TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. New DRCNet Book Offer and Donations Appeal
2. Alaska Appeals Court Legalizes Simple Marijuana Possession, Law Enforcement Dazed and Confused, Suffering Denial
3. Bad Bills: Rave Act II, CLEAN-UP Act, VICTORY Act
4. Dutch Begin Selling Prescription Marijuana in Pharmacies
5. Hemp on the High Plains: HIA Goes to the Pine Ridge Reservation
6. Cheryl Miller Memorial Congressional Phone Slam Day, 9/23/03
7. Current Action Alerts: Medical Marijuana, Plan Colombia, HEA, Ashcroft's Attack on Judicial Discretion
8. Perry Fund Accepting Applications for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 School Years, Providing Scholarships for Students Losing Aid Because of Drug Convictions
9. Organizations Protesting DEA-Sponsored Traveling Exhibit Conflating Drug and Terrorism Issues
10. Newsbrief: Massachusetts Researcher Seeks Permit to Grow Marijuana for Medical Research
11. Newsbrief: Federal Judge Rejects Santa Cruz Medical Marijuana Lawsuit
12. Newsbrief: In Colombia, Social Distortion as Narcos Grab Land
13. Newsbrief: California Governor Candidates at Debate All Endorse Medical Marijuana
14. Newsbrief: LA NORML's Margolin Joins California Governor Race, Vows to Be "Terminator" of Marijuana Prohibition
15. Newsbrief: UN Drug Head Calls for US-Led Occupation Forces to Fight Afghan Drug Trade
16. The Reformer's Calendar

(Chronicle archives)

1. New DRCNet Book Offer and Donations Appeal

Many DRCNet readers know the book "Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out" by historian and screenwriter (and DRCNet advisory board member) Mike Gray. Those of you who have been with us long enough probably remember that when the book first came out, instead of offering it as a premium and using it to raise money for the organization, we instead sent out numerous alerts and Week Online articles urging our members to go and ask for the book in bookstores, so the stores would order more copies and be encouraged to display it more prominently. That's how important we considered the book to be -- as we wrote in April 1998, Drug Crazy is "one of the best, most exciting, readable, action-packed books about the drug war and the need for reform ever written."

We still feel that way, and we are pleased to again offer Drug Crazy to our membership. But there's more: Gray has since that time produced another important volume, "Busted: Stone Cowboys, Narco-Lords, and Washington's War on Drugs," a compilation of essays on the issue by a wide variety of thinkers, which Gray has edited and knitted into a cohesive exposition on the issue, released early this year.

Please reserve your copies of these important works in paperback, and support DRCNet's work at the same time, by visiting http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ -- contribute $27 or more and we'll send you a free copy of either one, or donate $50 or more and we'll send you both.

All respondents donating -- at any level, large or small -- will also receive a free StoptheDrugWar.org button and sticker. And there's more: Add $20 to your gift and Mike Gray will personally autograph either book to you or the person to whom you're giving it; add $30 and he'll autograph both. But there's still more: We have 30 of the ORIGINAL HARDCOVER COPIES of Drug Crazy available -- I've always been partial to the jacket art on that one -- and we will send them instead of the paperbacks to the first 30 people donating and requesting them.

We are also still offering Ted Galen Carpenter's "Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America" and Jacob Sullum's "Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use," either one free with a donation of $35 or more or both for free with a donation of $65 or more. Donate $85 or more for three of the books or $100 for all four. (We also continue to offer our t-shirts, mugs, mousepads and other books and items.)

Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/268/busted.shtml to read Phil Smith's book review of Busted, and visit http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1998/4-29.html for a little bit of history from when Drug Crazy came out.

Visit http://www.drcnet.org/wol/296.shtml#badneighborpolicy for Phil's review of Bad Neighbor Policy and https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/289/sayingyes.shtml for Phil's review of Saying Yes (with pictures from a DC author's reception).

Again, please visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ to donate and get your copies of Mike Gray's incredible books. DRCNet needs your help to continue our work. Though funding prospects for later in the year are promising, your help is very much needed in the meantime -- DRCNet literally will be unable to pay its bills or payroll or keep its online petitions to Congress running through even next month, without your support. So please visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ to make a generous donation by credit card or to print out a form to send in with your donation by mail -- or just send 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.

Please note 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. Again, visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ to join, donate and get your free button and sticker and books or other drug reform items today. Thank you for your support.

2. Alaska Appeals Court Legalizes Simple Marijuana Possession, Law Enforcement Dazed and Confused, Suffering Denial

"Alaska citizens have the right to possess less than four ounces of marijuana in their home for personal use." -- Alaska Court of Appeals, Noy v. State, August 29, 2003

The Alaska Court of Appeals ruled August 29 that Alaska residents may possess up to four ounces of marijuana in their own homes without any criminal or civil penalty. The ruling, which cites a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court finding that the Alaska constitution's privacy provisions protect the personal possession and use of marijuana in the home, once again makes Alaska the only state in the country with legal marijuana in the home. (After the 1975 Ravin v. Alaska decision, the Alaska legislature eventually removed criminal penalties for possession of less than four ounces, but a 1990 voter initiative cheerlead by then drug czar William Bennett recriminalized simple pot possession. It has taken until now for the appeals courts to rule on a case that challenged the constitutionality of the 1990 vote.)

While sources in the Alaska Attorney General's office told DRCNet the state would appeal the ruling, as of last Friday the Court of Appeals' decision is the law of the land. But Alaska law enforcement, starting with the attorney general's office, doesn't seem to get it. Law enforcement spokesmen asked by DRCNet how they were reacting to the decision responded with a mixture of confusion and determination to keep on arresting domestic pot smokers and possessors.

For police in Anchorage, the state's largest city, it's business as usual. "We are still enforcing the law the way we were before this," said Anchorage Police Department public affairs officer Ron McGee. "As far as that goes, there has been no change," he told DRCNet. "And it's still illegal under federal law," he added.

Greg Wilkinson, spokesman for the Alaska Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Enforcement, told DRCNet bureau representatives were meeting with other state law enforcement officials this week to try to figure out how to respond. "We are approaching this from two angles," he said. "One feeling is that is will be business as usual. The other was that it will not." Busting personal users in their homes is not a high priority, he said, adding that the bureau's focus was on large-scale commercial operations, but that agents who encountered personal marijuana may still act. "The feeling is that we may end up just confiscating the marijuana now," he said. He could not explain on what basis police would seize people's legal property.

