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(renamed "Drug War Chronicle" effective issue #300, August 2003) Issue #292, 6/20/03
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
subscribe for FREE now! ---- make a donation ---- search TABLE OF CONTENTS
(visit the Week Online archives) Dear Week Online reader: Since we launched our latest book offer, Jacob Sullum's "Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use," and appealed to our readers for to help us reach the fall when major grants are expected to be received, more than 250 of you have responded to the call with book orders and donations providing much-needed funds. Because of you, we continue! Because we are looking at more months, however, DRCNet's adverse financial situation unfortunately still remains. We need more of your help, from more of you, in order to continue to operate and get through this difficult time. The fall is likely to see exciting and groundbreaking new projects at DRCNet, along with the rest of our core work. So please help assure DRCNet can continue functioning until then by visiting http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ and making the most generous contribution you can afford -- $35 or more will still get you a free copy of "Saying Yes," or your choice of our other current membership premiums. You can also send in your donation by mail -- visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ and click on the PDF link to print out a form to send in, or just mail your check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036 -- and contact us for instructions if you'd like to make a contribution of stock. (Remember that that donations to the Drug Reform Coordination Network are not tax-deductible. If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation to support our educational work, make your check payable to DRCNet Foundation, same address.) Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/wol/289.html#sayingyes if you haven't read Phil Smith's review of "Saying Yes" in the Week Online, including pictures from an author reception last month, and visit http://www.cato-institute.org/events/030529bf.html for video footage of Sullum's book talk at the Cato Institute. Again, please visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ today so DRCNet can continue our crucial work toward stopping the unjust "war on drugs," including this newsletter.
David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected], 6/20/03 This week's drug war news as usual includes no shortage of outrages. Despite the mass murder of more than 2,000 Thai drug suspects without trial by police in recent months, the supreme commander of Thailand's Army and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff are meeting to discuss how they can help each other fight drugs. And in Peru, the military, assisted by US forces, will resume shooting down airplanes that they suspect or claim they suspect of carrying drugs -- also without trial. Our government will not reduce our country's drug problem by helping other governments around the world commit murder. Any reductions in coca in Peru will be replaced by increases in other countries. Any reductions in opium in Thailand will be replaced by increased in other countries. This "balloon effect" is well demonstrated, has been happening reliably for decades, and any public official or pseudo-academic who claims otherwise or that it might be different next time is lying to us and/or himself. There is no legitimate moral, intellectual or practical justification for encouraging or assisting drug war murders. Yet the powers and interests driving them have no desire to stop nor even slow down, neither abroad nor at home. Just as the death of Veronica Bowers, the 35-year old missionary shot out of the Peruvian sky in error, stopped the shootdowns only temporarily, the death of Alberta Spruill in New York City from a "no-knock" warrant prompted only temporary discussion -- they're not even talking about ceasing the deadly no-knock drug raids, though the innocent deaths happen again and again. The drug warmongers will concede nothing voluntarily, no matter how terrible or outrageous or execrable. Since policymakers lack the moral clarity or political will in sufficient numbers to perceive and stop drug war atrocities by the agencies under their authority, it is up to people to demand it of them. We must expose the grotesque immoralities of the drug war, we must insist that fundamental ethics and proportion and due process be restored to laws and policies, and we must demand accountability. We must describe failure as failure, injustice as injustice, and murder as murder. And we must regard informed inaction as complicity, and deliberation human rights violations perpetrated or permitted by governments as no less condemnable than acts of violence committed by criminals or terrorists. To do so would be to devalue the fundamental ideals of what is right and what is wrong that have stood the test of millennia. There is no drug war exception to good and evil.
