated for alcohol alone. According to the survey, most treatment providers were nonprofit private facilities (60%), followed by private for profits (26%) and state or local governments (11%). Half (50%) of treatment facilities surveyed offered treatment for dual diagnosis (alcohol and/or drug abuse and mental illness) clients, and 37% had programs for adolescents. While SAMSHA provided no figures on the number of treatment clients who are in programs because they have been ordered to attend by the criminal courts, the survey noted that 38% "offered programs for persons in the criminal justice system." Visit http://www.samhsa.gov for further information.
16. Newsbrief: Budget Woes Close Detox, Treatment Facilities in NC, Iowa The budget crisis in the states has claimed two more drug treatment victims, this time in Iowa and North Carolina. In North Carolina, the Catawba County detoxification center for alcohol and drug abusers will close August 9 because of state cutbacks, the Charlotte Observer reported. The county Mental Health Services Board, faced with a $1.4 million shortfall because of cuts at the statehouse, axed the program, saying it would save the county $358,000 this fiscal year. The closure also puts a kink in plans for a long-delayed combined detox and outpatient drug treatment center, which was to have started construction last fall. Currently, the detox center and the outpatient clinic are in separate locations. And starting next week, the detox center won't be there at all. Meanwhile, budget woes have forced the imminent closure of Iowa's only state-run drug rehabilitation program. The Mt. Pleasant-based center treats nonviolent offenders and parole violators who have agreed to participate in lieu of going to or returning to prison. The program has stopped taking new clients and will shut down after current clients finish their month-long program. The state Department of Health and Safety estimated that it could save $450,000 by shutting down the center, which currently has 30 residents. But state Rep. Dave Heaton (R-Mt. Pleasant) told his local newspaper the state was being penny wise and pound foolish. Heaton told the Hawk Eye that in its bid to save $450,000, Iowa would end up spending $3.5 million to imprison the approximately 200 people who would have been sent to the center.
17. Newsbrief: Stiffer Ecstasy Penalties Would Hit Penn State University A bill introduced in the county legislature in Centre County, PA, the home of Penn State University, would heighten the penalties for sales of MDMA (ecstasy) to make them equal to the penalties for heroin distribution, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported this week. According to the report, the bill is being pushed by a cabal of Republican drug warriors, including the local District Attorney, the Pennsylvania Attorney General, GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher and local state Sen. Jake Corman. Taking advantage of a recent ecstasy bust in the area and an ecstasy-related death last November, the politicos claimed the bill would help convince young people that the drug is not harmless. But for the millions of people who use ecstasy in the US each weekend without dying, bills such as the one proposed in Centre County raise the specter of real, long-time harm.
18. Newsbrief: Study Finds THC-like Chemicals Useful for Certain Disorders A new study has found that THC-like chemicals known as endocannabinoids, naturally produced by the brain, may play a role in combating anxiety and panic attacks and phobias, according to the British journal Nature. The study showed that rodents without the capacity to utilize these natural analogues of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, had trouble getting over bad memories. The mice were subjected to electric shock while a tone was sounded. The tone was repeated without the shock over the next few days. The normal mice quickly learned that the shock would no longer accompany the tone. Those mice who could not properly use their endocannabinoids would still become paralyzed with fear when the tone sounded. These results led researchers to suggest that THC-like chemicals help to erase particular memories of terror. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder in the United States and cost $46 billion a year in medical expenses. New drugs based on these findings could be useful in treating anxiety disorders such as phobias, panic attacks, social anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, perhaps replacing such drugs like Paxil and Valium. Researchers also suggested that these chemicals would be useful in fighting some types of chronic pain. A United Press International (UPI) article quoted researcher Pankaj Sah as saying that "it's worth considering that people (who) constantly use cannabis may be doing it for other reasons than just to 'get high' -- perhaps they are experiencing some emotional problems which taking cannabis alleviates... This, I suppose, fits with the very long history of cannabis in human society."
19. Newsbrief: Archeological Evidence of Bronze Age Drug Trade Archeologists in the Middle East announced that "a thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as a balm for the pain of childbirth and disease," the Associated Press reported Wednesday. An analysis of ancient ceramic pots shaped like opium poppy pods and bearing white markings symbolic of the knife cuts made on the pods to allow the opium to ooze out -- some dating as far back as 1,400 BC -- showed traces of opium, researchers told a conference at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Hundreds of the pots have been found, and they are widely available in regional antiquities shops. The researchers added that they believe opium and hashish were used during surgery and to treat other pains and ailments. Citing ancient Egyptian medical writings, the researchers said hashish was used to ease menstrual cramps and as an analgesic during childbirth. Hashish also relaxes the user and increases the force and frequency of contractions in women giving birth, medical researchers found. No word on whether Pharoah's men were standing by to prosecute unwary healers on RICO violations. Nor is there any solid evidence that the drugs were being used for partying. "We know for sure these things were used for medical purposes," said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at Hebrew University. "The question is whether they were used for recreational purposes." "These guys were selling opium all over the Middle East," joked researcher Mark Spigelman. "This is the original Medellin cartel, 3,500 years ago."
