THIS JUST IN

(1) VETS MAKE UP QUARTER OF NATION'S HOMELESS

Pubdate: Thu, 8 Nov 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Author: Associated Press

Lonnie Bowen Jr. was once a social worker, but for 17 years the
Vietnam war veteran has slept on the streets off and on as he's
battled substance abuse and mental health problems.

"It's been a hard struggle," said Bowen, 62, as he rolled a cigarette
outside a homeless processing center in downtown Philadelphia, where
he planned to seek help for his drug and alcohol problem, as he has before.

Every night, hundreds of thousands of veterans like Bowen are without a home.

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States,
though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population,
according to a report to be released Thursday by the Alliance to End
Homelessness, a public education nonprofit.

[snip]

Some advocates say such an early presence of veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took
roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the
point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates
worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans
particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the
mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth,
director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

While services for homeless veterans have improved in the past 20
years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With
the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be
done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the
younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.

"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war
was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John
Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los
Angeles, which gives veterans help with substance abuse, job training
and shelter.

"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are
young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and
that happens after every war."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1290/a02.html

(2) GOLD FROM GREEN IN A GRAY AREA

Pubdate: Thu, 8 Nov 2007
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcatia, CA)
Copyright: 2007 North Coast Journal
Author: Bob Doran

You Might Be Surprised Who Profits From the Semi-Legal Marijuana Trade

[snip]

A billowing cloud of controversy surrounding medical marijuana has
made it the hot topic du jour in Arcata. Last month, after an indoor
medical marijuana growing operation burned in a rental house, the
subject jumped from the front pages of local newspapers to the City
Council chambers. City staff from the planning, fire and police
departments had been chewing on the perceived problem at weekly
confabs for over a year, but the house fire moved the issue to the
forefront of public debate.

[snip]

There's a common misconception when it comes to the medical marijuana
trade. Probably because the business has its roots in the black
market, most assume that no one involved pays taxes.

The question came up in passing when the Arcata council was
deliberating on medical pot issues. When discussion turned to a
proposal to cap the number of dispensaries, Councilman Paul Pitino
brought up a salient point: He'd noticed that one of the
dispensaries, the Humboldt Cooperative, was listed as "one of the
largest sales tax payers in Arcata," in a recent city report on tax
contributions.

"Are we going to arbitrarily limit something that's funding the
city?" he wondered aloud.

Dennis Turner of the Humboldt Cooperative is proud of the fact that
his business pays its taxes. He's owner of what he claims is the
largest dispensary in Arcata - and by extension, in Humboldt County,
since there are currently no dispensaries outside the Arcata city
limits. Turner told the City Council that the Cooperative serves
5,200 patients and buys from "over 80 growers." That's on top of the
product that the Cooperative grows at its Isaacson's facility.

"We got a state of California sales permit the day we opened," he
noted in a recent interview. He claimed that his was one of the first
dispensaries to do so, and that his letters to the state Board of
Equalization helped inspire that agency's decision to establish an
official system for collecting taxes on medical pot.

"We're extremely interactive with government," he said. "We don't
have any issues with that. We know what to do and we do it. So we pay
our taxes. We got our federal tax ID number and started 1099-ing the growers."

That's right - it's not just sales tax that's paid by those
associated with the dispensary. The growers pay income tax too, at
least some of them.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1291/a03.html

(3) U.S. SAYS WAR ON NARCOTICS IS WORKING

Pubdate: Fri, 9 Nov 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Author: Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The White House Drug Policy Director, Visiting Colombia, Says Efforts
to Disrupt Trafficking Have Cut Cocaine Supplies in the United States.

Interruptions of the flow of cocaine to the United States are causing
street prices to rise, a sign that the "war on drugs" is working, the
White House anti-drug chief said here Thursday.

John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, told reporters that interdictions in Colombia, in other
countries along cocaine transit routes and on the open seas were
reducing drug supplies, according to data on price and purity
gathered in 37 major U.S. cities.