And Alaska Chief Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli was reading from the same script. "When police come into a home, whether on a domestic violence call or something else, and see marijuana, we are not in a position to tell them to turn their back on it," he told DRCNet. "We are telling the police it is not legal to possess. We will continue to do as we have done, we will file charges and leave it up to the courts."

When Guaneli was asked his position squared with the Court of Appeals' unanimous and unequivocal ruling -- "Alaska citizens have the right to possess less than four ounces of marijuana in their home for personal use" -- he in turn asked, "What does that mean? If tomorrow a new medical study showed marijuana has the same addictive properties for long-term users as cocaine or heroin, does that mean the state is prevented from prosecuting those cases? We've think if we have the chance to go into court, we can show that the reasons for making marijuana possession a crime are important enough to override our constitutional right to privacy," Guaneli argued. "It is not quite right to say this ruling makes it completely legal. If we can go in right, we can get the court to change this."

Unsurprisingly, Fairbanks defense attorney Bill Satterberg, who successfully argued the ground-breaking case as well as other related cases (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/295.shtml#alaskaruling), begged to differ with Guaneli's interpretation of the ruling. "Is the possession of less than four ounces of marijuana in your own home legal in Alaska?" he asked. "The answer is, under state law, yes; under federal law, no," he told DRCNet. "We are moving into an area where a state constitution grants greater freedom than the US Constitution." As a practical matter, Satterberg added, federal prosecutions for simple marijuana possession are highly unusual.

But if state and local law enforcement is going to argue that it can make marijuana possession arrests because of federal law, they could be in for some tough sledding, he suggested. "If state law enforcement officers attempt to override state constitutional guarantees to prosecute federal laws, they will be treading on dangerous ground," Satterberg said. "The police need to get some good legal advice. These officers are sworn to uphold the law, and what I'm hearing them say is they're not going to. If the police are saying they are not going to follow state law, I find that incredible."

While Satterberg deemed himself incredulous at the prospect of police recalcitrance, Allan St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (http://www.norml.org) was less shocked. "It is not surprising," he told DRCNet. "Certainly, in California and other states, there have been pockets of police that are resistant to living with new marijuana laws."

But police in Alaska have not been abiding by the law since 1990, when a voter initiative recriminalized simple possession in the home, St. Pierre argued. "The 1975 Alaska Supreme Court ruling legalizing personal use of small amounts of marijuana in one's home has been the law of the land, despite the unconstitutional initiative. Since that ruling had never been revisited or overruled, the onus was on Alaska law enforcement to enforce the Supreme Court decision. If the police were to obey the law of the land, they would not have been arresting people for the use of marijuana in their homes. That has always been our position, and this ruling only reinforces our interpretation."

As of last Friday, Alaska has the most liberal marijuana possession laws in the United States. The Alaska Supreme Court would have to overturn its own 1975 decision in Ravin v. Alaska to undo the Court of Appeals decision, and there is little indication it will do so, despite Chief Assistant Attorney General Guaneli's fervent hope that it will find differences between the marijuana of 1975 and the marijuana of today so great as to override the privacy protections the Supreme Court cited.

Visit http://www.touchngo.com/ap/html/ap-1897.htm to read the Alaska Court of Appeals opinion online.

3. Bad Bills: Rave Act II, CLEAN-UP Act, VICTORY Act

As Congress enters the fall session, legislators will be considering a trio of bills that would deepen the war on drugs. One of them, the euphemistically named VICTORY Act, seeks to tie the war on drugs to the war on terrorism by creating the new crime of "narcoterrorism," while two other proposed measures would extend the wars on ecstasy and methamphetamine to include promoters, club owners, or anyone else who profits in any way from an event where they "know" drug use might take place.

While drug reformers often find themselves working alone or with few allies to defeat drug bills, the inclusion of proposed new "narcoterrorism" offenses in the VICTORY Act is creating a situation where drug reformers find themselves building an informal alliance with critics of draconian anti-terrorism legislation on both the left and the right. While opponents to the proposed bill include such usual suspects as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, also coming on board in opposition to the VICTORY Act are privacy-oriented groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and conservative groups including the libertarian Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

What has all these folks up in arms? According to a draft of the proposed bill obtained by ABC News, the VICTORY Act would:

• Raise the threshold for rejecting illegal wiretaps. The draft reads: "A court may not grant a motion to suppress the contents of a wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, unless the court finds that the violation of this chapter involved bad faith by law enforcement."
• Extend subpoena powers by giving law enforcement the authority to issue non-judicial subpoenas which require a person suspected of involvement in money laundering to turn over financial records and appear in a prosecutor's office to answer questions.
• Extend the power of the attorney general to issue so-called administrative "sneak-and-peek" subpoenas to drug cases. These subpoenas allow law enforcement to gather evidence from wire communication, financial records or other sources before the subject of the search is notified.
• Allow law enforcement to seek a court order to require the "provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service" or a financial institution to delay notifying a customer that their records had been subpoenaed.

Of more specific interest to drug reformers, the draft legislation also creates the crime of "narcoterrorism," which would apply to anyone who "knowingly" sells, manufactures, or possesses with intent drugs whose profits may end up in the hands of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the US State Department. Under the draft, such "narcoterrorists" would get mandatory minimum 20-year prison sentences.

The VICTORY Act "contains a multitude of new and sweeping law enforcement and intelligence gathering powers -- many of which are not related to terrorism -- that would severely undermine basic constitutional rights and checks and balances," the ACLU noted in a recent press release. "If adopted, the bill would diminish personal privacy by removing important checks on government surveillance authority, reduce the accountability of government to the public by increasing official secrecy and expand on the definition of 'terrorism' in a manner that threatens the constitutionally protected rights of Americans. These far reaching powers could apparently be sought even though the first USA Patriot Act already gave the government unprecedented powers to violate our civil liberties and tap deep into the private lives of innocent Americans."

"This bill would treat drug possession as a 'terrorist offense' and drug dealers as 'narco-terrorist kingpins,'" an unnamed Senate aide told ABC News. "To say that terrorist groups use a small percentage of the drug trafficking in the United States to finance terrorism may be a fair point, but this bill would allow the government to prosecute most drug cases as terrorism cases. It really seems to be more about a political agenda to jail drug users than a serious attempt to stop terrorists."

