This
Week
in
History
1/21/05
January 21, 1943: The New York Times reports that Gene Krupa, a swing band leader, pleaded innocent to a charge that he contributed to the delinquency of a minor by asking John Pateakos, a 17 year-old, to fetch marijuana cigarettes from his hotel room and deliver them to the band leader. At the city prison, where he is booked and released, Krupa makes a general denial of the charges "as I understand them." January 21, 2003: The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) reports a Commonwealth Government report found that tobacco and alcohol accounted for 83 percent of the cost of drug abuse in Australia, dwarfing the financial impact of illegal drugs. January 22, 2001: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduces The Drug-Free America Act (S. 89), a bill primarily designed to enhance drug control activities of the US, including provisions relating to enhancing inspection and drug interdiction capabilities of the Customs Service and the National Guard. The bill also authorizes NIDA's Clinical Trials Network to conduct its large-scale treatment studies in community settings. It includes a 'sense of the Senate' section that encourages NIH to work with experts from private industry to promote research regarding pharmacological options that may be employed to support drug treatment efforts. The bill contains language to have grants made by ONDCP to establish the National Community Anti-Drug Coalition, funding up to two million dollars in Fiscal Year 2002. January 23, 1912: In the Hague, twelve nations sign a convention restricting opium and coca production. 2001 -- Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced the Drug Abuse Treatment on Demand Assistance Act (S. 160). The bill authorized appropriations for grants for the purpose of increasing the maximum number of individuals to whom public and nonprofit private entities are capable of providing effective treatment for substance abuse, with the goal of ensuring that substance abuse treatment is available for all who seek it. The bill proposed setting up state grant programs to support: the construction of treatment facilities; payments to treatment centers; drug testing; and counseling, including mental health services. Among the programs proposed under the bill, several would provide substance abuse treatment to convicted criminals. January 25, 1990: President George Herbert Walker Bush proposes to add an additional $1.2 billion to the budget for the war on drugs, including a 50% increase in military spending. January 25, 1993: Based on a tip that drugs are on the premises, police smash down the door and rush into the home of Manuel Ramirez, a retired golf course groundskeeper living in Stockton, California. Ramirez awakes, grabs a pistol and shoots and kills one policeman before other officers kill him. No drugs are found. January 25, 1994: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act extends ONDCP's mission to assessing budgets and resources related to the National Drug Control Strategy. It also establishes specific reporting requirements in the areas of drug use, availability, consequences, and treatment. January 25, 1995: The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia by Robert Kampia and Chuck Thomas. January 26, 2000: After spending sixteen years in Bedford Hills prison for selling cocaine -- a first offense -- under New York's Rockefeller drug laws, Elaine Bartlett is set free and returns to New York City. Her story is subsequently told in the book "Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett," by Jennifer Gonnerman. January 27, 1995: An international hashish seizure record is set, 290,400 pounds in Khyber Agency, Pakistan, still standing today.
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