As a result of reduced supply, street cocaine prices over the first
nine months of the year rose to an average $136.93 per pure gram at
the end of September, a 44% increase from January, he said. Price and
purity data were supported by other measures, including reduced
evidence of cocaine use as found in workplace tests, he said.

Price bumps in U.S. street cocaine prices have occurred before,
touted by U.S. law enforcement officials each time as evidence that
counter- narcotics policies were working. But the increases often
proved temporary and were followed by supply adjustments by drug
dealers and a settling back of cocaine prices.

However, Walters said his office had not seen such an extended rise
in prices since the White House started tracking the data. "Nine
months isn't temporary in my view," he said.

Critics who acknowledge that more cocaine is being seized point out
that data on Colombian coca cultivation do not conclusively show that
production is down.

Others, such as Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug
Policy Alliance, a New York-based organization advocating
alternatives to the administration's drug policy, said higher prices
inevitably cause dealers to boost supply.

"Assuming that high cocaine prices are hurting cartels is like
assuming high gasoline prices are hurting oil companies," Piper said.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1291/a04.html

(4) PLAN MEXICO? US AID MAY WORSEN DRUG WAR VIOLENCE

Pubdate: Fri, 09 Nov 2007
Source: Spanish Journal (Milwaukee, WI)
Copyright: 2007 Spanish Journal
Author: Ethan Nadelmann

President Bush requested $1.4 billion of American taxpayer money for
counter-narcotics aid to Mexico. It is a familiar game.

U.S. leaders blame another country for our failure to reduce drug
misuse here at home. That country escalates its war against drugs but
asks the U.S. to pick up part of the tab. Aid is given, but it ends
up having no effect on the availability of drugs in the United
States. Politicians in Washington point their fingers again, and the
cycle continues.

Of course, it's tempting to give aid to Mexico. Calderon seems to be
doing all the right things in cracking down on drug traffickers. He's
appointed new people to key military and criminal justice positions,
deployed troops to quell drug violence, reasserted federal police
power and extradited major traffickers to the U.S.

But all this provides little reason to hope that Mexico will turn a
corner in its efforts to control the illegal drug trade. For a guide
to what's in store, one need only look at past sexenios (the six-year
terms of Mexican presidents).

What Calderon is doing now differs little from what his predecessors
did at the start of their terms. The results are always the same --
encouraging at first, but then it all starts up again. Drug-
trafficking gangs re-group with new leaders and new connections.
Previously incorruptible officers are newly corrupted. Police of all
ranks, and all shades of probity, tremble in fear of assassins'
bullets. And Mexicans again wonder why the cycle never really stops.

So what should policymakers do?

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1291/a02.html

WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW

Domestic News- Policy

COMMENT: (5-8)

Ironies are almost overwhelming this week in drug policy news. A
stern-sounding Republican presidential candidate has been jetted
about the country this year by a convicted drug dealer. A former drug
czar who repeatedly used the media to manipulate the public into
supporting the drug war is now criticizing the media for manipulating
the public into not supporting the Iraq war (and he still doesn't
understand that drug prohibition helps, not hurts, terrorists). A
drug researcher who does studies on laboratory animals felt
terrorized by animal rights activist, but she seems unaware that
casual drug users in America are routinely subject to much more
terrifying situations from authorities who are part of the anti-drug
complex from which she profits. And the Wall Street Journal suggests
marijuana and bridge (the card game) can lead to financial ruin.

(5) THOMPSON ADVISER HAS CRIMINAL PAST

Pubdate: Sun, 04 Nov 2007
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
Author: Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Staff Writer

Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been
crisscrossing the country since early this summer on a private jet
lent to him by a businessman and close adviser who has a criminal
record for drug dealing.

Thompson selected the businessman, Philip Martin, to raise seed money
for his White House bid. Martin is one of four campaign co-chairmen
and the head of a group called the "first day founders." Campaign
aides jokingly began to refer to Martin, who has been friends with
Thompson since the early 1990s, as the head of "Thompson's Airforce."

Thompson's frequent flights aboard Martin's twin-engine Cessna 560
Citation have saved him more than $100,000, because until the law
changed in September, campaign-finance rules allowed presidential
candidates to reimburse private jet owners for just a fraction of the
true cost of flights.

Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana
in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his
probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and
with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and
conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and
conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth
of the drug, and was continued on probation.

Thompson's campaign said the candidate was not aware of the multiple
criminal cases, for which Martin served no jail time. All are
described in public court records.

[snip]

Continues:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1272/a11.html

(6) GENERAL SAYS DRUG MONEY FUNDS TERRORISTS

Pubdate: Mon, 29 Oct 2007
Source: Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL)
Copyright: 2007 Edwardsville Publishing Company.
Author: Norma Mendoza

McCaffrey Speaks At SIUE's Arts & Issues Series

Drugs are funding the war in the Middle East, four-star Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, U.S. Army (Ret.), told the crowd gathered to hear his
discussion about the war on terror at an SIUE Arts & Issues
presentation Saturday night.

"(Our government) has been willfully in denial of that reality."

He said the majority of the 44 recognized terrorist organizations are
not funded by any communist state, but rather by the international
crime of drug smuggling.

"If you want to make hundreds of millions of dollars, you get into drugs."

Despite the large amounts of money funneled into these groups through
illegal drug operations, he said the terrorist organizations are
badly damaged and intimidated. A recent offensive against them
resulted in the most deaths since the Civil War Battle of Antietam,
McCaffrey said.

"The first day of the Tarawa offensive wasn't as bad," he said.

McCaffrey, who is the president of his own consulting firm in
Arlington, Va., was the most highly decorated and the youngest
four-star general in the U.S. Army. His 32-year Army career stretches
from Vietnam to Desert Storm where he served as commander in chief of
the U.S. Army.

[snip]

A sergeant first-class in the National Guard told McCaffrey that he
has been in Iraq two times and in his opinion, in addition to that
war and the one in Afghanistan, there is a third war going on in this country.

He blamed U.S. media for focusing on the negative aspects of the wars
and ignoring the positive.

"They over-analyze everything," he said. "And they are manipulating
the American public against the war."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1261/a04.html

(7) OPED: WHY I USE LABORATORY ANIMALS

Pubdate: Thu, 01 Nov 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Author: Edythe London

A UCLA Scientist Targeted by Animal Rights Militants Defends Her
Research on Addiction and the Brain.

For years, I have watched with growing concern as my UCLA colleagues
have been subjected to increasing harassment, violence and threats by
animal rights extremists. In the last 15 months, these attempts at
intimidation have included the placement of a Molotov cocktail-type
device at a colleague's home and another under a colleague's car --
thankfully, they didn't ignite -- as well as rocks thrown through
windows, phone and e-mail threats, banging on doors in the middle of
the night and, on several occasions, direct confrontations with young children.

Then, several weeks ago, an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
about the work I have been doing to understand and treat nicotine
addition among adolescents informed readers that some of my research
is done on primates. I was instantly on my guard. Would I be the
next victim? Would the more extremist elements of the animal rights
movement now turn their sights on me?

The answer came this week when the Animal Liberation Front claimed
responsibility for vandalism that caused between $20,000 and $30,000
worth of damage to my home after extremists broke a window and
inserted a garden hose, flooding the interior. Later, in a public
statement addressed to me, the extremists said they had been torn
between flooding my house or setting it afire. Maybe I should feel lucky.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1265/a01.html

(8) CEO OF CRISIS-HIT BEAR DENIES HE USED MARIJUANA

Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

NEW YORK -- Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Executive James Cayne, in an
email to the securities firm's 15,000 employees, said he hadn't
"engaged in inappropriate conduct," a response to a Wall Street
Journal article about his handling of the credit-market crisis that
included details of his marijuana use.

Mr. Cayne, 73 years old, said he was "intensely focused" on the
firm's business and denied that he had smoked marijuana at a 2004
bridge tournament in Memphis as reported by the Journal.