20. Web Scan: Narco News, Nature, Cato Narco News on The New Bolivia
Nature Magazine: Birds
fall victim to Colombia's drug trade -- anti-drug tactics to Blame:
Ted Galan Carpenter of the
Cato Institute on US pre-9/11 support to Taliban Afghanistan to encourage
opium eradication:
21. Legislative Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education Act Drug Provision URGENT: Help stop S. 2633, the "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002" -- call your Senators at (202) 224-3121, visit http://www.emdef.org for information. Support States' Rights to Medical Marijuana: Visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/ to write to Congress today! Visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to tell Congress to repeal the Higher Education Act's drug provision in full and let tens of thousands of young people with drug convictions go back to college.
(Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and related topics to [email protected].)
August 12-16, 8:30am-noon, Oakland, CA, Summer Seminar in Political Economy, student session, open to non-students, sponsored by The Independent Institute. Registration $175, includes books and refreshements, one unit of college credit available at extra cost, contact (510) 632-1366 or [email protected] or visit http://www.independent.org/tii/students/SummerSeminar.html for further information.
August 17-18, 10:00am-8:00pm, Seattle, WA, Seattle Hempfest. At Myrtle Edwards Park, Pier 70, call (206) 781-5734, e-mail [email protected] or contact http://www.seattlehempfest.com for further information.
August 21st, Portland, OR, "Media Awareness Forum," featuring KOIN TV-6 anchor Reed Coleman and conservative radio talk show host Lars Larson discussing how drug reform advocates about increasing the quality and quantity of local news coverage. Visit http://www.jeffandtracy.com or call (503) 605-5182 for info.
August 24-29, Lagos, Nigeria, "Tenth International Conference on Penal Abolition." Contact Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) at 234-(0)1-4971356-8 or [email protected], Rittenhouse: A New Vision of Transformative Justice at (416) 972-9992 or [email protected], or visit http://www.interlog.com/~ritten/ for further information.
September 4-6, Missoula, MT, First Annual Montana Drug Policy Summit. At the University of Montana, speakers to include Dr. Ethan Russo of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, Cliff Thornton of Efficacy, Scott Crichton of the Montana ACLU, Ron Mann director of the movie "Grass," Missoula attorney John Smith and others. For further info, contact [email protected].
September 8-11, Chicago, IL, "Racial Justice Leadership Institute," seminar sponsored by the Applied Research Center. Limited to 30 participants, application deadline August 5, visit http://www.arc.org/action_ed/ for further information, or contact Terry Keleher at (773) 278-4800 x162 or [email protected].
September 26-28, Los Angeles, CA, "Breaking the Chains: People of Color and the War on Drugs." Conference by the Drug Policy Alliance, e-mail [email protected] to be placed on mailing list for when details become available.
September 30-October 1, Washington, DC, "National Symposium on Felony Disenfranchisement," conference sponsored by The Sentencing Project. Admission free, advance registration required, visit http://www.sentencingproject.org or call (202) 628-0871 for further information.
October 7-9, San Diego, CA, "Inside-Out: Fostering Healthy Outcomes for the Incarcerated and Their Families." Contact Stacey Shank of Centerforce at (559) 241-6162 for information.
October 19, Portland, OR, "PottyMouth Comedy Competition: Flushing Away the DEA," $5,000 first prize. Visit http://www.jeffandtracy.com or call (503) 605-5182 for info.
November 6-8, 2002, St. Louis, MO, "2nd North American Conference on Fathers Behind Bars and on the Street." Call (434) 589-3036, e-mail [email protected] or visit http:/www.fcnetwork.org for information.
November 8-10, Anaheim, CA, combined national conference of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Marijuana Policy Project. Early bird registration $150, $45 for students with financial need, visit http://www.mpp.org/conference/ for further information.
November 9, Anaheim, CA, Bill Maher benefit show for Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Marijuana Policy Project. Admission $50, or $1,000 VIP package including front-row seat and private reception with Bill Maher. Visit http://www.mpp.org/conference/ for further information.
December 1-4, Seattle, WA, "Taking Drug Users Seriously," Fourth National Harm Reduction Conference. Sponsored by the Harm Reduction Coalition, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General. For information, e-mail [email protected], visit http://www.harmreduction.org or call (212) 213-6376.
April 6-10, 2003, Chiangmai, Thailand, "Strengthening Partnerships for a Safer Future," 14th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm, sponsored by the International Harm Reduction Coalition in partnership with the Asian Harm Reduction Network. For further information, visit http://www.ihrc2003.net or contact [email protected] or (6653) 223624, 894112 x102.
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