3. The Gathering in Cartagena: The Global Social Forum Thematic Meeting on Democracy, Human Rights, War, and the Drug Trade More than 4,000 activists and academics met in Cartagena, Colombia, on Monday for a week-long confab to discuss war and peace, democracy and repression, the drug war and drug legalization. Convening under the rubric of the Global Social Forum, whose first general session drew 30,000 people to Rio de Janeiro last year, this special thematic meeting marked the first time the so-called anti-globalization movement has put drug policy and drug prohibition on its international agenda. But drug policy is only part of the social forum, with its dozens of speeches, panels, workshops and roundtables on topics ranging from women's rights to alternative media to organizing against violence, and much more. Even the most well-attended drug policy events draw only a quarter of the social forum participants, but that is unsurprising given the multiplicity of panels and forums going on at any given hour. Drug reform is an issue whose supporters span a wide political range including the progressive left, the libertarian right, and others in between and outside those points on the ideological spectrum. The Cartagena forum fell solidly in the left portion of the spectrum, and this defined many of the aspects of gathering as a whole. Perhaps the single most outstanding feature of the forum was the drumbeat of criticism of the policies of the US government -- something that has been a staple of the Latin American left for decades, but which has now, in the post-Iraq war era, deepened and spread among delegates from all over the world. This anti-Americanism, sharpened to an angry edge by the militarism of the Bush administration, was perhaps less evident in the drug policy sessions than among the forum in general, but it still informed the analysis of speaker after speaker. Strident words about US foreign policies, however, should come as no surprise at a meeting deliberately convened in Colombia, a country that has suffered terribly as US military aid to a government deeply complicit in the worst kinds of human rights abuses on one side, and drug trade profits on the other side, continue to escalate a decades-long civil war and violence of all kinds. [While DRCNet was a willing participant in the social forum as part of its ongoing effort to help forge a global anti-prohibitionist movement, as an organization it takes no position on issues other than drug policy.] Many panels consisted of presentations of academic work on various aspects of drug policy, while others provided a forum for peasant, student, youth and labor leaders to address their struggles with the war on drugs and its ramifications on their lives. Indeed, some of the most powerful presentations came not from scholars but from grassroots activists, such as Nancy Obregón of the Confederation of Peruvian Coca Producers (interview below). "They call us the initiators of subversion, those who cause war, they say we are malicious and the coca leaf is evil," an impassioned Obregón told a rapt audience of hundreds. "Sadly, now to be a peasant is a sin. Our leader, Nelson Palomino remains in jail as a terrorist and a narco, and where does this persecution come from?" she asked. "Imperialism," she answered herself. Talk of imperialism may sound quaint or trite to North American ears, but the view is quite different on the other side of the Caribbean. And on drug policy at least, they have a point -- as evidenced by the fact that Peru's president went straight to the US embassy for his next appointment after Obregón's meeting with him last spring. "I'm not some big professor," Obregón continued, "just a humble peasant, but I speak from my heart. The sacred leaf is our life, and we are here to say no to the war on drugs, no to the violence it brings, no to war. We are defending the lives of the most humble, we are defending the kids who need a chance. The coca leaf is not a drug, cannabis is not a drug -- they are plants. They are not evil -- they are plants. This war on drugs is a big show and it is the great punishment of the world," she continued. "We must now stand against neoliberalism and with our Colombian comrades. The same that happened in Peru is now happening in Colombia -- more war, more hunger, more children without parents. We want Colombian children to live in a humane condition and we reject the violence of the war, whether by the government or the rebels or the paramilitaries. They talk about the war on drugs, but we are not drugs, we are human beings." Just in case Obregón wasn't clear enough, Cuban academic Louis Soares drew the connections that seemed obvious to most of the audience. Noting that there had been no noises from Washington about invading countries like Holland, a leading manufacturer of synthetic drugs, particularly ecstasy, Soares declared that the US war on drugs is a "selective employment of the theme of consumption and traffic of drugs as part of a politics of aggression and hegemony toward the third world." Agreeing that plants are not somehow illicit, he blamed US capitalism. "Capitalism transforms the most sacred plants into commodities, then demonizes them," he said. "They do this to justify their politics of aggression. I invite all who have read the new Bush national security doctrine to note that it includes drug traffickers as one of the threats. This occurs within the political discourse that seeks to legitimize Plan Colombia, seeks to legitimize US military bases all over Latin America, and seeks to strengthen the forces of repression, supposedly to fight the drug traffic," he said to sustained and enthusiastic applause. As DRCNet will report next week, not all the talk at the conference was the fire-breathing anti-American or anti-capitalist rhetoric exemplified by Soares. There were reasoned analyses of Afghanistan opium production and numerous micro-analyses of various aspects of the drug war, from the impact on peasants in the Andes to the rise of the drug "commands" in Brazil's favelas. Stay tuned for an in-depth report on the conference in our next issue. Also next week, DRCNet will report on the resolution of an effort by global drug reformers, organized by the Mama Coca organization (http://www.mamacoca.org), to form an international commission to research the damage done by prohibition as part of the struggle to convince governments and international organizations that prohibition must end. In a working session attended by nearly 80 drug reformers from around the world, participants began working to arrive at a consensus on whether a global commission was the correct step. There will be more meetings on this potentially very important step today (Friday), and DRCNet will update you on the results next week.