A page-one article yesterday examining Mr. Cayne's leadership of the
firm said he has used marijuana in more-private settings, according
to people who say they have witnessed him doing so or participating
with him. The bulk of the article detailed how Mr. Cayne played
bridge and golf outside the office during a critical period in the
summer, when two of Bear's hedge funds imploded. In the Journal
article, Mr. Cayne denied emphatically that the 2004 pot incident
occurred. "There is no chance that it happened," he said in the
article. "Zero chance." Asked more generally whether he smoked pot
during bridge tournaments or on other occasions, Mr. Cayne said in
the article that he would respond only "to a specific allegation,"
not to general questions. In a note to clients, Punk, Ziegel & Co.'s
Richard Bove said "the article clearly places the company in play"
because Mr. Cayne would more likely sell Bear than retire "in disgrace."

The analyst added that he has placed sell recommendations on every
brokerage stock except for Bear because of his belief that the firm
could be a compelling acquisition target. David Trone, a securities
analyst at investment bank Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller,
suggested that the notion of drug use could make Mr. Cayne's position
untenable. But he added that criticism of Mr. Cayne's performance
was largely undeserved. "The collapse of Bear-branded hedge funds
creates limited consequence to the company itself," wrote Mr. Trone,
who has a buy rating on Bear shares.

Bear's shares fell 5%, to $107.94 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange
composite trading amid a broader market swoon and steep declines by
financial firms.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1271/a07.html

Law Enforcement & Prisons

COMMENT: (9-12)

Crack/cocaine sentencing disparities are about to be reduced, and the
U.S. Justice Department is worried - are they concerned there will
be too much justice? In other police news, Rhode Island courts are
arguing about the appropriate circumstances for cavity searches of
drug suspects; a Wisconsin newspaper looks at the repercussions of
tough parole policies; and the Hollywoodization of a former drug lord
spurs debate about the ability of that former drug lord to profit
from his story.

(9) RULES LOWER PRISON TERMS IN SENTENCES FOR CRACK

Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2007
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Author: Solomon Moore

Crack cocaine offenders will receive shorter prison sentences under
more lenient federal sentencing guidelines that went into effect yesterday.

The United States Sentencing Commission, a government panel that
recommends appropriate federal prison terms, estimated that the new
guidelines would reduce the federal prison population by 3,800 in 15 years.

The new guidelines will reduce the average sentence for crack cocaine
possession to 8 years 10 months from 10 years 1 month. At a
sentencing commission hearing in Washington on Nov. 13, members will
consider whether to apply the guidelines retroactively to an
estimated 19,500 crack cocaine offenders who were sentenced under the
earlier, stricter guidelines.

The changes to the original 1987 guidelines could also add impetus to
three bills in the Senate, one sponsored by a Democrat and two by
Republicans, that would reduce or eliminate mandatory minimums for
simple drug possession.

Department of Justice officials said yesterday that applying the new
guidelines retroactively would erode federal drug enforcement efforts
and undermine Congress's role in creating sentencing policy.

"The commission is now considering applying the changes
retroactively, something that Congress has not suggested in any of
the pending bills," wrote a department spokesman, Peter Carr. "As we
state in a letter filed with the commission today, we believe this
would be a mistake, having a serious impact on the safety of our
communities and impose an unreasonable burden upon our judicial system."

If the guidelines are retroactive, crack cocaine offenders would be
eligible to apply to the judge or court that sentenced them for
reduced prison terms.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1265/a05.html

(10) APPEALS RULING LOOKS AT POLICE RIGHT TO DO CAVITY SEARCH

Pubdate: Thu, 1 Nov 2007
Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)
Copyright: 2007 The Providence Journal Company
Author: Edward Fitzpatrick

When do the police have a right to look between your buttocks to see
if there are drugs hidden there?

A federal appeals court addressed that question this week in
overturning a ruling that said a Woonsocket police officer lacked the
reasonable suspicion required to check for drugs between Kenny
Barnes' buttocks.