"The VICTORY Act is the scariest bill we are facing this year," said Bill McColl, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org), the drug reform organization that is taking the lead on this issue. "This is an act that bears all the signs of having the full force of the Ashcroft Justice Department behind it. It includes those things they couldn't sneak into the PATRIOT Act," he told DRCNet. "It creates the crime of narcoterrorism, so if you 'know' the money from your drug deal will somehow get to a named terrorist group, you are looking at 20 years in prison. A big problem is how you define 'know.' As it is, almost every drug crime has some impact on terrorist funding, so this is an attempt to tie drug users to terrorists," he said. "But this bill contains a whole slew of other bad provisions, as well," McColl continued. "It attempts to roll back asset forfeiture reform, it would expand electronic surveillance, it would create 'good faith' exceptions to the exclusionary rule. This bill applies the techniques of espionage against our own population."

The VICTORY Act is a work in progress. It has not yet been formally introduced, although drafts bearing the name of sponsor Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, circulating. But the authors of the drafts have already removed more bad language that would have addressed the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity primarily by increasing sentences for powder.

It is still a bad bill, though, said DPA's associate director for national affairs Bill Piper, and its supporters are attempting to frighten voters in order to pass it. "They're trying to pass stuff they couldn't get in the PATRIOT Act, and they're thinking that Americans are scared of drugs and scared of terrorists, so they should be really, really scared of narcoterrorists," he told DRCNet. "We already have laws against drugs and against terrorism. We don't need this."

If the VICTORY ACT weren't bad enough, drug reformers are also preparing to do battle against a pair of bills that continue the crusade to criminalize the rave culture in the name of the war on drugs. The Ecstasy Awareness Act (H.R. 2962) and the CLEAN-UP Methamphetamine Act (H.R. 834) both target promoters of raves or other events where it is "known" that drug use will take place.

Under the Ecstasy Awareness Act, "...Whoever profits monetarily from a rave or similar electronic dance event, knowing or having reason to know that the unlawful use or distribution of a controlled substance occurs at the rave or similar event, shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the defendant is an organization, the fine imposable for the offense is not more than $2,000,000."

The CLEAN-UP Meth Act contains similar language: "Whoever, for a commercial purpose, knowingly promotes any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed in violation of Federal law or the law of the place where the event is held, shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned for not more than 9 years, or both."

"This is America," said DPA's McColl. "Drug use happens everywhere. We know this. At any sort of public event, you have reason to know that drug use may be occurring. If you interpret this language broadly, Kinko's could be held liable for producing flyers advertising an event where drug use occurred." There is a method to this madness, McColl suggested. "These bills are written so broadly because they want to be able to target whoever they want and they don't want anything to get in their way."

In addition to the common provisions attempting to criminalize rave culture, the two bills would increase spending for meth and ecstasy law enforcement, with each calling for an additional $10 million to combat their demon drug of choice. The meth bill would also appropriate $20 million for training and equipping meth lab cleaner-uppers and would designate more regions of the country as meth "hot spots."

According to DPA's McColl, the Ecstasy Awareness Act's chances of passage are slim, but that is not the case with the CLEAN-UP Meth Act. "This bill already has 113 sponsors, led by Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA), and they have vowed to move on it once they got a hundred," he said. "I think Ose is really going to push this."

And he isn't happy about the increasingly common legislative practice of attaching unpopular draconian bills or sections of bills to more popular legislation. "There is a real culture of deception here in Washington," he said. "They have a bill that is ostensibly about cleaning up meth labs, and they try to sneak this anti-rave provision in. They did the same thing with the Amber Alert bill, when Sen. Biden (D-DE) sneaked the first Rave Act through. With all this Orwellian phraseology and this sneaking bills through, this is the worst I've seen it in Washington, and I've been here seven years."

DPA, along with the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (http://www.emdef.org) and ROAR!: The National Dance and Music Rights Alliance (http://www.roargroup.org), a grouping of rave culture promoters, club owners and aficionados, is fighting back against these repressive bills. The organizations have crafted letter-writing and e-mail campaigns, and they will be taking the battle to the steps of the Capitol on Saturday with a musical protest against RAVE Act II and the anti-rave provision of the CLEAN-UP Meth Act. And that's just the beginning.

For more information on the campaigns against these bills, visit the web sites mentioned above.

A draft version of the VICTORY Act is available at http://www.libertythink.com/VICTORYAct.pdf online. Note: The version available here is an earlier draft that still includes sentencing provisions that have since been removed. This bill is still a work in progress.

To view the Ecstasy Awareness and CLEAN-UP Methamphetamine Acts online, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and search for H.R. 2962 and H.R. 834 respectively.

4. Dutch Begin Selling Prescription Marijuana in Pharmacies

The Dutch took another pioneering step toward sane cannabis policies this week. Prescription medical marijuana distributed to pharmacies by the Dutch government went on sale Monday in the Netherlands, making it the first country in the world to so regularize marijuana as medicine. Canada preceded the Netherlands in recognizing medical marijuana, but the herb is not available in pharmacies there.

Under regulations adopted by the Health Ministry and its medical marijuana agency, the Bureau for Medicinal Cannabis (http://www.cannabisbureau.nl -- in Dutch only until later this year), Dutch doctors can prescribe medical marijuana for chronic pain, nausea, and wasting in cancer and HIV/AIDS patients, relief of spasms in Multiple Sclerosis sufferers, and for people with Tourette's syndrome. Doctors had previously been allowed to prescribe marijuana, but pharmacies could not offer it for sale.

According to the ministry, as many as 7,000 Dutch citizens use medical marijuana, with many of them buying it in Amsterdam's famous coffee houses. Now they will be able to get their prescriptions filled at one of Holland's 1,650 pharmacies or at an additional 400 hospitals or doctor's offices.

"It's a historic step. What is unique is that we are making it available on a prescription-only basis through pharmacies," said Willem Scholten, head of the Bureau of Medicinal Cannabis, at a press conference announcing the move. "It was ridiculous that people were using this drug while no doctor was permitted to prescribe it, despite the fact that scientific studies showed benefits," he said. Scholten also cited quality control concerns with patients buying the herb on the black market. "This is a safer method, because the quality is assured, and it will allow doctors to better monitor patient response," he said.

The pharmaceutical cannabis will be in the form of buds -- not hash -- and the bureau is emphasizing that it should be used as a tea to dilute its strength. The bureau also emphasized that medipot should be prescribed only as a last resort when more conventional treatments fail.