4. DRCNet Interview: Nancy Obregón, Sub-Secretary General of the Confederation of Peruvian Coca Growers Nancy Obregón, an
indigenous peasant woman from Tocache province in Peru, has emerged as
a leading voice among Peruvian coca growers. Elected to the second
highest office in the national confederation, Obregón stepped forward
with the arrest of confederation leader Nelson Palomino in February.
She helped lead the cocaleros' (coca growers) "March of Sacrifice" to Lima
last month and participated in negotiations over coca with the government
of President Alejandro Toledo. Obregón also attended the "Out
from the Shadows" hemispheric anti-prohibition conference in Mérida,
Mexico, in February. DRCNet spoke with Obregón at the Global
Social Thematic Forum in Cartagena, Colombia, Wednesday evening.
5. DRCNet Interview: Anthropologist Anthony Henman In 1978, Cambridge-educated
anthropologist and author Anthony Henman published "Mama Coca," a groundbreaking
work of ethnobotanical anthropology that for the first time showed Westerners
not only the indigenous coca culture of the Andes but also the beginnings
of the politics of coca and cocaine prohibition and how they impacted traditional
cultures. Since then, Henman has continued to work as an anthropologist
and expert on psychoactive substances in the Western Hemisphere, and was
honored with a keynote address at the Global Social Thematic Forum in Cartagena,
Colombia, this week. DRCNet spoke with Henman in Cartagena on Tuesday
evening.
6. Dozens of Students to Embark This Weekend on 50-Mile "Skate for Justice" (press release from Students for Sensible Drug Policy) About two dozen drug policy reform activists will embark on a 50-mile journey from Binghamton to Ithaca in upstate New York in the second annual "Skate for Justice" (http://www.skateforjustice.org) this Sunday, June 22. Most of the participants are members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org), an organization with chapters on over 200 college campuses nationwide. The skaters and bicycle support team will depart from Broome Community College (BCC) in Binghamton and make a 48.9-mile pilgrimage to the Commons in Ithaca. The purpose of the journey is to draw attention to the failings of current drug policy. The event isn't just for fun. "First and foremost, it will raise awareness," said Justin Holmes, event organizer and point skater. "Hundreds or thousands of motorists will see us on the day of the event. We hope to use this exposure to draw attention to the problems of drug prohibition and begin the process of an open and honest dialogue about drug policy." The event draws attention to injustices inherent in American drug policy by highlighting several specific issues. The controversy surrounding the so-called "Rockefeller drug laws" is one such issue. "These laws are so horribly draconian that prisons have filled up across the state in the years since they've been enacted," said Sean Nosky, event organizer and point skater. "Across the political spectrum, cries for reform can be heard, including from US Senators Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer, US Congressman Charles Rangel, and several NY state Senators and Assemblypersons." Another issue that participants aim to raise awareness about is the Higher Education Act drug provision, which denies federal financial aid to students with drug convictions of any kind. Other issues of interest include securing safe and legal access to medicine for medical marijuana patients, re-legalizing industrial hemp cultivation, and reducing the ratio of prison spending to higher education spending. "The Skate for Justice is helping to redefine the 21st century drug policy activist," said Shawn Heller, national director of SSDP. "No longer will we allow ourselves to be misrepresented; whether it is a 50 mile skate or 50 letters to Congress, the youth of today are energized and ready to bring about a more just America." A press conference with opportunities for interviews with organizers and participants (including Shawn Heller) will be held in the main student parking lot of Broome Community College at 9:00am prior to departure (large lot in the center of the map at http://www.sunybroome.edu/aboutbcc/campusmap.html).