Barnes, 28, of Woonsocket, is charged with possessing crack cocaine
with the intent to distribute. Barnes was strip searched after his
arrest, and when the police told him he had to undergo a visual
cavity search, he "reached behind his back and removed a bag
containing cocaine base from between his buttocks," according to the
decision. ( Crack cocaine is a form of cocaine base. )

Federal public defenders argued that the 34.79 grams of crack cocaine
had been seized in violation of Barnes' Fourth Amendment right to be
free from unreasonable searches and seizures. And in June 2006,
Senior U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres refused to allow
prosecutors to use the crack cocaine as evidence.

"In short, it paints with too broad a brush to say that every person
arrested on a drug charge automatically is subject not only to a
strip search but also to a visual body cavity search," Torres wrote.
"While evidence of drug trafficking may be sufficient to justify a
strip search, some more individualized suspicion, ordinarily, is
required to extend the search to bodily cavities."

Federal prosecutors appealed the suppression of that evidence,
placing the case on hold. And in a decision issued Monday, the
Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Torres'
order, sending the case back to Providence.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1271/a05.html

(11) SENTENCING LAW FILLS CELLS

Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2007
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 2007 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Author: David Doege

Slip-Ups On Extended Supervision Can Add To Truth-In-Sentencing Terms

Seven years after David Lex went to prison with a five-year term for
his role in a marijuana smuggling ring, he's still got more than four
years left behind bars.

Lex is still doing time because of an aspect of the state's
truth-in-sentencing scheme that didn't get a lot of attention when it
took effect in late 1999. And Lex is far from alone.

Lex was one of 2,400 people who were sent back to the state's crowded
prison system last year because they couldn't stay out of trouble
while on extended supervision, the portion of a truth-in-sentencing
term that follows prison.

When truth in sentencing took effect seven years ago, most of the
hype concerning it focused on the fact that it came without parole.
Inmates sentenced would have to serve every day of the prison term
they received because there was no parole feature to let them out
early for good behavior.

But the sentencing system isn't as cut and dried as it might sound.

That's because in place of parole, it features extended supervision.
And failure on extended supervision means a former inmate can be
returned again and again to prison with significant sentences. The
possibility of going back - oftentimes for years - exists until an
offender successfully completes the last minute of the last day of
extended supervision.

The impact of that little-discussed aspect is now beginning to firmly
take hold. And prisons already brimming with inmates serving the
front end of their sentences, the so-called confinement portion, are
having to find room at an increasing rate for offenders who failed on
the back end of their terms, their periods of extended supervision.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1261/a08.html

(12) GANGING UP ON MOVIE'S 'LIES'

Pubdate: Sun, 04 Nov 2007
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2007 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Author: Susannah Cahalan

Hit film "American Gangster" whitewashes the seedy story of a
ruthless Harlem drug dealer, says the former prosecutor who inspired
one of the film's central characters and who cooperated with the filmmakers.

The movie is now stuffing the pockets of the former druglord, who is
legally able to profit from his crimes.

Frank Lucas, a Harlem heroin kingpin of the 1960s and '70s portrayed
by Denzel Washington, was convicted in 1975 of conspiracy to
distribute heroin. Because the conviction occurred before the
passage of the "Son of Sam" law, Lucas is not banned from selling the
story of his crimes.

Lucas has already received $300,000 from Universal Pictures and
another $500,000 from the studio and Washington to buy a house and a
new car, a source in the production told The Post.

Lucas says he also has plans for a gangster video game and a clothing
line, and is negotiating a possible sequel to the film.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1276/a04.html

Cannabis & Hemp

COMMENT: (13-16)

The Dutch are staying the course with their medicinal cannabis
cultivation and distribution program, despite their inability to
compete economically with grey market "coffee shops."

Californian courts are trying to reconcile workplace drug testing
with the state Compassionate Use Act and persons with disabilities legislation.

Voters in Denver sent a message to their police and prosecutors to
make cannabis possession offenses their lowest enforcement priority,
thanks to the initiative of Citizens for a SAFER Denver.

A lawsuit launched by two North Dakota farmers to force the DEA to
relinquish their interstate commerce grip on industrial hemp might
have national significance.