The medipot will be supplied by two Dutch companies who have been granted licenses to grow select strains in laboratory conditions. They will sell it to the Health Ministry, which in turn will make it available to pharmacists in five-gram containers. The five-gram units will sell for roughly $50 to $60, depending on the grade, a price higher than in the coffee shops. Dutch officials attribute the price difference to stricter quality controls and the collection of a value added tax on prescription drugs.

The two companies, Maripharm (http://www.maripharm.nl) and the Institute of Medical Marijuana (http://www.medicalmarijuana.org), both offer quality-controlled, high-grade cannabis. Ironically, the Institute of Medical Marijuana is headed by an American expatriate glaucoma patient who fled the US after being arrested and having his property seized. In an interview with Radio Netherlands, James Burton explained how he began growing his own cannabis after seeing opportunities to participate in glaucoma marijuana research vanish during the Reagan years. After being arrested and losing everything, he moved to the Netherlands. "It was the only place in the world at the time, where you could grow cannabis, and with one of the best eye-hospitals in the world located in Rotterdam," he said.

Burton's operation will deliver 10 kilos per month to the health ministry, he said. "Each plant is individually numbered," he said. "It has a starting date, an identification number and a pharmacy crop number, so that all the cannabis is recallable and traceable." And delivering medical marijuana is the right thing to do, Burton added. "It's the first time it has ever been done in the world. The Dutch are pretty compassionate and tolerant," he said. "No one would say that a dying patient or someone in a wheelchair should not take cannabis to alleviate pain."

The Dutch move is being watched with interest by other countries, according to the Bureau of Medicinal Cannabis' Scholten. Britain, Belgium and Luxembourg expressed special interest in seeing how the Dutch approach works, he said. Canada has granted special dispensations to hundreds of medical marijuana patients, but does not allow the herb to be sold in pharmacies. In the US, the federal government sends storm troopers after medical marijuana patients and providers.

5. Hemp on the High Plains: HIA Goes to the Pine Ridge Reservation

An estimated 50 to 70 hardy hempsters from the US and Canada made their way to one of the most remote spots in the country on August 20-23 to attend the annual Hemp Industries Association convention (http://www.hempindustries.org) and to pay homage Alex White Plume and family, Lakota Indians who last year managed to grow, harvest, and sell the nation's first hemp harvest since the hoary days of "Grow Hemp for Victory." White Plume lives on the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota, a stark, austere landscape of parched hills and looming Badlands just east of the sacred Paha Sapa Mountains, known as the Black Hills since white men found gold there and stole them by force of arms five generations ago.

The Pine Ridge is also a place where memories of the past refuse to die and notions of the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation, guaranteed by treaty with the US government, stay strong. The Lakota claim the sovereign right to control what they grow on their land -- thus, the tribal council's endorsement of White Plume's hemp growing and affirmation of his right to do so in 1998. The question of Lakota sovereignty also explains the unusual delicacy with which the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) responded. White Plume's crops grew until harvest time in 2000 and 2001, then DEA-led SWAT-style squads swept in and destroyed the crops. But they did not arrest White Plume or other family members involved in cultivating the crop.

Last year, White Plume outsmarted the raiders by harvesting early and quickly selling his crop. This time, the Justice Department responded not with an arrest, but with a civil injunction barring him from growing more. This year, White Plume did not plant for fear of being jailed for contempt, nor has he set foot in his field, but the hemp is there anyway.

"The hemp is fighting to live, it's ready to go," White Plume told DRCNet. "How can they ban a plant? It is so sad that people could do that to a helpless plant. They try to act like God. In Lakota it is not like that. You are supposed to live with all that is around you. We don't know how a harmless, beautiful, useful plant is illegal." White Plume laughed wryly. "It don't make sense in Lakota language. We think white man's ways are crazy ways."

This is the man people traveled great distances to see. (You know you're a long way from anywhere when people ask you where it is and you have to tell them "about 70 miles north of Chadron, Nebraska.") But White Plume and the clan he heads are not the only ones involved with hemp on the Pine Ridge, nor his field the only project. The first full day of the gathering began with attendees clambering out of the 15-foot-tall tepees on White Plume's Kizaa Park property in which they bedded down for the duration, forming a caravan, and driving 50 miles across reservation roads to the Pine Ridge hemp house. There, alone on an open, rolling plain belonging to the Slim Buttes Landowners Association, stands a not-quite-finished wood-frame house whose walls are constructed of hemp-cement bales similar to straw bale construction. The roofing shingles are made of a composite of recycled milk cartons and hemp fiber. The stucco exteriors also use hemp, as fiber to replace the more common nylon fibers.

The house was built under the supervision of Tom Cook, another Lakota who lives off the reservation near Chadron and who is head of the High Plains Development Corporation. "We decided to build by holding a meeting with the elders -- Alex is the elder for his family," he told those gathered around. "We had drums beating -- it was Lakota protocol, not exactly Roberts Rules of Order," he laughed. "We want the hemp for sustainable development and low-cost housing here," he added. "We try to use local resources. We can make frames from the stands of pines we have on the reservation, we have our own sawmill, and we could use hemp grown here to build those houses more cheaply."

But the US government will not allow that, and that explains why the hemp house is unfinished. "That house will cost $160,000 because we had to pay for the hemp to be imported from Canada instead of being able to grow it ourselves," said White Plume. "Indians don't have that kind of money. If we could have used our own crop, the house would cost $60,000."

And now the Canadians are nervous, given the Ashcroft Justice Department's dogged and dogmatic opposition to the hemp trade. "I tell them to just ship it to me, but the Canadians are afraid," said Cook. "We need to find someone brave enough to ship it. I may have someone on the White Earth (North Dakota) Reservation buy it -- that rez straddles the border -- and then I'll trade some horses for it. It'll be the underground hemp railroad," he proclaimed.

If the Canadians are nervous, they were also interested. In stark contrast to the attitude of the US government, the Canadian government actually seeks to promote industrial hemp as a viable industry, so while the last time a US government representative visited White Plume was to seize his crop at gunpoint, the Canadian government's representative, an employee of Agriculture Canada, came to see how to expand an industry throttled by a prohibitionist neighbor.

"My job is to help promote the Canadian hemp industry," said Ag Canada's Charles Tromblay, who traveled from Ottawa for the conference. "I am hear to see what the Americans are up to, to touch base, and to look at ideas for product development," he told DRCNet. Ag Canada has also ponied up money to get a hemp trade association, the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (http://www.hemptrade.ca) off the ground, including getting alliance director Arthur Hanks, of Winnipeg, to the Pine Ridge.