7. Newsbrief: 12 Tulia Victims Walk Out of Jail The people arrested and convicted on drug charges after the notorious Tulia, Texas, drug bust of 1999 are going home. Twelve of the 15 people remaining in prison on Tulia charges were released on bond Monday to await a ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that should end their cases once and for all. The move came after Ron Chapman, a specially-appointed Texas judge who oversaw hearings on the cases, ruled that the prosecutions lacked credibility and the Texas legislature passed a bill that would allow the release of the remaining prisoners. But it isn't over yet, according to attorneys who worked the case. "It's a significant day, but it's not the end at all," said Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Our clients are walking out under the cloud of conviction." And it could be tough for the released defendants to hang around, Amarillo lawyer Jeff Blackburn, who was key in springing the wrongly-convicted Tulia defendants, told the New York Times. "It's going to be impossible to stay here," said Jeff Blackburn, a lawyer from Amarillo. "These folks will have virtually no chance if they stay here. They will be arrested for spitting. They will be pursued to the ends of the earth." Things could also get tough for the Texas criminal justice system, as a congressional committee prepares to scrutinize the Tulia incident this fall. Meanwhile, others in Congress are calling for the immediate overturning of the Tulia convictions. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Melvin Watt (D-NC), Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) joined more than 40 drug reform, criminal justice, civil liberties and civil rights groups in decrying the convictions and demanding that the verdicts be overturned. CNN report: http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/15/tulia.suspects/ Previous Week Online coverage: http://www.drcnet.org/wol/290.shtml#tulia14 8. No Rockefeller Reform This Session This spring's legislative session in New York is ending with no deal made on changes to the state's draconian drug laws. Despite a late-into-the-night session including Gov. Pataki, senate majority leader Joe Bruno (R-Brunswick), assembly speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and hip-hip impresario/activist Russell Simmons -- in which Simmons at one time physically blocked Bruno from leaving the room, according to the Daily News -- neither repeal nor reform will happen before the legislature adjourns for the summer. The session also ended with not apparent resolution of a disagreement among advocates on strategy, with Mothers of the NY Disappeared and the Correctional Association of New York wanting a strong repeal approach but Simmons attempting to broker a compromise to get something passed this month. Still, all parties to the effort signed on to a radio ad blitz, under the umbrella of the Countdown to Fairness coalition, asking listeners to call the governor and state legislature urging them to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws. The ads ran as follows: "Thirty yeas ago New York Governor Rockefeller signed the harshest drug laws in the nation... imposing long mandatory minimum sentences for even low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. The result? Over-crowded prisons and no reduction in New York's drug problem. Thirty years have proven that prison cells are not the answer for these low-level offenders. Drug treatment costs less... is more effective... and keeps people from returning to prison. If the Governor and Legislature would fix these outdated laws, New York taxpayers could save over $250 million. For years Republicans and Democrats have promised change, but in three days they'll be on vacation... and they've still done nothing. Please join Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Mayor David Dinkins, Russell Simmons, The Mothers of the New York Disappeared and the Drug Policy Alliance... call Governor Pataki and your state legislators at (518) 474-8390. Urge them to repeal the Rockefeller Drug Law. Paid for by the Countdown for Fairness." Gov. Pataki told the Daily News they would try again in September. DRCNet will continue to report on the Rockefeller effort. In the meantime, visit http://www.kunstler.org and http://www.droptherock.org and http://www.15yearstolife.com for continuing updates and action items.
9. Candidate Dean Bending on Medical Marijuana According to the Saturday, June 14 installment of the "Dem Convention Diary" section of WisPolitics.com (http://www.wispolitics.com/freeser/features/f0306/f0306demconv/f03061303.html), "Howard Dean and veteran Madison marijuana advocate Ben Masel faced off in an impromptu hallway debate on medical marijuana Friday night." Masel told WisPolitics.com, "It's hard to be the peace guy and blow off the potheads." In an e-mail sent to fellow drug reformers, Masel reported that Dean, recent former governor of Vermont, used the occasion to "clarify" his position on medical marijuana, which has reported to be anti. According to Masel, Dean claimed he opposed the Vermont medical marijuana bill because he does not believe "medical decisions should be made by legislatures." Dean proclaimed that as president, he would "on the day I take office direct the FDA to take a fresh look at the existing studies, and issue a report in 60 days," and would then implement the report. Dean then added that "speaking not as a candidate, but as a physician," he would "expect the report to recommend marijuana be approved for chemotherapy and AIDS, but not for glaucoma, because we have new medications for glaucoma that are even better. And no medication is completely safe." Principle or posture? Clarification or Concession? You, the voter, decide.
