Dear Readers,

First, thanks much to all of you who responded to our request for
volunteers. The number who responded is overwhelming - giving us all
renewed faith that folks do support our efforts!

If you sent a note volunteering, and have not heard back, or are waiting
for a response to my first response, please be patient. I doing my best to
answer each of you as fast as I can. Unfortunately, my regular job where I
must earn a living gets in the way of what I like doing best (oh, I have a
family, too, but at least they know where I am - in front of the computer).

Besides the day to day posting work of the editors@mapinc.org team, we now
have a translator going and growing. Another team has started helping with
the DrugSense Weekly. And we should have the start of a team to help create
FOCUS Alerts by the end of next week. Keeps us all busy!

While we see good examples of successes every day, I would like to mention
a couple. During the past week the National Public Radio show 'Moneyline'
has been running a poll. It was just great hearing the results as I drove
home from work yesterday. The announcer said something about 'there must be
a lot of libertarians on the internet' (I think it was a small L he said,
kind of hard to tell on the radio). I don't think the results reflect a
libertarian only viewpoint. More like a common sense viewpoint, anyone who
bothers to think about it should have.

But it is true that we do very well on the internet. It was just great
seeing the announcements about the poll jump from discussion list to
discussion list and usenet group, and not just in the United States.
Discussion lists and usenet groups by the dozen asked folks to vote. You
all play such an important part in the efforts towards change.

OK, the final vote was the fourth largest in size of the last 22. And the
question and results (from http://features.yahoo.com/finance/survey/ ) are:

This Week's Poll

On November 4th, voters in several U.S. states passed initiatives
legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. These follow a similar ballot
measure that passed a couple years ago in California. It's an international
issue, with lawmakers in Britain debating whether cannabis should be
legalized for medical use. What do you think about legalization...

Should marijuana be legalized in the United States?

Of 11462 votes so far...

Yes, for any use. 68%

Yes, but only for medical purposes. 16%

No, it should never be legalized. 15%

Then, also on the way home, in the grocery store, there was the new issue
of Mademoiselle with three super published letters, nicely boxed so they
stand out from the usual letters and sent in via email. All in response to
the article in the October issue "Prescription Potheads" at:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n800.a06.html/

Helped make my day! It will be a great pleasure to type the PUB LTEs in and
post them.

Richard Lake
Senior Editor; MAPnews, MAPnews-Digest and DrugNews-Digest
email: rlake@DrugSense.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/drugnews/
For subscription information see:
http://www.MAPinc.org/lists/
Quick sign up for DrugNews-Digest, Focus Alerts or Newsletter:
http://www.DrugSense.org/hurry.htm

Checked-by: Richard Lake