"I am here to see what we can do to develop the hemp sector in Canada," Hanks told DRCNet. "The US is a big market and our natural trading partner. We have a population of 30 million, while you have 300 million. We want that market of 330 million, not 30 million," he said. "While we still have room to grow within the Canadian market, not having clear access to the US market does hurt the industry." The regulatory hurdles imposed by the US government must be overcome by hemp advocates on both sides of the border working together, Hanks said. "Canada is the test chamber. If we are successful in Canada, you will see a hemp industry develop in the US. On the other hand, if we don't develop the industry enough in Canada, there will be no economic argument for hemp in the States," he explained. "Americans have to be conscious of this and support the Canadian hemp industry, and we have to work with the Americans to improve the regulatory position of hemp."

And the trip was worth the trek, Hanks said, a view that seemed to represent a consensus opinion. "What the White Plumes and Tom Cook are doing is really impressive. They're about homes for people, they're about integrity, not commercialization," Hanks said. "It was really positive being there and really nice to see all the hemp people. The Americans seem to have high morale, which is great."

"It was awesome," concurred David Bronner, chair of the HIA's Food & Oil Committee and head of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. "It was important for the industry to show respect and appreciation for what Alex has been doing for a number of years now," he told DRCNet. "He's the only person in America growing hemp. It's been a real inspiration. This was a unique opportunity to see what's going on out here. And what is happening is amazing on so many levels, like the sovereignty. We're all into asserting our freedom, and they have such a strong claim to do this."

As for White Plume, he was glad for the support -- and the company. "I know it's a long way out here, and I thank those who came to visit. I was really impressed with all the different networks advocating for hemp," he said. "This boosted our morale here. We're going to start a hemp-paper factory in November. And last year, I traded a horse for an irrigation pump for the hemp field. I still want to use it."

And White Plume was ready to stand up for what he called the Standing Silent Nation, those who don't raise their voices. "Now I know I'm not alone, so I can act tougher with the feds," he laughed.

Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/151/ for DRCNet's article reporting on the destruction of White Plume's hemp field three years ago, and David Borden's editorial about it, "Hemp Lunacy" -- which may contain the only known Monty Python reference in drug reform -- White Plume was right when he said that "white men's ways are crazy ways" -- at least when it comes to hemp! Also of interest, our April interview with David Bronner (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/283/davidbronner.shtml).

6. Cheryl Miller Memorial Congressional Phone Slam Day, 9/23/03

Last week DRCNet wrote briefly about the upcoming Cheryl Miller Memorial Project's DC vigil, demonstration and lobby day, less than three weeks from now on September 22 and 23 (http://www.cheryldcmemorial.org). There is one activity on the agenda for those who can't make it to Washington, a Congressional "phone slam" in support of H.R. 2233, the States Rights to Medical Marijuana Act. Your phone calls on September 23 will coincide with a day of Capitol Hill lobbying by attendees at the Memorial Project, and will ensure those visits are taken very seriously.

We hope that DRCNet members will make an extra strong showing of participation in the phone slam, and we have a way to make it easy to do so: Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/ right now to send an e-mail to your US Rep., your two Senators, and the President (if you haven't done so already), and our system will also keep a record of your Congressional District. Then, on the morning of the 23rd, we will send you a reminder about the phone slam, and the text of the message you receive will include the names and office phone numbers of your Rep. and your Senators -- you won't even have to look them up or go through the Congressional Switchboard.

Click on http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.pdf or http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.xls or http://www.drcnet.org/wol/july23-yesno.txt to view or download a PDF or Excel or tab-delimited text file identifying how each Member of Congress voted on the pro-medical marijuana Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment this summer.

7. Current Action Alerts: Medical Marijuana, Plan Colombia, HEA, Ashcroft's Attack on Judicial Discretion

Tell Congress to Pass Medical Marijuana Now! Send letters supporting the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act and the Truth in Trials Act:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/

Stop the Andean Drug War! Tell the Senate to strip Colombia military and other drug war funding from the 2004 Foreign Aid Appropriations bill:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/stopthehelicopters/

Repeal the Drug Provision of the Higher Education Act to restore financial aid to students with drug convictions:
http://www.raiseyourvoice.com

Stop John Ashcroft's Attack on Judicial Discretion! Repeal the terrible Feeney amendment which discourages judges from granting downward departures from the draconian federal sentencing guidelines:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/justice/

More coming soon!

8. Perry Fund Accepting Applications for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 School Years, Providing Scholarships for Students Losing Aid Because of Drug Convictions

The John W. Perry Fund, a project of the DRCNet Foundation in association with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, provides college scholarships to students losing federal financial aid because of drug convictions. The Fund has monies remaining for fall 2003 as well as future semesters, and eligible students are urged to apply as soon as possible.

Please visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/perryfund/ to fill out a pre-application, print out an application form or brochure, or for further information. Students, financial aid officers, friends and family members and supporters of students, as well as media, activists, potential donors and other interested parties, are all welcome to contact us!

Supportive parties are urged to take copies around to financial aid offices, social services agencies whose clientele are likely to include drug ex-offenders, high school guidance offices, and to forward information about the Perry Fund to appropriate e-mail lists. Community and state colleges are of particular interest to the Perry Fund, because the low tuition rates enable us to fully finance a student's education in many cases, and because their student bodies include a high proportion of low income with especially great financial need.

Any applicant losing federal financial aid due to a drug conviction, however, attempting to attend any school, is welcome and encouraged to apply. We continue to raise money for the Perry Fund, and the more applications we have received, the more money we will likely be able to raise for them. Please urge potential applicants to visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com/perryfund/ for information and to apply, or to contact DRCNet at (202) 362-0030. Thank you for spreading the word.

9. Organizations Protesting DEA-Sponsored Traveling Exhibit Conflating Drug and Terrorism Issues

news release from the Drug Policy Forum of Texas

A growing number of Dallas-area organizations are planning to protest at The Science Place in Fair Park when a DEA-sponsored exhibit opens in September. In addition, a former DEA agent who is willing to speak at the protest about DEA abuses has contacted the groups. The exhibit is billed as "Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists and You," and features twisted I-beams, shoes, children's toys, destroyed office products, large chunks of limestone and damaged office equipment from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The opening was originally scheduled for September 11, but was changed to September 9 after public protests about capitalizing on the horrors of 9/11.