10. Newsbrief: RAVE Act Reverberations In the wake of the cancellation of a Montana NORML/SSDP benefit by the venue's owners after a DEA agent warned them they could face a $250,000 fine under the RAVE Act if anyone used marijuana at the event (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/290.shtml#dearave), organizers of some drug reform-related events have begun to cancel events or relocate them to friendlier territory. At the same time, national drug reform and civil liberties organizations are mobilizing against the RAVE Act, now officially known as the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act. The Sonoma Health and Harmony Festival (http://www.harmonyfestival.com) in California has cancelled plans to have a medical marijuana smoking area due to fears of RAVE Act prosecutions, California NORML has reported. And the Wisconsin Weedstock festival (http://www.weedstock.com) is relocating across the border to Canada -- to Sault, Ontario, where there currently are no laws against marijuana possession, let alone anything like the RAVE Act. Weedstock will become part of the Planetary Pride Hemp Fest (http://www.planetarypride.com/comingsoon.html), an Ontario-based event now in its fifth year. (US citizens thinking of attending but who have an arrest record should make sure they can get into Canada. Visit http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/customs/individuals/visitors-e.html and go to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada's web pages to get more information about entry.) As some groups change plans under RAVE Act prosecution pressures, the drug reform movement is mobilizing to roll back the law, which was stalled under stiff opposition in the Senate last year, but which passed easily once it was stealthily inserted into the popular Amber Alert by RAVE Act sponsor Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). Drug Policy Alliance has made repealing the RAVE Act one of its action priorities (http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/), and other major reform and civil liberties groups continue to plot strategies to kill the law.
11. Newsbrief: Teachers Against Prohibition Reborn as Educators for Sensible Drug Policy With Montana State University-Billings education major and founder of Teachers Against Prohibition (http://www.teachersagainstprohibition.org) Adam Jones temporarily retiring from drug reform because of a repressive probation officer, the fledgling drug reform organization has reemerged with new leadership under a new name. During a Sunday Internet meeting of the group's board of directors, the board decided to rename the organization Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, name Richard Lake chairman of the board for the next year, and appoint chairs for the group's Canadian and New Zealand branches. According to a posting by Lake, the name change came as part of an effort to provide a more positive image for the group and to make it more inclusive. The group's board also voted to revise the web site and email lists to reflect the group's new name and revise the web site to make positive policy recommendations. For example, wrote Lake, "we agreed that it is simply not enough to oppose DARE-like educational efforts. We will seek to recommend reality based alternatives; for example, the alternatives presented by Marsha Rosenbaum's Safety First (http://www.safety1st.org)." The organization is also seeking donations to defray costs, grow its membership, and reach out to other groups with similar interests. Look for an e-mail newsletter from ESDP by summer's end.
12. Newsbrief: Kentucky Supreme Court Tightens Law on Methamphetamine Prosecutions Prosecutors in Kentucky can't charge people with manufacturing methamphetamine unless they actually have everything they need to do so, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled on June 12. Prosecutors there had gotten in the habit of charging people they suspected of preparing to manufacture meth with actual manufacture. Under Kentucky law, attempted meth manufacture warrants a five-year minimum sentence, while actual meth manufacture garners a minimum 10-year sentence. The ruling came in the case of Ronald Kotila, who was convicted in Pulaski County on a meth manufacturing charge in 1999. Kotila possessed many of the items needed to cook speed -- all of them commonly available and legal by themselves -- but not two essential ingredients, anhydrous ammonia and muriatic acid. Kentucky law specifies that for someone to be charged with meth manufacture, he must possess "the chemicals or equipment for the manufacture of methamphetamine." The Supreme Court interpreted the phrase strictly. "The presence of the article 'the' is significant because, grammatically speaking, possession of some but not all of the chemicals or equipment does not satisfy the statutory language," the court said in an unsigned opinion. Prosecutors began to whine immediately. "We're going to have to examine all of our cases that are pending right now," Davies County prosecutor David Nall told the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer. "It's really taken away a big stick so to speak, a punishment hammer. You've basically cut the fear in half." And so did at least one Supreme Court member, Chief Justice Joseph Lambert, who wrote the minority opinion in the 4-3 decision. It will be difficult to prosecute meth manufacture cases, Lambert wrote, because a suspect "with the least amount of ingenuity will be able to prevent his conviction by merely omitting from his cache of tools and ingredients one or two of the more common, and bringing in the missing components only at the last moment. Thus to achieve a conviction... it will be necessary to catch the offender 'red-handed.'"
