Dear Readers,

I was reminded that not everyone knows the state codes we use, nor how we
use them. The codes are below. You may wish to print them.

We use the state codes to show the location of the story for an article,
not the location of the newspaper. Thus a story about the harassment of
folks gathering signatures on a medical marijuana initiative in Flordia
will have a subject line of US FL: even if the story was in the New York
Times.

A story about something the U.S. Congress does, for example, is a national
story and should have a subject line code of just US:, not US DC.

Published letters, however, normally carry the code of the state of the
newspaper.

The codes are used by many of the readers who receive this service by email
as single item news items, called MAPNews items. This is our fastest
service, since it does not require waiting for enough items for a
DrugNews-Digest to kick out. MAPNews items are the whole article. About
11,700 sent in 1998. You may sign up for the single item email list at:
http://www.MAPinc.org/lists/

Richard Lake
Senior Editor; MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest
http://www.DrugSense.org/drugnews/

U.S. STATE ABBREVIATIONS

AL ALABAMA
AK ALASKA
AS AMERICAN SAMOA
AZ ARIZONA
AR ARKANSAS
CA CALIFORNIA
CO COLORADO
CT CONNECTICUT
DE DELAWARE
DC DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
FL FLORIDA
GA GEORGIA
GU GUAM
HI HAWAII
ID IDAHO
IL ILLINOIS
IN INDIANA
IA IOWA
KS KANSAS
KY KENTUCKY
LA LOUISIANA
ME MAINE
MH MARSHALL ISLANDS
MD MARYLAND
MA MASSACHUSETTS
MI MICHIGAN
MN MINNESOTA
MS MISSISSIPPI
MO MISSOURI
MT MONTANA
NE NEBRASKA
NV NEVADA
NH NEW HAMPSHIRE
NJ NEW JERSEY
NM NEW MEXICO
NY NEW YORK
NC NORTH CAROLINA
ND NORTH DAKOTA
MP N. MARIANA ISLANDS
OH OHIO
OK OKLAHOMA
OR OREGON
PW PALAU ISLAND
PA PENNSYLVANIA
PR PUERTO RICO
RI RHODE ISLAND
SC SOUTH CAROLINA
SD SOUTH DAKOTA
FM STATES OF MICRONESIA
TN TENNESSEE
TX TEXAS
UT UTAH
VT VERMONT
VA VIRGINIA
VI VIRGIN ISLANDS
WA WASHINGTON
WV WEST VIRGINIA
WI WISCONSIN
WY WYOMING