(13) DUTCH HEALTH MINISTER EXTENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM FOR
FIVE YEARS

Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2007
Source: International Herald-Tribune (International)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2007
Cited: Trimbos Institute http://www.trimbos.nl/

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: The Dutch Health Ministry announced plans
Wednesday to extend its experimental medical marijuana program for
five years, despite setbacks.

Under the program, launched in 2003, standardized marijuana is grown
by government-licensed growers under controlled conditions and sold
by prescription in pharmacies.

But few patients, even armed with a doctor's prescription, bought the
regulated weed since they could buy it at a third of the price in
"coffee shops," where it remains illegal but tolerated if sold in
small amounts.

The medical marijuana plan was meant to allow the growers licensed by
the ministry's Bureau for Medical Cannabis to build a customer base
and eventually take over production from illegal growers. It also
would give companies a chance to develop and register cannabis-based
prescription drugs.

Health Minister Ab Klink said in a letter to parliament Wednesday
that one Dutch company, Echo Pharmaceuticals BV, had made progress
gaining approval for its drug, and he wanted to give it more time to succeed.

[snip]

The ministry said British company GW Pharmaceuticals PLC, which sells
a marijuana-based oral medicine in Canada, has withdrawn from the
Dutch approval process.

The centrist government agreed as part of its coalition pact not to
change country's famed tolerance policy on unregulated marijuana,
which is rife with contradictions.

Advocates say full legalization would lead to better labeling of the
plant's chemical contents.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1287.a01.html

(14) CAN MEDICAL POT USER BE FIRED FOR FAILING DRUG TEST?

Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Cited: http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/
Related: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=4407

Court to Rule:

Sacramento -- A divided California Supreme Court grappled Tuesday
with the application of the state's medical marijuana law in the
workplace, debating whether an employee who uses pot to cope with
pain or illness can be fired for violating federal drug laws.

The case of Gary Ross, a 45-year-old computer technician fired by a
small Sacramento firm for failing a drug test, is the latest in a
series of federal-state conflicts since California voters approved
Proposition 215 in 1996, legalizing the medical use of marijuana if a
doctor recommends it. At least 11 states have since adopted similar laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the federal government's authority
to shut state-approved medical marijuana dispensaries and prosecute
patients and their suppliers for violating federal laws that ban
marijuana possession, cultivation and distribution. But the
application of Prop. 215 to issues of hiring and firing depends
mostly on the meaning of California law - the 1996 initiative, a
follow-up legislative measure and a disability discrimination law -
on which the state's top court is the final authority.

The state's voters intended to allow medical marijuana users "to
fully participate in life regardless of any potential disability,"
Stewart Katz, a lawyer for Ross, told the court during Tuesday's
hourlong hearing in Sacramento. That includes having a job, he said.

But several justices noted that although Prop. 215 protected medical
marijuana users and their caregivers from state criminal prosecution,
it never mentioned the workplace.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1288.a06.html

(15) DENVER PUTS POT BUSTS ON COPS' BACK BURNER

Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2007
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2007 The Denver Post Corp
Author: Felisa Cardona, The Denver Post
Cited: http://saferdenver.saferchoice.org/

Denver Initiated Question 100 (Marijuana law enforcement):

* Yes 55.5%

No 44.5%

More than half of Denver voters favored an initiative making
marijuana the city's lowest law enforcement priority.

With just a handful of ballots left to count, the measure had
captured 55 percent of the vote. The result means the mayor must
appoint a panel to monitor how marijuana cases are handled by the
police and city prosecutors and issue a report. "It appears as if it
is going to pass, and it shows there is a wealth of support around
the city," said Mason Tvert, campaign director of Safer Alternative
For Enjoyable Recreation, the group behind the initiative.

Tvert says the measure was motivated by what he says are overzealous
police who continue to cite adults for possessing under an ounce of
marijuana despite a law that allows simple pot possession in Denver.

Denver police and prosecutors say possessing marijuana still violates
state and federal laws.

A spokeswoman for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has said that
enforcement of laws governing small amounts of marijuana is already a
low priority.

Similar initiatives passed in Seattle in 2003 and in Missoula, Mont. last year.