According to Craig Johnson, head of the University of Texas-Dallas chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the demonstrators are a group of concerned citizens who believe that "it is shocking for the DEA to exploit Americans' grief and anger over the tragic events of 9/11."

"I am appalled that The Science Place is lending its prestige and spending its funds on an exhibit by the Drug Enforcement Administration," says Suzanne Wills of Dallas, a member of the Drug Policy Form of Texas, another of the groups represented. "In all its policies the DEA is the antithesis of science. The most glaring, inhumane and disingenuous example is its refusal to allow researchers a supply of cannabis for medical trials approved by the Food and Drug Administration."

Johnson added "while this crude exhibit remains in Dallas, it is our intention to counteract it with a campaign to show the public what little respect the DEA has for actual science, and the unintended but disastrous consequences of drug prohibition. Because of our government and the DEA, huge profits go to the underworld, kids sell drugs to kids, diseases are spread by non-sterile syringes, and burglaries for money to buy drugs are epidemic."

Currently nearly $50 billion per year is spent on the drug war and 500,000 Americans are imprisoned for nonviolent drug offenses.

Organizations participating in this education campaign include The Drug Policy Forum of Texas (http://www.dpft.org), Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org) and NORML Texas (http://www.normltexas.org).

10. Newsbrief: Massachusetts Researcher Seeks Permit to Grow Marijuana for Medical Research

A University of Massachusetts researcher has applied to the federal government for a permit to grow high-quality marijuana for medical research, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported last week. The only current government sanctioned grower of marijuana in the United States is the University of Mississippi, which has supplied the National Institute on Drug Abuse with its stash for the past 30 years.

But with the assistance of Rick Doblin's Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (http://www.maps.org), Dr. Lynn Craker, a UMass plant and soil sciences professor, has applied to operate the first privately-funded marijuana growing research facility in the country.

Actually, he has reapplied. According to a MAPS account, Craker's original application would appear to have been the victim of negligence at best: "In December 2001, DEA claimed it was lost. We subsequently resubmitted a photocopy but were told in February 2002 that the photocopied application was invalid since it didn't have an original signature. In July 2002, the original application was returned, unprocessed, with a DEA date stamp showing it had been received in June 2001. Dr. Craker resubmitted the original application to DEA on August 20, 2002, which DEA finally acknowledged receiving."

Craker intends to grow marijuana for researchers in a variety of fields, he told the Gazette. "My current thought is that there has not been sufficient testing to tell whether this is a drug that can help people or not," Craker said. "If I look at this as a potential medicinal plant, than it is our responsibility to see that this plant material is investigated, so that the questions of whether it has medical significance or not can be answered."

The DEA published public notice of Croker's application July 23 federal register. In an appalling indication of the US government's attitude, that notice specifies that the only people who may file comments or objections are those who are "presently registered with DEA to manufacture such substances...": In other words, nobody.

Still, Craker has the support of Massachusetts Congressmen John Olver, Barney Frank, James McGovern, William Delahunt and Michael Capuano, all of whom wrote to then DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson in June 2002, urging the agency to license privately funded marijuana research grows. The clock is ticking again.

11. Newsbrief: Federal Judge Rejects Santa Cruz Medical Marijuana Lawsuit

US District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California, dismissed a lawsuit against the federal government filed by the city and county of Santa Cruz and a raided medical marijuana dispensary, Wo/Men's Access to Medical Marijuana (http://www.wamm.org) on August 27. But Fogel also expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs and left them an opening to re-file the suit.

WAMM was raided by the DEA last September and 167 plants were seized, but WAMM operators Mike and Valerie Corral have never been charged with a crime. Shortly thereafter, the city of Santa Cruz made national headlines by allowing the distribution of medical marijuana to take place at city hall.

While other lawsuits attempting to block further federal raids have been filed, the suit jointly filed by WAMM and the city and county governments marked the first time a local or state government had joined such an action. In dismissing the suit, Fogel wrote that he is "acutely mindful of the suffering" of medical marijuana patients "and of the evidence that medicinal marijuana has helped to alleviate that suffering. As it commented at oral argument, the Court finds the declarations of the Patient-Plaintiffs deeply moving."

But despite his sympathies and the express will of California voters, "the legislative and executive branches of the federal government have a different view, and in a federal system that view is controlling unless the federal government is acting in excess of its constitutional powers." Plaintiffs had not made such a showing, Fogel ruled, but left open a new hearing if they could make such a showing.

WAMM and Santa Cruz will appeal the decision, said Dan Abrahamson, legal affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance and co-counsel in the case. "Sadly, the court's decision runs against justice, compassion and humanity, and will cause more people to suffer needlessly," he told a post-hearing press conference. "While we are clearly disappointed, we plan to appeal this decision and fully expect a more favorable outcome in the next court."

And the DEA? "For us," San Francisco DEA spokesman Richard Meyer told reporters, "it's going to be business as usual."

You can help WAMM if you live near Santa Cruz by attending the WAMMfest benefit event on September 14. Visit http://www.marijuana-art.com/WAMMfest/ for further information.

12. Newsbrief: In Colombia, Social Distortion as Narcos Grab Land

Drug traffickers now control almost half of all of Colombia's most productive agricultural lands, according to a study released this week by the Colombian government and reported in the newsweekly Semana.

Traffickers hold some 10 million acres, or 48% of prime agricultural land, with a value of $2.4 billion dollars, according to the government analysis. Those numbers could be low, the report said, because of the use of cut-outs to disguise the true owners of properties. Buying agricultural lands serves multiple purposes for traffickers, it added. "The primordial purpose is money laundering, but the buying of properties permits the traffickers to make savings in the long run and protect their money from devaluation," the report noted. "Additionally, it grants them a certain political leadership in the regions where they bought their properties."

The massive land grab serves other purposes that have little to do with drug trafficking but much to do with the country's decades-long civil war, according to a pair of veteran Colombian analysts. "This is an expression of the agrarian counter-reform that has taken place in Colombia, which has concentrated rural landholdings even more, and not necessarily for productive ends, but for speculation or the expansion of extensive cattle ranching," said Dario Gonzalez Posso, director of FUNDEPAZ, the Colombian Foundation for Development and Peace. "This strengthens the power of local political leaders who are identified with the paramilitaries," he told DRCNet.