13. Newsbrief: Thais Get Drug War Help from US Even as the Thai government faces global criticism for its brutal spring crackdown on drugs this spring -- more than 2,000 people were killed, with Thai police the leading suspects -- the US DEA is stepping up cooperation with the Thai military, the Bangkok Post reported. The Thai Army's Task Force 399, set up with DEA help to combat drug trafficking, has set up a new unit in Chiang Mai to coordinate information flowing from the DEA, and the agency will also provide intelligence and anti-drug training for the task force and the entire Third Army, according to sources cited by the Post. Now, just two weeks after demonstrations worldwide against the Thai government's murderous campaign (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/291.shtml#thaidemos), Gen. Surayad Chulanont, supreme commander of the Thai Army and creator of Task Force 399, will visit Washington, DC, to meet with Gen. Richard Meyers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss further cooperation between the two countries in fighting the drug war.
14. Newsbrief: US-Peru Anti-Drug Flights Set to Resume The Bush administration is set to resume cooperation with Peru in a program that shoots suspected drug-running planes out of the sky. That program was abruptly suspended nearly two years ago when Peruvian Air Force pilots working with CIA spotters shot down a private plane carrying US missionaries. In the August 20, 2001 incident, 35-year-old Veronica Bowers (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/183.html#coca) was killed and her husband wounded. US officials are worried coca cultivation is on the rise in Peru. "We are seeing a large increase in the number of people clearing out old coca fields, and getting back into it," an unidentified "senior US official in Peru who is familiar with antinarcotics efforts there" told Knight-Ridder News Service. The increase in Peruvian cultivation is tied to intense pressure on growers in neighboring Colombia, the failure of alternative development programs in Peru's coca-growing regions, and the inability of the Peruvian state to enforce the ban on illicit coca crops. The US-backed air surveillance and shooting down of unidentified planes was halted abruptly after Bowers and her daughter were killed, and investigations into the incident found that the US CIA employees involved did not have sufficient Spanish fluency to communicate with their Peruvian partners. But Peruvian pilots and US anti-drug employees have received new training, including simulator training in Oklahoma City, and the flights should be back in the air before year's end. "We have detected unregistered flights that we cannot confirm are drug flights, but many probably are," said Peruvian drug czar Nils Ericsson. [Ed: Let's hope they can figure that out before they shoot down more innocent civilians or submit more suspected airborne traffickers to extrajudicial execution.] The killing zone also includes Brazil, which has intercepted 88 drug flights since its new Amazon regional radar system went into operation, and Colombia, which is also expected to resume shootdown flights with US cooperation before the new year.
15. Newsbrief: Israeli Company Receives Notice of Allowance from US Patent Office for Synthetic Marijuana Pharmaceuticals courtesy NORML News, http://www.norml.org The Israeli-based Pharmos pharmaceutical company announced last week that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a patent application relating to the use of the company's synthetic marijuana derivative Dexanabinol in the treatment of stroke, anti-inflammatory diseases and other disorders. The company is presently in the patient-recruitment phase of a US Phase III trial on the effectiveness of Dexanabinol for the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). A previous Phase II trial by Pharmos of 67 Israeli patients found that Dexanabinol reduced mortality and eased intracranial pressure in subjects suffering from severe head injuries. Similar synthetic marijuana derivatives have been effective in preclinical models in the treatment of a variety of disorders, including "inflammatory disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, brain ischemia, autoimmune diseases and pain," a Pharmos press release stated. According to a 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, naturally occurring cannabinoids in marijuana also provide symptomatic relief for a number of indications, including AIDS, cancer and chronic pain. Authors of the study further noted that marijuana's neuroprotective qualities are the "most prominent" of its potential therapeutic applications.