Seattle's marijuana panel reported that marijuana prosecutions and
arrests are down, but Seattle's city attorney says the group cannot
agree whether the initiative caused the drop.

In Missoula, the city attorney has told prosecutors in his office not
to pursue simple marijuana possession cases involving adults.

"These sorts of measures in cities and towns across the country have
an unbroken winning streak, and it's looking like that streak is
continuing, and that's a sign that voters around the country don't
want police time and effort wasted on small-time marijuana
enforcement," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Washington D.C.-
based Marijuana Policy Project, a group that contributed $30,000 to SAFER.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1285.a05.html

(16) HEMP FOR THE HEMP-LESS

Pubdate: Sat, 03 Nov 2007
Source: Sunday Paper, The (Atlanta, GA)
Copyright: 2007 The Sunday Paper
Author: Josh Clark

Will A Lawsuit Filed By North Dakota Farmers Resurrect Georgia's Hemp Industry?

In 2000, Americans spent $11 billion on marijuana. As many as 13
percent of Atlantans (including the metro area--can't forget the
suburban kids) smoke pot. Those are stunning statistics. But while
marijuana usually bogarts the spotlight, lately its buzz-kill cousin
hemp is getting its moment in the sun, thanks to a lawsuit filed by
two North Dakota farmers against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The farmers, Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson, were granted licenses by
the state to grow hemp for industrial use. The only problem is that
hemp falls under federal guidelines for controlled substances. So,
without an exemption, each time the farmers ship hemp across the
state border, the feds--in the form of the DEA, for example--will
confiscate or burn their crops. Also, Monson (who is a Republican
state legislator) and Hauge both face serious jail time.

Since a Congressional measure to remove hemp from the purview of the
Controlled Substances Act has been indefinitely stalled, the problem
may come down to a question of states' rights. Though trafficking
across state lines poses a problem, the state could conceivably
protect the farmers' crops--after all, North Dakota already issued
the licenses to grow the hemp. The case, which will get a hearing in
federal court on Nov. 14, may set a precedent that encourages hemp
farming elsewhere.

Would-be hemp farmers in Georgia, however, need not hold their
breath: Georgia is the state that considered outlawing food products
that contain hemp as recently as 2006, so it's extremely unlikely
that Georgia's legislators would be looking for a way to exempt hemp
cultivation from the state's controlled-substances prohibitions.

"This is so far-fetched as possibly being something we would have to
deal with, it seems unnecessary to even discuss it hypothetically,"
says Rep. Ellis Black, a Democrat from Valdosta. Black is a farmer
and a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Despite his initial
gruffness, he does have a working knowledge of the hemp industry. "It
seems to be one of these things that is so labor-intensive, we
couldn't compete with all of the other countries that have cheap
labor available to them," he says.

Yet Canada, certainly no hot spot for cheap labor, is a major hemp
producer. Since commercial hemp farming was re-legalized in Canada
in 1998, the majority of hempseeds and oil in the U.S. now originates
in Canada and in the European Union (EU). The United States would
have a long way to go to catch up.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1283.a03.html

International News

COMMENT: (17-20)

Prohibition drives up the price of what would ordinarily be
agricultural commodities to black market heights, offering rich
financial incentives to those breaking the law by supplying the
demand. And people who are given such great financial incentives
find ways to undermine prohibition, and fly under the radar.
Sometimes, under the radar quite literally, we learn. Yet another
mini- submarine shipyard was discovered in Colombia. The 55-foot,
350-hp submersibles could carry a crew of 4 and a cargo of about 3 to
5 tons of (presumably) cocaine.

It was a confusing week for followers of cannabis research. The Irish
Independent trumpeted the dire warning this week: "Cannabis Far More
Toxic To The Adolescent Brain." Warns Doctor Hugh Garavan, "We are
finding differences with cannabis users. The hippocampus is being
driven to work harder." Conclusion: cannabis is "toxic to
youngsters." But wait, a Swiss report this week concluded the
opposite, "Positive Effects Found For Pot Users... [youth] who
smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas as those who
don't, researchers said yesterday."