"Millions of peasants are mere tenants on the lands they work; they have no home," said Maria Mercedes Moreno, director of Mama Coca (http://www.mamacoca.org), a loose collection of researchers studying the Andean coca complex. Those peasants are the sea from which the leftist rebels of the FARC and the ELN draw their revolutionary troops. "The only way to change things is by redistributing rights and obligations, beginning with land, which is the basis for community and nation-building," she told DRCNet. "The only answer is agrarian reform, but I doubt this administration has any intention of sharing more than crumbs, while making quite a show of that."

Yes. The same issue of Semana featured the government's proud announcement that it had redistributed seized trafficker lands to some 450 families. The amount of land in question was 13,000 acres, or slightly more than than one-tenth of one percent of the total trafficker holdings.

13. Newsbrief: California Governor Candidates at Debate All Endorse Medical Marijuana

The California polity is riven by a multitude of issues and those differences are reflected in the views of the multiple candidates running to replace sitting Gov. Gray Davis (D). At Wednesday night's televised debate, featuring Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, independent candidate Arianna Huffington, state Sen. Tom McClintock (R), Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, and businessmen Peter Ueberroth, running as a Republican, the candidates sparred over a broad range of issues, from tax and energy policy to coastal development to reining in the politically powerful prison guards' union. The one thing none of them disagreed on was support for medical marijuana.

Most comments on medical marijuana came in a rapid-fire segment where candidates were given 15-seconds to stake out positions on various topics. "When people are suffering," said Ueberroth in a typical statement, "you give them everything you possibly can do to take away that suffering."

Huffington, a favorite of many drug reformers because of her columns attacking the drug war, was most aggressive, saying that she would confront the Bush administration on that and other issues. She also said she would cancel new prison construction. Green candidate Peter Camejo called for outright legalization of marijuana, pointing out the absurdity of prohibiting marijuana but allowing the sale of tobacco.

Bustamante, the Democratic establishment politician, was the most equivocal, noting that he supported medical marijuana "as long as it was properly distributed."

Celebrity candidate and media darling Arnold Schwarzenegger did not attend the debate, choosing instead to visit a college campus where he was pelted with eggs by students.

It appears the serious contenders for the California governorship are listening to California voters, who overwhelmingly supported medical marijuana. Is the Bush administration listening, too?

14. Newsbrief: LA NORML's Margolin Joins California Governor Race, Vows to Be "Terminator" of Marijuana Prohibition

Long-time Los Angeles attorney and National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (http://www.norml.org) stalwart Bruce Margolin has joined the crowded field in the California gubernatorial recall circus (http://www.margolinforgovernor.com). Margolin's seven-point platform calls for legalizing, regulating and taxing "California's #1 cash crop," pardons for all nonviolent marijuana prisoners in the state, a challenge before the US Supreme Court over the federal government's power to dictate state marijuana laws, as well as proposals to create incentives for environmentally friendly industries, reduce vehicle registration fees, and make California "a haven for the billion-dollar holistic health industry."

While Margolin has begun campaigning in the Los Angeles area, he has yet to make a blip in opinion polls. In an August 24 poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante got 35%, with movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger coming in second with 22%, and three other Republican candidates picking up a combined 25% of the vote. Progressive independent candidate Arriana Huffington, whose newspaper columns have savaged the war on drugs, drew only 3% of those polled, while Green Party candidate Peter Camejo, who also calls for marijuana legalization, garnered 1%. Huffington and Camejo have vowed to work as a team, with the one with the least support promising to step down and throw that support to the other.

For a rundown of the various contenders' records and positions on marijuana and broader drug policy issues, check out the survey conducted by California NORML's Dale Gieringer at http://www.canorml.org/news/CalRecallElection.html#survey online. Also of interest is iconoclastic psychonaut, author and now candidate Robert Anton Wilson ("The Illuminatus Trilogy," "Cosmic Trigger" and many more). Though Wilson has little chance of becoming the next governor of California, a visit to his campaign web site (http://www.maybelogic.com/rawgov.html) is worth the mouse-click. Wilson has created the Guns & Dope Party as a campaign vehicle, using the slogan, "Like what you like, enjoy what you enjoy, and don't take any crap from anybody." The Wilson web site also contains some neat-o campaign graphics.

15. Newsbrief: UN Drug Head Calls for US-Led Occupation Forces to Fight Afghan Drug Trade

With this year's Afghan opium harvest expected to equal or exceed last year's, Antonio Maria Costa, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (http://www.unodc.org), called late last week for the US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan to join the fight against the booming drug trade, which he said was fueling terrorism. Given the Bush administration's extreme reluctance to commit troops for "nation building" in Afghanistan and the fact that the US military is stretched thin because of the US invasion of Iraq, it appears that Costa's plea will fall on deaf ears.

By 1999, Afghanistan was the world's leading producer of opium poppies, harvesting more than 4,500 metric tons or about 75% of the global supply. In 2000, the then ruling Taliban banned opium production, reducing the harvest that year to 185 tons. But with the fall of the Taliban and the country's descent into even greater anarchy under the US occupation, opium production skyrocketed last year to about 3,500 tons, generating an estimated $1.2 billion in revenues, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

In recent weeks, a revitalized Taliban guerrilla army, along with Al Qaeda elements and fighters loyal to renegade warlord Gulbatyin Hekmatyar, has emerged to attack US forces and Afghan forces loyal to President Hamid Karzai. Two US soldiers died in fighting in southeast Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan last week.

"You have a dramatic problem here: an illicit activity which is feeding a monster with many heads," Costa told the Associated Press as he called on occupation forces to take on a greater role in combating the traffic. "Hopefully we can build a convincing argument that the resources generated by the opium economy are being channeled toward terrorism. I believe that's a good reason to motivate those fighting terrorism to fight narcotics too," he added.

Not only was the traffic fueling the resurgent insurgents, said Costa, it was also funding Afghan military commanders allied with the Karzai government and its US overseers. "There's no doubt that in a number of provinces the commanders are involved. It's a known fact," Costa said.

Earlier in the same week, Costa and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime announced the formation of a new drug interdiction office within the Afghan Interior Ministry. But it has a budget of only $3 million. Hmmm, $1.2 billion in opium revenues versus $3 million in inderdiction spending. Anyone taking bets on how this will turn out?

16. The Reformer's Calendar

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

September 6, noon-midnight, Washington, DC, "Save Our Music! Save Our Rights!" dance party/protest at the US Capitol, sponsored by ROAR!, The National Dance and Music Rights Alliance, featuring Junior Vasquez and other artists. At Upper Senate Park, off Constitution Ave. between New Jersey Ave. NW and Delaware Ave. NE, north of the Capitol, contact [email protected] or (202) 546-2128 or visit http://www.roargroup.org for further information.