16. Teen Facing 26 Years for First-Time Marijuana Offense Sentenced to Two courtesy NORML News, http://www.norml.org A 19-year-old teenager from Moulton, Alabama, who had plead guilty to selling small amounts of marijuana, had his 26-year sentence cut to two by a state judge last week. The defendant, Webster Alexander, was ordered to serve one year in the county jail and a second year on probation. He will be eligible for a work-release program in one month. Circuit Judge Philip Reich suspended 24 years of Alexander's 26 year sentence after noting the defendant had obtained a high-school diploma, started college, and successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program since his arrest. Webster must return to court in two years, at which time the judge will evaluate his progress. Webster's original sentence sparked international headlines when the high-school senior was sentenced to 26 years in jail after pleading guilty to selling small amounts of marijuana to an undercover drug agent. Under Alabama law, selling marijuana is a felony offense. The penalties for sale of marijuana are enhanced if the sale takes place within a three-mile radius of a school or public housing project, adding five years to the sentence for the sale.
17. Marc Mauer Testimony on Comparative International Rates of Incarceration Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, is delivering testimony on Friday, June 20 to the US Commission on Civil Rights on "Comparative International Rates of Incarceration: An Examination of Causes and Trends," examining the dramatic rise in incarceration in the US over the past thirty years and documents that these developments are due in large part to changes in policy, and not crime rates, over this period. Visit http://www.sentencingproject.org/june/usccr-incarceration.pdf to read the testimony online.
(Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and related topics to [email protected].)
June 22, Binghamton to Ithaca, NY, "Skate
for Justice," 50-mile trek against the drug war, sponsored by Students for
Sensible Drug Policy. Full skate beginning in Binghamton, secondary
starting point in Richford for skaters who only want to do the last 17
miles, speakers and entertainment at Ithaca Commons in the evening. E-mail
[email protected]
or visit http://www.skateforjustice.org
for further information.
June 25, 7:00pm, Buenos Aires, "Las Drogas Entre el Fracaso Y Los Daños de la Prohibición. Nuevas Perspectivas en el Debate Despenalización-Legalización," forum with La Asociación de Reducción de Daños de la Argentina (the Harm Reduction Association of Argentina, ARDA), el Departamento de Derecho Penal y Criminología de la Facultad de Derecho y el Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Drogadependencias y SIDA (CEADS) de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario. At Salon Rojo, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. Figueroa Alcorta 2263, admission free. Contact Silvia Inchaurraga at [email protected] for further information.
July 7, 8:00pm, Los Angeles, CA, Students for Sensible Drug Policy/Marijuana Policy Project Benefit Show with Bill Maher, John Fugelsang and Pauly Shore. At The Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Boulevard, $20 regular admission, $35 preferred seating, $500 VIP party and front-row, two drink minimum, 21 and over. Visit http://www.ssdp.org/events/maher.htm for info or to purchase tickets, or contact SSDP at (202) 293-4414 or [email protected].
July 23, "Drug Policy Reform 2003: The State of the Movement," forum with Ethan Nadelmann. At the San Francisco Medical Society, 1409 Sutter St., call (415) 921-4987.
July 24, "Can We Really Afford a (Failed) War on Drugs?", forum with Ethan Nadelmann. At the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, 595 Market St., visit http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=3456&l=1908 for info.
August 16-17, 10:00am-8:00pm, Seattle, WA,
"12th Annual Seattle Hempfest." At Myrtle Edwards Park, call (206)
781-5734 or visit http://www.hempfest.org for further
information.
September 18, Tallahassee, FL, "Innovations in European Drug Policy," the Richard L. Rachin Conference. Sponsored by the Florida State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, in conjunction with the Journal of Drug Issues, at the Center for Professional Development, contact (850) 644-7569 or [email protected] to register or (850) 644-7368 or [email protected] for further information.
November 5-8, East Rutherford, NJ, biennial
conference of Drug Policy Alliance. At the Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel and
Conference Center, 2 Meadowlands Plaza, visit http://www.drugpolicy.org for
further information.
November 7-9, Paris, "Fourth Hemp and
Eco-Technologies Exhibition." At the Cité de Sciences et de L'Industrie,
call +33(0) 1 48 58 31 37, e-mail [email protected]
or visit http://www.festival-du-chanvre.com
for further information. If you like what you see here and want to get these bulletins by e-mail, please fill out our quick signup form at https://stopthedrugwar.org/WOLSignup.shtml. PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you. Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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