Meanwhile back in India, the Hindustan Times reported that many there
start their day with a bhang (a cannabis-milk drink) from
"government-run bhang shops" in Rajasthan. Are they partying, or
getting stoned? No, this is how they have worshipped for thousands of
years. "Don't call it nasha (intoxicant). It is the prasad of Lord
Shiva... We do not drink alcohol. All we take is bhang, which we
consider as prasad."

(17) COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTELS TAKE UNDERWATER ROUTE

Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Author: Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Submersibles Are Used to Ferry Narcotics. Some in U.S. Fear the
Tactic May Inspire Terrorists.

CALI, COLOMBIA -- It was on a routine patrol that the Colombian coast
guard stumbled upon an eerie outpost amid the mangroves: a
mini-shipyard where suspected drug traffickers were building submarines.

Perched on a makeshift wooden dry dock late last month were two
55-foot-long fiberglass vessels, one ready for launch, the other
about 70% complete. Each was outfitted with a 350-horsepower Cummins
diesel engine and enough fuel capacity to reach the coast of Central
America or Mexico, hundreds of miles to the north.

The vessels had cargo space that could fit 5 tons of cocaine, a
senior officer with the Colombian coast guard's Pacific command said
in an interview.

The design featured tubing for air, crude conning towers and cramped
bunk space for a crew of four, he added.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1283.a06.html

(18) CANNABIS FAR MORE TOXIC TO THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN

Pubdate: Mon, 05 Nov 2007
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Author: Gareth Morgan

CANNABIS is far more toxic to the brains of young people who are
exposed to the drug, than it is to adults, according to
ground-breaking new Irish research.

The unpublished work, by scientists at Trinity College, Dublin,
includes technology which actually takes photographs of subjects' brains.

[snip]

But the research also suggests that the drug is more toxic to youngsters.

Dr Hugh Garavan, who is leading one of the studies is examining the
prefrontal cortex which is used for decision making, and the
hippocampus which is used for memory.

"We are finding differences with cannabis users. The hippocampus is
being driven to work harder, perhaps to overcompensate for the drug."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1279.a01.html

(19) POSITIVE EFFECTS FOUND FOR POT USERS

Pubdate: Tue, 06 Nov 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 Reuters

Youths Found To Have Better Relations With Peers And Good Grades

(Reuters) - A study of more than 5,000 youngsters in Switzerland has
found those who smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas
as those who don't, researchers said yesterday.

[snip]

The study did not confirm the hypothesis that those who abstained
from marijuana and tobacco functioned better overall, the authors said.

In fact, those who used only marijuana were "more socially driven
. significantly more likely to practise sports and they have a
better relationship with their peers" than abstainers, it said.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1282.a11.html

(20) STARTING THE DAY WITH THE CUP THAT KICKS

Pubdate: Sun, 04 Nov 2007
Source: Hindustan Times (India)
Copyright: 2007, Hindustan Times Ltd.
Author: Anil Sharma, Indo-Asian News Service

For some in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district, the day starts not with a
hot cuppa but with a bhang-laced drink made from cannabis.

At six in the morning, people begin slowly trooping into
government-run bhang shops in the district for the drink, made from
the leaves of cannabis that grows wild in many parts of northern India.

[snip]

Most people don't like calling bhang an intoxicant but a prasad (holy
offering) of Lord Shiva.

"Don't call it nasha (intoxicant). It is the prasad of Lord Shiva,"
said Radhey Lal, in his late 60s, cradling a glass of bhang ki
thandai in his hand.

"We do not drink alcohol. All we take is bhang, which we consider as
prasad," said Kishna, who is in his early 30s.

[snip]

There are around 785 government-licensed bhang shops in Rajasthan, of
which 23 are in Rajsamand district.

On an average, every year 400-450 quintals of bhang is consumed in
the state. Shopkeepers are not allowed to sell bhang to those below
18 years of age.

[snip]

The womenfolk do not seem to object to the men taking bhang. They say
it is better than their consuming country liquor.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1277.a01.html

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