September 6, noon-10:00pm, Missoula, MT, 8th Annual Missoula Hempfest and Alternative Living Faire. At Caras Park, e-mail [email protected], call (406) 549-7507 or visit http://www.missoulahempfest.com for further information.

September 7-14, nationwide, "Semana Por La Paz," nationwide vigil for peace in Colombia. Contact Elanor Starmer of the Latin America Working Group at (202) 546-7010 or [email protected] for further info or if you want to organize an event, and visit http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/countries/Colombia/Take%20ACTION!-Colombia.htm for event listings and other information.

September 9, Oakland, CA, Amnesty International hearing on racial profiling, chaired by Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/fall2003hearings.html or call (202) 544-0200 for further information.

September 14, 10:00am-5:00pm, Santa Cruz, CA, 1st Annual WAMMfest, benefit for the Wo/Men's Alliance For Medical Marijuana. At San Lorenzo Park, featuring music, food, games, hemp and related products vendors, medical marijuana information, white elephant sale and raffle. Admission free, dogs and alcohol not allowed in park. Visit http://www.marijuana-art.com/WAMMfest/ or call WAMM at (831) 425-0580 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.

September 20, 11:00am-3:00pm, Dallas, TX, Protest of the DEA's Drugs-Terrorism Exhibit. At The Science Place Fair Park, contact Suzanne Wills at (214) 324-1594 or Craig Johnson at [email protected] for further information.

September 20, 3:00pm, Surprise, AZ, "The Failed War on Drugs," public forum with Nora Callahan of The November Coalition and Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. At the Unitarian Universalist Church, 17540 N. Ave. of the Arts, sponsored by the UU Church Social Justice Committee. Contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for other Jack Cole appearances in Arizona during 9/20-27.

September 21-28, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, "2nd Darwin International Syringe Festival and 1st International Conference on Using Direct Action to End the War on Drugs." Sponsored by the Network Against Prohibition, visit http://www.angelfire.com/oz/syringefestival/ or http://www.napnt.org for further information or contact [email protected] or +61 (0) 8 8942 0570.

September 22, 8:00pm, Los Angeles, CA, "High Hopes, A Medical Marijuana Comedy Show Extravaganja," Joe Rogan performs live to benefit WAMM, the Inglewood Wellness Club and Green Aid. At The Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., $20 admission ($10 with a current compassion club or NORML membership card), cash only, two drink minimum, 21 and over. For further information visit http://www.greentherapy.com or contact (323) 253-3472 or [email protected].

September 22-23, Washington, DC, "Cheryl Miller DC Memorial Project," vigil, exhibit, press conference and lobby day honoring MS patients and medical marijuana activist Cheryl Miller. Visit http://www.cheryldcmemorial.org for further information.

September 22-23, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, "First National Seminar on Drug Users' Rights." Sponsored by ABORDA, visit http://direitodeuso.dk3.com for further information.

September 23, Chicago, IL, Amnesty International hearing on racial profiling, chaired by Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/fall2003hearings.html or call (202) 544-0200 for further information.

September 25, 9:30am, Sun City West, AZ, "The Failed War on Drugs," public forum with Nora Callahan of The November Coalition and Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. At the Desert Palm Presbyterian Church, 13459 W. Stardust Blvd., sponsored by Desert Palm Christian Education Committee. Contact Roma Thomas at [email protected] for further information. Contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for other Jack Cole appearances in Arizona during 9/20-27.

September 25, 6:30-8:30pm, New York, NY, "Rockefeller Drug Laws' Effect on Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners," panel sponsored by the Seven Neighborhood Action Partnership/JusticeWorks Community. At Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church, 1975 Madison Ave., call (212) 348-8142 or (718) 499-6704 ext. 208, visit http://www.justiceworks.org or e-mail [email protected] for info.

September 26, 6:30pm, Phoenix, AZ, "The Failed War on Drugs," public forum with Nora Callahan of The November Coalition and Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. At Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church, 8801 N. 43rd Ave., sponsored by Arizona Coalition for Effective Government. Contact Roma Thomas at [email protected] for further information. Contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for other Jack Cole appearances in Arizona during 9/20-27.

September 30, Tulsa, OK, Amnesty International hearing on racial profiling, chaired by Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/fall2003hearings.html or call (202) 544-0200 for further information.

October 2, New York, NY, Amnesty International hearing on racial profiling, chaired by Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, former Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/fall2003hearings.html or call (202) 544-0200 for further information.

October 3-4, Detroit, MI, "And Justice for All? Communities of Color and the War on Drugs," conference of Drug Policy Forum of Michigan with Wayne State University SSDP and other organizations. Visit http://www.dpfmi.org/conf.htm or contact Debra Wright at (734) 368-8328 or [email protected] or Michael Segesta at (586) 873-5086 or [email protected] for further information.

October 5-17, Deming, Silver City, Truth or Consequences and Las Cruces, NM, "Continuing Drug Policy Reform in New Mexico," speaking tour by Jack Cole and Peter Christ of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for details of individual engagements.

October 22, 7:00pm, Syracuse, NY, "Against All Odds: Cops Fighting the War on Drugs," forum with Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Sponsored by Reconsider: Forum on Drug Policy and Syracuse University Students for Sensible Drug Policy. At Syracuse University, for further information contact Gerrit Cain at [email protected] or Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected].

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.

November 22, 11:00am-10:00pm, Portland, OR, "Second Annual Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards 2003." At the Double Tree Inn Lloyd Center, e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.ornorml.org for further information!

January 28-February 7, 2004, Hannibal, Columbia, Jefferson City, St. Louis and Kansas City, MO, "Special Delivery for John Ashcroft," speaking tour by Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Roger Hudlin. Contact Mike Smithson at (315) 243-5844 or [email protected] for details of individual engagements.

April 20-24, Melbourne, Australia, "15th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm." Visit http://www.ihra.net or e-mail [email protected] for 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.

Out from the Shadows HEA Drug Provision Drug War Chronicle Perry Fund DRCNet en Español Speakeasy Blogs About Us Home Why Legalization? NJ Racial Profiling Archive Subscribe Donate DRCNet em Português Latest News Drug Library Search special friends links: SSDP - Flex Your Rights - IAL - Drug War Facts StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 [email protected]